As much as the marketing wing of your business might hate to acknowledge it, it is becoming harder and harder to get noticed on the internet. This is mainly because of the fact that the audience is being constantly bombarded with enormous amounts of content.
The problem is even greater for small businesses because they cannot afford the sizable budgets that big corporations allocate for advertisement and marketing. However, with a bit of creativity, even a small business with a limited marketing budget can grab the attention of the audience.
Here are some ideas for small business video marketing that can make your brand stand out from the crowd.
1. Explainer Videos – Introduce Yourself and the Brand
One of the keys in small business video marketing is to tell people what your business is about. One of the best ways to do this is to use an explainer video.
With explainer videos, you tell your audience (hopefully your potential customers!), what your business is all about.
An effective way to do this is to present a problem your business is solving and then present your brand as the solution.
With an explainer video, you need to establish that you are the best in the field without going overboard with too much “chest-pounding.” Focus on the your core strengths vs. competitors and communicate how you, as a business, are different than others offering the same product or service.
2. Convert Your Blogs to Videos – Use Tried and Tested Content
You don’t necessarily need to come up with new content all the time in order to grab attention. As a matter of fact, it is better to use content that has proven to perform well in the past. If you have blog posts that attracted plenty of attention, they can serve as the basis for future videos.
People are more likely to watch a video than to read a post. So, if you make a video out of content that is proven to connect with people, you’ll be well on your way to producing a compelling piece.
Aside from production companies like Gisteo, there are tools available that use artificial intelligence to convert a blog post into a video. All you have to do is to enter a blog and they can come up with video and photo scenes compatible with the content of the blog. You can then take it from there and fine-tune the video to make it an excellent piece of content.
3. Place a Video on Your Landing Page – Increase Conversions
It’s a fact that videos can increase traffic engagement, but did you know they can also increase conversion rates? Studies have shown that, if you add a video to your landing page, it can boost the conversion rates by as much as 80 percent.
When you place a video on the landing page, it serves as a way of providing the visitors with the information you need them to know. You can, by all means, use text to do that but, who has the time to go through a 2,000-word description of your services when your competitors are communicating the same thing in a 2-minute video?
It is a small business video marketing best practice to embed a high-quality video on your landing page and it’s important to make it as relevant and to the point as possible. Craft the video carefully and back up your claims with evidence.
4. Interact with Your Audience Via Live Videos – Make Them Feel Included
Another great small business video marketing idea is to use live video interaction with your audience/clients. This is, in fact, something where small businesses can perform even better than larger ones.
The owner or CEO of a multi-million-dollar enterprise might not be able to interact with their clients on a regular basis. You, as the owner of a small business, can engage in Q&A sessions and other interactions with your clients via live videos.
Such interactions are the best for small business video marketing. They can attract a lot of attention from the audience and are often very well embraced.
Going live has become easier these days than it ever was. You can use Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube to host a live show for your audience around the globe.
5. Use Social Media for Teasers – Spark Interest and Build Anticipation
It’s hard to remain interesting to your audience when there is so much competition. One of the ways to spark and maintain interest among your audience is by using teasers. These are short videos that can be dispensed via various social media channels to create an aura of mystery and anticipation.
Teasers can work as standalone content or can be parts of other videos. One idea is to use them ahead of the launch of a new service or product. For example, if you have a restaurant and are going to launch a new menu item, a teaser made of clips from the preparation of the item can be used to generate interest.
Teasers can be anywhere from a few seconds in length to around 30 seconds. You can use them as Facebook ads videos, as stories on Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, or as YouTube short videos.
Make sure that you do not reveal too much and keep people craving more!
6. Make Tutorials – Show How You Solve the Problem
If your product or service includes training or teaching people, tutorials can be a useful small business video marketing tactic. You can use a number of different approaches for this.
If you are selling software or a software-based service, you can make a screen recording demonstrating how the product is used and explaining how it works.
If you offer the solution to a problem, you can use a variety of different animated explainer video styles to discuss the problem and showing how you can solve it.
7. Subject Matter Expert Videos – Brag a Bit
Another approach that can be used for small business video marketing is that of subject matter expert (SME) videos. These videos are meant to establish that, despite being a small business, your know your stuff.
These are the videos where you talk about your accomplishments and show your expertise on the matter. Consider discussing any notable projects that you might have done, the qualifications of your staff, the innovative approach you use to solve a problem, and more in this type of video.
While making SME videos, make sure that you use your own unique content including the script and all the assets in the video. You also want to be careful with the details in your SME videos. Sure, you need to be technically correct in any small business marketing video that you make but this need is amplified when you are telling the world that you’re an expert.
You can even create a hybrid between an SME and a trainer/tutorial video. Spend the first 30 seconds or so talking about your accomplishments, and then give an overview of the approach you use for solving problems. All while establishing that you are the best in the field and that you know your subject matter inside out.
8. Testimonial Videos – Let Your Customers Speak for You
There’s a reason why user reviews are a big deal for anything from a taco holder for sale for a dollar on Amazon to a million-dollar movie on IMDb. People do give importance to reviews before proceeding to make a purchase.
While it is good to have a ton of positive reviews on your website and social media pages, few things are more effective than a testimonial video when it comes to making people believe you are credible.
There can be a number of different approaches that you can use to make a testimonial video. You can certainly use the snippets of text reviews from your website and social media pages and use them in the video.
A better approach, of course, is to get people to talk about you. Reach out to your customers and ask them to make a video for you telling how great their experience with you has been. You can then tailor a number of these videos and post them on your homepage or dispense them through marketing channels to showcase to people how satisfied your customers are.
Conclusion
Small business video marketing is often different from how large corporations and established brands approach video marketing. A small business likely can’t allocate that kind of budget for their promotion and they have a different set of challenges and goals for their marketing campaigns.
The tips discussed in this article should help any small business develop an effective video marketing strategy. For more advise or to discuss your small business video marketing needs, contact us at Gisteo!
