If you’ve taken the big leap and joined the ranks of the online video marketers, congratulations! The first video is always the most difficult.

But now that you’ve produced your first video, what’s next? How do you not only maximize the marketing from that video, but also create new video marketing opportunities? Unless you want to succumb to the dreaded “one and done” syndrome, you’ll want to create a strategic marketing plan for using video regularly in your business.

As with any plan, you must begin with the end in mind. What are your business objectives for video? Is it to grow your list? Build your brand? Drive more web traffic? Enhance your credibility? Your goals will determine your direction.

If you said “all of the above” to the video goals we just listed, here are some ideas for maintaining your video momentum…

1. Create an “expert tips” series to share your expertise. Short, 1 – 2 minute “how to” videos are a great way to increase your credibility and expand your influence.

2. If you’ve got a blog, add a videoblog post every couple of weeks. The search engines love video, and your readers will be treated to a dynamic change of pace from your traditional blog posts. Extra bonus: Video is much more personal and compelling than print alone!

3. Get some face time. Use a personal video message or video email to go “face to face” with your clients or prospects. Sending a video greeting, birthday wishes or a thank you video have much more impact than yet another regular email. If you want to stand out and be memorable, use video!

4. Make it an event. Whether you’re promoting a webinar or launching a new product, nothing makes a bold statement like video. Adding video to your promotional plans makes your webinar or launch look more like a special event. Again, it’s the best way to break through the online clutter and make sure your message gets noticed.

5. Go Live! You can do a live webcast or offer a “Q & A” video session using free platforms such as Livestream or Ustream.tv. These web resources make it easy to fire up your webcam and go live whenever you want. A live webcast is dynamic, engaging and highly interactive. (You may want to do a test run first, just to get comfortable with the format).

However you decide to use video, it will put your marketing on overdrive and accelerate your results. The secret is consistency and strategy. Make a plan and stick to it. Anyone can make one video. The real winners online will be those who make online video a regular part of their marketing efforts.

Guest Author: Lou Bortone is an Online Branding Specialist and video pro who helps entrepreneurs and service professionals build breakthrough brands on the Internet, so they can have more visibility, credibility and profitability. Lou delivers innovative online branding strategies, including video production and editing, social media marketing and online video consulting.

Lou is a former television executive who worked for E! Entertainment Television and Fox in Los Angeles. He is also an author and ghostwriter of six business books, a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach and a Book Yourself Solid Certified Coach.

Find out more at www.LouBortone.com, and for online video info and resources, visit: www.OnlineVideopolis.com.

Infograph by GO-Gulf.com – Dubai Web Design Company

Online videos are an effective marketing tool for the small business entrepreneur seeking to grow his or her online brand. Thanks to inexpensive and easy-to-use internet tools and cameras, every business owner can – and should — add video to his or her marketing mix.

Here are five reasons you should consider doing so:

1) Viewers Love ‘Em!

When you post written content, visitors have to gear up mentally to follow your points. Many people will decide it’s too much effort. But at least a third of your viewers will willingly sit through a 3-minute video. That is, unless your video is dark and muffled. Your videos don’t need to be professional quality to engage, but please don’t make people strain to see or hear you.

Videos have become so popular, because at least 30 percent of online viewers learn best by seeing and hearing. Online videos provide both the verbal and visual stimulation they crave. So give it to ‘em!

2) Videos Create Relationships

By watching you and seeing how you express yourself, people instantly form an opinion of you. If they like what they see, they’ll want to see more. Which gives you an edge in quickly engaging them, building community with them, and moving them more quickly down your sales funnel.

TIP! You only have seconds to engage your audience, however, before they turn you off. Studies show, in fact, that half of your audience will click the “off” button by the 1-minute mark, if you’ve not engaged them.

3) Videos Show Off Your Expertise (And Let you be the Star!)

If you feel comfortable in front of the camera, why wouldn’t you want to add video to your marketing mix? Just remember to practice before you start filming, to ensure you look polished. Notice that I didn’t say “perfect.” Fortunately, viewers don’t expect perfection from small business videographers.

Remember to make eye contact often with the camera lens. And smile every so often. Keep your face and voice animated, just as you would if you were having a live conversation with someone.

4) Videos Quickly Go Viral

Thanks to the Net, you can place video in so many places — ensuring you and your business get seen by many audiences. Specific to your established communities, be sure to link to all of your social media sites, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and your favorite social bookmarking sites. Make sure it’s easy for people to share your video with their friends, so they will market it for you!

TIP! Be sure to embed your videos within your own blog or website. Your goal is always to drive viewers to your website so that you can build that one-on-one relationship. Be sure to feature an opt-in box on your website so that you can collect contact information. With this permission to market to your prospects, you can continue to build a relationship over time.

5) Videos Let You Give Viewers a Call to Action

Why miss the opportunity to have your viewers take action at the end of your video? You can ask prospects to hop over to your website, to leave a comment, or even to sign up for your FREE gift in exchange for their contact information. Just by your asking, you help your prospects get to know you, like you, and trust you. Take the lead on that; invite people into your inner circle.

See all the perks to adding video to your marketing mix?

Best part: you need very little equipment to get started. All you really need is a recording device such as the Flip camera, a tripod (to prevent you ending up with shaky videos), a decent background (please don’t share your untidy home office with viewers!), some basic editing software (most computers come with a basic editing package), a basic script (can be as simple as scribbles on a piece of paper!) and a bit of practice. PLEASE don’t skip that last part!

Get to it! With video, you’ll soon see your marketing percolating!

Guest Author: Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt is the owner of Creatives Marketing, which helps creative entrepreneurs succeed with online marketing. To receive your FREE Creatives Marketing Kit, visit http://www.CreativesMarketing.com.

His passion, motivation, professionalism, generosity and success are contagious to the social media world! Ramon De Leon (@Ramon_DeLeon) is no longer “The pizza guy to know in Chicago”. He is “The pizza guy to know in the world.” The operating partner of six Domino’s franchises in Chicago is now a world-known, sought-after speaker due to his social media presence.

Ramon’s passion for social media has not only changed his business, but also changed his life. He certainly does not live the life of a typical franchisee partner. I asked Ramon for a brief interview so you can hear the passion for yourself.

The 20-minute interview turned to 40 minutes, but felt like four minutes because he is so engaging (I can talk to him about social media for hours).  His enthusiasm for social media is magnetic! No wonder people want him to speak in conferences all over the world to share why he lives and breathes social media, and why all business owners should too.

This interview is not to be missed…let’s listen to Ramon’s amazing tips and hear what he has to say about social media…

Read the blog I wrote in 2009 about Ramon: Chicago Domino’s Owner, @Ramon_DeLeon More Than Gets Social Media…He Breathes It!

I will be posting more case study interviews like this on a regular basis. If you are using social media successfully in your business and would like to be interviewed, please reach out to me. I love hearing social media success stories!

You can also listen to other recent interviews below:

Case Study: Dippin’ Dots’ Powerful Social Media Strategy Leads to One Million Fans on Facebook

Case Study: One B2B Increases Business One Tweet at a Time

Video marketing is one of the faster growing types of social media. While text based apps like Twitter are thriving, people still love to watch videos online and YouTube is still the king of the video world, whether you like it or not. The main reason for this is simply sheer size. The site has millions of videos and hundreds of thousands of users. According to their fact sheet, about 10 hours of video is uploaded every minute!

The power of a video site this big is that you can use it to get your marketing video in front of not dozens, not hundreds, but tens of thousands of potential clients. Of course, it’s a bit of a job to make sure that many people actually see it, but once a video goes viral, its traffic will soar. This is one of the biggest reasons more and more large corporations are turning to the social video site to promote their companies. Why are they doing this? Here are the main reasons.

1. Exposure. With millions of viewers, YouTube offers a ripe arena for presenting information to the public. Since videos show up in Google searches, companies can set up their own videos and channels and have these appear in search results when they are properly tagged.

2. Interactivity. Social media is big with companies because it allows the clients and users to interact with the company, something that simply didn’t happen before. For those businesses that are embracing this new medium, their users are free to share their videos (in most cases) and comment on them, making it a medium that is far more approachable than an ad on television.

3. Price. Being able to produce videos on a relatively low budget and upload them to YouTube for free is something that any business can do. Though we are seeing a rise in the number of big corporations showing their videos and ads on video sites like YouTube, this is only recently because they are actually placing them there. For years, people would upload their favorite movie trailers, clips and television ads . . . but now the businesses responsible for these are realizing what a sweet deal free exposure is and are willingly adding their brands to the video site.

If you haven’t started in on video marketing, it’s definitely a good idea to look into it. After all, companies like Volvo, Universal Music, Lionsgate and Electronic Arts can’t be wrong with all their advertising dollars!

Are you using YouTube to ptomote your business? Please tell us about it.

These days, video is really growing on the Internet. Where text was once the content of choice, that’s not necessarily true anymore. Video and audio are becoming extremely popular and the fact that more people have faster Internet now means that videos can be more complex and longer than the 30 second bites from before.

While video is an excellent way to show people what you do or promote your business, many don’t realize that videos can also boost traffic and increase SEO. Not sure how that works? Here are some tips for you.

1. Choose your video site carefully. There are a myriad of video sites out there, but the bigger ones will give you more Google juice. Search engine optimization is key, so YouTube is a good place to start since it is already huge with the search engines.

2. Make a meaningful video. While you can still gain traffic from a short, useless video, ideally you want something that will go viral. The more sites that pick up the video, the better. Humor is something that will always go over well and tends to get passed on, so if you can pull it off, this is a great way to go.

3. Use tags. All video sites will let you fill in tags to describe the video, so use your keyword phrases in this section. This will help them come up in relevant searches, as well.

4. Write a great description. This is what people will be looking at to decide if they want to watch your video or not. The description can have a main keyword phrase in it, but don’t overdo things. You’ll get the best results with subtlety.

5. Write a killer title. Your video title should be something that makes people sit up and pay attention, but still include your main keyword. Remember that this is one of the best places to boost SEO, always with the right title.

Video marketing isn’t new. How you use it for SEO is definitely a technique that is just starting to become popular, however. If you want to boost search engine rankings, you can start by creating some viral videos to drive links and traffic to your site.

Maybe you’ve tried video marketing and have had little luck, or perhaps you’re still thinking about getting into this rapidly growing area of marketing. Either way, knowing what makes a video go viral and end up spread out across the entire internet can help you create better content that will be shared and commented on everywhere.

Why Videos Go Viral?

1. They offer value. A really useful video will often end up being featured on various blogs and if you have really packed it with gems, some big names and gurus in the industry might even pick it up. The trick here is to make sure you give people something they can use immediately, as soon as they finish watching the video. Once they see what you’re giving away for free, you can make a pitch that is far more likely to be successful, or merely offer your URL at the end of the video for more information.

2. They’re funny. Not all viral videos are funny, but let’s face it, pretty much everyone has seen the laughing baby now. When something makes you laugh, you tend to pass it on, particularly if it has you in stitches the whole time and is family friendly. While risqué humor might work for a specific audience, it’s going to have limited “pass it on” exposure.

3. They’re short. Very rarely are you going to find a viral video that is longer than 30-60 seconds. People simply don’t pay attention to longer clips, so if you’re looking to create a video that will be passed on rapidly, keep it to a minimum.

4. They have a gimmick. It’s amazing how many popular videos on YouTube use this technique, but it still works. People like something different, so if you do this, you’ll get plenty of attention. For example, one guy on YouTube shows off his amazing pottery skills, only to destroy his works of art at the end of each video.

5. They have hot titles. You want your video title to be optimized for your keywords, but keep it exciting to the viewer. After all, you’re going to be in competition with millions of other videos, so yours needs to stand out. A shocking title will tend to grab more attention, so keep this in mind and steer away from the duller, more descriptive headlines.
Video marketing is a good way to go in your business, but if no one ever actually watches the videos, then it is a complete waste of time. Make sure your videos have what it takes to go viral, then turn them loose and watch your brand become more popular and get more hits on your website.