Video Marketing: The Key Advantages in Strategy

If you want to create a powerful presence online, there are many reasons to include video marketing as part of your overall strategy. Video has been getting more and more popular since the emergence of YouTube and other popular video sites. This is not a mere passing fad, but a trend that only promises to grow stronger.

Why?

Why is video marketing so powerful? For the same basic reason that people love movies. It incorporates images and sound, which means that a video reaches viewers in an exponentially more potent way. In today’s world, this is what it takes to capture the attention of your audience. When people can watch videos on their laptops, mobile phones, iPods and iPads, it simply isn’t enough to write something down.

This isn’t to say you should use video marketing as your only type of promotion. People still do, after all, read. Ideally, you should use as many types of media as possible in your campaigns. A great thing about video marketing is that it can be used to enhance the effectiveness of other types of promotion. For example, your videos can have embedded links that point to a blog, article or website.

Effectiveness?

What makes an effective video? You don’t necessarily need an ultra-sophisticated, Hollywood quality production. In fact, in some ways, a video that’s “too good” can be a distraction from your primary goal. Which is to get the viewer to learn something about your message and hopefully want to find out more. Remember, your video is not an end in itself. A marketing video is not meant to be a work of art, like a feature film. It’s a means to an end, a tool to get the viewer to take further action.

Your videos should be professional, multi-faceted but simple. It’s best to use a combination of spoken word, music, enticing images and text. None of this has to be very complicated. The music can be any appropriate background soundtrack that you have the right to use. You should always have some written text in your videos, if only a link to your website.

You should preferably embed hyperlinks that will bring the viewer directly from your video to your website. If you are having someone else create your video, you can request this feature. If you’re doing it yourself, with little research you’ll find relatively inexpensive software that allows you to embed links.

Where Should They Go?

There are several ways to use video marketing, you can submit a video to YouTube and other video sites. You can embed your video on your blog or website, or even in emails. It’s a good idea to have several videos, or at least two, for each campaign. You don’t want people clicking on your YouTube video only to be brought to a website that features the exact same video.

In general, submit teaser videos to YouTube –short videos that capture someone’s attention and make them want to find out more. On your website, have a more informative video as well as other, printed information about your offer.

Keep in mind that not everyone prefers to watch videos all the time. If someone is in a hurry, they may not want to feel “locked in” to watching a video. it’s good practice having the same information in a video repeated in other ways, such as graphics and written explanations.

Best Practice

Ideally, your videos should be part of an overall strategy that incorporates as many elements as possible. You’ll be able to capture the attention of people who prefer videos and those who prefer articles or images. One way to take advantage of this multifaceted approach to marketing is to create a presence on social media sites such as Hubpages and Squidoo. These sites allow you to place a variety of modules in a single place, including articles, videos and RSS feeds.

Video marketing can be an important part of what are sometimes called “link wheels.” Link wheels can be simple or quite complex constellations of sites, blogs, articles and social media sites. There are many ways to set these up, and several theories about which way is best. Just keep in mind the main point is to have many, (at least several) supplementary sites pointing at your main site. Videos can be an important part of this process.

Videos are also good because they tend to rank well in the search engines. When you submit videos to YouTube or other video sites, be sure to add tags that contain the relevant keywords for your site. These tags should not be too general or it will be difficult to rank highly. For example, if you are promoting a weight loss product, you can use the tag, “weight loss,” but you should also use more specific, less competitive words. Remember, there are millions of people with websites related to weight loss. However, if your video is about something more specific, say how to lose weight with a high protein diet, then use a tag like “high protein diet.” Don’t be afraid to put in a long list of tags, as it certainly can’t hurt and it will make it easier for more people to find your video.

Video marketing can be used effectively to promote any kind of business. In today’s image-oriented society, it is a tool you can’t afford to overlook.