6 Top Tips For Using Online Video To Promote Your Business

The sheer popularity of YouTube: currently 490 million users worldwide, generating an estimated 92 billion page views per month, demonstrates that online video represents the ‘now’ and the ‘future’ of social media.

In fact, the ‘how to’ video category is YouTube’s fasted growing group. Are you beginning to see the potential already?

Thanks to huge technological advances in recent years, corporate videos are now easier than ever to create in-house, or via an agency if you prefer. However some companies have reported a reluctance to try video marketing in case their message comes across as ‘mixed’, or the audience reaction isn’t as positive as they had hoped for.

Video can be a really profitable marketing tool for businesses of all sizes, so it’s well worth considering for your next campaign.

Whether you choose to employ a professional company to produce your video, or decide to do it yourself, here are 6 top tips for making videos work for your business:



1. What is the key purpose of your video?

Is it to drive awareness of your brand? A platform from which to launch a new product or service? Is it to attract affiliates to sell your products? Or perhaps you want to persuade your customers to take part in a survey.
It’s worth spending some time outlining the basis of why you are creating your video and what its key purpose is. It’s also a good idea to write your initial ideas down in the form of a Mind Map or draft document you can refer to at various intervals.

2. Who is your intended target audience?

What is their age range? Gender? Salary? Lifestyle? Hobbies? Define your ideal customer as far as possible. You can even give him or her a name if you wish, which can provide a focus for the project. You will then create your content for this particular character or persona, for example ‘Project Arnie.’

3. Why will your target audience watch your video?

Just as TV programmes are made with a particular audience in mind, your video communications need to do the same. Writing and delivering your content with a target demographic in mind, will ensure you have better chance of reaching the people you want to with your message.

4. What is your key message?

Thanks in part to the immediacy of the Internet, most of us have shorter attention spans than we did a decade ago. Very few people (even committed fans) will sit through a video that waffles on aimlessly. You need to create a proper structure with an emphasis on one or two key messages. Ideally your video should be no longer than five minutes – three is ideal. Make sure your tone of voice is consistent throughout and that the video content reflects your brand values. And talking of ‘tone of voice’, make sure you address your audience in their preferred language – don’t alienate people by being ‘too corporate.’

5. Promote, promote, promote.

You have now created a great video for your business – congratulations. But it’s not much use to you if no-one sees it. So how will you promote it?
Via your website – make sure it’s embeded in a prominent place, preferably on your Home page, not buried several layers deep.
On your very own YouTube Channel – it’s easy and free to sign up.
By emailing your list.
Using a dedicated ‘Squeeze Page’ for a particular campaign.
All of the above.


While it’s perfectly possible to do much of your video’s marketing in-house, if you are seriously planning a viral campaign, I would urge you to consider utilising the services of a viral marketing agency. By ‘seeding’ your video they will be able to create a buzz for your brand far quicker than any non-expert could hope to achieve by themselves.

6. Measure and evaluate your video’s performance.

You need to put a system in place to measure the effects of your video campaign against your objectives. A truly effective video should pay for itself in terms of savings or sales. Hopefully, the experience will prove so profitable for you that you will decide to use video as the focus of future internet marketing campaigns.

How Internet Marketing Consultants Can Help You Forge Links (The Right Way)

You probably know that search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo rate your website according to how many ‘links’ you have. Link building is one of the most valid things you as a business owner can do to boost your website’s search engine rankings, but it’s vital to have a proper strategy in place before you begin.


Unfortunately, link-building can be extremely time-consuming, particularly when you’re just starting out. That’s why some so-called SEO companies will try to sell you bundles of links – and although you may be tempted – please don’t go down that route!

Because even if you manage to fool the search engines briefly, you will end up with a hoard of non-relevant links to your site that could see your rankings suddenly plummet. Particularly if you’ve been persuaded to sign up for a subscription which you later cancel.

This could mean that literally hundreds of links are removed overnight – a red flag to the search engines – who will heavily penalise you. This link-building business is all about consistency and longevity.

Here’s where genuine internet marketing consultants can help. A professional consultancy will have the know-how to help you grow your business on the internet ethically.

Some of the many things your chosen internet marketing consultants can assist you with:

Choosing The Right Anchor Text

Anchor text is the word or phrase your visitors click on to take them to your web page or other associated web pages. This is one of the most important considerations for your overall link-building strategy. Choosing the keywords you want to be ranked for can have a huge impact on your success (or otherwise). However, if you use the same keywords or phrases for all your links, the search engines won’t be impressed by the repetition and you could be adversely penalised.

Checking Out The Competition

Who are your main competitors? Where do their websites rank among the major search engines? What keywords do they rank for? Where do their links originate? By revealing what your competitors are up to your internet marketing expert can help you out-smart the opposition!

Identifying Opportunities For Reciprocal Links

Your internet marketing consultants will identify potentially beneficial linking opportunities on other websites and blogs. This is a complicated area – just because someone asks to link to your website, don’t automatically say ‘yes’ out of flattery, because it could be detrimental to you in the long run.

So you’ve decided to put the wisdom and experience of an internet marketing consultancy to work for your business. But with so many companies offering their services across the internet, where the heck do you start?

The obvious starting point is with the consultancy’s own website. If they can’t get on Page One of Google for themselves, why on earth should you believe they can do it for you?

Business Owners Why You Should Take An Interest In Pinterest

Pinterest – it’s just another form of social scrapbooking, isn’t it? Yet another social media site demanding my attention. Sigh . . .

But please do read on, because the sales potential and the ‘numbers’ may just surprise you.

Pinterest is a virtual (online) pinboard system where you are encouraged to ‘organise and share the things you love.’ At present, membership is available by invitation only and you can request an invite by entering your email address on the website (Pinterest.com).

If you currently sell products over the Internet via your website or an online store, then it’s easy to catalogue them on your Pinterest board also – complete with price tag! For example many people who sell their gifts on the creative marketplace site Etsy, have a dedicated Pinterest pinboard on which to display and sell their goods. Indeed, Pinterest is responsible for generating a 75 per cent increase in traffic according to some online sellers. Now that’s serious business.

But Pinterest isn’t just for craft-workers or product sellers – oh no. It’s ideal for those with businesses in the service industries too.

Let’s say for example you run a hair salon. You could share ideas for hair colouring techniques, the latest celebrity hairstyles, bridal hair accessories, and so on. Or perhaps you’re in the travel industry? Your pinboard could contain your predictions for the 50 most fashionable resorts for this year, or the world’s top 20 remotest trekking areas.

Maybe you run an events company? In which case you probably have some great photos of events you have produced that you’d love to share with your audience. Alternatively, how about celebrity gigs you wished you’d produced! And if you are a designer, photographer, artist, or other kind of ‘creative’, then Pinterest is the perfect place to display your portfolio and win more commissions.

Whatever business you are in, with a bit of creativity you should be able to come up with a suitable angle for one or more pinboards. Even if your primary aim is to make sales online, the key thing here is to offer content that will engage and inspire your potential buyers, (minus the hard-sell.)

Here are several ideas for generating interest for your Pinterest pinboard(s):

Give your customers a personal insight into your company by including photographs of your team in action. Or if your business has several branches, how about a ‘sales team of the month,’ or ‘employee of the month’ pinboard?

Contests are a wonderful way to create a buzz, so why not build one around your business. Don’t simply make it a prize draw, but rather ask people to vote for their favourite product, holiday resort, or whatever. The aim of the game is to get your contestants to promote your business for you.

Pinterest is visually driven, so think about how you can best provide dynamic images accompanied by just a couple of words of text. Clean and elegant boards usually attract the most attention. For each picture you post (sorry, pin), you can include a link back to your website or blog.

So, tell us about the numbers then . . .

Well according to the social media bookmarking site Hitwise, Pinterest received almost 11 million hits on the week ending 17 December 2011 – a 4000 per cent increase in visitors compared to six months’ previously. That’s one serious spike! Especially when you take into account that Pinterest has only been in existence some nine months. Consider the growth potential here.

Pinterest is worth checking out even if you have no inclination to sign up for an account and create your own pinboards. Why? Because there are some really exciting and unique concepts on the site which are bound to inspire you when it comes to developing your next advertisement or marketing campaign.

In fact, I’d go as far as to say, virtually every business owner will find something of interest on Pinterest.

How An Internet Marketing Company Can Dramatically Improve Your Website’s Performance

So your business already has a website. Great. But is it working for you? Is it bringing in a high volume of enquiries each and every month which you can readily convert into sales? Or is it quite simply . . . there?


Your website is your business’s shop window, so it’s essential your browsers (visitors) like what they see – at least that they want to know more about what you can offer, which could lead to a sale. First and foremost an internet marketing company can make sure your website is doing its job properly.

As a business owner you will know that having a web presence is pretty much an essential requirement these days. But in the beginning when you’re just starting out, it’s all too easy to focus all your attention on the ‘building the website’ part, and very little on the ‘what happens next?’ part.

With the result that you could have a website that is at best under-utilised, and at worst, never gets picked up by the search engines. Which means the only people that contact you are people who already know you through other sources.

When you are ‘invisible’ to potential customers it’s very hard to grow your business. So what to do about it.

An internet marketing company can improve your website marketing in several ways:

By ensuring your website gets picked up by the major search engines.

Ensuring your site is well laid out and functions correctly.

Making certain your website fully represents you and what you stand for.

Creating an effective online marketing strategy for your business.

Have you ever happened upon a website that was over-cluttered, confusing, difficult to navigate, or where its purpose wasn’t immediately clear? When this happens, the visitor tends to take avoiding action and exit the site. Unfortunately, when this happens, you are likely to have lost your visitor for good. Let me ask you how often do you re-visit a website where you didn’t enjoy the experience first time round? So creating a website that provides a great visitor experience is paramount.

And once you have built your website that is clear and fully functional, you must ensure that all the major search engines (and particularly Google) can find you. In other words, your website must be search engine optimised. To the uninitiated, SEO is a bit of a mystery, but your internet marketing company will be able to advise you as to how they can get your website onto Page One of Google at a reasonable cost – which for most businesses is the ultimate goal.

SEO Consultants: Learning to Avoid the Bad Ones

SEO, or search engine optimisation, refers to the process by which a company can improve the visibility of its website in search engines, leading to more visitors and therefore hopefully increased profits. One of the jobs of an internet marketing company is to understand how search engines work so they can use SEO methods, such as identifying certain keywords and editing the content of your site and its html coding accordingly, to improve your search engine ranking.


However, bringing in a consultant will of course cost you money so it’s not a decision you should take lightly or rush into. You want only the best, as shoddy SEO can do more harm than good to your company.

To help you out, here are some hints on how to avoid the many unreliable SEO consultants operating today:

Where is the money going?: Before you sign anything, a reputable marketing company should be able to provide you with a detailed budget of where all the recommended outlay for the development of your SEO strategy should be allocated. Some companies will claim they are ranking you highly in search engines purely by using SEO methods such as keyword placement, which is free, when actually they are using pay-per-click to increase the visibility of your website, which is a different thing entirely. If a consultancy is not prepared to outlay all the costs then stay away from it.

Beware the unsolicited approach: Any consultancy that has to resort to sending out SPAM emails to drum up customers isn’t worth your time. You ignore all those emails from companies trying to sell you diet pills or ‘genuine’ Rolex watches, and you should treat such messages from marketing companies in the same way. After all, if they use this somewhat unprofessional method to get business for their own company what do you think they will propose to do for yours?

Unrealistic promises: Be wary of any internet marketing company making claims that sound too good to be true: they probably are. For example, don’t go for a company which is happy to guarantee you a number one Google rating very quickly. As any good consultancy knows, done right, SEO takes time to take effect so you have to exercise a certain amount of patience.

Are they above board?: Try to check out the background of a consultancy you are thinking of hiring. Have they previously operated under any other names, or do they have multiple aliases? This could be a sign that they have something to hide, or their past dealings haven’t exactly reflected favourably upon them. Do they own ‘shadow’ domains, which can channel users to a site using deceptive redirects, or have they in the past had any domains removed from Google? These are all things you should check out before you even consider hiring them.

Time to Hire a Marketing Consultant?

Every company needs a sound online marketing strategy in order to keep pulling in the customers, but it can take time to develop this to a point where you are starting to see results. Many companies panic when success doesn’t come as quickly as they would like, and hire an internet marketing company for the wrong reasons. Bearing in mind that there are always going to be peaks and troughs in business, how do you know when your strategy just isn’t working and it’s time to bring in a marketing expert? Here we look at some signs that your company could perhaps benefit from some outside help.


Lack of perspective: When you try to do such a major job as marketing in-house, the danger can be that you start going round in circles and lose sight of the wider business context. If you feel this is happening then this is the time to bring in an outside perspective. Many companies hire in a consultant for just this reason. Sometimes you can struggle on for months, whereas the reasons you are failing might be immediately apparent to an outsider, who will then be able to help you start afresh with a new outlook. They will also have the vital in-depth knowledge of the latest marketing trends in the business world.

Large project to complete: Some companies, if they have a particularly important project on such as a major new product launch which goes beyond their internal expertise or resources, will hire in an internet marketing company as a temporary measure. Not every company needs or can afford a permanent marketing manager, but there are those times when a project is too important to be left to chance.

Lack of expertise: Many small business owners start off thinking they can do the marketing themselves and then realise it is a great deal more specialised than they had anticipated. You may have some idea how to publicise your products or carry out email marketing, but perhaps find the techniques to analyse website visitor data beyond your comprehension. Bringing in an internet marketing company to help you learn about the various methods and techniques out there will give your marketing strategy a more solid and professional base.

Negative feedback: Another sign that you may need the help of a marketing consultancy is if you are getting negative feedback from customers and the users of your site. This is why it’s important to encourage your customers to communicate with you via your website and offer constructive criticism. It’s an old cliché, but remember that the customer is always right – so if they say that you have to make some serious changes, either in the way your website is laid out of the way in which you are advertising your business, then you probably do.

Many companies hire a marketing consultant for the wrong reasons, so it's not something you should rush into. However there are certain signs to look out for which may indicate that you could benefit from some outside help.

Even If You’re Not a Fan Of New Year’s Resolutions, Resolve To Become More Social Media Savvy in 2012!

With Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube continuing to grow their followings substantially in 2011, and other social networks springing up month on month, it’s clear that social media is far from the ‘passing fad’ some doubters predicted.

For many of us, social media has changed the way we do business – and there is no going back. If you haven’t yet got to grips with social media, then you could seriously be missing out on winning over a new generation of fans for your business. So here are some tips to get you started:

Maintain separate personal and business social media accounts

Unless you’re a celebrity, most people won’t be interested in what you had for breakfast, or where you went on holiday. So be sure to separate ‘personal’ and ‘business’ interests and use dedicated accounts for both functions. Also be aware that if you have a personal account for fun/ leisure purposes, that business acquaintances and colleagues might check out those postings too!

Let people know you’re on social media

Once you’ve signed up to a social media site and begun posting, be sure to let people know about it. The best way of doing this is by adding social media buttons to your website, blog, emails, business cards and snail mail. All your correspondence in fact, both online and off.

Upload a picture

A photo of you in a professional capacity is an absolute must for your social media business pages. If you’ve ever visited a LinkedIn profile page with no photo you’ll know exactly what I mean. An incomplete profile gives the impression that the person isn’t all that bothered – with the result that they are not taken as seriously as they otherwise might be.

Include a link with every posting

If you fail to include a link to your blog or website with each and every posting, then you are missing an opportunity to drive additional traffic to your site. Generally speaking, more traffic means more conversions and more revenue.

Make a video

Did you realise YouTube is world’s 2nd largest search engine and the 3rd most visited website? And YouTube Mobile gets over 3 billion hits a day – that’s massive! So why not make a video about an aspect of your business that will whet potential customers’ appetites. You can then upload your video to YouTube as well as embed it into your website. Better still, produce a series of videos. And remember to include a link to your videos in relevant blog postings and promotional materials.

Start as you mean to go on

If I could include just one tip, it would be this one: you don’t have to be on every social media site to see a difference in your marketing results – so choose wisely. And make sure you allocate enough time in your daily/ weekly schedule for the social media activities you decide to pursue, whether that’s working on a blog, updating your Facebook page, or networking on LinkedIn.

The main point about social media is that it needs to be embraced whole-heartedly, or not at all. Think of it this way: if you happened upon a business blog where the last posting was several months back, you wouldn’t spend too long on that site would you?

Outsource tasks to specialists

Remember, you don’t have to do everything yourself. If, like many people, you don’t find the concept of social media easy to get to grips with, then consider outsourcing your requirements. Outsourcing necessary business tasks or tasks you find difficult, laborious and time-consuming makes perfect economic sense. It means you get the services of a consummate professional who will use his or her expertise to make the most of your social marketing budget, while you get to concentrate on the aspects of your business you do best.

Now that’s time and money well spent.

Happy New Year!