Video content is becoming a crucial tool for businesses. Producing well thought out and strongly presented video content can help generate sales enquiries and help improve their conversion.
>> Increase engagement
If we take the motor trade as example, the largest online automotive market place Autotrader claims that adverts on their site that feature at least 20 photos get 39% more views than ones with only 4 photos. So imagine the uplift in engagement that a well-made video on a motor trader’s website site could produce?
Generating ideas for content that will be of interest to potential customers shouldn’t prove too difficult, after all people love cars. Often the simplest ideas are the best. Staying with the motor trade theme, video production trips for small businesses could be as easy as:
- Posting a 360 degree tour of a car you have for sale (with or without an audio description) showing its immaculate condition
- Tempting petrol heads in with a short burst of a high performance vehicle engine revving?
- A short sales pitch with the key reasons why people in the local area should use your services
The same rules apply to any business – if you run a chauffeur business you could introduce viewers to your friendly professional drivers and tour your prestige vehicle. If you rent accommodation you could give potential renters a tour of the house etc. The options are nearly limitless.
>> Improve trust
From running your business you’ll know that establishing trust and confidence with your prospective customer is key. Presenting a video that builds rapport with your viewers should provide a significant advantage over the competition and help secure a sale. Alternatively testimonials from willing customers can help build trust.
>> Drive traffic to your website
Video is a useful technique to potentially drive organic visitors (ie ones you haven’t had to pay directly) to your website and to keep them there for longer.
You could use video content to gain traffic via social media on platforms such as: YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. You can also pay to market your advert to custom audiences on these sites.
For example you could advertise to people who have declared on Facebook to be enthusiasts of a particular service or product you’re selling. Alternatively you could promote your company to consumers in the local area.
Did you know that YouTube is now the second biggest search engine behind Google. Every month over 3 billion searches are carried out on the platform. That offers potentially a huge amount of exposure for your video. If you decide to host your video on YouTube you can list the specific keywords that you’d like it to appear for when people search.
A common belief among many online marketing companies is that video helps sites appear at the top of search engines. Google favours sites that engage with browsers and video content is brilliant for achieving this. Even if you only appear at the top for key word searches in your company’s local area the benefit could be huge.
>> Costs less than you think
Video production is now far simpler and more affordable than ever. These days a modern smart phone is capable of recording high definition video. As long as there isn’t too much background noise their microphones are normally adequate.
If you are technically competent or have employees that are capable of doing so, you could edit some simple content in-house. Be aware that at least until you’re fully up to speed producing a video yourself can potentially be time consuming. If you’re planning on using the video in a large marketing campaign it might be worth considering outsourcing its production to a professional audio visual rental company.
>> Strong branding
To increase awareness you should look to maximise the exposure of your company’s brand in the video. Inserting your company’s logo as an introductory image with a title that briefly explains what the video is about will help achieve this.
Alternatively, to make things simpler by avoiding the need to edit graphics into the video, you could begin by standing in front of a physical version of your logo – perhaps one displayed on a wall.
You or your presenter can then deliver to the camera a short introduction of yourself, state your company’s name and what is going to happen in the video. At the end if you can finish the video with a shot of your logo and possibly your contact details even better.