7 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Video

Last month, a Pew Research study revealed that at least 71 percent of adults are actively using video-sharing websites such as YouTube and Vimeo and that 22% of online Americans have posted videos online using these sites.

Combine this with the fact that YouTube’s viewership was grown to over 3 billion views a day this year (over 200 million of those views are via mobile connections), and you start to understand why using video should be a key part of your marketing strategy to build relationships with your customers and potential customers.

In case that isn’t compelling enough Divas, here are 7 more reasons why you should be using video for your marketing:

1. Videos build the “Know, Like, Trust” factor.  Sales expert Bob Burg often refers to the Golden Rule of Sales which say  ”All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust.”  Whether you’re a solopreneur or a small to mid-sized business, putting names and faces to your brand and company is a key strategy for building familiarity and trust — engaging video helps you to do just that.

2. Videos are often (and easily) shared. Thanks to social media, video sharing has become very common and with a high impact video, your video just might go viral and be seen by hundreds of thousands in a relatively short amount of time.  Even if it doesn’t go viral, you can still benefit from easy sharing capabilities.

3. Videos can bring you increased traffic to your website(s).  If you apply search engine optimization techniques to your videos (using targeted keywords in your title and description) and include links back to your site via numerous video sharing sites, you can drive free increased traffic to your websites.

4. Quality videos can be done at a very low cost.   One of the great things about the high usage of sites like YouTube is that people are used to seeing more natural “home video” type of footage, so even as a business owner you don’t have to invest thousands in a production level studio to get quality, high impact videos.  With less than $200 you can get an excellent video camera and start taking video right away!

5. Videos are outstanding educational tools.  With video you have an opportunity to make presentations, provide testimonials from customers, do case studies or tutorials, answer frequently asked questions, give fun product tours or demos….the options are really only limited by your creativity.

6. Videos keep prospects on your website for longer periods of time. Statistics show that video keeps site visitors around for longer.  Visitors are more likely to check out other content on your site or opt-in for more information after viewing an informative or entertaining video that piques their interest.

7. Videos are more memorable. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, studies suggest that retention from combined visual and oral presentation is six times greater than oral presentation alone and twice as much as visual presentation alone.

The bottom line is this….video is here to stay and it will only increase in relevancy over the next several years. Although video is hot, hot, hot, the truth is that the majority of businesses are not using online video.  This is good news for you as it provides you with an excellent opportunity to really stand out among the competition in your niche.  Just have fun with it!

Stay tuned Divas as we share more tips over the next couple of weeks to help you get started with video marketing… or if you’re already dabbling with video, help you take what you’re doing to the next level.