Author: David Bain

Got a new business product but don’t know where to start? Video marketing just might be for you. This article discusses video marketing, its advantages and a short guide on how to make a video perfect for any marketing campaign.

There are a lot of ways through which you can market your products and your services. Among these methods, the most cost-effective means is perhaps the internet.

Through the internet, you can come up with every marketing campaign possible. The internet is so flexible and vast that with the right moves, it can help your business become more popular and more prominent. That being said, let me introduce you to the latest trend and possibly the most effective of all online marketing strategies: video marketing.

— Video Marketing —

Video marketing just might be the hottest trend to date in the marketing field. The time for telling through text marketing copy has passed. Instead, it’s now time for showing and demonstrating through video clips.

If you’re not that familiar with video marketing, there’s absolutely no need for you to worry. The internet provides a lot of resources on how you can make your videos. You can learn about the tools that you need to make videos and the techniques that can make your videos work for marketing purposes. The following are some tips on how you can make video marketing work for your business.

1. Determine where to post your videos.

First of all, you have to know where you are going to post your video marketing material. There are many choices available to you. You can place your video in your website for more interesting site content. You can also post video clips in online communities and blogs. Of course, you should not neglect to post videos in video blogging sites like YouTube.

2. Determine the video content.

The prior step will help a long way in determining the content of your video marketing materials. As a general rule, your videos must contain information that will build more interest in your business’ products and services. However, the actual and specific content will have to vary, depending on where you’re posting your videos.

For instance, videos in your website can be much more product- or service- oriented. Particularly, your videos can demonstrate how effective your product or service is. Your videos in your site can also be video testimonials from your customers. Moreover, they can be video clips about your special promotions and special updates.

Videos posted in online blogs should be more about updates, news and special promotions. They should merely inform your viewers about the latest news and induce your audience to click on the link to your site for more details.

For video blogging sites like YouTube, your video should be less product-oriented and more entertaining and creative. Your website link can be provided with the video and your products can be featured in them, but your videos must never be a simple sales pitch. You’re never going to be referred and reposted that way.

3. Identify your audience.

All along, you should keep your audience in mind. How old are your intended consumers? Who are they and where do they come from? The content of your video marketing materials will also heavily depend on the demographics of your intended recipients.

After you have done all of the above mentioned steps, all you will need to do is to make your videos and post them online. Of course, you may have to engage the services of a video server for your purposes.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/3-tips-to-help-your-online-video-marketing-beat-the-competition-139006.html

About the Author
David Bain is an online videos marketing specialist. Visit http://freeiq.com/headingtags for a free demonstration video of how to choose your own inline H Tags (Heading Tags).

Email marketing is the main focus of many internet marketers.

It was immediately apparent that all they needed to do was get a list of addresses and then they could make money through that list for many years.

This article will be focusing on email marketing tips that will help you boost your sales and conversions.

The first thing that you need to keep in mind when using email marketing is to aim on avoiding the spam filters. In order to protect their customers from spam or unsolicited messages, email service providers have fairly advanced technology to filter out certain emails. Each email that is received goes through the spam filter, which awards points to emails to determine if they are spam. Depending on the particular provider or how the customer has set up his account, emails that get a high number of spam points are sent to the spam folder or deleted outright. The trick is to avoid using words in your subject line or email body that are likely to alert the spam filter, such as “making money,” “free,” “build wealth,” and so forth. Very often, recipients don’t receive information that they’ve requested due to spam filters.

Just be stable and consistent with your emails, and keep each one to a single theme, or message. Trying to cover more than one topic is not a proven way to do this, and you don’t really have enough space to do it well. The more information you have in your email, the higher will be the chances of your subscriber just deleting it. Put your main focus topic benefit in the first paragraph, and also put the benefit of it in your subject line, if possible. Your readers will remember that you make things easier for them in your emails, and they’ll be more likely to open future emails and read them. But this approach is not necessarily the best one for full-blown newsletter type emails – it’s only for promotional emails. But even with the content mailings, try to avoid covering too many topics.

But make sure each email has a call to action in it, even if it’s just to remind them of the next email you’ll be sending. A call to action is just telling your reader to do something specific whatever that may be. If your email contains promo links, then tell them to click on it now. It’s fine to say it more than once, just put something in there in several places in your email. It’s acceptable to mention it two to three times without being aggravating to your readers. You’ll also have fewer conversions if you do not include any instructions if you need them. Never assume your readers will figure things on for themselves. So always include benefits and then any clear instructions for them to follow.

You really can succeed and make good money with email marketing, you just need to educate yourself about it and proceed. Just never forget that when you engage in email marketing you’re really doing relationship marketing. It’s really important that you continue to learn more about this subject.

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Despite the fact that many small businesses now realize that video marketing is something that they can implement relatively easily, for some reason they still aren’t doing it.

With the benefits that video marketing can offer a business, this could be a fatal mistake.

This is possibly due to the fact that the concept of video marketing is still relatively new, and this could mean that most business owners simply do not understand how to use it effectively.

So if you’re business is not using video at the moment, then this is potentially good news for you, and bad news for your competition. If you could start creating some videos about your business, you could steal a march on your competitors.

The Good News Is

Your competitors are unlikely to be using video marketing yet, and so this could be happy days for you and your business. And as you may have read in my previous article about video marketing, it is neither very difficult or expensive to create and produce a video.

In fact the very concept of video marketing has grown in popularity hugely in recent years, mainly due to substantial improvements and the greater availability of affordable technology. Digital and HD (High Definition) camcorders are now relatively inexpensive to buy compared to when they were first launched, and this has allowed many more people to film and upload their videos for all the world to see.

This Is Why Video Is So Powerful

And this is without doubt one of the assets, the power if you like, of video marketing. It allows your business to capture the imagination of your prospects, and be completely honest and transparent about the products and services that you are offering.

Video also gives you the opportunity to enhance your reputation in the process. It can of course, also allow you to demonstrate in a few seconds on video, what would potentially take longer to explain in audio or in print.

Video marketing has now emerged as possibly the fastest, most efficient and persuasive mode of online marketing available, hence the importance that I believe it has as part of a successful marketing campaign.

But despite the fact that some larger corporations are now using it, the small and medium sized business community still appears to be lagging behind. They still do not appear to have grasped the fact that video marketing can be hugely beneficial in attracting more interest in what they are selling.

And It Gets Even Better For You

Fortunately for you, this is still great news for your business as your competition are unlikely to be using it either.

One of the keys to the success of video marketing has been the popularity of the You Tube website. Since the creation of You Tube a number of other video sharing sites have emerged on to the scene, however You Tube remains the one that is the most popular. In fact, such was the success of You Tube that in October 2006, internet giant Google purchased the site for a reported $1.65 billion. Yes that was billion with a ‘b’!

And in 2008, according to a service called Alexa, You Tube was the second most trafficked site in the world, getting 60 million unique views per month. Alexa is a well respected source of online information that has built an unrivaled source of information regarding websites, including visitor statistics, related links and much more. Given these facts, do you think it may be beneficial to your business to have a presence on a site that has 15 million visitors each and every week? I think you know the answer.

Simon Thurston is an expert business consultant and marketing consultant, and author of “The Death Of Traditional Marketing”.

You can find out more about him by visiting his blog today at simonpaulthurston.com.

So, you’re an entrepreneur who’s decided to start making your own online videos in order to boost your marketing and social media efforts.

To get the best results, you’ll want to follow a plan that takes you from pre-production to shooting and editing to online distribution.

Here are some simple steps that can guide you in that process:

Strategy

Concept

• Imagine you’re giving a presentation to your ideal clients. What unique, valuable information can you provide? What do they need and want to hear? Now imagine the camera is your audience and you only have two minutes to talk. Keep it brief, focused and valuable.
• Examples of good concepts – giving tips in your area of expertise, demonstrating your product or service, describing an event or workshop you’re leading.
• Example of not-so-great concepts – video blogging about your wide array of thoughts and philosophies with no clear focus or outcome for the client.

Script

• Don’t wing it. Have an outline or script prepared so that your video is a focused, polished presentation of the most valuable information.
• You don’t need to memorize every word. However, do rehearse (in front of a mirror is very helpful) so that your performance comes across as confident and natural.
• Keep it short. Web attention spans are very short.

Some general length guidelines:

• Ads or business profiles – 30 sec – 1 min
• Demonstrations – 1-3 min
• Webisodes or presentations – 2-4 min

Basic equipment

Camera (keep it simple and easy for you to use):

• Flip camera – you can upload right to YouTube.
• Macbook – built in camera and you can use iMovie.
• Any basic consumer camera that you already have – they’ll come with uploading instructions and possibly some basic editing software.
• Video cameras that record to memory cards are great – no dealing with buying multiple tapes and converting them.

Audio:

• Use your camera or Mac’s built-in mic.
• If you’re having problems with audio quality using just the camera’s built-in mic, and you have an external mic jack, then you can consider buying a mic to plug in. Check for inexpensive options on Amazon.

Tripod:

• You just need the camera off the ground and level with your eyeline. If you can achieve that with a counter or books on a table, more power to you!
• If not, purchase an inexpensive tripod – go to Best Buy or any store that sells cameras.

Lighting - At the DIY level, this helps increase quality more than the type of camera you use.

• Find a spot in your home, office or outside (if noise is not a problem) where your face is well lit in an even and soft manner. No harsh shadows.
• If you need more light, use some standing reading lamps and move them closer to you (not in the shot but between you and the camera).
• If that’s still not working, then you need to buy a light, especially if it’s a wider shot or the camera is further away.
• If necessary – buy a basic continuous lighting kit on Amazon for $80.
• Do a Google search for “lighting tutorial” to get additional setup tips.

Production - keep your production simple and focused on offering great information or inspiration.

• Dress as you would if you were having a meeting or giving a presentation to your ideal client. In the majority of cases, you’ll want to look well-groomed, neat and professional. Stay away from wearing bright or distracting patterns, but feel free to wear color (“jewel” tones are usually best – think rubies, emeralds, etc.).
• Speak confidently and let your personality shine through.
• Look into the camera and imagine the audience that you’re talking to.
• Set up your set with bright, natural lighting with an uncluttered background.
• Stay fairly close to the camera (about 2-3 feet away) for a medium shot that is optimal for image and audio quality.

Editing

• To cut down on editing time, try to plan and execute videos in one take, or tape different clips and then put them together.
• Use simple software such as iMovie(.mov format, free with Mac) or Movie Maker (.avi format, free with Windows).
• Online distribution
• Set up an account on YouTube.com. Fill out your profile and subscribe to other channels that match your marketing goals.
• Upload your video and make sure to include a relevant, interesting title, description and keywords.
• Embed the video on your website and/or blog.
• Share it on:Facebook, Twitter, your e-newsletter.

These are the basic steps to follow to make the most out of online video on the DIY level. Check out these examples of small business videos to inspire you in your efforts. And, remember to have fun!

Melissa Mansfield is the co-founder of Green Gorilla Media, a San Francisco-based production company that helps its clients use online video to build brand recognition and meaningful customer relationships.

As a producer at Green Gorilla, Melissa guides clients through every step of the video production process, including social media strategy, concept development, scriptwriting, production and post-production.

To find out how Green Gorilla Media can help you boost your social media and marketing efforts with online video, visit http://www.greengorillamedia.com.

You can also follow Green Gorilla Media on Twitter: @greengorillas.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Melissa_Mansfield
http://EzineArticles.com/?Make-Your-Own-Videos—Easy-DIY-Tips-For-Small-Businesses&id=4589518

Written by: PUSH Marketing Partners

Today email has changed the face of modern communications. We have the ability not only to open and read our emails at our desk or on our laptop but with mobile technology, our email accounts (and we’re sure to have more than one) can live in our pockets.

Smartphones and netbooks mean we can take our email wherever we go. And who knows what the new iPad will do for it!

So how has all this affected the power of email marketing? Well, firstly there has been a significant change in the way smart marketers are using email. There will always be the spammers, happy to spew out millions of emails a week with completely non-relevant subjects to every possible address on the planet. However, new technology and greater access to it now allows everyone the opportunity to harness email as it should be used, following that well-worn marketing mantra of Right Message – Right Person – Right Time.

With a stronger move towards the powerful concept of Permission-based Marketing, good marketers out there are looking for ways to get appropriate messages in front of potentially interested customers. More than this, we can learn about our customers too.

Email marketing, used properly, can become a cornerstone of a solid marketing strategy. It can be used to attract new customers, as well as maintain effective contact with existing ones. It allows us to deliver the right message in a timely way and, most importantly, to the right individual.

Other reasons why email marketing is still among the top tools for SMEs include:

Speed; there really is no other way (with the exception of SMS Marketing perhaps) of getting a marketing campaign running faster. You can release a campaign in the morning and start making sales in the afternoon. You also get very fast (real-time) statistics that allow you to fine-tune your marketing campaign as you go.

Split-testing; I can’t believe there are still people out there who continue to run the same adverts week after week, month after month, with no plan to test them. This really is CRITICAL and split testing is the easiest way to achieve this. If you’re not aware of how to do this, FIND OUT and stop wasting your money (look out for a blog on this soon!).

Return on Investment; because email marketing can be so much cheaper than other forms of marketing, if you USE IT PROPERLY, you’ll see an amazing ROI. It’s no longer about ‘spray and pray’ it’s all about getting the mix right and being highly targeted.

So what is the magic mix? Well I’m going to give the game away at my next seminar on Email Marketing but here’s a sneak preview of the elements that I’ve found have a massive impact on results:

Get good data – This really is rule number 1. You will want to collect and source data in the right way and if you’re buying/renting data then use good suppliers, there are many out there. Quite simply, no other factor will increase results as much as good/relevant data.

Use a good email system – Forget about trying to manage your emails through standard applications like your Outlook account, you’re wasting your time and money. A proper email marketing tool will give you amazing power and control over your campaigns and help you to build progressively. Try the PUSH Email Marketing System (see www.nialadams.com)

Know how to play the game – Understand how email marketing works and what the ‘rules’ are. These are really quite simple (when you know them!) and will help you double, treble or more your campaign results.

Get strategic as well as tactical – Ensure that you build your email marketing into your overall sales and marketing plan. It will never work effectively for you if you just do it occasionally and with little thought or attention.

And lastly…

Always remember to use email to appropriately – It will help you to build your community and maintain contact with it. Stick to the guidelines and you’ll ensure your emails are seen as positive communication, not intrusive and annoying.

About the Author

Quite simply; I help business grow using well tried and tested methods of marketing and sales. Good business isn’t ‘rocket science’ and yet so few people really understand how to get the basic mechanics right. There is a simple formula that every business, no matter what size, type or location, can follow. I’ll share with you what I’ve spent over twenty years learning that makes successful businesses tick!

I guess I could ramble on about my talents and expertise but I’d rather let my clients (past and present) tell you what they think… that seems much more appropriate!

Webinars, or web seminars, have a great many uses that organizations and individuals alike can use. There are a lot of choices when it comes to choosing the right webinar provider, but many organizations decide based on the following factors – ease of use, cost and intended use.

Cost
Cost is a major factor when choosing what type of webinar appliance or software to use. Because several businesses still consider webinars as a luxury purchase, having an economical price and value will help convince business owners and supervisors to actually purchase the technology. Many companies that provide webinar technology often do so at a monthly or annual subscription plan. However, there are web conferencing appliances that may be the most economical approach– these products only have an initial cost, with no monthly fees or subscription costs for the entire life of the appliance.

Ease of Use
Facilitating webinars has become so easy- with the right computer and software, almost anyone can do it. Making webinars easy to conduct has helped individuals and businesses communicate better with each other, their customers, and other industry professionals. Many organizations are now beginning to use webinars instead of planning large conferences at hotels or convention centers. This saves a substantial amount of money and, in many cases, is just as effective.

Intended Use
There are several great uses for webinars, in almost any industry. Many organizations offer free webinars to interested parties as a learning tool. This not only drives traffic to the hosted website, but it also establishes credibility in the industry.

Besides using webinars as an effective marketing tool, many organizations use webinar technology for internal and client training. Employee orientation or teaching new skills can now be done in any office location. In addition, teaching clients or customers how to use an organization’s products can be as easy as having them join a webinar with an educated instructor.

Kelsey Childress is a Freelance Internet Marketing Specialist residing in Kansas City. She uses the 4-in-1 RHUB Remote Appliance for web conferencing and remote access. To learn more about RHUB, please visit http://rhubcom.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kelsey_Childress
http://EzineArticles.com/?Why-Webinars-Are-a-Crucial-Marketing-and-Learning-Tool&id=3991369

Putting video on your website is a very important piece of your marketing. Used correctly, it will get people to stay at your website longer, they will make more inquires, and they will get to know you.

Used incorrectly, your video will chase your visitors away faster than a New York Second…..

To place video effectively, on your website, follow these Ten Rules:

Rule #1 – Avoid having your video start automatically when visitors arrive to your website. Along with having different models of computers and speakers, your visitors may have their audio setting at full volume, may already have their speakers in use, or may not even have speakers at all. Customers may very well leave your website if it starts blaring noise as soon as they arrive. It’s much more difficult to look around to try and figure out how to turn off your audio than it is to simply leave the website or hit the back button.

Rule #2 – Make sure it looks professional! Make sure your video both look and sound good, otherwise you will appear to be an amateur. The good news is, for about $100.00 you can purchase a decent camera. Even the least expensive digital still cameras have the ability to film movies surprisingly well. Also, always dress the part.

Rule #3 – Keep promotional videos short and lots of camera angle changes! The place for long audio messages online is almost never the main page of a website. Your messages will be most effective if kept concise, direct, and easy to interpret. This can be what makes or breaks the video message. A good length for your video is between 30 and 90 seconds. Keep in mind, commercials are only 30 seconds long and manage to convey their messages clearly; use them as a model when making your video. Also, the goal of Hollywood is to change camera angles every 7 seconds.

Rule #4 – Prepare yourself by shooting tons of videos! It helps to practice out loud after writing a complete word for word script and then change it as necessary. People will know if you are just “winging” it. Prior to recording your script, be sure to have other people listen to it and offer their criticism. Then remove unnecessary words; reduce the length and change wording to better convey your message.

Rule #5 -Smile! Always smile and appear friendly on your video. Most people find those who enjoy what they’re doing much more enjoyable to do business with. Be sure to convey your passion for your loan business to the viewer. Body language is also much more of a factor on video than voice.

Rule #6 – Avoid putting too much video up on your site. People will not choose a play button at all, if there are too many to choose from. Visitors are more likely to watch your message if you limit the number of video buttons on your site. It’s usually sufficient to have a properly done single play and pause button to get your point across.

Rule #7 – Allow them to see your personality – let it shine. You are making a video in order to let people get to know you. Believe it or not, they want to learn about who you are. Television is filled with reality TV shows. American viewers are intrigued by other people’s lives. Let them get to know you, your family and your pets. Your Voice should also have a Cadence to it or a natural rhythm.

Rule #8 – Make sure your video actually has a point! While this may sound redundant, people often put video on their website for no other reason than simply because they can. If there’s not much of a point to your video, it won’t make any difference to anyone how fancy it is. Your video must have a well-defined purpose.

Rule #9 – Instruct people to view your video! Simply having a play button available on your website isn’t going to be sufficient. Let people know what to expect – what’s it about, how long is it, what can they expect to hear – and, obviously, where to click to start it playing. People need to be given instructions online, so it’s a mistake to assume they will figure out on their own that they need to watch your video. It can also be helpful if you let the audience know how long the message is, because people will be more likely to listen if they know how long it is. Sometimes, as research has shown, people will not click on a play button to a video message for fear that it may be too long. Let your visitors know if it’s a long message so they will be prepared for it.

Rule #10 – Perform a test run on your video! Don’t assume that simply putting video up on your website will increase sales. Test it out, get opinions from your visitors, friends, and family, and then do split testing. With your video, figure out if there is an increase in conversions. You’ll never know if your video messages are helping or hurting your website without a measurement of your results both before and after its addition.

Learn More about video marketing from Author Keith Goeringer at http://www.keithgo.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Keith_Goeringer
http://EzineArticles.com/?Video-Marketing-Secrets-For-Your-Web-Page—10-Rules-to-Follow-to-Not-Drive-Visitors-Away!&id=4590434

Product Description
This pioneering textbook lays the foundation for using the most exciting marketing medium in decades. It shows what makes the Internet new and different, what techniques work and which don’t, and how the Internet is creating value for customers and profits for companies. Most importantly, it shows how Internet Marketing fits into the rest of an organization’s marketing strategy…. More >>

Principles of Internet Marketing

You must stay focused and operate in a small area or soon you can be overwhelmed with all the different directions you’ll be going and your business will likely go upside down. This is where strategic internet marketing can come to the rescue.

Trying to come up with a solid internet marketing plan is probably the hardest thing about making money online. There are a lot of thing you need to think about, such as building a website, how the website will be developed, how it will marketed plus many other things. The website is just a small part of your overall business plan. You still have to think about what the market is doing, how you can fit into the market, how to work with your customers, who and where are your potential buyers, how you are going to attract visitors and literally dozens of other considerations. All of these things will be a part of your internet marketing strategy. With so many things to think about what should your priority be?

Now is when you need to start putting a strategic internet marketing plan into motion. The strategy is to figure out your potential market and where your business is going to come from. You must study your potential buyers and determine what they want to buy. You will need to study your competition to see where you will fit into the business that already established. How will you attract your customers and what you’ll need to do to make them repeat buyers?. Its a fairly well known fact that if you don’t have a well thought out internet marketing strategy you are setting yourself up for failure.

Why is strategic internet marketing important? Because it helps you outline your business goals distinctly and enables you to make your objectives clear. Although you need a solid plan it needs to be flexible enough to be able to change it if there is a drastic change in the market or your circumstances.

In order to start your internet marketing strategy there are a number of points you need to think about. Here are 6 of what are probably the most important ones. These will help you outline your plan and help you keep you internet marketing business on the right path to success.

1. You need to start by figuring out what your target market is. There are a number of questions you need to find the answers to. These include: what type of people are going to supply most of your income, where will these people come from, how much extra money will they have to spend, what will be their age group, etc. The answers to these questions will help you decide who you customers will be.

2. Strategic internet marketing doesn’t stop with just figuring out who your customers are. You must also define who your competitors will be and what their weakness and strengths are in the marketplace. Once you know these things you can plan a strategy to set your business apart from them. Give your potential customers a choice of you or your competition. Make sure you look better than your competitor in some way or it won’t be good for you.

3. For your internet business to succeed your target buyer must be willing to shop online. Although shopping online is very safe there are still people who are afraid to make purchase on the internet. You will need to reassure your customers that their transaction will be without problems and that it will be very secure. Make sure you have enough payment options so that they will have a choice that will help convince them to shop with you.

4. Even though you will have already started your business before you can determine the marketability of your product, you study sellers offering the same or a similar product. If your product is known to most people but no one is selling it there is probably a reason. By going to chat rooms and forums you can get a pretty good idea of where you product stands. Do enough research to make sure you have something that will sell.

5. Your internet marketing strategy must have the ability to turn your customers into repeat buyers. Make sure you can spin off your product or create improvements to you original product to get them to buy again. A list of 100 buyers is probably worth more than a list of 1,000 people who have shown interest in your product but haven’t purchased it.

6. You will need to have a money back guarantee. Most people won’t purchase in today’s market without one. Even though it’s true that you can’t please everyone be ready to give an unhappy customer their money back immediately. You should try to offer them something free just for trying your product. Most of them will appreciate it and may even become a customer later on. If nothing else it may create a positive instead of a negative to your business.

Strategic internet marketing is like hunting with a guide who knows the area and the game you’re hunting like the back of his hand. Without the guide you may get lost or if you don’t you will probably never see any game because you’re looking in the wrong place.

One thing you have to keep in mind is that your customers won’t come looking for you. This is the reason you need to be looking for them with a strategic internet marketing plan as your guide.