Video marketing is a powerful medium that allows businesses to communicate with their audience in a way not possible through other formats. As visual creatures, humans tend to have longer attention spans for videos than text.
Despite video’s power, many small business (SMB) owners assume video marketing is only accessible to larger, more established corporations. The budget, time, and skills necessary to create videos are top reasons why SMB owners avoid this type of marketing.
But, a video marketing strategy is much more achievable than you might think.
We’ve put together this guide to help you understand why video matters for small businesses and how to harness the power of this medium.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Why video marketing is so effective
- The benefits of video marketing
- How to develop a video marketing strategy
What is video marketing?
Video marketing involves creating, organizing, and using videos to promote your business and its products or services to a target audience. The goal is to keep potential customers engaged with your brand in an entertaining, accessible, and digestible way.
Video advertising can deliver outstanding results — and marketers know it. HubSpot’s 2020 State of Marketing Report found that video was the top form of media used in content marketing, more than blogs or infographics.
So, why is video so effective in marketing?
Benefits of video marketing
- Higher conversion rates
- Improved social reach
- Greater credibility and trust
- Enhances other marketing strategies
Developing a video marketing strategy is more involved than some other forms of marketing. Before you invest any resources into video production, let’s explore the benefits of video marketing for business.
Higher Conversion Rates
Converting average viewers into paying customers is the ultimate goal of marketing.
A 2015 study from Vidyard found that video marketing gave the businesses using it a 27% higher clickthrough rate and a 34% higher conversion rate than those that didn’t.
Improved Social Reach
Some of the most popular social media platforms are optimized for visual content. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter offer a perfect opportunity to improve your business’s social reach and increase brand awareness.
Videos are incredibly shareable, and Facebook prioritizes original videos in user feeds. This means videos have the potential to reach much further than any other kind of advertising post.
Greater Credibility and Trust
Video gives you an excellent opportunity to build trust and credibility amongst your target audience. You can provide valuable information to potential customers in an easy-to-digest video format.
Videos you can create include:
- Product descriptions
- Instructional videos
- Customer spotlights
- How-to videos
Videos present valuable content to your audience for free and can position your business as an authority in your field. As an industry leader, people in your niche will be more likely to come to you first for information or to make a purchase.
Further, according to a 2020 study from Wyzowl, 86% of people say that a brand’s video convinced them to buy a product or service.
Improve SEO and Organic Search Performance
One of the factors of Google’s algorithm for search rankings is “dwell time,” or how long visitors stay on your website. This may also be referred to as “long clicks vs. short clicks.” The idea is that if people are spending a lot of time on your website, it must have quality content. A great way to capture—and hold—visitors’ attention is to provide a short, compelling video.
Video Marketing Enhances Other Marketing Strategies
Video is a dynamic form of marketing that’s easily paired with other strategies.
For example, if you’re already posting instructional blogs, you can produce the same material in a video format to share alongside them. Similarly, if you’ve built up an extensive email list, you can start incorporating video marketing in your email campaigns to compound their effectiveness.
How to create a video marketing strategy
Creating a video marketing strategy requires planning, organization, and time.
Here are some steps to follow.
1. Pick an Audience and Set Goals
Every marketing campaign has to start with research. This information will guide your efforts and boost the chances of converting users into paying customers.
Ask yourself the following questions to set the stage for a successful video marketing strategy:
- What target audience are you hoping to reach?
- What kind of content is your target audience most likely to react positively to?
- Where are they spending the most time online?
- What are you hoping to get out of your campaign?
Consider your goals. Maybe you want to increase brand awareness by getting your business’s name in front of as many people as possible. Perhaps you want to bring a new product to market by targeting a specific group of people.
Clarifying your goals and understanding your target audience will create the foundation for a killer video marketing strategy.
2. Maintain Consistent Branding
Even if a video marketing strategy is out of character for your business, you should still remain on-brand. Your current audience will be more receptive to this familiarity. New viewers will also be more likely to further engage with your content if they see consistency.
With so many working parts in a video marketing strategy, you can show your brand through various technical aspects including:
- Script tone and language
- Video length
- Background music
- Camera angles
- Intros and exits
Make an effort to remain on-brand without sacrificing creativity.
3. Choose Between In-House Production or Outsourcing
Once you have a clear understanding of how you want your video marketing strategy to look, it’s time to start production. Small business owners often struggle to choose between saving money by producing their own videos or ensuring quality by hiring a professional team.
While there’s no clear cut answer that applies to every situation, there are some critical factors to consider:
- How much money you have to spend on marketing
- Your ability to produce in-house
- The level of quality your audience is expecting
- What professionals in your area are charging
Both in-house and outsourced video production come with their own advantages and disadvantages, making it difficult to choose a clear winner. The right answer will depend on your business’s current needs and budget.
4. Optimize Videos For Each Platform
Formatting is an often overlooked consideration for a video marketing strategy.
People instinctively film horizontally because they’re used to watching movies and television. But social media platforms and mobile devices have introduced the need for vertical formats.
Optimizing the format of your video marketing strategy for the platforms on which you’re advertising can lead to more interaction and increase the chances of conversion.
Landscape is the classic horizontal format most commonly used for video marketing on television, desktop, and YouTube.
Portrait, or vertical, formats are ideal for videos you want to be shareable on mobile devices. The vast majority of social media sites, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok, are geared toward this format.
5. Track Your Video Success
You need to track the results of your small business video marketing strategy to determine its performance.
Here are some important metrics you can follow:
- View count
- Engagement rate
- Social sharing
- Interaction (i.e., comments, likes, clicks, subscriptions)
Types of Videos for Your Marketing Strategy
An effective small business video marketing strategy should consist of many different types of videos. The goal of each video should dictate the angle, voice, format, and length.
Let’s look at some of the most popular kinds of marketing videos to inspire your video marketing strategy.
Product Videos
Perhaps the most common and well-known form of video marketing is product reviews.
With the advent of online shopping, businesses rely much more heavily on product videos to demonstrate the value of their goods and services. Customers can get a much more accurate picture when they see a product in action, rather than static, under perfect lighting conditions.
A product video makes it easier for customers to understand the purpose of a product, how they can use it, and why it’s beneficial. Authentic videos also help to establish a sense of trust between customers and businesses.
It’s all about conveying relevance to potential buyers.
Customer Spotlights / Testimonials
Sometimes the most effective way to convey value to potential customers is to let your current customers speak for you. Online reviews have proven effective in convincing people to take action — don’t stop there.
A customer spotlight features one of your clients telling an inspiring story about how your product or service helped improve their life.
When put in video format, this message can help:
- Show the impact of your business’s support
- Explain the effectiveness of your products or services
- Underscore your brand image
- Highlight the types of people you serve
Displaying these testimonials on your website’s homepage and social media is a great way to spread the word about your business — and when it comes from someone else, it seems more reliable.
Small Business Story
Telling your business’s story is a great way to connect with customers on a personal level. Instead of only seeing you as a cold and lifeless business entity, clients can see the human element behind the company.
While it’s easy to throw together a few paragraphs about your business’s background, video is much more accessible and powerful than a giant block of text.
Your story video can be as simple as you talking about the motivation behind starting your business, what you’re offering people, and what your plans are for the future. Tell a story that’s unique to you.
A deeper connection can lead to a more loyal customer base.
As visual creatures, humans are naturally attracted and responsive to videos. With a great video marketing strategy, you can capture and hold the attention of a wide pool of potential customers.
If you add a video to your business’s website you’ll need to make sure you have hosting that can handle it.
Bluehost has the tools and resources to support you. Check out our excellent web hosting plans today.
Video marketing is the use of videos to promote your products, services, or brand. It can benefit your small business website in several ways:
Engaging Content: Videos can captivate and hold the attention of your website visitors better than plain text or images.
Increased Conversions: Including videos on your website can boost conversion rates and encourage visitors to take action.
Improved SEO: Videos can enhance your website’s search engine rankings, leading to more organic traffic.
Brand Awareness: Videos help create a memorable and authentic brand identity, increasing awareness and loyalty.
The types of videos you create depend on your business goals and target audience. Consider these popular video formats:
Product or Service Demonstrations: Showcase how your products or services work and their benefits.
Customer Testimonials: Feature satisfied customers sharing their positive experiences with your business.
Behind-the-Scenes: Offer a glimpse into your business operations or introduce your team members.
How-to or Educational Videos: Provide valuable tips, tutorials, or industry insights to your audience.
Promotional Videos: Create captivating videos that promote special offers, events, or new product launches.
Not necessarily. While high-quality equipment can improve video production, you can still create compelling videos with basic resources. Many smartphones have excellent cameras for shooting videos, and free or affordable video editing software is available. Focus on delivering valuable content and clear messages rather than solely relying on expensive equipment.
Expanding the reach of your marketing videos is essential for better engagement. Consider these channels for promotion:
Social Media: Share videos on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Email Campaigns: Embed videos in your email newsletters to increase click-through rates.
Video-Sharing Sites: Upload your videos to platforms like YouTube and Vimeo to reach wider audiences.
Blog Posts: Embed relevant videos in your blog content to enhance engagement and visual appeal.
Yes, optimize videos by using attention-grabbing thumbnails, relevant titles, and detailed descriptions with targeted keywords. Add subtitles or captions for accessibility, and encourage viewers to like, share, and subscribe to your channel.
Avoid common video marketing mistakes such as overly promotional content, excessively lengthy videos, poor production quality, ignoring audience feedback, and neglecting to optimize videos for mobile devices.
Video marketing can complement other strategies by enhancing brand visibility, driving traffic to websites or landing pages, and supporting email and social media campaigns. Videos can also foster trust and credibility among potential customers.
Yes, various tools like Animoto, Canva, and InVideo can assist in creating professional videos. Additionally, online tutorials, webinars, and industry blogs provide valuable insights and tips for mastering small business video marketing techniques.
