In today’s digital age, short-form video content holds a lot of power when wanting to grab the audience’s attention. Small business owners who are yet to include video content in their marketing strategy, especially social media, may be reducing the overall impact of their content, as more platforms have begun favouring this type of content compared to static images and text.
Consumer behaviour has significantly changed and so has the way brands connect with their audiences. Sprout Social reported users retain 95% of a message watched on videos compared to only 10% when read in text.
This blog aims to help you understand the importance of including video content in your marketing, the benefits of utilising video content and a step-by-step guide to get you started.
How does video content help your business grow?
Using video content will help your business grow by:
- Creating an opportunity to connect and engage with your audiences
- Allowing for creative storytelling when showcasing products and services
- Increasing your brand awareness
- Potentially generating new sales or leads
Types of video content
Typically, video content will be split into either short form (bite sized) content and long form.
The difference between these two is the duration of the video, with short form usually being under 60 seconds long and long form typically being a video longer than a minute.
How can video content be used?
Video content can be used for educational content such as tutorials, how to guides and product/service demos. Remember, if the demo is complex, you should probably opt for longer video to give yourself enough time to get all of the key information across to the audience.
One of the most popular ways of using video content is for entertainment purposes. This type of video will more than likely be short form and will often follow what is trending on each platform.
Your goal for these videos is to simply get the viewer to stop and digest your content, hopefully sparking an emotional response that will make them either want to follow you or to further engage with your content.
Live streams
Live streaming allows you to connect with your audience in real time. You could host a Q&A session, live event or a new product launch. Selling products via a live stream on a social media platform is an approach that more and more brands are using.
In the summer of 2024, UK-based make up brand P. Louise broke the record for generating the most revenue on TikTok Shop by earning over £1.2 million during their 12-hour live stream. Alongside this achievement, they also amassed a whopping 29,000 new followers during this time!
Finally, video content can be used for sales and business development. You can showcase testimonials and customer reviews through both short form and long form content.
What you need to do to make your own video content
Find inspiration and start planning!
Think about what type of video you are wanting to create: is it for entertainment purposes or are you wanting to educate the viewer?
Here are our top tips:
- Look outside of your industry. I’d say this is my holy grail when looking for inspiration and has been super helpful when working in the accounting industry as I wanted to create content that was different to what has already been created.
- Create a folder within each social media platform (if available) to store videos that you see to use at a later date.
- Become friends with your business account. Inspiration can be found at any time (even outside of working hours) so don’t be shy and send the video you enjoyed from your personal account, so you have it saved for later on.
Work out the logistics!
You’ll need to know how many people you need and what props you’ll need.
If you are a part of a team, it’s helpful to understand your team’s comfort levels in front of the camera, so you know what kind of role each employee can play in video. This will speed up the process going forward.
You don’t need fancy equipment; you just need to hit record.
If you are wanting to upgrade your filming set up, you can look into purchasing wireless microphones to improve audio quality, as well as lighting equipment. A tripod is also a helpful tool.
Now it’s time to edit your footage!
There is a wide selection of editing software that you can use to edit your footage. My favourite video editing software at the moment is CapCut, but you can also use Canva or even edit the footage inside the social media platform’s own app.
Top Tip: Try to avoid posting video content on a social media platform when it has the watermark of another. For example, TikTok videos will often have a “TikTok” watermark on them. This can look odd when posted on YouTube or Instagram and can make your content look like it has been duplicated rather than made especially for that platform.
Publishing and sharing your video
Once you’ve finalised the video and you are happy with it (meaning no more changes are needed), you can either upload straight away or use scheduling software, such as Social Pilot or Buffer, to schedule the post for you!
Measuring performance of your video content
Now how do you check to see how well the video performed? I’ve split this section into the different metrics you can use for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
For Instagram, you can measure your video’s performance based on the following metrics:
- Reach & Impressions: This shows how many people saw your video (reach) and how many times it was shown (impressions).
- Engagement
- Likes: How many people liked your video.
- Comments: How many people left comments.
- Shares: How many times the video was shared.
- Saves: How many people saved the video for later.
- Mentions: How many times your brand was mentioned in relation to the video.
- Watch Time
- Average Watch Time: The average duration viewers watched your video.
- Completion Rate: Percentage of viewers who watched the entire video.
- Reel Metrics: You can track plays, likes, comments, shares, saves, and reach separately for Reels.
TikTok
For TikTok, you can measure your video’s performance based on the following metrics:
- Views: Total number of times your video was viewed.
- Engagement
- Likes: How many people liked your video.
- Comments: How many people left comments.
- Shares: How many times the video was shared.
- Saves: How many people saved the video for later.
- Duets & Stitches: How many times your video was used in Duets or Stitches (these are TikTok-specific features).
- Play Rate: The percentage of times your video was played compared to the number of times it was shown.
- Watch Time
- Average Watch Time: The average duration viewers watched your video.
- Completion Rate: Percentage of viewers who watched the entire video.
- Sound Usage: If you used a trending sound, track how many times your video was viewed using that sound.
YouTube
For YouTube, you can measure your video’s performance based on the following metrics.
- Views: Total number of times your video was viewed.
- Watch Time
- Average View Duration: The average length of time viewers watched your video.
- Total Watch Time: The total amount of time viewers spent watching your video.
- Audience Retention: How long viewers stay engaged with your video over time.
- Engagement
- Likes: How many people liked your video.
- Comments: How many people left comments.
- Shares: How many times the video was shared.
- Subscriptions: How many new subscribers your video gained.
Remember, you don’t have to track of all these numbers. It’s best to choose a few to start off with that align with your goals for producing the video content in the first place.
I hope you have found this blog helpful. Creating video content is a great way to boost your business online. However, it is important to have fun with it and keep it engaging. If you don’t find your content enjoyable, how can you expect your audience to?
As a video content enthusiast, I’d love to hear about your own video content production ideas and experiences. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn – I’d love to hear from you.
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