How To Do Video Marketing For Your Small Business

If you have a small business and you’re looking to attract new customers with video marketing, then this article is for you.

At Synchro, we believe video should be used at every stage of the marketing funnel. Why? Because video enables much higher conversion rates and does so much of the heavy lifting for you if done correctly.

According to surveys 70% of marketers, video produces more conversions than any other type of content. This pays off nicely for e-commerce sellers who have found using product videos can increase sales on an online store by 144%. (smallbiztrends.com)

By the end of this article, you’ll have a much better understanding of how to get new clients using video marketing, and how video can fit into your overall marketing strategy. Whoohoo!

Ready? Let’s go!

The Marketing Funnel

One of the first things to understand, that most businesses don’t know yet, is the concept of the marketing funnel.

A marketing funnel contains the different stages a person goes through to become your customer: from first hearing about what you do, all the way to becoming a paying client.

Understanding the journey a person goes through to becoming your customer is the key to creating the right type of video marketing content to place in front of potential customers to get them through your sales funnel. 

In our experience here at Synchro, we find that most businesses we interact with still haven’t figured or mapped their customer’s journey. But when they do, great things happen. Having Strategies become actionable instead of always guesswork. And the results from doing so over time are astounding when you get this all dialed in.

Why Video Just Works

Today, people are constantly online and aren’t willing to spend the time to read as much as they used to. But video on the other hand is much easier to consume and understand compared to other formats. It has the ability to get your business’s message in front of the right consumer better and more quickly than anything else out there today.

We are in the midst of information overload. While experts will tell you that attention spans are on the decline, the truth is that people are simply getting better at filtering out what they don’t want to waste their time on. We’re still able to watch a 3-hour blockbuster movie in record numbers. So, we’re getting choosy.

In side-by-side tests, the benefits of video are astounding. Video engages and converts users many times more than all other formats, like text and still images, combined. Let that sink in!

While only 20% of viewers will read the text on a page, 80% will watch a video The truth is that today’s modern man is relatively lazy, especially when it comes to consuming information. So while reading a large wall of text will usually turn the average consumer away from learning more about a company’s products or services, showing them a short, punchy video about is almost guaranteed to grab their attention. (theboostapps.com)

The marketing stats show that videos work: Social video draws 1,200% more shares than images and text content combined, and Facebook video posts have 135% greater organic reach than photo posts. (uschamber.com)

 Conversions According to surveys 70% of marketers, video produces more conversions than any other type of content. This pays off nicely for e-commerce sellers who have found using product videos can increase sales on an online store by 144%. (smallbiztrends.com)

Video Marketing In A Nutshell

The goal of video marketing is to create the right video, and put it in front of the right people at the right time. Moving a viewer from the beginning stage of the funnel to the end so they hopefully become a new customer for your business.

Effective video marketing is about being strategic with how you use video content to deliver valuable information that gets viewers to know, like, and trust your brand enough to want to do business with you. 

While it’s technically possible to create just one video for a potential customer that explains everything they need to make a buying decision, it rarely works. A single video that does this would just be too long for the average viewer to find what they need in a short enough amount of time.

So, the best thing to do is to create shorter, more purposeful videos that get shown to the right person at the right time without bogging them down with too much info. 

Here’s an overview of the different stages of the marketing funnel and the kinds of video to place at each stage:

Awareness: Introduce people to your brand with videos that have relevant titles and content so they show up when people search for answers on the web or get targeted with ads to users on social media. Videos here can be shorter and introduce your brand or product while also giving a little insight into how you can make someone’s life better or solve their problem.

These videos can show up when someone searches YouTube or Google for an answer to their question. Or, they can show up when someone is scrolling through their Facebook feed with Facebook Ads.

Consideration: The right video here helps a person decide if they want to do business with you or not. This video can demonstrate and educate potential customers about how you can solve their issues. Show off the different features of your product or service and demonstrate how it can help someone achieve their goals. You don’t want to be pushy or salesy, but you do want to be helpful and get them excited about the benefits of working with you. A good explainer video of your product or service is great here. Typically, these types of videos will live on the top of your landing page or website.

Decision: Here, the right video content is for people who have gone through the previous stages. They’ve done their research, understand what you do, and are now ready to do business with you. But they still need a nudge or a little bit more convincing.

Video testimonials from other happy clients are perfect for this stage. They’re not from your company, so they’re more trustworthy and provide the social proof that someone needs to help them make up their mind.

The best video testimonials are unpolished and raw. They can be a simple 1-2 minute selfie video from a happy customer about how your product or service helped them or changed their business for the better.

Other videos to consider at this stage:

• Case studies
• Tutorials
• Product demo video
• Product review video
• FAQ videos

Retention: Once you have a new paying customer, you don’t want to leave them hanging. There should be video content in place and ready to go to share with these customers by email that keeps them engaged over time. Also, because these people are already happy users of your product or service, they’ll be much easier to call on again if you run a sale or offer a discount for referrals, for example.

Ideally, you should keep a good record of your customers, including their email addresses, in a CRM. Every so often, for example, send them an email with links to a video of how to get more out of their product, a different way to use it, tutorials showing different features, updates on the product or the company, etc.

Again, we’re emphasizing video, especially in this case, because it increases the chances that it will be more engaging and shared compared to just a text-based email, thus helping your marketing efforts even more.

Done Is Better Than Perfect

While having great video production for your videos is always a benefit, it’s much better to get your video completed instead of having nothing at all. One thing you should seriously consider doing is filming a lower budget version of your videos to get them up and out there. Then, iterate and improve them over time. You’ll find areas of improvement and better ways to fine-tune the messaging during that in-between period that you can implement when it comes time to raise the production value.

To give yourself the best chances of creating high-converting video marketing campaigns for your business, you should spend a large amount of time on your video strategy and determine what your marketing goals are. What’s the ultimate goal you want for a person that enters your sales funnel? Do you want them to sign up for a consultation, buy something, fill out a form, call and make an appointment? Once you determine the end goal, it’s a lot easier to build out your video marketing strategy backward from there to create a seamless journey that makes sense. Work out what your video marketing goals are, the types of videos and content that should be at each stage of your marketing funnel.

Understanding fully the types of content your potential client’s needs at each stage of their journey will enable you to create a predictable sales system that generates leads around the clock.

Tools Of The Trade

There are plenty of tools and software out there to help you produce and distribute all the video content you need to fill out your video marketing funnel.

At the top of the funnel, Awareness, use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. This is a prime place where people will discover your brand.

In the middle of funnel, Consideration, good marketers will place these types of videos on landing pages after people have clicked through your top of funnel video that was sitting on social media.

The bottom of funnel video content can also live on a landing page or website in the form of additional content like user success stories, reviews or your brand, testimonials, etc. The videos at this stage should also be emailed to people who have given you their emails with email marketing software like MailChimp or ActiveCampaign.

There are no hard and fast rules you must adhere to, these are merely best practices to give yourself the best chances at success. 

Overall, are you seeing how this is beginning to come together?

For product or service demonstrations, Zoom is a great option and it’s free! You can even record yourself with just your webcam or record an interview with a happy client as part of a case study. The possibilities are endless once the creative wheels get turning.

To get your videos embedded on your website, YouTube is great and free. But, it does have that “YouTube” look and feel, which may be offputting to some users. Other great options to consider are Vimeo and Wistia for embedding online video. And Wistia and Vimeo also have great metrics to see video performance as well.

Just to note: YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine, next to Google. So, having your video content uploaded there anyway, even if you don’t use it to embed it on your landing page or website, is a great idea for traffic, SEO, and online presence.

Next Steps

Most businesses are currently operating with video marketing as an afterthought. This is a huge mistake, especially in this day and age. Consumers are now expecting to see video content when they’re shopping and considering what to purchase. It raises the trust value to see and hear a company’s message compared to just reading about them.

All this information can be a lot. But if you take it step by step and spend the time to design a great video sales funnel for your business video marketing efforts 

So far, what we’ve discussed is a video marketing strategy that allows you to get noticed typically by people searching the web for answers to their questions and problems.

But, what about the viewers who don’t happen to be searching for answers and are just cruising Facebook or YouTube? Well, there’s a way to reach them as well, through paid advertising.

In general, media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, and Google, just to name a few, need an increasing amount of users to survive when they start out. To get new users, they make it very easy to connect with other people organically. When you post, people that you’re not connected to will see the content. LinkedIn is currently in this stage at the moment and growing like crazy.

But, there comes a time when these platforms transition to a “pay-to-play” business model where you have to spend some money and advertise on their platform to achieve any significant reach and growth that’s worthwhile. And every social media platform has a way to advertise.

This is actually a good thing. When more people join the platform you have more chances to reach the right people. Additionally, with all the data these platforms gather, you’re able to place content in front of a target audience and engage your ideal potential customers with things like demographics, behaviors, location, etc. to generate leads. You can even target your local community in a tight geographic radius if you’d like. This is something you can’t do very well without using advertising platforms. And each platform has the ability to run video ads and place them in front of a target audience. 

While what we’ve covered above so far is a huge step towards a paid marketing strategy just about anywhere. But at this stage, it’s a whole new level of complexity. Creating and managing a successful video marketing campaign takes skills, time, and experience. There are a lot of moving parts and we highly suggest working with a knowledgeable team that knows what they’re doing to get you the best ROI.

Lastly...

If you’d like to see what a paid marketing strategy looks like for your business, we here at Synchro are offering a complimentary 30-minute strategy session. Together, we’ll map out an effective video marketing campaign to help achieve your business goals.

Click below to schedule a call with us.