Ask the Experts: Video Marketing

Question: I?m reading more and more about how video is becoming an important marketing tool for even small businesses. Is this true? And if so, won?t it cost me a fortune?

Video used to be a luxury for many websites, a little added extra that companies would spend a fortune producing. However this is no longer the case. Today, video is a must-have for any business concerned with SEO (search-engine optimisation).

Placing video on your website is a smart business practice. Here’s why:

Traffic magnetism

Adding a video to your website greatly increases its popularity with search engines. Geo-tagging your videos (adding location information) will help them to come up when people search for what you offer in your local area.

Once you have your video – post it everywhere! We definitely recommend you use it in as many places possible. Not only will it be a benefit to include it on your own website, but also host them on video sharing sites, particularly YouTube (which is owned by Google) Linking the externally hosted video content to your own website will help to optimise your site for search engines.

Video has developed incredible viral appeal in recent years. First people emailed links to videos they found interesting to their friends. Now they’re reposting them on blogs and Facebook and sharing the link with their followers on Twitter – thus increasing the potential exposure of your message.

Easily accessible

With the widespread availability of high speed broadband, web video has become a viable option for communicating with your audience, be it other businesses or consumers.

Most people find it easier to absorb information conveyed in a visual format, as opposed to reading text, even if it’s accompanied by illustrative images.

Consider using video to answer frequently asked questions or to pre-empt common queries.

Get them hooked

The engaging nature of video encourages users to spend more time on a page, thereby keeping visitors there longer and encouraging them to keep coming back.

Time is money. We find that customers will happily sit and watch a short, engaging online video in its entirety as opposed to a lengthy time consuming one. If visitors enjoy their experiences on your site, they’re more likely to return. This is especially true if you upload video frequently.

It doesn’t have to break the bank

Web videos no longer have to cost a fortune. With so many ways to film and produce video content there are so many options to choose.

We recommend you keep the web videos looking professional, especially for your homepage. But, if you’re thinking of doing a weekly blog or news video you can easily incorporate this in house.