On Thursday, March 21st the Brantford-Brant Chamber of Commerce held the seminar Making Video Work for Your Business, as part of their ongoing The Business Learning Series. Guest presenter Roger Duck, local videographer and owner of Digital Duck, made it clear during the seminar that your web efforts aren’t complete without video.

To keep up with the competition it’s important to realize that the days of using your website as an extension of your business cards, with stationary images and text, are gone. If you don’t build your site with video you are missing out on a great oppourtunity to build an audience and keep them coming back for more. One of the easiest ways to add video to your website is to make a YouTube channel and embed the links into your site through the share feature.

Creating a YouTube channel and embedding videos into your website is an excellent way to make video work for your business. A YouTube channel is free and you can populate it with a balance of professionally produced pieces that put your business in the best light, and ‘guerrilla’ videos that are filmed by yourself, or a friend, with any technology that has video capability.

The professionally produced pieces are the core to sharing your brand the way you want, while guerrilla videos can help keep your YouTube video feed and website active during production periods, so your audience doesn’t forget you are out there. For example, perhaps you are having a staff party and your manager gives a great impromptu speech – now that almost everyone has a mobile in their pocket with video capability there is no reason you can’t share the moment. Let your audience get to know your business or organization through the personality shown in everyday interactions.

As Margaret Wallis-Duffy, owner of Wallis for Wellness, pointed out in an interview with Atomic Spark, “As a 20-year business owner, I have found video to be an incredible sales tool that has enabled me to reach an audience I may never have been able to reach, and build a relationship with them before they ever walk through the door“.

Creating a relationship with your audience even if they can’t meet you in person, or before they meet you, is of the utmost importance on the Internet, where anyone can post content and it is difficult to weed through all the information. Separating yourself from the crowd through video allows you to engage in a two-way dialogue with your audience. As discussed in our blog, Tweetstock High: Marketing with Google, if someone is online asking a question, you need to offer them an answer. Having a real person giving genuine quality answers in a concise video sets you apart. From showing a product at all angles, to answering popular support questions, to giving a tour of your facilities, video keeps your audience on your page.

For a sample of a great YouTube channel that balances guerrilla videos with professional content check out Wallis on Wellness.

Here is a sample of a video produced by Atomic Spark for Wallis on Wellness.

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Here is a sample of a Wallis on Wellness guerrilla video.

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