The Best Video Strategies to Grow Your Business

Video marketing strategies

Video marketing has evolved into a driving force behind the digital transformation of marketing that businesses of all shapes and sizes are leveraging for growth.

Adding multimedia production to your business might sound complex. But it doesn’t have to be. As a brand that leverages video in our own marketing, we’re here to break it down for you. This guide will cover video basics, so you can build a video marketing strategy that will deliver results. You’ll learn:

• What video marketing is
• Why it’s an essential tool for business growth
• What you need in order to develop a successful video marketing strategy
• What different types of video content you can create to market your product or solution

Let’s start with identifying the initial steps for creating a successful video marketing strategy. Think of these as the building blocks for a winning playbook that engages and converts prospective customers with a compelling visualization of your brand story.

1. Determine your main objective and goals

The first step in developing your video marketing strategy is determining the No. 1 goal (or objective/purpose) for your video. You’ll need to determine what stage in the sales funnel your prospective customer (and sales opportunity) is located. This will determine the type of video content to produce, and where to distribute it.

2. Identify your target audience by developing your buyer’s persona

With your buyer’s persona fully developed, you’ll know exactly who your target audience is for your video marketing content. Because let’s be real — if you create a video without a specific purpose and laser-focused target audience, it’s likely to have minimal views, minimal impact, and fail to generate any new sales opportunities. In short, don’t throw spaghetti at the wall when it comes to video. This type of visual content takes effort; make it count.

3. Develop a brand story that resonates with your target audience

Determining the right story arc for your marketing video can be intimidating. Not all of us were born Steven Spielbergs. At the same time, it’s wildly rewarding when you get it right.

Let’s keep this simple. Breaking your story into the following three distinct elements, which serve as the basic framework, is a best practice you should adopt:

Conflict: This is your target audience’s No. 1 pain point or challenge.

Quest: This is how you introduce your company’s product or service.

Solution/Resolution: This is how your company’s product or service alleviates the pain point or challenge (and why it’s better than your competitors’).

Tell your unique story with video content on social media

You don’t need us to remind you of the power and impact social media can have on your business growth. Audiences love to be engaged by compelling stories.

Here are some important things to keep in mind as you create and share video content that forms meaningful connections with your target audience on the big three social media platforms:

• Facebook has the largest audience of any social platform, reaching 2.91 billion monthly active users. As Facebook has evolved, so has its features and capabilities for video content creators. It provides the most robust, advanced audience targeting options for PPC (pay-per-click) ad campaigns in the social media space. Additionally, Facebook Events, Facebook Live (for live streaming), and Facebook Stories continue to grow exponentially.

• Instagram provides a visually stimulating video-sharing platform that consumers love. More than one billion monthly active users make it the fifth-largest social media platform. So, naturally, it’s an ideal fit for your winning video content strategy. Adding to its value is the Instagram Stories and Reels features, which are a great way to gain impressions (and drive clicks) for your video ads.

• YouTube is the world’s second-largest social platform (at 2.29 billion monthly active users) and a true originator in the digital video space. Creating a YouTube channel for your business and sharing video content that highlights your business is a no-brainer. Uploading video is free, requires minimal effort, and is a surefire way to amplify your reach.

Pro tip: The Stories features on Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook — along with the live video features available on TikTok, Facebook Live, and YouTube — offer a deeper level of engagement with your followers. We love that these shorter live videos don’t require many resources to produce. Because the video content shared in Stories is more organic and less-produced, it’s a great way to more casually flex who you are and what your brand stands for.

“Leverage your tools,” says Prashant Kakad, founder of Jai Ho! Dance Party and Bollywood Dreams Entertainment. Grab that smartphone, and capture pictures and videos at your business or event. Turn those into Reels or a recap video afterward.

Learn more about How to Promote Your Business on Social Media in 12 Steps.

Content strategies for the best videos

In a digital marketplace dominated by explosive growth in interactive video technology, now’s the time for your business to create a branded video content strategy.

The rise and constant evolution of the video-sharing space is great for business owners and marketers of all sizes. The wide variety of video formats and platforms also makes determining the right content strategy for your business a wee-bit more challenging.

If you’re asking yourself, “What kind of video should I be creating for my business?” you’re not alone. We’ve got your back.

Here’s a handy checklist to help you develop a video content strategy and a video marketing plan to distribute your content to your online audience.

Use these insights into the different types of video formats commonly used by business marketers to make a well-informed decision on which is best for you. Keep in mind — the best practice is to declare your No. 1 goal and develop your video marketing strategy before you select any of the video formats below.

1. Explainer videos

Explainer videos educate your audience about your product or service, your brand, and even your company. Think of it as a more-sophisticated elevator pitch.

With an average video length of just one minute, it’s important to concisely communicate how your solution solves the target audience’s greatest challenge, how your product is a better choice when compared to the competition, and lastly, a clear call to action that guides the buyers' journey.

2. Social content videos

Social content videos are created to attract and engage prospective customers on social media platforms. Designed to be engaging and shareable, these videos are often more casual, fun, and even playful.

Think about your buyer persona brought to life — show the viewer how their problems have been solved after using your product or service. Or why they should care about and trust your brand. That’s the story you will need to tell.

3. Product highlight videos

A product video illuminates the leading features or benefits of your solution. The purpose is typically to generate awareness, interest, and confidence in your product or brand. This is your opportunity to show off your solution’s utility and value.

And, of course, inform the viewer (in a visually stimulating way) what makes your solution better than the competition. Check out this recent product highlight video from Eventbrite as an example.

Using videos to grow small business

As a small business, creating, launching, and realizing results from a marketing strategy of any kind is not easy. The competition for top-of-mind awareness and new customers is fierce. Standing out from the crowd can be challenging, especially if your marketing budget and available resources are limited.

One strategy that doesn't require a large investment or oversight, yet is flexible and scalable, is social media video, which can become a powerful tool in your overall small business video marketing strategy.

Fun fact: Videos now appear in over half of total Google keyword searches. That’s because search algorithms, from Google to Facebook and Instagram, prioritize web content with video. With social media platforms prioritized in your small business video marketing strategy, organic posts will reach more of your target audience if you use video.

So what does this mean for your small business? In addition to helping your website’s earned search ranking, videos can also position your business squarely in the spotlight, as a featured snippet. Being highlighted as a thought leader near the top of a Google search result page will skyrocket the views and clicks from your target audience.

So what now? Start with some of these fresh and simple yet engaging ideas for a small business video content strategy:

• A welcome video that introduces your company and product or service
• Your company’s competitive advantage over your competition
• Your company mission (and how it relates to your customer)
• Customer testimonials or success stories
• Interviews with your leaders, employees, or customers

Pro tip: Jewish Food Society is a small non-profit that weathered the pandemic thanks to innovation. Its Program Director, Amanda Dell, urges businesses of all sizes to invest in documentation. This could mean photography, videography or audio — anything you feel captures your magic. “You don’t need to know how you’re going to use it,” she says. For instance, she was able to launch a podcast called “Schmaltzy” during the pandemic because Jewish Food Society had professional audio recordings of all their live events.

Optimizing Google My Business with videos

Google My Business (also known as Google Business Profile) is a powerful tool that we encourage you to prioritize in your video marketing strategy. It’s often overlooked by small businesses, and we’re confident you’ll thank us later for this friendly reminder.

Fun fact: As the world’s most-visited website, Google owns 92% of the search engine market share worldwide. Creating your Business Profile on Google with video content is a great channel to add to your small business marketing mix, attracting and engaging prospective customers to your business through Google search.

Google My Business video also boosts your local SEO and earned search ranking. In addition, video content drives greater awareness, engagement, and interest from prospective buyers in your target audience. In general it’s a strong channel to encourage meaningful interaction and trust with prospective customers.

How to grow your business with event video marketing

Hosting unforgettable events — and sharing the highlights with your target audience and followers — is a great way to spark business growth online.

While you induce FOMO ahead of your event, we can’t emphasize enough the impact your post-event video content can have on your video marketing strategy. Giving your target audience an exclusive view into what your event was like, and how attendees benefitted, is an infallible way to ensure they won’t miss the next one.

Eventbrite’s industry-leading events management and growth platform provides all the tools you need to create, promote, and measure the success of your event in one convenient location.

Tap into our event-discovery platform, where millions of consumers find things to do, and expand your reach with built-in marketing tools using Eventbrite’s first-party data.

Now’s the time to build your brand presence, create stronger community connections, and convert event attendees into loyal customers with unforgettable experiences your clients will love.

Check out this inspirational success story featuring one of our creators using the power of video to spark growth.

Bob’s Dance Shop becomes a viral sensation born in streaming video

A viral movement fueled by virtual videos of dance choreography has transformed Bob’s Dance Shop from local flash mobs into a global phenomenon.

One of their dance videos caught the eye of Google, who used it in an ad. As a result, the viral hits skyrocketed. Before they knew it, people were recreating their dances all around the world.

Learn more about how Bob’s Dance Shop has grown their following with a successful video marketing strategy featuring viral dance videos and classes.

Be inspired by greatness

Explore the successful marketing strategies event creators are using to grow their following in our “Heart of Gathering” video series.

Watch the videos