Over the last few years, video marketing has become increasingly popular across most industries. Did you know that in 2021, 87% of video marketers report that video has given them a positive return on investment? The possibilities here are endless, and now is the time to get started if you haven’t already.
For many small business owners, the trouble is where to start! With so many different video sharing platforms available, how do you choose? In this post, I’m going to show you how to create powerful video marketing that works for your small business.
Let’s explore four different end goals and the types of video marketing you can implement to reach them.
Sharing your Expertise
One of the most obvious ways you can use video marketing to grow your business is by sharing your expertise. These videos can be short and snappy or more in depth, but are a great opportunity to introduce your audience to your brand and position yourself as an expert.
Essentially, this type of content is a video equivalent of a written blog post. Equivalent – not replacement! Both types of content are key to boosting your brand.
Best Platforms to Use:
IGTV, YouTube, Vimeo
Content and Platform Breakdown:
Product demos/explainer videos and industry news discussions are a couple of great types of content to consider here. This gives you an opportunity to show your expertise via your own products or services, and show that you are really invested in your industry.
Unlike Instagram’s other video features, IGTV gives you a lot more time to play with! Videos here can be up to 15mins when uploaded from a mobile device, and up to 60mins when uploaded via the web (you can use Facebook Creator Studio for this).
YouTube and Vimeo are both video sharing platforms which allow for embedding elsewhere. This means you can upload to your channel, but also then embed the video in your own website. Double the video marketing from one piece of content! Not only that, but you can then share that link across LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or any other platform your audience is hanging out on!
Encouraging Engagement
Another key way to use video marketing to grow your business is by encouraging engagement. Stats show that tweets with video included receive 10x the engagement of tweets without. If that doesn’t highlight the effectiveness of this type of content, nothing will!
Best Platforms to Use:
Live feature across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
Content and Platform Breakdown:
While it can feel like an overwhelming prospect, going Live is an excellent way to encourage engagement with your potential customers. By the end of 2021, live video is set to account for 13.2% of global internet traffic – a mind blowing number!
Live video is the perfect opportunity to host new product or service launches. What better way to introduce something new to your audience than to do it yourself on camera?! This allows you to create a dialogue, answer questions and give some “insider info” to get people talking!
Going live is also a brilliant opportunity for Q&As, collaboration and discussion videos. Increase your engagement by asking your audience to send in questions via comments or stories, and answer them in real time. There is no better way to create a back and forth between yourself and your viewers than this. And set up collaborations with other brands, going live together to reach both audiences!
Live video is also perfect for events and conferences. It’s an opportunity to take your video marketing to the next level by taking your audience along with your business when something exciting is happening. People love to go behind the scenes and feel like they’re part of your journey.
And don’t fear that live video is an “in the moment only” piece of content. Like stories, you can save your video and upload it to Facebook or IGTV, so that content can be viewed by anyone who missed the live itself. Depending on the topic, that might be an ideal piece of evergreen content, to be shared over and over again in future.
Brand Awareness
In an increasingly saturated market, with new businesses launching every day, improving brand awareness is imperative. Thankfully, video marketing presents numerous ways to do it!
Customers are said to have to encounter your brand up to seven times before beginning to trust and invest in you. With that in mind, the following platforms offer a great opportunity to meet those goals and get in front of them regularly.
Best Platforms to Use:
Instagram Reels, TikTok and Facebook
Content and Platform Breakdown:
Instagram is really pushing the reels feature at the moment, and while like going live it can feel daunting to start with, it’s a great opportunity to jump on. Use this type of video content to spotlight your products, explore your brand values and have some fun!
Introducing yourself and your team is a great way of using this type of video to build a connection with your audience. It helps them feel like they really know your brand! People connect with people, so don’t be afraid to include yourself in your video marketing.
Reels (and TikTok videos) are short videos, up to one minute but ideally under 30 or even 15 seconds. They are short, snappy and creative, and follow a variety of formulas. Find a style you like, save the audio (trending audio can really help in getting your video seen!) and make your own version.
With a whopping 850 million downloads in 2020, TikTok is still the fastest growing social media platform of the moment. While other platforms are seeing more of a plateau, TikTok is still powering ahead.
If your audience is older than the Millenial/Gen Z age group, creating similar video content for Facebook is a good idea. Remember through all of this – your video marketing can be the best quality in the world, but if it’s on the wrong platform for your audience, it’ll go nowhere!
Monetisation
The final end goal I’m going to explore in this post is monetisation. While the other goals are all set out with the intention of helping you generate money from sales, this is a little different. By monetising the videos themselves, you can start making money from the content you create.
While this might not work for every business, it is definitely worth exploring! Every additional income stream is a good thing.
Best Platforms to Use:
YouTube, Patreon
Content and Platform Breakdown:
YouTube is the most obvious platform we all think of when it comes to monetisation. Here, you can monetise your videos through ads at the beginning, end or throughout the video.
As long as your content is approved as “advertiser friendly” by YouTube, you can turn on these ads right from the get go. This is not a quick way to make money – it takes a lot of time, effort and success on the platform to become a notable income stream.
In 2021, it’s suggested that the average youtube channel will make around £1.10 per 1000 views of a video. While channels with higher subscriber numbers can make up to £6 or £7 per 1000 views. So if you’re looking to make money fast, this isn’t the way!
For smaller businesses and creators, however, Patreon can be an excellent option. Patreon is a platform which allows fans to sign up to support you with a monthly donation. It is a tiered system, with fans generally able to support a creator from as little as £1 per month.
Patreon works alongside YouTube (or your website) by offering those who sign up specific “patron only perks”. For example, if you’re an artist, members of your Patreon could receive a monthly downloadable available only to them. Other ways to use the platform include giving early access to new videos, Patreon only videos unavailable on YouTube or elsewhere, or the chance to suggest video topics, new designs or themes for your content.
What you need to get started!
Finally, I thought I’d share some tips on what you might need to get started with video marketing.
When it comes right down to it, all you really need is a good quality phone camera, natural light and some confidence. Seriously. Phone cameras these days are excellent, and daylight is always more natural looking than any fancy lighting. But, if you do want to up your game a bit to ensure your video looks professional, here are a few bits and pieces to consider.
- A Ring Light – a ring light is just what it says on the tin. A circular light, usually with adjustable brightness and colour settings, to pop in front of you when you’re filming. This is especially handy for filming in the winter, or if you live somewhere like Scotland where the weather is unpredictable! Having this means your lighting will stay consistent throughout the video.
- A Light Box – similarly, a light box (again, a very self explanatory name) is a white box with built in light panels. This is really handy for product photography or videography, as it gives you a nice clean, bright background to film against.
- A Microphone – while your camera or phone mic is fine, if you want to really crisp up that audio quality, look into getting a microphone. These range in price but a decent one is usually fairly inexpensive online.
- A Tripod – in the beginning, you might settle for balancing your camera on a pile of books! But after one incident of it toppling over during a live, you’ll realise the benefits of a tripod! Again, these are relatively inexpensive, and a great way of keeping your shot consistent throughout the video.
- Editing Software – while there are lots of great editing packages out there, when you’re starting out, a phone app like Splice is a life saver. It allows you to add text, cut out mistakes, change the speed or volume, add music – all of the basics you need for your video marketing project!
So there you have it – my breakdown of how to create powerful video marketing that works for your business. I hope this post has been really helpful, and would love to hear your experiences in video marketing. What’s worked and what hasn’t? Drop me a comment to let me know, and check out my linked posts below to read more!
KEEP READING
To read more about this topic, have a look at these:
How to be a Pro in Online Networking Video Calls
Influencer Marketing for Small Businesses
4 Ways to Grow Your Small Business With Video
4 Types of Social Media Content You Should Focus on
