Tell Your Business Stories With Video
To connect with today’s modern customers, today’s businesses constantly have to be in storytelling mode. This is true for businesses who sell products and services to consumers (B2C) and for businesses who sell products and services to other businesses (B2B). The stories that are shared will sometimes be told very directly (in a traditional marketing sense) and sometimes will be told and shaped more indirectly, via a more modern, content marketing type approach. Additionally, the medium that is used to tell these stories should and will vary. Sometimes the stories will be laid out in text and posted to blogs or articles, and other times the stories will be scripted and told via a more modern approach, using video.
For the purposes of this article, we are going to focus on the two more modern forms of storytelling. We’ll share why Content Marketing is important to connect with today’s customers and then look at how video can be used as a highly effective means of delivering the content and telling those stories. We’ll then share some examples of what business stories told through video could be about. We'll wrap it up with some recommendations for how to get started and get the most out of telling your business stories with Video Content Marketing. Why should business stories be told via Content Marketing? If you own or operate a small or medium sized business today, you’ve likely heard the expression that “Content is King”. The expression holds true because it has become so critical to develop content and/or share content that engages your customers and your prospective customers on a regular basis. There are several reasons this is important…
1. Fresh content that is interesting, insightful, or entertaining gives you a reason to reach out to your existing customers and subscribers and helps keep your business top-of-mind.
2. Content that is created for your business gets shared with others so it helps expand your reach and attract new customers.
3. Content helps build and strengthen your online presence because search engines like Google love new content (SEO).
4. Content helps build and strengthen your social media presence…it’s tough to engage your network of people if you aren’t giving them anything of value (insightful, interesting, or entertaining).
Why is video the best medium to create content to tell business stories?
If “Content Is King” then “Video Is the King Of Content”! Here are just a few of the facts that help outline why video is the most consumed, most shared, and most valued form of content today.
1. Video is a Social Media superstar, with an estimated 75,000 YEARS of video watched EACH DAY on SnapChat, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter combined! (assumes 30 seconds per video average for Facebook and SnapChat).
2. People today prefer video, as evidence shows that 4 times as many people would rather watch a video about a product (or service) than read about it.
3. Video gets the best results, as evidenced by the striking statistic that businesses that use video grow revenue 49% faster than businesses that don’t (last I checked, revenue growth is still a pretty important metric for most businesses).
*Note the sources for each of these stats can be found on www.vizoodeo.com
What are some examples of a Business Story?
When you think about it, your small or medium sized business has a lot to say. You have interesting stories about your business or your industry, you have insightful information that relates to your products or your services, and there are some fun and entertaining things that may happen in your business (or you can make them entertaining), which would make a great business story. To help you envision what types of stories that your business can tell, let’s take a look at three types of businesses, and brainstorm what types of stories that they may be able to tell.
Business # 1: A Florist who sells directly to consumers (B2C), but also does a lot of business with other companies (B2B).
Story # 1: Seasonal Flowers In April. This could be a monthly recurring video. Imagine the florist talking to the camera telling the viewers all about the flowers that are in season and would be perfect for an April spring bouquet.
Video type: INSIGHTFUL and ENTERTAINING
Story # 2: How We Got Started. Imagine the owner talking to the camera and sharing her story about her passion for flowers and how she finally made her dream a reality.
Video type: INTERESTING
Story # 3: 5 Times To Surprise Your Customers With Flowers. Imagine a florist talking to the camera and sharing 5 unexpected times that a business could surprise and delight their customers with flowers. The video contains text overlays and images to support the 5 times that are revealed in the video.
Video type: INSIGHTFUL and INTERESTING
Business # 2: An Independent Insurance Agency which sells auto, home, and life policies directly to consumers (B2C).
Story # 1: The 4 Types Of Insurance Coverage You Don’t Have But Should Have. Agent talking to camera about 4 types of insurance that most people don’t have but should (because it can be very costly otherwise).
Video type: INSIGHTFUL
Story # 2: Things We Do For Fun. Parody video that is filmed in the office that pokes a little fun at themselves (because no one believes insurance or insurance agents to be fun).
Video type: ENTERTAINING
Story # 3: The History Of Fireworks. Video for 4th of July that talks about the history of fireworks, and then at the end of the video mentions the types of insurance you need to protect yourself from the most common fireworks accidents.
Video type: INTERESTING, INSIGHTFUL, and ENTERTAINING
Business # 3: A Sales Training Firm, which sells sales training services to sales teams from other businesses (B2B).
Story # 1: Success Story From The Field. A testimonial video from a sales person who has been through the training, talking about how she used the concepts learned in the training to get a big sale.
Video type: INTERESTING and INSIGHTFUL
Story # 2: Sales Tip Of The Month. A recurring video series each month that offers an effective sales tip that every sales person should be doing.
Video type: INTERESTING and INSIGHTFUL
Story # 3: The Worst Sales Person In The World. A parody video that has someone playing the role of the customer, describing their interaction with the worst sales person in the world.
Video type: ENTERTAINING and INSIGHTFUL
Want more ideas for your video content marketing strategy?
Still want more? Here's 10 bonus questions to spark new video ideas!
How to implement your business stories via Video Content Marketing So, there you have it - all you need to do is to create insightful, interesting, and entertaining content via video on a regular basis and then distribute it out to your customers and prospects. Great idea, but that will most likely never happen given the two primary options that small businesses have today… Option # 1: Hire a traditional video production or marketing agency to help you create video content.
PROS: They can help you create awesome video content that looks great and is spot on message.
CONS: If you have ever shopped video production pricing for your small business, chances are you were blown away with how much it costs. If your goal is to completely ignore the main intent of content marketing (consistent, fresh, new content) and only create one single video and then let it live on your website until everyone who starred in the video is 10 pounds heavier and full of grey hair, then this might be your best way to spend thousands of dollars. Seriously, do a Google search and you’ll find that even the companies that market themselves as “affordable video production” typically are proud to tell you that their videos are only $7,500 or only $3,000, or even only $1,000. It’s tough to get a consistent content marketing approach using video if it is going to cost you $1,000 plus every time you want to have a video created for you. In addition to the cost, expect to wait a while for your video to be created and ready to use.
Option # 2: Do it yourself with your mobile phone and a video editing app
PROS: Cheap, if not free
CONS: First off, I do believe that there should absolutely be a place in your Video Content Marketing strategy for spontaneous, authentic video that is recorded on your mobile phone (or similar device). For example, I recently watched a few videos on the Facebook feed of a business that helps repair dents in cars after an accident or a storm. They had several videos on their Facebook feed that were taken from a mobile phone when someone was in a car during a big hail storm. This type of spontaneous video works great for their business (to help remind or educate people who need their car repaired that they are a good place to help with this). However, what wouldn’t work very well would be to take that same mobile phone and turn it around and talk to the camera to tell a story about how their business started (as an example) with a shaky shot, bad lighting, barely audible sound, and an overall poor production value. I believe that this type of video would leave an impression that this company was not very professional. If you do figure out how to create video from your phone, or perhaps even professional audio and video equipment you invest in yourself, and you also take the time to learn how to edit video, the other big question is, will you do that? Do you have the time to pull away from all of your other big responsibilities when it comes to growing your business to dedicate to the production of video (on a consistent basis) to help keep your Video Content Marketing strategy humming along?
Is There A Better Option? One of the benefits of creating content is that eventually it is going to lead customers to your door (hopefully) because you have positioned yourself as the expert or the company that is uniquely positioned to provide value. In full disclosure, since I am the one creating the content in this article, this is exactly what I am doing here (because we have a service that we think can change the world of Video Content Marketing for small businesses). Our service at Vizoodeo makes it super easy and effective for all types of small businesses to be able to connect with their customers and tell their stories through video. We believe it’s an incredibly disruptive idea, because until now, I’m not aware of any other companies that make it so easy to get unique video content created fast for your small business at such an amazingly affordable price.
If you are intrigued by the idea of telling your story using the video content marketing approach, and you’d love to partner with a firm that helps you accomplish it (both from the quality service they provide, and the price point they provide it for), then please click here to learn more Vizoodeo…
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