Top 5 Most Successful Video Marketing Strategies and Tactics

Over 180 million Americans watched more than 10 billion online videos in May this year. The number of online videos is expected to increase as more internet marketers plan to use videos to advertise their products and services. To compete with the billions of videos online, it is a must to implement these five well-planned video marketing strategies supported by effective video marketing tactics.

1. Post Videos to Your Own Site or to Video Sharing Sites

You can choose to host on your own site as well as submit to social network and video sharing sites such as: YouTube, Hulu, Google Video, Revver, Blip.tv, or Facebook and many more. Just make sure to comply with these sites’ terms of use or face the possibility of having your online video rejected.

Most internet marketers don’t host the videos themselves so that they don’t worry about the operational side and just focus on ranking high on the site’s search results.

2. Create High-Quality Videos with Interesting Content

There’s one common reason why videos easily caught the attention of internet users – they have interesting titles and thumbnails plus people are just curious about videos. Here are the important video qualities to remember:

2.1 Keep videos short as most people lose interest after the first 2 minutes. Videos should be able to capture the viewer’s interest within a few seconds of watching the video.

2.2 Use a catchy title that says something about the content. Include your URL in the video.

2.3 If the video will be used to market a brand, showcase it in various creative ways from the beginning to the end of the video. Include company information as well as your website’s URL.

2.4 Make a clear call to action in your video that will encourage viewers to click on your link.

2.5 The audio must be clear enough so that your message is well understood by the viewers.

The right content depends on your target audience. For example there are very popular videos that are banned in some countries. Some interesting content are: answers to frequently asked questions about your products or services, how to use your product properly or case studies showing the benefits of using your product or services.

3. Promote Online Marketing Videos

Even if you’re already on top of the search results, you should also call the attention of those who are not searching your products or services. They may not be aware that a product or service like yours exists and would benefit them a lot. Following are ways to promote your videos:

3.1 Submit your video to various social bookmarking sites such as Reddit, Delicious, etc. Spread awareness about your video through emails, blogs, forums and social media sites.

3.2 Provide URL or links in the tags or description for embedding and syndication.

3.3 Display a thumbnail that is interesting enough to make searchers click.

3.4 Include a transcript of your video if allowed. Transcripts will help viewers to fully understand your video as well as help it rank because it’s also indexed the search engines.

4. Measure the Status of Online Video Marketing Campaign

Monitor the status of your campaign through various analytical tools and act accordingly. Number of views is a common indicator of the videos’ popularity but you should also check other metrics to guide you in tracking the effectiveness of your video marketing strategies. After some time, the increase in sales can be one of the indicators of the success or failure of your video marketing strategy.

5. Consider the Use of User Generated Content (UGC)

There are many effective, inexpensive and credible ways to use UGCs. What could be more credible than a customer demonstrating the benefits of using your products or services? To promote the submission of UGCs, you can offer gift packs containing special editions of your products or coupons to try your services for free.

To create more awareness for your product or services, you can run a contest to choose the best UGC on YouTube or on Facebook. The winner could be the UGC with the most number of views or “likes” respectively. The video owners would most likely campaign to have many of their friends and acquaintances visit the site. The contest could be a good marketing tactic to increase your email list as well as increase traffic to your site.

There is no standard set of video marketing strategies to ensure success. Sometimes you hit it right way but sometimes you have to revise your strategy and try again until you come up with the most successful video marketing strategies and tactics.

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Charity Shopping – Lending Hand to a Needy

The concept of a charity shop varies from country to country. For instance, it is called thrift store, resale shop, hospice shop in the United States and Canada, Opportunity (op) shop in Australia and New Zealand and 2nd hand shop in Malaysia. Therefore, charity shopping is a retail authority established by a charitable organization with an intention of fundraising. Australia Charity is widely known in this respect.

Charity shops often sell rare collection of famous people. However with the passage of time many new concepts in charity shopping have aroused. Many charity shops today work in the form of online shopping malls where people can buy products of their choice whilst donating.

There are some new concepts arising in charity shopping that are gaining popularity day by day. One of them is shopping for a cause. Such concepts provide normal shopping means to its customers while a portion of the amount spent by the customer is donated to his own selected charity from the list. Such shopping charities have their online existence e.g. AusCause (Australian Shopping Charity) and iGive (US Charity Shopping Charity). The same procedure is being followed by a number of charitable organizations for raising Australia Charity.

Charity Shopping In Australia

In the hard times, the charity organizations need to help the deserving as well as keep their own sustainability. Charity shopping is usually meant to support the people living on a limited or fixed income, thrifty people, collectors, patients, institutions, and people affected from natural disasters etc. Shopping from US thrift stores has earned a wide popularity of a slang term, thrifting. Similarly the popularity of Australia charity shopping is earning wide reputation across the world.

Some of the chief charity (opportunity) shopping groups in Australia are the Salvation Army – trading as Salvos, the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul – trading as Vinnies, the Brotherhood of St. Laurence, and the Red Cross.

These groups play a pivotal role in order to strengthen the cause of Australia charity. Apart from this, some of the local religious and secular charitable organizations also contribute towards Australia charity by running opportunity shops. The most common among them are ‘missions’ and ‘animal shelters.’

A lot of work has been done on Australia charity since the previous years and still is in progress. Charity shopping provides a platform and a helping hand to the poor, needy and affected people of the society. In order to save humanity and the planet earth from further destructions, we must join hands to work together for this noble cause.

Charity Shopping and the Thrift Lifestyle by Lettice Wilkinson presents a universal summary of charity, opportunity and thrift shopping keeping in vision the best charity shops around the world. She also points out the challenges, tactics and motivational forces behind this unique retail sector.

The author has presented her analysis of charity shopping after spending summers of 2008 while visiting hundreds of charity shops in Edinburgh, Bradford, Kent, Bristol, London, New York and Sydney. Therefore, it is a nice guide that highlights illustrated private stories of the opportunity shop experience today.

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Work and Stress – Having a Life, Not an Illness

A report from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health quotes the following survey results:
40% of workers reported their jobs to be very or extremely stressful
25% viewed their jobs as the largest source of stress in their lives
26% said they were often or very often burned out or stressed by work.
A study by University of Melbourne researchers last year found that job stress accounts for 1/3 of depression cases in women and up to 1/3 of cases of cardiovascular disease in men.These are amazing statistics.The answer to tackling stress at work is two-fold. Firstly, you can push to make changes to the job itself – a big picture approach. You need to have a clear idea of what is going wrong. The following may help if the problem isn’t readily apparent.Job Demands
Working long hours, infrequent breaks, monotonous routine, having to work fast, not using full range of skillsJob Control
Lack of participation in decision-making process, poor communication from managersInterpersonal Relationships
Poor social environment, lack of support or help from co-workersWork Role
Uncertain job role and responsibilities, too many “hats” to wearCareer Issues
Lack of opportunities for learning or advancement, lack of job security, organizational change not well communicatedEnvironmental Conditions
Crowding, noise, pollution, lack of comfortTry to identify the causes of your stress, and work out what you would like to change to eliminate them. If you can discuss your problem with your manager he or she may be able to make immediate changes. If the source of stress is your manager then that’s another kettle of fish! See if there are procedures in place to deal with this. If there aren’t any then perhaps you can talk to an employee representative, HR department or Employee Assistance service (if you have one).Don’t be reluctant to talk about stress at work. No employer should subject their employees to work-related stress. They should take it as seriously as you do.Changes to YouSecondly there are changes that you can make that you have complete control over.
Make a to-do list. Organize your work to feel more in control. It’s easy to stop worrying about a future task if you record it on a list. Only record the tasks you are definitely going to do, not the long-term projects that are always on the backburner. Make sure you include a couple of things that you’ve already done, to get you off to a good start.
Cut down on caffeine. Caffeine gets the adrenaline hormone pumping through the body and causing “fight or flight” alertness. This is stress in itself, so it heightens any other stresses that you are also dealing with at work. Drink lots of water and keep your brain well-hydrated.
Exercise during the day. Regular exercise decreases the production of adrenaline which reduces the stress response. As a bare minimum go for a walk outside during your lunch break. Perhaps find a new place to buy lunch a few blocks away. Exercise outside of work hours will also help to cut your stress level during the day.
Take breaks from your computer. It sucks the life out of you, so by the end of a long day you’re feeling irritable. Get away from the computer and connect with real people every now and then.
Slow down. Do you rush to work in the mornings? Simplify things so that you’re not over-committed and rushed. Can you get up 15 minutes earlier for a calmer trip to work?
Don’t forget to take vacations. The company won’t collapse without you (unless you own it).
Work shorter hours. Limit your work day to what you agreed to with your employer. Working long hours is one of the main causes of work-stress. Protect your time and say “no” to requests that place unrealistic or unreasonable demands on you.
Rise above office gossip. Gossip is almost always negative, it brings people down and undermines relationships. Avoid difficult people. Instead find positive, energetic people to be around. Deepen friendships that are positive.
Create a relaxation routine. When something unexpected comes up you can deal with it without being stressed. A routine may be something simple like deep breathing exercises, a quick relaxation technique, a walk around the office or outside, a trip to the water cooler or a chat with someone.
Take mini-breaks during the day. Use your relaxation routine to good effect. Make sure that you move around away from your workspace.
In my own experience most managers are willing to make at least some changes if you present them with the problem and a solution. If stress is impacting your health then it’s a high priority, and you need to be proactive. As for the changes to your own life? They will all make a positive difference so they are well worth adding to your work day. Don’t become another statistic from stress at work!

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