4 Tips for Small Businesses to Leverage Video for Traffic, Leads and Sales

Small business owners who have a website or blog are always looking for new ways to generate traffic. Video has become the fastest growing way to not only generate traffic, but also find leads and make sales. I’d like to share with you some of the best tips I learned from the recent Social Media Money Magnet Seminar I attended.

You don’t have to have a high-tech studio or high-end video camera to create effective marketing videos. A phone with a video camera or a small Flip video camera does the job and allows you to be flexible. If you’re not comfortable being in front of the camera, start with a slide show or recorded webinar.

Here are four tips for effective video marketing for your business:

1. Be Frequent: Posting at least twice a month to start would be great. Don’t expect to post one video and get great results.
2. Include Backlinks: This is crucial. Include your URL in your description to point people to your page. This will result in more traffic from people watching your videos and a little bit of SEO credit passed along.
3. Have Relevant Keywords: Name videos with keywords your demographic will be looking for. Use three to four word phrases in your title and description as those are not often targeted and you’ll attract those viewers.
4. Include a Call to Action: Include a call to action and a way your prospects can easily reach you. This can be going to a website, picking up the phone or engaging in some other way for your business.

After you create your video, upload it to a free service such as YouTube and be sure to include your website address, keywords and call to action in the description. As soon as it is published, embed the video on your blog and e-mail your customers and prospects a link to create more views. The more views your video has, the higher it will rank (generally speaking). An inside trick that I’ve seen work is to have five different computers view your video in the first 60 minutes so your video gets noticed faster.

It is best to get 15-30 viewers to watch your entire video right away. Because you want them to view your entire video, keep them short until you build up an audience. A one to three minute video will be plenty long to entertain your viewers and deliver your message.

Want to hear more tips and tricks I learned? I’d love to share them with you. Visit my blog often for new posts and updated information.

[Image credit: everypassingminute]