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Using Video Marketing To Drive Traffic To Your Website
By Michelle MacPhearson Copyright © 2007
Using video marketing to drive traffic to your web site
is an online marketing strategy many small business owners and internet
marketers are beginning to embrace, with much success.
Having a traditional
website only allows you to reach those people who first find your website.
However, combining video, social networking and some simple video marketing
techniques can drive hordes of qualified visitors to your website.
First, let's forget the silly videos you'll find all over YouTube of
kids running into fences and demonstrating the newest dance move. While
that kind of video can bring in hundreds of thousands of views, it won't
bring the targeted traffic you need.
Instead, consider making a video tightly
targeted towards your niche. A real estate agent might make a video
introducing herself and showcasing a few of her available homes for
sale. A night club might make a video "commercial" with soundbites
from partygoers. A software developer might make a video demonstrating
his latest application.
Because Google
and other search engines are beginning to give videos hosted on sites
like YouTube preferential search engine ranking, it's quite possible
your video could end up on the first page of search results for your
targeted keyphrase. This is incredibly powerful and not to be overlooked,
as this is what will make your video marketing efforts well worth the
time you invest in them.
Consider
that YouTube itself may not have a huge market of people looking for
videos on
"Oakland real estate." But if your video titled "Oakland Real Estate" made
the first page of Google search results (again, due to the preferential search
results video is receiving in the search engines) you'd benefit from the hundreds
of people who search for that term in Google seeing your video as the #1 result
and, in turn, watching your clip.
With the preferential treatment videos are
receiving in search results, the question then becomes, "How do I move people
from watching my video on YouTube to actually visiting my website?"
This
is simple. Bribe them, at the end of your marketing video. What follows
are some ideas:
- Offer them something for free at your site (a consultation,
a report, free drink, demo version, MP3 download, etc.)
- Poll them or
ask them a question they need visit your site to answer. People love
to give their opinion. You can combine with the free offer, above,
by giving them the freebie upon completion of the poll or question.
This is invaluable for market research.
- Leave `em hanging. Don't tell
the whole story on your YouTube hosted video - instead, tell them
just enough to incite curiosity. Then, instruct them to visit your
site for the complete story or answer.
Each
of these ideas are intentionally broad can be focused indefinitely and
molded to fit your target market.
The key here is catching your audience while
they're hot; directly after having watched our video and giving them
a reason to continue on to your website. The truth is that if you don't,
most will simply click through to another video or search result. Capitalize
on their attention and tell them where to go and what to do next - you'll be surprised
at how many will comply!
Even if you're no Spieldberg (I know I'm not) you can
produce traffic sucking videos with these simple methods.
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