Add Video To The Internet Marketing Mix
Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Jordan Kettner in Internet Marketing
Video is an interesting subject when it comes to Internet marketing. Rumor has it that video is expensive, time consuming and unnecessary. False.
Some of the most popular videos on the Internet have been filmed with camcorders, flip cameras, or webcams. Take Matt Cutts for example. Matt is an employee of Google who posts a series of short videos targeted towards webmasters. These videos give useful information on how to optimize your website for Google without breaking any of the rules. Here is an example of one of the videos:
As you can see, there isn’t a lot of production value:
- Lighting: None
- Teleprompter: None
- Microphone: Crappy lapel mic
- Camera: Probably a consumer level camcorder
- Editing Required: None – No titles, no music, no powerpoint
- Views: 86,000+
Sure promotional videos that have bigger budgets can be catchier on your website, but content should come first. You need to provide valuable content to your visitor.
What are the benefits of adding video?
- Trust – People love people. Websites without pictures or video can make visitors hesitant to become customers.
- Message - I am a terrible writer. I know this, and if you have read my website then you will also know this. With video you get to explain things in the style that you are used to communicating. You can use tone in your voice to communicate messages that do not translate onto paper.
- Get Attention – La de dah, normal looking website, scroll, click, scroll, click. LOOK IT’S A VIDEO – I think I’ll watch it. Get the point? Videos gain attention, they will increase the time on site and make the visitor more satisfied.
- Additional Touchpoints – YouTube is the second largest search engine. If people are looking for videos on a certain subject they will just go to YouTube and search for it. If you don’t have any videos, you will be missing out on this huge opportunity for exposure.