8 Tips for Creating Video Content for Your Small Business

By Ray O’Donnell

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If you’re not creating video content for your small business, then you’re not leveraging the most effective strategy to market your products effectively, drive more traffic to your website, educate your audience, and increase engagement.

In fact, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to drive more sales for your small business.

Here’s the proof:

According to a recent report, 89% of people agree that watching a video has encouraged them to buy a product or service.

Image via Wyzowl

What’s more?

You’re also giving your competition the edge over you if you aren’t using videos.

According to the video survey mentioned above, 87% of marketers reveal that video has helped them boost sales:

Image via Wyzowl

However, there is a challenge.

Even though most small business owners report great results by using video content, creating compelling and authentic video content is never an easy task.

In fact, 66% of marketers avoid creating video content because they think it’s complicated or it takes too long.

But is that really the case? 

No.

In this article, you’re going to learn effective ways of creating video content for your small business.

Let’s get started.

1. Plan and Research

One of the most effective ways of creating video content for your small business is to understand your target audience. 

This is especially important to accomplish before you write your video script or start shooting your videos, by utilizing an AI writing tool.

Planning and conducting thorough research help you understand your audience’s pain points, interests, preferences, behavior, and attitudes.

Understanding your target viewers also helps ensure you create relevant and targeted videos that can help you achieve your video marketing goals effectively.

Furthermore, gaining a deeper understanding of your audience enables you to set the right goals, messaging, and tone. This helps you identify the best distribution channels for your video content.

To find who’s watching your videos, you can check your Google Analytics or YouTube analytics. And if you haven’t started posting, leverage social media listening tools or carry out surveys.

Using a keyword research tool like Semrush is also a great idea to ensure thorough audience research. Attrock write a detail review post that help you learn how to use the tool efficiently.

2. Set Video Content Goals and Metrics

Deciding your video content goals and how you’ll measure them is another important aspect to keep in mind when creating video content for your small business.

Note that setting goals for your video content can be challenging, especially if you plan to create different types of videos, such as animated videos, or run multiple video marketing campaigns.

Here, you need to leverage the SMART strategy. In other words, your goals need to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

So, what should your goals be?

According to Wistia’s report, 52.1% of small businesses say product education is their primary goal with video, followed by brand awareness(50.9%), and customer engagement(49.1%).

Image via Wistia

You also need to identify key metrics for measuring your video content performance.

According to HubSpot’s survey of over 500 global video marketers, the following are the key metrics to measure your video content’s success:

Image via HubSpot

3. Select Your Video Types

Choosing the types of video content you will create for your small business is a vital step because not all videos are created the same. Plus, different videos work well for each platform. For instance, you could consider creating animated educational video clips that embrace out-of-the-box thinking to generate engagement while educating viewers. By strategically selecting video content that aligns with your lead generation goals, you can effectively engage your target audience and capture their interest.

So, what types of videos should you create?

According to the Wistia survey mentioned above, marketers are planning to create the following types of video content in 2023.

Image via Wistia

4. Leverage a Video Tool

When it comes to creating video content for your small business, many marketers worry about the expense of hiring a videographer and professional editor.

In most cases, the editing stage is the most important, and can make or break your video content.

It’s the stage where you put together all your content meaningfully to create a catchy video that will attract your audience. Incorporating tools that offer personalized video experiences can tremendously enhance engagement and resonate more effectively with your audience, ensuring your marketing efforts meet targeted goals

Nevertheless, video editing can be a complex process, especially if you don’t have the required skills. 

With such tools, you can create eye-catching video content without any technical expertise.

For example, if you want to craft beautiful video testimonials for your small business, you can check out any video testimonial software comparison and find a tool that will help you to both collect and edit customer videos.

If you're too busy to learn a new tool, you could always choose to use a video editing service to ensure your editing work gets done quickly and efficiently.

5. Optimize Your Video Content to Boost Reach and Engagement

Attracting your target audience, ranking high on search engines, or getting your video content to go viral on social media platforms with so much competition out there can be a tough task.

As a result, you need to optimize your videos such that search engines can understand what they’re all about. Additionally, utilizing tools like reverse video search can help you identify where your video content appears online and understand its reach.

Here are practical tips to achieve this:

  • Make your video content easy to view on all devices
  • Optimize your video metadata with relevant keywords
  • Include video transcripts
  • Create custom, eye-catching thumbnails that attract your target viewers
  • Include a clear call to action to encourage actions

6. Repurpose Written Content

Struggling to find new content ideas?

Don’t worry. There is a simple solution for creating video content for your small business—repurposing.

You can convert your written content like blog posts, articles, and whitepapers into compelling video content for your business. This allows you to engage and convert a blog reader who is already consuming your existing content.

For instance, you can break your long-form blog posts into short-form Reels and TikTok videos for social media. At the same time, you can have a longer version of those videos uploaded to YouTube for even wider reach.

7. Hook the Viewer at the Beginning of the Video

With the ever-diminishing human attention spans, you only have a few seconds to grab the attention of your target viewers.

In addition, given the huge amounts of video content out there, people have more options to choose from. If you don’t engage the viewer in the first few seconds, they will likely bounce away from your video and start watching another.

So, the key is to hook the viewer right away in the first 10 seconds of your video.

Here are some tactics you can employ to hook viewers and keep them watching your video content for longer:

  • Start with a thought-provoking question
  • Make a bold declaration
  • Start with an inspiring quote
  • Introduce the problem you want to solve in your video content
  • Start with interesting facts and statistics 

Take a look at how UGC SHOP leverages the question hook on their TikTok video:

Image via TikTok

In this video, the question hints at the problem the video wants to solve for the viewers.

8. Choose Your Distribution Channels

Creating video content for your small business is one thing, but getting people to know about it is another.

This is where conducting thorough competitor and customer research becomes helpful. You need to know the platforms on which your competitors are posting their video content, as well as where your target viewers are most active. A consumer research platform can be invaluable in gathering these insights.

With advanced solutions like those offered by CrownTV, businesses can leverage digital signage to create impactful and dynamic displays that elevate their branding efforts. These displays can also be used to share valuable lifestyle tips, such as transitioning away from smoking. For example, consider using alternatives like VELO nicotine pouches earlier in the day to support healthier habits while avoiding interference with your sleep routine.

The length of your video content, the type of content, the message, and the video dimensions will also depend on the distribution platforms you choose.

According to the Sprout Social survey mentioned above, here are the top social platforms consumers and brands anticipate using in the next 12 months:

Image via Sprout Social

Consider distributing your video content on these platforms. You can also post your video content on your website’s landing page and other platforms for greater reach and driving conversions. 

Conclusion

Creating video content for your small business can be daunting.

With the strategies shared above, you will be well on your way to creating impactful videos for your marketing campaigns and boost your business growth.

Remember to focus on creating engaging, informative, and high-quality video content that resonates with your audience for the best results.

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