Small businesses can find it difficult to reach customers, but with tips for marketing your small business with online videos, you can attract new customers that are ready to buy.

It used to be, businesses of any size or scope would put an ad in the local paper to attract new customers. Then, having a web-presence, even a single web page, became almost mandatory for a business serious about staying in business and making sales.

Advertising in the newspaper remains a “tried-and-true” method, and many businesses, large and small, have found that having web-presence does good things for their bottom line.

But online video advertising is one of the newest and most effective ways to reach potential buyers. These short commercials can generate twice the “click-throughs” of banner ads.

There are many “do it yourself” Internet sites that can provide locally-targeted, inexpensive online video ads, which are catering to small business owners.

Here are some tips for marketing your small business with online videos:

• Simplicity: Keep your ad “short and sweet.”
• Benefits: Make your promotion or discount the focus of your ad.
• Type Size: Don’t use more than two sizes in a single ad.
• Type Font: Again, don’t use more than two fonts in a single ad.
• Relevance: Use clean and simple graphics relevant to the ad.
• Testing: Methodically alter your ad to determine what achieves the best results.
• Content: Strive for authentic, personable ads with a clear message.
• Optimization: Make sure your video is “Google friendly” to get good placement in search results.
• Facebook: If you don’t have a Facebook account, make one, and add your video to your “wall.”
• Expand: Utilize the many video sites on the Internet (such as YouTube) to create maximum exposure for your ad.

These tips for marketing your small business with online videos are just the beginning, but the most important step in any project is getting started by taking that first step.

Have you thought of using videos to market your business or service?  If not, it’s time to start.  If you have an onlinebusiness 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!