Video marketing is one of the most powerful online marketing strategies today. It wins for one simple reason; you can keep a user's attention by using graphics better than you can using the written word.While bigger businesses may find it easy to make videos, small and medium sized ones sometimes shelve video marketing because they feel that they don't have the necessary resources and skills to make good videos.
This need not be the case. So long as you have a good camera and you have put together a nice script, you can easily produce videos that are as good as those done by bigger businesses. To start you off, here are some tips.
1. YouTube is the best
YouTube is the biggest video database there is and it is owned by the largest search engine Google. This means that establishing a channel on YouTube for your business already exposes you to millions of potential customers. The best way to do it is to establish a channel that you will keep on uploading videos to.A single upload can help your rankings a great deal even without you having to do any further SEO. It is best to keep uploading regally so that there is always fresh content. Also, make sure that you link your channel to your website and vice versa so that visitors to one can easily access the other.
2. Use transcription
Many people struggle with how they will get the relevant keywords onto their videos. You can do this by having the videos transcribed. Once transcribed, you can upload them as transcribed files or place them below embedded videos. There are many transcription companies online that will transcribe at very low rates. One of them is Speechpad which serves all kinds of transcription needs.3. Work on your titles
Just as you don't want to watch a movie with a dry title, you don't want to watch a video whose title is not interesting and arresting. This is a problem for many businesses that choose to use video marketing. They have excellent content but the title of the video is dull and unimaginative. Look on YouTube and you will find plenty of videos that have dull titles.It is important that you take some time to come up with titles that are relevant, interesting and that will make a user want to see the content of the video. If you are not sure how to do this, get help online and there are plenty of sites that guide business owners on how to create video titles.
4. Don't forget citations
These are a description of your video and your business name and address as they appear online. You cannot forget to leave them out of any video that you make because Google considers them a back link to your website and it uses them to increase your rankings right away. If you add enough videos with citations over time, you will notice your ranks climbing steadily higher.5. Include your link in your video description
This is what will guide people back to your website where they can gather more information and hopefully buy from you. Many people will include the link in the video but they forget to include it in the description.This means that for someone to get to your website, they have to play the video. But what if they don't want to? Can't they just go straight from the video description to your website? In other words, you are using every available option to lead people back to your website.
6. Work on your website
You may have a great video, but what do people get when they get to your website? As you make and upload videos, you must make sure that your website is ready for visitors. Check on the layout to confirm that it is easy on the eye and that the way information is arranged makes sense. Check on the content to make sure that it is fresh, interesting and full of information that users may find useful.Also make sure that all images are rendering as they should be. One very important thing is to make sure that you have a call to action that prompts people who land on your website to do something about the information that they have just read and watched.
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| [Image Credits: www.98togo.com] |
They can buy your product, they can get a free trial, they can download a free report and so on. Don't let any visitor to your website leave without telling him what he should do next and why.
7. Set your location
Because YouTube changes the platform all the time, it can be hard for you to keep track of changes and modify your channel appropriately. To be safe, it is recommended that you set your location to your current local address. When you are setting up a video, check under Settings for Set Location and turn it on.8. Back-link all videos
Videos, when it comes to getting your website better ranked are just like your website. You can do some on-page SEO and you can do some off-page. Allowing back links on your videos can help greatly with good rankings. If you have a very high quality video, people will want to share it.This way, you will get more traffic to your site and you have the chance to convert them from prospects t buyers. If you are not sure how to back link, there are descriptions you can use online. If that doesn't work for you, find someone with the necessary skills to help.
Remember to always check that back links are working for both incoming and outgoing. You don't want users to find broke links and move on.
9. Self-host
Most videos, when they come up on a search engine, lead you straight to YouTube. What if, instead of that, you take advantage of the fact that you have a user's attention and give them a quick overview of your business, a call to action, offers and discounts and so on? If they went to YouTube, they are likely to meet your competitor.If you self-host, you eliminate the chance of that happening. There are several self hosting services available online, like Amazon S3.
10. Use video in press releases
Most press releases are made up of just words and images. Why don't you put a relevant video in there and get an opportunity to have even better rankings? If you are using the authority press release sites, you have just placed your video within reach of millions of people who will see your press release.Google will also acknowledge this and they so long as there is a link to your website in the description, both your website and your YouTube rankings will improve.
These 10 tips will work wonderfully for you if you learn how to use them properly. What you should keep in mind is that if you want to make video marketing work for you, you have to be consistent and you always have to be interesting and relevant.
This means that you have to be ready to release maybe a video a week or one every fortnight. There is nothing wrong with creating several and uploading them when the time comes.
Lucas RabyAbout the Guest Author:
Lucas Raby is an Internet Marketer and Digital Marketing Director for AgentMate, Australia's leading Real Estate Marketing company.
