Can Video Really Help Me Grow My Business?

When it comes to video and the ability to engage your potential audience there is not a lot that outperforms it. Billions of people around the world are on YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Tik-Tok, and even Facebook loading hours of videos a minute. Not using video in your advertising arsenal puts you at a disadvantage to your competitors that probably are using it. 

Gone are the days when businesses could make do with traditional marketing means – online marketing is now a necessity for any self- respecting business. Online video content, especially, has been taking the marketing world by storm, with sites like YouTube and Vimeo having millions of unique visitors every month. 

Video marketing has become one of the highest rising and most popular ways to generate traffic online. 

Here’s how powerful videos are as a communication tool: 

•   YouTube has more than 1 billion users all over the world. 

Every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube and generate billions of views. 

•   The number of hours people are watching on YouTube each month is up 50% year over year. 

•   300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

You can see how powerful it is to incorporate video into your marketing plan. This is the trend now. People are switching from reading to watching instead.

As TV advertisements and other traditional marketing means are getting less and less reliable, creating your own videos helps promote your business faster and for a much more affordable cost. 

Why is Video Marketing the Right Way to Go?

So now we gather that video marketing is hot and it is the ideal time to take advantage of this fast-growing advertising medium. But why is video marketing the best option to market your products? 

•   Videos can easily help you rank higher in Google. 

•   Videos target an audience who prefers a visual format as opposed to text. 

•   Videos allow you to showcase products that just can’t be explained with short text. 

•   Establishing a YouTube channel helps you gain followers. 

•   Your video could go viral which can help build you a gigantic online following. 

Let us face it, the average attention span of a web user today is about 7 seconds. People nowadays are used to have instant access; they want things to be fast. Visuals always work better than text in this case. 

If you could summarize a 3-page website into a 2-minute video, people would definitely rather watch the video. Why tell when you can show? Users have the tendency to browse and skip through information. 

However, if you are able to engage the users and present your information in visual form, then you are a huge step ahead. People would prefer to watch a short video instead of reading long text. 

Furthermore, visuals create a better experience for the audience when compared to text. People could actually imagine and realize that what your business and services are all about.

Types of Videos You Can Create for Your Business

When you create a marketing video you should have a specific purpose in mind for it. What purpose do you have for your video? Is it going to help generate leads for your business? Are you branding your business with your video? Think about this point before doing anything. 

Once you have decided on your purpose you can then decide on the type of video that would be most suitable. 

A branding video should be engaging and really highlight what your company does. You want to get viewers to interact with your video, so having a call to action at the end is imperative. Get them to click on a link to take them somewhere. This could be to answer a poll, to your website or they could click to get a coupon or a discounted service. 

Lead generation videos are usually more targeted and have a specific goal. They are meant to speak directly to a prospect that’s interested in one of your services. Your aim is to get interested prospects calling and turn them into loyal customers.

No matter what type of video you create remember to keep them short.

This ensures that your viewers will stay and watch until the end. 

The Easiest Possible Way to Get Started

The easiest way to get started with video marketing is by shooting a short video with your smartphone.

Today, almost everyone on the planet has a smartphone that can record video.

You can record yourself briefly explaining one of your products or services, the benefits that it would provide to the customer, and end the video with asking them to call you if they are interested.

Keep it simple, it really does not need to be complicated. 

Getting your message out there, even if it’s not perfect, is better than not getting your message out at all.

5 Things You Must Do To Every Video In Order To See Results.

1.     Engage the viewer.

Your video should “speak” directly to a particular target customer. Imagine yourself speaking directly to a customer that needs your particular product or service. 

The best way to do this is to put yourself in their shoes and imagine yourself watching your video. What you want to hear? What would you want to see? What would make you more inclined to pick up the phone and call? These are all things that you should keep in mind when making your videos.

2.     Focus on the benefits.

When conveying your message in your videos, try to focus more on the benefits to the customer, not so much the features of your product or service.

Do not just tell people what the product or service is but focus more on exactly what the customer will get from it. Tell them how your product of service benefits them and affect them in a positive way.

3.     Optimize for keywords.

After you have created your video, there are certain things you can do that will help optimize them and get them ranking quickly for the keywords that you’d like to target.

4.     Use strong calls to action.

You need to end your videos with strong calls to action that tell the viewer exactly what you want them to do next.

Do you want them to pick up the phone and call you? Do you want them to visit your website? Do you want them to show up in person? 

Whatever you would like them to do, you need to tell them. Sometimes it may seem obvious to you, but don’t assume they’ll know what to do next.

5.     Upload to multiple video sharing sites.

There are a number of video-hosting & sharing sites where you can upload your video for additional exposure. 

YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook Video, Wistia, among others, are all video hosting and sharing sites that have their own unique features and advantages.

You want as much exposure as possible for your video, so should distribute it across as many sites

and platforms as possible. 

The 3 Biggest Mistakes Most Business Make with Video Marketing
There are a few common mistakes that most business owners make when getting started with video marketing.

Avoiding these mistakes will save you money and make your videos much more effective.

1.     Not optimizing them properly.

Optimizing videos so they rank well in the search engines is usually the hardest part of video marketing. 

The way you name your video, and the information that you provide to YouTube when you upload it, all effect how well and how fast it will rank in the search engines.

We could write an entire report on optimizing video, that’s not what this report is intended to be, so we’re not going to get too deeply into it. But, if you have questions or want more specific information, give us a call, we’ll be glad to talk about it in more detail.

2.     Not tracking the results of their video marketing campaign.

This is another quite common issue that we see (Not only with video marketing but other forms of advertising as well.)

The easiest way to track the results of your video marketing campaigns is to assign them a dedicated phone number that will allow you to keep track of the number of phone calls that you receive as a result of people watching the video.

It’s very inexpensive to get a tracking number for your video or other marketing campaigns.

When we create video marketing campaigns for our clients, we use a service that both tracks the number of calls and has the option to record phone calls for even more in-depth analysis. 

3. Thinking you need to hire actors and a high-priced video production company.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. 

A high-priced video production company should be able to make you an amazing marketing video. After all, that’s why their high-priced, right?

If you want to spend a couple of thousand dollars on a video, this is the way to go. A few years ago, this was your only option, but nowadays it’s really not needed. You can produce effective lead generation and branding videos much more affordably, even with just your cell phone, like I mentioned above.

Final Thoughts

This guide was meant to be a brief introduction to video marketing and how it can benefit your business. We hope you found it informative.

If you are interested in incorporating video into your advertising, we’re here to help.

If you have any questions at all, or you are interested in learning more, give us a call today. Contact us at 610.595.4860 or email bill@bowmandigitalmarketing.com

We will show you exactly how video marketing can be an effective and affordable way to generate more leads for your business and increase revenue.