Local Search Marketing
Today we are going to be looking at videos, and we are not talking about watching 80’s action movies on VHS.
Our guest blogger – Perry Stevens of Blend Local Search Marketing is going to explain why every business should be using videos as part of their online marketing strategy.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is the value of an online video? Well, because of the low costs of production and the exposure your business can achieve online, I would say video is both inexpensive and invaluable.
Gone are the days when you needed to hire a producer, director, storyboard artist, actor, extras, sound, lighting, editors etc to make your company video. Companies have spent small fortunes in the past on these show-reels that no one has ever seen. Today you can get amazing results from Flipvideos, cameras and even smartphones. It’s a case of keeping things simple and being a little creative.
Why Use Video Marketing for Business?
Videos can be used for your business to engage with your viewers about new products, services, offers, interviews and how to. They are also very good for online SEO, you see, Google love video! Google love video so much they bought the company – YouTube for $1.65 in 2006.
Now YouTube is the second largest search engine with over 2 billion views a day in 2011.
Over 3 million people are auto sharing their videos on YouTube with other social sites like Facebook and twitter.
Videos work for your business 24/7.
If you don’t like talking to the camera you can ask one of your employees to represent you online. However, if you are a business owner, I would recommend that you get in front of the camera so your potential customers get to know, like and trust you through video. By the time these prospects walk through the door of your shop or restaurant they will already have a rapport with you, such is the power of the moving image (you don’t have to watch yourself on the video if you don’t want too).
Most PCs and Macs have simple to use video making software built in. You can easily make eye-catching movies with a combination of PowerPoint Presentations and iMovies or Windows Movie Maker. If you are feeling a little bit more creative then record yourself giving an introduction to your Powerpoint video and combine the two.
Keep your videos on focus and between 30 to 90 seconds long. At the end of the video have a ‘call to action’, i.e. tell the viewer what to do next, e.g. ‘Click the link below’, ‘Join us at www.yourwebsite.com‘ or direct them to your social media pages, or ask them to write a review on your favourite business directory (yes, I mean Wampit)!
Now you have produced a video you need to host it online for the entire world to see. YouTube is the best place to start but there are dozens of other video hosting sites too. Try Vimeo, Daily Motion and Photobucket to name but three.
To allow your potential customers to find your video easily you will need to know what keywords they are using to find products and services in your area. Use ‘Google Keyword Tool’ to shortlist 5 good keywords to use for your Video SEO. Ideally they should have little competition and high search rates.
A Proven Local Business Video Marketing Strategy
If you follow my SEO and Video marketing strategy below, you’ll be 95% ahead of your competition with video marketing. This is the same YouTube Video Marketing strategy we use to get our clients multiple listings in Google.
To get more views and to see your videos appearing in Google SERP’s (Search Engine Result Pages) follow these 7 simple but very effective steps below:
- Always use your best keyword in your title. Research the keywords your customers are using to find products and services in your area and add a geo modifier – city, town and/or post/zip code
- The first and last thing appearing in your video description should be your website address as a clickable link. Ideally link it to the page the video refers to instead of your home page. This reduces the number of click throughs the prospect has to make to get more information, or take up your offer. It also avoids page bounce and ‘drop offs’.
- Don’t forget to have the http:// in front of your website address as this makes your link live and clickable e.g. http:// mywebsite.com instead of www. mywebsite.com
- It’s a good idea to use a URL shortening service to track the click through rates to ascertain what videos are performing best for you – try bit.ly
- The very first thing after your clickable website link in the description should be the video title.
- Post Panda updates, Google have stressed again how much they love relevancy and quality, so give it to them. In your unique description write 250 – 500 words and include your keywords and phrases at a rate of 1-3%. This will give the search engines like Google lots of information to deliver in search queries.
- End your description with a 2nd clickable link to your blog or website. Again like at the end of your video have a ‘call to action’ e.g. ‘Click this link’. It’s a case of telling your viewers what to do next. Tell them and they will do it. Don’t and that video of the cute kitten has just got an extra view and has now been seen by one million and one people, and you have lost a potential customer.
- YouTube call keywords ‘tags’. Use the five keywords (2 to 5 words phrases) that your customers would use to find you (remember the research you did with the Google Keyword Tool). Separate each tag with a comma. e.g. Plumber in Bermondsey, South East London Plumber, Plumber SE1, Plumbers in SE1, Local Plumber South London.
- This works great for Google Places: write your full company Name, Address, Telephone Number and website at the end of the description. Ensure wherever you enter you NAN’s online it is in the same format every single time. e.g. St. John Street not Saint John St. or St. John St. Keep it consistent for all your directory listings and in every video. This will ensure you get found online every time without duplicate listings. Google use NAN’s information to qualify their Google Place listings and most people and SEO companies miss this trick.
So by now you should have produced a video, uploaded it to YouTube and optimized it for the search engines. But I want to leave you with not 1 but 2 hot video marketing tips:
Video Marketing Tip #1 - Take the share code from your YouTube video and add it to your email signature.
Result: Every time your email recipients open your emails they will be able to view your video (think about the direct marketing opportunities you could have with this)!
Video Marketing Tip #2 - Upload your video for free to the fastest growing global business directory – Wampit!
Result: Get your business seen in front of millions of hungry prospects searching for your products and services online to get more customers and more profits.
About the Author
Perry Stevens is the founder and Chief Operations Director of Blend Local Search Marketing. He’s passionate about helping businesses become more successful online by using proven Internet marketing strategies. You can add your company profile to the Wampit® business directory today – one of the UK’s premier and trusted advertising services.
