Why is video essential for your marketing today? According to Search Engine Watch, “Web pages with professional video generate 4–7x more engagement and response rates.”

Let’s face it, most of us would rather watch a video then read a long-winded article. When you’re marketing yourself or your business, videos offer the advantage of allowing clients to see you beyond your résumé. Clients are more likely to do business with and commit to people they feel they know, like and trust. A well-crafted video is the absolute best way to make that connection. As a conscious entrepreneur, it is especially important to create a welcome video that’s authentic and heartfelt.

If you’re a new entrepreneur, you’re probably a bit nervous about the idea of making a video to introduce your business. But you needn’t be: As a business development and video performance coach, I have coached new entrepreneurs and CEOs on how to turn their uneasiness in front of a camera into confidence, clarity and comfort. Remember, that as a conscious entrepreneur, you’re always representing your business and services through the values you are committed to that contribute to the well-being of the whole.

These three simple steps can help you get started.

1. Go from dull to dynamic to improve your video performance. The best way to ease into doing a video is by doing 30-second conversation videos with your webcam or your phone. If you do this once a day for two weeks, you’ll begin to feel more comfortable and confident with your video voice. Once you gain a certain level of ease and comfort performing your webcam and phone videos, you can begin to practice expanding your emotional palette.  

The wider range of emotions, volume and punctuated pauses you can incorporate into your videos, the more interesting and captivating you become. One exercise that can help is by taking one sentence of your copy and saying it ten different ways. Each time say the sentence with a different emotion and volume. This may be a little uncomfortable at first, but stick with it and you will experience a greater sense of confidence that you can successfully impart your value-based message through the video format.

2. A benefit-driven, value-based video is essential to sales! You should absolutely put your welcome video on your home page header. The first thing people should see when they visit your site is you in a video talking passionately about the benefits of your transformational product and/or service.  This is where they get to know you as a business person who’s committed to connection, authenticity and integrity.

The video should end with a call-to-action inviting visitors to sign up with their email so that you can send them your valuable, downloadable gift.  

Once you have the name and email of a potential customer, you can continue to earn their trust with additional valuable information through your blog posts and eventually offer them an opportunity to buy your product. A benefit-driven video with a call-to-action is one of the most essential video marketing techniques.

3. Find the most effective way to format your welcome video. There is a bit of a trick to this. Your 20-second opening should address a market challenge that your product can solve. Then, have your company logo appear a few seconds later. Follow the logo with you explaining the features and benefits that your product offers. Then end with a call-to-action asking people to sign up for your free downloadable gift. If you're a beginner, keep the length of this video to about two minutes.

Is it better to hire a professional to make your video or just go it on your own, with a webcam or phone? To produce the most important marketing piece of your website, you have two options: 1. With current technology, you can get HD quality with your webcam/phone, create a nice background, and get a couple of lights to be able to produce a good-quality video, or 2. You can hire a video performance and production company to do the work. The most important thing is to start to feel comfortable and confident using the video format to increase client response.

Jamie Greenberg, CEO of A Brand YOU Way, helps entrepreneurs increase their client base by coaching them on how to brand, video and monetize their unique differentials using the A Brand You Way method and the Video Performance Makeover techniques. View Jamie’s video at ABrandYouWay.com.