Doing video for the sake of doing video is a losing proposition. You’ll spend a lot of time and marketing dollars on content …yea, that’s it. Content. For most companies, videos are just moving visuals of what they’d normally express with words. Treat video as a different animal, though, and the opportunities open up. To make your videos valuable marketing assets, think of them as a cog in a four-part marketing machine that includes your blog, YouTube and webinars.

1. Webinars: This marketing tool is a known winner in IT marketing, but it has untapped value. Record your webinars, and they live forever.

2. YouTube: This environment is good for more than hosting. It will also send traffic to your blog and put you in touch with a wider audience.

3. Blog: Post your video to your blog – pulling it in from YouTube is very easy. Now, your blog is a multimedia platform!

4. Video: This is the core asset in the machine, and it’s now giving you value in three more ways.

The next step is to turn your YouTube account into a marketing asset. Set up a branded YouTube channel, and link to it from your blog and website. Prospects will see that they can verify your experience first-hand, and they’ll be face-to-face with your brand every step of the way.