How to Get Into the News Media and Pull Big Bloggers Like Guy Kawasaki With 
Youtube Forecast and Trend Watch: Why Real Marketing Men Use Youtube
Can we all agree that we all hate infomercials? They are obviously and overtly all about getting you to spend money. There's really no real value to take away. They don't develop any real long term relationship with your market. They don't put your products in the greatest light. But what they do do is make money.
Video Makes Money.
Even mega online retailers like Zappos need and love the power of video. Their fastest growing department is not customer service--which they are reknown for. Their fastest growing department is their video department. When Zappos uses Youtube, their sales increase from 6-30 percent.
The reason for this is obvious yet troublesome. If the number one most effective selling medium is a handshake in person, the second most is Youtube. Of the five senses you can use to communicate your domain expertise, credibility, responsibility, and build rapport--all of which are required for a consumation--only video uses both audio and visual. Blogs don't. Podcasts (radio) don't.
The troublesome part is that you've got to stand in front of a camera.
If you can do that, and
1) Educate about why your market needs your product
2) Entertain to keep them watching and develop an emotional rapport with you
3) Demonstrate your expertise which builds consumer confidence
4) Demonstrate your responsibility by relating a customer service nightmare that became a fairy-tale
5) Overcome all barriers to the sale including justifying the cost
and do all this with no editing cuts, your conversion rates will skyrocket.
Strategically, there are three places you want to make video contact with your potential buyer. In the old country, It would be you in the flesh out in town square, it would be you out in front of your shop, and it would be you at the cash register. These are the three points of greatest leverage on your market. If you lock down these three points of contact, you've created a golden egg laying goose hatchery assembly line. How this translates into cyberspace is:
1) Town Square
a) Google
b) Blogs
c) Discussion Forums
d) Facebook
e) Twitter
f) Email
g) Youtube
Compare pros and cons of Google vs Adsense vs Facebook vs Twitter vs Blogging
2) Store Front
a) Home Page of Your Site
b) Main Product Category Pages
c) Educational Pages (this is a big topic. Subscribe to http://journik.posterous.com/rss to get it)
3) Cash Register
a) Under Every Single Buy Now Button
b) Under the Check-Out Button
Because that's when they see their astronomical grand total. You'd be amazed. Prospective clients tell us that they just don't get it. They say, "out of 100,000 visitors, 800 will add stuff to the cart but only 90 will buy. Why don't the other 710 people who want our products actually buy them?"
If you were that old country shop keep, you'd know why your customer left all those bails of hay and pails of milk on your counter without paying for them. And you'd have some golden tongue way to assure them that their purchase is a wise investment.
Think about it. If you could just move that number of people who added products to the shopping cart but didn't "check-out" from 710 to 610 you'd more than double your sales.
Use video. Use Youtube. Put videos out on the web, your home page and definitely absolutely right under that "Pay Now" Button.
Part Two: New Social Media Marketing Rooted in Old School Strategy: Google vs Google Adwords vs Facebook vs Twitter vs Blogging vs Discussion Forums vs Banner Ads
Finally, the Youtube Trend Watch and Forecast
When there were only 2 major Network TV stations back in the 50's everyone who showed up on TV was a larger than life star. Then, when cable TV made regional programming on channel 716 possible, the exclusivity dropped and so did the influence of TV as a medium.
When Youtube first made in infinite number of "Youtube Channels" available, you could launch a video channel and have all the clout of a cable TV star. You really could. Then, FlipVideo and Software like Apple iMovie made video so easy, anyone could produce it. The cache of video greatly erroded.
Now, with Apple Facetime and Android Video Chatting, you and your customers will be so accustomed to seeing joe blow on a flat screen that soon, even Youtube videos will have lost all of it's platform intrinsic cache. Basically, what that means is, "put yourself online on Youtube, now."
Oh, PS... If instead of video, you stick to blogging, SEO, and other written content instead, it's kinda like posting up a flyer in townsquare, store front, and behind the cash register instead of standing there in the flesh.
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