For businesses these days, video is a staple in various stages of the customer experience.
Car dealerships provide videos of completed service to customers. Coffee shops post clips of their baristas making seasonal latte art on Instagram. Salons share hairstyle tutorials on TikTok. Renters record reviews of the new apartment they just moved into.
Video marketing is effective at engaging your audience and can actually increase click-through rates by 10x. So, whether you share short clips on LinkedIn or comprehensive product demos on your website landing page, investing in video is a great opportunity.
To further highlight the value of video, we’ve identified 30 benefits of video marketing for your local business:
- Expands Reach: Videos are both highly shareable and easily discoverable. They are the perfect tool to broaden the reach of your marketing campaigns, connect with a bigger audience, and interact with potential customers. You’ll need the content to get onto video-only platforms like YouTube and TikTok.
- Increases Engagement: Video content is more engaging than text content. It’s easier to digest - people would rather listen to a person talk about their experience with a business than read a long review. It’s also more accessible to those who need audio as opposed to visuals.
For example, here Airbnb shares a captivating video of one of their unique listings. It’s an engaging way to encourage views and interact with previous or potential customers.
- Enhances SEO: Google prioritizes usable, accurate, and applicable content. While much of search ranking is determined by keywords, it’s greatly affected by relevant visual content such as photos or videos.
As video content is easy to comprehend and interact with, it’s become a priority for targeted search. A well-optimized video can boost your site’s visibility by improving your ranking and leading to increased web traffic. Plus, you can include a transcript of your video on your site so that the video content is crawlable by web spiders.
- Improves Retention Rates: People tend to remember information better when it's presented visually. As a result, video marketing enhances memory retention, leading to stronger brand recognition and increased customer loyalty.
- Builds Trust: The relatability of video makes it a great tool for building trust with your customers. By sharing customer feedback, you establish social proof for your brand and demonstrate that you value the customer experience, which goes a long way in building lasting relationships.
This video features Zoom customer and global manufacturer Flex. They discuss how their team has benefited from their use of Zoom both across the company and on the production floor.
- Simplifies Communication: Videos can efficiently communicate complex information in a short amount of time. They simplify complicated topics, making them more accessible and convenient for your audience.
- Easily Measures Success: Video marketing allows for a more clear and tangible measurement of success. Views, shares, likes, and comments can all provide valuable insight into what strategies are working with your audience and what needs improvement. Video hosts like YouTube and Wistia can even show viewer behavior metrics like how much of the video was watched, how many times a video was viewed by the same user, etc.
- Improves ROI: 90% of marketers have earned a good ROI from video marketing. A compelling video can effectively demonstrate the benefits of your product or service, encouraging viewers to make a purchase.
Further, video tutorials, explanations, and FAQ sessions can curb any doubts a consumer may have before committing to your brand - making them invaluable when it comes to closing a deal.
- Improves Social Media Presence: Engaging videos can significantly enhance a brand's social media presence, attracting more followers and promoting interaction.
Tip: Video content is considered highly in most social media algorithms, meaning the more videos you share, the wider your impression reach will be.
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Facilitates Mobile Engagement: People are never without their phones today, and video content is king on mobile devices. Investing in video makes it simple for people to view, interact with, and share your content.
- Fosters Community: Behind-the-scenes glimpses, customer testimonials, and community-focused content help you connect with your audience on a personal level, building trust and loyalty. Additionally, interactive features like live streaming and comment sections encourage real-time engagement, creating a space for customers to share their experiences and bond over common interests.
- Provides Competitive Advantage: People are constantly inundated by ads and promos. A good video marketing strategy can set you apart from the rest. Video is the perfect method to convey your business’s unique value proposition, connect with customers, and secure your place as a top choice in your community.
In this video, Slack highlights what makes them valuable in a competitive market and what makes them more efficient and user-friendly than other modes of communication.
- Leverages Influencer Marketing: For many local and online businesses, influencer marketing is a great method for tapping into new audiences and increasing credibility. By partnering influencer relationships with video, you can showcase your products/services and create an immersive experience rather than relying on a regular endorsement.
- Boosts Email Click-Through Rates: If you want your marketing emails to convert to website visits, booked demos, purchases, etc., you must stand out. Utilizing videos to showcase products, tell compelling stories or offer exclusive promotions can significantly boost email click-through rates and drive more traffic to your website or physical location.
- Promotes UGC: User-generated content (UGC) is one of the most valuable marketing resources a business can wield, and video is a great tool to help you get started.
By encouraging your customers to share their experiences through video and incorporating it into your review generation process, you activate the voice of your happy customers, which builds trust for your brand.
For example, in this video, Catarina shares her experience at Georgetown Fitness, a locally-owned fitness center in Georgetown, TX.
To learn more about UGC and why it works, check out The Complete Guide to Video Testimonials for Businesses
- Enriches Learning Experience: 96% of customers have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. In this time of informative and engaging content, you can educate your customers about your products and services and position yourself as an authority in your field.
For example, in this video, Grammarly outlines both how to use their service and how it works.
- Improves Online Ranking: Video content is more engaging than text. Therefore, it often results in longer website visits. When visitors are encouraged to spend more time on your site, it increases your SEO/ranking and the potential for converting them into loyal customers.
Featuring video on your landing pages is a win-win strategy to boost online visibility and engage further with your audience. Widewail’s homepage utilizes this strategy. Having the video "above the fold" ensures people see it and engage with it right away, greatly improving the average time on page per visitor.
- Highlights Personality: Video content is a powerful tool to showcase your business’s unique personality and make an impression. Video can convey your brand's values, culture, and the human side of things, which resonates most with customers. This authenticity differentiates your business from competitors and helps you connect with the local community, fostering trust, recognition and brand loyalty.
- Supports Retargeting Strategies: You can use video viewing data to retarget relevant content to potential customers. This personalized approach enhances the customer experience while boosting the effectiveness of your retargeting campaigns, ultimately leading to increased conversions and growth.
- Enriches Content Marketing: Video adds a visually compelling element to your content that can captivate and engage your audience in ways that text can’t. By integrating video into your content marketing strategy, you convey your message more effectively, engage your local audience, and establish a stronger online presence.
- Saves Time in Customer Support: Video content can be a time-saving solution in customer support. By recording how-to guides and answering FAQs through video, you provide instant, accessible support, reducing the need for time-consuming one-on-one interactions. You’ll enhance customer satisfaction while optimizing your team’s use of resources.
- Generates New Content Ideas: Feedback from video marketing campaigns (i.e. customer testimonials or viewer comments) can inform content ideas for your business. Testimonials reveal what resonates with your audience, which can help shape the style of your content. Additionally, viewer comments provide insights into audience preferences, which opens the door for content that addresses specific questions or concerns.
- Attracts Talent: Videos, employee testimonials, and behind-the-scenes footage can showcase your company culture and create an inviting workplace brand. By sharing them, you can attract potential employees who resonate with your company's values and atmosphere. You can also foster a sense of pride and belonging for your existing team.
In this example, Google employees share what makes working at Google meaningful to them.
- Highlights Customer Success Stories: Sharing video testimonials from real customers helps you build credibility with your audience. By focusing on your satisfied customers, you demonstrate the real-world benefits of your products/services, humanize your brand, and empower people to become brand advocates.
- While hiring professional crews and editing services can be expensive, the beauty of video lies in its versatility and the potential for cost-effective solutions.
By encouraging customers to create video testimonials, you simplify the content creation process and generate authentic, highly effective content that can drive engagement, boost sales, and save you from investing valuable resources in professional video services.
- Enhances PR Efforts: Incorporating video into your marketing strategy can significantly boost your reputation in your community. Sharing videos of company events, community service activities or messages from the CEO creates an authentic connection with the public, improving brand perception and bolstering trust for your business.
For example, in this video, The North Face showcases the launch of its Summit Club House, a brand immersion and community exploration center meant to celebrate the outdoors.
- Boosts E-commerce Sales: 87% of marketers say video marketing has helped them increase sales. Video offers an immersive experience and showcases details and features that text and images can't. By allowing customers to understand products in action, businesses can reach their customers in more comprehensive ways that inspire confidence and ultimately, drive more sales.
- Highlights Unique Selling Points: The versatility of video content gives you the freedom to emphasize what makes your business stand out. Through visual storytelling and persuasive messaging, you can showcase what sets your business apart, be it exceptional quality, outstanding customer service, or innovative features.
For instance, in this video, USPS demonstrates how they use technology to their advantage to simplify the shipping process and make it easier for your business to deliver positive customer experiences.
- Strengthens Internal Communication: Videos can be a great way to communicate internally with employees and build your employer brand. From the hiring process to training and onboarding, video simplifies team communication by ensuring consistency and clarity, and serving as an internal resource.
- Supports Brand Consistency Across Multiple Platforms: If you’re managing multiple locations, maintaining brand consistency for your business is key. Video marketing plays a pivotal role in ensuring this across multiple platforms.
By crafting videos that showcase the same messaging and values, you can cross-promote seamlessly on social media and across multiple sites, reinforcing your identity and building trust with customers, regardless of which location they engage with.
With 30 distinct benefits to incorporating video into your marketing strategy, it's clear that video will continue to shape the marketing strategies of successful businesses.
By harnessing the power of video marketing, you can effectively engage your audience, establish a strong online presence, and ultimately drive growth and success for your local business.