Before delving into the tools and techniques, it’s crucial to understand why video marketing is worth the investment for small businesses:
Enhanced Engagement: Videos are more captivating than text-based content, leading to higher engagement rates and longer time spent on your website or social media channels.
Improved SEO: Video content can boost your search engine rankings, as platforms like Google often prioritize video content in search results.
Increased Conversions: Studies have shown that including videos on landing pages can lead to higher conversion rates, as videos help explain products and services more effectively.
Humanizing Your Brand: Videos provide a personal touch, allowing businesses to showcase their culture, values, and the people behind the scenes.
Versatile Content: Videos can be repurposed across various platforms, such as social media, websites, emails, and presentations.
Animoto offers an intuitive platform that allows small businesses to create compelling videos using their own photos, video clips, and music. With a variety of templates and customization options, businesses can quickly produce visually appealing videos for their marketing campaigns.
Promo.com provides a vast library of video templates designed for different industries and purposes. Users can easily customize these templates, add text, music, and logos, enabling small businesses to craft eye-catching videos that align with their branding.
Wistia is a video hosting platform that offers in-depth analytics and customization options. It’s ideal for businesses looking to embed videos on their websites while maintaining control over branding and interactions.
While primarily known for graphic design, Canva also offers a video editor. It’s perfect for creating simple, eye-catching videos for social media and other platforms.
For businesses seeking more advanced editing capabilities, Adobe Premiere Rush provides a user-friendly platform to create high-quality videos on desktop or mobile devices.
Veed.io is to videos what Canva is to graphics and images; in short, Veed.io lets users create animated videos and filmed videos alike, in order to further video marketing budgets with crips, clear, and easily-identified lines. Like Canva, Veed.io offers ready-made templates to get you started, and provides different ready-to-go components to cover a wide variety of videos to suit your needs, including how-to videos, straightforward marketing videos, and more to place on your social channels, website, and more.
This particular video marketing software is useful for its versatility; although it can be used to create targeted marketing videos, it can also be used by companies and brands to record and disperse meetings and training videos. Veed.io is perhaps best to support the video marketing efforts of those without an established video marketing approach, or those who are not comfortable with this format, as the features may be too simplistic or constraining for experienced creators.
We like Wave Video because it has a nice mixture of templates and the ability to start from scratch. It’s also a great tool for using the same basic footage for different video formats. For instance, you can make a nice video for YouTube, and then later decide to repurpose it into a Facebook banner video or something Instagram friendly.
Better yet, you don’t have to start over. The developers make a big point of the fact that Wave Video is built to support high volume video content production, which isn’t the case with many of its competitors. Another awesome feature is that you can easily upload branding items like logos to the platform for future use in videos.
Wave isn’t a lone ranger, either: it features integrations with YouTube, Google Drive, Hubspot, Facebook, Twitter, Drop Box, Twitter, and more. In other words, there are plenty of ways to make Wave Video work within a team environment to bring the power of video to a marketing team. Best of all, Wave includes video hosting, a content calendar, video button, and landing pages.
Lumen5 specializes in transforming text content into engaging video presentations. By analyzing the provided text, the tool generates visuals and animations, making it perfect for repurposing blog posts or articles into video format.
Renderforest offers an array of video templates, including promotional videos, intros, and animations. It also provides a logo maker and mockup creator, allowing small businesses to craft comprehensive branding materials.
Storytelling: Effective video marketing often revolves around storytelling. Craft a compelling narrative that resonates with your target audience, evokes emotions, and communicates your brand’s values. Whether it’s a customer success story or a behind-the-scenes look at your business, storytelling can foster a deeper connection with viewers.
Educational Content: Position your small business as an industry authority by creating educational videos. Offer tutorials, how-to guides, or tips that address common pain points your audience faces. By sharing valuable knowledge, you can establish trust and credibility within your niche.
Live Streaming: Platforms like Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and YouTube Live allow small businesses to connect with their audience in real-time. Host Q&A sessions, product launches, or behind-the-scenes tours to engage viewers and encourage interaction.
User-Generated Content: Encourage your customers to create videos featuring your products or services. This not only showcases genuine testimonials but also fosters a sense of community around your brand. Share these videos on your social media channels to amplify their impact.
Short-form Videos: With the rise of platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, short-form videos have gained immense popularity. Create snappy, attention-grabbing videos that convey your message succinctly while leveraging trending challenges and hashtags.
Optimize for SEO: Just like written content, video content can be optimized for search engines. Conduct keyword research to identify relevant terms, optimize video titles, descriptions, and tags, and consider transcribing your videos to make them more accessible and searchable.
Consistency: Establish a consistent posting schedule for your videos. Regular content updates help keep your audience engaged and informed, while also signaling to algorithms that your content is relevant and valuable.
Product Demonstrations: Showcase your products in action through detailed demonstrations. Highlight key features and benefits to help potential customers understand what you offer.
Behind-the-Scenes: Give viewers a glimpse of your company culture, employees, and day-to-day operations. This humanizes your brand and builds trust with your audience.
Customer Testimonials: Feature satisfied customers sharing their experiences with your products or services. Authentic testimonials can greatly influence purchasing decisions.
Tutorials and How-To Guides: Educate your audience by creating tutorials and how-to guides related to your industry. This positions your business as an expert and adds value to your audience.
Webinars: Host webinars to delve deeper into industry topics and address your audience’s pain points. Webinars position your business as a thought leader and allow for interactive engagement.
video marketing has evolved into a crucial tool for small businesses to establish their brand, engage with customers, and drive growth. By utilizing the right tools and implementing effective techniques, small businesses can harness the power of video to compete in the digital landscape and make a lasting impact on their target audience.