Archive for May, 2009

Do you want to get 500% greater response to your Las Vegas videos marketing campaigns?  Simply format your ad to seem like it is a news spot.  It is proven that people will read or watch the news but quickly pass over obvious advertisements.  News means facts, authority; listen close and be informed.  On the other hand, we have conditioned ourselves to tune out blatant ads.

Think about it.  What do you pay attention to when there are many things taking up your interest:  An ad that tells you to buy XYZ because it does this, this and this (blank-eyed stare)?  Or a news-like program that tells you about some new process or service that is taking the country by storm and, by the way, you can get it here?

So, instead of producing a Las Vegas videos marketing ad campaign that is straight out sales copy, turn your copy into a news story with benefits sprinkled throughout.  Keep it concise and leave out all pressure to buy.  This is where the “take action” part of AIDA isn’t necessary.

Just the fact that you came across in an authoritative, informative format will cause the viewer to take action.  People like to think they are intelligent (well, we are!) so telling them through the news leads them to make an informed decision – on their own.

Try it the next time you put together your Las Vegas videos marketing campaign.  Use charts, graphs and other props as you demonstrate your product or service.  Give your “pitch” masked in a news style and just watch what happens.

Video marketing is no different than any other form of target marketing.  You need all the elements of a good marketing plan.  You have heard of the acronym, AIDA: that is to Attract attention, create Interest, create Desire and, finally, ask you visitor to take immediate Action.  So, in your online marketing video, what effective methods can you use to close the deal - to get your viewer to take action?

After the viewer has sat through anywhere from 2 – 8 minutes of your sales pitch, he has obviously shown interest enough to stay with you.  So after offering an awesome no-brainer offer and money back guarantee, ask them to buy – right now.  Tell them in a friendly way not to go away until they have bought your product.

Make it easy for them to justify the price.  Telling them to dig in the couch for change, give up pizza this week, makes it a no-brainer for them.  And they reason, he’s right – it is just the price of a pizza or a night on the town, and they click the order button.

Why else will they buy right now?  Here are a few more incentive plans for target marketing:

You can have a time limited offer where you will only offer your product as such and such a price for 48 hours and then the price goes up.  The thing to remember is to really increase the price and not “fake” your customers out.

Another good way to get your visitor to buy right now is to tell them there are fast action bonuses for buyers who take the offer today.

Just remember to respect your customer by only offering top quality information and you will have no trouble closing the deal.

Why does professional appearance matter in your online marketing video? For whatever reason, convention has taught us that we convey who we are by our appearance.  For example, when you see a man dressed in navy blue (or bright red depending on your nationality), a silver badge on his chest and a baton and side arm on each hip, what do you envision?

Contrast that to what he looks like on his days off.  In a matter of minutes he can transform his image just by changing his clothes.  He is still a police officer by profession even in his T-shirt and jeans but we just don’t take him as seriously as we do when he is in full uniform, right?

So it goes with how we come across when we appear before our viewers in a marketing video.  For the first time in history, men and women from all backgrounds have an opportunity to make a public living online, regardless of their looks or talent.  So, you get to see people in all manner of dress and style.

Yet, tests prove that if the presenter was pleasingly dressed and hair neatly styled, response was far greater than if the same marketer dressed in his or her everyday duds.

Now, we don’t need the presenter to be trussed up in business dress either.  Casual dress wins the day meaning clean open collar shirt and slacks or neat jeans for guys and attractive but not seductive dress for gals.

Maybe you can let your hair down later as you develop your brand and clientele, but for now try to follow the rules of casual business dress and you can’t go far wrong while maintaining a professional appearance in your online marketing video campaign.

Who of us has watched a movie produced by an “amateur” – someone who was either just learning the ropes of cinematography which just plain failed to capture the viewer’s interest?  Boring, right?  The same goes for direct marketing online. To do the job well requires you to use compelling graphics and design, just as the majority of the direct marketing society embraces.

We have all seen a website that is so busy that you can’t find how to navigate around.  Well, the same goes for video.  If it’s too “busy,” noisy and full of flash video, you will distract your viewer from your main purpose which is to compel them to buy.  After all the noise and dust has settled, the viewer may feel entertained but did they push the Order button?

So the order of the day here is to keep it simple.  You can choose a classy theme or even a contemporary theme but don’t overwhelm your viewer with artsy glitz and loud distracting music in the background.

Try to think like your customer.  How do you feel with flashy video graphics moving in and out and unnecessary background music?  Well, so will your viewers.  So create some video then – and be sure to test it like any good member of the direct marketing society.

Since video really is so simple to create and since your bread and butter depends on doing a good job selling, it pays to test the market.  See what they like.  In the end you will find that simple graphics and clean design sells best.  But you give it a test for yourself.

As you would expect, you need to plan your copy script before you take on YouTube video marketing.  Like any sales copy, you must determine your most enticing benefits and a bit of “you” in the form of a story and then making an offer followed my an over the top money back guarantee.

If you have already written sales copy for your product, this would be a simple matter of reading select parts, making sure to use the biggest benefit or two in the headline.  Start out your sales video with a slide that states this headline.  You have only a few seconds to “hook” your viewer, so use it wisely.  One great video promotion tip is to switch over to you talking screen in screen, perhaps, introducing your product and yourself.

Be compelling as you speak.  This will take practice but after a few attempts you will be able to convince your listener of the benefits of your service.

Also, like with written sales copy, offer a guarantee, offer irresistible bonuses and reasons why your price is worth every dollar spent.

Even though it is required to offer money back guarantee, especially if you use services like ClickBank, it is a good idea to make it a selling point.  Saying something like, “The risk is all on me.

You look at it for 60 days and if you don’t agree with me that it is worth more than you paid, I’ll refund your purchase – no questions asked.”  If you say that with conviction – eye to eye – you will be amazed at how your viewer will respond.

It is worth every minute of your time to plan your video promotion script for your YouTube marketing video.

We are living in age of instant gratification.  Your potential customer is looking for information and wants it now.  But he isn’t sure that what you are offering is just what he wants.  So how do you add urgency to your corporate video campaign?

First of all, try to do a talking head video.  Your viewer wants to see who is talking to them not just read a bunch of prewritten slides, although you can do a talking head with a slide show which can actually be very engaging to your viewer.  Talking straight to him or her, stating the massive benefits of your product – looking them right in the eye – is a very compelling technique.

Your viewer is looking for a solution.  He found your video in a list of other search engine returns.  You now get a brief chance to get your viewer to see/hear your best benefits of your product or service.  Let him see you talking straight with confidence.  Let her hear the implied urgency in your voice to take advantage of your merchandise.

And when all is said and done, ask for the sale adding a bonus or other reason to buy right now.  Tell then to buy today because you are offering such a wonderful bonus, which you cannot keep indefinitely (and be honorable enough to pull the said offer as you stipulated).

Adding a sense of urgency to your corporate video marketing campaign will make a difference between mediocre sales and fantastic sales.  Just try it for yourself.

You have probably seen all sorts of video advertising varying from top of the line to just plain ugly and uninviting. How can you improve the appeal of your direct response offer using video?

It helps to know that most of the men and women who will be viewing your video will be your average income viewer.  The demographics of video viewers includes above average income individuals so it will help to be able to relate to these individuals.  This group has an unspoken expectancy to see clean and professional presentations.

So, begin by keeping your sales “pitch” friendly and professional - no rude speech or clichés that might confuse your international audience.  Keep the script concise and state the biggest benefit in the first few seconds of the video.

Dress may not seem much to be concerned about but if you are doing a talking head video, be sure to dress appropriately.  If you are demonstrating how to bake bread, then you don’t need to dress in your office best.  On the other hand, do wear clean, casual attire if you are trying to urge your viewer to buy software or information product.  No stained T-shirts and sweats, please!

You will want to make an effort to take your video advertising quality up a notch each time you produce one.  At first it may seem jerky or flat.  But keep at it till you feel like you would be interested in buying from yourself.

Have someone else view your video and get their input.  It takes practice to improve the appeal of your videos so keep at it and before you know it, you’ll notice your bottom line increasing.  It’s worth the extra effort.

There seems to be a bit of mystery surrounding how to create direct response infomercials for YouTube but there doesn’t have to be.  Of course there are some things to assemble before you start including software, recording equipment and a way to edit the recordings. (And don’t forget the actual script that you will be following.)

First of all, to create a script, you’ll want to think much like you would for written sales copy.  You can actually follow a sales letter you already have written as your script.
Then you can record a simple but professional infomercial using Camtasia Studio and Microsoft PowerPoint.  Done properly these “commercials” will do the trick without having to do a talking head style video.

But the best option for reaching your potential customer is to use some kind of live action or “talking head” video.  This requires more equipment and software but is not as difficult to master as it first seems.

There are plenty of inexpensive options as far as video cameras for recording your infomercial.  And the newer equipment like the Flip Mino allows you to do a recording and instantly upload it to YouTube (assuming you don’t need to make any edits).

Once the video is recorded, you should edit it with some kind of software like Sony Vegas Movie Studio.  Here you can cut out the missteps, include text and add a watermark to your video that helps to brand you and your product.

The point of a direct response infomercial for YouTube is to convey your message in as short a time as possible, all the while showing your customer the benefits your product of service provides.

The videos you post to YouTube have a limit of ten minutes. Some people get the idea that they should take that entire ten minutes up, or they are somehow cheating themselves or their viewers. This just isn’t true. Even though you might have a great topic that could easily take up a whole ten minutes or longer, with video marketing online, bigger is not always better.

Remember that your viewers have 1) short attention spans, and 2) probably not a lot of time to sit and watch videos. Your can do a lot to make a shorter video(s) very effective – here are some tips:

Create a series of videos. You might have a topic that really does need more than ten minutes. There is nothing saying you can’t create a series on that topic. Begin with an introduction video that gives a good overview and hints about what you’ll be covering in your next video(s). Use each following video to cover a section.

Keep things lively. Even five minutes can seem like a lifetime if you’re watching a boring video, no matter how useful the information in it is. Practice what you’re going to say, and deliver your presentation with some life!

Use points. Just like I’m using bullet points in this blog post to review important tips, you can do the same in your video using your words, or a white board to write your points down, or a video slide show to illustrate each of your points.

With video marketing online, there’s no need to use ten whole minutes. Keep it short and sweet!

Direct marketing online can take several forms. One of the most common is email, and while direct marketing via email has gotten a bit of a bad reputation in the past, when done right, it can go a long way to give your business a boost. So what are the rules of direct marketing online – specifically as they apply to email?

First, your marketing emails should go only to those people who have opted in to receive emails from you. And each email should contain an opt-out option. This is utterly important because it shows that you respect your customer’s time, privacy and decision making abilities.

Your “From” and “Subject” are extremely important. Make sure that people can easily tell who the email is from. Your subject should be interesting, a kind of teaser – you want your customer to open and read the email – not move it to trash bin.

Keep it short and simple, but make sure that you’re including all the necessary information to get your customer to take action. And don’t try to hard-sell. Hard-selling is viewed as a turn off by most customers. They want to feel that you are sincerely interested in sharing something of value – not in making a buck off them.

Remember to encourage your customers to forward the email to friends and family who may be interested. This is an easy form of viral marketing. Email can be an excellent tool for drumming up business, especially when you play it by the rules!