As a small to medium business in an ocean of other businesses, the proper thing to do is introduce yourself to your consumers. One of the best ways to do this is with an introductory video!
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Create an online video to answer on-the-fly questions, a business profile video on your website’s home page, or a behind-the-scenes look at the operations of your business. An introductory video starts a conversation with your consumers and highlights your brand’s story.

Look at this video marketing effort from Casper Mattresses, which shares the common problem that inspired the company and tells the audience how their process offers an affordable solution. 

Influencers tend to be the most costly form of social media marketing. Additionally, it can be hard to find and communicate with influencers without the help of an agency.

The key benefit of influencers is they help your brand get more exposure and they increase your brand's social proof. Social proof is the concept that the opinions and actions of others influence our behavior. Hence the name “influencers”. When it comes to your business's videos, you can take advantage of the authority and influence of social media users outside your business to generate social proof and foster positive impressions of your brand.
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49% of consumers depend on influencers' recommendations and 40% have made a purchase or subscription after seeing something featured by an influencer on YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram.

For small to medium businesses, micro-influencers and upcoming influencers are often the most economical choice to collaborate with because they have a niche audience or a smaller but loyal following. These influencers tend to be more affordable and are willing to partner in exchange for free services or products

The majority of people learn visually, which makes video an invaluable strategy.  Largely because consumers tend to scroll or skip past ads that don’t get your attention in the first six seconds. With that in mind, how can you capture attention within a few seconds? That’s the question marketers must address when creating video content.

The answer is simpler than you may think; engaging video content that is short, to the point, clear, and resonates with viewers. People tend to mindlessly scroll through their social media feeds or skip YouTube commercials that are not engaging, until a video intrigues them enough to stop and look. If your message and content are complicated, unclear, or stale, they will continue browsing without a second glance. While short, shareable videos, will grab their attention and keep it until the end. Fortunately, companies with any budget can use this approach to video marketing.

Companies do not even need video content to jump into video marketing. You can create videos from scratch using high-quality product images. Services like YouTube Video Builder, Canva, or PosterMyWall bring your images to life with moving elements, text, and graphics. All you need is a logo and product photo. Using these editors you can match the text, colors, and imagery with your branding. Companies can quickly repurpose content to share on video platforms, social media, and their website.

From video calls to television commercials, featuring your employees benefit companies tremendously. People enjoy seeing the inner workings of companies they are interested in. Even if the types of videos they are watching do not directly feature a product or service, They are still making compelling content that invites people to engage with it.

Using expert employees, you can create tutorial videos to help potential customers understand your products and develop an understanding of the possibilities of your products. Often, companies create video blogs (or vLogs) of daily operations. Allowing customers and social media followers to see how well your team works together.

Bite-sized video clips of your employees’ “day in the life” can be very compelling because they personalize your company or brand and allow your prospects to feel connected to your employees, company culture, and brand. Another common use is to use short clips to show how fun your company culture is. This is best done during company events and workdays. This serves to demonstrate the productive relationship between your company and employees.

Generally, people want to purchase from and work for brands that invest their energy into improving company culture. Develop a video strategy that features your company culture while encouraging current and new customers to feel a connection with your brand.

Educational videos are often confused with how-to videos. While both videos aim to make their viewer more informed and entertained. The key difference is educational videos tend to be long-form in-depth content and how-to videos are short bite-sized bits of information. Educational videos take a little more planning; whereas how-to videos answer quick simple questions, such as showing how to cook pasta or fold a fitted sheet. Before you begin to create long-form content, I suggest that you ask yourself these five questions:

1. Does the proposed video answer your audience’s question(s)?
   When people look for information, it is the job of the video to give it to them. This is your chance to answer FAQs which helps during your customer consideration phase
   
   
2. Does the video build trust in your brand?
   Educational videos position your company as an authority and source of free, useful knowledge. Remember you are teaching, not selling.
   
   
3. Does the video take the pain out of a complex topic?
   The subject may be difficult, but authentic educational videos should not feel complicated. Take what may be a complex concept and boil it down to something accessible and clear.
   
   
4. Does the video encourage customers to learn more?
   Once you've taught your viewer something new, they will start to wonder what else they can learn from you. Educational videos should pique your audience’s curiosity and interests.
   
   
5. Does the video help at any point in your marketing funnel?
   ​Consumers generally find educational videos at the awareness stage of the funnel. As they educate themselves, excellent educational videos are almost infinitely flexible. They can engage leads, prove your expertise, and keep your prospects informed.

One of the most effective and affordable ways to bring in new customers and build customer loyalty is with user-generated video ads. Consumers trust the opinions of other people, which is why the first thing they do when researching a new brand is read reviews.
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How can you use user-generated videos to bring in new customers? A good approach is simply asking loyal customers to make a video of your product or share their testimonials of your services. This can then be converted into an ad on Google, YouTube, or social media. This promotes your brand online and provides social proof that your brands are reliable and trustworthy businesses.

I suggest that you request your customer to create their videos in portrait modes. This allows the content to be used in Instagram Stories and video ads

Grove Collaborative used this method to create YouTube and Instagram ads that targeted consumers who were interested in eco-friendly cleaning products. Resulting in a set of ads featuring a consumer testimonial that explained why they love their products. Overnight, social proof doubled, and the brand’s sales doubled. In a manner that didn’t exhaust a sales team or incur costly video production.

If you are interested in mimicking this approach, I suggest you:

• Ask loyal customers and small/rising content creators to create a video of themselves with your product and share their experience with the product (or service).
• Incorporate consumer-made content into your targeted video ads
• Leverage software to customize a set of video templates and easily create video ads from scratch.
• ​Finish your advertisement with a strong call-to-action that includes a “swipe up to learn more” or “order now”

Behind-the-scenes videos give your customers a view of the people behind your business. For example, you could share personal stories, you can create meet-the-team videos, or highlight day-to-day activities. Show how your products are made or your daily relationship with customers.

One of the features of behind-the-scenes videos is they don’t require much time to create. Austin Lee, for example, is a Meta (formerly Facebook) employee who made a simple video of his day-to-day on the job. This video yielded over 1.7 million views, 23,000 likes, built brand trust, and cost only time to produce.
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Before you begin, consider how you will incorporate these five items:

1. Humanize your company
   Let the viewer get to know the people who make up your company
   
   
2. Build Trust
   Be transparent and give the audience a sense of who the team is
   
   
3. Be Personal
   Share what makes the heart of your company in a fun way
   
   
4. Show day-to-day action
   Have fun, be creative, and show off your work
   
   
5. Use B-roll (not just talking heads)
   This can be hard to come by, but office events and team meetings   lend themselves to great b-roll footage.

 

How-to videos and tutorials aren’t a new concept, but they remain at the forefront of social media and video marketing. The reason they work so well is your audience doesn’t understand or know how to do a task. By answering their questions, you help them out while building brand trust.

The method for creating tutorial content is simple: provide valuable information about a common problem in a quick and sharable way. The lessons typically are specific to one topic and straightforward. This is demonstrated above in the pasta cooking tutorial by Tasty, which has over 2.6 million views. Or you could have a look at Martha Stewart who racked up 3.6 million views.

You have the expertise that benefits your audience. Why not share your knowledge through videos? You might think creating how-to video content requires lighting equipment and a new camera. This is not the case; you can make videos with a modern smartphone. It has never been easier, especially when you consider the quality of Apple & Samsung cameras. All you need to do is identify the topic and record a quick lesson.
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NOTE: Don’t forget about the audio. Viewers want a comprehensive audio-visual experience. Use music to set the tone and pace of your video. Even during your dialogue, you should have background music to prevent viewers from getting fatigued and clicking away. Apps like iMovie have a built-in library of copyright-free music and the YouTube Audio Library has a music library comprised of millions of copyright-free songs.

Content is the foundation of your marketing strategy. But don’t spread yourself thin on the hamster wheel of content creation. Focus your efforts on tasks that maximize your time. For example, if you already have blog posts, or social media graphics handy, why not repurpose that content into shareable videos?

Blog posts and lists are excellent content to convert to video. Especially when you consider that 72% of people prefer videos to text. In general, good marketing gives people what they want. As mentioned earlier there are a few programs that do a great job of repurposing your existing content into video. I suggest YouTube Video Builder, Canva, or PosterMyWall.

Before beginning this project, here are a few best practices to keep in mind:

• Select 2-3 key takeaways from the existing content then focus on these topics during your video.
• Keep it short and sweet. 6-seconds to 2-minute videos generate the most user engagement.
• Customize your message, fonts, logo, and colors to match your brand.
• Finish with a strong call-to-action (CTA) that encourages viewers to sign up or shop.
• Share the video on all your social media profiles, blog, YouTube, etc.

Live & smartphone videos have keyed into an essential part of a modern video production process, Smartphone created videos. 

Apple gave the concept a platform in their wildly successful #ShotOniPhone campaign. They asked users to submit their best iPhone shots for a chance to have them featured on an Apple commercial or billboard.

Over the years the campaign has generated more than 15 million submissions. Proving that video content created on a smartphone can be indistinguishable from traditional media.

In an interesting turn of events, modern influencers have surpassed even seasoned video marketing professionals when it comes to perfecting the art.

​SMM - Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote products or services. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers. Through a series of paid placements, we can drive well-qualified traffic to the website, social media profile, or app of your choosing. 

Keeping in mind that the first video you should focus on is an introductory video or brand story, the next logical step in effective video advertising involves inviting your customers to talk about your products or services. Customer reviews and explainer videos give immediate proof of your brand’s value and allow you to create unique content that does not come off overtly curated or sales oriented. 
Customer reviews and testimonials are important facets of video marketing. However; they should play as unstated, natural, and provide an authentic look into your customer’s experience. When creating customer videos, look for simple video interviews that involve the customer in their own environment. These videos can be shot at the office, over zoom, or in your home, but the dialogue should be organic, not scripted, and have a conversational flow.

If your consumers are not making customer review videos, try reaching out and requesting that they create a review video. You can incentivize these reviews with discounts or products; however, this typically makes for ingenuous reviews. A more effective approach is gathering the contact information of people who have written reviews. Then use this list as a jumping-off point and reach out and request that they create a video review to be featured on your site and social media profiles. 
Another tactic is to browse social media mentions or shares. If you see your company pop up on someone’s stories or posts, you can request to share the video. Additionally, you can reach out and ask if they have any additional videos related to your brand that they have not yet posted. Reaching out in this way starts a dialogue between your brand and existing customers, which typically improves and increases engagement with your products or services.

Join us on November 5th, 2021, for a complimentary 60-minute online Google Ads course and learn how to improve the return-on-investment (ROI) from your Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns. A vital component of a digital marketing strategy, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), ensures that businesses can capture potential customers at the right time. Featuring Josh Martin, founder of Denver Marketing Solutions, the information discussed during the webinar focuses on why Google Ads and SEM campaigns are suitable for any business, whether small, medium, or big. Webinar attendees will leave this SEM webinar with the most up-to-date and effective Google Ads and Search Engine marketing approaches in hand.

Topics covered include:

• The most empowering strategies to take when using Google Ads in an evolving economic and customer environment
• How to navigate the changing habits of consumers and potential clients
• The most effective and up-to-date SEM advertising techniques for business owners
• The basics of image advertising and how you can target customers with remarketing

After attending this webinar, participants will walk away with:

• What it takes to create compelling search engine marketing campaigns that really work
• An understanding of how to measure and track your success
• The ability to effectively manage your advertising budget in Google Ads
• A Google Ads and Search Engine Marketing Tips and Tools booklet to guide you after the webinar is over

​Many business owners underestimate the benefits of search engine marketing, and as a result, they are missing out on a big opportunity to grow their online businesses fast in a controlled and profitable manner.” He adds: “However, creating and running SEM campaigns can be overwhelming when you are just starting. If campaigns are not running efficiently, it can have a drastic impact on a company’s bottom line. We’re excited to showcase highly effective concepts and strategies that are based on over a decade of research and testing.Anyone currently interested in viewing SEM online courses should watch the recording of this webinar. The information provided will allow attendees to optimize their campaigns and ultimately achieve a higher return on investment per SEM dollar spent.

About Denver Marketing Solutions
Since 2010, our international SEM company has grown into a full-service digital marketing agency with offices in Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado. We now assist local, national, and international customers with all of their search engine optimization, Search Engine Marketing, social media, content marketing, web design, and video creation needs. We take pride in working with ambitious businesses around the world that are looking to boost sales from their online marketing efforts.

SEO - Search engine optimization is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic rather than social media traffic or paid traffic. SEO aims to improve the position of your search listings as well as the total amount of traffic being driven to a website.