How to Use Instructional Videos for Marketing a Small Business

Producing brief, inexpensive instructional videos can be a powerful marketing tool for businesses of any size. Video marketing can be a great way for a business owner to generate traffic for their website.

Today, more than 122 million people use YouTube every day, and that’s just one video content site. It’s also possible for a business to post explainer videos on social media platforms, their own website, and more. In short: the smart business owner can’t ignore the power of how-to videos, or at minimum, creating a video marketing strategy. It’s a great step towards increasing brand awareness.

But how can a business owner get started? This guide walks through the basics. It’s possible to use these strategies for a variety of platforms, but this guide is largely focused on using YouTube as the primary video strategy.

Getting Started with Brand Videos

For most business owners, the first step to creating video content is setting up an account on YouTube; it’s arguably the easiest platform to get started on. It’s free to use in video marketing efforts.

A good rule of thumb for a business owner is to include the company’s name as the username if possible. If the exact username isn’t available, then it’s a good idea to include the business name somewhere in it. After all, the username becomes the name of the YouTube channel, so it’s a big anchor point for brand recognition.

It’s also essential to ensure that the channel (and the video itself) includes branding elements like the company’s logo, company colors, and more. Consistent branding helps reflect the company culture and highlight key features of what the business offers.

After that, the company video team can get started making short videos for the marketing funnel.

Creating Content for Educational Videos

People don’t come to YouTube to watch a bunch of commercials, so a business that’s making tutorial videos will want to take a soft-sell approach, not a direct “Buy our product now!” People come to YouTube to be entertained. Yes, they’ll see plenty of marketing videos in the commercials if they don’t have YouTube Premium, but the videos they actually click on or search for will be entertaining or educating in some way.

That’s why a quality training video can be a great way for a business owner to attract attention and market their brand without hitting people over the head with an advertising frying pan. As an added plus, the entire video doesn’t have to be a James Cameron production to be effective. As long as the video provides valuable insights and it’s reasonably good quality, it can boost customer engagement.

But what should a business highlight in its video marketing? Here’s a great example: A business that sells clothing might make a brief instructional video about useful tips for organizing a closet. The brand could also make videos about styling their products, finding the right size in their apparel, how to build a capsule wardrobe, and more. Meanwhile, a business that sells biking equipment might be able to ensure their video helps customers by posting a series about bike maintenance, such as repairing a flat tire, removing pedals, and cleaning and lubricating a bike chain. All of that valuable information would appeal to their target audience a lot.

Today, it’s also worth noting that YouTube Shorts are especially valuable, and their popularity has risen a lot. These extra-short videos are great ways to capture key moments from a longer video, letting a business owner pull multiple videos from the same amount of content.

Whether a business is crafting short-form videos or making longer content, it’s essential to present high-quality videos. That helps attract potential customers.

Uploading an Explainer Video

When the time comes to upload the video, a business owner needs to pay attention to their keyword choices and search engine optimization (SEO). The business could have shot the most informative, succinct, helpful explainer video in the history of the world, but without good SEO, no one will find it. Good SEO is vital to video performance.

• Title: Write a clear descriptive title that uses quality keywords
• Description: This section can go into more depth about the video, but it’s essential to incorporate the company’s website address into the first sentence so it will display even if the user doesn’t click on “view more.” Make good and generous use of keywords here, too.
• Tags: Put the most relevant keywords here.

Creating a great instructional video can be a great marketing tool because it builds on itself over time. The business doesn’t have to stop with one video. And while it’s often wise to keep adding valuable educational tools, it’s possible to use other content, like testimonial videos, demo videos, and even animated videos or behind-the-scenes looks at how the business operates. Engaging with customers through the comments or during live videos (or even encouraging fans to create user-generated content related to the brand) can help boost the brand’s reputation.

Monitoring Video Performance

It doesn’t stop with the video uploading (at least, it shouldn’t). After the video is up, a business owner should take the time to monitor if their video is actually attracting their target audience’s attention.

YouTube makes this relatively simple with YouTube Insights (their analytics tool that lets users monitor video performance). And monitoring performance is about more than just checking the number of video views the channel has. Insights can help a channel owner see how well their video strategy is working by uncovering how people found their YouTube videos in the first place, how many people watch on mobile devices (or on a desktop), and more. They can also track metrics to see how viewer engagement is (or isn’t) increasing the brand’s reach.

Disclaimer: The content on this page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. For specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.