One of the most frequent requests we receive is for free or inexpensive marketing ideas. So this month, we dedicated our entire Cafe Joy mailing to 10 ways to grow your business with free online tools. It’s important to realize, however, that it’s unlikely you’ll be able to grow your business into the business you want just by using these tools. Yet these tools are good to add to your overall marketing and promotional plan and should help you not only develop deeper relationships with your clients, but also help you keep your sales funnel full. They should not be your marketing plan, but rather should enhance it.
Here’s just one of the 10 ways to use online tools to grow your business that we share this month for our Cafe Joy members.
Online video channels
Today
YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world. People use YouTube just
like they use Google. They use it to find businesses and they use it to learn how to
do things. For that reason, when you have great content that you’ve submitted
to YouTube it helps your Google Search Engine Ranking so it helps you get to
one of those coveted top three spots when people are searching for what you do
online.
There are a lot of video channels out there,
YouTube isn’t the only one. Vimeo and Meta Cafe are also popular.
There are a ton of video sharing websites out there where you can be sharing
content via video about your business. If you’re already using video in your business, make sure you share it using these free online websites to increase exposure for your business. If you’re not using video, it doesn’t have to be hard.
One of our favorite products, Animoto, is a cost-effective tool that makes every business look like you are a leader.
It positions you in a way that it creates value for your brand because the quality of the videos created are so good. And it’s really simple to use. When I worked in corporate branding we used Animoto for our annual charitable giving videos to encourage employee donations. We didn’t even have to use a video camera! We just uploaded our images and our royalty-free music. In minutes, we had a
professional-looking amazing marketing tool to encourage donations. If you do have video, you can upload it and include clips within your Animoto movie as well. It’s really a tool that
every single business should use, plus you can get 2 months free on an annual subscription if you use the code Cafe Joy.
Photographers, you should create an Animoto video for absolutely every client. Then, put that video on your branded YouTube business channel. Note, I said branded channel. Make sure you create a channel for your brand. Don’t just throw a videos up without any link back to your business or overarching branding. Creating a branded channel is simple. You choose colors that are consistent with your branding, include a description about your business (and make sure you use relevant keywords that people use when searching for you). The channel is where all videos you have created for your business can be found.
Upload these videos on all of the social media tools you use. Show your clients that you’ve put their video up. Promote each video on your blog. Your clients will want to send their friends to your branded YouTube page so they can see the video, too. Then
when people visit yoru branded channel, they’ll see the past videos you’ve created and go to the next one,
and then the next one.
Any business can do this. If you’re an
online business you could launch a new product with great graphics and great
music and a special call to action. Link to the video from your Facebook page, Twitter account, product page on your website, blog, etc. Encourage your product’s manufacturers to share your videos as well.
To learn more of these 10 free ways to grow your business with online tools, check out this month’s Cafe Joy. With over an hour of marketing ideas to help you perk up your business, you’ll find the marketing help you need. Every month with Cafe Joy, we share actionable marketing ideas to help you take your business to the next level.