5 Tips for using online video to market your coaching or therapy business

If 2008 has really been the year of the enormous rise in the use of social media and especially Twitter, then following close behind is the explosion of people using online video on their blogs and websites.

A quick search on Google reveals that in July 2008 "142 million, or 75%, of internet users watched online videos in July. The average number of videos watched per viewer is 80."

In 2009, online advertising is set to overtake advertising spent on TV for the first time ever. One possible factor influencing this shift in advertising spend is that online video viewers are more active and engaged in their viewing compared to those watching television more 'passively'.

Consequently more and more savvy internet marketers are using video as their primary means of communicating messages. Frank Kern's InfoMillionaire Product during the pre-launch and actual launch basically only uses large-sized videos on a squeeze page in order to capture new leads and customers.

Even some of the very best direct marketers – who've built their reputations over the years with successful offline marketing – are now turning to video sales letters and video landing-pages for their online marketing. Bill Glazer from Glazer-Kennedy Marketing made it clear in the GKIC 2008 Info Summit Conference that video sales letters are the way they are going from now on – although often in conjunction with a normal long-copy sales letter as well.

Successful bloggers are also really starting to catch on to the increase in viral traffic and reader/viewer engagement they can get using online video. Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick have even pioneered a how-to-start-a-blog membership site thanks to the massive viral traffic they got because of the high-quality videos they give away for free.

But here's the good news…

Even if you're just starting out on the road to building your business online, perhaps with a new brochure website or blog, then here are 5 ways you can use online video to get more viral traffic to your site and build your business.

1) Create your own 30-second 'talking-head' video commercial

This is a 30-second spot I recorded for a local Osteopath client of mine. It took about 5 minutes to prepare for and record, and about 10 minutes to upload to my Mac and quickly add a professional title graphic in iMovie. Uploading to the Viddler video-sharing site took about 2 minutes. Its then childs-play to take the embed code the video site produces for you and embed it into this post.

Note that this is not a 'professional-quality' production. It doesn't need to be and there are even a few advantages to having a clearly 'home-made' look and feel. For one, it is more authentic and genuine than a traditional tv-commercial. Its unpretentious and non-salesy, which helps to establish rapport and trust, both vital in getting new patients to get in contact and book a treatment session.

2) Create a video testimonial from one of your clients

The best way to explain how you can help people is with the words of your current customers. And without doubt the video testimonial is the strongest form of endorsement you can get. The next time you're in a coaching session with a client, or in a treatment session with a patient, keep a video camera handy, or even one of the new amazing-quality flip video cameras.

I created this before doing the 'spot' above for my client. If you're afraid of asking for a testimonial (why??) then why not offer to make a quick commercial for your client in return? That seems like a great 'win-win' as they can then use it on their own website.

How grateful for this would your client be? How likely are they to refer new customers to you afterwards? Considering the extra 10 minutes it takes how much value will there be for you in return?

3) Create a video slideshow for your readers and viewers

This is an extremely powerful and increasingly widespread approach to online video. It's very flexible as the audio file can be recorded by itself and then later matched to the images you'd like it to go with.

Possibly the simplest way of doing this is by using an online service called Animoto. This amazing software has been created by former TV and Film producers, the concept is very simple.

You upload some digital images and an audio mp3 file and the software automatically combines them together into a video. And that's it – you literally do nothing else. If its not important how the images and audio go together, the results can be fantastic.

You can make under 30 second video clips completely free, or pay $3 for each unlimited length video you'd like to make. Finally, $30 per year allows you to make as many videos as you'd like and of whatever length. Here is an example clip I made for our Italian deli in Bath.

If you want to be able to adjust the order and duration of each image with the audio backing, then you can use a very simple and popular free program from Microsoft called Photo Story 3. This allows you to sequence the images precisely with the audio but without either the complexity or more advanced features of video editing software like Windows Movie Maker.

Windows Movie Maker is the free video-editing software that comes with your PC, but you might want to see the professional-looking results the more advanced editing functionality. The Mac alternative is the even easier-to-use iMovie, which makes basic video-editing very easy to pick-up.

Another way of making slideshow videos is by preparing some slides in something like Powerpoint and recording your computer's screen as you talk through the slideshow. See Tip 5 for how to do this.

4) Start your own YouTube-style video blog

Tip 1 was to create a short 'talking-head' video recording with a video camera, 'You-Tube' style. But you could develop this concept much further by producing a series of video recordings of you talking to camera about subjects that would be of interest to your potential clients.

Don't talk about what you had for breakfast, unless its relevant to your business, and keep the theme of the video on topic, as you should with any good blog or website. If you search for 'life coach' in YouTube you'll find many examples, such as life-coach Alkistis Agiorgiti, who has even created her own YouTube TV Channel, called AlkistisTV, to demonstrate her coaching skills and thus promote her business.

Fortunately you don't have to use a video camera to achieve this, however. A simple webcam would be enough to be able to record your headshot while you talk. You can use a higher-quality webcam if you want to record a bigger area or just have a higher quality recording.

Its easier if you're Tony Robbins, of course, when someone can do the video-work for you, but the principal is the same. However, I suggest that, unlike Tony, you make sure you publish your video to a video-publishing service that people can then embed onto their blogs and websites.

You're much more likely to watch embedded videos like the ones elsewhere on this post, rather than click on a link to watch Tony's videos on his own site. Remember, you want your videos to get the widest possible audience.

5) Create a screen-capture video of your computer desktop.

This final tip for creating a screen-capture video is a great way of either recording an audio and video slideshow in one take, or else just a recording of you demonstrating how to do something on your computer or on the internet.

For example, I created a video slideshow and recorded my computer screen as I went through and discussed each slide, as well as quickly showing a couple of example webpages. The only preparation for this was to make the slides themselves in a great new online presentation tool called SlideRocket. The preparation of the slides took about 30m maximum.

I then used special screen recording software called Camtasia Studio. This software isn't cheap but you can get a 30 day trial to at least try it out. It is probably only worth investing in, however, if you think you are going to use it fairly frequently to get good value. For Mac users, Screenflow is an excellent but cheaper alternative to Camtasia Studio that also comes recommended.

There are a number of free alternatives for screen-capture software if you're on a budget. CamStudio is the most well-known free open-source screen-capture tool. If you're needs are basic then check this out before buying Camtasia, it might do all you need to do perfectly well.

Another free alternative I've used is Jing by Techsmith, who are the same people that make Camtasia Studio. Jing is a very easy-to-use free tool that allows you to make up to 5 minute-long screen recordings and upload them either to your own website or else to your own hosting account that Techsmith will give you at screencast.com. The free account gives you up to 2GB of storage and bandwidth which is plenty!

One disadvantage with Jing is that the recordings can only be made in full-screen, which makes it difficult to play it on your blog. But you can certainly point people to the link for the full-screen version quite easily. All-in-all, Jing is a great tool which I recommend. I use it a lot when I want to make a very quick video to share with a client or partner.

So those are my five tips for introducing online video into your marketing plan.

Once you have produced your videos the next step is to promote them…

And if you would like to know more about how you can use online video to build your coaching or therapist business then enter your details below…

Finally… are you already using video well? Or do you have a question about any of these five tips?

If so, feel free to leave your comment or question below!