Video Marketing

Are you using video as part of your marketing arsenal? If you’re not, you’re behind the times. It’s a fact that sites like YouTube get millions upon millions of searches every day.

In my business of offering SEO services, part of our packages are to create and distribute videos to these video sharing sites. The value of the back links make them well worth the time and energy (not to mention the message about your product or service in the video itself).

There are many reasons to use video in your marketing. Here are just a few:

People like watching videos. In fact, many people would prefer to watch a video than read your website. A video grabs your visitors attention and piques their curiosity.

Keeps your visitors on your site longer. Also known as “bounce rate”, you want your visitors to stay on your site as long as possible. The longer they stay the better the chance of your visitor taking your desired action.

Increases your brand awareness. People are more likely to “pass around” your video than your sales page. Sooner or later, you will have thousands, perhaps even millions of viewers who will see your videos. The more it’s seen, the more people become aware of you, your products or your services.

Here are some statistics for you – According to Borrell & Associates:

Online video spending is forecasted to account for more than 1/3rd of all online advertising in 5 years.
Over 40% of consumers watch online videos on at least a weekly basis; over 70% at least monthly.

In the last 10 years, the money spent on production and use of videos for marketing and advertising has steadily increased in to the billions of dollars. And it’s showing no signs of slowing down!

Not Using Videos? Why Not!

Many people stop short of doing videos because of 2 very common reasons. Lack of technical or creative ability to create the videos. Lack of money to pay someone to make the videos.

It takes special software, time and experience to make videos. And perhaps you don’t have the money to buy the tools, or expertise to create and edit your videos. Or, no money to hire someone to do this! I have an answer for you…

Let’s understand something here first. When we talk about making videos for marketing, you don’t need to make “commercial quality” videos. Those take a lot of money. You’re a small business – who has that kind of budget!

But I am also not suggesting you make some crap video that doesn’t convey your message (or worse – confuse the viewers).

So what do you do?

Video Niche Dominator

This is a great new tool from Jonathan Teng. It is essentially a very SIMPLE and INEXPENSIVE way to make videos very quickly. In fact, you can literally make dozens at one time. And did I mention simple?

>> http://inmarkon.com/vnd

Visit the link right now and watch the videos on the page.He put up many samples to show what his software can do. And be sure to watch his demonstration video.

Now it’s easier – and cheaper – then ever before to make videos part of your marketing and advertising arsenal.  Jonathan even includes royalty free images and music loops to get you started. I bought Video Niche Dominator and made five videos in about 15 minutes! Take a look:

I made this with NO planning just to see how well it works. Imagine how good your videos will be when you plan them out. Use your own images, music – even voice-over and you now have completely original videos to tell people about your products!

Don’t wait. There’s no more excuses for not using videos!

>> http://inmarkon.com/vnd

There’s no denying it. This is a VERY hot topic right now. You want proof, just mosey on over to the Warrior Forum and look at all the posts, WSO’s, etc.

But you know what? There’s a good reason this is a hot topic right now…

Many off line businesses have been hit by “slow” times and are actively looking for ways to increase business. So opportunity knocks.

My partner Jim and I have been in this arena now for more than a year and we have been seeing first hand how much we have been able to help our own clients. And with our system, we launched Easy Local SEO to help OTHER people market similar services to businesses all over the U.S. and Canada.

I have discovered though, that many people who want to market in this arena have one fatal short coming. They really don’t have any idea how to approach potential clients and get them to listen to what they have to say. My partner and I had this same issue when starting out. Jim used to drive around visiting local businesses for a few hours every day – saying hello, dropping off fliers and business cards, etc. And the people he spoke to were always nice.

However, we made exactly ZERO sales doing this. I learned the hard way that they simply saw us as nothing more than another salesman hawking some product or service. Not what they wanted to deal with, and who can blame them? They have a business to run.

There are a lot of ways to properly approach prospects, get them to listen and perhaps hire your services, but I am going to talk about just 2 things here…there’s a lot more to this, but I don’t want this post to be too incredibly long

• “You’re an internet guy??

The first thing you need to do is very simple. Don’t bill yourself as an “internet marketer”. For one thing you don’t do yourself any favors. If you talk to business owners in a casual environment and ask what they think about internet marketing, many won’t really even understand exactly what that is… and many others think “just some other fly-by-night company selling me a bill of goods about SEO or something”.

Bottom line is, you are looking to help a business increase their revenue. And you are educating them about the power of advertising on the internet. And giving them new ideas on how to get more people to look at their products and services.

In other words, you are a Business Consultant.

Say that to yourself until it is second nature. Because (if you are doing this right) that’s exactly what you are. You just happen to specialize in the many ways the internet can help.

• Show them how they can do it themselves!

Business owners like nothing better than to find other ways to increase their revenue while saving money at the same time. Well, who doesn’t?

So, why not show them how they can use the internet themselves? Show them the power of capturing emails, proper S.E.M., a well-optimized website, the power of social media…you get the idea.

What I am talking about are workshops. Very simple.

Hold a workshop in the area you market to. It’s easy to get the word out (how about the Chamber of Commerce, or local paper – even Craig’s List). And you can actually make money holding them. But there’s an even bigger benefit…

Structure a workshop environment, schedule it for 6 – 8 hours on a Saturday. Charge for attending (anywhere from $97 to $997 – or more if the market will bear it). You need to at LEAST cover the cost of the workshop – most likely for a room at a local hotel to hold the workshop in, perhaps coffee and doughnuts…that kind of thing.

Understand the power here…you will now have business owners coming to you. You are now NOT a sale person, but a potential solution to a problem. They will be MUCH more willing to listen.

The workshop itself MUST be good stuff. Real usable, actionable things these people can do. Focus on just a few things they can do. You want them to have their “light bulb moment”, seeing the potential of what you’re teaching them. But at the same time, you want them to understand just how much time and effort it will take if they take it on themselves.

That’s where the “selling without selling” takes place. They will start asking YOU if you can do this for them. Which of course, you can.

Once you break it down for them in terms they can understand (cost benefits, etc.) the will see that it is simply another advertising avenue. Something they already spend money on – and something they can also write off at the end of the year.

All of this can lead to new clients. Many of them. Hiring you to do everything from website design (or redesign) to SEO to reputation management to social media marketing, to customer database management – and much more.

So now I hear you saying – “A workshop? I never held one of those. I have no content, etc. for this. What do I do?”

Man I hear that. I said the same thing over a year ago when this idea was first presented to me. The answer can only be one of two things: 1) Create the content or 2) BUY the content.

I did number two. And I can tell you it’s the best thing I could have done. Who has the time to write up all this content for the business owners to learn from and keep after the workshop is over?

• The answer to my prayers…

I met Rachel Rofe a couple of years ago at a small marketing lunch. Very nice person and also very talented and a keen marketing mind. While doing some research on line for this niche, I cam across a package she and her partner, Jaime Mintun, put out that is the answer to my prayers…

Their package is everything you need to hold a workshop for off line businesses. Everything from the marketing and sales materials to get the business owners to attend, to a slide presentation, a workbook for the attendees – and so much more.

It’s called “Make 10k In A Weekend” and you really need to grab it if you want to hold workshops of your own. You can literally brand all of the material with YOUR business name and logo and be holding workshops next week. What a time saver!

As I said earlier – there are other ways to sell your services. But none will have the conversion rate that this one does. Think about it – all you need to market is a workshop teaching them how to help themselves. By the end, once they see the power of what you teach, many will seek YOU out asking how much you charge to do all this work for them.

To me, that beats cold-calling any day!

Ron Douglas – Internet Marketer, Entrepreneur, Best Selling Author.

About a year ago Ron released his first book, America’s Most Wanted Recipes and it was a best seller. I have a copy and I can tell you, I love it. I spent quite a bit of time making my favorite recipes in the book.

So after a year (and about 15 pounds ) Ron publishes his follow up, More of America’s Most Wanted Recipes: More Than 200 Simple and Delicious Secret Restaurant Recipes–All for $10 or Less!

I have known Ron for a couple of years now and he’s one of the nicest people I know. He is driven, but knows how to have fun, spend time with friends and family and enjoy life. He’s someone everyone should aspire to be.

Ron and I are partners on a couple of projects. So I know first hand that when he sets his site on a project, he goes after it until it’s done, launched and profitable.

Ron should also be an inspiration to anyone who is looking to have their own success. It’s been said many times that there is no such thing as a “magic pill” that will start making you money hand over fist without any work. Ron worked (and works) very hard to achieve his goals.

Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty… you never know – You could end up doing a few of the things Ron does:

Internet Selling For Newbies by Omar Martin and Mike Filsaime is a complete training course that teaches internet marketers how to set up a web based business from the ground up without the huge financial investment that is usually associated with starting a six figure business.

The new cutting edge Internet Selling course is full of informational videos. Internet Selling For Newbies differs from most of the other training courses on the

web in the sense that the majority of the training videos were filmed in actual “Classroom Style”. Omar teaches the internet selling tactics from in front of a white board then follows up his teachings with screen capture video’s of actual practical web implementations.

In addition to the unique training style, Mike & Omar have made a vast portion of the training program available to the public at no charge. The entire training program rivals that of $1997.00 products out there. They give away a huge chunk of the knowledge for free to anyone willing to pay the low shipping and handling fee.

The basic training course is available for free while supplies last at Internet Selling For Newbies

Mike Filsaime and Omar Martin will mail the Cd-Rom right to right to your doorstep. As an added bonus you can choose to get a free trial of the highly acclaimed MarketingDotCom magazine subscription which is probably a good idea.

All in all, it seems like another huge win for Mike Filsaime and Omar Martin as they have really provided some incredible content here for free and the entire course basically holds your hand as you create a fully functional web based business from the ground up.

I highly recommend: Internet Selling For Newbies

Mike Ambrosio

Hey guys,

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I have been doing the Internet Marketing thing for many years now, and working from home full time just over 2 years and I can say that I thoroughly enjoy this lifestyle.

I love getting up in the morning because my body tells me it’s time – not my alarm clock. In fact, I don’t use my alarm clock any more.

I love the ability to walk my 6 year old son to the bus stop every morning.

I love the ability to decide if I want to work from my home office, or drive the 9 miles to my outside office.

I love being able to go out to lunch with my wife pretty much any time I want.

So many benefits!

But there is one downside that not many people talk about. A side that, if left unchecked, can be disastrous.

Your health.

Let’s face it – working this business is NOT very physical. I spend a LOT of time in front of the computer, sitting. Sometimes with a nice snack at my fingertips, lots of coffee throughout the day and so on.

So last year, after my annual physical, my doctor had me go out for another round of blood tests after just 90 days. Then again. Then once more. After that third time he sat me down and said that, while overall I am healthy (for a 45 year old with a sedentary lifestyle) my blood-sugar was trending upwards. Borderline diabetic – not fully, but heading in that direction.

Not coincidentally, my weight had also gone up over this time to 210lbs. I am 5’10″ so that’s pretty heavy – the heaviest I have ever weighed.

So, the doctor said that before putting me on any medication he wanted me to do the “diet and exercise” thing.

Now, diabetes is definitely in my family – my mother had it. And at 45 I figured I am much too young to have to go on medication for an extended period of time. I worked in the pharmaceutical business for 20 years – I know what goes in to those drugs – no way I wanted that!

This was back in October 09. So it was time to make the choice.

I dusted off the trusty treadmill in our basement and renewed my gym membership. And of course, started documenting everything I ate.

Note: I think that documenting what you eat on a daily basis is the BEST thing to do. Sometimes we have no idea what or how much we eat. Doing this for just a week will seriously open your eyes (if you do it honestly). You can help not only track, but also know the nutritional value of the things you eat. I do this with the help of a site:

http://www.livestrong.com/

I use this site to track what I eat, get ideas for exercise and weight loss, get inspiration and motivation and more. There’s a free version, and Gold membership is very affordable (around $40 – $50 for the year).

Anyway, starting on the treadmill, I would walk 30 minutes per day at 4 mph (2 miles total). I loaded up my Ipod Touch with music I like, stuff I can move to. I also put on things like Tony Robbins courses, etc. Stuff to suit any mood while I walk.

After the first month I decided to try throwing some jogging into the mix. The first attempt I could only do about a quarter mile without stopping. Ouch. But I didn’t get discouraged…

Now I am up to 2 miles without stopping. Some days, I run, some days I walk on an incline (between 6 and 10 degrees). Either way I burn calories.

Fast forward to this week…

Back to the doctor on Tuesday to get the results of my latest bloodtest – I am back in the “normal” range. Officially I have lost 11 pounds (so far) – which isn’t bad considering I started in October and went through the holiday season!

And there’s side benefits…

The daily heartburn is now gone – no more Pepcid. My energy level is up. My knees feel better than they have in quite some time. My moods have been great. My motivation for other parts of my life are off the charts.

So many benefits. My only “regret” is waiting so long and waiting for a health issue to get me going.

Diet and exercise – two words that scare off many people. But let me tell you, laziness today will bring you WAY more problems tomorrow.

Now if I miss a day on the treadmill, I feel it. I have started to actually look forward to the time. Because the time I spend walking or jogging, with my Ipod playing (whether I use my treadmill at home or at the gym), is now my “ME” time. My reflection time. My planning time. My alone time.

Do yourself a favor. Make sure you get to the doctor regularly for checkups. My doctor is thorough and thanks to that, he helped me avoid the next 20 – 30 years on medication. This also saved me from other medical issues that being overweight and unhealthy brings.

Get up and get moving. Join the site I linked to above. Don’t try to do too much at once – be patient and persistent and you WILL succeed. Set measurable goals so you have a target to work towards. My target weight is 185. I will achieve it and maintain it.

If I can do it, anyone can.

To Your Health!