How to Use Low Cost Videos to Grow Your

Business as a Digital Marketing Strategy

August 19, 2015 by Khalid Ibrahim

Welcome to the 21st century where videos are more popular now than they’ve ever been. If you own a business and you haven’t used videos as digital marketing tool to connect with your

customers than you’re making a big mistake.

Hundreds of millions of videos are being recorded, watched, shared and laughed at every day. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand pictures.

So if for some reason you haven’t been using videos as part of your digital marketing strategy,

what does your business stand to gain if you do?

Digital Marketing – growing your business with videos

#1 It brings out the personality of your brand

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Your business is different from your competition. What better way to show them that than to create a video? You can give your customers a little insight into how you operate your business.

Let them see the people behind the scenes. Sometimes seeing the effort that you put in to make

your products and services can give your customers a new kind of understanding and appreciation of your brand. Introducing your employees to your customers makes them feel more at ease because they now know who they’re dealing with.

Using videos to promote your products and services allows people to see a hands on

demonstration of just how it works. Sometimes that’s all people need to convince them to buy your product.

It enhances your reputation

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One of the best ways to build the reputation of your brand is through word of mouth. Now videos present the perfect opportunity for you to do that. You can share the results of your hard

work with is through testimonials from happy customers.

They come in many forms and act as “social proof” for potential customers and prospects. Online reviews play an integral part in influencing customer purchasing decisions. This is because more often than not, online reviews send a more honest message that captures the user

experience of a particular good or service.

If you have been doing great work, your business is in the best position to capitalize on video testimonials so that you can show everyone just how happy your customers are. By doing so,

you will establish an emotional connection with the viewer.

Sometimes all you see is a written testimonial on a website with no picture or name next to it. It’s hardly moving and its credibility can be questionable. Video testimonials show you the

happy customer in the flesh sharing their experiences.

This establishes trust with your customers. Having real people vouch for your business is a very powerful persuasive tool to have. It can really help you establish credibility for your brand and give you the edge over your competition.

A powerful marketing tool at a very inexpensive cost is a no-brainer. If you’re a small

business owner, all you need is the camera in your pocket (if its good) and some video editing software.

It expands your audience

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Some people find it easy to read content of a website or a blog. Some find it easier to listen to podcasts. A lot of people find it really easy to watch videos. Always try and create different

ways for your customers to enjoy your content.

Uploading entertaining, informative videos will cultivate a large subscription of followers for you. People generally like things that they find useful. Creating “how to” and “Top ten” videos will not only get people sharing your videos all over the place, but it will also establish you as

an expert and thought leader in your niche.

Another big advantage of creating videos is that more people can find you. A lot of businesses try to optimize their website and blog to rank in the top ten search results in google. Why not

rank in the second most popular search engine?

Creating videos boosts your SEO and you create back links that will connect interested prospects to your website or business that will buy your products and services. Videos are

statistically more likely to be shared than webpage links.

Now that you know what you stand to benefit from including videos in your marketing strategy, how do you create the best videos for your business? Depending on the type of videos you want to create, these are the necessary requirements:

A camera

A microphone Video editing software

1. Camera

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The good news is many of the smartphones we have today shoot really amazing videos. They all come packed with HD cameras and with good lighting and angles, they can really capture

the intensity and detail you need to make your videos look good. If you have an iPhone than you know what I’m talking about.

However, if you want something better, you can always invest in digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) video cameras to really give it that professional polish.

If you are looking for the best cameras to use, then read this guide

Top 5: Best DSLR Cameras for Shooting Videos

2. Microphones

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A good looking video can be immediately ruined by poor sound quality. Your smart phone comes with a built in microphone but it is less than ideal if you really want to capture that

perfect pitch. Often people who do record with their smartphones uses other audio recording peripherals instead the phone’s microphone.

These guides will help you choose the best microphones for recording videos:

Improve Your HDSLR Video Sound with an External Microphone

Choosing a microphone for your video.

3. Video editing software

When you have finished recording all the things you need, you need to process and edit the video to make all those corrections. Let’s start with your free options.

Windows movie maker is readily available in your computer and is easy to use. If you own a Macintosh, you can use iMovie. Third party software like Adobe Premiere Elements 13 is

compatible on windows and Mac.

If you create animated videos, then PowToon is just for you. OF course if you feel overwhelmed by all the processes, you could always hire a videographer or a company that

makes videos like anmoto.com.

If you do have windows movie maker or iMovie and don’t know how to use them, then these guides are for you:

How to use Windows Movie Maker

How to Create a movie From Start to Finish with iMovie

When you do make your videos, these are the things you want to keep in mind so you cut out the mistakes and create the best possible videos for your business.

Plan

You need to have a strategy. You need to know what kind of video you want to make and who you want to make it for. What do you want to accomplish with your video? You can have a video that looks great but if it doesn??t achieve your goals, then what is the point?

Be Creative

When you create videos, you are dealing with visual images and not words. So you have to unleash your creativity by being less constricted in your serious, objective based state of mind. Add a nice sound track, A little humour is also a good strategy.

No matter the length of your video, it should always try to tell some kind of story about your

business or the service that you are selling. You want to connect emotionally to your viewers and having your video tell a story does that.

Don’t forget to always insert calls to actions even in your videos to get people buying your

products.

Share

When you do have your complete video, you’ve only done half the work. You need to alert people of its availability. Promote it across social media. Insert your relevant keywords into

tags and meta-descriptions so that people can organically search and find your videos on all search engines.

The more people share your video the more awareness it creates and the more your business grows.

Conclusion

Proper implementation of videos in your digital marketing strategy will do wonders for your business. It may be just what you need to have the edge over your competitors. It is inexpens ive and a highly accessible tool to create even stronger connections with your customers.

With the right equipment, passion and commitment, you can make high quality informative

videos that people will share and help your business grow.

Do you have any other tips about making videos for your business? Please let me know in the comments below.