Video Marketing Ideas for Your Small Business

With most companies now having accounts on the same social media platforms and interacting with their customers in similar ways, it’s getting more difficult to find a way to stand out. Rather than just posting another block of text that your audience skims while scrolling through their social media feeds and emails, try using a method such as a video marketing campaign to get yourself noticed!

What is Video Marketing?

Although face-to-face interaction with your customers is the most effective way to build a strong relationship with your audience, sometimes it’s not always a feasible option, especially if you don’t have a brick and mortar location. Video campaigns allow customers to feel as though they are directly interacting with your business by watching the videos and creating a dialogue that is more hands-on than the conversations happening through social media and blogging.

Video Marketing Content Ideas

There is no limit to what you can post for your video marketing content, but here are some ideas to get you started.

• Product Tutorials or Demonstrations: An engaging way to show products and services what your business has to offer is through the use of video tutorials. These tutorials can provide your audience with a step-by-step guide on how to get the most out of a product or service. Some examples of video tutorials include fitness demonstrations, recipe ideas, or floral arrangement how tos.
• Tips and Tricks: Any business can offer helpful tips and tricks to its audience. Whether you’re a painter or a yoga instructor, record helpful advice that your customers might not know. These tips don’t have to be big—think about the “hacks” that you see posted on Pinterest and offer tidbits of information that will be useful and make you stand out as an expert in your industry.
• New Product Announcement: Promote new products by featuring them in videos. If your business is offering a new product or service, make a video to show it off or to provide a teaser to customers ahead of the product launch.
• Behind the Scenes Videos: Customers love seeing what goes on behind the scenes, so take them into the heart of your business and show them what it’s like. Good ideas for behind the scenes videos are bakeries decorating their specialty item or a salon testing new hairstyles and trends before offering them in-store. These promotional videos can show a new perspective of your business, as well as views of the product’s assembly or videos highlighting cool new product features.
• Show Off Your Personality: Businesses are run by people, and people love people! Turn the camera on yourself or your employees to show some personality behind your business and create a personal connection with your audience.
• Thought or Tip of the Day: Make mini videos providing a thought or a tip of the day that’s relevant to your business’s customers or target audience.
• Customer Interactions: Put your customers in front of the camera by filming them using your business, but make sure to get their permission before doing so. A good time to put your customers on camera is at an event or class that you’re hosting.
• Answer FAQs: Maybe you have recurring questions you keep getting from your audience that need to be answered, or maybe you already have an FAQ page on your website. Either way, answering FAQs in a video will give you the opportunity to answer the questions in a more personalized and detailed way, as well as give you the opportunity to show demonstrations and visual examples as answers to the questions.
• Highlight a Specific Cause: Many businesses start campaigns that benefit a specific cause. For example, Dove created a campaign to promote body positivity among women of all different body types, and in 2014, the “Ice Bucket Challenge” raised awareness and money for ALS research, taking the Internet by storm as people poured buckets of ice water on themselves in short online videos. If a specific cause is important to you or your business, consider making a video highlighting that cause during a specific month, and promote having a certain percentage of your proceeds being donated to the cause.
• Time-lapsed Transformations: If you’re a salon, create a time-lapse of a client receiving eyelash extensions and show the progress from the beginning of the procedure to the end. If you’re a florist, post a time-lapse of your favorite floral arrangement being created and show the piece come to life in under a minute – a process that your customers would usually never get to see! Showing these videos makes your audience feel as though they’re a part of your creative process and involved in your business.
• Thank Customers: Use videos to thank loyal customers who continue to use and refer your business. You can also use these videos to announce a new referral program as a way to thank returning customers and entice new customers to use your business, or announce winner of a Facebook or Instagram contest.

Related: 10 Examples of Facebook Contests and Instagram Giveaways

How to Promote Videos

Once you’ve created a video for your business, promote it! Like blog posts, you can promote your videos on social media and in email newsletters.

Although maintaining continuity across different platforms is important, some videos are better suited for some platforms than others. When deciding which platforms to use for your posts, think about the audience who uses the platform. Snapchat and Instagram users will want quick videos that are very visual. Conversely, if you post videos on Facebook, your audience will have the expectation of watching some longer videos that use text and voice to emphasize the video’s content.

Video Marketing on Instagram

Instagram videos can be 3 to 60 seconds long, however the shorter the video, the more effectively it will engage your audience. Instagram is a great platform to post a quick fitness tutorial or go behind the scenes of your business and give your audience a sneak peek of what your business does, or new products to look out for. Keep Instagram videos short and to the point – these posts should be quick and simple tips, or a video of a product or service, rather than a tutorial or a how-to.

Video Marketing on Facebook

When using Facebook for video marketing, think of these videos like a visual version of a social media text post and share videos with a caption to explain what the video is. If applicable, tag a location or tag another business in the video. If your video is at an event or being used to promote an event, share the video and promote the Facebook event.

If you’re posting a tutorial that you feel needs to be explained in greater detail, think about breaking it up into separate shorter videos and creating a video series. This will give your business the chance to adequately share information at the level of detail you see fit, but will also allow your audience to watch it at their own pace and stay actively engaged. While videos should be kept short on Instagram, it’s okay to post longer videos to Facebook. Facebook is good for videos that are 1-2 minutes long, making it a good site for tutorials, how-to’s, customer testimonials, or explainer videos.

Video Marketing on Snapchat

On Snapchat you can post videos that are up to 10 seconds long, and not only give your audience a behind the scenes look of your business, but also a real-time view of what your business is up to. By getting your small business on Snapchat, you can bring your audience to trade shows and behind the scenes with you, making them feel like a part of the action. Post your videos on your “Snap Story,” which will keep the videos public for 24 hours. Snapchat not only creates a way for your audience to see what you’re doing, but by knowing that the video disappears in only 24 hours, it creates a sense of urgency to check on your business and see what’s new and exciting.

Video Marketing with Email Newsletters

Once you’ve posted the videos on your social media, link them in your email newsletters. If you’ve created a video series, send out one new video in each email newsletter. This method will encourage your audience to stay engaged and keep looking at your social media pages, as well as feel more compelled to open your email newsletters.

Have you created  any marketing videos for your business? Let us know what has and hasn’t worked for your company in the comments below!