How video fits into your online strategy

VIEW TRANSCRIPT Hi! Let’s take a moment to think about all the videos your potential customers are watching. Worldwide, people watch more than 300 million hours of video on YouTube per day! And it’s not all funny cat videos—in fact, online video has become an important way for businesses to show off their products and services, and reach new customers. In this lesson, you’ll learn how video can help you expand your online presence. We’ll also take a look at some of the ways you can advertise with video and achieve your business goals. As you incorporate video into your online marketing plan, consider how it will support your business. Nailing down your goals will help you decide the most effective way to use online video. While it’s important to create goals that align with your mission, keep in mind what your customers may be looking for as well. Get those two together and you are well on your way to success. Here’s an example. Say you’re a passionate cook, and you have a website where you share vegetarian recipes and sell specialty ingredients related to them. Through your experiences cooking and baking, you’ve developed a recipe for the perfect vegetarian lasagna. You want to help others make the dish—and video can be a big part of that. What if you made a video showing how to make the lasagna, step-by-step? And what if that video went viral, with people spreading the word that this lasagna is even better than the meat version? Using video is a great way to get people excited about what you have to share, and gain exposure to new fans or customers. But what if some components of your food blog don’t lend themselves to being featured in videos? Or what if you don’t want to get involved in producing videos just yet? You can still take advantage of this opportunity by advertising your blog on other people’s videos. Think back to your goals. You’re trying to get the word out about your cookie recipe (and perhaps sell some of the specialty ingredients, like the vegan chocolate you recommend). Even if you don’t make your own video, your audience is still likely to watch someone else’s cooking and baking videos. Since your audience enjoys cooking, why not advertise on other cooking videos? With video advertising, you can select certain types of videos, or even specific videos, where you’d like to advertise. You could pick someone else’s channel on cooking, or a specific video about vegetarian cooking and advertise there. Your ad could direct viewers to your website, or tell them about your products. To sum up: Video marketing offers several ways to reach lots of customers, and you don’t even have to make an actual video. With all the possibilities that video represents, make sure you always focus on your business goals to help guide your online video strategy.