Your essential guide to video marketing 2024
What is Video Marketing?
Video marketing for small businesses uses video content to connect with your target audience. Small business video content is published on social media channels and websites to:
- showcase products
- share industry insights
- answer frequently asked questions.
By working with a visual and interactive format, you can promote your products and services and support customers in a way that helps increase engagement online.
Why is video marketing important?
With the increasing accessibility of video creation technology and apps, coupled with the widespread adoption of smartphones, video content has quickly become a powerful tool. In 2024, audiences spent an average of 17 hours per week watching online video content. This reflects the substantial shift in consumer behaviour that businesses can’t afford to ignore
Benefits of video marketing for small businesses
Video content marketing offers a range of potential benefits for your business. A video marketing strategy can help you to:
Generate brand awareness
With video content, you can promote your brand to potential customers on multiple digital platforms. For small, local businesses, a video marketing strategy may even help you reach audiences faster. You could try marketing your small business by creating:
- ‘How to’ videos posted on a YouTube channel
- Paid advertising videos on social media platforms
- Reels on your business Instagram account.
Keep customers engaged
Digital platforms are occupied by a lot of businesses competing for customers’ attention. One of the key benefits of video marketing for small business is that video content can help you keep customers engaged, sometimes more so than text-based content or still images. The following video styles offer audiences a way of interacting with your brand:
- Product or service demonstrations
- Business testimonials
- Educational and knowledge sharing videos
Establish your credibility
To build a loyal customer base, it’s important to show your customers you can be trusted. A clear video marketing strategy for small businesses helps you show your expertise. Plus, video content can show the human side of your brand. Video content marketing helps you to establish your credibility in the following ways:
- You can share behind-the-scenes footage of your team at work.
- You can publish helpful guides that show off your knowledge.
- You can share client testimonials to demonstrate your trustworthiness.
Accommodate customers using mobile phones
Today, many consumers use mobile devices to browse online. Videos are easy to watch on mobile phones and tablets, providing customers with an interactive way of connecting with your business while browsing on the go. When you include video content in your marketing strategy, you offer mobile users a creative way to connect with your brand.
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
Modern consumers use search engines to look for businesses like yours online. So, if you’re looking at how to boost the search engine ranking of your small business, a video content marketing strategy is a smart idea.
Search engines love engaging sites, and well-made videos are a great way of boosting engagement on your business website. This is because videos can help visitors stay on your pages longer, helping search engines to view your site as relevant. The more relevant your website seems, the more likely it is to be ranked higher in search engine results.
Moreover, when you experiment with other platforms, such as YouTube advertising for small businesses, you can create new online destinations to appear in searches.
Simplify complex concepts
No one enjoys pouring through complicated product features, especially before purchasing. If your products and services are complex, videos can help you explain your offerings in plain language.
Video marketing strategies frequently include explainer videos or demonstrations to reduce confusion and make your product or service more appealing.
Encourage social sharing
One of the biggest benefits of video marketing for small businesses is that it encourages audiences to share content on their social media accounts.
If your video is creative, entertaining, or informative, customers are more likely to share it with their followers. Every share helps increase brand visibility and attract more customers. Once in circulation, the shares, likes, and comments on your video content will also boost performance in search results, extending the reach of your small business even further.
Boost leads and sales
Digital marketing helps to convert online attention into direct sales or leads. Well-developed videos offering real value and entertainment, paired with strong calls to action, can guide viewers to take the ‘next step’. Power calls to action include:
- visiting your website,
- signing up for a newsletter, or
- making a booking or purchase.
Regardless of where you choose to send your customers, a video marketing strategy for small businesses should always have an end destination in mind.
Types of video marketing content
Brand story videos
Modern consumers prefer to align with businesses that show a personal side, and video marketing is a great way for small businesses to tell their stories.
Video content helps you talk about how your business started, your goals and plans for the future. These videos help form a deeper emotional connection with your audience, like you’re talking just to them, setting the foundation for a lasting relationship.
Whether you’re a start-up or an established company, brand story videos help you make a lasting impression on customers in the competitive digital realm.
Product and service explainer videos
Videos explaining your products or services can act like virtual salespeople, as they help show potential customers how your solutions address their problems or meet their expectations.
Insights from Wyzowl’s recent Video Marketing Statistics 2022 report showed that 96% of people have watched an explainer video at some point in their life, to better understand a product or service. From participants surveyed, 88% said they were convinced to make a purchase from the videos alone.
By using a real person to showcase your product’s features and benefits in an engaging format, you make it clear why the viewer should progress. This form of video content for small businesses can be particularly effective on product pages or in email campaigns, where viewers may be closer to making a purchasing decision.
Webinars
A webinar is a seminar conducted over the internet. Producing webinars allows you to collect and share your expertise with your customers or network online. These interactive events can include:
- question and answer (Q&A) sessions
- interviews with industry experts
- seminars on trending topics in your field.
Webinars help position your business as a trusted authority. They also provide value to your customers, which in turn helps to increase engagement with your brand online.
Your webinar recordings can also be repurposed into other types of video content, such as snippets embedded into blog articles and within YouTube advertising campaigns.
Client testimonial videos
Video marketing for small, local businesses often includes the use of testimonial videos. This style of video content features customers sharing the positive experiences they’ve had with your products and services. Client testimonials can help you to:
- persuade potential customers to choose your business over a competitive
- demonstrate the value of your products and services
- show customers how your offerings can positively impact their lives.
Video production tips for client testimonials
This style of video content shouldn’t be overly produced. Instead, film a conversation in a customer’s office, home, or at your place of business, speaking in plain language. Your customers will appreciate the authentic examples of your previous work.
‘How-to’ videos
You can add value to customers’ lives by teaching them something new via ‘how to’ videos. This style of video content helps to position you as an authority in your field, which in turn helps you build trust with potential and existing customers. When your brand is trusted, customers are more likely to choose your business over others.
Live videos
Live videos have become popular in recent year as they offer authenticity on social media. This is because live videos aren’t as carefully curated or polished as perhaps other social media interactions. Being open, genuine and raw with your audience can help build trust.
Tips to enhance your video marketing strategy
Pay attention to analytics
- Track key metrics (for example, impressions, click-through rates and conversions)
- Establish milestones within videos
- Assess viewer drop-off points
Reuse and recycle
- Integrate your videos into your broader content strategy
- Use snippets for social media
- Include videos in email newsletters
- Convert transcripts into engaging blog posts
Listen to your customers
- Pay attention to comments, likes and shares to see what resonates with your audience
- Encourage viewer suggestions and audience feedback
- Tailor your content specifically to your audiences’ interests and needs.
Always look for ways to improve
- Optimise your videos for SEO (keywords, meta titles, tags)
- Review your analytics regularly
- Adjust your strategy based on strategic data.
Try new things
- Test different video formats (informational, testimonial, behind-the-scenes or video trends)
- Analyse and focus on the high-performing types of video.
Why embrace video marketing for small business?
To summarise the benefits of planning a video marketing strategy for small business include:
- generating brand awareness
- establishing business credibility
- increasing customer engagement
- boosting sales and bookings.
Like any marketing strategy, video marketing may require initial budgeting, upskilling, and strategic thinking to ensure your small business video content reaches the right audience. When including these factors in their video marketing strategy, small businesses can realise strong returns on investment when working with video content.
In a world where modern consumers are doing more in the digital realm, this style of online marketing has the potential to offer the point of difference your small business may be looking for.
Originally published July 2023, updated August 2024.
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