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Small Business Marketing Through Video

If you’re like many small business owners, your online brochure you call a website might not be hitting the customer grand slams you want or expect. If people cannot learn something new from your content and you haven’t updated it since 2007, put up an under construction sign and read on. You must have superior content to rule the search engine universe and hold the eyeballs of visitors with attractive, valuable and changing content. Web video marketing is a great way for you to provide that content that web viewers in 2011 are growing to expect. It also puts your SEO on steroids to take on the major search engines. Warning: do your web videos the right way, the better way, to have people watch, relate, and buy.

The key to quality web video is the content more than the technology. Here are some of the best video marketing methods to promote your business online:

PRODUCT, SERVICE OR CAPABILITIES DEMO

Whatever it is that makes your company unique and worth talking about, you can video it and with some simple editing to introduce it, post it on your site, and distribute to your YouTube Video channel (if you don’t have one, get one, it’s free). Many firms will have physical products they can show in action. Think auto manufacturers websites showing videos of the new line. As a small business, yours doesn’t have to be that sophisticated, just show what your widget does and how it provides value to those who would buy it.

Most small businesses out there are service businesses. If you have a dog grooming business, show the pooches getting cleaned up with their happy canine smiles. Cleaning business? Pan in on the crummy before shot of the ___, show the cleanup process, and finish it off with the much improved after view.

Often the unique advantage of a business is a process that means they’re faster or better than the competition. This works really well when showcasing that new MRI machine that doc just bought, or the fully programmable laser cutter at the sheet metal house that shows how it can make parts faster, cleaner, and at better quality than metal shops without one.

HOW-TO VIDEO

This falls into the category of value-add or training for your web viewers. It can be an instructional video on using the topsy-turvy planters you sell at your greenhouse or simply how to do something better around the house. The main purpose of how-to is some way to make life easier or better for your readers, and for you it creates site stickiness, where prospects and customers will want to come back often.

NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH

This can take the form of a product demo with a little extra. New product launches tend to be time sensitive, hyped and require sufficient explanation as to what the product does that sets it apart from prior versions or other current market offerings. Ideas are to show interviews with customers requesting, I wish we could get statements that provided you with the original market pull to create the product or service, your CEO or top Exec enthusiastically explaining the launch (see next section), stats or data cleverly shown that show it’s the next big thing, and of course sufficient product demo components. These same elements might comprise a new product launch press release, simply meaning that this video can double as a video PR. There can be a lot of editing and cost involved if you bring in all of these ideas, but how much are you spending to develop your new product or service?

EXECUTIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW

Here’s one that is not often seen that provides you with a presentation of 3rd party credibility for your small business. The Executive Video Interview is an affordable way to promote small business, both on your site and virally. The return on investment can be disproportionate to the cost.

All you need as a small business owner is a Skype account and a webcam. That’s it! Your webcam quality is more than enough to make quality video. The real magic is in the interview process. Picture Larry King or Matt Lauer interviewing you as CEO of your business about your business as if it’s the national news, asking your probing questions that get at the value your business brings to the marketplace in an informative way. If you’re going to pursue it, look for a provider that has experienced interviewers and a sample portfolio before you pull the trigger.

Look, anybody with a webcam can record herself speaking into the lens in a monologue in an introductory video. Have you ever watched one? For those not trained in speaking before a camera, they can be dry, boring, and all too often comical as the speaker reads from cue cards. Is this how you want your business to come across?

The Executive Video Interview provides more value because you are being asked questions that drive great answers in a relaxed, authentic way that highlight the competitive advantage of your business while providing some take away value for your viewers. There are no cue cards, you can pause when answering and even trip over your words and it is all expected because people are viewing a dialogue. A nice marketing touch is to use your Executive Video Interviews to accompany blog posts and provide a a unique perspective for viewers on your small business area of expertise.

Many ways exist to effectively web video market your business. I’ve listed a few here, some you may have known and some maybe not. Whatever you do, consider adding video to your site in some fashion to keep readers interested, provide more takeaway value, and keep the site dynamic.