Use video in your marketing!
Use video in your marketing if you want more people to discover your business. In May 2010, I’m at a conference in Fort Lauderdale about search engine marketing, social media and interactivity. There’s plenty of buzzword use, and in my opinion, some of it is nonsense and bullshit. But there are good things too. One is a reminder of how much visibility a simple video can give you.
It’s something I already use a lot myself. And my message is straightforward: If you have a business and aren’t using video that you upload to YouTube and other video sites, you’re missing an opportunity. At this point, YouTube is one of the major search engines where people look for videos on all sorts of topics. YouTube is also available in Danish now. So that’s another excuse for doing nothing gone.
Video in your marketing: My iPad test as an example
I recently made a video where I sat talking about Apple’s iPad. I uploaded it to YouTube and made sure to use the words people would search for: Apple, iPad, test and review. They were in the title, description and tags I gave the video. I also linked to it from my website.
After about half an hour, I found it was the first video when I searched for Apple iPad test. There I was, wearing sunglasses and looking cheeky, and yet my chat about the iPad was being shown as relevant. Other reviews from bigger names weren’t included in the same way in the result I saw.
Of course, that’s my specific experience here in 2010. But it’s interesting because my blog isn’t strong enough for me simply to write an ordinary post about the Apple iPad and expect to reach page one. With the video, though, I found myself on page one as result number five, with a large video image. That’s something people can notice and want to click.
A little effort brought around a thousand views
The video had already been watched around a thousand times when I talked about it. I hadn’t paid a penny to make it. Recording it took a couple of minutes, and then I spent another five minutes or so uploading it.
I think that’s a pretty good return on a small effort. I simply sat there talking about a product I’d tried. I didn’t need a big production to share my experience with other people.
That’s why I say: Get some videos out there. Give them relevant words in the title and description, and link to them from the company website and other relevant websites. That’s the combination I used myself. The point is to make it clear what the video is about and help people find it. Also read E-pusher about my experiences with online sales and marketing.
More video sites and an increasingly crowded market
At the conference, I was also reminded of tips about services such as TubeMogul, which at the time could upload to several video sites at once. Google collected videos from different sites, and my thought was that, with a bit of luck, your video could appear several times on the same results page.
Those are the opportunities as I see them in 2010. My advice is to get started while there’s still room. I imagine the market will be more crowded in one, two or three years, just as ordinary search engine optimisation has already become.
Whether you have an ice cream kiosk, a machine factory or a website, try using video. Along the way, I get my geography a bit muddled and mention a beach in Skælskør that I’m not even sure exists. Apparently, two years in the US have taken their toll on my Danish geography. But the message still stands: Get off your backside and go for it with video.
If you’re not using video in your marketing, you’re really missing out on very cheap traffic. Best wishes, Martin
Som altid: lige på. Så ganske rigtigt. Google ELSKER video. 🙂
Jeg har faktisk lige skrevet en engelsk artikel om det at lave sin første video, og der er ingen tvivl om, at alle kan være med. http://ezinearticles.com/?Making-Your-First-Video-Online&id=4064456
Selv de som er kamera-generte kan jo bruge Jing til skærmdumps eller tage skærmdumps af en Powerpoint, og lægge tale ind med den almindelige recorder der følger med Windows, og bruge Windows Movie Maker til at lægge hver slide ind, og så tilpasse længden i forhold til lyden.
Nogle synes det er irriterende, at Windows’ egen recorder kun optager 1 minut, men det passer faktisk glimrende til hver slide, og derved kan en video på 5-7 minutter faktisk laves på ingen tid, fordi det kun er den ene lyddel som skal tages om, hvis du ikke er helt tilfreds.
Så til alle seerne/lytterne: tag endelig fat på video. Du får ikke 100.000 visninger første uge på YouTube, men der er fordele ved at komme ind på video-markedet.
Afslutningsvis: tillykke med den hurtige 5.-plads. 🙂