Video marketing has been a crucial part of brand strategies for marketers since 2009 and should play an even larger role in your online marketing strategy for 2012. Well managed video marketing increases brand awareness, drives traffic to websites, and builds solid relationships with prospects and customers. U.S. online video marketing spending is expected to grow to more than $7.1 billion in 2012, according to SFN’s World Digital Media Trends 2009 report. The majority of people visit websites or make buying decisions after watching videos and ads online, making them likely to share informative videos on social networks with friends. A study from eMarketer shows that the number of online video viewers is expected to skyrocket by 124% to 195.5 million by 2015. Microsoft was aware of the viral potential and purchased video search startup VideoSurf two weeks ago with the intent of competing with Google and enhancing video search in its Bing search engine. Here are some tips on how to make video marketing easy and effective for your company.
#1: Define your audience:
Who are your target customers? What are they looking for and how will they benefit from my content? By asking yourself these questions, you can get a solid image of your clients and develop content for the group of people you want to target. Remember, bad content is a waste of time and money!
#2: Insights from experts:
Getting industry experts on the scene is a great form of marketing. Companies can take advantage of trade shows to have in-depth interviews with experts. Often, they are willing to provide backlinks to your videos, driving more traffic to your website. People like to hear from experts for insights and good content, and will associate your company as a professional.
#3: How-to videos:
Believe it or not, informative “how-to” videos might be the best traffic-driven content that you can have. People love visualized and step-by-step tutorial videos. People tend to share videos they think are useful. If they like your content and become addicted to your video channel, you can expect them to visit your website or blog; and eventually convert them to your sales funnel.
#4: YouTube is not the only choice:
There are more than 50 video sharing websites on the Internet and the number is continuously increasing. There is no doubt that with more than 500 million active users, YouTube is the largest video-sharing platform. However, if you are looking for professional video hosting solutions for premium content on your website, YouTube may not be the best choice. Sites such as Viddler, Vimeo, and Brightcove are more business-focused, easier to market, and not as crowded as YouTube.
#5: Update videos regularly:
Last but not least, search engines such as Google and Bing love fresh content and new videos. By uploading informative videos every one or two weeks, your company can enjoy higher rankings on search engines and drive traffic to your websites or blogs. Don’t worry about editing the videos to be perfect because the most important thing is to reach out and to get people to know you. Therefore, it’s important to start updating videos on a constant basis.
Think about these tips if you are including video in your marketing plan and how it will affect your social media strategy. What are the video marketing tips that you want to share? Please feel free to leave comments and to let us know what you think.
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