YouTube.com is amazing.  It’s got it all, from undiscovered teenage singers to the latest bear attack.  But there’s plenty of other uses for the millions-of-visitors-per-day website, one in particular is instructional videos.

Even if you don’t have a complex product, or think someone would need instructions on how to use your simple service, you’d be surprised.  People often are multi-tasking, distracted, frustrated, or tired, and need help occasionally figuring things out.  But getting people to use your products or services properly isn’t the main reason to make and upload an instructional video.  The biggest benefits are from the attention and relationships a video can create.

First develop your next video conference with using it as an instructional video in mind--or just do a video conference specifically for this.  Record it, edit it for time and conciseness, and upload it.  Then put links to it on your website, email, and online newsletters.  Talk about it with your employees, vendors, and customers.  Place the links on your print materials and even packaging.  Basically, get the word out.

Your customers will appreciate this because it shows dedication to getting them the most bang for their buck.  And if a product is really too simple for a video, customers will like seeing it in action, or demonstrations of all the things they can do with it.

Now simply uploading a video on YouTube.com will not create worldwide buzz, but it will be seen by customers--and potential customers researching what to buy.  Remember though it should be informative, even entertaining.  It shouldn’t be advertising... people get enough of that already.

Picture this, you’re parking in an upscale retail center--the better, current version of the strip mall--and you check your smartphone.  In the twenty stores around you, seven pop up with “checkin” coupons that you can redeem just by being in their GPS location.  And of those seven, five have direct competitors without checkin coupons in the same retail center.  Where do you think you’ll take your business?

While this may seem like an interesting “future-possible” scenario, checkin coupons are available now in some areas, and probably very soon they’ll be everywhere.  They are also not quite where they need to be.  Currently, the technology is mostly used for text-based marketing, and showing ads seen pretty much anywhere.

And as I heard on NPR, using GPS-based coupons as just another medium for marketing not only misses the point, but could also turn off a lot of consumers.  Flashing an ad on TV, putting it in the newspaper, emailing it, then having it popup when someone is near the store is overkill.  Yes, if they missed everything else, seeing the ad right before going into the store--where I’m sure it’s displayed there too--might get a sale.  But marketing like that is missing the point.

Catching customers while in the area is good, but rewarding them for visiting a particular store is better.  And while they may not buy anything, rewarding them with points or future discounts for simply “checking in” will keep you in their minds, and keep them coming back.

My point here is that not only should we embrace new forms of communication, but also use them in the best way--and not just reuse tired marketing schemes.  If we talk to and connect with customers in a different manner than normal, or reward them whether they buy something that time or not, we develop a relationship that can have benefits for years to come.

If you’ve written a book and are out there marketing it, chances are that--hopefully--at some point you’ll find yourself being interviewed by a radio talk show host.  I recently read an article with good advice on things you can do or not do to be a good radio guest.  I realized though, that the same advice can help us be a great host when we’ve invited a guest speaker to a conference call.

Just so you know, here are the main tips for being a good radio show guest:

• The Host is the Boss
• Don’t Sell
• Don’t Use a Cell Phone
• Treat Your Interview Like Coffee With a Friend

These tips are excellent for a conference call with a guest speaker.  You, the moderators, and the guest speaker should always try to use a landline when calling into a conference call.  You never know when there’ll be a cell tower hiccup, and getting cutoff mid sentence never looks professional.  It’s good to encourage participants to use a landline as well, but it’s not as important as those on center stage.

A confident yet casual demeanor is the best stance to take in most all conference calls.  It puts the participants at ease, and encourages them to pay attention and join in.  Especially when introducing or talking with the guest speaker, a “coffee house” atmosphere subconsciously lends a calm attitude, which builds confidence, which leads to credibility.

When you host or sponsor a conference call that is not company or product specific, it’s never good to constantly point the spotlight away from the reasons the participants are there.  If they came to listen to the guest speaker, you want to give them what they want--especially if it’s a celebrity guest speaker.  Make a “Brought to you by” announcement at the beginning, make a product announcement at the end, and basically save the advertising for another conference call.

There is one thing that differs in being a radio guest and hosting a conference call: who’s the boss.  Always remember that YOU are in control and are running the show.  But having said that, it’s usually best to make the guest speaker look as good as possible.

In short: put out the word, set up the conference call, warm-up the audience, give them their guest speaker, then get out of the way!

We are overloaded, overexposed, and desensitized so much these days.  I personally have seen a freshly cleaned-out email junk folder shoot back up to over 200 emails overnight.  There’s just so much out there!

The last thing we want to do is take an interested potential customer and lose them with confusing, unclear calls to action.  How can we avoid this?  How many calls to action are too many?  Katie Walsh of Bulldog Solutions has a good answer:

Keep it simple

Though her recent blog post is primarily about email calls to action, I think the underlying principle is perfect for conferencing as well.  If we’ve gone through all the bother of finding leads, qualifying them, and getting them into our conference calls, it would be a shame to lose them after the conference because they were overwhelmed with decisions or information.

The solution?  Have just one call to action that gently leads them to what their supposed to do.  For example, at the end of a conference call we can direct everyone to go to a particular website—that we’ll also send with the follow-up/thank you email.  On that website’s landing page could be a big button that completes the sale, or whatever the call to action is.  Below that would be another choice, “Learn more,” in case it’s needed.

With just one obvious choice, it would be pretty hard for a potential customer--freshly excited from a great conference call—to get overwhelmed, confused, or lost to us forever.

Have you been asking for too many calls to action at a time?  Do you think this could get you better results?  Try it out and leave a comment telling us about your experience!