13 Ways To Boost Your Business with Video!

Today, we live in an era where our trusty PR and advertising have evolved and expanded to a much better habitat: the internet. Having that change, we must then keep up with that which holds the key in determining our venture’s future.

Lets not forget that with the power of the internet, we can literally tap anyone and everyone around the world! And what’s great about it is that in some cases, utilizing it is totally FREE! One tool that can be used effectively, among many others, is video. Here are 13 points on how you can boost your business by having videos up your company’s arsenal:

1. Video Blog / News
Update your clients, followers, friends and potential customers alike with what has happened, is happening, and what’s yet to happen, not only by static text blogs and email blasts, but by video as well. Nothing connects you to them more than to actually letting them see, hear and contemplate on you, the owner, the host or be it the company’s face, in the flesh.

2. Video News Release
This is a press release done in video and usually runs up to a minute. They are distributed in television stations to be aired in news programs. Within the allotted time frame, you must be able to express profoundly, with substance and quality, the newsworthy content. Your VNR must pass the “So-what?” test because program editors can smell publicity stunts right away.

3. Promotional Videos
Alert everyone about the recent hots of your business, be it new content, new products or upcoming events. Strike your promotional videos with utmost creativity because for people to like your promotions, it is in itself that your business must present a likable personality.

4. Product Sales Pitch
Presenting data, bar and pie chart presentations are so old school (No offense, MS PowerPoint) and can be pretty boring given that the attention span of people are slowly but eminently decreasing. You can always use video to turn things up a notch with strong and convincing voice-overs, awesome eye-catching montages and hot-looking hosts to capture your clients.

5. Commercials for Web and TV
Having short commercials endorsing your business and / or products is another way to go. Some examples are exactly what you see in television shown in-between programs. And if you can’t afford the minimum six-digit price of broadcasting your commercials on live TV, there’s always the internet where you can achieve the same results, given that you play your cards right.

6. Campaign + Campaign Props + Evaluation Videos
Promote your campaign, your goals, vision and mission, basically the gist of it all, with video. A thrilling video presentation on what took place (the campaign), when and how it took place, what kind of results came out and what strategies were efficiently implied will leave clients wanting more. A footage of a satisfied client endorsing the product or a newscaster demonstrating a shift in public opinion about your market. Whatever proof that shows PR is working effectively.

7. Instructional Videos
Customers should not be dismissed right after availing your product or service. Another way of keeping connected to them is by posting instructional videos on how to use your products and maximize their potentials. Videos on troubleshooting and customer support is a big yes. This also goes for prospected clients. What better way for them to find out about your products and how they work than by seeing it used in action, right?

8. Company Documentary
After the very arduous journey of growing your business from scratch, isn’t it time to make a documentary on how your venture came to be? From where it all began, to the problems encountered, and how those problems were remedied by your dedicated strategic planning and entrepreneurial skills. This could also serve as a company profile presentation wherein everyone can see your company’s history, goals, vision, mission, products, policies, etc. transparently.

9. Events Props + Event Coverage
Every event held by your company, or any other event for that matter, needs pizazz to create hype and excitement for the event-goers. It would be nice to have a nice video backdrop or mini-AVP to compliment the motif of the event, the hosts and the program itself. Find out how videos can be maximized on the event, produce those videos, and then you’re all set! Covering the event and making a well-edited video from it would also prove useful for promotions and advertising.

10. Show Reels
Flash out your company’s best works on your office’s reception area with a matching big screen plasma TV! Not only can this video be used in offices or posted up on the net, burning them on video DVDs and giving them to prospected clients can also promise good things. Make it brief, interesting, and worthwhile. We don’t want to make a bad first impression.

11. Team Building and Client Bonding
Now comes the moment where videos can be used not for PR or advertising, but for the benefit of the relationships among employer, manager and employee as well as between company and client. Whatever good times you had together from company events, dinner, etc., you can put more meaning to them by producing a video and playing it after or by giving them a DVD copy later on as remembrance. This would suggest that you value very much your relationship with your team and clients.

12. Web Site Accessory
Whatever video you produce, courtesy of the previous points discussed, you can always put them on the pages of your web site where they can be utilized the most. The show reel can be on the home or introductory page, your Vlog can be on the news and updates page, the company documentary on your about page, and so on. You get the idea.

13. Viral Videos
Quoting from wiki, a viral video is a video clip that gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or Instant messaging, blogs and other media sharing websites. You can use viral videos, if you have such or if you’re planning to produce one, to create traffic on your site. One good example is the fictional Pomegranate phone, where viewers are presented with the phone’s comic features such as a razor, harmonica and coffee maker. When they click the ‘I’ve seen enough‘ or ‘Release date‘ link, an array of information about Nova Scotia and its culture is displayed. This proved to be a successful place-branding program of the Government of Nova Scotia.

Using video over the internet to help your business can take you a long way. Like I said, you just have to play your cards right. Text and audio has their share of the internet market so don’t forget to look into them as well. May I remind you that you need not bound yourselves to these thirteen points as there is no limit in using video to your advantage. New ideas will keep coming which, for entrepreneurs, would also indicate new risks and therefore, opportunities.

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