Published:

09/04/2014 10:23pm

Should You Add Videos to Your Business Blog?

A picture, the old saw relates, is worth a thousand words. Well, then where do videos rank? Back when this cliché was originally coined in 1911, still pictures were the primary medium; video had not come into common use. It was in its infancy. But now, video is everywhere and is easily accessible to the most inexperienced and novice user of the camera.

Per Business 2 Community, "In a Forrester study, Dr. James McQuivey said, 'A video is worth 1.8 million words,' and he wasn't just being cheeky. If a picture is worth a thousand words, and video shoots at 30 frames per second, then a 60-second video really does contain the equivalent of 1.8 million words."

How does this help your blog, though?

A video can add immense amounts of credibility to your business blog while adding page rank and viewership. Why? People love video. It's like being there. You invite an individual into an intimate conversation with you that provides insight they would not otherwise gave gained.

Even if the video is a stock depiction of a kitty doing something cute (and who can resist those), it gives the viewer an idea that you are their type of person because they thought the little kitten was cute, also.

The idea of a blog is to create a community of people who like the same things you do. For business blogging, it is extremely important to forge relationships and establish credibility. You can use video to this end much better than pictures or words.

The following are some ways you can using video for your blog posts:

To demonstrate expertise. You have something to sell because you have both an interest in the service and you have more knowledge than the average bear. Don't sell yourself short (this post is full of clichés), you are the expert.
What are you selling? No, I don't mean what service are you selling, but truly what are you selling? The correct answer is yourself. Sales is all about you being able to convince someone to buy your service, not because you are that much better than the competition (though this is a good selling point, too), but because the customer can relate to you better. A video shows YOU to the customer.
What's the service? It is easier to demonstrate the benefits of what you have for sale if you can create videos about topics related to your services. Explain to your audience how your services can provide them with the solutions to their problems. Video provides this ability better than any still picture ever could.



But, you may ask (we do take questions here), how difficult is it to create a video? Not difficult at all. Do you have a phone that's video capable (most smart phones have both picture and video capability)? If the answer is yes, then you can post a video from your phone to your blog post.

Once you record the video, you just upload it to your computer and then post it to your blog platform (this may sound somewhat complicated, but it really isn't). You can also host your videos to YouTube (or other video hosting sites), upload the video there and then post the video to your blog post.

So, now you know how a video can expand your presence and how simple it is to upload one to your blog, but you still may be fuzzy about how this one little piece of media can be a boon to your blog, and thus, your business. Let's discuss that for a minute or two.

Search Engines Love Videos

Say you type in a search about your service. What comes up? Is your blog in there somewhere (hopefully on the front page if you have effectively used SEO search terms)? If not, why?

Scroll down the page and see what other people with similar businesses are doing that gives them an upper hand in the search list over you. Is the wording tighter (meaning do they understand the use of SEO)? Is there something unique about their presentation that Google (Yahoo!, Bing) seems to love? Did they include video?

When you enter a search command into Bing, the first thing that pops up is a double row of videos related to the subject. Both Google and Yahoo have an images montage that includes still photos and videos. Search engines love video and your services are much more likely to make the first page if you have a subject video.

YouTube Traffic

The goal is to put "butts in the seats" (I know, I know another cliché). The more people that view your blog post, the more they will review other pages on your site (including those that list your services). In turn, the more sales you will make. There are myriad formulas out there that show how many more sales a person receives if they get one more set of eyes on their service. Add those eyes to several thousand others and you have a few more sales.

You can put you video on your blog and you will likely see an increase in traffic, but you will have stifled the flow. When someone searches for a business and the videos pop up in the search engine stream, it is mostly YouTube videos that are generated. So, what does this mean to you?

It means that if you put your video on YouTube (another simple process), you can expect those views to mount exponentially. You may get lucky and have the video go viral. Then you will have a problem that every business would like to have... you will have to hire more people to meet the demand.

To help with increasing the traffic to your website when you do host your videos on YouTube, make sure your site is listed in your profile and everything is up-to-date. You can even add a message to the video description when you upload it asking the viewers to visit your blog post to read the article that you used to create your video in (for now, you should always include content in the blog post along with your video, but getting into that would be a whole different article).

Why is video one of the most important marketing tools you have at your disposal and why should you add videos to your business blog? Because it increases how many people will see you and your services. Isn't that what everyone wants? The goal is to make sales after all.



Missy Tincher, Content Marketing Manager at My Miss Assist, is like a “high-octane” Hummingbird… efficient and vigorously energetic about dynamic blog content marketing! Missy is passionate about helping clients leverage their blog post content in order to build their expert status, build more relationships with their audience and drive more traffic to their websites. Check out Missy's END OF SUMMER SALE on 2 of her most popular Leverage Your Content packages and save $150 NOW! See how her team can help your small business!