Certain clich?cs normally pop up during organizational discussions about how to reinvent the marketing wheel: "play to our strengths," "stand out from the crowd," "put a fresh face on our business," etc. In many cases, accomplishing these tasks is easier said than done. One medium that can help businesses freshen up their marketing efforts is video. Video marketing might not be new, but emerging online applications are continually providing new ways for businesses to literally "flesh" out their mission and vision.

Whether you use a production studio or a simple handheld camera, a video can serve a number of purposes. Aside from simply relaying information to potential clients, video pages can also serve as mini-websites, allowing for search engine optimization in the same way that a website would. When uploading a video to a third-party source like Vimeo or YouTube, treat your video page like a website. Is the company name prominent? Is the service offering concretely described? "Pittsburgh Web Design" is one of Blue Archers "keywords" that we try to make synonymous with our company name. Using optimized titles for your videos (see below) will help them show up in search engine queries and in searches done on a third party source like YouTube. This way, someone searching for help with "Pittsburgh Web Design" will be able to get additional information straight from Jennifer, our Marketing Manager.

Additionally, a video can serve as a nice resource for a website. On our new Blue Archer site (below), we strive to provide visitors with options for how they want to receive information. If they like visuals, we have a portfolio of work. If they prefer textual explanations, then our site has content-heavy sections which delve into specific processes. Videos serve as a nice hybrid of sorts between the visual and the explanatory, providing visitors with yet another medium through which they can receive information. If your website dictates that information be disseminated only through text, ask yourself: is that the way your visitors want their information?

In the end, it comes down to your client mix. How do they process information? Where are they getting their information from? The proliferation of online video resources suggests that outlets such as Vimeo and YouTube are being used as mini-search engines for visitors looking to find best-match service providers. Fortunately, the rules for web videos are the same as web content: find the right online channels, optimize your resources, use them to bring visitors to your website, then provide them with even more resources. Think of web videos like you think of web content and you'll start to better understand all of the options you can provide your future clients.

Read more about optimizing YouTube videos for search engines.