Video has emerged as one of the most effective ways for businesses to communicate with their target audience. However, most small businesses hesitate to use videos. They feel its creation is complicated and expensive.
With a little bit of planning and a sprinkle of creativity, marketing teams can create exciting videos that engage the customers. Let’s delve into the details of this type of marketing.
What is Video Marketing?
Video marketing refers to videos in your small business marketing campaigns and strategy. It is a powerful form of marketing that helps you engage with customers, promote brand awareness, launch products, and services, etc.
Video, as a tool, is great for enhancing and improving your social media marketing, email marketing, and website designing efforts. It allows small businesses to reach consumers through a new medium.
Video marketing has many benefits for small businesses. These include increasing conversions, building brand reach, and boosting sales.
Benefits of Video Marketing
The adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, means that one image can convey multiple ideas more effectively than a verbal description. You can multiply the outcome by another thousand when it comes to a video.
Here’s a look at some of the reasons why you should use videos and how they can help you save time and money in the long run.
- Benefit from the second-largest search engine in the world
Did you know YouTube is the second most popular website on the internet? It is second only to Google. Many potential customers use it to search for brands and new products. So, you can edit videos to post on the video marketing platform and reach a wide target audience. The most popular type of video on YouTube is the “How-to” video. As a result, it makes educational content a strategic opportunity for small businesses.
- Improve search engine rankings
Google tops the list of search engines. When you add videos to your website, it helps to increase your Google search engine rankings significantly. Moreover, videos improve your chances of ranking on the first page of Google search results. Most people don’t scroll past the first page of Google. As a result, it is worth the effort to create and post videos on YouTube or your website.
- Increase product understanding
Not every product is easy to understand. And if you want consumers to buy your products, they must understand the products. It is more likely for website visitors to purchase products after watching a video. You can show potential customers the problems and how your products solve them using an explainer video.
- Boost email click-throughs
Video also helps to break through inboxes. It is not a good idea to embed the video in the email because most email clients don’t support the inline playing of the video. Moreover, if the emails contain large video files, their chances of getting caught in spam filters are high. The best way to use video in email is by including a thumbnail from the video that users can click to view the video on your landing page or your website. You can also set the player to autoplay to reduce the number of clicks.
- Share a stronger story
A compelling story is the best way to reel buyers in. And sharing your story with your customers is a great way to garner their attention. While you can record customer testimonials face-to-face, it isn’t always possible to do that. Fortunately, there are many ways by which you can get a customer story to work for you. Ask the customer to record their review using a webcam or phone.
Ideas for Video Marketing
Many small businesses have a person in-house who uses a video editing tool to compile and create videos. However, they struggle on picking the ideas for the content itself. Here are some examples to help you start.
- Product demos
Demo videos help to showcase your products. They are short, educational video clips explaining the working of your product. In this video, highlight the key benefits of the product or service. Towards the end of the video, add a call to action to encourage product purchase.
- Behind-the-scenes videos
These videos let you show your audience the faces behind your company and the making of your products. You shouldn’t fake authenticity, so make sure you include genuine clips and avoid using a video editor excessively.
- Customer testimonials
You can influence your target market and increase social proof with testimonial videos. Your customers know how your product perfectly fits their needs. Thus, this type of video marketing can showcase your products and build consumer trust.
- How-to videos and tutorials
Videos with educational content help viewers learn how to do something. You can teach the consumer how to use your product or something complimentary with your product offering with how-to videos.
- Brand films
The objective of creating brand films is to increase brand awareness. These videos showcase the brand’s story and its journey. They also inform the customers what the brand is all about and why people should care about the same.
- Company culture videos
These videos focus on company culture. Many small businesses use these videos to attract potential employees by giving them additional information about the company and how it feels to work in the organization.
Conclusion
A small business not using video marketing is missing out on a massive opportunity. So, get ready to create your first video and share it with your social networks for review. Many video editors online make it easier for you to create videos. You can also collaborate with other teams and departments in your organization to improve your videos and add a creative touch to them.