Debbie Mayo-Smith: YouTube - Now for the how-to

Demos are a clever way to build sales and showcase your product. Photo / Thinkstock

Last week we looked at the Why. How about the 'how-to' ideas this week? See it here.

Now on with the 10 ways I see business can use videos and YouTube:

Customer service

Do you get queries on how to use your products, how to fill out forms, how to put something together or take it apart? Let a how-to video do the work for you. It could be better in some cases than trying to explain abstract concepts over the phone. You can also answer FAQs with a creative presentation.

Your private in-house channel

By setting your account and videos to private, you control whom can see your videos (remember up to a maximum of 50 different people). This private channel can be used many ways - between franchises, branches of a business, consultant and clients, in-house training. The use is limited by your imagination.

Quotes

This can be business changing use of technology for the trades. I see the use of private (closed) videos as a perfect way to work smarter with clients and work more productively within one's business. When out quoting, video it and place on YouTube for both an accurate record and for the potential customer to see.

Videoing can be used to free up an owners time by substituting one of the less skilled tradesmen or apprentices to go out and create the visual record. This can of course be used above with the customer but more importantly, it allows the owner or more skilled tradesperson to multitask - get more productive work done and do the quotation from the video documentation.

Demos of your products

Demos are a clever way to build sales and showcase your product. From baby slings to diamond rings, to industrial pieces, parts and supplies. Why not video and put it on your sites?

Intro you

Say hello on your website. Introduce yourself and your services, group, products, team. It is easier and cheaper to put a video on YouTube and then embed the link and the viewer into your website than to have an IT professional write the code to host it on your own website.

Share your knowledge

Informative presentations, discussions. Want to be seen as a specialist in a particular area then uploading videos providing authoritative content can help carve you out as an expert in your field.

Intro you and your profession

If what you do needs a bit of explaining, isn't a video perfect? The new One Channel has an intro video that will play automatically when someone comes to your channel - have a look at mine http://www.youtube.com/user/quicktipper

Testimonials

'Straight from the horse's mouth' will impress your prospective customers and add much more value than someone from your own business saying how good you are. Shoot them on your smartphone.

Marketing

Why not try short, sweet tips, ideas, comments as a new form of online newsletter?

Sales

Have ads on television? It's insane not to upload the video to YouTube. Alternatively create your own ad and upload it. Create videos that outline the reasons why your product or service is so valuable to prospective customers. Add a little humour. It will go a long way to make your video more memorable.

Out of ideas

Interview interesting people. Showcase your clients, an expert in a field. Anything relevant to your business. Plus add a bit on about yourself at the end and give them the video to use too for double the exposure.

There you go. A few ideas on how to use this medium. Consider this. YouTube is free. Easy. Practically universal. People accept DIY type videos. You only need one of the new inexpensive video cameras that go straight to YouTube or a smart phone with video. It gives small business the ability to create 'ads' that rival the ad agency creations paid for by richer large corporations.

Can you afford to ignore YouTube?

Written by international speaker and bestselling author Debbie Mayo-Smith. For more tips, over 500 how-to articles visit Debbie's article webpage.