Different people have different ways of learning things. Some people learn better by reading, others learn better by listening, and others yet by watching. Instead of putting all your digital eggs in the basket that is text, why not diversify your promotional methods by creating and submitting videos?
Internet surfers do not have a very long attention span. To hold the average Internet user’s attention, you would generally need something incredibly funny or incredibly awesome. If you spend too much time working on one thing though, you won’t be getting enough results to justify all the time that you’ll be putting in, so there’s no need to create an Oscar-level production.
The two most common ways of producing videos are: using a flip camcorder or using screen-capture software to record your computer’s screen. A free way of producing videos which is gaining popularity is to use a service called Animoto. All you need to do is to upload some photos and choose a soundtrack from their library. What you’ll get is a unique video featuring your images, cool music, and cool effects. The interesting thing about Animoto is that you get a unique video every time, even if you use the same images.
That’s the video creation part of video marketing, but why should you care about it and why is it easy?
Well as I said, you don’t need an Oscar-level film for your video marketing efforts. A short one to two minute video is often enough for the purposes of driving traffic. How hard would it be to create a handful of slides on Powerpoint and recording yourself talking about them? Some people don’t even talk – they just have text and images plus a catchy tune to go along with it. Many people get all stressed out about appearing on video, but these methods allow you to make awesome videos without all the drama!
As it is with articles, your videos should wet your visitors’ appetites and encourage them to click through to your site. It’s simple: if you have a great headline and a persuasive video with good information in it, then people will want to click on your site. If you try to hard sell some affiliate product on your video, then people will get turned off and leave.
After you’ve created your video, the next step is to submit it to video sharing sites like Youtube. While Youtube does command the lion’s share of the market, it would be wise to submit your video to other similar sites. You can submit your video manually, or you can use services like TubeMogul and Traffic Geyser, which allows you to mass submit to a bunch of video sharing sites. This will give you more visibility and therefore, more views.
Most people don’t seem to want to get involved in video marketing because they think it’s too hard. As I’ve shown you, creating videos isn’t hard, especially if they’re just a minute or two long. If you’re not comfortable getting your face or your voice out there, then that’s not a problem because I’ve shown you alternatives.
Once you gather up the courage to start churning out videos, you’ll realize that it is not only easy, but that you’ll be a few steps ahead of your competition. When you search for stuff in Google, videos often appear on the first page of search results. Even the strangest of videos sometimes rack up millions of views.
Wouldn’t you like a piece of that pie?
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