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Guest post by: Karen Scharf Become an Author

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The use of online videos in small business marketing has become an increasingly popular strategy. Research has suggested that immediately after viewing a company's video consumers are far more likely to visit the company website or contact the company via phone. In fact they can be up to 40% more likely to make some sort of contact. This is a pretty dramatic statistic.

If you want to add video marketing to your own small business marketing program, it doesn't have to be a huge challenge. It can actually be fun and easy. While there are a variety of companies that are willing to help with this sort of production, it is so simple you will probably be able to pull it off yourself. After all, you aren't trying to make a blockbuster here; you're simply trying to create a relationship with prospects and spread the word about your product or services.

*** Creating Your Online Video

Make sure your video is "real". Customers are not interested in hearing a tired sales pitch. They want to get to know the human behind the business, so give them what they want. Instead of hammering off rote information or giving a lot of buzzwords, just be you.

Use a good quality camera. It doesn't have to be that expensive. These days, digital recorders have become less and less expensive. Find a decent camera that has good reviews (check with the online review sites and be sure to read the opinions of actual users). Then try a few practice videos to see what sort of quality you actually get.

Keep the video short. Three or four minutes is the norm for small business marketing videos. Think about how short commercials are on TV. You don't want to bore or overwhelm your viewers. If you do, they will simply click away and go somewhere else.

Your first video should simply be an introduction to your business and to you. However, at some point it is important to provide customers with a call to action. You can include your phone number or website address verbally or through a back link, or offer a coupon. Remember the ultimate goal of your video marketing is to find prospects, so don't forget to mention how you can be located.

*** The Power of VSEO

You have probably heard of SEO before. This term stands for "search engine optimization" and it refers to the method of optimizing textual content to rank higher on search engines like Google. The newest term being kicked around the marketing world is VSEO. This is "video search engine optimization."

Ranking first on Google is any web-savvy small business owner's dream. It turns out, that VSEO is a lot more likely to get you there than SEO. This is because your chances of having a video rank number one on Google are up to 50 times higher than having text rank number one on Google. That's right 50 times higher!

So obviously, VSEO is something you want to be concentrating on in your video marketing program. It works basically like regular search engine optimization. It includes methods such as posting links to your new videos on social media sites, promoting your videos through back links from other reputable sites, and optimizing the search terms and tags associated with your videos. Since video creation is generally a bit more time consuming than simple article or content publication, be sure your time and efforts are not wasted by ignoring VSEO.

*** Where Do All the Videos Go?

So you've followed all the steps and you've created your first video. Now where do you put it? There are actually several different avenues for publishing your videos on the internet and you probably want to use all of them.

For starters, you can publish your videos on social media sites like Facebook. Chances are, you already have customers and prospects on your friends list, so it's a good idea to capture their attention with your new video. And be sure to encourage them to share your videos with their friends list also. Now, you are in a million more places with very little work on your behalf.

YouTube is a given. You have to get your video on YouTube. This is the number one place that internet users go to watch videos. Since online video is quickly replacing television, you want to get to the top places and stay there.

You can also add your video to your Google business listing. This makes for a great visual representation of your business and adds to your professional reputation. This is a great way to advertise. It is like a business card that talks!

Small business marketing with video might seem a little confusing and time consuming at first, but it's actually quick and easy once you get into the swing of it. Since online video is growing so quickly, you definitely want to add this tactic to your marketing plan.

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