More Than Marketing - Finding Your Video Strategy

 

The Role Video Plays

As a business owner, you're constantly looking for ways to find and get in front of new customers, explain your products and services, and ultimately sell to those who need what you offer. Marketing your business is the first step. This is also most likely when the thought of using video may first cross your mind. Possibilities range from TV style commercials, website videos, and social media content, to candid self-recorded videos and more...Out of all the options available to you, what do you picture in your mind when you consider "using video"?

Every style and type of video has it's place, but it’s easy to run into information overload making it hard to know where to even start. In this article I want to give you some ideas and concepts to help you visualize more ways to take advantage of video that goes beyond just marketing your business.

More Than Marketing

It's not your fault if you only consider video in the context of advertising and marketing. This is natrual, of course, because video has been used to showcase products and services for decades. 91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. Video is powerful because it has the ability to educate and inform people. It is relational because it conveys the personality of your brand and who's on screen presenting. It has the power to motivate, inspire, and influlence behavior. It can do all of these things and more. If you want to start thinking of new ways to utilize video in your business, you have to know where to start.

Finding Your Video Strategy

At the beginning of this article I mentioned finding and selling to your customers. It's important to take a step back and look at the big picture of your customer's journey. What do your customers experience? Think about everything they may see - Everything from the moment they first hear about you to after they've already bought from you and are a satisfied, happy client.

What does Your Customer experience look like?

This is the first step to understanding how you can utilize video. Video is not the end-all be-all to growing your business, but every step of that customer journey has potential to be improved or amplified through the use of video. Marketing is only a small part of that process.

Map out your customer journey and write down:

• How are you attracting and finding new customers?
• Where do they go to learn more about what you offer?
• When someone wants to buy from you, what steps do they take?
• After a client signs on with you, how do you communicate the next steps?
• Do you notice any recurring questions or issues working with your clients?
• Once they're a satisfied, happy customer, is there anything else you could offer them?
• Is there anything else you could get from your client that could help you or other customers?

All of these questions and more are the kinds of things I'm looking for when I work with a client. Your video strategy is not just your video. It's how video fits into the entire process. How it helps educate, inform, motivate, inspire, and communicate everything they need to know.

Video's Impact In Your Business

No two businesses are the same, and so what makes sense for one business to do won't make sense for you to do, and vise versa. My goal with Onward Visuals is to help you make a bigger impact with your business. Utilizing video across your business is a great way to do this.

Your customer journey is unique to you, and each question above comes with even more questions to get down to the gritty details. Below are some rough video ideas that may help get you started when mapping out your own customer journey.

  • Run video ads on social media about your business or offer.

  • Create a brand story video so new website and social media visitors can quickly learn about you and your mission.

  • Refer to your physical location, phone number, or some other means of doing business with you at the end of your video ads and brand story video.

  • Send them a welcoming onboarding video so new clients understand what to expect moving forward with you.

  • Create an FAQ video or series covering answers to common concerns.

  • Send them a thank you video and talk about other ways you might be able to help them.

  • Ask your best clients for a video testimonial about their experience.

Enhancing Your Customer Experience

All the examples above are in the context of how they help you and your business. The other side of the equation is how they benefit your customers. One of the most important points you should keep in mind when considering any type of video is how will this make your customers feel? Yes, while you are considering using video to help your business, at the end of the day these videos are there to help your customers. You are providing this content to educate, to inspire, and to build trust. To help your customers better understand and see how you can help them.

Think of how much easier a short brand story video is to watch and understand versus reading and comprehending paragraphs of text. Imagine what it must feel like recieving a thank you video as a new customer that eases any worries you have and walks you through the next steps. How conveinent would it be to have a catelogue of videos at your fingertips ready to answer every possible question you could have?

Image from a thank you video sent to new members welcoming them to the program.

Your video strategy should always focus on helping your customers in some way. Even when it comes to advertising, there are people out there that want and can use what you have to offer!

Navigating Your Video Strategy

There are countless ways to implement and utilize video if you have the desire. From DIY self-shot content to animated explainers and beyond, there are options depending on what makes sense for your brand, budget, and preferences. If you would like my help navigating your own video project, I'd love to chat with you! Togther we can explore your customer journey and discover a video strategy that makes sense for your situation. Click the button below, fill out the form, and I'll be in touch!

I'm rooting for your business and want to see more videos implemented whether you work with me or not.

Together let’s move your business...Onward!

Mark Spraker