How Small to Medium Sized Businesses Can Use Video Content Marketing
For a long time, content marketing has been a key channel in any successful online strategy. Quality, unique content is the best way for companies to increase their social signals, obtain natural inbound links and engage prospective customers en masse.
Recently, more and more brands are turning to video content marketing. And for good reason: it’s estimated that by 2017 video will make up nearly 70% of all consumer traffic. Currently YouTube receives more than a billion unique visitors every month. A well-crafted video can say a lot about your brand in a short space of time. This makes it an effective way to get your brand’s messages out quickly to many people.
We often hear about successful video marketing campaigns from global companies with huge advertising budgets. But how can small and medium sized businesses with more conservative budgets leverage the power of video content? We look at a few simple ways companies can increase the reach and impact of their campaigns.
Piggybacking
Capitalising on the buzz surrounding an event can be a great way to promote your brand. Creating video content that ties in with the theme of a major event allows you to take advantage of that event’s coverage to get your brand noticed. It also builds upon the knowledge your audience already have of that event, creating positive associations with your brand.
For example Helpling, an Australian online cleaning services platform, launched their #MissionToClean campaign around the time the latest James Bond movie, Spectre, was released. The video tells the story of a secret agent who balances their action packed work life with their mundane domestic duties by using Helpling.
With this short, entertaining piece of video content Helpling introduce domestic cleaning, not the most exciting topic ever, into the all-action world of a secret agent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7uaVYjyrjA
Make your audience laugh
Corporate video content is more likely to be watched and shared if it is genuinely funny. It is also much more likely to connect with viewers and turn them into customers. While this might not be possible in every industry, there are some excellent examples of companies making humorous video content without spending big.
Take Dollar Shave Club, founded by two friends who were frustrated with the cost of razor blades. Now a major player in the men’s grooming industry, when they released their first video they were still a relatively young company.
The company spent just $4,500 on the video. Yet within 48 hours of it being posted on YouTube 12,000 people had signed up to their service. At the time of writing the video has more than 21 million views and Dollar Shave Club has gone from strength to strength, receiving millions of dollars of venture capital along the way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI
Tap into your customers’ passion
This is particularly important for providers of more niche products and services. If you supply a special interest product/service, create video content about it which existing and prospective customers are likely to enjoy.
This rings true of our next example from Epic Brewing Company, an Auckland, New Zealand based brewery. Real ales and craft beers aren’t to everyone’s taste, but there is a hard core of enthusiasts who, generally speaking, are much more discerning about their choice of beers than your average lager drinker. By providing them with interesting and informative video content about their product and the brewing process, Epic are keeping existing customers engaged and informed while appealing to craft beer enthusiasts who are yet to try their beers.
