If you would like to draw more traffic from your online advertising, close more of your email inquiries, and be able to consistently charge full price, then a well-produced marketing video can be a real boon for your business.
The process for producing effective small business marketing videos is becoming more efficient and affordable. The goal of your video is to provide customers with the most useful and compelling information while making your business look its best. Here are the top 8 most useful and compelling things to include in your 1-2 minute small business marketing video that will attract new customers to your service.
- Demonstration of professional company culture and great customer service. The most important trait to most customers is great customer service. If your video demonstrates that you are knowledgeable, responsive, reliable, accommodating and fair, then you have put to ease the biggest hiring objection. Include shots of the staff going the extra mile, show a special case problem you solved that highlights your expertise, cover the safety precautions you take and explain friendly policies and response track records.
- Authentic footage. Show the real footage of your business in action. Show your real office, facility, vehicles, equipment, staff, owner, before and after examples of work etc. Do not use stock footage of actors. Do not create a photo slide show as this can feel like a corner-cutting way to produce a video to customers. Authentic footage communicates in many ways at once. Unlike animation or stock footage, authentic footage not only communicates how your service works, it communicates how established, organized and experienced you are. And while customers are seeing your business in action, they are also listening to your narration. This helps put a real face standing behind the reputation of the business.
- Shots that build ambiance and excitement. To the degree your business sells ambiance, excitement and fun, you should create them in your video. For example, it may be important for a dinner restaurant to convey a warm and fun atmosphere whereas a brick contractor is not "selling" any ambiance at all. Shots that build ambiance include closeups, a flurry of quick scenes, slow motion and focus shifting. Creating ambiance requires more video production skill which is something to consider when hiring a pro. For more info on creating ambiance, visit: https://biveo.com/create-it-yourself#video-director-skill
- A bird’s eye view of your business. In most cases, it is ideal to start the video off with a distant shot of the building or facility within its surroundings. This helps the customer visualize visiting, and with recognizing the facility when driving to it. It also shows you are established and to what degree. If you don’t feel your facility should be shown to customers, know that negatives can be marketed as strengths. For example, if you have a smaller operation (considered by some as a negative), you have more control over quality and have reduced overhead so you can offer lower prices (a postive). If your business does not have a facility and mainly makes service calls, begin your video with a shot of your company vehicle pulling up to a job site.
- A tour of your business. After opening with shots of the exterior, show viewers the next thing they would see if they were a customer—the inside. Start with a shot from the front door and move through as if they were on a tour. Or if your business makes service calls, show the crew in action. You want to capture the authentic aspects of the business that show how established you are—the equipment, staff, showroom, vehicles, etc.
- Owner narration. Having the real owner speak on behalf of his/her company is a little more sales-friendly than having a pro narrator do the speaking or omitting narration all together. But all three methods create value. The narration should describe the service as well as conquer the most common objections. For narration ideas and script templates for your industry, visit https://biveo.com/step/narration. If the thought of being on camera gives you anxiety, know that its natural and that almost all people feel this way. To help reduce anxiety, see 7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Fear Being on Camera for Your Small Business Marketing Video
- Customers. Your video will generate far more excitement if footage of your business includes customers. Use your smartphone to try and capture this hard-to-coordinate footage. Modern smartphones deliver excellent 4K picture, and sound is not necessary for this type of B-roll shot.
- Contact info. Many good videos today forget to add the business’s address, phone, website and email at the end. Avoid opening the video with a logo page as this is self-congratulatory and of little value to the customer.
Of course, not every business will jump at the opportunity to include all of the above shot recommendations as some offices are disorganized, or some yards are cluttered. Capturing your business in a bad light is indeed worse than no footage. Include what you can for now and add improvements to your video later as your business grows. New footage from your smartphone can be incorporated by your videographer fairly quickly.
Today, the process of producing a small business marketing video is being refined and streamlined into an affordable process by Biveo, a directory of over 500 business-specializing videographers. What might take over 20 hours for an amateur, can be done in about 12 hours referencing Biveo’s create-it-yourself, 6-step process, or in under 1 hour of your time by hiring a pro to deliver higher quality.
If hiring a pro, an effective marketing video ranges in price from $200 to $2000. Compare small business video producer portfolios in your area on Biveo.com.
