With increasing accessibility in production tools, small businesses have every reason to boost their marketing with video. According to research, video is one of the most powerful ways to gauge people’s interest in your brand. Over 70% of customers would prefer to learn about a product or service through video, and 76% of businesses claim that video helped them increase sales.
Whatever type of business you have, start taking advantage of video’s benefits with this guide. We’ll break down how to craft marketing videos that spark customers’ interest, show them your strengths as a small business, and build their trust in your brand.
8 Video Marketing Ideas for small and medium businesses to Implement
As a small business, you may think you’re at a disadvantage with video marketing. Even if there are affordable, usable tools out there, your production quality will never match the videos of large corporations.
Here’s the catch—great video marketing is more than production quality. It’s about showing the emotional side of your business through the combination of visuals, movement, and sound that only video can achieve. Showing off the humanity of your brand through video is what gets buyers to trust your brand and eventually make a purchase.
So as a small business, you have an advantage in video marketing. Your practices, buyer relationships, and product offerings are more intimate and personal than a large corporation. Show this off to your viewers, from leads to loyal customers, with these eight video marketing ideas for small and medium businesses and you’ll be on your way to building stronger buyer relationships and greater sales.
1. Introduce yourself
Leads aren’t going to automatically love your brand—they need a reason to become interested in your company.
Quickly gain their attention with an introductory video to your business. Explain how your company solves their unique pain points, and they’ll know exactly why they should care about your brand and continue engaging.
There’s a pretty simple formula to these intro business videos—explain the problem that inspired the company’s creation and then show how the company aims to solve this problem. But as a small business, be sure to also charm viewers by highlighting the personal, small-scale ways you deliver your mission.
Nana Joes Granola, for example, showcases their handmaking process and local Bay Area focus. Both ideas highlight how Nana Joes prioritizes product quality and their customers rather than just profits.
These intro videos should be easy for customers to discover.
Your homepage, for example, is a great home for your intro video. This placement instantly gives new visitors a reason to engage further just as they enter your site.
YouTube is another ideal platform for your intro video. Users who search for, or happen to come across, your channel can quickly appreciate your brand after watching your intro video. Make it easy for them to find it by placing it as your main YouTube page video, and be sure to spend time crafting the title, description, and meta tags.
Make your intro video easy for newcomers to find, and you’ll generate plenty of interest from prospective buyers. People will understand how you personally solve their pain points as a small business, so they’ll be ready to engage further.
2. Customer testimonials
After new leads are introduced to your company and understand how you help to solve their problems, they’re going to be eager to dig into your brand more to see if it’s worth pursuing.
Build their confidence in your brand with testimonial videos. Seeing people rave about how much they love your business is more convincing than any ad you could release. You’re not just saying why buyers should embrace your brand—you’re showing them how much others love it to prove that it is worthwhile.
A basic testimonial video involves interviewing customers about the positive experiences they’ve had with your product. It could be straightforward by filming them directly, or it could feel a bit more organic and immersive by filming customers in their workplace environment.
Prompt customers with questions that highlight the positive customer experience of working with a small business. For example, customers might describe how you gave them plenty of attention and personalized service.
Once your testimonial video is complete, promote it through your social media account as organic content. In the text of the post, focus on the story and accomplishments of the customer to make it feel less promotional to followers.
You can also publish these testimonials on a landing page of your site. Many businesses name this section “What customers have to say.” Have a call-to-action on your homepage that links to this page so new visitors can watch the testimonials after the intro video and build more confidence in your brand.
Your buyer relationships are most likely more personal and meaningful as a small business. Showcase this through your testimonial videos, and you’ll build even more trust in your brand.
3. Demonstrate your expertise
People, both leads and returning buyers, are looking for expertise in your business. They want to buy products and services from skilled, high-quality brands, so they’re looking for signs of credibility before making a purchase.
Build their trust with videos that highlight your industry-specific expertise. Small businesses often specialize in specific areas at a more intimate level than bigger companies. Showcase your passion and knowledge for your niche by breaking down the complicated concepts of your specialty with visuals.
As a form of expert content, you could create a video based on a company blog post. On our own Vyond posts, we often pair videos with our writing to explain ideas visually. Watch this example blog video from PDT Global, a diversity and inclusion consulting firm. They developed this piece of expert content to help people understand the concept of Imposter Syndrome.
You could also create a tips-and-tricks video based on different industry-specific concerns. Orchard Supply Hardware, for example, creates a short video about each type of product they sell in their stores. The video series is intended for employee training, but they also double as helpful marketing content. This video illustrates three tips to keep in mind when buying a leaf blower.
These educational videos are helpful to both prospective buyers and returning customers, so you can distribute them via a wide variety of platforms.
To start, it’s best to post them on your own site, such as your blog, to give them a central hub. From there, you can create email campaigns or organic social posts that display the video and link back to the page. These channels are optimal for non-promotional content, so they’re great for sharing these valuable educational videos.
By distributing these learning videos, your business seems more credible to buyers and encourages their trust in your company.
4. Create bio videos for employees
As a small business, your team is most likely small, intimate, and focused on supporting customers. Highlight these personal, friendly qualities through bio videos that showcase your employees.
A video bio is simply a video that introduces someone. It should include a mix of professional details, such as their job title and expertise, as well as personal facts, such as where they’re from and what their hobbies are. Watching these videos make your business feel a bit more human and familiar to prospective buyers who are just learning about your business.
Video bios are particularly great if you have a sales department and want to introduce account managers. Customers often don’t have the chance to meet them in person, so video bios can be a great way to build that relationship and lead buyers to eventually completing sales.
For example, a sales rep could send their video bio in a follow-up email after a lead expresses interest. Alternatively, they could include their video bio in their email signature to leave a positive first impression on every lead they contact. Here’s how an account manager at TechSmith incorporated his bio into his email signature.
Alternatively, these video bios could work as promotional social media content if you’re encouraging people to contact your sales reps, as Brightcove does in the example below.
Taking the time to personally introduce your employees through video leaves a positive impression on prospective buyers. It shows them that you care about fostering a relationship and serving them well as customers.
5. Product tutorials or demonstrations
After making their first purchase, buyers need to be nurtured to retain their business.
Product tutorials are a great way to provide these customers ongoing value. They can highlight innovative uses of the product that customers might have missed but will appreciate.
Moreover, they’re an opportunity to showcase your dedication to customer service as a small business. Great customer support is a way for small businesses to distinguish themselves from large companies. Tutorial videos are the perfect way to demonstrate this helpfulness.
To provide value, your tutorial video should be thorough and detailed. Focus on a specific feature of your product or service—explain what it’s for, how it’s used, common issues, and other tips—and think about what aspects of video are optimal for explaining your product. For example, the e-commerce company Sellbrite offers software, so using screenshots in their tutorial with a voice-over is ideal for teaching users about their product.
At the end of your tutorial, be sure to clearly state how viewers can contact your support center if they have further questions. This message shows buyers that you’re willing to put in effort to solve their problems.
A great platform for your tutorial videos is YouTube, as it’s home to plenty of educational content. You can even create a playlist for your tutorials so followers can easily find the help video they need.
Along with YouTube, your tutorials should be posted on a landing page of your site, such as a help or resource center. Giving these videos a centralized hub makes it easy for customers to quickly find a solution to a product issue they’re experiencing.
Distributing these tutorials to customers is a powerful way to eliminate product friction. With this dynamic visual explanation, buyers will be more equipped to use your product and gain more value from it.
6. New product announcements
Even if your product offering is simple, you need to vary it occasionally to continuously provide value to customers. Otherwise, buyers will look to your competitors once they get tired of your products.
Keep people excited about your brand by promoting new products or features through video. Using a combination of stunning visuals, energizing audio, and more will pique viewers’ interest in your brand’s latest developments.
The content of your announcement video depends on whether it’s pre-launch or post-launch. If it’s pre-launch, include minimal details about the new product or feature to spark viewers’ curiosity. If it’s post-launch, use video to highlight the best aspects of the new product or feature to show viewers why they should purchase it.
As an example, here’s a video where Wistia explains the details of their Soapbox feature as an introduction to the tool.
You should also highlight how you hope to serve customers’ interests with new developments. You most likely have close connections with your buyers and a strong understanding of their specific needs and wants. Drive home how your new developments are responsive to these needs to show your dedication to personal attention.
Since these announcements are timely, they’re ideal for posting on news-heavy social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. Instagram is less oriented around news, but posting announcements there could still work since it’s so visually oriented.
Email is another strong way to distribute these announcement videos since it lets you easily reach past customers through contact lists. Returning buyers are more likely than leads to be excited about new features or products, so it makes sense to target them with announcement video emails.
By sharing these announcement videos, you’ll be able to keep customers excited about your brand and encourage them to stay onboard.
7. Answer FAQs
Answering FAQs is a common, yet powerful, way for businesses to serve customers. By addressing common concerns upfront, you’re making it possible for buyers to gain more value from your products.
But text answers aren’t always optimal for resolving FAQs. Either words aren’t enough to answer complicated questions, or people don’t feel like reading through long answers. FAQ videos are the perfect supplement to text answers—they keep people engaged while still addressing their problems.
As a small business, you capture buyers’ attention by featuring your support team in the video. Being a small team, these support members will most likely be the ones resolving customers’ issues. Having them explain problems in the FAQ video is a compelling, personal way to answer issues.
To make your video easy to follow, include text captions to note each question and clearly identify other learning points. You can also give demonstrations when appropriate and break down ideas visually to make them more understandable.
The most accessible place to share these videos is on a landing page for FAQs. The label company Sticker Mule, for example, creates a page for each FAQ that often features a video.
You could also share a video for a particularly common FAQ through email. Many customers will appreciate you answering other buyers’ questions that they may also have.
8. Support a cause
Customers mainly care about how your product or service benefits them—but they also care about your company’s impact on others. Seventy percent of Americans believe companies have an obligation to improve issues, and 87% would buy a product from a company that supported an issue they care about.
If your company is supporting a cause, there’s no better way to highlight your charity than video. Hearing the voices of employees describe their passion for the cause and seeing visuals of the actual work creates a feeling of authenticity around your brand. With that personal connection, buyers are more attracted to your work and more likely to support your business.
This tip isn’t limited to global causes. As a small business, there’s a good chance you’ve done charity work in your community to make it a better place. Your local customers will value your business even more if they know you support communal causes.
Danform Shoes of Vermont, for example, donated nearly $15,000 worth of footwear to a local charity, Dress for Success Burlington.
The way you distribute your support-driven videos all depends on whether the effort is long term or short term. If your business continually supports a cause, you should create a landing page on your site to showcase a video explaining your partnership. This permanent place ensures that customers always have a way to learn about your charity.
For a short-term effort, use social media to quickly spread the news of your work to followers. A Facebook post is ideal for posting the video with a short description of how you’re supporting the cause. You could also post the video on Instagram, but you’ll have to shorten it to a minute for the platform. On either platform, be sure to post the video as organic content so that you are framing your charity in a natural, non-promotional way.
Using your business to support causes is a wonderful action that buyers appreciate. Celebrate your work as a small business with a video that builds customers’ appreciation of your brand.
Build Excitement Around Your Business with Video
The size of your company doesn’t exclude you from the video marketing game. There’s a wide range of tools out there today that have made production cheaper and easier than ever before. Video is an emotional medium, so it’s ideal for showing the human, personal aspects often found in small businesses. Showcase the intimate details of your company through video, and you’ll connect with buyers in a way that large corporations can’t.
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