Why You Should Add Video to Your Online Marketing Strategy

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Each day I talk to small business owners and marketing managers about the advantages of video marketing and what it can do for their businesses. Most of the time they associate video production with the cost, not the benefits. Big mistake. One video can be reused for numerous marketing channels. It is a cost effective method to generate more leads. Here are 11 reasons why you should produce an online video and successfully use it for various marketing channels.

- Higher Return On Investment potential. Early video adopters found out that video is very cost effective since increased sales outweigh the production cost and bring higher ROI. Businesses hesitate to add video to their marketing mix due to a high video production cost, which remains an obstacle to greater video adaptation. Animated video can be a solution to that since it doesn’t require live action video shooting, extensive equipment and onscreen talent.

- Improve SEO ranking. Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL Search Engines give priority listings to websites that host video content. Research shows that webpages with engagement objects such as video, enhance the user experience and therefore rank higher in search results. Uploading Online Video to the second largest search engine – YouTube, and linking back to your website will add even more weight to your Google search results.

- Increase profile views within business directories. Create a short introductory video about your company, products and their benefits. Post video on business directories – Yellow pages, Google places, Yahoo! Local, Bing Local, Yelp and others and drive more traffic to your websites, get more calls, and increase store visits.

- Improve email marketing. Are you constantly looking for new ideas to improve response rates? Consider including video in your email marketing campaign. Integrating video can increase click-through rates and lift conversion by 50% (source: Constant Contact).

- Track results. The success of a video campaign can be measured accurately in real time. Detailed analysis of how many people viewed the video, who watched it, what behaviors the video generated, and more can be displayed. When you post videos on other websites, you can keep track of the number of visitors it brings to your website.

- Enjoy Viral Effects. Online video has a great potential to become viral and be seen by the masses, creating an online word of mouth effect. Viral video became popular through the process of Internet sharing through YouTube, Facebook, blogs and email. Video is a great way to encourage interaction, fun and enjoyment amongst the online community.

- Support sales. More companies incorporate videos into their sales presentations that can help sales people to more effectively deliver their marketing messages and sell products. These introductory videos demonstrate how products work, dissolve common objections and show the testimonials of satisfied customers.

- Utilize Mobile channels. As many users are switching to smart phones, online marketers are looking for ways to be able to reach them through their handsets. However, not all videos can be played on mobile. E.g. Flash videos cannot play on Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad. The problem can be solved by uploading Flash video to YouTube, which uses HTML5 technology to display various formats of video and then embed YouTube video on your website.

- Motivate viewers. Great stories combined with music create a powerful emotional overtone, capture and motivate audiences. Rich content and entertaining stories give consumers editorial reasons to return more frequently to website or blog. Made-for-web video is the most effective online format to positively influence purchase decisions.

- Educate and build trust. Video is suited for many forms of presentations to inform and instruct customers about your products, their features and benefits. Audio and visual presentations can accelerate learning by 78% and increase comprehension (source: S. Cartwright, Preproduction planning for video, film and multimedia). Focus your script around the most important points you want your viewers to remember and do.

- Reach your audience in any language. Video helps you tell your story in any language and motivate viewers to take action across all time zones and borders. Either record voice over talent in different languages or add translated subtitles to your video to reach broader audiences.

Online Video is a no brainer for any business. Start with one video, upload it to various channels and get results.

Home Data Entry Employment – Can’t Beat Work From Home

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Home data entry employment is a great way to make some extra income. If you’re a stay at home parent or are currently out of work, you can make full-time income working from home.Don’t be fooled by claims of overnight riches. Be wary of sites that spout huge incomes with little effort. It only happens for that one in a million person. For most people, it takes a while. For some people it never happens. It’s really up to you.Home data entry employment can consist of many different opportunities. In these lean economic times, companies have learned that outsourcing clerical and marketing work can save a lot of money. They can get the same amount of output from a home based worker and not pay an hourly wage or benefits.For most home data entry employment, you are paid for what you produce. If you are a hard working, independent person, a home based business may be for you. When you work from home you are the boss. You set your hours and determine how much you will work.You must be disciplined to work for yourself. Because you are the boss, you have to monitor yourself and how much you work. You can’t be lazy all day and not work – if you want to make money. If you have children at home, you need to set aside some dedicated work time. If you’re a night owl or early bird, you can work in the wee hours of the morning when everyone else is asleep. The internet never rests.

Revealing the Top Four Health and Fitness Myths in the Industry

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While there are numerous tips to staying thin and tricks of the trade to keep the weight off, there are just as many myths out there that are just going to confuse you and that simply are not true. The following are some of the biggest health and fitness myths revealed.Myth number one: to lose weight you have to eat less. This is not true at all, in fact when you deprive your body of the calories it needs to get enough energy to fuel your day you end up eating in a binge fashion within days. When you do not eat anything for hours or even worse, for the whole day you instantly tell your metabolism to start slowing down and the weight piles on. By eating smaller portions during the day such as a short meal every two to three hours you actually speed up your metabolism and in turn, you lose weight faster.Myth number two: eating a vegetarian diet will help you lose weight faster than eating meats. Certainly there are thousands of vegans in the world that are incredibly thin, but they are hard core vegans that do not eat dairy products either. To just eliminate meats from diet will only reduce the amount of protein you are in taking and the protein is what your body needs to build muscle and strong bones. If you do not wish to eat meats for awhile, then supplement your protein intake with supplements and shakes from any local health food store.Myth number three: by not eating any fat you will lose the most weight. Not eating a lot of saturated fats is ideal, but your body still needs certain fats that are healthy that it cannot produce on it’s own such as omega-3 fats. You can get these types of good fats in by taking supplements and also in many nuts and fish.Myth number four: weight lifting will make you heavier. Weight lifting may not drop your weight in pounds, at least in the first two weeks. Muscle weighs more than fat, which means when you build those muscles they will weigh more, but you will actually lose more calories and drop inches by weight lifting. When you lift weights you are burning calories and you are burning fat much faster than if you neglect to start a weight lifting program. Adding more muscles to your body means you are burning more fat even while you are sleeping which is a great reward for your hard efforts in the gym.Hopefully proving better detail into these myths with help clear the air for you and get you on a successful plan for healthy eating and fitness that will afford you more years of good health. It is important to know that these are myths so you do not find yourself feeling depressed or negative about losing weight. When you are trying to lose weight it’s all about positive thoughts and keeping things in perspective.