If you are an online marketer you know how important it is to market your business, services or products. With video becoming one of the hottest ways to market it is wise to consider converting your articles into videos.
There are several ways you can convert your articles into videos. One way is to use a program called Camtasia. If you are not familiar with this program it can be a bit confusing as well as costly. Another method that is cost effective is a program that will easily convert your articles into videos for you. By simply choosing music, some photos and your article you will soon be on your way to marketing your articles through video.
The program I am referring to is called GFX video writer. Not only is it cost effective but it is not difficult to use at all. Article marketing is a great way to market your business. This program comes with a variety of features such as fonts to choose from, backgrounds, slide transitions and more. Converting your past articles that may be accumulating space on your computer or possibly were forgotten can be given new life with this program.
Marketing your business online can be done in several ways, article writing, article distribution, audio, and of course video, my favorite. Now you can combine all into one and add another form of marketing. Try it and let me know how you like it.
Have you thought of using videos to market your business or service? If not, it’s time to start. If you have an online
business or offline for that matter using video as a marketing tool is a wise choice.
Although there are many that will want to read more about your business or service, the majority are enticed by visuals. Don’t believe me? Sit for one afternoon and simply count all the commercials and infomercials that are broadcasted daily. This same concept can be applied to your business. Adding videos to your marketing plan will help your market and community connect with you.
It is difficult to express emotion with words, although there are many that can do it successfully. With the use of video, your viewer will instantly connect with your emotion and passion. You don’t have to go to the extreme as such individuals on infomercials but simply describing your product or service is a way to connect with your audience and ultimately your customer base.
A few points to keep in mind when using video to market your business or service:
- Don’t be too flashy: it may work for some on television but you don’t want to categorized as a infomercial salesman type
- Be honest: your audience, target market, customers and clients will be able to detect instantly if you are not being honest, perhaps some may not right away but ultimately they will.
- Be clear: when using video be sure to be clear in both the quality of the video itself and in your appearance and words
- Be concise: keep your videos short and sweet, many will disagree on length of video clips, so the best bet is to determine how long you will sit through a video and gage your videos to that length. Many will not sit for more than 3 minutes and you don’t want to lose the attention of your market.
Ultimately, using videos as a marketing tool is a smart and innovative idea that many are using. What are you waiting for? Start today!
Have you ever wondered if you should use free video hosting? If you are unsure I will explain the pros and cons below to help you decide.
Everyone is aware of sites such as YouTube. YouTube is a a huge video hosting site. It actually works like a search engine and can help in the building of your brand and exposure. It also has the ability for others to embed your videos on their sites, blogs or social networking sites, which can help build your traffic.
Although all the above is great for your branding and exposure there are some negative points to using free video hosting. Using a free video hosting site may not be free after all. It is important to read the fine print in the terms of service of such sites. YouTube’s terms of service states that you can upload your video to their site, however you are also granting them permission to use your video and content in whatever fashion they desire.
If you are concerned about branding you may want to reconsider the use of such free hosting sites, because they will include all their branding logos on all your videos. That is in essence free advertisement for them. If you embed one of your videos on a company site, for instance you have now created a permanent link back to the free hosting site in this case, YouTube.
Another drawback to using free video hosting sites such as YouTube is the related videos that are automatically attached to the end of each of your videos. If you are trying to create sales of a certain product that you are demonstrating on a video which you have uploaded to YouTube, you will risk the chance of promoting a competitor at the end of your video. Not a good idea for all your efforts.
YouTube is like any other social networking site, it is considered an entertainment site, which in some cases is not a negative. However, if you are promoting a service or a product to a large corporation, this may not big a good idea. Many large corporations will block entertainment sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube which will hinder your chances of being noticed.
In essence, free video hosting sites are great to attract traffic to your site, where you can then share other videos or information. If your goal is to market a product, or service you may consider a different video hosting site and not a free one.
We all know that in order to succeed with an online business or any business for that matter you must stay connected.
With an online business staying connected is the foundation of building long-lasting relationships that can lead to sales, partnerships, networking and more. Since I enjoy videos, and I’m sure you do as well, why not stay connected with video emails?
Instead of the same old text email, which is still very effective, use a video to convey your message. The difference of viewing and hearing your message supercedes that of a text.
You can use a video email to promote a new project, new website, promotion or simply a way to connect. Some have incorporated videos into their newsletters as well. You can make the videos as long or as short as you like. Remember that the attention span of most is not very long. Most videos are between 3 and 4 minutes in length unless they are educational or music videos.
Video in email is a fast growing trend and the increase in click through rates can be as much as two to three times. Some things to keep in mind if you intend to incorporate videos into your emails:
- Respect your audience’s time..keep the videos short and sweet (try to keep them less than 2 minutes)
- Incorporate a tracking system to determine the click-to-view of the videos
- Be creative and use the videos to grab their attention, don’t overuse the video system
- Don’t add large or extra large animated GIF’s – {those are annoying}
- Most importantly..have fun and experiment
Next email you send consider adding a video for more impact, you’ll be amazed at the response.
In order to generate results from your online video ads and compete with the larger organizations there are some tips you must keep in mind.
- Don’t be complicated, in other words, ‘keep it simple’. When creating a video ad, it is important to keep it simple, and to the point. In order for your video to be viewed and become a successful ad, it is important to be concise and remove excess text.
- Stay on topic. It is very easy to divert from the subject but you must stay on track. Your video ads must be specific, offer some sort of benefit such as a discount, in order to resonate to your audience.
- Incorporate visuals that are attractive. When choosing graphics for your videos it is important that those graphics will express a relevant message. It is wise to choose clean and simple graphics that are more appealing to the eye.
- Test and test again. It is wise to experiment and be creative with your message. Make a video ad and test it out before investing a large portion of your budget until you know the response you will get. Change the visuals, your text, your call to action or promotion and keep track of the visits. If you find your message is not being displayed appropriately, then you must try again.
- Monitor the length. Although there isn’t a specific length to the best video or video ad, it is wise to keep it short and concise in order for your video ad to be successful. Too often you are enticed by a video, only to find out in the end that it is an advertisement of some sort. Experiment and visit several video ads on your own, take note of the items that attracted you to the particular video ad and incorporate the same into yours.
If you want to include videos into your marketing plan it is now easier than ever to do so. Gone are the days where you had to purchase expensive equipment to make a decent video.
With the new Flip Video Camera, you can now take videos and market your business or product quite easily. With the Flip video camera, you will not need to invest in fancy software 
since the software is built in. This camera is handy because it is small enough to fit in your pocket or purse. It comes with a built in USB plug that can easily plug into your computer to download your videos.
Some of the Flip features are the following:
- can record up to 2 hours
- play back videos
- delete videos
- available in HD
- inexpensive, approximately $200
- small and compact
The Flip video comes with built-in software called FlipShare and some of the features include:
- import directly to Youtube
- can trim the video
- email a link to your video
- burn to a DVD
- export directly to your computer
- best feature is the simplicity and ease of use
If the fear of cost or complexity has kept you from taking videos, this camera puts all those fears aside. With a small investment of approximately $200 you can take videos that look professional. The ease of uploading videos to Youtube and other online video venues makes this concept attractive.
There are programs available that help you share clips from your video and add music to the background that will enhance your videos more. One of those programs is called Animoto. Animoto allows you to incorporate still photos, text, video and music into a more creative video. This program comes with a fee of approximately $99/month. This is one of the many programs available to help you enhance your videos. But, do not let the worry of making videos and adding music keep you from developing your own creative videos.
The time is now to incorporate videos into your marketing plan. The best part is you are able to incorporate it without breaking the bank.
We all want the maximum exposure for our viral videos but don’t want to break the bank. There are ways to maximize the exposure of your videos, keeping the cost down and getting your message across to many.
One of the obvious ways or perhaps a way you may have overlooked is placing the video on your site. You may do this by using a widget to add your video to the sidebar of your site. Sites like Widgetbox will help you create a cool looking widget of your video that you can then place on your site and share on other sites.
Maximizing exposure means to literally saturate the waves with your video. Your ultimate goal is to have your video and message seen by your target audience. Making it available is important, which is why placing it on Youtube is a great idea. Placing your video on Youtube will be seen by many and they will also have the opportunity to embed your video on their sites which of course leads to more views.
Placing the video on your site is important as mentioned above. What is of greater importance is the tags and descriptions of the video. Placing a video on your main or company site is a great way to break up the monotony of text. Be sure to either add a transcript along with your video or include precise descriptions with tags to be found by the search engines.
Social networks are the latest and greatest craze and you can use them to your advantage. Let’s not spam all your visitors or followers with videos, but placing your videos on Facebook will definitely increase the exposure it receives. Facebook also allows the ability to share the video with others and of course that is always welcomed.
Most importantly make online videos part of your marketing efforts. People love connecting with the person behind the site. Using your videos will create instant recognition and expertise in your market. If you haven’t incorporated videos as part of your marketing plan do it today, start 2010 with a bang!
A viral video is a short video that is meant to attract your target audience. Once you have developed your viral video, the next step is to get it seen, and that’s where marketing comes into play.
Below I will share some tips on marketing your viral video successfully:
- Optimize – it is very important to optimize your video for increased exposure. Keeping the video short and having a call to action within the video will optimize it nicely.
- Place your video on your site – sounds simple enough but you’d be amazed at how many people will neglect to post their videos on their sites. You may consider adding the video to the sidebar on your site for added exposure.
- Recruit your list of clients, followers, etc – Send out an email with a short clip from your video to create excitement about your video. Ask your list members to share the link to your video on their sites and encourage them to leave comments.
- Create a buzz – Talk about your video, don’t simply rely on traffic from online friends or associates. Share your video link with people offline, and entice them to visit your site where they will find your video. Next time you are at a conference, talk about your video, create the excitement so people will be eager to view your video.
- Social Media – share your video link on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn. Do not simply rely on video sites to share your link.
- Ask your target market – within your target audience you will find many that share the same interests as you, hence your target audience. Ask them to share your video link for more exposure.
- Video sharing sites – Everyone is familiar with Youtube, but don’t stop there. Research other video sharing sites and add your video to them as well. Some others include, TrafficGeyser.com, Bliptv and Viddler.
- Share your links – this is the last and the most important tip of all. Share your link everywhere, this will entice more, and more folks to view your video which is your ultimate goal.
Marketing is a tricky game. However, with the use of videos it can become less complicated. We all know that in order for your product or service to sell or be noticed, it must be marketed. The same applies with your videos.
In order to successfully market with videos you must create back links. Don’t get discouraged, this actually sounds harder than what it is. Creating back links simply means marketing your video in areas where people will find you. Along with marketing is the description of the video and the keywords used to describe the videos, this helps in the search engines as well.
Ways to market you video:
Social Networks – once you have developed or made a video, spread the word in social networks such as Twitter, Facebook to name a few. Mentioning it to your friends online will bring an influx of viewers which is your goal.
Forums – sharing your links to your videos on forums that you frequent is another way to gain exposure. Be sure to develop a relationship with those on the forum before you share your links. Folks that simply visit forums to plaster their links are frowned upon.
Blogs – blogs or websites are the perfect place to share your videos and attract more readers and visitors.
Directories - this may take some time but the research will pay off. Research the different directories available that your target audience may be attracted to and place the links to your videos on those particular directories. A great site is http://www.onlywire.com
Press Releases – another excellent way to promote your videos is by sharing your videos and your site via press releases. No worries if you are unsure about writing a press release, it doesn’t take much to share your new content which includes your videos for the world to see. Some places allow you to place your press release on their sites for free, which is great for the limited funds for marketing. Some free distribution centers are ClickPress, 24-7PressRelease and PRLeap. Most importantly you will want to do your homework which consists of researching the different avenues to place your press release.
You’ll notice from the examples that I have shared, that it is not difficult to promote your videos to develop back links. It is important however, that you are not tagged as a spammer, so it is important to be strategic in the marketing of your videos.