Internet and Businesses Articles

Videos are a fun, easy way to market your business. Sure, there are dozens and dozens of other marketing strategies from article writing to blogging, from press releases to podcasting. But nothing says "cool, connection, and creative" like a video.

More and more businesses of all sizes are making videos about their companies. They're not only posting them on their websites, but they're adding them to their blogs. To gain global 24/7 visibility, videos are posted to dozens of video-sharing sites like YouTube and Google Video. And why not - it's free, easy-to-do, and can have a significant impact, in some cases, on the traffic it drives to your website.

There are many more reasons why videos are a great way to market your business.

- Quick and easy. Basic videos can be quick and easy to make. If you add special effects, complex scripting and audio, callouts, and other interactivity, a short, but near perfect quality 2 to 3 minute video might take 10 more hours to produce. But perfection isn't necessary for a video to produce the results you want. With the high-quality software available nowadays, you'll be surprised at what you can do with even a little bit of training. You can develop a simple video in less than 30 minutes.

- Videos are time-shifted. This means that anyone can view your video when it's convenient for them. Someone can watch your video at 8:15 a.m. in the morning just as easily as they can watch it at 9:07 p.m. at night.

- Videos are place-shifted. Videos can be viewed wherever you want. Videos can be viewed on the web, on a DVD or on a portable device like your phone or iPod. This added convenience makes video an even more attractive way to communicate with your target audience.

- Videos enjoy a wide distribution channel. Videos by their very nature are easy to "package" which makes them easy to slot into a variety of different distribution channels. You can post them on your website or blog, you can load them into your computer and run them over and over at a tradeshow event. You can post them to dozens and dozens of online video-sharing sites. You can burn them on CDs and give them away or sell them. You can even send them via email.

- Videos can be viral. Viral videos are those which are so fascinating that viewers feel compelled to forward them to others. They blog about them, write about them in the print media, and feature them on radio and television. A viral video can literally be spread across the world and viewed by millions within a matter of hours.

- Videos are fun to create. Nothing is more empowering than working through and producing your very first video about your business. Using the right software and going through a little bit of high-quality training, you'll have everything you need to know to get started. The more of them you make, the easier and faster the development process will become.

- Videos are a great way to communicate. As our sophistication with technology changes, so do the ways in which people like to interact with others. Most people are visually oriented meaning that is how they best understand and interact with their world. This makes videos the perfect marketing strategy to communicate with today's consumer.

- Videos are all about Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is the latest "version of the web." It's about how developers and users are interacting with today's web platform. This new generation is all about connection and community - including web-based communities, social-networking sites, blogging, podcasting and anything that has to do with facilitating collaboration.

These are just some of the many reasons why videos might be a great way to market your business. Learn more about this area to see how you might leverage your time, money, and energy to communicate with your target market in a new and interesting way.

Tara Alexandra Kachaturoff is a business consultant, writer, speaker, Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach and producer/host of Michigan Entrepreneur Television. Drawing on over 15 years of corporate experience, she coaches executives, professionals, and entrepreneurs on business and lifestyle issues and has been featured in print, radio and television. Her websites include http://www.virtualleverage.com, http://www.tarakachaturoff.com, and http://www.michiganentrepreneurtv.com