Cisco predicted that by this year, videos would make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic, and the experts say video traffic will continue to grow. Here’s how to get started.

Identify the content your customers and prospects want to see.

Search YouTube for businesses in markets similar to yours. Visit the business’s YouTube page, click the video tab, and then the “sort by” dropdown tab on the right. Click “Most Popular” to see the videos that performed best for this business. Model your content after those videos. Pay attention to production quality. You can skip pricey equipment and videographers if you use your smart phone and do the following:

Watch the lighting.

Face the sun, or the light source in the room where you’re shooting. Avoid placing natural light behind you. Or, use soft white lights or ring lights, which you can buy for under $100.

Check the audio.

If there’s not a lot of outside noise, using your phone’s built-in microphone may be fine. But you can greatly improve audio quality with a lavalier mike. You can get one with a cord that attaches to your phone for about $30, or a wireless version for around $250.

Create a format and edit based on it.

A format gives your videos professional transitions and consistency. A popular format is a brief intro, an intro bumper, main video content, and an outro bumper. To learn how to edit, watch YouTube tutorials. You will need editing software such as iMovie, MiniTool Movie Maker, or, if your need more powerful editing options, Adobe Premiere Pro. You can also purchase bumpers and editing services from freelance sites such as Fiverr or Upwork.

Optimize your video for YouTube.

The exposure your video gets on YouTube is driven by its title, description, tags, and thumbnails. The title, tags, and description should include as many keywords (search terms) as possible. Find help on TubeBuddy. The thumbnail is the photo next to the video description. One that’s eye-catching increases click-through rates, which the YouTube algorithm rewards with higher search results. Check out Canva for free thumbnail templates.

Optimize your video for social media.

People use hashtags to find content on social media, so including them can up your video view count. You can get hashtag suggestions on All Hashtag and Hashtagify, which specializes in Twitter. Be sure to upload your video directly to your social media post, which keeps viewers on the site and increases your video views. If you upload a YouTube link to your video, this takes viewers off the social media site, which is an organic traffic killer.

By identifying interesting content, shooting quality videos, and getting them seen on YouTube and social media, traffic to your business will increase significantly!

Are any of your contacts buying or selling a home? We’d love to help! Please feel free to refer us.