I recently completed a market research report on behalf of a client to determine the trends, usage and effectiveness of videos implemented as part of a marketing strategy employed by small businesses. Through my research, it became evident that video is an ideal medium for small businesses to use to brand storytelling pieces, which can live on a website, social media channels and can be used in press releases and email campaigns. Whether sharing the brand values, brand origin, or brand mission, video immerses your audience in your story and offers a richer, more nuanced experience than other media. It’s clear that a video content strategy has become a non-negotiable part of modern marketing, helping with everything from building brand awareness, engaging with potential customers, driving traffic to a website, capturing more leads and converting buyers faster.

Small Business Video Marketing Trends

Small Business Video Usage. The Web Video Marketing Council, in conjunction with Reelseo, and Flimp Media, has released the ‘2015 B2B Video Content Marketing Survey Results‘ which reflects how many B2B brands and companies are using video as a medium for lead generation, and communication. Some of the results include:

• 96% of B2B respondents are engaged in video content marketing – 32% of respondents stating that they began using video only in the past 2 years
• 73% confirm that video has positively impacted marketing results
• 41% of those surveyed plan to increase spending on video marketing
• 83% are using video content for website marketing
• 50% are using video content for email marketing
• 75% are optimizing video content for SEO

Specific Industry Video Usage

Snapshot of brewing companies using YouTube & Vimeo: The Brewers Assn stated that the U.S. passed the 4,000 brewery mark at the end of 2015. That creates a complex and competitive marketplace for breweries all vying for the same market space. In order to stand out from the crowd, brewing companies are producing branding videos; below are examples:

• Putting the term “Brewing Company” in the search bar of Vimeo brought up 542 new videos posted in the last year, below is a screen shot of some of the results. Out of those, it can be assumed that at least 50% are used as part of the companies’ marketing strategy. The results can be found here: https://vimeo.com/search?q=brewing+company

• When searching with the term “brewing company” with the added filters of: “less than 4 minute videos”, “added this year” and “video” (vs. “movie”), 71,400 results appeared, below is a screen shot and here is the link to the results: https://www.youtube.com/results?sp=EgYIBRABGAE%253D&q=brewing+company

Snapshot of food artisans on YouTube:

• Searching for the term “cheese company” yielded 146,000 results, however, it appeared that less than 50% were created as part of a business’ marketing strategy. I noticed that some videos were produced in association with a grocery story or distributor, for example: Sierra Nevada Cheese Co. – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4KEqgk_Mys

• Blackberry Patch, a company marketing artisanal condiments, had their own branded YouTube channel where they uploaded “video recipes”. They also showcased these videos on their websites. Videos with recipes is a very popular tactic for small specialty food companies. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnCDRgDVBPiO3-Bt6edj2wA?nohtml5=False

• Babettes Bakery uploaded their video to both YouTube and Vimeo in August 2015 and already have 5,802 views on YouTube and 6,237 views on Vimeo. With such strong numbers, it can be assumed that they are actively using their video as part of their larger marketing strategy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNneXkBCEkQ

• Dandelion Chocolate, a small batch chocolate company, has had their video on Vimeo since 2012 and have 4,751 views and 29 shares. https://vimeo.com/55989344

• Spease Bees branded honey was published in January of 2016 and already has 332 views. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrkaJZ9ErHw&nohtml5=False

OBSTACLES OF CREATING & MARKETING VIDEOS

From a study conducted by Vidyard in partnership with Ascend2 (“Video Marketing Strategy Benchmarks for Success) we can see that two of the top three obstacles stated by businesses are lack of an effective strategy and compelling content. This is strong evidence that support why it is so critical for small businesses to seek professional assistance when creating and marketing their videos.

Please feel free to email me with questions regarding small business marketing, I’m always happy to help!

Danielle Foley, President  ~  www.FoleyMarketingAdvisors.com

Email:  dfoley@foleymarketingadvisors.com