It’s tough for companies to stand out in the search results because everything is so aligned. So, as the Internet becomes increasingly competitive, how does a company differentiate itself from the competition? How can you intercept your audience and capture their attention?
Luckily, since 2007, blended search has been a common feature of the search engines. What this means is that rather than the normal search listings appearing when someone completes a search, you now have a variety of options to click on, from news results, blog posts, image results and of course, video search.
So, how do you hold your audience’s attention? We recommend trying to use video! You could post interesting tutorials or product demos on video and make this publicly available online. Perhaps the best demonstration this year of how effectively video can capture an audience is David Carroll’s backlash against United Airline’s poor service in his new video United Breaks Guitars. Because of the phenomenal viral effect that the Internet has, the video has been viewed almost 5 million times in a month!
Some Tips To Launching Your Videos Online
Before you jump in and throw up any old video to promote your services and website, there are a few useful pointers to consider.
- Not just ‘any’ content will do – ensure that your video clips provide relevant and interesting information to your target market. If you are selling a complex product, videos that demonstrate a step-by-step process can be incredibly useful.
- Keep ‘em short – you want to captivate your audience, not bore them. If you have a long piece that you would like to share, consider breaking it into relevant parts. A long video cannot capture attention as well as one that has been strategically divided into parts – leaving the viewing searcher for more.
- Incorporate your brand into the videos – make sure that your logo is prominent in the videos as this will serve as a powerful form of branding for your business.
- Throw in an eye catching title – the key to getting searchers to click on your link is by being relevant but at the same time throwing in a differentiator, an interesting title, that little bit extra that will induce the click.
- Make video an additional portal to your site – you should upload your videos to portals such as YouTube and provide links back to content on your site as it will offer an alternate avenue via which searchers can find your website.
- Don’t forget about optimization – optimize your video for important keywords and tag your video with these terms. Include a keyword rich description of your video and link to other videos, using important keywords in the anchor text.
With video, your business can build the credibility of its brand as well as increase its prominence in the search engines through blended search! If you need assistance in developing a video strategy online, give us a holler at October 17 Media.
