Free Classifieds Directory

By now you realize just how much videos added to your website can do to not only improve your website, but generate leads and sales. The type of video that you use will have to depend on the type of business you have. You can use video in many different ways. The examples given of Henry’s bed and breakfast and the shower curtain company both used humor in a positive way to attract customers.

There are other ways that you can use video as well, without having to pay any fees to producers who may own the video. Observe commercials on television. They will often say that if you call within a certain amount of minutes, you will get an extra product or discount. You can do this as well either on your own website, through email or even on a free video site, such as YouTube.

For example, suppose you have an excess of a certain product you would like to move. One way to do it is to introduce the product in your own home made video. Tell people how wonderful this product is, and that it is now available at a special rate. And if they call or order right away, they can get free shipping. Be sure that this is cost effective to you!

One method includes marking the product up a bit to cover the “free shipping.” You do not want to lose money on this promotion. However, this will only work if it is a new product that you have not previously advertised on your website. If you have this product on the website for $24.99 and suddenly you are sending out a video that it is now “marked down” to $29.99 including free shipping, your customers will feel cheated and you will lose your credibility. This method only works with overstock that you cannot move or a brand new product that has not yet been advertised.

So you make your video and put it on your website. Is that good enough? No. You want to make sure that you send your video to all of your customers through email, particularly those who have purchased the product in the past. Email is free advertising; why not take advantage of it?

You can also advertise your product on YouTube or other free avenues. This is not going to cost you a dime and may generate much income, as well as rid you of some products that you are dying to get rid of.

Another way to use video to market your product would be if you had a restaurant of some sort. Again, you advertise a “special” on your site that will be good on only a particularly day. For example, on Tuesdays during this month, pizza will be 20 percent off. Restaurants often get business through word of mouth, but if one person sees the ad, they will tell others. Be prepared for an onslaught of customers on Tuesdays and make sure you have plenty of ingredients to make a lot of pizzas.

If you sell strictly over the internet, you should have a database of all of your customer’s emails. If you have not done this, begin doing so immediately. You can easily send them a video advertisement each time you have a special. Make it short and sweet and give them an incentive to ‘act right away.” People often purchase on impulse. One example would be to simply advertise that you are giving free shipping on all orders that are placed on the website within 24 hours. See how well that does for you. It will give the customer an incentive to act quickly and you will make a sale. The longer you give them to act, the better the chances are that they will not act at all and talk themselves out of making the purchase.

If you have a car dealership, you can take tremendous advantage of such a video ad. “From now until Friday, prices on all new models have been slashed!” You can even offer a free gift for those who visit the showroom before the deadline. Car dealers often do this just to get the customer in the door. Once the customer is inside the door, the objective is to not let them leave until they buy a car.

Some dealerships take this approach a little too far, such as the example of the car salesman who threw my father’s keys to his old car on the roof of the showroom. This was not good salesmanship and car dealers seldom behave this way anymore. But they still want to get you into the store so they can use every tactic, short of kidnapping, to get you to purchase a car. Because they know, once you walk out of that showroom, they have lost a sale. People rarely come back.

Another way to keep people interested in your website and keep them coming back is to use the “progressive” ad. Do you remember the old “Folger’s” coffee commercials?

They were popular on television in the 1990s. It featured a man and a woman who were flirting with each other throughout the commercial. Each commercial became a bit more progressive, it was like watching a soap opera. People enjoyed seeing these commercials because they wanted to see if the man and woman would ever get together. This advertising campaign was very popular not only in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom, where it was first conceived. The same actors were used and they used different accents in the different series of ads. The Folger’s progressive commercial was one of the most successful marketing campaigns of its time.

Why not do that on your website? It doesn’t have to be a soap opera format, but as videos are easy to continue to create, upload and delete, you can keep changing your video from time to time and make it a progressive commercial. The soap opera theme always works. People will continue visiting your website to see if the love affair works out or if the murder is solved. And if you can manage this yourself, it won’t cost you anything.

No matter what type of business you own, use marketing techniques combined with video in your sales. Sure, the videos on your website can be entertaining and make your site more attractive. These alone will generate more sales. But when you combine them with old fashioned marketing techniques, you’ve really got is a winner.

When creating your web video there are some key points that you will want to keep in mind. These key points will address areas that you need to make sure are included in your web video. Your web video is another marketing tool for you to acquire new customers/clients and if your video fails to hit its mark, then you could lose out. So take the time to implement these key points into your web video.

Presenting your product or service is one area that you need to focus on when creating a web video. You need to make sure that your video shows the viewer what the product you are selling is or the service you are offering.

We have all seen those high dollar commercials on television that are presenting a product or service and the commercial in no way related to the product or service. This is not a good idea when creating a video, after all if your viewers cannot remember your product or service then you will lack sales from the video. So avoid the mistakes that are being made by even high dollar companies and make sure that your product or service is presented in a way that your viewers will remember.

Demonstrate the product or service so that the viewer can see how the product or service will help them. You see it all the time in television commercials how a made up scenario is created to demonstrate how the service helps those in the said situation. You can do this also even if you have no one else to play actor/actress in your video. Just use still pictures or bold text that scrolls into the center of the video as you do a voice over narration.

Announcing any specials, grand opening or other special events that your store or business is offering can also is utilized with web videos and drive potential customers/clients to your business. Just make sure that the video captures the fact that this is a special event and time is limited!

If your business is trying to recruit new people to work for them, then you can use your web video to invite new people to check out your business and give them an over view of what your business is and what the opening there is.

A key point to remember when creating a video such as this is to introduce yourself. People like business that are personal and by introducing yourself and telling them a little about you will make them more likely to check your business out. Make sure that you are also not to evasive in what your business does. No one likes to watch a video that is inviting them to sign up and work for that business if they are not gaining any insight into what they will be expected to do.

When it comes to the overall run time of your video you need to keep it to no longer than five minutes. This will ensure that the viewer actually watches all of your video. Most of the people on the web do not have the time to spend watching a video that is longer than five minutes. The ones that do have the time will probably move on if your video is any longer than that. So keep it under five minutes while still implementing everything you need to in your video.

Your video should be unique. As I keep mentioning on the unique aspect when discussing several areas that have to do with web videos. Unique means that to the viewer it will be fresh and new, this will make the viewer want to watch and pay attention to your video. If your video is stale and seems to be regurgitated information that they have heard or seen before then the viewer is going to move on. This is key factor in the success of your video to generate you new customers/clients.

When your video is complete, check to make sure that there is a call to action in your video. You need to basically in a tactful way ask the viewer to do something. This can be suggesting for more information that they visit your website, they call you to get started or for a commercial. Take Mt. Dews commercials, they all have a call to action, for this company that call to action is their slogan” Do the Dew”. Make sure that you have a call to action that your viewers can understand and respond to though when placing your call to action in your video.