By Shama Hyder

It’s no secret that video has become one of the most effective ways for businesses to connect with their customers.

Statistics proving this out abound.

• Internet users consume up to 16 hours of digital video per week. 

• 66 percent of consumers prefer watching a video to reading about a product. 

• 71 percent of B2B marketers are using video marketing, while 81 percent of total businesses use video marketing. 

Video marketing works—that’s established. 

What remains to be seen is how certain types of businesses are using video, and how those  businesses can be more strategic about their usage to increase ROI. 

One study that dives into this is from video creation platform Promo.com: the Small Business Video Marketing Trends Study, released in mid-February (with a companion video recap, naturally!). 

It’s an in-depth look at how SMBs are using video marketing—what’s working, what could work better, and how small businesses everywhere can ensure they’re getting the highest possible ROI for their video marketing. 

And the study isn’t only for small business owners or marketers. B2Bs that want to sell to these small businesses also need to be paying attention, so they’re empowered to give SMBs what they need and build better, stronger relationships with them. 

Here are some of my most important takeaways.

If your small business isn’t using video marketing, you’re missing out on a massive opportunity. 

While more than 70 percent of B2B marketers are already using video marketing, as mentioned above, there are still some holdouts. 

SMBs skimp on video marketing for various reasons—maybe they think they don’t have the internal resources or skill sets needed to create high-performing videos. Maybe they think their audience doesn’t want videos. Or maybe they’ve simply got a small staff and just haven’t gotten around to creating a marketing video yet. 

And yet, more than half of the SMBs surveyed by Promo.com said that video was their most effective type of marketing—64 percent, to be exact. An even greater number, 77 percent, said that videos were an important part of their digital marketing. 

The reason, of course, is that this is the format that customers want. Video posts attract three times the engagement that posts without video do. Similarly, the conversion rate for websites that use video is 4.8 percent, as opposed to 2.9 percent for those that don’t. 

To achieve maximum ROI, marketers must publish videos on a regular schedule. 

While creating one video is certainly better than creating none, the highest ROI for SMBs comes from creating and releasing videos on a consistent basis. 

According to Promo.com’s study, 30 percent of SMBs are publishing videos once a week, while 26 percent publish once a month. Another 21 percent publish 2-3 times per week. 

Regularity will almost always trump frequency, but it’s still better to publish videos once a month rather than once every six months. You want to maintain your followers’ attention and stay top-of-mind, not remind them you exist each time you release a video. This is much easier to do if you’re releasing video content within a shorter time frame. 

Consider that your customers are already more than halfway through the buying journey by the time they actually reach out to you. That means they’re researching your company, viewing your content, and seeking answers to their questions before you even know they’re interested in your brand. If they can’t find what they need to know, they’ll move on to your competitor without a second thought. 

Video, with its higher engagement rates, is an ideal format for SMBs that need to capture their customers’ attention and keep it long enough to move them to the next step of the buying journey.

Video marketing doesn’t have to be ultra time-intensive.

A surprising finding from the study? More than 70 percent of Promo’s users spend less than 20 minutes creating a video. 

That’s partly due to the brand’s video templates and easy-to-use platform—obviously, if you’re starting from scratch, it will take longer, especially when you’re just beginning. 

However, it’s still an instructive finding because it shows, first, how helpful platforms like Promo, Animaker, and Moovly can be for creating effective videos. It also proves that video does not have to be a high-production value, highly skilled endeavor. All of us walk around with video recorders in our pockets and purses today, after all, and customers no longer expect every video they consume to be fancy and expertly-shot. 

A quick, personalized thank-you video for a client, a short demo video showing your new product, or an informal interview with one of your client relations staff can all be valuable—and easy—ways to use video marketing to increase brand awareness, customer loyalty, and move customers along the buying journey. 

Video marketing is only going to become more critical to SMBs as time goes on. By understanding how it works, how to use it, and whom to target, SMBs can achieve greater brand awareness, increase their conversions, and—most importantly—build long-lasting relationships with their customers.

Source: Forbes