Some of us rue the day YouTube was born, bringing user-created and user-shared videos into our daily lives, because it took away from advertising done by small businesses, and destroyed the reach small businesses once had before video was everywhere.

Small businesses exist in a strange place. They cannot hope to beat the budgets of their larger corporate competition in advertising on Google, and most people won’t search past page 3. They also cannot survive on word of mouth and local business alone. Here are a few ways to make it work with a smaller budget when using video.

Before we kick things off, there are some compelling statistics about video that you should know.  Video within email leads to a 200-300% increase in the click-through rate (that leads to buyers!). It also can increase conversion when included on a landing page by up to 80%. Shoppers, after watching a video are 64% more likely to buy online. Real estate videos see a 403% increase in inquiries than those without. These stats are pretty savage on their own but there are so many others out there which continue to prove that video is only growing in popularity, and that all business owners should be using it in their advertising.

TIP

Even a GIF or a Vine can do in a pinch, just grab one off the internet that is applicable and let it do the talking for you.
Going with what is trendy is always a sure win.

As promised here are our quick tips for marketing using video for your small business, or smaller budget:

  1. Provide a “Face”: Create a video that shows the face of your company, it could be your own face or the storefront of your business and you can pair it with a story that means something to the customers, and to you!
  2. Be the expert: Whatever it is you excel at, be sure you have a team at hand to post relevant information on your social media using video. This could be a how-to video, or could be a tutorial for a program you sell. Ensure you’re giving quality tips and tricks to your customers so they feel they’re getting prime information for nothing.
  3. Create a team roundup: Collect everyone who works for you and create a Vine styled video, where everyone gets a few seconds to talk about some relevant aspect of their position and the business. This creates a warm and inviting feeling to people, and also helps them to get to know you.
  4. Start making a “today” series: Make videos which highlight a thought of the day, or a topic of the day. This could be like our “Marketing Mondays” where we post a tip every Monday or it could just be thoughts about current trends in your business.
  5. Start making a “day” series: Consider creating videos which highlight a day in the life of a particular employee at your business, or even a typical employee at a similar business. Show them what it means to be someone who works on this project, or in that department. This brings the audience into the business and makes them feel like part of it.
  6. Show the fun: If you have fun moments at work or after work going for drinks with the team, then take a short video of the hijinks that ensue. Like the previous reasons, they make people feel like part of it themselves, and it also shows your lighter side.
  7. Live service: People love good customer care, and you can make a video of your customer service team handling things like tickets, requests, complaints or anything else you can dream up. Highlight your incredible customer care!
  8. Thank them: Make sure you thank your customers in video and even in text. People love being shown gratitude, and feeling important enough to deserve it.
  9. Video testimonials: Need we say more? This can really speak for itself, so take your camera (even a cell camera!) and video the people who love you so much that they’re happy to tell their friends. Make sure to get permission to broadcast their face and words prior however.
  10. Screencasts: You can easily upload video about products as with demos or a presentation like a webinar. You don’t have to physically appear in the video yourself for it to be effective, you simply need to delivery quality and value.

In closing…

You want to include video but you don’t want a big production company and the bill that goes with it? No problem. You don’t need a big budget to get big results. We know that it is competitive out there, and it’s hard to stand apart from corporate giants with unlimited seeming budgets for advertising. We also know that word of mouth, and using SEO tools properly can still allow you to be highly visible despite a lack of high marketing costs. Video sells, that’s a sure thing these days and easily backed by research data, and by including it you’re only cementing your ability to reach far more people, and to convert those visitors into buyers.

To give this a nice round ending here, we’ll give a “for instance” example. Say you have a business where you are selling a digital product and that product is supposed to help a person build a house that is self-sustaining. You’re selling an e-book that they can download which will walk them through every step, but you are frustrated because you’re just not selling enough of them. Use our tips above, and create a whole host of videos that highlight you, your business, your employees (if any) and what it means to do what you do. Maybe you’ve created the book because you have a passion for living off the grid, or maybe because that passion extends to others living the same way.  Maybe you can’t stand seeing people controlled by “the man” and are desperate to let them hear the answer to all their troubles. Tell your audience these things. Reach out to them, and make yourself heard. By including videos, even short ones, you help them see why it is important to them, and to you. You can even give them a short video walk-through to show them how it’s done if they’re having troubles.

Just know, whatever your business, video only fails when you don’t try.