By: First Union
6 Ways You Can Use Video Marketing For Your Business
Often times, small business owners tend to overlook video marketing. Focused on their website, on social media, and email marketing, they dismiss video marketing as too time-consuming, too costly, or too inconsequential. This way of thinking is hurting your business. ViLive Stream and Interactdeo marketing can actually open up huge opportunities for you. You can more effectively reach your customers and even potentially increase mobile engagement. Below are six things that you can do with video marketing starting right now and reasons why it's imperative that you adopt a video marketing strategy sooner rather than later.
Highlight What You Do/Who You Are
Sure, you can spell this out on your website. You can use various advertisements to get this message across, but people tend to be more visual nowadays. Creating a video that shows exactly what your company does and who you are is a powerful way to reach your audience. It should without question be something attention-grabbing that makes them remember you.
Keep in mind, you're promoting your business here and showing the customer how you can be of value to them. You also want to establish yourself as both credible and trustworthy. You can opt for an explainer video, or even use live actors if that better suits the tone and style after which you're striving.
Spotlight Customer Success Stories
People like to see results before enlisting the services of a company. They like to know that there is a history of success there. What better way than through a video which spotlights a few case studies that have in fact proven successful. Interview previous customers and let them do the talking for you—after all, reviews are everything in this day and age.
You could post such a video on a website page, on your social media accounts, a YouTube channel—pretty much anywhere. Make sure you do get permission from those clients you interview to post the resulting clips.
Use it as a Teaching Opportunity
People search the internet daily for educational tips, ideas, and concepts. If you have people in your company who excel in their field, or who are leaders in regard to what they do, you might create a video in which they educate the audience concerning a niche topic. You can even make it into a weekly/monthly series. Over time, the person or people doing the teaching might even become somewhat recognizable to your audience.
Offer a Behind the Scenes Glimpse
People like to get to know who you are in a behind the scenes kind of way. It shows the nuts and bolts of your company—it shows you hard at work. This type of video is a truly pure glimpse of what you do and how you do it.
Of course, let your employees know ahead of time what you plan to do and that you plan to film them in a day in the life type manner. This way they're not caught off guard and are ultimately more comfortable. You do want to stress that you're going for that natural feel. Try not to rehearse anything or make moments seem overly staged. This will ultimately result in a video that does the opposite of what you hoped.
Turn Blogs Into Videos
If you have a blog that was particularly popular with users, you may want to consider turning it into a video. Same content, different format; thus, you're really hammering home that message on multiple platforms. You do want to spend some time thinking about which posts might make good videos. Not all posts/articles will translate well into video format. Is it a topic that has a multimedia angle? Might the most benefit from further elaboration via video? Some posts simply do not lend themselves to video marketing format. Keep this in mind.
Live Stream and Interact
Yes, creating a video can get time-consuming and costly. Between the equipment, the backdrop, getting the actors, it's definitely not an easy task. Some smaller companies may want to consider live streaming by way of video marketing. Cut down on costs and save on time and energy.
Not to mention, there's the spontaneity factor. Some videos can seem overly rehearsed and incidentally turn audiences off. Whereas with a live video, the users are right there in the moment with you—no rehearsal necessary. Putting this up on your social media feeds then gives you another advantage—engagement.
Recent studies have shown that 85% of people watch live streams because they like to comment and interact with what is going on. Interaction is huge in terms of helping you retain customers and attract new ones. Plus, people do like those unexpected things that can happen when a video is live—in fact, more people prefer to watch live feeds as opposed to pre-recorded clips for just this reason.
Which Video Marketing Strategy Fits Your Business?
While the above ideas could all be useful to help enhance your company's marketing efforts, you want to take your time, and really think about which strategies might work best for you. Trying to tackle too many elements via video could result in a mishmash of efforts that ultimately fails to do what you wanted it to.
Successfully implemented, video marketing can help bring in new customers, reinforce your relationships with current customers and even allow you to connect with audiences you hadn't planned on targeting. You do want to make sure that if you are recording a video, it is done well and hits upon those key points.
The videos also should not be boring. Why spend the time and money to make a video if people are just going to click off because it fails to keep them entertained. Don't over complicate things, but also make sure that the video is enjoyable and has entertainment value for users. This way they'll be sure to stick around and listen to the entire message—make it memorable and don't be afraid to have a little fun with it.
At First Union, we have helped many small businesses implement their marketing videos. We offer many loan options from short term loans to equipment financing if your business is in need of funding. Call today!