What Is Video Marketing And Why Is It Important For Small Businesses
The fact that any business, whether a business giant or a small business, requires a video marketing strategy is not unknown. What has changed over the recent past is how effective it has become. Did you know that Youtube ranks second on the list of most popular sites on the web?
We’ve often heard that an image is equivalent to a thousand words. Since we are talking about a video, let’s just multiply it by another thousand. The very notion forms the base of video marketing. So now you probably get an idea about how effective small business video marketing can be if you wish to enhance your social media marketing, website design, email marketing, or other marketing strategies.
What is Video Marketing?
It’s pretty simple actually; video marketing is the forward-facing marketing strategy where you incorporate videos to enrich your marketing campaign and strategies. By adding videos as a means to promote your products and services, you can considerably increase the engagement on your digital or social media channels, and reach out to potential buyers through a captivating medium of advertisement.
While it might sound quite complex and expensive, it’s not even nearly such. Assuming that you’re reading this article on a smartphone, you already have the device which would record! Now, that does sound workable, doesn’t it, given that more than 76% of marketers have said that video marketing has increased their sales and traffic.
Types of Video Marketing
You can use videos in several ways, like informing your potential customers of your new products, increasing your consumer base, educating your customers about new products and services, etc. We have listed some of the most common types of product videos that several businesses use to increase engagement and sales.
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Brand Films
Brand Films are commonly used by businesses to generate or increase their brand awareness amongst potential buyers and to attract the target audience. These videos typically convey the vision and mission of your company, its products, and services, etc. You can think of these as a part of your greater advertising campaigns.
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Educational Videos or The ‘How-to-dos’
Educational videos or explainer videos are another most commonly used small business video marketing type. There are several forms of educational videos that you can choose from. You can build a simple explanatory video or a ‘how-to-do’ video. You can also get a little creative and build a video based on a fictional storyline where there is a company’s core buyer persona that is portrayed to be struggling. His problem is then effectively overcome by buying the solution from your company.
The basic idea behind these videos is to help your audience understand why they need the products or services offered by your company. Also, these videos build some knowledge on a foundation level to help them better understand your products and services.
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Product or Demo Videos
Businesses use these videos to educate the audience about their products and services. You can use these videos if you are launching a new product or service in the market, or are modifying it. You can explain your product, its features, and its benefits through this type of video. To make it a better quality video, you can add a demo, showcasing how your product works, and how it can be used.
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Expert Interviews
This type of video effectively builds trust and authority amongst the target audience. You can take interviews of internal experts and thought leaders or influencers in your industry. Have an in-depth discussion with them and put it on display for the audience.
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Case Studies and Testimonial Videos
You already know that with positive testimonials, you are more likely to increase your consumer base. The potential customers would want to know that the problem they are facing can be solved by your products or services. What better way of conveying this than by sharing the case studies or testimonials from your satisfied clients?
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360° Videos or Virtual Reality Videos
The 360° videos enable viewers to scroll and examine any product from every angle. This makes them nearer to the actual physical experience. With the help of this spherical style video, the viewers can better experience a location, event, or object. The viewers can control and navigate their experiences with the aid of virtual reality.
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Personal Messages
Video messages can be a prolific way of conversation when you are responding to someone’s emails. This forms a significant embellishment to your email marketing strategies. This makes your prospects feel noticed and might lead them further down their purchasing lane.
Relations Between Video Marketing and Small Businesses
As per a study by promo.com, nearly 77% of small business enterprises claimed that videos form an important part of their online marketing strategy. To add to it, 51% of the small businesses upload more than one video a week, and more than 36% create more than 5 videos a month.
The data clearly shows that in today’s world with social media platforms’ ‘shorts’ and ‘reels’, and various video channels, etc, online video marketing has emerged as an important means of online marketing. Quality videos on websites, youtube, and social media are now the key to the success of small and medium businesses. These enable the companies to reach more people, and get closer to their audiences, while increasing sales, conversation, and engagement.
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Benefits of Online Video Marketing
Using videos in marketing can allow you to offer multi sensorial and emotionally engaging types of content to potential customers. While scrolling through social media, people tend to spend only a fraction of a second looking at a post in general. The video naturally captivates the attention of the viewers, making them pause. Plus, the chance of them remembering the content of a video is much more than that of single-sensory content. There are several benefits of video marketing.
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Boost Your Online Presence
With the emergence of the ‘internet era’, having a considerable online presence is a very important aspect of growing your business. Quality videos on your website, channels like youtube, and social media will boost your online presence. The ease of connection and consumption of videos helps in increasing your brand’s visibility. An engaging video increases the number of visitors to your site or page. To add to it, if they like your content, they are likely to share it in their circle, which further adds to your online visibility.
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Increase Social Media Engagement
Today, almost everyone across the globe posts pictures or writes content on social media. Making more video content for your social media platforms can help you stand out. Engagement with your targeted audience is vital when you are aiming to increase traffic and conversion. You can choose from the aforementioned types of videos to increase engagement and attract potential buyers.
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Gain a Higher Rank in Searches
While youtube is the second most popular site, Google still holds the first position. Increasing your visibility on Google is fundamental to your marketing strategy. Featuring engaging video content on your website will result in increased viewership and significantly improve your status on the search rankings. You can even transcribe a YouTube video to improve the accessibility and searchability of your content. This doesn’t just work for Google. Your search ranking improves on all search engines including Yahoo, Bing, etc.
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Get a Hike in Conversion Rates
Studies have shown that videos significantly increase the rate of conversion. Watching a testimonial video or an expert interview video highly influences the purchasing behavior of a person. It expands the reach of small enterprises and effectively persuades a viewer to become a lead. If you can convey the right emotion through your product videos, you have a powerful selling tool at your disposal!
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Build Trust and Boost Sales
We already know that videos increase the rate of conversion and sales. The reason behind this is that videos are more likely to build trust in viewers, as compared to pictures or written content. Videos are one of the best ways to create a personality for your brand or company. This helps you connect with your potential customers at a more personal level, and in turn, builds trust and credibility.
The increase in the number of videos you upload to educate or inform your viewers will further build on the foundation of trust. And the result will be an increase in sales and revenue.
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Easy and Affordable Means
One of the great benefits of online video marketing is its ease and affordability. It’s only natural to assume that creating engaging videos would be a painfully difficult and expensive affair. However, the reality is quite the contrary! Several companies are developing amazing and creative videos just with the help of a smartphone, a mic, and some basic video editing software.
While you might want to get professional help on some important branding videos, others might be done by yourself. With some basic tips on video marketing strategy, you can do quite well on your own. Today, you have several online videos marking courses that pave the way for you to develop professional videos with minimal help. You can visit DAN Institute to learn from proficient experts, and remarkably grow your business with small business video marketing.
