There are so many things that you need to consider to market your business online today, so where does video fit into your marketing mix, and why is it worth considering?
Many small businesses have concerns about doing a video for their business. These include:
- They aren’t comfortable being in front of a camera
- Videos are expensive to create
- What videos to create
The thing is, small business videos can be a fantastic marketing asset for your business, and can actually be done pretty cost effectively.
There are a wide variety of business videos that you can create, ranging from doing a video created from still photos, videos that you shoot yourself, videos that are created in a studio, and videos that are shot on site or as product demos, just to name a few.
To determine what type of videos you need for your business, you should always consider who your target audience is for each video. You also need to think about the production quality that is important to that target audience (this is a factor in regard to how much it will cost to create the video). Consider a video strategy for each one of your target audiences. You need to also consider what stage of the sales cycle, or marketing hourglass, this video will be used for.
Target audiences are not always for people who might be your customers. You might want to create videos for potential business and/or referral partners, videos to highlight community involvement, or videos to recognize your staff.
When you are thinking about doing a video, you always do it for your target audience. But it is very important to think about how you can make that video findable online as well. Creating an effective script that is interesting to your viewers but that is also helpful in being indexed for search is extremely important.
Why is small business video so important?
1. Video serves as a great introduction to your business
There is no substitute for face to face communication, but video can be a strong second. Authenticity and humanizing your business by using video is a great way for people to start to know, like and trust you.
2. Business videos are a powerful way to improve findability
Small business videos done right can provide a very powerful asset that will help your business be found online. Video search engine optimization (video SEO) is too often ignored when businesses create videos.
3. Videos for business work on many marketing channels
The reality of being found online for business today is that they need to consider many marketing channels. The great thing about a video for a small business is that you can use one piece of marketing content – the business video – and use it across many marketing channels. You can use the same video on YouTube, embed it on your website, upload it to Facebook, add it to your business directory listings, include it in your email marketing, and so much more. This can be very POWERFUL when done right, and provides a lot of bang for your marketing bucks.
4. Business Videos as a Call to Action
Video for a business can also serve as a strong call to action to get a customer to try or buy from your business. By creating a no cost / low cost and no risk / low risk way to try your business, video can provide a great way to deliver a call to action to get your potential customer to take that next step. The try offer has to be compelling and the video obviously has to be highly relevant to the call to action.
5. Video works great on mobile devices
In the last few months, Google has reported that more than 50% of Google searches are now occurring on a mobile device. Facebook is also frequently used by people on a mobile device, as is YouTube. Viewing a video on a mobile device through a variety of sites just works.
6. Videos can help you reduce and/or avoid costs
Businesses can create how-to and training videos that can actually either help reduce their costs, or allow them to avoid costs. Are there tasks you perform or questions that your business frequently gets where creating a video one time and sharing that video will save your business time and money?
For example, an HVAC contractor who frequently get calls on how to program a thermostat can create a video to demonstrate how to, and then they can reduce or eliminate service calls that don’t pay for themselves (factoring in drive times, and allowing the company to focus on more lucrative service calls). And the customer will be happy because they didn’t have to pay for a service call thanks to the how-to video!
Another example is onboarding a new client – do it once, record it and provide it as a resource for your client that they can refer to over and over again.
7. Videos make for great ads on Facebook and on YouTube
Some of the videos you created for a small business are great to turn into ads on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Facebook has recently released several great new features for video advertisers, and many project that Facebook will see a dramatic increase in video. Advertising on YouTube can also be very powerful. With both Facebook and YouTube, you have amazing targeting criteria to use for your ad so that you aren’t wasting you money running your ad to people who don’t care about your company, product, or service.
With the right targeting, using you video as the basis for an ad can be a very cost effective alternative to advertising on TV. You can often use the same video that you have on your website, so there is no additional production costs, just the cost associated with creating the ad campaign (targeting, landing page creation, monitoring, etc), and then the cost of the ads themselves (either a cost per impression or a cost per click model).
Summary
We are in a time where the majority of people research a company and its products and services online before they contact that business. Most people have already decided who they are willing to buy from based on their research online before they engage with a sales person. Video can provide the reach you need to get in front of your target customers, business video can provide valuable information to a prospective customer, and it can provide a face to your business.
Small businesses that incorporate videos into their marketing mix can improve their SEO by using a single marketing asset that works across many channels.