If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re not using video to grow your brand then you are leaving a lot of money on the table. Video is all the rage right now and people cannot stop consuming it.
Photo by George Milton
This means that it is something that you need to dive deep into if you want to drive traffic to your business and bring new customers. Many people have found out that when they use videos for the products on their website, they’re getting higher conversion rates.
This is because video gives people more of a visual stimulation and emotional connection to you. Do not pass on this opportunity.
If you are not digging deep and trying to come up with video ideas. Here’s how to use it.
Create Your Brand Story
Your brand story is one of the most important aspects of introducing your business to your customers. Show your customers a captivating brand story so that they can understand what drives you and what is your vision for your business.
It will tell them about your values, your goals, and what you want to give to them and this is what entices people to stick around. You have to make sure that your brand story connects with your audience on an emotional level.
Try to go beyond the transaction to see what happens.
Craft Educational Content
One of the things that you can use video to do is to create educational content. This type of content is what develops your brand authority. Valuable insights are what get your business up and running in the market and make your business stand out.
People want to tap into your knowledge, they want to pick your brain to find out exactly what is happening out there and how they can use it for themselves and in their own business or lives. You have to walk the talk and act like an expert even if you don’t feel it.
Fake it until you make it. Making yourself an expert in your industry is easier than ever with the use of video.
Show Behind the Scenes
You can share behind the scenes of what is happening in your business too and get your audience to learn more about you.
This creates authenticity and transparency and makes your business more likable. Remember that people purchase from those people whom they admire, so you have to take care of your business.
You need to show the day-to-day operations of your business and what goes on behind the scenes. People are nosy about what interests them and you can take full advantage of this to grow your brand.
Your audience will move to know what goes on in the office. Don’t skimp on this or underestimate its power.
For example, if you’re a real estate agent you can show yourself showcasing different houses. You can even give lovely aerial shots of the homes you are showing using a DJI drone.
Customer Testimonials
You have to do whatever you can to make your customers feel secure about purchasing from your business. Many people do this by using videos to capture customer reviews and testimonials.
Sure you can have written reviews on your website but it is more powerful when people are looking into the face of someone who is vouching for your products and your services. This is 100% more authentic and you are likely to see more people reaching into their pockets, pulling out their hard-earned cash in order to buy your products and services.
Get Social Media Right
Social media has a role to play in the development of your business. If you are just starting out and you’re not on social media then you are leaving a lot of eyeballs off your business.
By creating social media accounts on the right platforms for your business you’ll be able to find and connect the right customers. While many people are not on social media to buy, they often end up buying from people they love and trust.
When you are doing this bear in mind that you need to select the right platform for your needs. Depending on what your industry and business format certain platforms may not be right for you.
Almost all social media platforms these days have embraced short-form videos, so you can post your videos to many different platforms.
A few years ago longer form videos were the rage. Nowadays five-second videos and even less often take off and become viral.
You don’t have to put in half the work as you usually would to make a video that showcases your business.
Don’t Be Shy Go Live
Going live is something that you definitely should not shy away from on most platforms. By engaging face-to-face with your audience in real time you’re building emotional connections.
This type of emotional connection will see them digging into their pockets to buy new offers as soon as it pops up in your store or you speak about it.
This is the kind of personal influence that you want to have on your brand. This will happen when you take the time to link with people on a personal level.
You’re also building a community around your brand and this is critical. Whether your brand is one person or a whole team this is definitely something that you should be implementing as soon as you can.
Boost Your SEO
One of the things you may not know about videos is that they can actually boost your SEO. This is because search engines use the amount of time people stay on your page to determine whether or not your content is valuable.
Videos are showstoppers and they tend to grab a lot of attention. If you want someone to stop the scroll and stare at what you have to say to them like a deer in the headlights, it’s very possible with video.
It all depends on the hooks you use and the kind of visuals you use to capture attention. Also, the words you say are very important.
Collaborate and Partner
The great thing about video is that you can use it to collaborate with those who are in your field. Just because someone is in the same industry as you does not mean that you should shy away from them and be competitive with them.
In fact, the opposite is true, you should be seeking them out and chasing them down whenever you can, to grab a hold of them and get collaborations.
When you collaborate with other people in your industry it means that more eyeballs will be getting on your content. It is a mutually beneficial partnership that you can use to drive more sales for both businesses. Think of it as doubling your audience.
Give Interactive Experiences
Wherever you can, try to give interactive experiences of your videos to those who are watching them. Interactive experiences simply mean that you give people a chance to become less passive.
Instead of them just sitting down and watching your video or maybe even dozing off if it is boring, by causing them to interact with the video from quizzes and even annotations you are getting them actively involved in your videos.
Shake the laziness out of your audience, and get them up and running and interacting in your videos. This can do wonders for your product-based business if you know how to use it.
Make the Most Out of Longer Videos
When you make longer for a video you are literally making several other short videos if you know exactly how to chop and cut like a butcher. You can use snippets from your long form video to create shorter ones.
Just take interesting bits and pieces enough to titillate your audience and get them to go over to watch your longer form of the same content. This makes it very stretchable like our elastic band.
Depending on how much content you have put into your long-form content you might be able to get a week’s worth of short snippets for videos such as reels, TikTok, or YouTube shorts, so start snipping
The great thing about this is that it does not just give you more content but it also causes a wide range of mini topics to show up in your content. If you created your long-form content correctly, you can get several different subtopics out of one big broad one.
Video is no longer the new kid on the block; it has been around for some time. However, many businesses have shied away from using video because they feel it can get complicated or it is going to be expensive to produce.
Nothing could be further from the truth. When it comes to creating video for your business you should never overthink it. This is one time where she just points the camera and shoot you won’t be disappointed.
The great thing is that as soon as you start practicing you only get better and start creating even more engaging content that keeps your audience hooked.
