How to Use Video to Grow a Business (Without Breaking the Bank)

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Online video is a marketing tool that businesses can?t afford to ignore. The advantages are extensive but the cherry on top is its affordability, contrary to popular belief. It?s possible to create and distribute video without spending a cent. In fact, because of ease of accessibility even someone with no experience of video at all can create and distribute video content.

The idea that videos should be produced expensively and professionally is what drives many businesses away from using it. However, there are ways that you can use video to grow a business that don?t have to involve high production costs and production expertise.

Marie Forleo is a great example of a business woman using video. She is a business strategist incorporating multimedia and personality to have fun and keep her followers engaged. Once on her mailing list you receive no more than weekly emails, but only when she feels she has a video worth sharing. Her content ranges from silly song parodies to an interview with Richard Branson.

This combination of fun with great advice mirrors her brand ?Rich, Happy and Hot?. You can find her channel on YouTube?called MarieTV.

Denise Wakeman is an online marketing advisor who uses video as a tool to give marketing advice and tips. Her website is packed full of useful videos and blog posts. Many of her videos are ?visibility tips? to elevate your brand to a greater audience.

You will see that the production quality of these videos is quite low. In fact, it is likely to be a simple camcorder point and shoot situation. However, this is her style. The videos are short and sweet and people are watching them and find value in them.

7 Advantages of using Video to Grow a Business

1. Emotional Engagement
Video gives you the opportunity to engage your audience on a personal level. You can harness their emotional reactions by incorporating a call to action which encourages the viewer to do something that you want them to as a result of watching your video (ie. click through to your website and potentially buy your product.)

2. SEO Advantages
Search engines love video and there are many ways to optimize your videos to make it more likely that they appear higher in the results. Search engines can?t currently read the audio content of a video, but they can read textual transcripts of your videos. This is why it is a great idea to have subtitles for all of your online videos ? as well as being as accessible as possible to people with hearing impairments.

3. Accessibility
People have less time and shorter attention spans than they used to. The rise in online video has to be at least partly attributed to the fact that people love watching videos because it is easy to do. It is almost a universally appreciated medium; videos can even be made accessible for use by deaf and blind people by the creation of closed caption subtitles.

4. Fun and Creativity
Video has limitless fun and creative potential. It puts humor at your disposal and if you do it right, you could be looking at a viral video with hundreds of thousands of views.

5. Sharing
Social networking has opened the doors for sharing great content. This has had a major influence on the evolution of marketing and experts are putting more and more emphasis on the relationships between customers and products. It?s possible to create content that audiences are more likely to share meaning you will reach a much wider audience.

6. Promoting your Brand
Online video is an excellent tool for telling your market about your brand and to make yourself memorable.

7. Affordability
It does depend on how big your project is but video can be a low cost marketing option. You could spend zilch using a mobile phone to make your video and free online platforms to distribute your video. There are also video professionals (such as Amy) that you can hire for a lower price than a full blown video production agency and still get great quality and personality.

As you can see, there are a range of ways that video can be used to grow your business without you having to spend a fortune. Make sure you do your research and look around at how your competitors are using video. Get yourself a YouTube Channel and start small to give yourself a chance to understand its potential.

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Neil Davidson is the Founder of My Web Presenters, who are a leading video production company. They work with businesses of all sizes to create and market compelling and emotive videos. They also write an online video blog with clear, practical video marketing tips.

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Source: http://savvysexysocial.com/2012/12/06/how-to-use-video-to-grow-a-business-without-breaking-the-bank/

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