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One thing about new technology. It intimidates people. Whether it be the price or the learning curve or the fear of "looking stupid" by jumping into a fad that's "gone tomorrow," most people don't go for technology when it's brand new. We leave that for the "early adopters."

A couple years ago, some adventurous types came out with video online marketing. It was slick, but most of those who saw what they were doing either didn't have the money and/or the guts to do it themselves. But time has gone by, and now the clear verdict is in: online video marketing is in and it's here to stay. And those who can master it have a channel for making money that those who don't even try never will.

So what concise reasons exist for considering this form of marketing in your own business?

1 - Attention! In selling, the first thing you must do is attract your prospect's attention. It's a noisy world out there and you don't have much time to get your words in edgewise. This is part of the AIDA formula: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Actually, video marketing can help with all 4 components, but the first - Attention - is huge. Anything that can help you break through your prospect's apathy and skepticism has to be a good thing from a marketing perspective.

2 - Impact! Another important part of any selling is to make an impact. Now you could write a sales letter with 100pt font that screams at your visitor. Or you could do something more intelligent and show off your product with video. Suppose you're marketing some software. Wouldn't a video demo make a lot of sense? Supposing you want affiliates to sell your software. Wouldn't letting them have a branded version of the demo that ends with their affiliate link as the redirect be good for sales? Think about the impact that making an impact can have on your bottom line.

3 - Interest! Remember the 2rd component of AIDA - Interest. Most people read way too much. And they're not reading good books or technical manuals either. They're reading ads and sales pitches and marketing promos. They get spammed. They get hammered by marketing words. What do you think that does? It builds up a resistance to the reading of marketing material. Video can help bypass this problem. Make a decent video with reasonable production values, and you've got a much better chance of getting people to get your message.

4 - Economy! Video marketing, for now anyway, is one of the cheaper forms of advertising out there. You create a video and post it to a site like YouTube(dot)com. Free. And if you use the right keywords, you'll get people looking at your video. This can serve as a pre-seller for your main sales page, where, perhaps you can use a follow-up video.

5 - Spice! If part of your marketing strategy involves blogging, there's no better way to simultaneously monetize it (for you) and spice it up (for your visitors) than to give your visitors good quality videos that provide great information and/or entertainment which also lead to your sales pages. Do this regularly, and people will return just for the entertainment value alone. And a certain percentage of them will click through and buy.

Give video marketing some thought. Even if you don't have a clue about how to get started, by thinking about it, you already have.

©2007, by Deepak Arora and Bal Simon