10 Ways to Create and Use a Promotional Video to Build Your Business
Now that video has become so important in gaining attention and visibility, you want to do it effectively, while keeping your costs down. There are many things you can do yourself at low or no cost, unless you have the budget to bring in a professional videographer, who typically charges $75–125 an hour.
One important place to use videos is on your website or landing page to help visitors decide to hire or buy from you. As researchers have found, a video on your landing page can up your conversion rate from views to sales by 80% or more.
Another place to use videos is with your social media posts, blog posts, or articles on a platform like Medium. You’ll increase the number of viewers, likes, visits to your profile, hires, sales, and more.
Video has this power to attract clients and customers because it increases your credibility, authority, and visibility. It builds your professional image. It also helps your audience feel closer to you because it makes you seem more likeable and accessible, which builds trust. And as they say again and again in business groups: people want to do business with people they know, like, and trust.
So how can use video most effectively to promote you and your business? Following are a series of tips on how to do that.
As you read each tip, write down your thoughts about what to do to. Perhaps make a spreadsheet to keep track of what you do and the results. This will help you decide what methods work best.
Now here are the tips on what to do.
1) Use a script as a guide so you know what you want to say and do so concisely and compactly. Then, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, so you are fully prepared when you go on camera, unless you are an expert at winging it, which most people aren’t. You don’t have to memorize everything word for word. Just remember the main bullet points you want to make. Alternatively, use a teleprompter, where you write out everything or list bullet points. Then, rehearse a few times, so you can easily say what you have written. You don’t want to sound like you are reading form a teleprompter.
In preparing your script, keep your video short and focused on the main points you want to make. Keep it to 30 seconds to 2 minutes, and up to 3 minutes max. The shorter your video the better to get your point across, because people have a short attention span today.
3) Decide on the type of video you plan to do. Some possibilities include a video with tips, an introduction to a short video made from a PowerPoint, or an interview with another person about your topic. Whatever your format, focus on a single subject of interest to your target audience. Include a call to action at the end, such as to go to your website, get a copy of something, watch a particular video, or go to a landing page for a free sample of something.
Whatever format you use, provide value to your target audience by solving a problem for them with your advice. Think about the challenges or difficulties they might face or the questions they might have about something. Then, you provide the solution by giving a series of tips, talking about the problem with another person, or doing a demonstration on how to make or do something.
4) Besides the shorter promotional 1–3 minute videos, consider doing longer tutorial videos for viewers who are more seriously interested in the subject. In these longer videos, you go into more detail in explaining or demonstrating something. Such videos commonly range from 5 to 15 minutes, and they are ideal as individual modules or classes if you are creating an online course or webinar.
5) Conclude your video with a call to action, which you can also include in a social media post when you use that to link to your video. For example, you might invite people to buy your book or product, sign up for your webinar, try your service, come to an introductory strategy session, or get a special package price on one of your programs.
6) You can create these videos in various ways, depending upon your equipment. If you are producing the videos yourself to keep down costs, you can use the camera on your computer or on your phone, or if you have a DSLR camera which can shoot videos, you can use that. When you use a camera, put it on a tripod, and unless you are only posting on Instagram, set it up horizontally, so it looks more like a professional video.
Ideally, use natural lighting, which will give you a more natural look. If you use any lights, get bulbs that mimic natural lighting.
If possible, do the video in one take, so you don’t have to edit it. However, you can do simple editing on a platform like Camtasia. Then, you can easily cut out beginnings, endings, or sections you don’t want, and after you make a cut, you can push any separated sections together. This will result in a jump cut, which is fine for simple editing, though if you are more skilled in editing, you can add dissolves and fades where you make a cut.
7) Turn your video into a blog post by pulling out the audio and having it transcribed; then edit the transcription to create the blog post. Alternatively, turn a blog post into a video by talking about what you have written or by putting the copy into a PowerPoint presentation and turning that into a video. Then, if you want, you can introduce the PowerPoint video.
8) Use your phone to capture in-the-moment videos to add a personal touch and build rapport with your audience. You can either post these videos later livestream them on Facebook, Periscope, Instagram Stories, or YouTube Live. Later, you can download and post them on your website or landing page. You can send links to your video via email, too.
9) However you create your video, post it or a link to it on all of the social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Create a YouTube channel so you can post it there. Then, you can link to that YouTube posting or embed it on your website or landing page, rather than posting the video directly. That way your website or landing page will load faster than if you upload a lot of large video files.
A single YouTube channel is fine if your video are centered around a particular theme or topic. But if you have different topics for different audiences, create separate channels for these. For example, if one topics is resolving conflicts in organizations and another is helping individuals find career success, it might be better to create separate account for each one.
You can also include a link to your video in an email to your contacts and prospects, and that video link will result in a much higher clickthrough and response rate.
10) Post your videos consistently on the social media or YouTube, so people come to follow you, because they like what you are doing. The video on your website can be a more permanent fixture, though you can update this from time to time as you engage in new activities and create new videos.
Besides posting your video individually on various platforms, you can use a program like HootSuite or Buffer to send out your social media posts with a video to multiple channels at the same time. You can send out each post immediately or schedule a series of posts for several days, weeks, or even several times a day. For example, I use HootSuite to send out a few posts with videos or images to 10 different social media channels a few times a week.
So now get started creating and promoting your own videos. And you may have other ideas on what to do.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
GINI GRAHAM SCOTT, Ph.D., J.D., is a nationally known writer, consultant, speaker, and seminar leader, specializing in business and work relationships, professional and personal development, social trends, and popular culture. She has published 50 books with major publishers. She has worked with dozens of clients on memoirs, self-help, popular business books, and film scripts. Writing samples are at www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com.
She is the founder of Changemakers Publishing, featuring books on work, business, psychology, social trends, and self-help. The company has published over 150 print, e-books, and audiobooks. She has licensed several dozen books for foreign sales, including the UK, Russia, Korea, Spain, and Japan.
She has received national media exposure for her books, including appearances on Good Morning America, Oprah, and CNN. She has been the producer and host of a talk show series, Changemakers, featuring interviews on social trends.
Scott is active in a number of community and business groups, including the Lafayette, Pleasant Hill, and Walnut Creek Chambers of Commerce. She is a graduate of the prestigious Leadership Contra Costa program. She does workshops and seminars on the topics of her books.
She is also the writer and executive producer of 10 films in distribution, release, or production. Her most recent films that have been released include Driver, The New Age of Aging, and Infidelity.
She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and her J.D. from the University of San Francisco Law School. She has received five MAs at Cal State University, East Bay, most recently in Communication.