Best Reasons Not To Do in Video Marketing

Online video marketing may have become the latest trend for website promotion, but does that mean you should make your own video to promote your products and services?

The truth is, many say you shouldn’t do it unless you have bought the latest video camera, professional lighting, top-quality microphone, blue screen, video editing software and that thingamajig which you read about, even though you are not really sure what it does.

After all, you wouldn’t join a gym unless you had the trendiest outfit and most expensive joggers … you couldn’t possibly have a good work out in your old running shoes and T-shirt.

And while you are researching the best equipment, talking to all the experts and spending thousands of dollars, getting ready to create the perfect video, the average 16-year-old is using his iPhone to videotape his skateboarding tricks and funny social media experiments, posting them on YouTube and getting loads of subscribers.

While you are getting your hair done, organizing a make-up artist and trying on the best outfits to ensure your video is of the highest standard, the average Internet marketer is sitting in front of his laptop camera, with his less-than-perfect hair, recording a video about video marketing, uploading it to YouTube and making thousands of dollars.

OK … so get my point?

You don’t need the latest and greatest equipment to make awesome videos. And if you are still saying “yeah, but …” Stop. You are just procrastinating and looking for any excuse not to get started.

How do I know? Let’s just say I have a lot of cute gym outfits that have never been used.

The reality is, when you first start creating videos, they are not going to be perfect. Some may even suck. The lighting may not be ideal, there may be background noise and your hair may be messy, but so what?

Do you think the average Joe Smith who is looking online to find a solution to his dog’s flea problem or the sleep-deprived Gemma Jones searching for a way to get her baby to sleep is going to care whether you are sitting in front of a blue screen or on the beach and, whether your make-up is just right? Of course not!

Both Joe and Gemma are looking for solutions to their problems. So if your video provides good information and offers them a way to overcome their challenges, they won’t even notice that you have shadows under your eyes.

The only thing you need to start creating videos is a bit of guts and a computer or Smartphone with a camera. Depending on the format of the video you are planning to record, you may also need screen capture software (if you are going to show your visitors how to do something on the computer). You may also need video editing software, which comes pre-installed on most PCs and Macs or perhaps even PowerPoint, which allows you to do slideshows.

You will need to spend a bit of time planning what you are going to show in the video and maybe even learn how to use the software (note: there are plenty of great videos on YouTube that will show you how to do just about anything, including video editing). Then you just need to start.

Don’t worry if you make mistakes, you will learn and, with each video you produce, you will become better. The good news is, while you are recording and learning, your competitor is procrastinating and still looking for the perfect camera.

Go on, give it a go. What have you got to lose?

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Ivana Katz Post from: SiteProNews

8 Ways How to Socialize Your Video Marketing Strategy

If you have a knack for making great video content for your products and services than you’ve already won half the battle. The other half is optimizing your videos so they have a better chance of being found in YouTube’s search engine, otherwise your customers will never find it! What’s the point in producing quality content for your video marketing strategy if nobody is going to see it.

These 8 tips will help you optimize your YouTube videos so you can get as many views as possible:

1. Aim to make a viewer watch the video for at least the first 8 seconds. This is a crucial time to engage a viewer because, if they wander off before those 8 seconds, that view doesn’t count towards your total view count on YouTube. Get their attention first and save your biography for later.

2. Post your YouTube videos on your Facebook page. Sharing them on other networks like Twitter and Tumblr are great, but Facebook has a great “viral quality” for videos compared to other networks, in my experience. Posting your videos everywhere possible multiplies your opportunities for exposure and provides cross-channel traffic between the different social sites.

3. Embed your YouTube videos within your blog posts. I would suggest writing a short blog post to accompany your new videos so you can gain some more traffic to your website as well as giving more exposure to your YouTube channel.

4. If you want people to share it, then ask! People will often do what you request, but you have to come out and ask for it first! Try telling people in the video to share it if they enjoyed it and remind them with non-intrusive text on-screen and in the video’s description.

5. Pay attention to the directions of each website that you submit your video to. There are small differences that you need to be aware of between sites that allow you to upload video content so ensure that you are following them accordingly or your video marketing strategy performance might suffer.

6. Tags are your friends. Get creative and imagine what words your target market is going to type into the search engine that is relevant to your content. Obviously your brand name is a given but add any and all relevant terms and keywords that you could picture someone searching for.

7. Allow people to embed your video. If you don’t, you are limiting people’s ability to share your content.

8. Make your titles and descriptions catchy and keyword optimized. You need to strike the optimal balance between catchy and keyword optimized since you want to attract viewers and higher ranking in the YouTube and Google search results. Make sure your title is clear and accurate. If it’s misleading, you might get the notorious “thumbs down” rating!
Which tip do you see most beneficial to your video marketing strategy?