The use of video for small businesses can change the way that a company thrives and even succeeds. At the very least, the introduction of video enhancement can improve the quality of advertisement and marketing on behalf of a company. We sat down with Jason Hsiao, Co-founder of Animoto, to find out the tricks of the trade and what small business owners could do to best use video to assist in their marketing.
First, Who is Animoto?
From Jason’s point of view, Animoto is a web-based company “all about empowering folks with the power of video”.
Their goal is to help small businesses and individuals who are looking to leverage video to better their businesses. Animoto uses a collection of tools and expertise to make it simple for people with a small budget and no experience to do it for themselves.
By providing easy to use templates (or storyboards), users can easily drag and drop their content and Animoto turns them into beautiful videos. Making video marketing easy. Someone who is less familiar with the most up to date technology can even use these templates to create a professional and appealing video for their business.
Animoto has been in business for about a decade. With over 100 employees who work to produce quality video services, the diverse background, and experience that Animoto offers are truly unparalleled. The experience and diversity are what has allowed Animoto to be successful in providing these tools for small businesses.
How can video really help your business?
Jason points out that many people see this trend and say “I know I should be doing this but how do I catch this video wave? Oh, and by the way, I have no experience or time.”
Video truly amplifies what already works for you in your current setting. There is nothing really new to adding video to your repertoire of marketing strategy other than enhancing what you already do. With the business world shifting to be more supportive of small business as well as the increasing audience, video could be a more powerful advertising and marketing tool than ever.
Video can be used for a number of things to promote and advertise your business. Whether an informational clip, a testimonial, product demos, or even recaps of an event a business hosted, Animoto can help to create a video that packages this information in a clean and produced video to use for marketing.
To the Nay-Sayers
Some people are still not on board with branching out into something new. People actually see video as being a newer form of communication and marketing, but this isn’t true. Video has been around for quite some time, the platform on which the video is used is just newer and more innovative. Video is perhaps the most quickly growing form of communication.
With companies like Animoto, the individual is now able to more easily capture the video trend to promote their business.
“We take the guesswork out of what makes for a successful video,” Jason adds.
With the experience and background available, video is a multifaceted advertising method that is now even easier to use.
Video vs. Social Media
With nearly every social media platform having an option for live video, you may question why video marketing would be the better route to take over these live options. This is largely in part due to the ability to cross over platforms and to generalize your audience. Each social platform has an unofficial yet unique atmosphere, so each and every live video would have to be adapted to fit the platform.
Rather than the stress of a live feed (we’ve all been there – some of us are still there, not wanting to be in front of the camera), video marketing streamlines your information, can still use a clip or two that you put together, but can also simplify your approach so that it isn’t choppy or overwhelming for the viewer. One of the worst things someone can do when making a video is providing too much information that the main ideas get bogged down in the overabundance of detail.
Social media can also be trickier to navigate. “They all kinda have certain characteristics and certain structure that make them successful,” Jason describes. Depending on the platform as well as the direct audience, a live video could be ignored or overlooked. A well-placed video with the right frequency of occurrence could prove more successful than an occasional live video.
Tips for making video work for you
Some ways that small business owners could focus on to make video work for what they need could include the following:
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- Make the first few seconds eye-catching – in a world of scrolling, make sure the initial clip captures the viewer’s attention so that they watch the entire video and are wrapped into the message being provided in your video.
- Use what already works for you, and use the video tool to enhance and optimize this area of your business. For example, if you host a blog about your business, you can create a small teasing video that draws the viewer in to read the blog and then ultimately learn about the business.
- If you already have popular images or phrases, use them! Go ahead and turn your most viewed things into these videos so that you may continue to grab that attention that these images and phrases have already done.
- Don’t be afraid to branch out. If you are short on time, experience, and budget, you can still use Animoto to create a video to assist in your marketing strategy.
