After video killed the radio star, has it been plotting its domination of the internet ever since? In the world of internet marketing the power of video is becoming a key player. Online video is effective, easy to do, and can elevate your business in front of potential customers.
So why should your small business care about online video in your internet marketing strategy? Online video helps you:
Here are some stats from Social Media Today to help convince you:
That's less than a year away, but you have plenty of time to start thinking about integrating online video into your internet marketing strategy.
Before you start trying to create the next Gangnam Style or Harlem Shake, make sure you set the right expectations. Your goal isn’t to go viral – nobody even really knows the mysterious formula of what makes a video go viral – your goal is to get in front of your target audience. So create something they will find valuable. For example:
You could hire an internet marketing company like us to help you (and we love to make videos!) but we also understand you have a limited amount of time and resources. So if you aren’t in a position to hire someone to make a video you can do something as simple as recording a video with your mobile device and uploading it to YouTube. You’ll want to create a YouTube channel for your business, because you’re going to see how fabulous you really look on camera and start doing videos all the time.
Videos are a good use of time and resources because they are easy to use on multiple channels. For example:
Online video can be used in more than one aspect of your internet marketing strategy. First though, you want to make sure that you have created an engaging video by including these components:
You can strengthen your video’s “shareability” by sharing it on multiple social media platforms. This will help drive traffic to your targeted landing page, website or blog. This kind of cross-channel promotion does take some coordination. If you’re going to be promoting on social media, make sure your business is set up on the three main social media channels, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. If you don’t already have a following on social media, then just stick to the other channels we talked about earlier, but start setting up your social media channels as soon as you can. One other component worth mentioning here is online paid ads. You can actually purchase paid video ads to appear before, during or around YouTube content that relates to your business.
Google is also starting to pay more attention to online video content. You have a better opportunity of jumping to the first page of results by creating video content and using it across your different channels. This takes strategic planning though because Google does like it to be done a certain way. If you’re interested in SEO services for small business, we can help you!
Of course, there’s more to it than just creating, editing and uploading. Online video only works by being an integrated part of your internet marketing strategy.
I hope today’s internet marketing tip was helpful! Now lights, camera, action!