It really can’t be over exaggerated: video is THE most shared form of content on the internet. By 2018, it will account for nearly 80% of all worldwide consumer internet traffic. But it still baffles many small business owners. How do you use video? Can you really reach customers that way? And does it make a difference in sales? Incorporating video into your marketing is actually a lot easier than it sounds. And statistics show it works. Here are 4 ways to make video work for you.
Post it on Your Website
Websites are like digital storefronts. You spend a lot of time and effort creating curb appeal, getting customers to find you, come in and spend some time browsing. Ultimately, you want them to make a purchase. To create this digital sales cycle, you want to boost your search engine optimization, or SEO. A lot of elements go into how a website ranks in search engine results, from the average time spent on the site to the number of pages viewed. And nothing steps up to the plate to help like video.
Adding a video to a landing page makes it 53% more likely to appear on the first page of Google search results. Probably because Google ranks websites with video content five times higher than websites without. That’s a big boost. Then when you have videos on your website, visitors will spend more than twice as long browsing the site, which is also good for SEO. And putting a video on a landing page not only helps SEO, it increases conversions by 80%.
Create a YouTube Account
Love it or hate it, YouTube is an essential part of our digital world now. It’s the second most used online search engine (after Google, of course). One third of all Internet users have a YouTube account, though you don’t need an account to watch videos, and over 50% of people watch at least one online video each day. That is a huge audience, both locally and globally. And those are customers, clients, patients and partners you could be reaching.
Once you consider that YouTube is owned by Google, the connection between video and SEO becomes a little more clear. You can also use keywords, links and other SEO best practices in your YouTube video description that will drive more traffic to your website.
Share it on Social Media
If social media plays any role in your smal business marketing plan, your plan should also include video. Social video generates 1,200% more shares than simple text or image posts combined. People love to watch and share videos, making it a great, organic way for current customers and followers to help introduce you to new followers. There are also more traditional marketing strategies you can employ through social media, like Facebook boosted posts and ads. And as you might suspect, video ads do better than ads with only text, images and links.
Send it in an Email
Once you have a video embedded on your website or posted on your YouTube account, you have to tell people it’s there. Social media is a good way to spread the word, but not everyone is on social media. Everyone has an email address. Even if you don’t send out digital newsletters (by the way, you should, but that’s a different blog post), you can send the video link in an email.
Just including the word “video” in your email subject line will get 19% more of your audience to open the email. Then putting a video in the email can boost your click-through rate by up to 300%. Software programs like MailChimp and Constant Contact track these open and click-through rates, so it’s simple to compare the results of a non-video email to the results of a video email.
With online tracking methods, it’s pretty easy to see the results and ROI of video. You know what you spent to produce and distribute the video(s), and you can track your increase in traffic, followers and sales after adding video to your marketing mix. There’s no denying the audience is there and waiting for it, so get your business out there and be seen!
