Unleashing the Power of Video to Promote My Internet Business!
So, you’ve found a product, a business opportunity or service that you want to market to make money online. Maybe you don’t want to even sell something but want to draw peoples attention to an issue or subject you feel strongly about. You’ve written your blogs, posted on sites like Squidoo or Hubpages, written a few articles. But have you tried the power of video?
Now, at this point many of you will suddenly stop reading because you don’t like the idea of sitting in front of a camera and talking. Many of you will be thinking “I don’t have the face or image to be on film” or “I just get tongue tied talking in front of cameras.” But you shouldn’t overlook the power of video marketing on the web today. More and more people are turning to video to find answers to questions they search for on the net. People enjoy listening and watching video more than reading through lengthy sales copy or page after page of documents about “a profitable home based business!”
Videos on the web are often found by Google and other major search engines within minutes and listed in search results. So how do you take advantage of this powerful marketing phenomenon, especially if you don’t see yourself stood in front of the camera.
With My Internet Business I sell an Internet Marketing Training Business and wanted to use this form of advertising to boost my page listings in the search engines. I followed the advice of a video marketing professional by producing a series of 20 videos to post on different sites to draw attention to my business. Now, how did I come up with ideas for 20 different videos? Well, I simply took the advice of the afore mentioned marketer and came up with 10 questions I am commonly asked about my business opportunity and then I came up with a further 10 questions that I believe people SHOULD ask me about my internet business opportunity before they sign up.
For instance, a question I often get asked is “How much money can I make?”. I produced a short video with this question and answer, but I also did a video for a question I believe people should ask which is “Will I make ANY money?” where I discussed that people should also look at themselves and ask if they have the dedication and staying power to make money on the internet, or indeed any home based business.
I chose to do my videos in a variety of different ways. I started each video with a short introduction with backing music which I produced on the Mac’s Keynote (or Powerpoint on the PC). This gave a nice feel of continuity from video to video. Then I did a short talk to camera answering the question and then another short slide presentation telling people where to find all 20 question and answer videos.
I don’t have any fancy video cameras, just a simple single shot digital camera I use on video mode. No fancy studio, I just use different locations that have a nice backdrop and are interesting to look at, and I simply use the software that comes as standard with a Mac (or similar software with a PC).
In other videos I chose to answer the whole question using slides with narration, or a simple screenshot program where I could show people what I was doing on my screen as I talked them through. None of these methods required me to be in front of the camera.
At the end of it all I had 20 interesting videos answering, hopefully, all the questions people may come up with before signing up to my training system, and a fantastic marketing tool to drive people to my site by offering access to all 20 videos by visiting my site.
One thing I do see all to often is lack of imagination and professionalism when people post videos for business purposes. People slouched on a sofa, or walking around a noisy car park telling you of a “great business opportunity”. Remember, you are selling a product/service etc and people will view your product by how you come across. Try to make your video as professional as possible. People aren’t expecting you to be in a film studio, but make sure you have a nice backdrop, speak clearly and concisely about your subject, if you’re promoting a website make sure it can be clearly seen on your video, and if there is a call to action make sure it comes across in your video. I can’t emphasize enough that the software to do all these type of things is either free or very cheap. It doesn’t require a huge budget to make simple, crisp videos to promote your business or yourself.
Right, get posting. Don’t forget to include a link to your site in your description and make sure your video title is keyword rich. Don’t get left behind, video marketing is the way of the future.