The Benefits of Video Marketing for Small Businesses

You might be resisting using video to market your business, but video marketing for small businesses has become a very effective strategy for those who have embraced it. Times have changed my friends, and it's time to add video to your content marketing repertoire. 

Did you know that YouTube is the second most popular site on the web? You read that right! YouTube is second only to Google in the most visited sites on the web.

Video can be a great tool to enhance and improve your Social Media Marketing, Website Design, Email Marketing, and any of your other marketing channels.

What is Video Marketing?

It's pretty simple, video marketing is using and incorporating videos into your small business marketing campaigns and strategy.

It can be used to engage with customers, promote brand awareness, introduce products and services, and the list goes on and on.

Wyzowl's State of Video Marketing in 2018 survey reveals interesting data about how videos can impact your marketing efforts. Here are some of the most compelling stats from the survey.

• 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool.

• The average person watches more than an hour and a half of online video content per day. (In other words, people love watching and engaging with video online.)

• 76% of marketers say video has helped them increase sales and traffic.

Need more convincing? Here are a few more video marketing stats from Hyperfine Media.

Even if you have resisted using video marketing up to this point, you've got to admit at least a few of these stats are pretty compelling.

Incorporating video into your marketing can make what you already do even better!

Types of Video Marketing

Video marketing can be used in a number of different ways to educate, inform, and create new customers.

Here are some of the more common types of videos businesses are using to help market their business.

• Brand Films
  Brand videos are commonly used to create and increase brand awareness. These videos will usually provide information about what a brand is all about and why people should care.

• Educational Videos
  Educational videos typically provide information about a specific topic so the viewer can learn and become more knowledgeable on the subject. For example, as a digital marketing agency, we might create an educational video about content marketing.

• Product Videos
  Product videos usually introduce a potential buyer to a specific product. What's the product look like? What are the benefits of the product? How does the product work?

• Company Culture Videos
  These are similar to brand films, but they focus on company culture. Many companies will use these to help attract potential employees by providing them more information about the company and what it's like to work there.

• Testimonials
  Written customer testimonials are good, but video testimonials are even better! There's nothing like watching someone on video discussing the benefits of your product or what it's like to work with your company.

• FAQ Videos
  A lot of companies will use FAQ videos to address commonly asked questions people have. It's a great way to answer objections ahead of time in a very engaging way.

• Instruction Videos
  How do I actually use or put together the product I just bought? Sure I've got written instructions, but some companies are taking things a step further and shooting video to help too.

7 Benefits of Video Marketing for Small Businesses

1. Increase Brand Awareness

Facebook generates 8 billion video views on average per day which means people are really responding to video content. 

Videos are more engaging and attract people compared to other forms of content. They're great at connecting with people and helping them get to know your brand. With the right video content and marketing strategy, your brand can spread like wildfire.

Looking for some other branding ideas? Here's a must-read article about business branding ideas to help you stand out.

2. Increase Online Presence

Without an online presence, it's pretty difficult for most businesses to survive let alone thrive.

Video marketing can increase your online presence by making your content more engaging and easier to consume. 

Videos encourage viewers to click a subscription link or visit a website. When people like what they see, they spread the word by clicking the share button.

Effective video marketing content will help your small business become a prominent online entity.

3. Reveals Personality

As humans, we hate interacting with robots. Often times a brand remains anonymous to our eyes because we see very little human representation.

Video eliminates this barrier. It puts a face or faces to the name which most customers prefer. Video allows people to hear and see you, which connects with people at another level compared to other types of content.

4. Boost Social Media Engagement

Everyone posts images or writes articles on social media, but how do you stand out from everyone else? By creating engaging videos.

Engagement is very important in the digital marketing world. If your content doesn't drive engagement, traffic and conversion will suffer. Videos promote social media engagement.

If you produce relevant and educational video content that speaks to your ideal clients, I guarantee you'll see an increase in your social media engagement.

5. It Builds Trust

We have already established that customers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video. What really triggers this?

Trust. Videos connect you and your audience in a more personal way compared to other forms of content.

Video allows people to get to know you and like you, so they can eventually trust you...

And we all know people do business with those they know, like, and trust.

6. Drives Sales

Videos promote brand awareness, improve online presence, humanize a brand, boost engagement, build trust, and can be inexpensive and easy to produce, but the ultimate benefit of video marketing for small businesses is creating sales. 

Video marketing WILL help increase sales for your business...give it a try and see what happens.

​​There you have it. Those are 7 benefits of video marketing. With the right strategy, video marketing for small businesses can have a positive, lasting impact on your business.