Basics of Video Marketing

Video Marketing is becoming more and more popular these days by businesses of all sizes that realize the potential and advantage of using video to connect with their target audience. Not only is it realized as an effective and powerful tool, it has the ability to connect you with potentially thousands or potential clients and customers.

Video Marketing Perks
By using strong video marketing techniques you can reignite interest in your website and distinctly enhance your brand. In doing so, you want to produce videos that are brief, appealing, offers a clear message, and grabs the attention of viewers and has a strong call to action.

When brainstorming topics and content for your videos, take care to choose the right keywords and descriptions. By doing so, you allow your videos to work for themselves online. If you create a video that is short, informative, and appealing and you add descriptive tags and keywords that are searched online thousands of times a day, your video will be viewed more and more, receiving positive feedback, which will offer you a higher ranking online. Video marketing is essential in link-building. The more websites you post your links to, the more internet surfers you will attract to your page.

Another tactic is to involve your friends and associates in the process of marketing the videos you create. You can do this by sending them to your Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo and other contacts or alternatively, you can utilize the services of an experienced video marketing virtual assistant to upload and promote your videos to the different video sharing sites online.

Many people are put-off of video marketing because they tend to get overwhelmed by what they feel is necessary in putting together a successful video marketing strategy. They wrongly feel they need the best and most expensive equipment to get started. In my experience I've found that the most successful online videos have been created by amateurs using simple and inexpensive digital cameras, flip cameras and cell phones. It is not so much the tool used, but the content shared. This means that inexpensive tools are just as effective as pricey ones, provided the video quality is clear and the message strong.

Online marketers can benefit by creating promotional videos, product initiation, personalized greetings and even how-to videos to direct their videos towards a target market and ultimately back to their website or blog.

Why not give video marketing a go? In doing so not only will you be creating a new outlet to express your creativity and expertise, you will also be building your brand and creating unique experiences for your potential customer and clients, brand loyalty and credibility.

What's the Future of Video Marketing

In looking back only a few years, we saw video on the Internet rise at a rate unlike anything in previous years. Today, 80% of Internet users worldwide watch online video, according to a comScore study).
In that same study, it reported more than 167 million viewers in the U.S. watched an average of 167 videos each, while YouTube reached 1 billion views per day - or 41 million views per hour - in the same month (October 2009).

From these numbers, it shows how powerful of a platform the Internet is, and how video marketing is poised to take center stage in marketing efforts.

The Importance of Web Videos
Undoubtedly, you've seen many social video sharing sites popping up, telling us we're in an emerging industry. And, although digital media and online video space is very young, we are definitely seeing the beginning of this space.

Why? Because video engages people in a way that static content cannot. Video boosts customer interaction, drives sales, encourages viral sharing, and builds brand awareness.

With moving pictures, you have a very compelling medium to tell your story and sell a product. You can show prospective and existing customers your product instead of just telling them about it.
So now we're at a time that having video on your website is needed as much as you need someone to code and put up your website.

However, many small businesses are too busy and don't have a "video product manager" overseeing video production or deployment for them. Nor do they usually have the technological knowledge to be able to set up an online video offering themselves.

Well, video is too important to put it off much longer.

With more than 50% of people now looking online for products and services, a website has become an important aspect in connecting with your public.

What is happening here is that video marketing has become the nucleus of online success for companies. It is leading the way for businesses and individuals to incorporate a video strategy alongside an online, social, paid media, PR, and other marketing strategies.

Here's another statistic for you: 52% of people who watched an online video ad took action after viewing the ad, such as visiting the advertiser's website (31%) or searching online for more info on the product (22%). A full 21% went on to make a purchase - giving video ads one of the HIGHEST CONVERSION RATES IN THE INDUSTRY (per Online Publishers Association).

Here are a few companies that I came across that have substantial success with video:

• Zappos (an online shoe and clothing retailer) increased sales from 6 to 30% using video marketing.
• Deloitte (a consulting firm) uses web video to enhance their business with useful videos for current and future employees and company stock holders.
• Jivox (an online video ad platform) used video demos on their website to increase registrations by 25%.
• Fuse Box had 20% higher close rates when sales reps play a video at the beginning of their virtual sales demo.
• Jigsaw uses crowd-sourcing to gather and vet business contact info, a new approach that relies on customer participation.
• Car dealers with videos on their website generate more phone calls and emails from prospective shoppers vs. websites without video.
• FrontPoint Security successfully uses video demonstrations to expand its pool of customers, and monthly sales leads from website increased 250 percent with video.

With success like this, it is a no-brainer that 94% of ad agencies plan on increasing their online video marketing budgets this year (BrightRoll survey).
In Summary....

• Video shows your story and/or product and service.
• Video drives sales
• Video builds your brand
• Videos help position you as an expert in your field.
• Video makes your site more "sticky" - visitors stay longer.
• Video engages people
• Video goes viral
• Video increases website conversions

Okay, I think you get the point.