Give Your Public Relations Efforts a Boost with Video Marketing

This guest blog is by Jenny Finke.Jenny Finke is the founder of Red Jeweled Media, a full service PR and Online Marketing firm, and HandleYourOwnPR.com, a DIY public relations resource for bootstrapping entrepreneurs.

Videos are one of the leading tools to help you market your company in today's 2.0 world. They can help you grow your business by reaching a broader audience and creating a powerful customer experience with your brand. Plus, it's no secret that YouTube is one of the most visited sites online, and that companies often say that videos are the most watched items on their websites.

Here are some ways PR professionals can use videos to boost their client's image online:

Overview video. Give your company a face and a personality. An overview video will do all the storytelling for you. It can introduce you, your company, products or services to your potential clients and is a great way to build confidence in your brand. Too many fly-by-night Internet sites have made it tough to decipher good from bad - a video can help!

Presentations. Screencasting is all the rage. It’s not too time-consuming and doesn’t require heavy-duty software to accomplish. Simply capture your presentation in a video format while you talk over what people are looking at on your screen (hence, a screencast!). Screencasts are great for training videos or for experts and authors who could benefit from demonstrating their expertise and knowledge.

How-Tos. How-to videos are perfect for products that are complicated and require demonstration. Software and technology companies use How-To videos to compliment and support their call centers. They allow users and clients to learn at their leisure and to view the practical application of your product or service.

Customer Testimonials. While a written customer testimonial is great, videos of happy customers can be even more powerful in getting prospective customers to pay attention to and trust you.

Highlight Reel of Press Clippings. Gone are the days of a hard copy clip book. Instead, create a video that features all your client's press clippings and set it to upbeat music. It may become the crown jewel of your site!

Using videos to promote your product is a great way to instill trust and good-will in a brand and is the perfect complement to any public relations and marketing strategy.

Posted by Yelena Kadeykina
Sunday, 10 October 2010