Tag Archives: videos as content

24 Things You Can Say In Your Next Video

DIY ?, , , ,

When small businesses begin to think about making a video to put on their website, they usually start writing things to say about the products or services they’re trying to sell. What else is this process called?
video subjects,
Commercials.

Since no one searches the web for commercials, there has to be another way to tell a small business’ story.

There is. And it’s the process that businesses and professionals are using to build their video library.

There are probably at least ten questions that every customer asks you.
There are ten more questions you WISH they would ask. That’s a total of twenty different videos so far. Are you following?

But in the title I said 24 things.

The other four videos are actual showcase pieces about your product or services. No, not commercials. That’s where we come in. We’ve been producing those kinds of messages, those UN-mercials since before there was an Internet. And we’re still having fun.

–That’s a wrap.

Bad Video ; Empty Promises

DIY ?, Uncategorized, Who Uses Video, , , , , , ,

I’ve probably blogged about this before, but everytime I see one of these sites, I just want to erect a barricade around it.  Crime Scene Tape if you will.

It’s those sites who tell you how important video is to your website (it is) and then proceed to tell you that they can put one together for you using stock photos and a voiceover. (they can, but it won’t do you any good)

To make matters worse, THEIR websites usually have the well-placed red text that screams “SIGN UP NOW!!” or “LIMITED TIME OFFER!!”  They do this for the same reason Cosmopolitan writes the kinds of headlines it does for its magazine: It’s An Impulse Item.

If you own a small business, since when is your marketing plan an impulse item?

Yes, you can find some very nice looking stock photos, then add text overlays and pretty music, and you have a nice BORING video.

Where does it connect with your customers, your prospects? Where does it engage that audience of people who are looking for exactly what you do?

There are companies that will promise you thousands of hits on your website if you will just buy their e-book or sign up for their monthly program.  Some of these same companies promise you thousands of Twitter followers if you will just pay them “x” number of dollars.

But listen to me: You don’t want thousands of hits to your website. The only ones you want are the ones that will BUY from you. Those are the ones who are already searching for you. They may know that they want the product that you sell, but maybe there are different features. Help them decide. Do THAT in a video that stars you.

Ask people to watch a video with only words spinning and scrolling, and to me, that’s tantamount to the web pages of old with their blinking text and spinning animated gifs.

And it doesn’t tell me who you are.

I want to buy from you. I want to do business with you. I want to feel like I already know you.  That’s what your prospects are saying.  How will you answer them?

A slide show doesn’t cut it.

–That’s a wrap.

6 Reasons Why You Need To Use Flash For Web Video, and 1 Reason Why You Don’t.

DIY ?, Uncategorized, Who Uses Video, , , , , , , , ,

If you’re putting video on your website, you want as many folks as possible to watch it, right?  No matter if your viewer is using Windows, or Apple, they should be able to watch it quickly and without hassle.

There are more than a handful of multimedia formats, and some players don’t play them all.

I’m a PC – always have been; always will be.  Here’s something I didn’t know – not all Windows systems have Windows Media Player pre-installed. On the other hand, not all Apple machines have Quicktime pre-installed.  Windows Media won’t play Quicktime files. Quicktime doesn’t like Windows. But there’s one format, and one player that works with both operating systems.

When it comes to putting videos on your website, Adobe Flash has a lot going for it.

  1. The small file size means it loads quickly
  2. You can pre-set the buffer size, so it starts playing immediately
  3. It embeds easily into webcode
  4. You can determine how you want the player to look.
  5. You can view it full screen if you want
  6. Mobile devices are using it.  (It’s true, Flash doesn’t play well with the Iphone.  That’s why you also need an MP4 version of all your videos.)

Your website visitors don’t want to have to wait while a video downloads. Give them the experience they want, and the information they need, and they will actually spend a longer time on your site.  My average viewer spends almost four minutes on each page.  And there are effective and affordable video players which will even generate the code for you.  All you do is plug and play!

Do it now.  The longer you wait the further behind the curve you will be.  Video is not a craze.  It will become as ubiquitous as text and images are on websites.

–That’s A Wrap.

How Video Helps Your Website SEO

Who Uses Video, , , , , , ,

Everytime I talk with someone about using Videos On Your Website, the conversation invariably turns to Search Engine Optimization.  A lot of folks hear the term SEO, and they know it has something to do with keywords, but after that, they’re lost.

SEO is kind of like trying to put a bowtie on a fish.

The guys who do this for a living twist and pull and tweak their websites so they can in some measure figure out what the search engines are looking for.  Nobody’s supposed to know for sure.  But we do know that titles, headlines, and what you write on the page all get the attention of the search engine robots. We also know that a few of the right tweaks will get your ranking up, but with time, that ranking begins to fade as something newer takes its place.

There’s another fish analogy – if you turn your back and forget about it, it will start to smell.

That’s why constantly updating your website makes those search engine robots very happy.  Because a changing site is a fresh site.  And a fresh site must be more relevant. That means content.

If content is King, then having videos on your website should at least be Prime Minister. Videos can, and should be optimized with keywords.  They should not only be on your website, but distributed to as many of the video sharing sites as you can with a URL pointing back to your main page.  Everytime you do this, even if it’s the same video, it is fresh content in the hearts and minds of the search engines.

Ultimately, a visitor might share your video with a link, or a recommendation to a friend. That builds credibility, and that’s the other thing that feeds the search engine’s ranking machine.

To put it another way: having videos on your website can make you up to eight times more likely to land on the first page of Google results than if you just have text.

How are folks finding YOU?  What are they doing when they get to your site?  How long would you like to keep them there?

I’d be more than happy to talk to you about it.

–That’s A Wrap