Understanding Inbound Marketing: Video Marketing and the New Media

How to You Make Video Marketing for Your Brick and Mortar Business?

Videos are one of the best ways to engage customers in today’s expanding Internet market. Video marketing and offline business go hand in hand. Brick and mortar businesses can use video marketing to reach an online audience that might not otherwise know they exist.

Videos can be used via a variety of platforms and then distributed by way of social media. Video has become the King Kong of new media marketing, delivering brief, targeted messages to highly targeted audiences.

Using video to promote your brick and mortar business may seem like a scary proposition; and, to many business owners it is. Interestingly, video can be fun and will do wonders to enhance your Internet image and your brand. If you simply cannot get in front of a camera, or do not have the time, there are a number of inbound marketing firms that will handle the entire process for you; and, at a relatively low cost when viewed against the cost of television.

Marketing videos should be short and sweet, they do not have to be complicated. If you plan to talk and need a script, be sure to write a brief script and practice it. You can also wing it, depending on your comfort level in front of a camera and with the subject material.

Use music in your video or give a quick tour of your business, be upbeat and engaging. The more engaging, the more visual, the better! Make your videos short, sweet, and to the point, you have between 30 seconds nd 3 minutes, after that you will lose your audience! If you find you sound like the teacher from The Wonder Years, get someone to do the videos for you…please!

Video and Inbound Marketing

So how do video and inbound marketing work together? If you really want exposure for your business, you may want your video to go “viral”. This means it will be posted all over the web and will draw traffic to your website. An effective way of promoting your video is to send it to friends, employees, and customers but also make it available to the general public. Post your videos on YouTube, Break, Viddler, and a few of the others and watch it go viral, particularly if it has solid content and is engaging. YouTube and many of the other video sharing sites will automatically announce your new video to the various social media sites, so make sutre you are connected that way.

Video gives customers a way to see behind the scenes at your business and see how you operate. It is not effective to just make a short video piece and upload it to YouTube alone, use oen of the many services available to get your videos out across the Internet. While many people are attracted to TubeMogul because it is free, it is only free for personal use. To get your videos out across the web, use TrafficGeyser or perhaps Senuke, the former is by far the best. New media marketing plays a huge role in successful video marketing and vice versa. Companies should promote their videos via their social media memberships and on their blogs. Get the word out and let people see your video campaign.

Viral Video?

How do you create a viral video? Comedy seems to work well; people enjoy sending funny videos to their friends but be careful. Music is also a popular element – check out a Creative Commons license to use someone else’s music. Don’t worry about utilizing high-quality equipment for filming. Most You Tube videos are made with very basic cameras. I would suggest a Flip MinoHD or Flip Ultra and two tripods, one for the desk and one for biggeer jobs. I would also recommend Googling for free music sites (this is just one), there are a number of them available.

Investigate other video-sharing sites in addition to YouTube, as mentioned above. Again, TrafficGeyser is an excellent resource but you can join TubeMogul and get access to a list of video sharing sites that way. Experiment at first and see what you can do on your own or, you can hire a professional video marketing firm or an inbound marketing consultancy that specializes in video and let them handle it for you.

Contact bloggers in your field and get suggestions, send them a link to your video and ask them for their input. You can also place a link when you comment on other blogs, as long as it is related to the blog content and isn’t spammy. Above all, ask for input and you will get what you need, ask for the order and you will get banned. Spam is an online death sentence, so be open, honest, and do not overtly sell via social media or on other bloggers blogs.

Getting to Page One using Video Marketing

Marketing video can help you get to page one in Google rankings, and fast. The number of videos competing for a spot on page one is far lower than the number of articles and blog posts for the same spot…and search engines love quality video. Videos have less competition; therefore, it is easier to climb to the top. Make your video fun, informative, and short and you will find it on page one for the keywords you target in a few days, often in a few hours.

In addition to posting a great short video on your site, you must caption the video with appropriate keywords in the title, description, and tags. A video with an optimized title and tags has an even better chance of achieving a high search engine ranking (page one status).

Brick and Mortar Business and Video Marketing

An effective video marketing strategy does not mean every video must go viral. Offline (and online) businesses should consider videos part of a comprehensive, new media, inbound marketing strategy. Video adds an element of personality to a business’s message and provides an identity and a connection. Employees and customers enjoy videos and may pass them on to others, a mini-viral effect of sorts.

The rewards of video marketing can be huge; and video marketing can definitely be viewed on the “fun” side of new media marketing.

So, have fun and get found!
John Zajaros
The Ultimate Internet Image
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
216-712-7004
440-821-7018
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com