If your business website has a tight budget and a small team, then you may well have dismissed video as an impossible dream, just way out of your reach. The grainy content of self-filmed shorts on YouTube just isn’t professional enough for most businesses. However, with new video production and streaming services targeted at SMEs, it may be time to reconsider. Basic streaming players start at just £1500, with more sophisticated branded channels with several videos costing from £500 a month. To inspire you to think again about online video content, here are five ways in which it can help grow your business:
1. Showcase what you do to prospective customers
Video is perfect for communicating the depth and quality of your product or service- and the enthusiasm or expertise of your staff. It’s ideal for hotels, spas, or restaurants as you can immediately communicate the experience. If you are a professional services firm, then your people are your greatest asset and they can clinch an enquiry with a good pitch. Just take a look at how the founder of www.yours2share.co.uk commmunicates her service. Video has a higher click-through rate than images alone.
2. Grow traffic through search and social media
Like images, video can be tagged and found through google and other search engines. You can also use social media (yes, YouTube, but also others) to place your video where prospective customers can find it and be led back to your site. Make sure that you make it easy for visitors to share and pass on your video content to their friends.
3. Help your customers get the most from your products or services
If your product is complex and customers need help to get the most out of it, video is an easy way to explain how-to — and also to reduce the number of post-purchase queries.
4. Create compelling testimonials
If you can persuade your best customers to wax lyrical about your product or service on camera, you have a winning asset.
5. Generate pay per view revenues from valuable content
If you already charge for provision of specialist content – maybe as a training company – consider whether you can offer pay per view videos on your site. If this is a step too far, use video as a trailer for long-form DVD video content.
I’m keen to hear about your experiences with online video content – just comment on this article.
Carolyn Morgan’s consultancy, Penmaen Media, creates practical digital media and marketing strategies. We have access to a number of trusted suppliers of video production and streaming services. If you’d like to talk to us about developing a video content strategy for your business, please contact us for an initial discussion.