How many of us can say they don't consume video content daily?
I don't think there would many people who would raise their hands to that question. Whether it's watching content while commuting, on a work break or when you get home and put your feet up, video content is all around us. In this article we will take a look at the reasons why your business should be using it, and how your business can make video content on a small budget.
Video Helps with Sales
There have been many studies carried out when a video has been added to a landing page, one of which on HubSpot which has shown that adding video can boost conversions by 80% and it's easy to see why.
Video is easier to digest than a 2000 word article on the same subject and through video, you can show emotions to the potential customer that you wouldn't have been able to do through text.
If you have a complex product that needs explaining a video can explain in seconds what a blog post would take minutes to do. A blog post may also cause more confusion which will prevent a sale from happening.
Video Increases Engagement
In a never-ending sea of content, it's getting harder for businesses to stand out. Regular text can get buried in seconds when it comes to posting on social media and one of the best ways to create engaging content is to add a video to it.
According to digital information world, adding video to your social media campaigns can see engagement levels increase by 1200% when compared to text and image alone.
Adding "video" to your email marketing campaigns can also increase your open rates and by doing so will help your message be seen by more potential customers.
Increased On-page Metrics
If you want to improve your websites on-page metrics such as time spent on the website and decrease your bounce rate (rate in which visitors leave before visiting a second page) which is an important factor when it comes to Google ranking your website, adding video can help.
Search engines love video content and this content can feature in the actual search results for potential keywords that customers would be searching for.
Behind Google, Youtube is the second largest search engine and if you upload your video content there and embed it on your web page you can increase your brand awareness considerably.
Video Builds Trust
Text testimonials can be written by anyone but video testimonials are much more trustworthy and if you can add them to your website and your social media you can build that trust and influence customers to shop with you rather than with your competitors.
Video testimonials bring your product or service to life and show how others experiences and the problems they may have had before using your product.
How to Use Video in Your Small Business
As you can see there are many benefits of using video within your business and there is a high chance you have thought about using it in the past but don't know where to start.
You have a few options when it comes to video content creation, either you can pay an agency to do it (sometimes expensive), pay a freelancer to do it (cheaper) or you can make it yourself (cheapest).
If you want an agency to create your content and have the budget to do so then a simple Google search will put you in the right direction of agencies in your area.
If your budget is lower and you don't have the time to make content yourself, a freelancer may be able to help. You can find freelancers on websites such as Upwork.com or you could even search your local classified ads.
In this article, we will focus on creating the content yourself as it's the cheapest option and quite often small businesses don't need big Hollywood productions to show their services or products off.
What Video Should I Create?
To know what content you should create you will need to work backwards from your end goals. You will need to think what the purpose of your video is and if it needs to be made.
Every video should have a purpose and it should push your potential clients along the buying process a step at a time.
Your goals will determine the content that you should make. Common goals could include:
- Increasing brand awareness
- Growing your audience
- Increasing trust
- Explaining a complex subject
- Creating a brand style
Each of these goals will require different content to be created. Growing your audience could mean that you produce less technical videos and something more digestible while you could create more technical videos while explaining complex subjects.
Testing Your Strategy
When creating video for your own business you aren't going to get it right the first time and you should always be testing and tweaking your strategy.
A great example of testing and tweaking was done by Firewall Technical they used to create video security audits of potential clients infrastructure but found through their analytics that most videos weren't getting watched all the way through and as result conversions were lower than they expected. They cut down the video length in half and increased their conversions by 46%.
For your business, you can experiment with content length, content themes, your calls to action, thumbnail style and the networks that you add them to. Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and all of the other social networks will have different users and you will need to reach them in different ways.
Video Production Resources
One of the biggest barriers to creating video content as a business is resources, however, you don't need the biggest and most expensive setups to make professional videos.
If your budget is very limited you can shoot a video on your iPhone, a cheap microphone and use a tripod to keep your video steady.
Filming video can seem weird at first and you will stutter over your lines and get them wrong but the more you do it the better you will become at it, with that said you should still edit your videos so they look professional.
You can then use lookup tables or LUT's as they are more commonly known to make your video editing quicker and give your videos the same style which your users will come to recognize if they are consistent over time.
I've included a few resources below which you can go through to learn video editing in your own time:
Video Content Creation Takeaways
Video content is here to stay and the sooner you can start creating it for your business the more engagement you can get with potential customers.
Having no budget or time is no longer a valid excuse as the mobile phone in your pocket along with a microphone, a tripod and software can help you compete with the biggest of companies.
Having a larger budget will allow you to use better equipment but having videos that are lit correctly, are clear and look professional can put your business a level above your competition.
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