Marketing is the lifeblood of any organization that needs to reach people, be their potential customers, investors, or contributors to a charity. Without pulling any punches, the quality and range of your video marketing reach is paramount to your overall success, and any business owner who ignores that fact is doomed. Market your offering well, or failure will be on your heels faster than you can apply for another business loan.

With marketing being so crucial to success, it poses a unique challenge to small business owners. Entrepreneurs aren’t really known for having huge amounts of starting capital, and we’re quite familiar with the concept of operating on razor-thin margins. So how are we, the little guys, supposed to compete when most of us can’t afford big advertising firms, Super Bowl commercial slots, and celebrity endorsements?

Well, that’s a question that could be discussed until we’re all blue in the face, but there’s a short and simple answer that addresses it quite well. The trick is efficiency in marketing. A small marketing budget doesn’t mean our hands are tied; It just means that we have to make sure every dollar we spend pays off as much as it possibly can.

Thus is falls upon the entrepreneur to find and leverage the best marketing possible. We need to hone in on the most generous returns-on-investment so that whenever we throw a dollar at our marketing efforts, we can expect it to actually do something for our business.

Which brings us to the topic of this article: video marketing. I’d love to tell you that the power of video marketing is an amazing secret, and that I’m some sort of guru that holds the key to this privileged information…but that’s not really the case. The power of video marketing is not a secret. It’s something that huge companies have been leveraging since well before the internet was a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye.

The only privileged information comes in the form of a sort of “wake up call,” or friendly notification from one business owner to another. Here it is: You can do video marketing. You can take advantage of the most efficient and cost-effective marketing method available right now, and the size of your business is not a factor.

Why Is Video Marketing So Powerful?

Before we get into how to use video marketing, it’s a good idea to understand why it’s so effective. There are a few specific reasons:

• Video is becoming the keystone of internet traffic. If you take a swim in the giant ocean of data known as “internet usage statistics”, you’ll quickly see that video is carving out a huge part of online traffic. More people are streaming videos. More people are watching YouTube. More people are sharing videos on Facebook rather than writing out actual posts.  If you want to reach internet users, you have to speak their language, and video content is becoming the native language of the internet. (Think of it like digital Esperanto, except not a huge flop.) This is the benefit of reach.
• Video content is easy to digest. People are always in a hurry these days, and when you take into account that the majority of online traffic originates on mobile devices, it makes a poor case for text. While written articles like this one are still pretty useful for delivering a large amount of information, videos are faster and more accessible. They’re also far more effective when you’re trying to deliver a short message (such as “buy my product!”) This is the benefit of engagement.
• Video content is adaptive. Do you know which two social media platforms are expected to grow gangbusters in 2022? Instagram and TikTok. These platforms are not predominantly about text, which shows you the direction that online users are leaning these days. These platforms do work well with videos, however, as does every other major social network. If you post a video on YouTube, it can be shared into Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and pretty much every other enclave of the internet without losing its punch. This is the benefit of flexibility.

You can see that video has a lot going for it. The above points are the general advantages, but there’s a huge practical consideration that you should be aware off…

Video Marketing is the Key to Reaching Millennials

Generation Y – or as sociologist Dr. Jean Twenge calls it, “Generation Me” – is on the cusp of being the largest spending demographic in the US. Advertising Age says that millennials are poised to collectively spend $200 billion annually beginning in 2017.

With this generational shift in buying power, there comes a requisite need to adapt to the millennial buying habit. Every company that wants to survive the next decade will need to understand the needs, wants, values, and behaviors of a entirely different subculture. They’re not selling to boomers any more!

Here’s a brief preview of what’s coming (courtesy of Forbes):

• Millennials aren’t influenced by traditional advertising. Generation Y isn’t all that concerned with clever ads. They want real information about products, and they want to give their money to trustworthy companies. Traditional advertising is considered to be “spin” – all flash and no substance. This belief ties in closely with the next point.
• Millennials are obsessed with authenticity. Millennials want to know a brand before they make a purchase. They want to trust the person or business that they’re handing their money to before they even consider opening their wallet. The good news is that millennials are also fiercely loyal consumers. 70% of Generation Y will stick with a company they trust.
• Millennials rely on new media to make buying decisions. Again, clever ads aren’t the key to winning over a millennial. Even if you catch their attention, they want to see substance. This is why 33% of millennials rely on blogs when making a purchase. They also devour video reviews and product overviews with a vengeance.

How does video play into this changing demographic? Video marketing addresses all of these points while reaching millennials through their most beloved channel: The Internet. More millennials are influenced by YouTube than any cable TV network, according to Wired magazine. Millennials are heavily engaged with brands on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest.

What this boils down to is this: 80% of millennials use videos to help them make buying decisions. Videos reach them through YouTube, Facebook, blogs, and a dozen other popular online routes; They reach Generation Y on their smart phones, tablets, notebooks, and the myriad other tech devices that the vast majority of millennials use constantly. Regardless of the specifics, the important takeaway is that video reaches them, and it influences their purchasing habits considerably so.

Clearly video marketing works. It’s a pretty safe assumption that you need to make use of it if you want your business to thrive, and when the calendar flips into 2017, video marketing will become an outright necessity. Chugging along without video marketing will be on par not having a business website or a Facebook page.

This leaves us with an obvious follow-up question…

How Do I Use Video Marketing?

There are countless ways to put videos to work for your business. When you’re just starting out, it’s a good idea to look back to that list of millennial buying habits. You can’t really go wrong by addressing those matters through video.

• Use videos to show customers your business rather than tell them about it. Traditional advertising is more about emotional manipulation and brand awareness than it is about information. Millennials get that, and that’s why they don’t really buy into it. With your video marketing, you can buck that trend and use engaging videos to explain your product, show off your company culture, and give helpful advice in your niche. If that doesn’t make sense, then look at it this way: nearly every video on YouTube is some sort of marketing. Cat videos don’t count, of course, but when you see someone doing a video review of a product or a helpful walk-through of a repair, they’re doing it to create traffic. That traffic is then plied into profit, usually through sales or ad revenue. With your video marketing, don’t think commercial, think content. People want genuine content!
• Use video marketing to demonstrate authenticity and build trust. Millennials love to purchase products from people (or brands) they like. When your company has a spokesperson or spokespeople, it develops a personality of its own. Consumers who identify with that personality can become your loyal customers very quickly.
• Make your videos compelling across all platforms. You want to get the most bang for your buck, right? When developing your video marketing, make sure that it will work well outside of YouTube or your own website. You’ll want it to be shareable on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms. Not only will you be sharing it, but you’ll want to entice online users to do the same.

Some useful reports on video marketing:
Animoto Survey: Consumers Want More Video Marketing on Web, Social and Email
Ascend2: Video Marketing Strategy (Survey Summary Report)
ReelSEO: 2015 B2B Video Content Marketing Survey
FreeWheel: Video Monetization Report Q1 2015

That’s a Wrap!

Video marketing is the wave of the future, but you don’t have to be intimidated by that fact. Even the smallest of businesses can execute and benefit from a video marketing strategy.