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Seth Godin wrote a book called Free Prize Inside and Purple Cow. The book talks about a kid in a grocery store that reaches for a box of cereal…not for the quality of the cereal…but to get the free prize inside the box. The child might even go so far as to dump the cereal out just to get to the prize.

With business, it works the same way. You offer a free prize to your customers and they will care less about the quality/price of the product and more about the prize. More than likely they will just care about the “free prize” being offered.

What free prize can you offer?

Your image is the first thing that clients see when they find your business.  If they find your business in Google from your search engine optimization efforts, what do they see when they land on your website?

• Do they see that you have taken time to carefully craft your website in a way that makes it easy for them to find what they are looking for?
• Do they see your logo to be polished and up to date like the services they are going to receive?

The image of your company directly reflects on the products and services that you offer.  If you don’t have a polished website and logo to match the quality of your products and services, you may be missing out on some clients that could help your business thrive.  If you neglect to take care of this image for the long haul, clients could lose respect for your business and stop bying.

Is your image important for 2012?  You can bet your business on it.

Click Here To Get A Quote On Updating Your Image

An overview of the world of online video
The demand (and opportunity) for online video is staggering:
·    According to a comScore study, released in February 2011, 82.5% of the U.S. Internet audience viewed a video online.
·    Viewers watched 75% more videos online in December 2010 than December 2008.
·    In a 2010 report from Cisco, 30% of Internet traffic is currently video. By 2013, 90% of Internet traffic will be video..
·    In the same time frame, online video ad spending will swell from $1.97 billion to $5.71 billion.
·    The length of the average video was 5.1 minutes in February 2011.

How engaged are online viewers?
In a competitive marketplace, attention is vital. And the question becomes: are people actually paying attention to videos played on the Internet?
·    U.S. online video consumers watched 4.3 hours worth of video on average in the month of June 2010.
·    Rich Media generates a 400%-700% increase in viewer engagement and response rates using online video compared to static content online such as text and graphics.
·    144.1 million viewers watched 14.6 billion videos on YouTube.com (101.2 videos per viewer) in May 2010.

How do online videos benefit retail?
Everyone wins when an online video of a product is provided.
·    Catching the e-tail trend, 55% of online retailers used video on product pages in 2009 but this technique increased to 73% of retailers in 2010.
·    According to Internet Retailer, an April 2010 report stated that consumers who watch product videos are 85% more likely to buy products compared to those who do not watch.
·    Internet Retailer released a study that found shoppers were 144% more likely to add a product to their cart after viewing a product video on StacksandStacks.com compared to shoppers who avoided video.
·    In an August 2010 report from comScore, online retail shoppers who watch video spend about two minutes more on that site and are 64% more likely to buy compared to others.
·    With social integration, retail sites that provide videos increase traffic and conversions to social media platforms by 30% according to the September 2010 L2 Specialty Retail Report.
·    In-store sales increased 6% when Reckitt Benckiser provided online video for their consumer packaged goods.
·    46% of consumers who shop online regularly prefer shopping on retail sites providing product video compared to 30% of consumers who occasionally shop online.
·    By properly implementing video to their sitemaps, Discovery Channel increased their video streams by 123%.
·    Watching a minute of video is the equivalent of reading 1.8 million words according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research

How is online video changing the industry of business?
Watching a video can have an impact on your business’ bottom line, especially as high-level executives flock to video channels.
·    According to emarketer.com, a majority of businesspeople surveyed by Forbes in October 2010 said they watched more video currently compared to last year.
·    Virtually 60% of respondents said they would watch video previous to reading text on the same webpage, and 22% said they generally liked watching video more than browsing text for examining business information.
·    75% of all executives said they watched work-related videos on business websites at least once a week, and more than 50% use YouTube to watch those videos.
·    65% of U.S. executives surveyed by Forbes in October 2010 visit a vendor’s website after viewing a work-related online video.
·    53% conducted a search for a vendor/product/service for more information.
·    42% made a business related purchase.

What is the relationship between online video and advertisements?
Online video opens the door for dramatic advertisement advantages.
·    The report entitled “Frames of reference: Online Video advertising” produced by the Online Publishers Association (OPA) published that 80% of visitors who watched an online video advertisement, and around 46% took some action.
·    According to that report, roughly 22% of viewers visited the website related to the ad.
·    26% looked for more information.
·    15% visited the company.
·    12% purchased that specific product.
·    In 2011, 45% of small businesses are growing their budget for online video (up from 2010 by 17%) according to the Ad-Ology study, “2011 Small Business Marketing Forecast.”

Click Here To Browse Our Video Spokesperson Models

If your small business hasn’t jumped on the video marketing bandwagon yet, research and statistics suggest it’s time to put your products, business, or yourself out there for the video-enthused world to see.

Cisco reports that internet video now accounts for 40 percent of consumer web traffic, and by the end of 2015, internet video will be 90 percent of global consumer internet traffic and 64 percent of mobile traffic. If those statistics alone aren’t convincing enough, try these:

• Embedded video in email increases conversion rates by 50 percent (Marketing Sherpa)
• Consumers who view videos are 85 percent more likely to buy than visitors who do not (Internet Retailer)
• 85 percent of U.S. internet users view online videos with an average of 186 videos viewed per month (ComScore)

Now that you know the impact of video marketing, how do you actually use videos in your small business content marketing campaign? Take a look at these seven ways.

1. Showcase your products – “Show and Tell” is a popular children’s classroom event, and consumers love it too. If you sell a tangible product, photos are good, but videos are better. Consider showing video snippets of your product production in action too.
2. Showcase yourself – Consumers are always curious about seeing the people behind a business. While company employee photos are appreciated, video staff profiles help your employees come to life and can give customers more of a personal connection to your small business. You need not only show off key high-ranking company officials either; consider videos showcasing employees in all departments.
3. Create how-to videos – Does your company provide instructional materials in text either to download or included with a purchase? As any TV owner knows, these how-to manuals can be dry and boring. Make your instructions come alive by recording how-to videos like this one. While installing a dishwasher isn’t on anyone’s bucket list, learning how to do it by watching a video sure beats reading a 156 page manual. What’s more, how-to videos often receive high rankings in search engines, providing even more exposure.
4. Answer common customer questions – Most businesses have regular questions that customers routinely call the customer service line to discuss. If you find that you get asked the same questions from consumers over and over again, a video may be a quick way to help those customers out. It also might help to reduce the strain on your customer service team by offering online videos of these popular product or business questions.
5. Expand your “About Us” page – Supplement your “About Us” text content describing your business and location by including a video providing an insider’s look into your office space.
6. Use a video survey or poll - Customer polls and surveys aren’t new, but video surveys are. When requesting feedback from customers, consider adding a personal touch by sending the request for feedback with a personal invitation video. You’re more likely to get an insightful response with a personal video request.
7. Tell your story – Do you have a unique story to tell? Did your business evolve in response to a challenge or obstacle? It’s human nature to love a feel good story, so share yours in video form.

About Author Liz Magill

Elizabeth Magill is a professional writer who holds an MBA. She spent over 10 years working in management in an investment firm in corporate America. Liz focuses her writing on small business, career and work, personal finance, and health. Her clients include Profitably, WorldStart.com, LIVESTRONG.com, Healthline, and many others. She’s author of multimedia App and Vook How to Conduct a Job Interview: The Video Guide, blogger for IFXMedical.com, and contributing writer for Intuit Small Business Blog.

Search Engine Optimization could be the make or break of our business.  These days, over 85% of people who are looking for something head on over to Google, Yahoo, or Bing.  It is very important that you show up in the results of that persons search.

Here are some quick, easy and free ways that will work along side good optimization of your site to boost your rank:

1. Exchange links with a company in the top 10 under the keywords you would like.  Look for the top companys that are in the top 10 keywords that you would like to position yourself under.  If you know any of those businesses, it might be a good idea to contact them to see if you can get your link on their page.  This will allow you to “piggy back” off their existing visitors.  If you are on the homepage of that business and they have 1,000 visitors a month, you can assume that 1,000 people see your ad.  This can be very powerful.

2.  Make sure your site address is in every form of marketing. You may already print material such as business cards, brochures, billboards, pens, etc.  These forms of marketing can be leveraged to gain more business by putting your web address on them.  This simple addition to your marketing can help boost sales.

3.  Update your site frequently. The search engines will to your site and see if you are updating content.  If you do not update content to your site, the search engines will think your site is dormant.  An active site will get an active rank in the search engines.

4.  Blog about relevant information to your business. If you have a blog on your website, you need to make relevant posts.  If you have a gun shop but you blog about ice cream, you are attracting the wrong crowd.  If you are a gun store, you should be blogging about a new firearm law or a new gun that just hit the market.

5.  List with free directories: Yellowpages, Whitepages, FreeDirectory.com. These are also great ways you can become popular on the web.  A simple free listing could spark a telephone call or a click to your website (sometimes not free) for a new customer.

These are all great ways to increase traffic to your site.  If you would like, Cohesive Ideas would be glad to help you figure out a search engine optimization campaign to boost sales on the web.  Contact Us if you would like Cohesive Idea’s help.