The use of video as a marketing tool is becoming increasingly popular as business owners take advantage of its mass appeal. Here’s why video marketing works, and how you can use it effectively in your business.

Why video appeals to many people

Research suggests that watching a video allows us to use deep-rooted evolutionary observation skills to gather far more information than we could from text alone. When we’re able to get information in a way that’s very natural to us, we feel comfortable. When we’re comfortable with how we get information, we like to keep on getting it that way.

You need only look at the influential Experian market monitor to see just how comfortable consumers are with video. YouTube is the most visited social network site in Australia. In the week ending August 17, 2013 it received over 74 million hits, giving it just under 30% of the total visit share.

The popularity of YouTube means video has the potential to be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Of course it’s not all about YouTube. Business videos are ideal for embedding on your website, and sharing on other social media networks too.

Ideas for video marketing to engage customers

Video marketing is an effective way of communicating directly with potential customers, to address issues they might have, share something new, or even just to explain who you are and what your business does. It’s all about connecting with people. Potential applications include:

• Product promotion.
• Product demonstrations – show people how an expert does it, along with professional tips and tricks.
• Problem solving – show customers how to solve problems they might have.

How to get started with video marketing

The main points to remember are:

• Be concise – a five-minute or less video suits many consumers.
• Be consistent – aim to start with a monthly video and work up to a weekly schedule. A comprehensive industry study by Pixability indicates that high performing brands use this tactic very successfully.
• When you’re focusing on short videos, you can easily cater for small (but likely to be highly engaged) audiences such as niche markets and workshop participants.
• Don’t be too formal – a conversational style usually works best.

SEO and branding rules still apply

SEO rules apply to searching for video, so without over-doing it, make sure you include keywords in the titles and description. Like any other marketing activity, you also want to make sure your videos fit your branding, and that you have links back to your website or to your social media pages in the description.

Repurpose and save

Remember to post your videos on more than one site. For added impetus, you could also get a professional article writer to turn your videos into blogs, white papers, ebooks, or articles for your website.

DIY with simple production programs

Finding the budget to hire a professional production company to design, script and shoot your video is not always feasible. However, there are a number of software packages that offer smaller businesses a fast and simple means to get started. Here are three, all offering slightly different options:

• Animoto – Provides high quality templates and formats to which you can insert video (or stills) and even add music for added atmosphere.
• Bravo Video – Brings testimonials to life by enabling customers to provide you with video reviews. Don’t worry nothing goes public without your approval!
• Screencast – Use Screencast turn screen shots into video with added voice-over. Perfect for product demos and discussing presentations.

Using the services of a professional video production business will make the whole process much easier. But if you don’t have the budget for that, or you can only afford to get the key videos done professionally, it is possible to DIY. In good news for smaller businesses, the Pixability study indicated that cheaper production can still deliver results. As long as the picture is clear and the audio is crisp, people will get the message. Just keep it simple, and remember that practice makes perfect!