It’s an unfortunate truth that attention spans are often shorter than they used to be these days. Because people are bombarded with content and information from all angles every second of the day, thanks to our always-connected world, they often don’t have the time or the patience to read a long article, no matter how much the topic might interest them. To add to this problem, text posts can also have a hard time standing out in the crowd, as there is just so much content available online. The competition can make it very difficult to connect with people, especially as a small business owner, with a smaller budget. 

This is why video is so important for your business. Videos are very easy to consume, but they’re also fun to watch. This is why people like video so much. Videos are quickly becoming one of the most effective ways to engage with your consumer base and drive more traffic to your website. A huge amount of web traffic now comes from video, so if you’re not already making use of it, you really should be finding room for it in your marketing budget. 

As a small business owner, you might think that only much larger companies with much larger budgets to spend than you have can create high-quality, engaging, and entertaining marketing videos, but this isn’t actually true. If you have a little room in your budget, a business optimization professional to help is always a good idea, and there are now plenty of options out there for a video production company that understands how to work with a small business and on a more restrained budget. However, if you’re really stuck for budget, it is possible to make videos that your audience will enjoy and watch. Making a quality video is a time-consuming process, but it can be done with just a smartphone, your computer, and some basic editing software.

Are you ready to grow your traffic, increase engagement, and boost conversation for your business using video? Try some of these creative video marketing tips, tailored especially for small businesses. 

Repurpose Blog Posts Into Videos

A lot of people worry about coming up with ideas for videos, but you don’t have to be too worried about coming up with your fresh, new video marketing ideas. You don’t have to start from scratch with your ideas. Instead, you can look at your most popular existing content, like your blog posts, and repurpose them into videos. This is a fantastic way to reach a new audience with content you already have, and to recycle content that you already know performs well with your audience. By repurposing your written content into video, people who have previously bypassed your old blog posts because they don’t have time to read them can be tempted in with a format that they prefer to engage with; video. 

Take a topic from a blog post that has performed well and use it to create a video. This could be in the form of a slideshow presentation that you record, or you talking directly to the camera, talking through the main points of the blog post. You can then embed the new video into the existing post, to keep people on the page longer too. 

Put A Video On Your Landing Page

Videos can boost your traffic and your engagement, but they can also increase your bottom line, which is very important for a small business. Including a video on your landing page can increase conversions by a dramatic amount. When you include videos on your landing page, visitors who find their way to your website can experience and take in the message that you are trying to get across to them in a different way, with very little effort on their part. If they’re watching a video, it can also increase how much time each visitor will stay on your landing page, which is a ranking factor for SEO. 

Any video that you put on a landing page needs to be high-quality with a great thumbnail. Put the video above the fold, and embed it in a standalone video player, such as Vimeo or YouTube. YouTube works well, as it is the second-largest search engine on the internet, after Google (who own YouTube). Whether your landing page video is about your company and who you are or shares some customer reviews or is a guide to how your products or services work, users will be able to quickly and easily understand what you’re telling them and the value of your company, while also being entertained. This makes them a lot more likely to buy from you. 

Use Live Video To Interact With Your Audience

There is really no better way to build a connection with your audience than to speak to them directly. Luckily, the rise of live streaming has made this easier than ever. You can interact with your audience and talk to them anytime that you want. You can go live on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube, and get a lot of engagement that can help you to grow your business. 

One really good way to make use of live streaming is to schedule a live Q&A session on whichever platform you have the audience on. Schedule the event, and make sure you tell your audience exactly when you will be going live. Invite them to join you for the stream and ask you any questions that they may have in real-time. These could be questions about a new collection you have coming, how your products are made, or some behind-the-scenes tidbits about your company. Live Q&A sessions like this are a really effective way to make your audience feel as they can get to know you, see the person behind the brand, feel as though they are a part of something special, and present yourself as an expert in your industry or niche. 

Shoot Teaser Videos To Spart Interest

A lot of companies go through periods where they as though their audience is getting bored or starting to forget about them. When this starts to happen, you can recapture your audience by creating a feeling of mystery and excitement around your company. You can spark some interest in your audience and encourage them to tune in to see what you’re going to do next. Shoot some short teaser videos about something new, like a new product that you’re doing to be releasing, or about a big event that is coming up. Teaser videos can keep your user base engaged and excited about what you’re going to be announcing or doing. 

Teaser videos don’t need to be long or complicated, or difficult to make. A good easier video can be as short as only a few seconds and still be just as effective as long videos. For example, if you own a restaurant and will be adding a new item to the menu, you can film a short video that shows just a glimpse of the new dish. You could even drive more engagement with this teaser by creating a mini-contest around. Get your audience to guess what the dish is, and give a free one away to whoever gets it right. A contest is a brilliant way to build some excitement, get more engagement, and bring new people to your brand. 

Record Your Screen For Tutorials

If teaching your customers how to do something is an important part of your business, you could provide them with a great new way to learn from you by recording your computer screen for tutorials. This is easy to do, making it a great solution for small businesses to up their video marketing game. For example, if your company usually posts a lot of written tutorials on your website on how to use software that you create, you can really boost the amount of engagement that these tutorials get by including a video version of the tutorials too. With video, your audience will also be able to retain a lot more information than if they have the same information just written down. 

You can record a demonstration of your software product, showcase how to use some of the key or most complicated features, or film your screen to create an online course. This can then be used to entice your visitors into learning some more about your product, which could then encourage them to buy it. There are lots of paid and free options for screen capture software options available online, depending on what you need to record and how much you have to spend. Whichever option you choose, look for one that can record your screen in high-definition so the video is clear, and that allows you to edit, and add text and audio to your recording. 

Now that you have some video marketing ideas, start filming some content for your business that will make people want to hit the play button. Make sure you remember to share your videos on multiple platforms in order to widen your reach and turn new users into loyal customers. 

Collaborative post