When it comes to developing a successful marketing campaign, video is king. This is no longer limited to large businesses with huge marketing budgets. Video is an efficient means of business marketing because it has effectively rendered budgets meaningless and leveled the marketing playing field.
We know how video can help your business. The facts are out there and by now everyone in the marketing field has some idea of the concept that videos equal conversions. But given that and given that everyone is so enamored with using video, what are the best practices and tactics to break through the market? What are some ways that video marketing can work for small business?
We’ve outlined 5 key video production tactics that will take your small business to the next level of marketing glory.
#5: Start Where It All Began
A surefire way to build brand recognition, customer trust and structure for a great business video marketing series is to run creation stories. People are interested in how businesses got their start, who is behind them, how long they’ve been in existence, what the impetus was for founding and everything in between.
The wonderful thing about these videos is that they’re easy to make and they write themselves. Have your marketing department sit down with the founder and employees that were there at the beginning and film documentary-style. What were the first days like? Scrounge up old photos of the early days operating out of the garage or a rundown office and show a time lapse of where you are now, demonstrating how far you’ve come. This is a fantastic strategy to build a genuine human connection between your customers and your company.
#4: Give A Behind-The-Scenes Scoop
Piggy-backing off the previous strategy, an ideal small business video concept is to give customers a tour of your facilities. If your company is in the manufacturing industry, show clips of the process and educate your customers on how a product is created from beginning to end. Interview employees along the way to give further insight not just on the product but on their day-to-day work life (this doubles as great employment publicity).
If your company operates on a service level, focus more on what the daily routine of customer service representatives looks like. How are calls answered? How are services provided? When you employ this service, what does it actually look like from the other side? This can give an added element of alleviating the burden that customer service representatives face dealing with complaints or concerns from customers as a greater portion will have a better understanding of what responsibilities your representatives have.
Finally, if the bulk of your company’s work takes place at an office, go around and show the different divisions within the office and tell a little bit about what each department is responsible for to administer their services to clientele efficiently. This sort of background report is an excellent way to shed light on your business processes so that customers have a better understanding of what goes into the product or service that they receive, proving to be an excellent marketing video for small businesses.
#3: Thank Your Customers
For the 2017 holiday season, Chevrolet rolled out a very successful video marketing campaign thanking their customers and extending an offer of their employee discount to everyone. These video advertisements were a big hit, and that’s why this concept comes in at number 3.
Now sure, the discount was likely a huge factor in the advertisement. But there are discounts in every car ad, so what’s the difference? It’s the fact that Chevrolet took the time to have real employees thank their customers in the video as part of the offer. The frequent references of customers as being part of their ‘family’ were huge for the brand.
Your small business can do the same. Customers appreciate good will. Taking the time to create a video simply thanking your customers or wishing them a happy holiday without any strings attached is a perfect example of how video can help your small business. It’s easy to do; again, use real employees to make it happen. The video can be shot in an hour, edited and uploaded same day and bring joy to your customers in no time.
#2: Take the Time to Customize!
This is simple. For a small business that relies on a small clientele, creating custom videos is a terrific way to build on a relationship. You can take the last idea of thanking your customers and simply apply some customization. Include 5 or 6 clips thanking customers in general, then a clip or two directed towards a specific customer. Edit it, bundle it up and send it out. It’s a great way to show you’re willing to go the extra mile to maintain a strong business relationship.
#1: Use What the Users Give You
Our final entry on this list is the easiest video marketing plan for a small business. Why is that? Because it requires essentially no budget, no video production skills and very little time. Essentially, your customers are dying to do the work for you!
Encourage video feedback from clients. Run a promotion on social media asking for your customers to create a video using your product in an innovative way, rewarding the best video with a free product or gift certificate. People love free.
Then, play that video repeatedly across your social media platforms. This is a certified way to build trust and a customer base, both during and after the contest. Prospective customers will see that it’s not just your company saying you’re great; it’s friends, family or everyday people saying it, and they’re the people to trust most. This idea is the perfect low budget method to create a clever marketing video that any small business can benefit from.
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