Virtual Coaching |

5 Ways to Use Video to Super-charge YOUR Business

July 15th, 2010 |

Have you visited Youtube yet? No, it’s not just for high school and college kids any more…it’s for coaches and entrepreneurs too!

Increasingly, coaches, authors, speakers and consultants are using video (on Youtube or on their own site) to promote their services and products. Video gives the viewer a real-life, three-dimensional experience of you. And for coaches and other information professionals that do much of their work virtually, it can be the bridge to credibility – and therefore help the prospect build the confidence he/she needs to buy – in ways no other medium can.

Here are 5 ways you can easily and effortlessly start using video to improve your business and marketing results.

1. Put a short introductory video on your home page.

Whether you use an opt-in format like we do at www.careercoachinstitute.com or just sandwich the video in among other content, putting video on your home page has been shown to improve conversion and opt-in rates by as much as 50 percent! That’s nothing to sneeze at! The video we are using was filmed in a professional studio, but as you will see below, that is not necessary to get great results – even a webcam can produce the quality you need!

2. Use video to introduce yourself before an in-person appearance.

Frequently, part of an exhibitor package for a conference is obtaining the pre-conference list of attendees and having a one-time opportunity to introduce yourself to them and invite them to visit your booth. This has typically been done in an email or a pre-conference postcard mailing. But as I prepared to go to a recent conference this year, I thought, “why not use video as an introduction?” So I hooked up my $50 camcorder (a Logitech, if you’re curious about the brand), wrote out a script, and did an introduction! In just a few minutes, it was uploaded to Youtube and the link ready for the recipients of my email to view.

3. Create your own keyword-optimized YouTube channel.

If your clients typically find you online, as our students do, then you want to be accessible through a variety of means and channels. (Have you Googled yourself lately? See where you can be found that you may not have even known about!) You should be using LinkedIn, Facebook, your own name as a web site (e.g., www.marciabench.com) – and Youtube too! Rather than just having random access to your videos if people happen to put in the right keywords, you can customize your own “channel” in 10-15 minutes and have them all available in one place. (Check out mine here.)

4. Also place the Youtube videos you make on your own site or blog.

While it is great to upload videos to Youtube, taking people there doesn’t get them to your web site – and that’s where you can sell to them! So we like to also upload videos that are previewing an upcoming event onto our site for search engine optimization purposes.

(You might also consider the low-priced software Oovoo, which we are using for our ongoing series of Purposeful Entrepreneur Models Interviews – you can view 2, 3 or more people all at once on screen!)

5. Burn your video to DVD and send it out to prospects.

Recording a video of you talking about what you do best, and sending the physical DVD out to your prospects, can be one of the best ways to introduce yourself to them. Just as mailing a physical copy of your newsletter will be read more than an electronic version, video works the same way!

These are just 5 simple ideas, which you can implement with a webcam or an inexpensive camcorder almost immediately. What else can you do with video? The sky’s the limit! If you hit a “home run” with one of your video campaigns, be sure and let us know so that we can acknowledge you. Happy filming!