Are Shorter Videos Better?

One growing branch of online marketing is online video marketing. It seems to be picking up speed. But there are certain principles that video marketers should cling to if they want their marketing to be effective. One of those principles is to keep it short.

I’m talking about your videos.

High quality shorter videos seem to attract a great response from viewers and have the best potential for going viral.

The reason shorter videos work best is because people in today’s fast-paced global marketplace are crunched for time. A thirty second video will go much further than a one hour documentary. Especially if your goal is to attract attention and drive traffic for marketing purposes.

If you want to provide in-depth videos on a given topic, you are better off using short videos to attract attention to your business and website and using them to drive traffic to your longer pages. You might even put those long educational videos behind a paywall and charging admission. Then you know that someone interested in that kind of time commitment is willing to pay for it. When people put their wallets on the line, that’s a commitment.

Put your marketing budget into your short videos. They don’t provide any more SEO benefit than longer videos, but they are also don’t provide any less SEO benefit. But they do work for driving traffic.

Online video marketing isn’t rocket science. You can be effective with just a little forethought and some respect for your prospect’s time. Draw them in with short videos and close them with your on-page content.

Is Tablet Marketing The Next Big Thing?

Remember when everyone went ga-ga over video marketing? The talk of the town was it’s the next thing. Remember?

It happened right after YouTube started to climb sharply in popularity.

Then, remember when mobile marketing was the big thing? When did it happen? Right after everybody and his dog decided that you could Facebook on your phone. Now mobile phones are supposedly smarter and marketers are trying to figure out a way to get into your ear through them.

That’s cool.

Well, it seems that now nearly 20% of consumers have e-books and another 19% have tablets. So it’s time to start on the tablet marketing bandwagon, right?

Hold on before you start mocking me. I’m not being facetious. Not entirely anyway.

What can a tablet do? Play music and other audio files. Broadcast videos. Display e-books. Think any of those could be useful in promoting your business? How about that Internet radio show you wanted to start last year? Or that YouTube video channel? Maybe that e-book you’ve been putting off writing?

Yep, all of those can be marketed to tablet owners. So maybe now is the time to start looking at tablet and e-book marketing.

There are other benefits to promoting you and your business through these media. It also doubles as reputation management. That is, the more you publish and the more you promote yourself in a positive light the bigger and better your reputation will be online and off line.

Don’t just take up tablet marketing because it becomes a fad – it will. Do it because it delivers on the benefits.

Sex, Lies, And Video Marketing

There are three things that we know will always be true.

1. Sex sells; dirty sex sells even more
2. All marketers are liars (thanks Seth Godin)
3. Video marketing is on the move toward the future

So what can we make of these three truths?

First, if you want to make your business popular, try one. Some marketers have been very adept at creating sexy marketing campaigns. Even when it wasn’t necessary. The sex caught people’s attention and the company was catapulted to notorious fame (think GoDaddy).

Of course, you can always stretch the truth a little bit. Exaggeration is not just a literary technique. It’s also a marketing principle.

But, better than sex and lies, video marketing has come of age. Savvy online marketers can produce high quality videos on a fraction of the budget that they used to be able to do. And you can distribute your high quality videos online to drive traffic to your website. You can do it all day long.

But I’d guess the best, most effective marketing strategy is to mix these three elements together. If you can create a high quality video that plays off sex and exaggeration (lies), then you can develop a buzz and watch your traffic soar. Is that what you really want, sex and lying notwithstanding?

Should You Host Your Video Onsite?

Should you host your video on your own website or should you host it on video sharing sites like YouTube?

Answer: It depends on your video marketing strategy.

There are times when you might want to host your video on the video sharing websites. If your intent is to submit the videos for promotional purposes and drive traffic back to your website, then that is a legitimate marketing practice. If the video isn’t going to be viewed on your website at all, then it’s certainly viable to host them offsite.

I won’t say that you should NEVER host your video elsewhere and embed it on your site, but it’s not a practice that we generally agree with. If you want to use the video for marketing and traffic generation purposes BUT you also want to feature it on your blog, then you might host your video on YouTube. However,

if your intent is to feature your video on your own website rather than use it to promote your website, then you should host it on your server and on your own website. Don’t host it at YouTube.

When it comes to creative marketing – like video marketing – there rarely are hard-and-fast rules. Just do what makes sense.

5 Incredible Sources For Website Traffic

You cannot manage a website without traffic. It is the lifeblood of any online business. So how do you drive traffic to your website? How do you ensure that your website is profitable when you are building your business?

Here are 5 incredible sources for website traffic no matter what kind of business you are running online:

1. Search Engines – Search engines are still the No. 1 driver of traffic to most websites online today. That’s why we always recommend that you dedicate a portion of your online marketing budget to search engine optimization.
2. Pay Per Click Advertising – PPC ads are immediate. You can start a campaign today and see business results today. Yes, you pay for the clicks. But if you do it right, it will be profitable. And the results are instant.
3. Newsletter - An e-mail newsletter is one of the most profitable investments you can make. After more than 20 years, it’s still one of the most effective online marketing tools. You can take e-mail subscriptions right from your website and deliver your newsletter electronically more cost efficiently than any other kind of online marketing.
4. Videos – Online video marketing is just as effective as TV advertising and much more cost effective.
5. Social Media Marketing - The best thing about social media is it allows you to build relationships off site, then you can drive that traffic to your website for the close.

Use these five online marketing strategies together for incredible traffic generation results.

Google+ Rolls Out Business Pages

Google+ Pages for Business are finally here. Some of use have been waiting for these for awhile.

If you’re wondering just what a Google+ business page is, think of it as a Facebook page for Google. There are, of course, some subtle differences between Google+ pages and Facebook pages. One such difference is that you must have a Google+ personal account before you can add a page. But that’s a minor hurdle. I recommend that you get a personal account as well.

So what can you do with a Google+ business page?

For one thing, you can post to Google+. If you’re not sure if that’s a benefit or not, consider these points and then make up your mind.

• Google+ is owned by Google, the largest search engine online. While SEO benefits are currently unproven, you can bet that Google will eventually provide greater weight to personal profiles and business pages for brands.
• Increased online reputation management opportunities.
• Better targeted marketing as you can create circles around your different market segments and communicate with each segment more easily.
• Multiple pages possible, which means you can have one for each product or brand you support as well as each location you serve.
• More effective video marketing since YouTube and Google+ are integrated allowing you to share videos more easily.
• Google+ is the fastest growing social media website in history.
• You can schedule hangouts with your clients and partners and communicate for free with them via video right inside Google+

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Google+ is only going to get better. If you haven’t joined yet, I highly recommend that you do and set up your business pages now.

Google+ Makes Video Marketing Easier

If you haven’t started using Google+ yet, I have one more reason why you might consider it. YouTube video marketing has just got easier. In fact, it’s easier than Facebook and Twitter.

It happened in just the last couple of days. Google added a YouTube search feature. In the top right corner of your screen (if you’re using Google+) you’ll see the YouTube icon. Click it and a search bar extends left a couple of inches.

All you have to do is enter a search term. When you do, a popup box the size of a YouTube video appears with a video playing related to your search term and a playlist below it. You can watch videos right through the playlist or go to the video you want to watch. Then, when you want to share on Google+, you click the green Share button.

The share button allows you to pick your circles, write a message, and send, just like on Google+.

So how do you make the most of this? If you’re a video marketer, upload your video to YouTube. When you’re ready to share it on Google+, just use the YouTube search feature. It’s the easiest video marketing I’ve seen to date.

Video Branding Tips From The Round Table

Is it possible to brand your business with videos? Of course, we believe it is. Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your video branding strategy.

• Include you logo and business brand name in every video. Make it a standard practice to showcase your business logo and brand in the opening sequence of your video and in the closing frame at a minimum.
• Use a cornered logo often and when practical. In lieu of the above suggestion, add your logo to the corner of your video screen so that it is visible throughout your videos.
• Create a YouTube channel. Distribution is a key element to video branding. Create a YouTube channel and distribute your videos on a regular basis through that channel.
• Establish a voice for your videos. If you use the same voice over artist for every video, you’ll establish that voice for your company and it can work as a branding element.
• Establish a visual style. Small elements such as video transitions and effects can be used to brand your videos. The key is consistency across all your videos.

Video branding is all about establishing top-of-mind awareness for your brand through videos. It can be done with simple elements and a consistent approach.

How Video Marketing Could Change With Channels

Google has announced that it plans to add 100 new channels to YouTube. This looks like it could be a great new marketing opportunity for small business advertisers. Forget about channels themselves as the media.

Of course, you’ll likely still be able to add your own channel. I’m not saying that. But these channels will be Google-guided, which means that they will be a top-down production. Some of the channels will be produced by high octane talent such as Ashton Kutcher, Jay-Z, Shaquille O’Neal, and CSI creator Antony Zuiker. They will, of course, need sponsors.

So how will this sponsorship work? I’m guessing that it could be similar to TV sponsorship. But I could be wrong.

Currently, you see PPC ads show up on the bottom of your screen when you view YouTube videos. That could continue with these new channels and if it does, great. But you could also see featured productions preceded by a sponsored video. If that happens, look for a great opportunity for advertisers.

Also, look for TV advertising to begin its decline. I’m not saying it will come to a crashing halt. But it could fall of if YouTube channel advertisers start to see positive results and make the shift from TV to YouTube advertising.

Why PPC Is King

You’ve likely heard that content is king. And that’s true, if you are talking about website marketing strategies. Nothing beats content. But PPC is king in terms of online marketing strategies.

Pay per click marketing wins hands down for a number of reasons even though it costs you money.

For starters, PPC allows you to get instant results. Write your ad and get it live today, you can actually see click throughs today and marry those up with conversions. No other online marketing strategy has that potential. If you build a website, you’ll have to get it indexed. There’s no guarantee that will happen in one day.

Social media can be effective marketing, but it likely will take you some time since you have to build up a following, build trust, and develop a track record. That takes time.

Video marketing can also be effective. Again, the chances that you can produce a video, get it online, and see results in one day are pretty phenomenal. It can happen, but not likely.

Other online marketing strategies show similar potential. You may get better results long term from SEO, social media and video marketing, but only PPC promises same-day results. And that’s just one reason PPC is king. There are others.

5 Things To Remember About Video Marketing

Video marketing is one of the 21st century’s most powerful vehicles for branding and small business marketing. You can produce powerful videos that stay live on the Web for a lot less than you can spend on TV or radio advertising – vehicles with a limited shelf life.

Still, ineffective video marketing can cost more than effective marketing in other media. Make sure you are doing it well.

Here are 5 things to keep in mind about video marketing as you strive to get your business in the minds of consumers:

1. Shorter videos do better – Don’t go for the 2-hour documentary or 10-minute infomercial. Instead, go for the 30-second or 1-minute quickie. You’ll be a lot more effective.
2. You don’t have to hire actors – You want to keep your video budget down. Use a slideshow or voice over artist. A full scale production isn’t necessary.
3. Distribute widely – Don’t just distribute your video through one channel. Go as wide as possible.
4. Promote through social media – “Push out” your videos through social media in order to “draw in” your prospects.
5. Drive traffic to your website – Use videos to drive traffic to your website, then close the sale.

There’s no secret recipe to video marketing. There are good sound principles that are still in development. No one owns the best practices monopoly. Be creative, experiment, and make your message strong.

The Google+ Video Making Its Rounds

Video marketing is very effective if you produce the video right the first time. The following video is a good example of a video marketing effort that succeeds.

• The video is professionally done.
• It parodies a popular song, albeit one from the 1980s.
• It highlights the most important features of the product it is promoting.
• It’s short enough to hold your interest while being long enough to showcase the service.
• And it makes you want to know more about the service as well as the actress showcasing her talent.

The service, Google+, is the latest craze in social media. Why not have your own professional video made? Promote another product or service or your own. Draw attention to yourself – in a good way.

How To Do Content Marketing

Online marketers have recently begun using a different kind of language. It used to be that you’d hear a lot about link building, social media marketing, and the use of other terms to give a fragmented impression of Internet marketing strategies. But there is one term that draws all of these concepts together under one impressive term.

That one term is “content marketing.” So what is it?

Content marketing includes the full span of content that you produce to promote your brand. It begins with your own website content, but it doesn’t end there.

Beyond your own website you have your blog, your social media profiles, directory submissions, video content, links, articles, Knol pages, Squidoo lenses, guest blog posts and anything that involves promoting your content in hopes of drawing attention to it.

All content marketing is really about one thing – drawing attention to yourself. Anything you use that does that falls into the category of content marketing. That even includes press releases, forum content and comments on other people’s blogs.

So here’s the question you have to answer about your own content marketing efforts: Are all of your efforts consistent in terms of your message and brand? If not, what do you need to do to get it there?

Content marketing is as much as creating perceptions as it is anything else. What are you doing to make your content sell your business?

Video Marketing And Google+

Google+ has opened up a lot of new opportunities for online marketers. One of those opportunities is with video marketing. Through Google+, you can do four types of sharing:

• Links
• Photos
• Videos
• Long posts, like blog posts

Each of these Google+ forms has its own strengths. But with videos, you can add a whole new dimension to your Google+ experience as well as your total online marketing.

Since Google owns both Google+ and YouTube, sharing of videos is seamless through Google+. You can upload your videos to YouTube and share them via Google+. But that’s so obvious.

Another way to expand on your video marketing through Google+ is a bit more complex (and not so obvious).

Google+ has something called a Hangout. It’s a video conference that you can hold through the Google+ platform, and you can invite anyone you want to attend. You need a camcorder and a microphone. Google+ does the rest.

But what about that video? Glad you asked.

Promote your hangout, send out your invites, and deliver a keynote address on some topic that is important to you and your followers. While you’re at it, record your hangout. If you use a camcorder that records and saves your presentation as you are making it, then you can have your video made as you are delivering your keynote. Then you can upload it to YouTube and save it back on Google+. Just a thought.

What’s Killing E-mail?

Here’s a question for you: What’s killing e-mail marketing?

Is it PPC? Search engine optimization? Video marketing? Social media?

Answer: None of the above! E-mail isn’t dying.

It’s fashionable to proclaim the death of old media when new media arrives. Those who remember the early advent of DVDs will remember how they were supposed to kill the movie theater. But the box office is still going strong and some of the biggest box office openings in history have occurred after DVDs.

The Internet hasn’t killed radio or TV. Search didn’t kill directories. Social media didn’t kill search. Nor will it, or anything else, kill e-mail marketing.

E-mail is a private space that people will allow you to enter if you’ve built their trust. You can use other media – search, social media, and videos – to build that trust. Then you use your website to get people to give your their private e-mail address, which you can then use to send them invitations and marketing messages that close the sale or seal the deal. E-mail is where the transaction is solidified.

E-mail marketing is far from dead. The best Internet marketers are using it to make their dough. You should too.

5 Ways To Build A Web Business

Most people, when they think about doing business online, think of it in terms of online marketing. Of course, you are marketing your business online. There’s no doubt about that. But what you are really doing is building a Web business.

The big question is, what exactly does it take to build a Web business? What components are necessary?

Here are 5 necessary components to building a Web business in 2011.

1. A website – It can be a simple website or a huge monolith. Either way, you need a website. Your first step in building a Web business is to design a powerful website.
2. Search engine marketing - SEM is a multi-component endeavor that includes paid search marketing and organic search marketing. With organic search you could be building links, which we call off-site SEO, or you could be increasing your on-site content value through blogging, articles, or other on-page content.
3. Social media – Promote your content through social media where you’ll build inbound links and your relationship.
4. Video marketing – Video marketing has become a mainstay of building an online business too. If you do it right, it will pay huge dividends.
5. App development – App development can refer to iphone and other mobile apps or social media apps like those you find on Facebook. Either way, app development is becoming a huge marketing channel online.

What ways do you use for building your Web business? Do weigh in.

Permission-Based Marketing Rules

What is the most effective kind of marketing? Permission marketing. You know why? Let’s count the ways.

1. Permission-based marketing is opt in. It isn’t interruption marketing. Because you have permission from your recipients to contact them, you are marketing to a warm list. That’s always better than going in cold.
2. With permission-based marketing you have higher response rates. That translates into more revenue for you.
3. It is less expensive. Look at e-mail marketing. You can send out an e-mail blast to a hot list of 10,000 recipients for the same price that you’d send out to 1,000 recipients.
4. Permission-based e-mail marketing can be executed in conjunction with other types of marketing to increase its effectiveness. Drive traffic to your website with its powerful design features or get people involved in your niche social media site. Send people to your cool new video and close them on the sale.
5. Permission-based marketing is more flexible. You can do it through e-mail, Twitter, Google or Yahoo! groups, Facebook apps, your YouTube channel, or any combination thereof. And you can combine your efforts with other forms of marketing to increase your overall effectiveness.

The most effective marketers today are using permission-based marketing channels. You should be too.

5 Ways To Promote Your Blog

How do you promote your blog? Do you do it effectively? Do you do it at all?

Of course, there are more than one way to catch a tiger. What works for one business may not work for another. Typically, however, a business can benefit from a multi-pronged approach to promoting their blog. If you are looking for ways to promote your business blog, try these 5 methods.

1. Really Simple Syndication – RSS feeds. Every blog should have one. When a subscriber clicks the orange RSS icon, they will subscribe to your blog and receive a notice in their news reader every time you update your blog.
2. Subscribe By E-mail – Some people just haven’t figured out RSS yet. Include a Subscribe By E-mail button for those readers.
3. Blog Promotion Newsletter – Similar to Subscribe By E-mail, you can send out a weekly or monthly blog promotion newsletter to drive steady traffic to your blog. Your subscribers will look forward to getting your newsletter every month and revisit your blog.
4. Social Media Marketing – Promote your blog through Google+, Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, and the many other bookmarking services online. Use social media effectively.
5. Video Marketing – Upload a new video once a week to your YouTube channel. This will drive new traffic to your website and blog on a regular basis.

Use these 5 methods to promote your blog and you will see your traffic climb steadily.

There’s No Business Like A Slow Business

Is your business slow? What do you do to drum up new business in your down times? When the market slows down and you have a deficit in customer relations, do you get proactive? Do you spend money? Here are five ways to turn your slow business into a thriving business during any economic circumstances.

1. Build a new website. There’s nothing that says you should stick with one website. If you have a business with clearly defined multiple markets, build a website for each market. When your business slows down is a good time to start planning for the next wave or upsurge. Put your extra time into something productive.
2. Initiate a PPC campaign. Many small business owners cut back on the marketing budget when business is slow. That’s when you should step up your marketing efforts. PPC is the perfect vehicle since you don’t pay for a click until after you receive it.
3. Make a video. Since you have some free time on your hands, why not create a video. You can put it on your website or distribute it through YouTube and other video marketing channels.
4. Connect with a new audience. Social media engagement can be time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. In truth, you should be engaged through social media even when your business isn’t slow, but what better time to get engaged than when things slow down?
5. Refine your SEO. You can always find a way to improve your search engine rankings. Prowl your website for new SEO opportunities, and take them.

Instead of fretting about your business being slow, take action. Find new opportunities to connect to old customers or go out and find new ones.

What A Video Press Release Can Do For Your Business

The Internet has changed forever how public relations is done. And that includes how press releases are written and distributed. One powerful emerging trend is the video press release.

There are multiple applications for the video press release. One very popular application is to use the video to accompany a written press release through online distribution. This method is powerful because it incorporates the traditional elements of press release writing with search engine optimization, social media promotion, and video or multimedia enhancement.

Another way to make video press releases work for you is to publish them on your own website. If you do a lot of public relations work, then you can have a page of your website set aside for press releases – and that includes video releases.

Of course, video press releases can also be distributed online as standalone public relations pieces. YouTube, Vimeo, and many other video promotion websites will take your video press release and make it available to their website visitors.

A multi-pronged approach is always best online. The more widely you distribute your content – whether it be SEO content, social content, or videos – the more likely you are to drive targeted traffic to your website. And you are likely to reach different segments of your market by making your videos more widely available.

Video press releases are powerful because they engage people on various levels – by sight, through audio, and visually. They are apt to spark an emotional response, a necessary component in any PR campaign.

Anatomy Of An Online Marketing Campaign

There are different ways to skin a cat, as they say. But when it comes to kicking off a brand new Internet marketing campaign, there are certain things that you definitely want to include in that effort. Leave them out at your own peril.

Here are the steps you need to take in your online marketing campaign. Some of the steps can be performed in any order while others should be performed in the proper order stated. I’ll let you know when it’s OK to veer into a different direction or rearrange the order.

• Competitive research – Start with understanding where your competition is and what they are up to. Someone was in your space before you. Find out who they are and what they’ve done and are doing.
• Keyword research – You should include keyword research along with competitive research, but it does extend beyond competitive intelligence. You want study the competition’s keywords, but you also want to do your own independent research.
• Pay Per Click – PPC advertising will be your first test of your keywords. It’s fast and gets you the information you need quickly, plus you can drive instant sales with PPC.
• Search engine optimization – Next, take what you’ve learned from your competitive research, keyword research, and PPC and build a solid SEO campaign. You can do SEO before PPC, but I recommend performing PPC first so you can us it to test your keywords.
• Social media marketing – You want to save your social media campaign for later in the game. It’s a lower threshold type of marketing. It’s good for branding and building relationships, but you want to get your SEO and PPC going first so that you can use them to test your keywords and strategies.
• Video marketing – With videos, you can market with them before social media or after. It makes little difference, but you don’t want to start your video marketing campaign before SEO or PPC.
• Link building – Other forms of marketing like articles, blogs, and link building efforts are ongoing. Start them as soon you get your SEO campaign going and don’t ever stop.

Why Online Marketing Is Necessary

If you’re used to doing a lot of offline marketing, or traditional marketing, then you’ve likely noticed that it has become quite expensive in the last few years. Oil prices have driven up the cost of paper and everything else. The economy taking a downturn has caused many businesses to stop advertising altogether, or diminish their marketing budgets.

But there is hope. Online marketing is less expensive and, if done right, is much more effective. That’s why so many businesses have transferred their marketing and advertising budgets to online.

Here are 5 online marketing methods that are outpacing their offline counterparts:

1. Pay Per Click – Pay per click advertising is the online equivalent to some forms of print advertising. The difference is you pay only when a desired result takes place. It can be less expensive and deliver a higher ROI.
2. Social Networking – Offline, you go to business functions. You often have to buy dinner, pay for transportation costs, business cards, and other incidentals. Online, you just show up. And talk to people. Make friends and contacts. Sell them stuff. The time commitment is higher, but it’s a lot easier on the budget.
3. Video Marketing – Liken it to TV advertising. Do you really want to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on 30-second spots that disappear with the money? Instead, pay for one video and it stays live online forever.
4. Website Design – Call them online billboards. Just like outdoor advertising, you have a limited space – your prospect’s browser window. Unlike outdoor billboards, that space can be expanded. And you can build many websites for less than the cost of a handful of billboards.
5. Search Engine Optimization – Sorry, but there is no offline equivalent to search engine optimization. Yet it’s still the most effective online marketing money can buy.

Try just one or incorporate them all into your marketing plans, but online marketing is where it’s at.

Why Video Marketing Is The Next Viral Craze

Reciprocal Consulting has been an advocate of video marketing for years. There are good reasons why, and the following statistics (borrowed from this article on video marketing) illustrate some of those reasons:

• Over 40% of consumers watch videos on a weekly basis.
• Viral video marketing campaigns increase clickthrough rates by 750%.
• Product videos sell 45% more products.
• YouTube is considered the second biggest search engine online; it may someday surpass Google as the No. 1 search engine.

Video marketing is already hot. It’s about to get hotter. As companies figure out how to provide cheap videos that drive traffic to any website, you can bet that more and more videos will be uploaded to sites like YouTube and Vimeo.

Here are our top three tips for helping you produce a world class video that will market your products and services.

• Make your video creative. Give it something to make it stand out. With billions of videos being uploaded to YouTube every day, competition is stiff – and it’s going to get stiffer.
• Use testimonials, but make them real. Don’t stage your testimonials or use fake testimonies with actors. Use real customers who are excited about your products and services. Testimonials are powerful mareketing tools.
• Keep it real. Be genuine and be yourself. People will see through any veneers you create so make your video a true reflection of who you are.

Do You Need A Video Script?

When you decide to market yourself using videos, whether you plan to upload to YouTube and Vimeo or place them on your own website, you’ll need to start somewhere. I recommend that you plan your video from beginning to end before you start shooting. And that includes writing a script.

Why do you need a video script? Two reasons:

1. A script will help you keep your video on track. If you don’t veer from the script, then your end product will look pretty close to what you had in mind when you started. That’s exactly what you want.
2. It will save you a lot of time.

Because the script is what keeps you on track, you will save a lot of time in the long run. There won’t be any running around in circles trying to figure out what to do next. You’ll have a script to follow. It will also cut down on chasing rabbit trails. Creative people often get an idea right in the middle of a project. You can always point to your script and say, “That doesn’t fit into the plan.”

Of course, if a really good idea does present itself in the middle of your video project, you can always scratch the script and start over. But be sure that, No. 1, the idea really is a good one, and No. 2, that you don’t try to incorporate it into the ongoing project you’ve started. You must either finish the one you’re working on and make your mid-stride idea a new project, or scratch the video project you’re working on and make your mid-stride idea a new project.

So how do you know when to scrap a video project? There are several ways to look at that. If it’s too costly to gain any real ROI from it, then it doesn’t need to go forward. If you’ve veered from your script and the project is getting out of control, you may need to start the planning process over so you can get back on track. If the video is really not fitting into your overall marketing plan, then you don’t want it going public.

Good marketing videos start with a plan. Your plan must include a well-written script that everyone can follow, and the end result should be known by the whole team before you start shooting.

Video Marketing And rel=”author”

Google announced three days ago that it was introducing another markup attribute that webmasters could use on their websites. The attribute is obviously geared toward news sites that use multiple authors for writing page content. But any website with multiple authors or content creators can use the link attribute.

The attribute of which I am speaking is the real=”author” attribute. It’s to be used on links on the same domain, not on links that point from one domain to another.

For instance, if you have a website where videos are posted by several regular contributors and you want each of those contributors to have a bio page, then you would link from each video content page on the site to the creator’s bio page using the rel=”author” link attribute. It would look something like this:

< a href="http://www.samplewebpage.com/videoproducers/mickeyspillane" rel="author" >Mickey Spillane< /a >

In this example, Mickey Spillane is the video’s producer. Because he has produced more than one video for the sample website, he would have several links pointing from his author bio page to his videos. In turn, each video would point back to his producer bio page with the rel=”author” attribute.

This is a rather nifty link attribute I think. If searchers are looking for a particular video content producer, then the link attribute would likely be used to help them find that producer.

Learn Video Marketing From Al Qaeda

Al Qaeda is back in the news and this time it’s not Osama bin Laden. But it IS about Osama bin Laden. This story is useful because it has something to teach us about video marketing.

The first lesson is that you can use negative news to make a positive statement. What is Al Qaeda’s “negative” news? Our leader is dead. And the positive news is? Even in death, he’s going to stick it to the enemy.

You don’t have to agree with the message to note its effectiveness. The evidence of its effectiveness is the fact that it made international news.

When any organization has something to say about public events, that’s effective marketing. And the fact that this message was delivered by video makes it even more powerful. Note: Video marketing can be ten times more effective as traditional content marketing.

Another lesson we can pull from Al Qaeda’s attempt to remain in the public eye is that you have to act fast. It hasn’t been that long since the U.S. killed the terrorist leader. Ayman al-Zawahri wasted no time in getting his organization’s message out to all who are interested.

Finally, keep telling your story. No matter what. Al Qaeda could very easily have hung up their hats when their charismatic leader was vanquished. Instead, they’re continuing to tell their story. You should too.

Custom Search Engine Marketing

There is nothing about marketing online that is as much a lie as the idea that you can purchase off-the-shelf search engine marketing plans that anyone can use. Yet, many online marketers will try to sell you one of these solutions with no thought about the type of business you are running. Call it “online marketing in a box.” It doesn’t work.

The only truly effective way to go about search engine marketing is to create a custom plan. What works for one website or business may not work for another.

For instance, not everyone needs video marketing. Some Web businesses, however, couldn’t do without it. And that’s just one example.

Is social media marketing right for you? Maybe. But even if it is, the social media marketing plan you finalize for your business will look very different than the plan for another business. That’s because you have a different product, a different clientele, and therefore require a different strategy. Your social media marketing strategy should be tailored to your business.

Every search engine marketing plan rises and falls on its own merits. Just like every website and every business. You cannot take a generic online marketing plan and make it fit your unique business.

Custom search engine marketing is the strategic implementation of a plan based on careful study and market research. Don’t buy into the hype of off-the-shelf marketing products in a box.

The 80%/20% Marketing Rule

You are likely familiar with the old 80/20 rule. 80% of your production comes from 20% of your employees, or money investments, or whatever. Well, online, there’s another 80/20 rule. It says that 80% of your website’s traffic comes from the search engines. The other 20% comes from other sources (direct, social media, etc.).

The actual number is more like 85/15, but let’s not count pennies. The point is, if most of your traffic is coming from search engines, then the majority of your budget should be in search engine marketing.

If you have $1,000 to spend on Internet marketing, you don’t want $800 of that going into social media when most of your traffic is going to come from the search engines. Instead, you should allocate 80% of that ($800) to pay-per-click advertising, blogging, and content creation. The remaining $200 can go into video marketing, social media, and other non-SEM activities.

This isn’t a matter of effectiveness. You can always test the waters and see if you get better results from video marketing, social media, or non-SEM marketing initiatives. If so, then by all means put more money into those channels. But you need to start with a base. That base is 80% search engine marketing and 20% other.

When you have a solid base from which to start your Internet marketing initiatives, it’s easier to track your results. You can set better goals and you can allocate your marketing budget appropriately.

7 Online Marketing Strategies You Can’t Ignore

Ask anyone who has been around for 40 years or longer and you’ll find that the ways of marketing a business have changed. What worked in 1960 was different than what worked in 1980 and what worked in 1980 isn’t what worked in 2000. Even the marketing strategies used today aren’t the same as what worked in 2000.

Here are 7 online marketing strategies that work today and that will likely work ten years from now.

1. Search engine optimization – Build a website and make sure each web page is optimized for search engine traffic.
2. Pay per click marketing – Spend your money on clicks for a speedy response to your message and watch your income rise.
3. Social media marketing – Use social bookmarking and social networking to connect off of your website, then drive that traffic to your web pages.
4. Video marketing – Online video marketing has arrived in full force. Engage with your audience on YouTube and other video marketing websites.
5. Start a blog – Write to your blog every day. The search engines love the fresh daily content.
6. Article marketing – Write articles and distribute them online to websites within your niche. You’ll build your reputation and build links to your website.
7. Claim your local business listing – Each major search engine has a local business listing associated with their Maps feature. Claim your listing if you are a local business.

There is no substitute for these 7 online marketing strategies. You can do more, but I wouldn’t dare do less.

Does Online Video Marketing Mean Lower Quality Production?

You might think that, if you watch a lot of YouTube videos, online video marketing is a low quality endeavor. That’s not necessarily true. It is true that many online videos suffer from lack of quality in terms of production features, but don’t take that as an indication that all online video production is low quality.

First, the most important thing about online video marketing is that it be effective. If a home made video produced on a shoestring makes its creator a few thousand dollars in a couple of weeks, then that’s effective marketing. Who cares if it’s low quality, right?

While it’s true that low quality videos can make you money, it’s also true that a higher quality video has more potential to make you more money. Effective marketing is effective marketing.

Keep in mind that you have other alternatives to YouTube. There are other online video sharing sites that can drive traffic to your website and allow you to show your marketing prowess. The key to successful video marketing online is quality, and there’s no reason you can’t have a high quality production that makes you money.

When you want to find out the truth about online video marketing, talk to a professional who delivers on quality.

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