Everyone is buzzing about video these days, and it’s because video has evolved to become a vital tool in every company’s marketing plan. Simply adding a video to an email boosts click-through rates by 200-300% and having one on your homepage can increase conversion rates by 20% or more.
In this digital age, people like to watch videos and can take in much more information from a few minutes of well-designed video footage than they can trying to read through several pages of text.
If you’re like many IT business owners, you’ve probably been working videos into your mix of marketing activities. But you might not know the best practices you should be following to get the most out of your efforts and create a video that engages and converts the viewers.
Are you fully utilizing the description area in YouTube? Are you ending with a splash screen with your website address, but no call to action?
Before you upload your next promotional video, you’ll want to take a look through our tips of the best practices to help generate a successful video marketing campaign.
Use These Best Practices for Videos that Engage & Convert
No matter which demographic your tech business markets to the most – businesses, younger users, or seniors – there’s a good chance they’ll find you on YouTube.
Over half of internet users that are 75 or older use YouTube. The younger you go, the higher the percentage. Here’s a rundown of YouTube’s users as percentage of that age group:
- 18-24: 96%
- 25-34: 95%
- 35-44: 90%
- 45-54: 85%
- 55-64:79%
- 65-75: 66%
- 75+: 51%
How do you turn that audience into leads for your IT business? Here are the best practices to follow to get your videos performing and driving more sales.
Utilize the Description Area & Link to Your Website There
Many people make the mistake of under-utilizing the description area when they upload their video. They might just retype the title or put in a sentence or two. You can boost your video conversion and SEO rankings by making better use of this space.
One thing that you definitely want to include in the description area is your website URL (even if it’s in the video). It gives people a straight path to your site no matter where they are in the video timeline.
You get 5,000 characters for the video description and using keyword-rich text in that description can help your video be found for your subject matter both on YouTube and Google search results.
One more tip about the description area of YouTube, if you use their Creator Studio, you can use Upload Defaults to put a default description in with your URL and other key business details, then just edit what you need to when uploading each video.
Include Images of Your Shop (Inside & Out)
When you’re promoting your tech business to get people coming in the door, you want to let them know what your shop looks like, both inside and out, so include some photos of both in your video.
Even if people live in the same town, they may have never been to your area before and will feel much more comfortable about getting there without getting lost if you let them know the storefront they should look for when driving down the road.
Pictures also help put people in the mindset of being “there already” with a visual of a friendly and inviting shop, which entices them want to visit in person. (Make sure to pay attention to aesthetics when taking your photos!)
Include a Call to Action at the End
Someone’s just finished your IT business promo video and thought, “That’s great… now what?” Did you tell them what to do with a call to action at the end?
It’s important to give that same direction at the end of your videos as you do on your website to “Call Now” or “Schedule a Free Consultation.” People are much more likely to take an action if you direct them what to do.
If you advertise on YouTube, you may have used YouTube’s Call to Action Overlays in the past, those are being phased out and a new ad extension is being added for advertisers. The ad extensions are a more versatile way of adding a call to action button because instead of being part of the video, they can be applied to both new and existing videos.
Spend the Money for a Professional Production
A polished and professionally done video stands out and puts your business in the best light possible. If you try just filming one yourself and don’t add the production value elements, like music, continuity, to-the-point message, and balance between text and voice, you may end up losing viewers and mistakenly thinking video just won’t work for you.
Investing in a well-made video can make all the difference in getting the marketing boost you’re looking for and making your IT business stand out from your competition.
A few benefits that video marketers that put out good video content see are:
- 66% more qualified leads per year
- 54% increase in name awareness
- 60% increase in returning customer rate
Storyboard Your Video
If you just turn on the camera and start talking, you may end up with a video that misses some of your key business points because you didn’t plan it out ahead of time. Decide ahead of time what key information you want to get across and what visuals to use with them.
For example, you may start with a clip of one of your techs helping a client, then move to an animated bullet list that brings in each service your tech business offers, and close with a shot of the outside of your stop with a call to action to sign up for your newsletter to get awesome computer tips.
You can’t make the magic happen and engage your potential customers unless you have a plan ahead of time. The storyboarding upfront will also save you time on the back end during production.
Here’s an example of a well planned out video for an IT business.
Interact with Viewers
There are a couple of important ways you can interact with your video viewers:
- Consider them when filming the content itself
- Reply to their comments
Consider the Viewer
If you’re doing a video that has you or another staff member speaking, remember that you’re speaking to a live human being out there that is watching your video, and for them it’s a one-on-one conversation at that moment. Don’t be afraid to throw some references in like, “I know you are watching this and wondering, how can my computer be that fast?” or something similar that lets the watcher know you’re aware of them.
Reply to Comments
When people take the time to “Like” or comment on your video, engage with them and thank them or answer a question they ask. If you get a troll or negative comment, just send back something nice like, “Your input is appreciated” with a smiley face and get on with your day.
When you take the time to interact with your viewers, they’re getting to know you better and building up a level of trust, which can help them decide they want to work with your company.
Comment on Other Videos
A great way to get noticed and get more viewers over to your own video channel is to comment on other videos that are in the tech arena. Taking a little time each week to seek out and comment on a few other videos can help you in the following ways.
- Increase your video and profile views
- Connect with new people
- Establish your shop as a friendly expert
- Allow you to see what’s popular on YouTube for ideas
- Help you network with other IT pros
Pay Attention to Your Video Thumbnail
If you just let YouTube choose your default video thumbnail, it might not be the one that entices the most viewers. You have the opportunity to choose which thumbnail will show up and be the “book cover” for your video.
Here are some great video thumbnail tips from CoSchedule:
- Pair the thumbnail with the first 10-15 seconds of your video
- Use people or closeups when possible
- Don’t use the same thumbnail background for different videos (people may think they’ve already seen the video).
- Do be brand consistent
Use an Engaging Title
Which video would you be most likely to click on?
1. “Main Street Bagels”
OR
2. “Enjoy the Freshest Bagels in Town at Main Street Bagels!”
Just like you do with a blog or headline on a service page, use an engaging title on your videos to grab attention and make your video stand out from others in the same search listing.
Add Keyword Tags
YouTube has a built-in way to set your keywords by using their Tags area. Use this to build out your list of keywords, help YouTube know what your video is about, and to help viewers find you.
And you don’t have to stick with just one-word tags, use several words together, or a common misspelling. For example, if you’re promoting your IT cloud-backup solutions in your promotional video, you might use some tags such as:
- Cloud backups
- Cloud bakup
- What is the best cloud backup service
- How to back up in the cloud
…and so on
Leverage Your Videos for Other Platforms
Once you’ve got your video up on YouTube, you can leverage that in several other areas to gain even more views and get the most traction out of that single piece of content.
Promote your video in these other areas:
- Email newsletter
- Social media
- Use it in a blog
- Embedded on your website
Claim a Custom URL for Your YouTube Channel
We’re used to being able to claim our business name (or something close to it) on platforms like Facebook and Twitter and have it as part of the URL right away, when it comes to YouTube, you have a few requirements to meet first.
To get a custom URL for your YouTube channel, you’ll need to:
- Have 100 or more subscribers
- Be a minimum of 30 years old
- Have an uploaded channel icon photo
- Have uploaded channel art
So, if you’re just starting out and don’t yet have 100 subscribers, you may want to add a call to action in some of your other content to “Subscribe to Our YouTube Page” to help build up that first 100 so you can grab a custom URL.
What’s one of your favorite business or service promo videos? Share one below that has grabbed your attention.
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