Video Marketing: How and Why to do it

Video is really big on the internet. YouTube is the number three in terms of traffic (after Facebook and Google) and there are millions of hours’ worth of video being watched daily. I like using video as a marketer for a few reasons and I hope that after reading this (or watching the video below) you see the potential of video marketing. I’ll be (briefly) covering the how to create a video and more importantly why to do video marketing. Video works pretty well when combined with blogging.

How to create a video?

You would probably expect this in the reverse order, but I decided to start with the how to. This is because I believe it’s the easiest part and the least important. We’ll start the journey with a little scavenger hunt: Look around in your house and find anything that is capable of filming. This can be a digital camera, webcam, flipcam or even a cellphone will do. Once you have the camera that you like to use, you are ready to move on.

So now that you have a camera, here’s my recommended type of video: Simply sit down in front of the camera (or stand up, whatever you like) and start talking about that day’s topic. That’s the best type of video in my opinion, although I know that a lot of people are terrified of talking on camera. If that is you, first off all: Get over it! You won’t get any better if you don’t do it, video marketing is one of the things you can’t really learn by theory. There are some alternatives though.

First thing you could do is create a simple PowerPoint, with your main points as bullets and then talk over it. Such a video still has your voice on it, so it’s still more personal than a written article. The second option would be to record a screen capture video showing people how something is done, and talk about what it is that you’re doing.

If you are scared of doing video marketing, I can advise you to still start doing videos except you don’t publish them. You will still more experienced at doing it, while there is no risk involved as nobody will see the video.

Why you should be doing video marketing

These are my two main reasons for doing video marketing: Firstly to satisfy a bigger portion of my audience. As an internet marketer I do whatever I can to help my audience. The point being is that people have different preferences: Some people LOVE reading, while others (like myself) absolutely HATE it. On the other hand of the people that hate reading, there’s a lot of them who enjoy watching video. So if you only have written articles on your blog you are only satisfying a certain part of your audience. Therefore I like to call it selfish to only focus on the format that YOU like to use, while disregarding the preferences of your audience. Lesson here is to not limit yourself to only one format of your content and spread out within your target audience.

The second reason is even more important, as this will help you create more sales and loyal followers. Even if you’re the best writer in the world, you still have your limitation that you don’t have with video. You can put your own personality in your writing, but it won’t shine through nearly as well as you doing a video.

Let me ask you this:

Who would you rather buy from, a friend or someone you don’t even know (given that it’s the same product)? Most like from your friend, right? This is where the power of video takes over. When you appear on people’s screen being you and providing value to your target market, they will connect with you, whether they like it or not. In their unconscious and conscious mind you are becoming somebody they know, and if you are doing it right you will become somebody they like, respect and trust. You go from the position of anonymous salesperson to that cool guy (or gal) who’s helping you. Pretty cool huh?

Check the video below

90-Day Video Challenge

This is a challenge that I am currently involved and I want you to take with me. It consists of creating a video every day for the next 90 days and publishing it off course. It’s kinda your road to becoming a video marketing beast. Video is something you learn by doing and this is a great way of doing it.

If you are like most people here’s what’s going to happen: You will start the challenge scared and inexperienced. As a result your first videos will be terrible, and that’s totally fine. By day 10-20 you will see that your videos are a lot better than they were when you started. By the end of the challenge you will be a completely different person as you have the aura of an incredible speaker. After this you should have no problem speaking for a crowd or at an event. And you’ll be looking back at your first videos just laughing at what a dork you were before.

Anyways, that’s it for today I hope you have gotten to understand the true power that video holds. If you have decided that you are all-in with video marketing please let me know: Comment below or post it on my Facebook page. Don’t forget to like this page if you have gotten any value out of it, really appreciate it.

Author Bio: Maikel Michiels and he is an entrepreneur and internet marketer. His goal is to help as many people as possible set up a profitable business for themselves using the power of the internet. Always ready to help you guys out at his Website or on his page on Facebook.