Online video is an excellent way to promote your business online, but are you employing the proper tactics to achieve your desired result? I just read an interesting article on reelseo.com that sums effective video marketing into three categories, so I thought I would share.
#1) Viral Video (Located outside your website)
To start, viral video is best used outside your own website. There are several reasons for that. The first is because you want your video embedded in as many places online as possible. The more people viewing your video in different places, the more likely it is to become viral.
The goal of a viral video should be to drive traffic back to your actual website. This is why you need to include a link to your website in the description. The issue with viral video is that although getting lots of views is great, most of your views will fall outside your target demographic or geographic region.
As a large brand, another issue that might arise is the fact that as your video goes viral, you lose control over where it is being posted. This means that you also lose the control of other content that surrounds your video. This could be unsavoury text or images. This is a risk you must account for when developing a viral video strategy.
#2) Conversion Video (On your websites homepage)
This is a video strategy that we employ here at http://www.signaturevideogroup.com/. It is actually a video of myself briefly describing our services, the value we offer clients and a call to action (visit our videos page). We have seen excellent conversion numbers since uploading this video and we plan on developing this strategy further in the coming months.
Before you decide to make a video for your homepage, you must assess your landing page goals. Do you want people to subscribe to your newsletter, navigate to a different page, or even put a deposit down for your services? Whatever your goal is, make sure that the video is easy to find and that there is a strong and clear call to action. This could be in the script, or done using in video graphics.
Here is our homepage video:
#3) Educational Video (On your website content pages)
Unlike a conversion video, these ones will appear on your website, but most likely not on your homepage. The goal of an educational video is obviously to educate a potential customer about something, and subsequently earn their trust. By showcasing your expertise on a specific topic, you show that you are the right person/company for the job.
Although it is difficult to measure the ROI of this type of video (as it is the least likely to be shared) be confident that you are building trust in your brand. One way you can track the metrics of success for this type of video is by measuring the number of referrals to customer support before, and after your video has been employed. A strong educational series can significantly reduce customer support referrals and save you money.
Conclusion
When you decide to use online video as a marketing strategy, make sure to set goals first. These will help you determine what kind of video you need to produce. Whether you are trying to funnel in more traffic to your website, keep people on your website longer or convert browsers into buyers, online video is one of the best ways to accomplish this.
Keep watching.
Christopher Stasiuk
