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5 Ways to Make the Most of Your Video Investment

Video is increasingly becoming a preferred channel to market a business and engage with target audiences – customers, media and influencers – that is much more exciting and entertaining than text and photos.

Video can put a personality to your brand with an authenticity that is only available through face-to-face interaction. It is also affordable. The software and cameras available today are cost-effective, making this investment a winner for your business.

Here are five ways to make sure your video communications are maximized:

1) Content
It is critical that the content of your video is informative and will give the viewer a clear takeaway. Whether the video is a product demo, customer case study, tour of your facility, or a message from your CEO on a business topic, it should be direct, to the point, and provide valuable information to the viewer.

It is also important that the video is short – no longer than 3 minutes long. If you need more time, you probably need to think about doing a series of videos!

If the video is a product demo or presentation, keeping it under three minutes may be difficult. Consider developing a “teaser” or trailer that gives the user a quick overview, and then offer the opportunity to watch the entire piece. This way, you get can communicate your key points to the casual viewer and also offer a more in-depth piece to those who want to engage on a deeper level.

2) Interactivity
Adding an interactive element to the video can increase engagement and help you measure the effectiveness of the piece. One way that you can add interactivity is by adding a request to take a poll or survey that is hosted on your website or a third-party survey provider such as Survey Monkey. This can add a level of personal touch to the traditional “tell us what you think” request and gives you the opportunity to assure your audience that their opinions matter.

3) Quality
While videos can be captured easily from a cell phone or computer, it is important that the quality is not totally sacrificed – inferior quality can deter potential viewers. Depending on the topic and tone that you want to convey, it may be worth investing in a third-party vendor to help capture the video and ensure the lighting, sound and overall quality are professional and coincide with the topic being covered. For a video of your CEO providing insight on a critical business issue or a product demo, it is important that your content or message is not lost as a result of poor video quality. Videos taken with a cell phone or flip cam device may be perfectly acceptable for certain uses, such as a quick customer interview at a trade show, or tour of an office. Just be aware that the level of production quality that is put into the video correlates with the perception from the viewer.

4) Optimization
According to a recent Forrester Research study, videos are 53 times more likely to generate a first-page ranking than traditional SEO techniques. Creating a video and posting it to YouTube with a title and metatags makes the content searchable, just like an article or content on your website. The great thing is – it is more likely to be viewed because people like watching videos more than they like reading websites or whitepapers.

However, since 20 hours of new video is uploaded to YouTube every minute, it is challenging to get your YouTube video found. For effective YouTube SEO, identify the target key words your audience is searching for and incorporate them into your title and tag your video with them. Also, make sure your YouTube channel has a complete bio that also coincides with the content on your channel. Another way to make sure your video gets attention is by embedding it on your blog or website. You are more likely to gain viewers if you embed the video than if you simply link to it, so embed wherever you can.

5) Sharing
45% of videos are found through networks, such as YouTube or Facebook, and 44% are discovered on blogs and websites – so it is important to balance where the video lives and how it can be shared. Posting a link to the video on your Facebook and Twitter accounts can help get the word out and will also help promote others to share the video with their networks as well.

Additionally, if you submit a video to social video bookmarking sites (such as Digg.com, Video Bomb, Flurl, or StumbleVideo), you have the potential to gain a lot of viewers if enough people vote for your video.

Finally, if possible, incorporate videos into your email campaigns. Video in email is said to be able to boost conversion rates by as much as 50 percent!

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to share your message across multiple communication channels. With video you can derive several benefits without a huge investment.

Kathleen Fusco
Zer0 to 5ive Senior Strategist
Twitter: @kathleenz10