Video Marketing

Today, video is no longer something serious marketers ignore. It doesn’t matter what your niche is, video is a very powerful form of marketing that your business cannot afford to do without.

Why Video is Important?

YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.  When you consider the fact that YouTube was only created 8 years ago, that’s a pretty big deal.

YouTube is not the only video marketing player in town. With the advent of Google Hangouts on Air, you can incorporate video in your on-air presentations, webinars, events, and even have online concerts, cooking shows, and more. The fact is, what you can do with video is unmatched by any other type of content.

  1. Video Can be Shared More Easily

Once you post your videos to YouTube.com, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and on your website, other people can easily embed the video on their websites, and their Facebook pages, and easily share via Twitter and other avenues. You can even post your video as an iTune video podcast. Not to mention the ability to use Instagram, Vine, Periscope and VideoLicious to make even more of an impact.

  1. Your Audience Can Get to Know You Better

Face it, with a video you’re really out there, and your content can be very expressive because your personality will come out more as you speak than when you write. People cannot interpret tone, inflection, body language and a whole host of other important things with written content. That doesn’t mean you should give up written content, just that as you expand your brand you should consider finding ways to incorporate your personality. What better way than with video?

  1. You’ll Stand Out From The Crowd

Even though video is hugely popular, a lot of people shy away from using it. Some estimates suggest only 20 percent of businesses use video in any real way. They get stage fright, and are scared to move forward. If you jump in first, you’ll really stand out, especially if you learn how to use video most effectively within your niche. You should be watching your competitors, and whatever they’re not doing, or doing poorly, to differentiate yourself do it better, do it more, and do it differently.

  1. Improve the Power of Testimonials

We all know how important a good testimonial is for business. But, imagine how much more powerful it can be if your customers create a short video exclaiming how great your product or service is. People will be able to see the real person behind the testimonial and it’s going to mean so much more than something written by someone they can’t see and hear. Even with a picture next to the words, it can’t beat the power of video to make the viewers feel as if they know the person and can trust the person. It’s honestly the ultimate social proof that you need to get the word out about your business.

  1. Most People Use Mobile Devices Now

The fact is, it’s really hard to read a bunch of text on a mobile device, no matter how responsive your websites are. But, watching a quick video is simple. Push play, and it looks just as good on the small screen as it does on the PC. Your customers are much more likely to hear what you have to say with a video than they are to read a text blog post if they use mobile devices. Since mobile is outselling the PC, it’s something to consider.

  1. You Don’t Actually Have to Show Your Face

Okay, well, you can if you want to, but you can also create excellent videos using PowerPoint slides, or Keynote slides, along with your voice to get your point across about what you’re trying to convey to your audience. This works especially well for tutorial or how-to videos. You can use other images instead of your face to get your message to your audience using your voice. Your voice carries a lot of important factors and information about you and your personality to your audience that they will appreciate.

  1. Video is a Great Way to Tap into New Audiences

The fact is, you can use the same message, in a different format to attract new audiences to your information. The audiences you attract will still be your target audience interested in your niche, but they’ll prefer learning by video than by reading textual blog posts. Everyone has different ways that they like to learn, and different channels they like to learn things in. Some people are more visual, some are tactical and some learn better through sound. With video you can actually tap into all the ways that people learn best.

 

Next time we’ll talk about what you’ll need to easily create great looking videos…

 

If you like this sort of thing, stay tuned for Chamber sponsored webinars where we talk about social media, positioning, marketing, and other business topics all of the time.  Past webinars are archived at http://chamberwebtraining.com

 

About the Author:  Ken Ivey, affectionately dubbed ‘the Web Czar’ by peers – has been helping businesses embrace technology for 27 years. Contact him at  ken@livingwaterdigital.com or call 920-645-2700