Video can be one of the most effective tools to accelerate business growth. And as valuable pieces of reusable content, video can continue to drive this growth.
Most brands and businesses know that their audience want video, but we often hear “we’re short on budget, we’re short on time…we’re not really sure what kind of video to make”.
But, when 60% of viewers say they would engage with a video before they would ever engage with text , it’s not something that should not be ignored. The future for those harnessing the power of video is bright.
With this in mind, we wanted to use our expertise in video production to share some ideas with you on how you can use video to help grow your business.
Like anything, you need to start by asking yourself the right questions. What’s our objective? What do we want our audience to do? What’s going to give us a competitive advantage? How will we measure the results?
The good news is a quality video production company will help you get to grips with these questions and guide you towards creating videos which help meet all of your objectives.
Once you’ve defined your objectives, set your goals and targets and planned your content, it’s time to get creative!
Here are some sure-fire ways of using video to grow your business…
1. Grow your reach and generate more followers
Start with your social media presence. Expand your reach by sharing your videos on your social channels. Sounds simple, right? Well, it kind of is. People love video and what’s more 92% of mobile video consumers share video with others. So, let them do the work for you, too. By sharing engaging content (and this is key) you will grow your reach and engage and connect with more followers.
This method if great for introducing yourself and sharing your brand’s story. As well as building brand awareness sharing on social media can really help get your brand out to a large audience.
>>Top tip: Try to encourage and incentivise your existing followers to share your content on your behalf or promote a great piece of video content through promoted/sponsored advertising to further expand your reach.
2. Drive website visits from a video-rich SEO boost
Create great content to host on your own website. Yes, it’s helpful to have your content on a video hosting channel and share this on your social channels. But don’t underestimate the power of hosting video on your own website. It can dramatically boost your SEO efforts (especially in comparison to traditional text content). Video can give your site the boost it needs to appear higher in search engine results pages (SERP) leading more organic traffic to your site.
>>Top tip: Make sure your videos are optimised. This is a deal-breaker. Do your keyword research and make sure you include these in your title, description, metadata, tags, filename and snippet. A video transcript really helps those bots too.
3. Engage users for longer on your website
Videos not only keep users on your website for longer, they also keep them more engaged. The average user spends 88% more time on websites with video. As well as producing engaging content which your audience is going to retain, they are much more likely to act on something by exploring your website further, making an enquiry, or making a purchase.
>>Top tip: Make sure the pages on your website which host video have a very powerful call-to-action to push your viewers further down the sales funnels.
4. Use video to generate quality leads
Video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year. Grow your email list by using compelling video content to generate leads. You can either gate your video content, asking viewers to leave their email address before gaining access to a video on your site or engage your audience through video with a clear call-to-action and utilise lead capture forms to get those all important details whilst they’re at their most engaged. Whether this is done via a landing page on your own website or by utilising social media forms, videos are a great way of encouraging people to want to find out more.
>>Top tip: Incentivise these campaigns by offering your audience something of value to them. An eBook with some handy advice, tips on how to improve their product/service or a series of videos with useful information.
5. Invigorate your email marketing
We know how effective video is, and when this is married up with email marketing the results speak for themselves. Video improves open and click-through rates so it’s the perfect addition to your email marketing. People are more likely to open your communications if the word ‘video’ is used in the subject line. In fact, this can boost open rates by up to 19% and click-through rates by up to 50%. By sharing engaging video content, you will raise brand awareness, increase conversions and help educate your audience.
>>Top tip: Don’t forget your current customer or user base. Video is a great way to keep them happy. Why not share explainer or how-to videos. Or send them tips on how to make the most of your product or service.
We are a full-service video production company with a rich and varied client base, spanning the UK. If you would like to create quality video content to reach out to your audience please get in touch today. We’d love to talk.