Don’t let another year without video pass you by. Learn how you can start growing your small business today!

Well folks, we’ve closed the chapter on 2018. And you know what that means … another year in the books for your small business. While you were out chasing your company’s quarterly goals, you may have noticed more and more businesses started making and sharing videos online. According to digital marketing agency, Blue Corona, “In the past 30 days, more online video content has been uploaded to the web than the past 30 years of TV content.” If you’re looking for some other video marketing stats that will leave your head spinning, check out this compilation from the folks at Biteable.

So, dare we ask — did you create video content in 2018? If the answer’s yes, kudos to you! We hope you continue incorporating video into your marketing efforts in the new year. And if the answer is no, fret not. There are plenty of other small businesses who are in the same boat. Being short on budget, short on time, or just plain unsure of what types of videos to make are all common challenges that can easily shake your confidence, but rest assured you’re not alone.

Whether you answered yes or no to the question above, you better believe the future of video is bright! That’s why we’re excited to share tips for growing your small business with video this year on social media and on your website. From expanding your reach to driving site visits, don’t let another year pass you by without video. Keep reading to find out how you can help your small business grow!

Expand your reach by sharing videos on social media

Nowadays, people are carrying around search engines right inside their pockets, giving them the opportunity to look up things like “Best pet portrait businesses near me” with results forming in just seconds. That’s why presenting your product or service online as the solution to people’s problems is super important.

And your social media presence is a great place to start! Think about all the daily scrolling you do on social media and how many new products, services, or businesses you stumble upon. It happens all the time. With that being said, your small business can expand its reach and keep up with those big brands out there by sharing compelling videos on social media. According to Wordstream, social video alone generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined. And it makes sense — videos allow you to share your brand story while entertaining your audience in a more immediate and engaging way than written content alone.

“According to Wordstream, social video alone generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined.”

Moving images attract the eye in a sea of text, and if a user engages with your content and likes it, they may even share it on their own feeds or with a friend. This gives you the opportunity to paint a positive first impression of your brand and potentially reach new customers, especially when your content is being shared by someone whose opinion the viewer trusts. And as a bonus, putting some marketing spend toward promoting your content on social media doesn’t hurt either. Most social media channels have targeting built into their ad platforms, so you can easily reach the right audience with your videos with a little bit of cash!

Easy videos to create and share on social media

Now, you may be wondering what type of content your small business should make for social media if you’re short on budget, time, or both. Say no more — we have some ideas that can help you get started!

• Promote a local event on LinkedIn with a webcam video: LinkedIn is a space where people are searching for new networking opportunities and focusing on professional development, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add some fun flair to people’s news feeds using video content strategically! Promoting an event with video can be an engaging way to show people what your business has to offer and encourage others to learn more about your organization.

• Recap a popular blog post for Facebook: If you aren’t seeing the engagement you want with your written posts, despite the witty copy you craft, simply recapping a popular blog post in a video can entice Facebook users to consume your content. It’s a low-barrier video anyone can create and share in minutes. And, the script practically writes itself!

• Show off your company culture on Instagram: There’s no better place to get your feet wet with video than Instagram. Many businesses use Instagram to highlight their culture and feature people who work there and make it so special. In this space, it’s easy to combine both curated and candid content for your audience to get a feel for what your business is all about! The bar is low for super-produced content, so this is a great channel for experimentation.

• Reply to a support-related question on Twitter: Take your customer support to another level by replying to support-related questions with video on Twitter. Forget the fancy gear, too. Yeah — you heard us! You can shoot any of these videos with only an iPhone and your own creativity.

• Record a special announcement video: Sometimes the written word just doesn’t do a special announcement justice. Which is why video is the perfect medium for capturing your genuine excitement about any big news. Generate hype in a more human way around your business’ big sale or product reveal. Your authenticity will truly shine through and others will be able to feel it, too.

• Answer FAQ in a video: Turn the way you normally answer FAQs from drab to fab! Using video to answer questions regarding when your business is open, holiday schedule, and other useful information can be a great way to inform your audience about any important happenings. You can even show off your brand personality at the same time.

Alternatively, you can aim to shoot a more highly-produced video for your business that can be repurposed for multiple marketing channels in the new year (even on a shoestring budget!). Read our post, "Common Marketing Challenges (And How to Solve Them with Video)," and learn how you can overcome production and budget barriers.

By creating and promoting quality content on social media, you’re giving your content the opportunity to be seen by many. Who knows — your video just might land in front of someone who could turn into a loyal advocate of your brand!

Collect leads from your videos

How else can video help grow your small business? Well, hold onto your hats, because videos can be used to collect leads. That’s right, we’re talking about growing that coveted email list!

Creating videos you’re proud to share is the first step, but to add another log to the fire, you should think about how you can engage your viewers further once they’re on your site. Don’t let those leads slip away without a say! Now, you’re probably wondering which videos you should put a lead capture form on — great question, we’re glad you asked.

• Top-of-funnel videos: These types of videos are intended to grab your viewer’s attention and make people aware that your brand exists. While people are getting to know you at this stage of the funnel, it’s the perfect time to capitalize on interactions by capturing leads. You can reach out to prospects in the future and possibly foster long-lasting relationships with your brand after collecting their email address. After all, consumer interest is fleeting. Keep in mind, this will likely get you the highest quantity of leads, but not necessarily the highest quality.

• Bottom-of-funnel videos: For people who already have an idea of what your business is about and are located deeper in the buying process, “decision” or “bottom-of-funnel” videos are your best bet for converting those high quality leads. Focusing on answering people’s product or purchase-related questions with explainer videos can help you convert more qualified leads. And, if you place these videos on your product or purchase pages, you can be confident your content will get in front of interested prospects’ eyes.

Hook leads with the right tools

On most social networks or video platforms, you can include a CTA to direct people to your website, encourage them to click a link, or even subscribe to your YouTube channel all about your deep love of Swedish Fish. Quite frankly, the possibilities are endless. However, actually collecting leads from these videos becomes a bit trickier. When you host your videos on your own website, however, you have more control over the overall experience (and your ability to collect those precious email addresses!).

If you’re a Wistia user, you can easily add our nifty Turnstile feature to any video in your library and start collecting leads in no time. When you place your video on a landing page or blog post customized with Turnstile, you have a few options to choose from to get your prospect to complete a form. You can make your Turnstile appear at any point throughout your video, or you can have the overlay display "on hover." With this new setting, you have the ability to collect leads without interrupting the viewer experience, making the form appear whenever a viewer moves their mouse over the player on desktop, or taps the video on mobile. Pretty neat, right?

When it comes to social media, however, collecting leads with your video is a different story. When you share videos natively across different social platforms, Wistia features like Turnstile won’t be included in your post. That’s why it’s important to share videos on social media and your website, as they serve different goals and purposes on both channels. If you’re looking to drive more people to a video on your landing page, you can simply share a short clip and then add a link to your page so they can watch it in full!

“That’s why it’s important to share videos on social media and your website, as they serve different goals and purposes on both channels.”

Drive site visits with an SEO boost from video

Some small businesses out there experience growing pains when it comes to increasing visits to their site. If this sounds like you, video content can give you just the right SEO boost your site may be missing to start ranking higher in search engines ( … ahhh yes, that’s the stuff).

Ranking in search engines is a mysterious puzzle to wrap your head around — especially if you don’t consider yourself super tech-savvy. In the past, everyone preached that written content was king, but then Google began recognizing pages differently as the popularity of video marketing took off.

Web pages with quality videos are now considered rich with content compared to those with traditional text-only blog posts filled with keywords. But hey, don’t sweat it if this is news to you — it’s hard to keep track of all of these changes! Fortunately, we’ve learned a thing or two from this shift. Creating quality video content that’s valuable to your audience has a handful of positive effects on SEO.

Creating optimal videos for your site

With a little help from our friends over at Marketo, we know how Google ranks as well as tricks and tips for optimizing videos to get found. But remember, the most important thing is to make sure your video is actually valuable to your audience. These optimization tips won’t help you if your content isn’t engaging in and of itself.

As we mentioned before, videos are considered rich content on your web pages (which ranks well with Google). When people visit your site, seeing a video can influence them to linger around a little longer, which decreases your bounce rate, and gets Google to acknowledge people’s interest in the content you have to offer. And, if people love your video content, the likelihood that they’ll share it on social or in their own blog posts is much greater.

“When people visit your site, seeing a video can influence them to linger around a little longer, which decreases your bounce rate, and gets Google to acknowledge people’s interest in the content you have to offer.”

Here are some tips for how you can increase your video’s SEO-power today:

• Add transcriptions or captions to all of your videos: At Wistia, our Interactive Captions feature can help boost engagement, give viewers more control, and make your videos more discoverable in search engines via keyword strategy. For instance, if you are trying to target people searching for productivity software, you can work relevant key terms into your video’s script such as “job performance,” “time management,” and “social media.” Besides boosting SEO, hear more about all the reasons why your videos should have captions in this post.

• Make sure your video file has metadata: Like blog post metadata, these are the titles and descriptions that Google pulls to display in search results. According to Marketo, optimizing your titles and descriptions to include keywords that match user intent can encourage click-throughs. Customizing a captivating thumbnail also contributes to whether or not a prospect will perceive your content as valuable (and declare you the chosen one!).

• Use a speedy video player: If you’re a Wistia user, luckily for you our Standard embed code takes the pressure off when it comes to slow page load times so you can focus on improving the quality and authority of your website! The Standard embed code works with asynchronous JavaScript, which means the video player and all of the SEO metadata is loaded in the background, without holding up the rest of the elements on the page.

Worrying about optimization might be the last thing on your small business’s mind. But, with the help of some handy tools and a video player that does all the dirty work for you, your company can focus on creating engaging content that will drive up your site visits in 2019!

New year, new ways to grow with video

We’re giving you and your small business a free pass this time around for not having a video marketing strategy in 2018. But, among your own new year’s resolutions, making videos to help grow your small business should be at the top of your list. There’s no better time to start expanding your reach on social media, collecting leads, and driving site visits with video than the present!

Whether you’re going to create snackable videos with your iPhone for Instagram, or collect leads to start establishing new relationships with consumers. Investing in video can finally help move the needle when it comes to your business’s growth in the new year. 2019 is your year to use video to grow your business. Now, go get your slice of the pie!

This article was originally published by Wistia