7 Reasons to Ramp Up Video Marketing For Your Small Business

Featured article by Kyle Anderson, Independent Technology Author

Studies show that more than 70% of online users prefer watching videos over reading text when learning about a new product or service. It has also been found that over half of the consumers engage with a brand after viewing its video(s) on social media.

Let’s face it, numbers don’t lie, and the truth is, you need video if you’re to achieve your marketing goals and make significant profits with your small business.

In this post, we explain 7 reasons you cannot afford to ignore video marketing when seeking to grow your online business.

Enhance your brand awareness

If you’re like most small business, chances are that you often feel like you’re lost in the crowd and your bigger competitors are overriding you. However, it doesn’t have to always be this way. By finding and filling a gap in your market, you can easily stand out and get your fair share of the audience.

To do this, you need to employ out-of-the-box techniques like video marketing to try and convey what your core values are. While at it, use friendly and entertaining videos that educate your potential customers about your products and more importantly, how your company can help them solve their problems.

Boost your email open and clickthrough rates

Did you know that including the word ‘video’ in your email subject line increases your open rate by up to 19%? The statistics for clickthroughs are even more tantalizing with businesses that actually include a clickable video link recording up to 65% more email clickthroughs.

As we already mentioned earlier, numbers speak for themselves, and in this case, the message is that you need to include videos in your emails more often if you’re looking to grow your brand and ultimately your revenue. Of course, this is on top of implementing other strategies like automation where you can consider syncing Hubspot or any other useful CRM software to your emailing process.

Rank higher in search results

When it comes to search engine optimization for Google, tens of factors come into play. One of them is dwell time which is the amount of time an average visitor spends on your site. The more the dwell time, the higher the chances that Google will reward you with higher rankings on its search results.

A proven technique to increase the average dwell time is through the use of captivating videos in your content. When visitors open and watch them, they are likely to spend longer on there and this, in the eyes of Google, means they are finding value in the information you’re providing.

There’s a caveat: videos tend to be resource-intensive which means they’re likely to negatively affect your page loading speeds if not well taken care of. To avoid this, try to avoid hosting your videos on your site servers but rather use platforms like YouTube and Vimeo and only embed them on your site. Alternatively, you might want to invest in a properly-equipped VPS or dedicated hosting plan by a powerful provider like SiteGround or Hostgator. Hosting Foundry recently wrote a detailed guide comparing the different features of each, be sure to check them out.  

Boost engagement on social media

If you’re not using social media to promote your business, you’re leaving a load of money on the table and giving your competitors an edge over you. Social media is particularly big if you’re using highly engaging videos that users will love to click and watch. For effective results, you might want to avoid using social media videos as a method to sell. Instead, use them to increase brand awareness or to collect emails. Facebook is particularly big on video with the platform generating an average of 8 billion video views per day.

Build customer trust

Trust, like respect, is earned but never demanded. In business, people buy from those they trust and the reason you need to put significant effort to earn trust from as many people as possible.

Videos offer an effective way to connect with your audience at a more personal level than all other forms of content. This is particularly true when people can see the person behind the online business they’re about to buy from talking and interacting with them. Eventually, their trust in your brand and its products grows thereby increasing the chances that they will want to buy from you.

Communicate more effectively

One of the easiest ways to lose a potential customer is to burden them with needless information which they consider irrelevant or difficult to digest. When selling, you want to shoot straight to the point and provide the details and benefits of your products in the most concise manner possible.

Video marketing is an excellent method to achieve this. In just a few seconds, you can quickly grab the attention of viewers, explaining what to expect and how they can benefit from your products or business. Not sure you can do it faster and in a more memorable way of writing.

Video ads convert better

Ever bumped into a video ad on your Facebook feed and discovered how difficult it is to ignore or pass without clicking on it even if for a few seconds? If you’re planning to use paid ads to boost your brand, using video advertising could prove more effective compared to text ads especially on social media.

How do you plan to start using video marketing in your online business? we’d love to hear your feedback.

Kyle Anderson is a freelance tech journalist whose typical day is spent scouring the web for the latest developments in the world of business tools and software. He loves any type of software that automates his life! For his pastimes, he is an avid lover of travelling, poetry, and photography.