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When it’s done right, video marketing can be a powerful storytelling tool that helps you build a connection with your audience. Compelling brand videos capture your imagination and trigger powerful emotions, and that emotional response has a much greater impact on customers than the actual content of the ad.
You don’t have to be a corporation with a big budget to create video content that moves people. Use these strategies to introduce the art of storytelling to your small business video marketing efforts.
Carefully define your audience
Because there are any number of stories you might tell with your video, start by focusing on whose attention you want to attract. Defining the audience you want to reach will help you create a story that is both authentic to your brand and appealing to your ideal customers. Here are some categories you can use to start imagining a more a detailed picture of your audience:
Demographics: Common points of identity, like age, gender, and location.
Interests and preferences: Ranging from hobbies to entertainment, such as the sports they play or their favorite TV show.
Passions: Are your ideal customers focused on sustainability practices? Do they belong to certain advocacy groups? What do they care about most?
Remember to be specific. When you know who your audience is, you can feel confident in designing a video that they’ll love.
Connect your brand to those customers
What aspect of your brand will your ideal audience connect with most? Is there any crossover in the products or services you offer and the interests, preferences, and passions you’ve defined in the previous step? Look for opportunities to highlight the parts of your brand that are most relevant to the people you’re trying to reach.
Sometimes the things you love most about your brand may or may not be the aspects that your audience is going to connect with. You might be passionate about an innovative ingredient in your new snack bar, while your ideal customer is really only interested in the energy boost they get from eating it. Building a bridge between what your ideal customers care about and what your company offers is a strategic way to tell stories that become meaningful to your audience and draw them into your brand.
Don’t just sell a product, tell your story
If you’re setting out to create a video, chances are there’s something specific you’re looking to sell. Whether your goal is to launch a new product or drive traffic to your website, make sure you balance product information and creativity. Hard-sell tactics can turn people off, and they cancel out the emotional impact that makes video marketing so powerful in creating long-term loyalty. Video content that tells a story will create a deeper connection with your audience.
Here are small business story ideas to inspire your video content:
Behind the scenes: Pull back the curtain on your own story, or introduce the team that makes it all happen.
Brand’s origin story: How did your small business come to be? What are the mission, vision and brand values that get you out of bed every morning?
Product backstory: What inspired a particular product you offer? What are some of its benefits, and what problem does it solve?
Connect with your community: Share reviews from real customers, or talk about the difference your company makes in people’s lives.
Structure your narrative
Once you’ve identified your audience and the kind of story you want to share, consider the best structure for your narrative. Longer videos lend themselves more easily to a classic narrative structure with a beginning, middle, and end. Shorter videos don’t always leave enough room to flesh out a full narrative, so they make for better teaser-style clips that leave viewers wanting more.
All the decisions you make along the way will help you decide the best way to craft your content; defining your audience, highlighting certain elements about your brand, and choosing the story you want to tell should inform your narrative structure. When the next video is just a scroll or tap away, it’s important to consider each beat and choose a structure that will keep viewers engaged in the story you’re telling.