If your business, large or small isn’t yet creating Videos for online consumption, then you’re completely missing out on the fastest growing segment of online promotion and advertising.
There are close to 80% percent of companies and marketers, regardless of size, who are actively planning to producing some type of video this year for their business. They are also making it their highest priority to invest and advertise in it as well.
Videos are now the preferred medium compared to any other online marketing method, this obviously because of its ease, and viewing them is the path to least resistance. Our brains are wired to adapt to motion, as vision will always remain as the most dominant of our senses. The majority will now watch a vendor or a competitors video first, before visiting their actual website.
Although you may not be able to get your video to go absolute viral on Youtube, creating a well targeted, well crafted business video is an excellent avenue which will drive targeted customers to your site or product page. So listed are some tips on how you can get your video marketing campaign started.
Tell A Short Story Including A Call To Action
What you need to do is instantly engage your viewers with the video, hopefully motivating them to take some type of action, such as they “sharing” the video to others. So tell a short compelling story which is both informative, entertaining and unique. If the viewer feels that the video is of no use to them, or is boring, they will abandon it within seconds.
Display in the video what makes your company, or product stand out, by featuring the benefits, and then making them distinctive. One method may be inviting satisfied clients to record and submit their own testimonials.
Some potential topics for your video can include:
• Short entertaining biographies of your key employees
• Candid interviews with your most important clients discussing why they like working with you
• Descriptive revealing overviews of your business or products
Videos are also excellent ways of potentially recruiting new employees, whether entry level or senior management. Regardless of what your promoting, it’s vital that at the end of the video, you include a clear “Call-To-Action” for the viewer to take further action.
This call to action can be a link for them to visit your site, or they submitting a phone number or an email address. Make sure that you request the viewer to proceed to the next step directly after viewing your video.
How To Produce Professional Videos
You don’t need to hire a Hollywood film crew to shoot your video, but you may initially consider a producer to help you develop and then tell your story, this dependent on your budget.
Professionally produced videos of 3 or so minutes can cost up to $10,000 and will usually taking a full day to shoot. If that’s too extravagant or expensive, you can always shoot your own in-house video.
Keep in mind, however, that the investment of professionally made videos should be measured and spread over the entire year, as well as across the various marketing channels as well.
If you decide to create the video yourself, pay close attention to the equipment that you use. Using an inexpensive flip cam for instance may be all that you need to begin shooting, right out of the box, but then the audio as well as the video quality won’t meet professional standards.
While the quality of production preference will vary from business to business, a set of professional audio/video equipment, which includes a quality digital camera, the stands, lights, backdrops, wireless microphones, and the editing software, can easily cost anywhere up to $8,000.
Before you begin shooting, and once you have an adequate digital camera that you’re satisfied with, you’ll need to become familiar with how to light your shots as well as properly using the microphone to get the best possible sound and video quality.
Videos Distribution Through The Various Channels
When it comes to distribution, YouTube obviously comes to mind, and is a good starting point for any video marketing strategy. Make sure that your videos are properly titled and tagged with the exact “keywords” which you’re wanting to target, then write a relevant description when showcasing on YouTube.
This way, the video should get indexed properly on Google as well as the other important search engines. Also post as well as publicize your videos by providing links to them through the various social media channels, where you’re able to encourage others to “share” your vids, and hopefully viewers discussing the content.
Once you’re ready to upload the videos to appear on your site, what you need to do is generate a Site Map XML file. This is the code found on the back end of your site which the web crawlers will review and then index for the search engines.
The video links should also be included on your online press releases, emails, and newsletters. You should also be tracking who views the content, from which medium, as well as who follows through to the “Call-To-Action.” Newsletter recipients, for instance, traditionally are more likely to view your video if they’re placed under a visual screen grab.
If your budget also includes advertising in print media, you can then place a QR code on the ad which encourages mobile device users to watch your videos online. If you create a separate landing page for this, then you can track how many visitors you’re getting from the advertising.
Measuring The Results
The video can also be tracked by using basic level analytic methods such as Google Analytics, to find out where the traffic sources are coming from, including the dates that they were viewed, and the keywords which were searched.
If you use a professional video hosting platform such as Ooyala or BrightCove, they’re able to provide additional analytics, such as at what point the viewer stopped watching your video for instance. These video hosting services can range anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand per month.
You can also ask viewers on your site, or through an online survey, to state whether the video influenced them to go to your site, or even make a buying decision.
If you ask questions such as, “What was the best part of the video that you liked?” that should help you in refining your production process which will result in higher ROI for your next video.