Lights, Camera – Business!
This October will mark the third year anniversary of Google’s acquisition of the video sharing site YouTube.? If you don’t already, start paying attention to how many times a video-based result comes up in your Google search engine queries.? Don’t be surprised if there are several in the top 5 – 10 spots on Page 1.? There are two reasons why you should care.
1.? Engage Your 
Customers The Way They Want To Be Engaged. Twenty years ago, I remembered talking to a colleague of mine about a chimney sweep supply company that sent their customers a video tape (remember those?!?) twice year, educating them on how to sell chimney sweep supplies more efficiently.? The tapes differentiated him from the other suppliers, his main cost was postage (he already had a camera) and the “reality style” video is time-tested approach that works over and over again.? A real estate client of one of our consultants closed a $500,000 sale last week by using Twitter (140 characters) and a reality-style video (it was less than 48 hours from Tweet to Close).
2.? Increase Your Organic Search Engine Ranking. We cover Search Engine Optimization (SEO) elsewhere, but without getting technical, it stands to reason that if Google is going to spend almost $2 Billion to buy a bunch of video-sharing servers, then they are going to make sure they get their money’s worth.? Or, as my technical SEO colleagues would say, Google thinks video content is important and is more “news worthy and informative” and so it will tend to rank higher.
Technical aspects aside, video pulls people into the topic they are watching.? A personalized video to your suppliers, or a reality-style video to your customers, makes the viewer feel like they know you; almost as if they were friends with you.? And people buy from people they know, like and trust.? That’s a big driver behind Social Media adoption.
Action Step:
If you are not using video in your business:
Why aren’t you?? Every business can and should be doing so.? Believe me, if a chimney supply company 20 years ago could, you certainly can today.? No excuses.
If you already are using video in your business:
What’s working with it now?? What isn’t working?? How could you improve it?? Could you send personalized video messages about certain products or services?? Special offers for certain customers?? How else could you use video to increase sales?
