Five Reasons Why Video is Saving Small Businesses

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about drastic changes to the economy and, as a result, Canadian small businesses are struggling to keep up. Many businesses have felt the drastic need to adapt to new technologies and means for reaching new and retaining old customers. Fortunately, many small businesses are starting to leverage the power of video in connecting with their audiences.

“While the majority of businesses in Canada expected to be impacted [by COVID-19], smaller businesses expected more significant impacts, such as a decrease in profitability and sales.”

Statistics Canada

Five Video Strategies for Small Businesses

There are five video strategies for success that are being adapted by Canadian small businesses throughout the pandemic:

1. Video features for products and services;
2. Leveraging social media algorithms;
3. Increasing email engagement;
4. Referrals through influencers and testimonials; and
5. Educational content.

Video Features for Products and Services

Most small businesses rely heavily on their marketing efforts to reach new customers and build loyalty with recurring ones. However, small businesses may also be burdened with a limited amount of resources, time, and employees to engage with their network in meaningful ways. Therefore, the value of creating content that requires minimal resources, saves time, and requires minimal staff engagement cannot be understated.

Video features allow small businesses to check these boxes and generate a significant return on investment. Consumers have been proven to react favorably to companies that leverage video content throughout the buyers journey as a means for attracting and retaining leads.

“Consumers overall (59 percent), and Millennials in particular (62 percent), find it important for products and services to share their information through video, underscoring the importance for marketers to understand how consumers are motivated by video content and how they can utilize it to drive sales and brand engagement.”

BrightCove

Video features, have been helping small businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by offering support in these critical areas:

1. Small businesses can work around limited resources if they learn to recycle video content rather than relying on new content every month;
2. Small businesses save significant time when they work with video professionals who put their expertise and equipment to good use; and
3. Outsourcing video content creation means that small business owners can focus their efforts on running their business and leave the equipment, shooting, and editing to a third party vendor.

Leveraging Social Media Algorithms

Many small businesses have also seen success throughout the pandemic by taking advantage of social media platforms. Popular mediums, such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube (I know this is really a search engine but I’m adding it as an exception 🙂) allow small businesses access to large pools of untapped customers and clients. However, these platforms have gone through major shifts towards a primary focus on video content; to be specific, short-form video content.

“The growth of social media is causing the human attention span to become shorter and shorter. So, leveraging the power of short-form content will give you a leg up on your competition and help engage your audience.”

–Brandon Sanders, HubSpot Academy

By producing a high quality video feature, small businesses create the ability to break that content down into smaller videos that are 1 minute, 30 seconds, or 10 seconds long. Content this length becomes perfect for reaching consumers on Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts which are rapidly catching up to TikTok.

Instagram has also stated that it is making a large transition from a photo-oriented app towards a video app that also allows for photos. This change will mean that small businesses that get into high-quality video content early are more likely to thrive.

“I want to start by saying we’re no longer a photo-sharing app.”

Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram

Increasing Email Engagements

Many small businesses rely solely on social media and word or mouth and forget entirely about the most powerful marketing tool in a marketers toolbox, email. As surprising as it may sound, email is significantly more effective than any other communication medium at re-engaging clients and driving sales and it has been saving many businesses throughout the pandemic.

“According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing on average sees a 4300 percent return on investment (ROI) for businesses in the United States.”

-wpbeginner

However, email strategies can get stale. In fact, 26% of small business owners report their email marketing strategies to be “ineffective”. That being said, video is a stellar tool for improving your emails that has been proven to increase both open and click-through rates. Common video-strategies that small businesses have been using with success include:

• Important news updates;
• Product or service videos; and
• Educational Videos;

A Vidyard report has found that emails that utilize video have the following benefits:

• Email titles that use the word “video” Increase open rate by 19%;
• Video thumbnails increase clicks by 50% (that’s huge); and
• Customers are 65% more likely to buy after seeing a video.

To learn how video can be added to email marketing, get in touch with a professional today.

Referrals Through Influencers and Testimonials

As many small business owners know, referrals to your business and the power of influencers can drive some serious sales. Small business owners have been leveraging the credibility, reach, and loyalty of referrals and influencer followers throughout the pandemic to take advantage of un-tapped potential.

Video is an influencer’s best friend because it allows them the opportunity to connect in a meaningful way with their followers that builds trust and is easy to digest. Many influencers rise to fame through video content on YouTube, Instagram, and more.

Therefore, many small business owners have begun to realize that if they can have an influencer refer their followers to their brand, or do a video feature with their product, that they have gained instant exposure to a large audience.

Educational Content

Lastly, educational videos offer an opportunity for small business owners to showcase products and services to followers through content that adds value to their life. A good example of educational video being used for marketing would be if an entrepreneur did a YouTube series on how to make different sourdough breads with their starter-kit.

This approach has proved successful for a few reasons:

• People are tired of being barraged by greasy sales tactics, businesses that help and ask for nothing in return build trust (the kind of trust that sells in the long run);
• Educational videos create an opportunity to put your products in front of an audience. You may not be selling here but make darn-sure your brand and products are front-of-mind; and
• Educational videos create content and content is king. Even if it doesn’t directly make you money, it’s not a waste if it gets your product or service in front of new people and new channels.

Walk the fine line between creating educational value that helps your clients and giving away your secret sauce in a tutorial can be tricky. You will want to make sure that your content is helpful but in a way that encourages buying your product or service.

Get Started With Video Today

Video content offers a wealth of opportunities to companies and has played a big role in helping small businesses last through the pandemic. However, the trend is not over, it’s just beginning. Our increasingly digital world has brought new social media platforms, viral trends, and strategies for connecting with clients, and at the core of each one is video.

If your business is just getting started, we recommend learning how to utilize video throughout the buyer’s journey first. If you are interested in reaching more customers, growing your brand, and driving more sales, get in touch with a video professional today.