How To Use Video for Your Small Business Marketing Strategy
When was the last time you watched a video on social media? Probably within the last hour and definitely within the last 24 hours, guaranteed. Video has become the new “megatrend” according to Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg back in 2017 and he should know. However, what does that mean for a small business owner, blogger or e-commerce store owner? Not everyone has a massive ad budget to make an incredible viral video. However, making videos for small businesses can be inexpensive, simple and fun. These days, there are so many free or low-cost apps to help you make a short video. All you need are the ideas.
How To Create Short Videos
First off, let’s make a quick list of the top apps out there to make short videos. Most of these have free versions or cost as little as $5/month to allow access to all functions and templates.
All of these apps are designed for amateurs; no video editing experience necessary!
Animoto: This is a easy-to-use tool to make videos by uploading your own pictures. There is a free trial period before a low monthly fee is required.
Ripl: This is one of the most simple to use and with 2 or 3 pictures you can make an eye-catching video. They have a free version.
FilmoraGo: An Android app to use to make your own videos from your smartphone
Magisto: A great app for as little as $5/month
In-Shot App: Another Android app to turn your short videos into masterpieces
(Sidenote: If you are creating a video that you will later use as an ad, it is best to add some text to the video in the second frame so when a thumbnail is created, there won’t be any text in that image as this can lead to reduced reach on Facebook. But don’t worry about this at first, just get started and you will soon become a pro.)
Getting Creative: Content Ideas
The content for your videos will depend on what kind of business you have. Here are some ideas to get started.
E-Commerce Owners
Product videos are very simple to create: choose a template provided by one of the above apps, upload product images, add some text, choose one of the free soundtracks and you are ready to upload your great-looking video to your Facebook or Instagram account. Yes, it can be that easy.
Personal Coaches
Are you a health, fitness or life coach? Add inspirational quotes or a tip together with a slideshow using a couple of relevant images and suddenly your weekly quote stands out from the others being shared on social media. Alternatively, record yourself giving a tip of the week, doing an exercise or reading an inspirational quote.
Bloggers or Influencers
If you are a blogger, write a question or line from your latest blog post in the video with a simple background, add some music and at the end of the few-second video, tell them to click to read more. Or better yet, make a quick video with you talking about your latest blog post. Remember the video only has to be 15 seconds or less and it does not have to be perfect.
Photographers or Event Planners
These are ideal professions to promote with video. Instead of uploading tens of photos of your latest event to your Facebook business page, pick 3 or 4 of the best, create a quick slideshow with one or two-word captions like “Love”, “Celebrating Life”, “Creating Memories”, etc that capture the essence of the event. Make sure to include your logo and business name on the last slide of the video.
Additional Tools: Lighting and Images
If you are open to recording yourself speaking, great! For better lighting, while making the video, purchase a selfie light online that attaches to your phone. It is a quick and easy way to make your video look more professional.
If you are creating videos with slideshows, what do you use for images if you don’t have enough of them to pull from your website? You can use free image websites like pixabay, unsplash and the like. Just make sure not to use any images or music without permission in your videos because this is unfair to the creator, not to mention illegal and it could get your social media account banned.
Promoting Your Video
If you want to promote your video on social media, you can do it relatively cheaply on Facebook, optimizing for video views. Once you have racked up a number of views, you can then begin to retarget people who watched more than 5 seconds, 10 seconds or watched your video to the end. Retarget them with your blog posts or a lead magnet to collect emails.
And if you can’t bring yourself to make your own videos, then you can still share relevant ones on your Facebook or Instagram page because videos tend to get more shares and likes over static posts, which increases engagement on your own page.
If you want to keep up with your competition, video marketing is the future. The thought of creating videos can be daunting, but we encourage you to give it try. You will be surprised by how quickly you will become a pro.
Submitted by Sharon