Don't Say it - Show it!

Millions of people are watching videos online – including tons of your prospective customers. Video has been proven to creatively engage viewers – and as a marketing tool, they work!

Video in email marketing is found to boost conversion rates by 50%. Plus, it's a valuable resource for your event marketing (let your invitees check out the video of last year's event) and kicks your social media marketing up a notch, too.

Visible Measures’ Q2 2012 Social Video Advertising Report found that almost 900 million people watched video online in the second quarter of 2012, making it the second largest quarter for online video ever. That’s a 45% jump from Q2 2011 and a jump of nearly 75% from Q2 2010.

People aren’t just watching the latest viral videos, they’re also watching clips from their favorite businesses and organizations. If you haven’t started experimenting with online video, now might be the time. You don’t need a fancy production crew or a big budget, either. You just need a good story and someone who can help you tell it!

One you have the story you want to tell, you need to find the "hook." If you have a marketing department, they can often help here. If not, or if they're used to creating only printed materials, it helps to have a video professional provide input at this point. After that, creating a video is pretty straight forward. However, there are some tricks of the trade that you need to keep in mind - if you want to keep your audience engaged.

Good sound and good lighting are easy to ensure - and easy to ignore. Don't!

• If you're using a consumer camera or phone with no separate audio input jack, make sure you get as close to your subject as possible. Viewers will watch ugly video if the sound is good. They will not watch good quality video if the sound is bad.
• Don't stand your subject in front of a bright window or background that is brighter than they are.
• Try and minimize ambient noise.
• Don't hesitate to do multiple takes if you have the opportunity. Few people get it right the first time.

Video engages people in a way that photos and text alone can’t. For small business owners and nonprofit managers, using video in your marketing can bring faces, voices, personality, and heart to your operation, while also demonstrating your authenticity. To top that, on sites like Facebook, video posts generate 100% more engagement than text-only posts.

Plus, it’s free to host video on sites such as YouTube, Blip.tv and Vimeo, making your videos easily accessible, easily shared through social media, and easily embedded on web sites and in blog posts. Not only that, videos hosted on these sites can help your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, as they give sites like Google and Bing yet another piece of content associated with your brand to crawl and serve up to the masses.

So, how can you use video to increase your visibility and increase your audience engagement? Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

1. Thank your customers for their business or your volunteers for their support. Film yourself or a few of your staff members giving their well wishes, and stitch the clips together as fun way to say “thanks” to all those who support your business or organization.

2. Create a series of testimonials. Feature customers or advocates raving about your company, product or service. These can be done professionally; but you can also catch people when they’ve had a great experience and are willing to share it right there and then. Cell phones and tablets are actually quite usable to capture video for spur-of-the-moment customer accolades.

3. Share a cool company milestone. For example, dedicating a new facility, honoring an achievement or celebrating an anniversary.

4. Announce a fundraiser or special event. Let people know what you’re doing and why they would want to be involved. Capturing footage of this year's event and editing it into a short montage can make a huge impact when soliciting for next year's event.

5. Answer common questions from customers, or post "Ask the Expert" videos to give your audience useful tips and helpful hints about your product or service category.

6. Introduce a new product or service.

7. Put the spotlight on your team to highlight their expertise.

8. Build up a video training library that can save hundreds of hours in training new employees or volunteers.

9. Create a recruitment video that lets potential employees know why they need to come work for you.

10. Create a New Employee Orientation video that gets new hires up to speed quickly and efficiently.

These are just a few of the ways video can create a huge impact on both customer, and employee, engagement. If you'd like more ideas or information, drop me an email. Consultations are always free!