🎥 Why Small Businesses Should Go All-in on Video in 2023

Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful and safe holiday weekend. 💜

According to Wyzowl’s 9th annual State of Video Marketing report, 91% of people say they want to see more online videos from brands in 2023. Welp, let’s hop to it.

Today, I’m going to show you a (relatively) simple and efficient system you can use to consistently create video content to market your business and give your customers what they want.

In a world where seemingly everyone is making video content and building a personal brand, it’s overwhelming, to say the least.

By creating a simple, efficient system to generate ideas, film content, and automate publishing, you can significantly expand your audience and generate more sales without becoming an influencer or disrupting your core business.

IN 8 MINUTES-ISH, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

1. Speak your truth 📢

2. Slow and steady wins the race 🐢

3. Models, then creativity 🔺

Speak Your Truth 📢

Any potential business strategy requires clarity of your desired result, who your target audience is, what resources you have (e.g. budget, people), and how you will track your metrics.

For content marketing, there are a few additional questions to answer.

• What is my expertise?

• How can I ensure my videos capture my audience’s attention and deliver value (i.e. are useful)?

• Where should I publish my videos to reach my target audience?

Once you’ve answered these questions, it’s time to get started and take immediate action. Content marketing is a long game and the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll gain momentum and see results.

The easiest, most authentic, and arguably best way to start is to tell your brand story. This is how you speak your truth. Only you have your unique perspective through your life’s journey and the specific reason you started your business, and stories connect people through emotion.

👉 Share a 2-3, maybe 5-minute video on why you created your business, who you serve, how you serve them, why they should choose you, and what experience they can expect when working with you.

Slow & Steady Wins The Race 🐢

Look, I know Gary Vaynerchuk recommends creating 64 pieces of content each day, but he's not a solopreneur and has a team of 30 to help. For the rest of us, it’s all about just getting started and being consistent. Slow and steady wins the race.

Before you press record though, let’s get a few ideas on the board.

Brand Story

We already talked about recording and posting a brand story video. According to Accenture, 64% of consumers choose brands that communicate their purpose, so this is the best topic to start with.

Product

Next, record a series of shortish [perhaps heavy on the “ish” depending on your business] videos walking through your core products or services.

96% of consumers have watched product videos to learn more prior to purchasing and they can be helpful in showing customers unique features, their benefits, and what differentiates you from your competitors.

Here’s one of my favorite examples from camera bag maker, Peak Design. Don’t worry about needing super high production value with these, just have fun with it.

Educate

In my opinion, the best type of content for businesses to make, and the type that offers virtually limitless ideas, is educational content. This is where you can really build trust and position yourself as the industry expert.

Each industry and business has plenty of terms or jargon to define, processes to explain, best practices to recommend, and real-time news or market updates to share with your personalized and opinionated take.

Don’t overthink this either. Terms or topics that seem 101-level to you are likely unknown to many of your potential customers. They don’t do what you do every day.

Social Proof

Not all videos require you to be in them. Create Social Proof videos that include client testimonials or user-generated content (content posted by your customers using your product).

Testimonials could even be short clips of written reviews with some on-brand music. Just be sure to use music within the platforms you’re posting on or through a commercial license provider like Artlist.io to avoid copyright issues.

Behind-The-Scenes

Lastly, create some fun behind-the-scenes videos showing “a day in the life,” how a product or part of a product is made, a “meet the team” series, etc. These can help create an emotional connection as well as show some of your business’s personality. You’d be surprised by how much of a competitive advantage your business’s personality actually is.

Find a place to jot down ideas as they come, so they’re easy to add to on the go. This way, when you’re inspired by something or something brilliant pops into your head, it won’t be lost forever when you think you’ll remember it and you don’t. I personally use Apple Notes on my iPhone to keep it super simple, but Notion or a running Google Doc is great too.

Models, Then Creativity 🔺

OK, so we have some ideas on the board. Let’s get some vids in the can.

If you’re a one-person show like me, you’ll need a proven model you can depend on to keep going each week without investing too much time or money.

This is a critical juncture here. Don’t try to get too creative early on, thinking you have to do things differently. You and your business are inherently different by default, so the key, in the beginning, is pressing record and posting consistently, with as little friction as possible. You can get fancy and “do you” later.

Here’s the formula.

1. Create a script template. A short intro you can use every time, what the video is about, a short recap (depending on the type of video), and a signoff. Then you just have to fill in the middle with your topic, which you can write a script for or just talk about it like you would one-to-one with a close friend.
   

2. Schedule your month. Look at your calendar for the next quarter at the beginning of the current quarter. Or month to month, your call. Write down what you plan to post each week or each day for that next period.
   

3. Batch record. This is where the real time savings and stress relief comes. After you have your schedule, find a date early in the quarter or month to record a handful of videos. This session should take you a day or even just a few hours depending on your chosen content.
   

4. Batch edit. Unless you have experience editing videos, I highly recommend hiring for this piece. This is where the bulk of your expenses may be.
   
   Use Fiverr or a local editor to knock out basic edits of your batch recordings. A typical edit for social content with subtitles will cost you $100 per video. Each video will take a pro editor about 2 hours, but it would take a newbie at least 10, so it’s worth the money.

   Pro Tip: Have your editor add subtitle graphics or if you’re direct uploading to Facebook or Instagram Reels, use the Captions Sticker. Most videos are consumed with the sound off. Also, make sure you request the source (raw) files with your final video files.

   If you really want to DIY, here’s a great resource on the workflow. Just use iMovie for Mac or Canva’s free video editor for PC/Mac.
   

5. Automate your posts. Use a post-scheduling system like Buffer (which has a free version), Hootsuite, or Social Sprout to pre-schedule your posts and build up a queue of content ready to go out. You’ll feel a great sense of relief and freedom having this system in place so you don’t have to be overwhelmed about posting daily and interrupting your business.

   
   Pro Tip: Even as your content queue grows, it’s important to stick to your batch filming schedule to build the habit. Plus, the more you have ready to go, the less you have to worry about missing a week or two when your business is slammed or you go on vacation, etc.
   

6. Repeat. Plan to repeat this process monthly to keep your queue growing and allow time to create additional real-time content regarding industry-related news or market updates.

Great work! You have a list of ideas, your calendar scheduled out a month or an entire quarter, you’ve found an editor, and you’re ready to shoot.

Here’s the setup.

1. Studio. This can be your office, your conference room, or your bedroom. It doesn’t matter, but you’ll want a clean background, with little furniture and stuff (no clutter). While I don’t recommend dressing like Alex in your videos, here’s an example of a “clean background.” 👆

2. Lighting. Probably the 2nd most important part. Face a window for great natural light or order a basic light kit from Amazon. You can use “practicals” too, lamps, etc. that are in your space. Those should just be accents though and ideally, the bulbs should match your kit (daylight or warm). Never have windows or bright lights directly behind you. Turn around and use them for your face, if needed. See: 3-Point Lighting
   

3. Audio: The most important part. Why? Most people will watch lower-quality videos, but bail if the audio is bad. Use a shotgun mic if you can, either on a stand just out of frame or on camera. A lav works too, just not for all clothing types. There are options for your phone too from Shure and Joby, etc. Have the mic as close as you can, but keep it from clipping (hitting the red) at all costs. You can lower the gain on the mic, camera (DSLR), or using the accompanying app on your phone. Somewhere between -12 and -18 dB is usually the sweet spot.
   

4. Camera: If your smartphone was made in the past 3-5 years, there’s a good chance that’s all you’ll need. Most will shoot in 4K and either 24 or 30 fps (frames per second). Perfect. If you’re an experienced shooter, plan to focus on video, and want the best, a Sony A7SIII and 16-35mm f/2.8 would be it. There’s really no need though, especially if you have a newer iPhone.
   

   Shoot in 4K (in case your editor needs to punch (zoom) in), and I recommend shooting wide (horizontal) unless you plan to only post Facebook and Instagram Reels and TikTok. Then, shoot vertically and up close (fill the screen). Your editor can use your horizontal footage to create vertical content as well.
   

   Pro Tip: Great composition can make a big visual difference and separate the amateurs from the pros. Turn on your phone or camera’s grid lines to follow the Rule of Thirds.

Here’s where to post.

We’ll keep this one short and sweet.

YouTube.

It’s the second-largest search engine in the world and is a great place to store videos and link or embed them to your business’s website, blog, etc. When potential customers are looking for answers to their questions, your videos will be the resource they find and will likely influence them to buy from you.

From there, Facebook continues to be a great place to post for businesses and has recently seen a resurgence in user engagement, meaning attention has shifted back to the platform that has nearly 3 billion monthly active users.

ONWARD TOGETHER.

Everyday Insights 👀

What we’ve been reading this week.

• Nvidia stuns markets and signals how artificial intelligence could reshape technology sector

• OpenAI’s ChatGPT app tops 500K downloads in just 6 days

• 71% of CMOs lack the budget needed to execute marketing strategy in 2023

In The Weeds 🌾

Additional resources for you to dive deeper.

• The State of Video Marketing 2023 [Wyzowl]

• How to Get Started with Small Business Video Marketing [Buffer]

• The Benefits of Video Marketing for Small Businesses and How to Get Started [Marketing360 Blog]

• Content Marketing for Small Businesses: 9 Essential Tips [Semrush]

• TO AFFINITY AND BEYOND: From Me to We, The Rise of The Purpose-Led Brand [Accenture]

• How to Start Creating Content [by Gary Vaynerchuk]

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