Video Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners

Are you a new or established entrepreneur and you’re looking for ways to attract new clients?

In this blog, you’ll learn about 3 video marketing tips will help you get known, liked and trusted by your ideal audience.

For many of you, you may cringe at what I’m going to say next but here it goes.

You need to use VIDEO! And in particular, you need to understand Video Marketing!

Yes, the dreaded “V” word.

Using video to market yourselves, your businesses or even your clients’ business is so much more than creating a video. The most important aspect is video marketing has to do with what videos you create and then what you do with those videos once you’ve created them.

That’s why I’m writing this post today, to tell you about 3 easy to execute video marketing tips that any entrepreneur can and should use to increase visibility and get seen by your ideal clients.

Don’t run for the hills just yet.

Let me tell you a story about what embracing videos can do for your business and for yourself as a person.

When I began my career as a video virtual assistant, I assumed that all I needed to do was help my clients create videos and use YouTube.

What I slowly discovered was that for me to find clients I needed to place myself in the very videos that I was creating.

Because my background was in video production, I was very comfortable with the concept of creating videos. What I wasn’t comfortable with was being seen on camera. That simply was not my wheelhouse.

To avoid being seen, I opted to simply create videos where you heard my voice, but you didn’t see my face.

Which led me to become a huge fan of and eventual expert at creating screencast videos. Videos where I recorded my computer screen as I instructed my audience with a voice over.

What a dream!  I can create videos that I don’t have to be seen in. Whoopee!

Once I started creating screencast videos, I immediately began to get feedback from my audience and clients started to find me.

But alas, it was short-lived. As the popularity of live-streaming grew, I realize that I could no longer hide behind my PowerPoint slides or my screencasts any longer.

I probably recorded my first live stream in the summer of 2015. Boy, was it God awful! I couldn’t get off that screen fast enough. I probably sounded like a bumbling idiot and was most-likely visibly shaking as well.

The platform that I used at the time was called Periscope, and it scared the bejesus out of me.

Later, when Facebook introduced the same type of platform, I realized live streaming was here to stay, and I needed to embrace it.  So, I started living streaming in my group and then eventually on my page.  I got comfortable enough that now I’m featured on several other entrepreneur’s groups and Pages where I do live stream trainings about video marketing.

I’m telling you this story because being on camera helps you become known and trusted by your ideal audience faster than any other method that exists. FULL STOP.

As an entrepreneur, you can get comfortable hiding behind your computer screen in the secrecy of your own home or bedroom in your PJs.  But in order for your audience and potential clients to find you, they need to see you, they need to hear you, and they need to trust you.

The best way to accomplish this is by using videos.  You simply cannot escape it.

Did you know that…

To help you embrace videos here are three video marketing tips that I recommend to all entrepreneurs as first step videos that you can use to bring awareness to your business.

The first video is the “how to” video.

This by far is my favorite type of video to create.  How-to videos or tutorial videos are simple because all they do is educate or teach your audience how to do something.   It should be a task that you are comfortable and knowledgeable doing as well as teaching, and it should be a task that would be helpful to you if your audience already knew how to do it before they started to work with you.

Let’s say you provide bookkeeping services and it would be beneficial to you if your ideal client knew how to prepare their Excel spreadsheet before submitting them to you. Try creating a tutorial video showing them exactly what they needed to do in setting up their Excel spreadsheet.

The best videos that for you to create should be anything that addresses a particular pain point your audience experiences. It can even feature a step-by-step process that would help you help them better when they become your client.

SECRET VIDEO MARKETING TIP: Can’t think of anything? Do a search on YouTube for your niche, find the most popular person and see what videos they’re creating and do your version of them.

 

The second video is an FAQ video or frequently asked questions video.

Curate these questions either from questions that you’ve received from your clients or questions you’ve seen asked in your industry. Take one question and answer them in your video, don’t try to cover too much ground. Remember, less is more.

SECRET VIDEO MARKETING TIP: If you’re brand-spanking-new and you don’t have any clients conduct a Google search in your niche and see what are the frequently asked questions that are often posted with regards to what you do. Then simply create a video where you’re answering that question for your audience.

 

The third and final video is an explainer video.

You’ve probably seen one of these which are often animated. Yours will not since you’ll be the star of your explainer video.

Explainer videos are best when they convey a story about solving a problem.  Your video will need to identify a common problem your ideal audience experiences and how you can help solve that problem.

SECRET VIDEO MARKETING TIP: No secret tip but here’s one I did a long, long time ago.

To learn more about the videos you can use to get you known, liked and trusted by your ideal audience.

Scroll to the bottom of this post for a FREE workbook that will help you get started.

How should you market any of these videos? Besides obviously on YouTube, if they are under say 2 minutes, upload them to Facebook. Make a point to also share your videos with your email list. Market your videos where your ideal audience is hanging out.  The goal is to get them to see you are an expert in your field.

A common denominator among all these videos is that they shouldn’t be exceptionally long. There’s been a little bit of debate regarding a YouTube video’s length. Should it be 2 minutes long? Is it okay if it’s 10 minutes long?

The truth is if the video is consistently helping the audience, it doesn’t really matter the length. If you are creating videos for the very first time, keep them as short as possible until you get more comfortable creating longer videos.

Longer videos require that you keep your audience engaged pretty much the entire time and that can be a daunting task for newbies.

And now for a little success story if you will.

My former coach and client Kathy Goughenour, Business Coach, and Trainer is fast becoming a live streaming and video queen.

But not too long ago I spent countless hours explaining to Kathy that she needed to do videos and she persistently resisted.

In all honesty, I totally understood her reasons and sympathized with her. She resisted for the same reasons most of us resist.

Whatever the excuses, we always have one, but Kathy is a success story. She overcame that fear of being on camera when she realized it was affecting her visibility.

When you do finally give in, the longer you do it, the more fun you’ll have and the more comfortable you’ll get being on camera.

In the end, being on camera is the most daunting part. It’s the scariest part as we all live with the fear of rejection.

What if they don’t like me? What if they tell me what I said was wrong?

Even the most experienced video marketers will admit that they, too, have felt this way. And perhaps on occasion, they still do.

We all experience those fears.

Unfortunately, I cannot say that nobody’s going to do that because they will. That’s why they call them “trolls.”

You will have to develop a thick skin so that those trolls don’t bother you. It is important for you to know that for every troll, there are at least a hundred others that will be so thankful that you did it.

My advice to you is to embrace videos and in particular video marketing with all your might. Get out there and start creating content that your ideal audience is desperately wanting to see from you. By doing so, you will start increasing your visibility, growing your tribe and attracting high-paying clients.

 

Photo Credit: CreateHER Stock