Read Part Two from Cebron Walker of Walker Kreative on The Nine Free Ways to Use Video to Build Trust and Convert Consumers into Customers!
Last week, we discussed the the power of video marketing to build trust and ended with the nine FREE ways you can utilize your video effectively.
- YouTube
- Website
- Email Blast
- Email Signature line
- Introductory Emails to Possible Customers or Clients
- Facebook (Natively Posted)
- Sales presentation
- Trade show or convention booth
I’ll break down details of the how and why for each of these below.
1) Upload your video to your company YouTube account
If you haven’t got a YouTube account, make one. You should have a Google account. From there go to YouTube and create a Branded YouTube channel. (Google owns YouTube, so setting up your YouTube channel is done through your Google account). Once you have this set up, you can optimize it with keywords and tags and a well written “about” page and links to your social page. You will also want to put up a well branded YouTube header image. Once your video is hosted on YouTube it becomes easy to share and build attention on your brand.
Take for example this client, Walker Mobile Homes. She didn’t think anything much about the value of a YouTube channel to support her work. I convinced her to set up the channel and share her story of renovating and selling mobile homes. Heck, the world loves HGTV and so this may just work, I told her. She’s had her channel for a year and only put up 15 videos so far. With almost no promotion she has 95 subscribers and twenty-four thousand video views. She regularly gets calls from potential customers who saw her on YouTube. She ranks as the #1 leader in her niche for her geographic region on YouTube.
2) Embed the video onto the landing page on your website
On average, people spend 2.6x more time on pages with video than without. If you want people to watch and read the information on your website, place the video on your home page. Put it right below the top title information.
And if you have a testimonial video or many of them, put lower down on your home page, and/or on their own “Testimonials” page of your website. Testimonials are fantastic sales tools on your website, in emails and for use in social media.
3) Place your video in email blasts to new and existing customers
You probably have email lists of people you’ve done business with and people you’ve met or want to sell your products and services. Hopefully these lists are in an email software such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact. If not get something like this set up so you can send out good looking bulk emails. Put your video into an email to your list. Incorporate it smartly to help sell your brand and get people watching it, sharing it, commenting on it and reacting to it.
4) Add a link to your web video onto your email signature
By adding “Watch our video here” to your email signature, you’ll be able to reach the clients that don’t have a social media presence or haven’t already been directly targeted. It means you’ll be able to subtly reach out to existing clients and anyone you email, without coming across as pushy. Sample below. You can copy this design for your own email signature. (Make sure and change the photo and links to your own. 😊)
5) Introduction emails
The first contact with a customer has to pique their interest to stand any chance of response, especially if you aren’t already connected. An initial email with a video receives an increase click-through rate by 96%. A video can quickly and effectively deliver your message and connect with that new potential client. Use the video link in your introduction emails.
If you need a new unique video as an introduction, I often use tools like Wistia’s “Soapbox” to record a video for a client or new prospect and then embed that unique video directly into an email.
6) LinkedIn
Visual posts on a LinkedIn feed catch the eye more than a text-based post, and with auto-play, videos hook people in pretty quickly. Post the video from YouTube to your LinkedIn feeds for the company and any personal LinkedIn account.
Again, I just did this with a video I produced to support shopping at local businesses.
7) Upload your video to Facebook
Sure, you could share your link from YouTube in a Facebook post, but Facebook is designed to give preferential treatment to videos posted to your company Facebook page. You may have heard this called “native” video. What native means in this case is that the video is uploaded to and posted directly on that network. No clicking. No linking.
8) Embedded in a proposal
If you do sales presentations, a client could be suitably impressed that you’ve gone to the effort of producing a video to help them understand your offer. Consider this: if you were to get a text-based offer or video with the offer, would you want to watch a video rather than simply read text? Most people are more likely to choose to watch a video. When your video has done the talking, use your written content to fill the gaps and nail down the finer details.
9) Trade show/Conference
If you’ve got a stand at a trade show, you’ll be packed in with competitors and trying to reach as many potential customers as possible. By playing your corporate video on a screen you can grab people’s attention, keep them at the stand for longer and get an on-brand message to your audience, regardless of who you’re busy talking to.
And a final point that I feel must be mentioned is that your FRIENDS and FAMILY can be great ambassadors for you. Tell them about the video – share it with them and get their help in telling the world how awesome you are.
Getting Started with Video
I want you to get started with video. I don’t want you to feel like you must have a professional video crew to start. Getting going can be done with a mobile phone. Then you can add a lapel mic that plugs into your phone and a sunlit window for “lighting”. You can do it “selfie-style”. Then upgrade further to a tripod to hold your phone. I’ve coached multiple clients on how to start with their office manager or their wife or husband being their “cameraman.”
Check out this blog for a list of simple equipment you can purchase at low cost: Doing Video on a Budget.
When you are ready, you can hire someone. Have a trusted agency produce a set of premium videos, testimonials and educational content for your website, your YouTube channel and your social profiles. There are lots of examples of what can be done out there and people to help you do it.
Jumping into this video world can be fun, refreshing, and exciting for you and your business. And let’s not forget profitable, because the more profitable you are, the more fun life and all of this gets.
Best of luck to you in building an extraordinary online presence with video.
Cebron Walker is the CEO and Creative Director of Walker Kreative, with the mission to provide innovative, effective and integrated branding and communications solutions which help clients grow their businesses and realize their marketing goals.