Andrew Adie
In Motion Staff Writer
SCORE is a national nonprofit organization that, in association with the Small Business Development Center at Daytona State College, offers workshops to the public to improve participant’s small businesses.
The group’s workshop, titled “Video Marketing 101,” for a small business attached several dozen people mid-November with a two-hour presentation on technological tricks to attract more traffic. Speaker Ken English covered topics including why video marketing is important to small businesses, what sort of tools a small business should consider to develop their video marketing presence, and the process of using free programs like Animoto to create an ad.
“This is all you need, a digital camera,” said English, an experienced online marketer.
He went on to describe that videos can simply be a series of pictures displayed with background music and then, he took the audience through different online sources to post their videos, such move a business from the bottom of a list to the top or near the top. He also described how search engines often use keywords to refine searches, suggesting that attendees keep in mind that many potential clients likely will not use a company’s specific name to search the web. Rather than type in “Bob Jones Garage,” the average person looking for a car repair shop will use words such as “mechanic” or “garage.”
Bob Funk, a participant in the workshop, said that while there are many different ways to market a business,
the process described by English is “a good marketing tool.” The highlights of the seminar for Funk were realizing how easy it is to create videos and using social media for marketing, something his business shied away from in the past.
SCORE is hosting two more workshops before the end of the year: website design on the DSC Palm Coast Campus, which took place Nov. 18; and “Sales/Marketing — Keys to Success” at 6 p.m. Dec. 4 on the Daytona Campus, Bld. 110, room 112. Admission is free and open to the public. For information, call the SBDC at 506- 4723.