Video is a hard subject for small business owners like yourself to excel in. It’s not that you lack the skills to do it, but just that knowing how to use the format well is the main problem. Surveys show that consumers prefer video over reading text in learning about new products. With that in mind, let’s talk about some ways that you can use video in 2022.
Optimize Your Videos For Your Audience
An easy way to make use of video for your small business is to optimize your videos for your audience. In practice, that means providing written transcripts and closed captions. These can either be manually added or obtained through a transcription service. 85% of all Facebook videos are watched silently.
To put that another way, if you created a video that didn’t have captions, just 1 in 10 of your customers knew what your video was about.
Something else to keep in mind is what kind of audience you are reaching. Facebook has an incredibly broad reach for you to tap into, but people don’t primarily use Facebook to watch videos. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post videos to Facebook, but that you should consider what kind of videos you are posting there.
What’s an action step I can take this week for an easy win? Add closed captions (either manually or through a service) to one of your best-performing videos.
Create Value For Your Customer
Another way to use video is to answer the following question: How does this video meet the needs of my audience? A really great way to think about it is to frame it in terms of product development. “What problem does this product solve?” becomes “What question does my video answer?”
This should be an all-encompassing aspect to your video. The title, description, keywords, and (if you’re on YouTube) file name should frame your video as an answer to a question.
What’s an action step I can take this week for an easy win? Retitle one of your videos so that it poses an answer to your customer’s question.
Use What You Already Have
The last big tip is to use what you already have. Video is not easy to create; I’ve been making videos for the last decade, and every single one has been a time-consuming process. There’s no reason not to re-use what you’ve already made in new ways for your audience.
Is that lazy? Yeah, it is! And that’s a good thing! Get creative about reusing content. Do you have a video that performed really well? Make a blog post from it! Do you have a highly trafficked blog post? Turn that bad boy into a video!
If movies like Ready Player One can teach us anything, it’s that we love to see what we already love. Don’t be afraid to remix your greatest hits.
What’s an action step I can take this week for an easy win? Turn one of your popular videos into a quick, digestible email blast for your audience.
I hope these ideas helped inspire you to use video in creative ways for your small business! To recap, make sure your videos are optimized with subtitles. All of your videos should answer some sort of question that your customers are asking. Lastly, save yourself some effort by remixing existing posts and videos.
If you liked these ideas, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter to get tips and updates as I post them! Do you have any projects you want some guidance on? Shoot me a message, and I’ll help you out!