By Steve Robinson
Director of National Organizations, Constant Contact
You’ve probably noticed that a lot more videos are popping up online, especially on social media. That’s because more people are watching videos and there’s no signs of it slowing down. Facebook reports that viewers are watching 100 million hours of video every day. Meanwhile, the number of people watching YouTube videos has increased 40 percent year over year since March 2014.
This means there’s a huge opportunity for small businesses to use video to engage customers and attract new ones. Videos are also a great way to tell your story in less than two minutes, which is especially appealing to those of you who don’t relish the idea of writing content. And when you pair video with email marketing, you’ll see click-through rates (CTR) soar. In fact, analysts at Forrester Research reported that including video in an email leads to a 200-300% increase in CTR. If you’re curious about how to effectively use video to market your small business, here is everything you need to get rolling.
Setting the Stage: Cameras and Action
Who needs big studios, big budgets and temperamental actors when you already have everything you need to create a great video. Let’s start with the tools. For the video aficionados out there, or former high school A/V experts, you probably know that you can record a video on a DSLR or a camcorder and transfer and edit the footage for online use. If you don’t know how to do that, whip out your smartphone. Most smartphones record in High Definition, giving even novice users high quality videos. You can take the smartphone video up a notch and use apps like 8mm (Nexvio, Inc.) and Paper Camera (JFDP Labs), that let you choose distinctive filters to give your videos an array of stylistic options. (more…)