Stand Out from the Marketing Crowd

Thanks to Lou Bortone, video marketing guru for this guest post

In an over-crowded and hyper-competitive marketplace, video marketing can help you break through the clutter and deliver your message in a powerful and memorable way. Thanks to YouTube, and inexpensive, easy-to-use camera options like webcams, Flip Video cameras and iPhones, online video is now well within the grasp of just about anyone.

However, just because creating video is more accessible than ever, that doesn’t mean we all know how or where to use it. As with any marketing tool, you’ve got to start with your goals for video. Your video marketing objectives may include greater visibility, enhanced credibility or expert status, higher search engine rankings, increased brand awareness or all of the above!

By beginning with the end in mind, you can decide on how best to use your video to achieve your objectives. To give you some ideas for diving in, here are ten great ways to use online video:

1. Put a “welcome” video on your website – Engage your web visitors the moment they arrive on your home page with a brief welcome message. Let your prospects see that there’s a real person behind your company. This can establish an immediate connection and quickly build trust and rapport.
2. Record and post client video testimonials – Don’t leave home without your Flip cam – or any portable camera that you can take to events and conferences. Use networking opportunities to tape brief client or colleague testimonials. Video testimonials are far more powerful than text alone.
3. Produce a “Quick Tips” series for YouTube – By posting video tips, you’re enhancing your expert status within your niche, and establishing yourself as the “go-to” person for your specialty.
4. Create video tutorials to demonstrate your products or services – These training videos don’t have to be elaborate. Just look at the success of the simple, but compelling “In Plain English” series done by the folks at CommonCraft using only paper cut-outs. Use Camtasia, Jing or even PowerPoint to bring your tutorials to life.
5. Place a “pitch” video on your sales web page – Online marketers who depend heavily on sales pages are facing challenges engaging visitors and maintaining their attention. Putting a video front and center on your sales page and can break through and deliver your message in a much more compelling way.
6. Launch a live webcast with Ustream.tv or TinyChat.com – Web resources like Ustream.tv make it very easy (and surprisingly low-tech) for anyone with a webcam to create their own TV channel on the web.
7. Tape your event or speaking engagement – Weather you’re a speaker, author or occasional guest panelist, be sure to tape your live event so you can use it as a demo video on your website. Later, you can repackage the content as a CD or DVD product for sale.
8. Start Vlogging – If you’re doing regular blog posts (and you should be!) switch things up with an occasional video blog or “vlog” post.
9. Send a Video Press Release – Because video releases are still relatively novel, you can really get attention and get past gatekeepers by sending a video message instead of, or in addition to, a traditional press release.
10. Create an “instant” photo/video montage – This may be the lowest hanging fruit of all the video production options. You can use “done for you” video sites such as Animoto.com or OneTrueMedia.com to create professional videos using just photos, music and text. I use OneTrueMedia often to create holiday video cards, birthday video cards and more!

Whatever way you choose to use online video, the important thing is to get started. It’s never been easier and – if you want to stay top of mind with your customers – it’s never been more important!

Check out Lou’s informative video below:

Lou Bortone is a long-time marketing consultant and branding coach who helps entrepreneurs build breakthrough brands on the Internet. As an online video branding specialist and award-winning marketer, Lou provides services such as video production, brand development coaching, creative support and video coaching.

Lou is a former television executive who worked for E! Entertainment Television and later served as the Senior Vice President of Marketing & Advertising for Fox Family Worldwide, a division of Fox in Los Angeles. Lou is an author and ghostwriter of six business books, a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach and a Book Yourself Solid Certified Coach. His website is at: http://www.OnlineVideoBranding.com.

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