Video has been around on the Internet since
broadband connection became commonplace, but its purpose was
strictly entertainment. More recently, it has begun appearing
as a substitute for printed User Guides and as either a substitute
for, or addition to, the traditional website sales letter.
It’s the author’s firm opinion that a well written
and complete printed User Guide is far superior to a video
and that those who use video as a substitute for writing a
guide are just being lazy. Once you’ve got the software,
adding a commentary while demonstrating the product is dead
simple. And the results are (usually) simply awful.
But … video
to sell a product, to demonstrate its features, that’s
a different story. After all, they’ve been
doing it with television commercials for years. Even so, some
commercials are stinkers. Here’s the last 10 tips to
make sure yours aren’t:
21. Choose the images and people in your video carefully
You have to always keep in mind that this video is representing
you and your company. Make sure that images and people you
use are pleasant and professional. Also you want pleasant
images and people because that is what people will be most
interested in watching. Try to use fairly neutral accents.
Also don’t talk too s..l..o..w..l..y. People can listen
much faster than they can speak and slow speech is a turn-off.
22. Get ideas from commercials
Television commercials are amazing sales tools. You can use
ideas from these creative advertising spots to help you develop
a good video. You can get some amazing ideas that other companies
pay top dollar to advertising executives to create. You can
also see some really bad examples to avoid. Just be careful
of one thing. A TV commercial is not a failure because you
don’t like it. It’s a failure if either you don’t
remember the product or if it would make you actively not
buy the product.
23. Try to keep costs low
Creating a video has gotten more cost efficient with all the
tools available to the average business person, but you still
need to be careful. It is easy to get carried away and end
up blowing your whole marketing budget on making a video.
24. Scope out other internet videos
You can get a lot of ideas online from others who are using
videos to sell their products. Look at top ranked websites
and see what they are doing to drive in sales.
25. Understand the power of video
Video is a very powerful tool that has the ability to really
boost your traffic and sales. Make sure that you see everything
that video is capable of doing for you.
26. Use emotion
One of the greatest things about video is you can finally convey
emotion to your consumer. Part of selling is a passion for
the product and you can really get this across in video.
27. Take full advantage of all the attention you get
When you add a video to your website you will be getting more
traffic and you need to capitalize on it. Make sure you website
is up to par and can turn visitors into sales.
28. Keep it simple
Keep everything simple and do not abandon everything you already
know about creating online content. Follow the same rules
you did when creating your website.
29.
Don’t
over sell
You do not want to push customers away by being too much of
a sales person. Avoid the desire to yell out about the great
price and to tell the consumer they must buy. Don’t
be pushy, be persuasive.
30. Show, not tell
One of the best things about video is you can show the consumer
why they should buy instead of telling them. There is a lot
of power behind showing instead of telling. Showing is convincing.
Telling risks bringing out the cynic in your audience.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Phil Lancaster is recognized as one of the
leading experts on getting new websites indexed and ranked quickly
and then driving free, targeted traffic to them. To get his very
latest resource and learn everything there is to know about getting
an unstoppable flood of traffic to your website, visit:
http://www.trafficfloodgate.com
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