How to Use Video Marketing for Your Small Business

With more small business ventures springing up all the time, it can be a real challenge to stand out from the crowd. Even with a brilliant concept, if no one knows about it, you will have little success. Of course, this is the reason why a great content marketing strategy is critical to your business plan. Familiarizing your target audience with your brand is a surefire way to drive sales, and build trust with potential customers. This is where video marketing shines.

The modern consumer is often on the move, and may not have time to read your outreach email, or skim through your infographic. Of the time internet users spend online, around a third is given to watching videos. Video not only allows you to reach your audience and stay relevant with minimal effort on their part, but to do so across multiple platforms, increasing consumer engagement, and adding coherence to your brand narrative.

How can your business get the most out of video marketing? What sort of content should you create, where should you share it, and what tools are available to enable you to do so? These tips will help answer these questions and give you a solid head start on the road to video marketing success.

Getting Started

The power of video to boost conversions and increase sales makes it an incredibly popular marketing tool. According to a recent survey, 79% of consumers prefer video over text when learning about a product and 82% claimed to have been spurred to action by an organization’s marketing video.

Whether your goal is to promote a brick and mortar business or market your online store, video enables you to generate a consistent brand voice that appeals to your target audience, inspiring them to investigate your brand further.

In doing so, you increase the coherence of your marketing campaign, enabling consumers to recognize your content immediately. This familiarity with your brand, and the products or services you offer, are the foundation of all interaction between your business and its customers.

 A Range of Content

A great place to house your first video is on your website’s landing page. This gives new visitors to your site an easy means of finding out exactly what you have to offer. Now you know what you’re doing, you should think about creating a variety of video content and distributing it across numerous platforms. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

• Product spotlights – particularly valuable on eCommerce sites, these videos allow you to showcase products in far more detail than you could via text or photography. These can also take the form of how-to videos, offering a step-by-step guide to using the product.
• Behind the scenes – show your customers the work that goes on in the day-to-day running of your organization or introduce them to members of your team.
• Announcements – let visitors know about current sales, upcoming events, or new products.
• Industry expertise – whether you choose to share your experience or present commentary on industry news, this is a great way to strengthen your brand’s reputation. Demonstrating an in-depth understanding of your industry identifies you as a figure of authority, which increases consumer trust.
• Testimonials – not all content needs to be created by you! Encourage customers to post testimonial videos or share reviews.

This content doesn’t need to be confined to your website alone either. Include video in your outreach emails, share on social media, and create a YouTube account.  The more you’re willing to put into your marketing campaign, the more you will get out of it.

Social Media Is Your Friend

Share your content on social media sites is an easy way to get some extra publicity and fans. Streaming services like Periscope can add a further dimension to your campaign, giving viewers an exclusive insight into your life in real time.

Before viewers are inspired to pass on your content, it needs to have value and be either informative or entertaining. New products, sales announcements, and testimonials are all highly shareable topics. Nevertheless, the message needs to be engaging if it is to influence the viewer.

Don’t Overdo It

While you want your videos to be seen and heard, it is important to plan your approach carefully. For example, videos that autoplay are likely to be paused and ignored by viewers, generating negative feelings towards your brand. The HTML Specification set out by WHATWG encourages web developers to use the autoplay HTML attribute, rather than a script, as this can be overridden by the user. However, it is advised that users should be able to choose when to begin playback.

When choosing how to distribute your video marketing, consider how you would react to content delivered in the same way. For example, a well-structured landing page video is a great way to welcome visitors to your site, giving them information about your business and its offerings.

In contrast, a homepage overloaded with video content could be overwhelming for visitors, and may cause them to lose interest in your brand altogether. For every piece of content you create, consider where it might add the most value, and place it accordingly.

Finishing Touches

You’ve found your voice, conceived a brilliant narrative, and put together a killer series of marketing videos, ready to be distributed with expert precision. Before these videos are ready to be seen, it is vital to check that they display correctly across all platforms. Without conducting some final testing, all of your hard work could go to waste.

• Do your videos load and play smoothly on all browsers?
• Do they display clearly on mobile devices?
• Have you included a call-to-action button, and does it work?

Keep the Camera Rolling

Sadly, even the best marketing video does not have infinite potential. To keep your customers engaged, and interested in your brand, you need to release a steady stream of content, which continuously adds value to your original message.

Pay attention to conversion statistics, viewing data, and consumer feedback, so you can constantly evolve your audio/visual strategy. This keeps your content fresh, and reassures your audience that you are engaging with their preferences.

Getting your video marketing campaign off the ground is the hardest part, but don’t let this discourage you. Content creation is an art, and one that becomes progressively more intuitive. Once you’ve cleared that first hurdle, creating varied, regular content becomes a far more organic process, allowing your campaign to grow and evolve with your business.

Keep these guidelines in mind to stay ahead of the curve, coupled with dedication and forward planning. Before long, you will be boosting your business with a first-rate video marketing campaign, distinguished by its impelling narrative, and underpinned by your own enthusiasm for the brand.

Victoria Greene is a marketing consultant and freelance writer who works with eCommerce businesses and entrepreneurs to create effective content and marketing strategies. She is always happy to share her knowledge and love for discovering new ways to stay productive and embrace her creative side.