There are many small business owners out there who may be wondering why they should invest the time, money and energy in video content creation when their blog posts and other materials are “still doing perfectly fine.”
However, thanks to video marketing, small businesses like yours are increasingly leveraging the power of multimedia to increase demand, attract, convert, and retain new customers.
In reality, there are six major benefits of video marketing for small businesses that would be difficult – if not impossible – to capture through other means.
1. The SEO Benefits Alone Are Enormous
One of the major reasons why OTT video content is so essential for small businesses in particular ultimately comes down to three simple, beautiful words: “search engine optimization.”
As a small, locally owned and operated business, the vast majority of people who find your brand for the first time are going to do so via the Internet. Click To Tweet That means they’re going to turn to a search engine like Google with a question, and if your SEO is strong enough, your business will be automatically positioned as the one with the answer.
This is why it’s important to know that not only does video increase organic search traffic on a website by as much as 157%, but a website is literally 53 times more likely to reach the front page of a Google search engine results page if it includes video content.
Moreover, you’ll be able to also leverage YouTube which is the world’s 2nd largest search engine, with over one billion hours of video watched daily.
So not only are you providing people with more of the content they want to see – you’re naturally improving both your reach and your visibility as well.
2. You Give Your Brand’s Messaging More Time to Sink In
As human beings, we tend to form first impressions of something in literally fractions of a second. This, coupled with the fact that our collective attentions are now being fractured in more directions than ever before, can definitely make it hard for a small business’ messaging to stand out in a crowd.
But video is by far one of the most effective ways to do exactly that, as people on average spend about 2.6 times longer on a page that HAS video as opposed to one that DOESN’T.
This means that not only is video itself a great way to capture someone’s attention – it’s a way to hold onto it for as long as possible. Even when the video is done, they’re probably still going to spend some more time on your page – thus giving your messaging more time to sink in and create a compelling argument in favor of your products, services, and the business you’ve already worked so hard to build and promote.
3. You Get More Out of Your Content Marketing Return on Investment
For small businesses in particular, every dollar really does count when it comes to what you’re spending on your marketing. To a certain extent, you can’t necessarily afford to “explore” options as your larger competitors can. If you spend a great deal of money chasing some hot new trend that doesn’t work out, that won’t just set your efforts back – those are dollars you no longer have access to that could have been put to good use elsewhere within your organization.
Based on that, it’s essential to understand that a massive 52% of marketers say that video is the type of content with the best return on investment. Now, that isn’t to say that you should drop everything else that you’re doing and focus all of your attention on video. As always, absolutely everything has its place – including social media efforts, blog posts, white papers and more. It’s just that if you’re really looking to get the maximum return out of your marketing spend, video is an area where you should be paying close attention to.
4. These Benefits Extend Into Email, Too
As a small business owner, it’s safe to say that you probably spend a lot of your time communicating with members of your target audience via email. Not only is it a great way to take a conversation straight to the people who should hear it and participate in it, but with marketing automation, it’s now possible to make contact with more people than ever via email in a fast, cost-efficient way.
Video content is a great opportunity to take those benefits one step further, as simply adding video to your emails (and including the word “video” in the subject line, of course) can improve click-through rates by as much as 300% in a lot of cases.
If you’re already using email marketing best practices to make sure you’re sending messages to the right people in the first place (and you absolutely should), that means that the odds of converting those people into actual paying customers, has just increased exponentially.
5. It Lets You Tap Into a Mobile Audience, Too
These days, smartphones are everywhere – and for small business owners like yourself, that is very much a good thing. People who look for a store in their area on a mobile device tend to visit that store within the next 24 hours – and video is how you leverage all of this to your advantage.
Consider not only that half of all video content is already viewed on mobile devices in particular, but 92% of people who enjoy those videos from smartphones, tablets and other mobile options enthusiastically share that content with others.
So again – you’re not just making it easier for people to find your brand via the content they want as much of as they can get. Video marketing tools are so essential because you’re also supporting HOW someone wants to interact with your brand, too.
6. The Social Media Ripple Effect
Video marketing is invaluable to small businesses because it lets them take full advantage of the social media revolution playing out right before our very eyes. Click To Tweet. We’ve already covered how mobile users are more likely to share your videos on social media. But the advantages don’t stop there – in a way, they’re just beginning.
A site like Facebook is more than just a place to post information about upcoming promotions or your new summer hours. It’s also a powerful live streaming platform that puts everything you need to host your own engaging live video sessions at your fingertips. All you need is a camera and, if you’re a smartphone owner, you already have one. Your users will be notified when you go live and people will automatically flock to your feed due in no small part to the immediacy of it all.
Believe it or not, video marketing is only going to get more essential as time goes on – particularly in terms of what it can do for small businesses everywhere. But with results like these, it’s clear that video content is an investment opportunity that you ALREADY cannot afford to ignore.
Interested in taking your business to the next level? Reach out to us through the form below and let’s help transform your business into a sales machine!
