Video Marketing and What it Will Do For the Restaurant Owner

When considering the options that restaurant owners have for marketing, and where to spend their money, there are a lot of choices. What I am about to suggest will bring you new customers and we be very cheap compared to other methods of marketing and advertising. If you are currently advertising in the phone book, let me give you a money saving tip, STOP! Do you know many people that still look in the phone book? Or do they go to the internet?

It's simple, there are a few people that still use the phone book, but more and more people are turning to the internet to look for You! If you think about traditional marketing, you might think of things like putting up billboards, making flyers, having a commercial on the TV, or radio. These are all traditional types of marketing, and they will get you new customers, but the problem is that you have no way of keeping track of who is viewing your flyers, or commercials. There is no way of knowing if you are reaching your target audience. How can you find out what is working or what is not? Also are you getting enough feedback to change and test your market?

Now, internet marketing is a little different, you can see exactly where your target audience is and what they are typing in to find you. This makes your job a little easier, you now have to place your business in the middle of that traffic. That's it, get yourself in the middle of what people are already looking for, and you will attract new customers! This is not all, you can also keep track of how many views your video is getting, and where they are coming from, where they are going on your website, and what referred them to you. This means that you can refine your marketing and advertising to perfection! Literally you can see exactly what people are doing and how they are getting to you. This also means that you can use this information to improve your traditional marketing.

Easy, Video's get out to a lot of people, and your target audience can watch your video any time of day 24/7 365 days a year! If you are thinking this sounds expensive, you're wrong! For less then you would pay for a page ad in the phone book, you can have a video made, edited, and marketed on the internet. What would you have, a video that you can watch any time of day with thousands of people looking for you, or an ad in the phone book? Get Your Video Now!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tyler_Judd

You Tube Or Your Own "Professional Tube" - Some Considerations

Day after day, the inclusion of publicly available movies into our entertainment and information world is gathering momentum and gaining more importance than ever before. YouTube, the "big daddy" of all online video information, competes intensely with other young pretenders to the throne of "King of the Online Video". MySpaceTV, Google Video, Yahoo Video, Viddler, and Veoh are YouTube's nearest competition of the same class in bringing best video service to viewers worldwide. According to ReadWriteWeb dot com's review in June 2008, YouTube's share of the movies download pie was a staggering 75%+ ... bigger than Google's slice of the search market!

For the online marketer or information webmaster the question is whether you want to use YouTube or a similar service as the channel for your movies, or whether you will host them yourself on your own website, for streaming or downloading to your website viewers.

Some of the potential advantages of using YouTube to host your video material might include the following considerations. Using YouTube to reach the media is cheap and easy. This is the biggest advantage that can gain you high visibility, especially if you have to be cost conscious. It will show almost any movie content or format, though MPEG4 is the preferred form and AVI a close second. Other formats may suffer some loss of quality and also carry serious file size overheads. YouTube offers a free movie service that is simple to access and the conditions are very clearly laid out for all users. YouTube has become a repository of an incredible variety of movies, infomercials, how to videos and much more. It lets you as a viewer, stay up to date with the newest videos and movies, through its subscription service. It is a major benefit that you can express your creativity through it, without needing to spend a fortune on an MGM studio. There are lots of networking and viral marketing benefits, in reaching a wider audience; getting to know more people and learning through YouTube.

However, YouTube is not without its share of cons. The major blips amongst these are that whatever you post goes public to everyone. There is virtually no control on who can post a video. So there are issues associated with posting videos that feature bigotry, violence, sexually explicit materials and other abuses. Within YouTube there is a moderation process, but it can take some time before genuinely bad material is removed. There is frequent copyright infringement especially of cinema and music movies; and it remains to be seen when an effective response to this issue can be formulated. Fortunately this should not be a major problem to any marketer with an ounce of integrity.

The other side of the coin is having your own movies hosted on your own websites. Most hosting companies that are used by marketers are well geared up to cope with the clearly visible growth trend of the video medium online. There is a clear and important impact on your web design process. Many websites carrying video do not have their pages set up for it at all well. This is where a good web designer or purpose built templates come in. For marketers, the classic example is the video squeeze page; for which, a growing product line of squeeze page templates, optimized around personalized movies, is appearing.

There are some major technical issues to be considered when trying to get your free movies, for potential customers, working via your own hosting account and you do need to be on top of them. Simply getting the size and format of your self-produced movies correct for viewing on most people's browsers can be a major challenge if you have not chosen hardware and software carefully. This is not the place to go into the minutiae of setting up video content yourself: suffice to say there's a lot to consider and plan.

Careful research into your potential web hosting solution is essential before you spend hard earned cash on a contract that doesn't give you sufficient bandwidth to cope with a successful marketing campaign which generates high demand for your free movies that have struck a chord with customers and gone viral.

On the whole, there is little doubt that the advantages easily outweigh the disadvantages of using YouTube for most website owners and marketers. Follow the posting guidelines that make YouTube the powerful, legitimate medium it is. Ensure that you post the most appropriate content and don't sink to "lowest common denominator marketing" by pandering to the thirst for images of violence or sex to sell your services. (We don't HAVE to go with the negative influences out there).

To ensure the effectiveness of your sales movies whether self hosted or posted on YouTube; make them short and precise. This assumes great importance in the case of marketing and all forms of advertising where you have to beat the viewer's incredibly short online attention span. For training materials and infomercials you need a fine balance between the "short and sharp" and valuable content. If you are giving information, it needs to be useful, clear and useable for your viewer. Good sound quality is essential, so invest in a decent microphone for your next production.

Finally get out there and try it! I would recommend you start by using YouTube or a similar service for your first efforts and only break into self hosted video when you have established a presence and some mileage in producing videos. Video is an essential medium for websites, Google likes video content, viewers prefer movies, if well presented. Your own free movies presented on the sales page or content pages of your websites are just a far more effective way of getting your brand established and connecting more fully with prospects and turning them into customers or loyal subscribers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ray_Cassidy

Video Marketing Tips - Cashing in on Hot Trends

I love video marketing. YouTube has made it so that all you need to do is upload and get tons of visitors to your video...right? Well, okay, it's not quite that easy. Truth is, with all the videos out there, it's tough getting your share of the video pie. However, there is a way to attract massive numbers of viewers to your videos. It's not something a lot of people think about and granted, it does take some thought to pull of correctly. But if you do put some thought into it, you can create videos that WILL bring you tons of views. This article explains how.

It doesn't matter what day of the week it is. Somewhere in the world, something is going on that's big news. For example, as I am writing this, a former child star who was once on Power Rangers has been sentenced to death. That's just one of the many hot stories of the day. Somewhere else, a restaurant chain has started a campaign with the slogan "Fork The Recession" where they're trying to get people to eat out more. Now, neither of these events may tie in to anything that you're doing with your business, however, if you can find a way to tap into a current news even with your video, you'll find that many people will end up viewing it.

Naturally, to do something like this, you have to act fast. Many trends die out overnight. Yesterday's serial killer is today's "who was that guy?" But every once in a while, something happens that lasts for days or even weeks or months. When the US first went to war in Iraq, that was big news for a long time. When 911 hit, that was big news for weeks. There are some events that don't go away quickly. If you can somehow tie them into your business, you can get many people to view your videos.

Part of being able to act quickly means having the right equipment. And quite honestly, you don't need much to make a decent video. A cheap camcorder, some video software like Camtasia or even CamStudio, which is free, and maybe some slide creation software like Powerpoint or Open Office, which is also free, is all you really need. Putting together something that you can upload to YouTube quickly shouldn't take more than an hour or two...plenty of time to cash in on what's going on.

The key to making this process work is your own mind. Sit down and think how you can take that news event, announcement, product development, or whatever it is, and use it for your own benefit.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steven_Wagenheim

Video Marketing Secrets - Driving Traffic Made Easy

If you are looking for some ways to start driving more traffic to your website, or more traffic to your blog, then I am going to give you one real method that you can get started on today and one that will have you making more money then you will even know what to do with.

OK, this marketing tactic is video, videos will allow you to more money online this year in 2009 then any other method out there.

Why?

Because video marketing is so viral, you can upload one video today and in 1 week that one video can make you an instant success.

That's the simple truth of the matter. One more point that I want to make is you don't have to be good looking, you don't have to have 1,000 worth of product setup no that's not the case at all. In fact when I first started I started using a 20.00 web cam that I bought from Walmart and let me tell you that did the trick. In fact I believe that that cheap web cam allowed me to make more money because the people watching could see that I was real, they could see that I was not up in front of a whole production studio and it was natural. I didn't try to be anyone I wasn't.

This is why video is so important and why you should start using it in your business today.

Video will draw more traffic then any other form of marketing if you know just how to do it right.

here are some places that you can start uploading video

YouTube
Spike
Google
Blogger
WordPress

These would have to be to most popular places to upload and make money.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dennis_White

A Simple Video Marketing Strategy That Works

There many different strategies you can use when it comes to video marketing. But, in this article I want talk about one specific video marketing strategy.

If you are not using video in your marketing efforts you need to start doing so now. Using video online is a great way to build relationships, and drive sales to your websites. People like to buy from people they know, like, and trust. It is very easy to build that trust online when you are using video. People can actually see your face and know who you are.

So, it is essential that if you are not using this technique in your marketing efforts that you need to start now. Video is not hard to create, and in today's article I want to show you one video marketing strategy I use to crank out videos that sell.

There are many different types of videos you can use online, but today I want to talk about the talking head. That might sound a little funny, because it is, but it is actually a strategy I use to produce videos.

The strategy involves you jumping in front of a small little video camera and just talking. It's called the talking head because you're usually just videoing yourself from the chest up. So, you are basically a talking head in the video.

To do this, all you need to do is grab a Flip Video Ultra. The Flip is a super compact camcorder that can fit in your pocket. It is relatively inexpensive, and gives you great video quality. Plus, it is built for online marketing. You can simply shoot a video, and then plug it directly into your computer and upload it to major video sharing sites.

So, it makes it super simple to use. Now, all you need to do is pull out that video camera whenever you have an inspiration and start talking. You will then want to take those videos and upload them to all of the major video sharing sites.

It is really as simple as that. The only thing that I would suggest that you do in the videos is mention your website more than once. I usually mention my website at least three times. Also, you want to make sure that you end the video with a call to action.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shannon_Herod

Web Video and Website Advertising Strategies

The Internet has developed no end in the last ten years. From being a simple information-sharing network it has become a living, breathing network used to sell things, buy things, start relationships and just chat to mates. This growth in Internet use and the advances in technology have begun to challenge the media industry, TV can now be viewed anytime, and any place online, the same with films and music. This has obviously added to piracy issues, but also opened up a whole new global market, which has caught the interest of advertisers.

Online marketing is worth big money, for a few key reasons:

*TV adverts are only shown between programmes, whereas Internet adverts and banners are on screen nearly all the time. Giving the advertiser much more coverage.

*The amount of people that can be reached is incredible. For example last year google had 1,118,000,000 view their advert that's over 18 times the population of the UK.

*Targeting the right market is fairly easy, working out the markets interests and then placing adverts on the main sites of these interests can quickly aim the information straight into the segment the advertiser wants to reach.

Some sites such as MySpace and Facebook know that their users visit the site almost everyday to check their messages or comments and they know this regular traffic is worth a lot of money. Linking between sites is a technique less well known websites can use to gain traffic, by making a post on, for example, MySpace which includes the web address to their site. Owners can guide a section of MySpace's users towards their website and therefore boost their own traffic.

Some website owners have even used internet user's mistakes to gain traffic. For example, each country has a prefix to their web addresses, the UK has .co.uk, America .com and France .fr. Cameroon in Africa has .cm and one entrepreneur came across a brilliant and highly profitable idea. He bought up hundreds of domains ending in .cm that sounded similar to their .com equivalents. By using user mistakes to gain traffic Kevin Ham made well over 2 million dollars!

Company owners are also starting to realise that text based websites don't hold their audience interests for as long as needed. Website creators are attempting to combine film and website to create new, more interesting sites that not only entertain but more importantly sell. These website tour guides can greet site guests, show them round and help a company communicate their brand image and intentions. Not only this, but tests have proved that people stay longer on sites that feature a video tour guide rather than just text and user retention is highly important to potential advertisers.

As you can see the world of online sales and advertising is fast moving and constantly changing. The question is where will it go next and if you know then it's definitely time to invest.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lee_Mainprise

Web Video and Advertising Impact

For nearly the entire time TV has been broadcast, advertisers have been showing their products and earning customers from this. However, since the vast rise in Internet sales, this has changed, massively.

With sites like YouTube attracting millions of viewers everyday, it seems that the Internet is being used much more than television, and advertisers are taking more than advantage to this.

To help me understand this better, I watched the commercial break between Coronation Street on the 31st of March 2009, and found that only five different adverts were shown and all, in some way, were related to the kind of audience that were watching the show (e.g. nappies, perfume etc.). However, by just logging onto one of the most visited sites, YouTube, I found video links, a mobile advertisement in a very large quadrant of the page, and numerous URL links to other websites, including Google, the new owner of YouTube.

This is a perfect example of advertising, as the viewer only has to click one button to reach another destination, where they find more links, and more. This process is called 'Click Through' and by each website being visited, the host is earning money usually through Google Adwords service.

Another form of advertising that actually reaches the recipient is through emails. When emails were first created they were text only; but now emails feature text, videos, images and links. When the recipient opens the email, they can get from one site to another through clicking a link through an image.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lee_Mainprise