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10 Tips for Using Videos to Market Your Business

Even if you’re not selling video-based products, you should be using video to market your business. That’s because different customers respond better to video than they do to text. When you use both text and video, you’re reaching a wider audience than you would with text alone.

Here then are 10 tips and tricks for using video to market your business…

1. Keep ‘em short.

Whether you’re loading videos on YouTube.com or you’re using them to pre-sell products on your blog, keep them short (around five minutes or so)… especially if your audience includes people who don’t know you. If needed, break a long video into multiple smaller videos.

2. Post videos on your sales pages.

You can use video sales letters to highlight the main points of your regular sales letter. You can also use videos to demonstrate what the product is and how easy it is to use. You may also get your satisfied customers to give you video testimonials.

3. Choose your keywords carefully.

If you’re loading your videos onto YouTube, choose keywords that your market is currently using to find information in your niche. You may also choose keywords that match those being used alongside other popular videos in your niche.

4. Know your purpose before you start.

Before you film, choose one purpose for your video. Is it to get subscribers? Send traffic to your blog? Pre-sell a product? Whatever the reason, base your entire video around that singular goal. Don’t confuse your viewer by giving more than one option.

5. Create a call to action.

You should create at least one call to action in your video, where you tell people exactly what you want them to do and why (e.g., “Go to www.yourdomain.com to grab Part 2 of this video – but hurry, you can only get it free for a limited time!”)

6. Encourage comments.

If you’re posting your video on YouTube, on your blog or other social sites, encourage comments (even controversial ones). The more people talk about your video, the more your visitors will return to your page to see what’s new in the discussion.

7. Use other social sites to jumpstart the viral effect.

If you want your video to go viral, you need to advertise it. One way to do that is to link to or embed your video on your other social media site pages, like Twitter or MySpace.

8. Blog about your video.

Another way to advertise your video is to blog about it. If you embed your video on your blog, then encourage your visitors to bookmark it using Digg.com, StumbleUpon.com or similar.

9. Ask your JV partners to share your video with their prospects and customers.

Yet another away to advertise your video is by asking your JV partners to mention it in their newsletters, blog about it and share it with their social media contacts.

10. Put a video on a CD/DVD and give it away for free.

You can build a physical mailing list by putting your video on a CD or DVD and giving it away for free to those who give you a mailing address. Be sure to include an upsell at the end of your video.

Social Networking Takes Your Reader Relationship to a New Level

Whoever said that social networking was no good for business, never tried it before. Giving your readers another arena in which to see you active is one way to build a relationship with them.

Before you begin using social networking, beware. It is highly addictive. There are many advantages for you and your readers.

Social Networks

Have you heard of Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter? So have your readers. They probably use them for social interaction with friends and family, but you can show them how to use it for business.

Begin by setting up a business and personal space on these sites. You probably already have a personal space on many, but business will be something new.

Facebook

Facebook is a versatile tool for keeping your readers informed about you and your activities. Use a business page to list new conferences you will be attending, podcasts you are hosting, and the names of blogs where you will be guest posting. Readers, that find you here, can sign up to listen to live podcasts, follow you to the guest blogs and also invite you to their events.

If there is a question they want to ask, let's say about how to start a business or how to troubleshoot a problem, they can talk with you wall-to-wall in private to get advice. Through Facebook, you can offer free classes, e-courses and other tools to those who opt-in for different services on your website. Also, let your readers be part of virtual focus groups to help you test new ideas.

YouTube

If you have a new product that needs feedback, post a video on YouTube. Readers and others can post their comments on your work. Use it as a forum to demonstrate products or services and also to tout the advantages of buying from you.

Twitter

Do you send tweets? If you do, use them to communicate with readers about new things you are doing. They can get up-to-date information about not only the business but also personal info you want to share.

Create a separate business and personal account so that you can manage both. If you find readers or customers who have potential as business associates and the like, you can choose to give them access to your personal space as well.

Social networking sites are just another way for readers to see you in action away from the office. You can build a rapport with readers too by unveiling new products and services to them there.

If You Could Do a Video Like This...

You'd probably get a lot of people passing it around...

YouTube, Politics, and Viral Marketing

This isn't a political blog, but I feel this video is a great example of what can happen when you have something that gets passed around.

It's going to be an interesting election...

Over 1,000,000 people have seen this video.  It's currently #1 on the YouTube viral video chart and the #2 story on the Digg Election 2008 page.

To give you an idea of what this means, this video has reached more people than the average cable news show.

And this is just one example.  Check out the YouTube charts for more.

Politics and Viral Marketing

Last week, I talked about the how "Will It Blend?" is a great example of using current events in marketing.

One current event, which people are ALWAYS talking about is politics.  But many people stay away from it.  They think it's "too hot" or will isolate people.

And it may...  But it will also work for you like crazy, if you can pull it off.

For example...

The Speed (and Creativity) of Good Marketing

"Will it Blend?" is a video series developed by a blender company, where various things are blended to show how powerful the blender is.  Things like...

• An iPod
• Guitar Hero III
• Halo 3

There are dozens of videos in the series, most of them dealing with very timely topics.  Such as this one...

Who would have thought blenders could be so exciting?

This series works for a number of reasons, but one of the big ones is that it deals with stuff which is hot now.  People are talking about politics today.  A few months ago, they were talking about the iPhone.  Halo 3 was hot.  Harry Potter was hot.  When "Will it Blend?" deals with these topics, it captures momentum which is already there.

My question for you...

How are you using current events in your marketing?  Post responses below.

Why You Need Voice Overs for Your Online Videos

If you own an online business and are not making use of videos you may easily be losing on a substantial amount of business revenue. Even if you own an offline business, using online video as a means of promotion may be a huge boost to your bottom line. One of the most common problems faced by video marketers is that their voice simply doesn’t sound crisp and clear.

Having top quality audio for your videos is just as important as the rest of your video. If your video sounds like one of those boring history channel documentaries you may run into some problems.

When doing any kind of online promotion you always have to keep in mind the quality of your content. A sense of professionalism really goes a long way and this is especially true in the online world where just about everyone is trying to promote themselves or their business.

In recent years the tools needed to create high quality audio and video elements has become much more affordable and well within the budget of most internet marketers. Some of these tools are actually available for free online. Audacity, for example, is a free audio production program that is available for just about every operating system and is even included with many computers.

Often times when a video doesn’t perform as expected it is because there was a problem with the audio element of the video, particularly the spoken audio element. How your video sounds is just as important as how your video sounds and that is why is so important that you understand how to do your own voiceovers for your videos.

Unfortunately, many internet marketers fail to take the time to learn how to do their own voice over work and end up paying a small fortune for someone else to do it for them. Learning to do professional voice overs for your videos can give you a big edge over your competition and with internet marketing you need to pounce on any edge you can get.

A clearly spoken audio narration contained within your video can easily set the tone for friendly first impressions. Remember, first impressions last a lifetime. An unclear audio narration where your voice is constantly shaking or where you simply sound unsure of yourself will give your viewers a very bad first impression. A bad first impression is the last thing that you want. To really make things look good you can even add some royalty free audio to play in the background.

Just one well put together video can bring an avalanche of traffic and sales to your website. It’s entirely possible that one good video can bring you more traffic than your web server will be able to handle. This means you need to take the time make your videos look and sound as professional as possible.

How to Use YouTube for Market Research

Online video has grown in recent years to become one of the most popular methods of self expression and business promotion online. The result has been that a huge network of video sharing sites has emerged where users can create and share videos with one another. By far the most popular of these sites is Youtube which was purchased by Google back in October of 2006 for a whopping $1.65 billion.

Internet marketers have recognized the popularity of videos and regularly use video as a means of promoting their business and capturing more sales. What many Internet marketers don’t know is that video sharing sites like YouTube are a very good way to perform market research.

The search function on YouTube is very similar to the search function contained within a normal search engine. However, the search feature used by YouTube is much less sophisticated than the complex algorithms used by the search engines. This is really great news for video marketers because it means you can easily dominate the Youtube search results.

Before you submit your video you’ll need to do a little keyword research like you would if you were optimizing a page for the search engines. Once you have selected some keywords that you would like to target add some of the keywords to your video’s tags and title.

If you have done everything right, your video should be able to pull in some really nice traffic to you website. But the feedback you get from channel viewers can actually be just as important as getting traffic. Market feedback is a classic direct marketing technique that is achieved in real life by using costly things like polls and surveys.

Your videos actually give you the chance to pull in tons of market feedback without spending a dime on polls or surveys. Market feedback allows to get a more precise glimpse of exactly what is that your target market wants and how much they are willing to pay for it. This information is priceless.

You will frequently receive video comments that tell you whether or not your video was interesting or helpful. Many times you will receive negative comments that will tell what you did wrong. Except for the comment spam that you will inevitable receive, almost all of the comments you receive will be useful to you.

The most ideal comments are those that request additional videos. These comments are your target market telling you exactly what they want! Offline businesses pay a small fortune for this kind of information. YouTube users readily offer up this kind of information to Internet marketers at no charge.

Online videos are a truly fantastic way to promote your business and get more traffic without spending a great deal of money. But remember that your video submissions can actually help you improve your existing marketing strategy and develop new product ideas.

Jaime Luchuck vs. Charles Trippy

The Next Internet Millionaire, an online reality show, which more or less, is just like the Apprentice, is done...almost.  Everything is down to two people, Jaime Luchuck and Charles Trippy.  They've both created products and the one with the most sales by tomorrow wins the show.

I made the comment back in August that the personality shown in the audition videos was more interesting than the show itself.  Jaime did a great job on that end.

But I've got to give Charles the upper hand when it comes to personality on the final task.  His sales page, a mashup of a video mixed with a graphically-enhanced, long sales letter.  Works for the guys who don't want to read, and it works for the guys who do.

Jaime has more of a traditional sales letter for her product.  Not bad, but I feel it's lacking on doing a good job of showing who she is.  And showing who she is, in my opinion, is pretty important when it comes to selling a book about a personal experience.

And for focus, I've got to give that to Charles also.  He has a product on video and the bonuses he offers people are directly related to that.  For example, you get a couple of weeks to check out Traffic Geyser, a service to upload the videos he's going to show you how to create.

Bonuses are usually a good idea, but Jaime's product actually gets lost because she has over 60 of them.  Probably around 80, but I lost count...  And many of them are cheap ebooks, which are available everywhere else or have nothing to do with making money, such as a solitaire program.

This makes the page come off like a rehashed ebook library with absolutely no value.  All that was really needed, in my opinion, is the workbook. And that's great, by the way.  The book is currently on backorder for 4-6 weeks, but the wait will be worth it, if it's of the same quality.

Overall, this is a great opportunity for both these guys to get a foothold on this market.  Rarely does somebody come into this niche (or any niche) with such immediate recognition.  My hope is that they'll both be able to continue with momentum and keep things up.  They're certainly both talented enough to do so.

And that takes me back to personality...

The push of being having somebody else do your promotion for you, whether it's being on a television show, or having an endorsement sent to your mailing list, can be a great thing.  It's a double-edged sword though.  It's only a great thing if it works for who you are.

Without naming names, some of the people on Next Internet Millionaire were wasting their time.  They don't fit the mold, which was what all the tests were based on.  You may go from a 9-to-5 to something else with a show like this, but working with people you can't stand is painful regardless of where they are or what time of day it is.

There are a million ways to make money online, so it's not necessary to force square pegs into round holes, even if you do get a big push out of it.

How to Promote Your Site and Drive Traffic via Online Video

A few weeks ago, I attended a seminar which focused on Web 2.0 traffic generation strategies.  As you can imagine, video was a big part of that.

I could go into how people are using video, but there are a million ways to do it.  So for this post, I'm just going to show you one of the ways I am using it to drive traffic and get the word out about what I am doing.  I'm also going to show you how to do it and give you an couple of easy options that won't require you to do so much as pick up a video camera.

A little about me...

I'm host of a syndicated radio show on the music business, so I'm in the studio a couple of times per week to interview people.  As you can imagine, we have TONS of audio content.

Had a cheap video camera that I picked up to record dance lessons with, so I started taking it along to my radio interviews and doing video promos for the show.  Like this...

The great thing about the camera I use is that it has a built-in USB port, which flips out.  I just plug it into my computer and download the video clip.  Easy.

I then send the raw clip to my assistant, who edits it and puts on the front and back using Windows Media Maker and Ulead Video Studio.

Don't have an assistant?  This is a quick and easy job that you can hire out for few bucks via Scriptlance.

By the way, the voiceover guy on the front is Chris Davies of ProVoiceUSA.  Send him a script and he will usually have something back to you within a day.  For another voice, try Dan Buckley of Buckley Productions.  Dan is a DJ at WRLT and engineers my radio show.  Dan has done a couple of audio books for me and you can sample his voice at Amazon.

So now that you've got your video done, it's time to submit it to sites who host videos.  I've put together a list of the Top 20 Video Sharing Sites for Online Marketers.

Options to submit everything:

GOOD:  It's not rocket science to submit everything on your own, but it will take some time.

BETTER: It's much easier to have somebody else do it.  You can hire somebody for a few bucks via Scriptlance or, if you're in need of somebody fulltime, I recommend contacting Your Outsourcing Solution.  You can get a fulltime person cheaper than you think, so I highly recommend considering that option.

BEST: Traffic Geyser is an automated system that will submit your videos to the top 35 sites as well as top social bookmarking services.  My suggestion is to do this route and  hire somebody for a few bucks via Scriptlance to run it for you. 

What do do with audio content...

As I mentioned earlier, being in radio, we have a ton of audio content.  Hours and hours of shows, outtakes, promos, and more.  But until recently, we weren't doing anything with video...

You may be in a similar situation.  Most people involved with marketing have audio recordings of teleconferences, presentations, or other material.

GOOD NEWS:  Creating a video presentation of your audio with still images is a great way to make use of this content.

EVEN BETTER NEWS: Traffic Geyser, the submission service I mentioned above, will do this for you.  Simply upload your audio, upload a few photos, and you're got a new "video" to help drive traffic and promote yourself.

More ways to create and use video...

It's so easy to join a site like 100articles.com, where you'll get 100 private label articles for $9, read the articles into some recording software, and then make a video slideshow.  Traffic Geyser has a way for you to do it by phone.  Easy.

Let me give you an example...  Let's say you have an article on "satellite radio."  You read the article into some recording software, so now you have an audio version of it, right?  Then you attach some photos of satellite radios to it, so it's a slide show.  You then upload that via Traffic Geyser so it goes out to the top 35 video sharing sites.

People search for "satellite radio" and one of your videos comes up.  They watch the video, which then directs them to an affiliate link.

Easy money.

But it gets even easier. :)

Dr. Mike has this program where he makes these videos for you.  He made me this video to attach to this article, which has some pretty impressive case studios and should give you some ideas on how you can use this approach to make more money with your online projects.  So check out his site and let me know what you think below.

Hope this has helped you to come up with some new ideas on how you can use video.  If it has, please click one of the links below to add this URL to Digg or another social bookmarking site.