Have you thought about creating videos for your business but nixed the idea when you were flooded with thoughts of how time consuming, expensive and flat out confusing it might be?
Read on – we are here to quiet your fears and help you understand your incredible opportunity to utilize videos as a powerful tool that drives traffic to your site and makes more money than it costs.
A Video for Every Type of Business and Budget
Think about your video the same way you think about marketing your blog. The same big question applies: How can you attract your niche audience?
Some types of videos take more thought, planning or budget than others. Read the following list with that in mind, and discover the perfect technique for your video promos!
Here are several effective techniques to consider as you get started:
Funny Product Promos
Comedic commercials have evolved as marketers realized the opportunity reach MASSIVE audiences online via funny commercials. Some of these run like (very) short films; viewers may not even know they are watching a promotion until more than halfway through the video.
Funny promos have the bonus potential of going viral because they are more than educational – they’re entertaining! Shock value and laughs encourage social shares much more than a simple product demo or traditional commercial would.
If you can pull something like this off, more power to you!
However, funny promos are some of the hardest videos to “get right.” They take a lot of thought and they assume that your audience will agree with you on what is funny.
Culture Videos
Culture videos are less “in your face” than any other type of marketing video. These often run like a series that indirectly promotes your product.
Spot is one of our Gbox video creators that uses this method in their videos. Their product appeals to people who own dogs with one of two problems: health issues or runaway syndrome (They wander or run away often). The product will track a dog’s location, heart rate and other vital signs. Owners can check on their dog anytime through a smartphone app.
Spot understands that their culture is struggling to train GOOD dogs, so they produce a series of training videos. Their own product becomes a natural solution in some videos and even when it doesn’t, the brand awareness continues to spread via their logos and branding throughout the video.
If you have a good-sized video budget and you know what your niche likes, consider creating a series that supports your brand!
Instructional Videos
We promised we would provide ideas for every budget, and instructional videos are a great example of cost-effective videos that can still be very effective.
Your product(s) don’t have to be complicated or hard to use in order to adopt this method. Even simple “how to’s” can get a ton of hits!
If you choose this method, get creative in showcasing new or unique ways to use your product!
Product Based Videos
Product-based videos can be interesting, educational and even fun!
Today’s market is filled with viewers who have learned to love to consume documentaries, behind the scenes pieces and how-to videos.
Every product is produced somewhere…why not take your viewers on a journey and show them how it’s done!?
You can use multiple strategies for your videos. However, if you’re just getting started, you might want to stick to one for now. Make sure you post regularly (consistently) as this is the way to cultivating a community of followers for your brand.
Note: Your videos don’t have to be done professionally to look good! Check out these tools for low-budget, do-it-yourself video production!
Smartphone Tripod – Even if you don’t own a video camera, a small tripod with your smartphone can get you enough quality for a good video. There are several brands that make these – research product reviews to find one you like!
Windows Movie Maker/iMovie – simple to use, easy editing tools that come standard with your Windows or Mac Computer
WeVideo – another easy editing tool. This one is free for up to five minutes of published video per month. Even better, it is cloud based, so you won’t clutter your own computer with large video files!
Here is the rundown on the top four platforms and how to use them effectively
Before you go pushing your videos out on multiple platforms, make sure you OWN your own. This way you can benefit from search ranking and bring your current customers back to YOUR website again and again.
You can use Gbox as your free web/video hosting site and create an easy site. Keep your site YOURS, and your page rankings growing.
Push Your Videos Out on the Web
Post to Your Home Page First
Once you’ve produced a video, it’s time to share it!
However, before you go pushing your video out on multiple platforms, make sure you OWN the ultimate home of your video.
By posting somewhere that you have ownership, you have a natural place to drive your traffic. That’s how the pros grow search rank and create real net worth for their businesses
You can easily build a free, personalized site using Gbox as your web and video hosting platform. Then, whenever you post anywhere else, drive traffic back to YOUR site. Before you know it, you will have a following that keeps coming back to your website for more of YOU.
Here are the top four video platforms to use as you get started.
YouTube
With over a billion users, YouTube simply cannot be ignored; it’s a good place to go looking for fans.
The most important thing here is to create a branded channel that your niche audience will be drawn to. Feed them the content they want on a regular basis, and they will come.
Facebook might not seem like the most obvious video platform, but it has taken major strides in becoming a central spot for social video sharing. Last year the company claimed there were over 1 billion video views per day on the platform.
It’s not a bad idea to specifically focus your video strategy on Facebook. If you don’t have a video community yet, your Facebook network can come in handy in getting you started.
In addition, there are a lot of advantages to pushing videos out over Facebook. First of all, it’s much easier to share a video posted on Facebook than one from YouTube. Second, Facebook is BUILT for sharing, so viewers are very likely to pass along a video they like.
Upload an AWESOME video to your “About” section, and be sure to post and share all of your videos via your Facebook.
Instagram users post photos. That’s a given.
You can stand out on by posting VIDEO! Keep it consistent with the brand you are creating, and recognize that the culture here is different than Facebook. They want short, beautiful bytes.
Not that you can go wrong by posting long videos…the platform simply won’t let you! However, it is important that you think about this as you plan your Instagram videos. Let the length influence your choices from the get go.
Vine
Even shorter than Instagram, you certainly have to create your Vine videos specifically for the platform.
If you love a challenge, you will love using Vine! It sounded impossible at first…but people all around the world manage to tell funny, entertaining and/or engaging stories in only 6 seconds!
Like Facebook, Vine has an edge when it comes to sharing videos. A six second video gets viewers to the “end goal” (sharing) very quickly. As a result, branded Vines are shared 4x as much as branded videos.
How to use Vine? The simple answer is that you use Vine the same way you use any other platform.
Editing for Vine is a little different than other videos. Start with Vine’s editor, where you can take a video directly or upload a previously taken video. Either way, make sure to save your video and post it to your own platform, as well!
With all of these platforms and more, it is more possible than ever to use video as a prime tool for raising awareness of your brand and driving traffic to your site.
Share your video ideas with us in the comments, and stay connected on Facebook and Twitter @JoinGbox!
