6 Hacks to Use Video to Build Credibility as a Small Business
Let us face it. Surviving in the 21st century as a small business is painstaking.
First, you have to fiercely battle larger brick-and-mortar brands with many times your marketing budget.
And just when you thought you had secured your prospects from such physical rivals, an online competitor emerges from thousands of miles away, wooing your prospects with mouthwatering discounts and home delivery.
Exhausting, isn't it?
Given the nerve-rattling competitiveness of today's business environment, you want to build strong brand credibility.
This is a reputation of excellence and legitimacy as a small business to deliver the solutions you promise. There is no arguing that such credibility facilitates trust, making prospective clients more open to doing business with you.
Now in a world where people want to see before believing, what better way to build your credibility as a small business than with strategic video marketing?
The power of video in today's marketing for small businesses
Here is the unenviable reality of being a small business.
First, you don't have the marketing budget to keep your brand on the eyeballs of your prospects all day as the likes of Coca-Cola and Apple would!
Secondly, when you manage to get the attention of your prospects, there is a mountain of buyer objections to overcome since your brand doesn't boast the global renown of bigger brands.
Given such constraints, video represents your best bet in sending your brand message as memorably as possible.
Admit it, we all love video!
It is why Avengers Endgame grossed over $500 million (in the US alone) in just eight days of being released.
Such affinity for video also translates to your customers, with a well-crafted brand video aggressively boosting their trust in you as a small business.
Of course, we have got the numbers to support this.
An insightful survey we carried out revealed that 50% of consumers agree seeing videos from a small business would make them more likely to patronize that business, while only 16% disagreed with that statement.
But why do videos work well in communicating your brand credibility?
Exciting research at 3M Corporation showed that the human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text!
This explains why your viewers absorb 95% of the message when they watch a video, according to Insivia.
We ran a comprehensive study on small businesses, and interestingly, 50% of the small businesses we interviewed avowed that video was their best-performing content format.
For context, only 9.68% of these businesses said white papers were their most effective content type.
But is the game-changing power of video for small businesses still classified? Unfortunately, NO!
Many small businesses are now cashing in big time on the transformative powers of video in boosting their brand credibility.
Our research showed that over 90% of small businesses report creating video content, with almost 45% reporting producing video content on at least a weekly basis.
Does that mean you are too late to the party if you are yet to leverage video as a small business?
Definitely not. The beauty of the contemporary business space is that there is space for overtaking. If done properly, you can still give your competition a run for their money (regarding elevating your brand credibility) despite launching your video marketing today.
6 hacks to use video to build credibility
Alright, in this section, we will save you valuable resources and time spent in experimentation by educating you on test-and-proven hacks for boosting your brand credibility via video.
Tell a compelling story that resonates with your audience via video
Videos with compelling and relatable storylines tend to capture the attention of your prospects faster, even making your video more memorable.
According to a renowned psychologist, Jerome Bruner, humans are 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it is presented in a compelling story.
A good story amplifies the emotional edge of your video, and when the story strongly relates to the viewer, it triggers a sense of camaraderie in them.
Such a sense of comradeship facilitates trust in your viewers as they feel you have been in their shoes and are consequently better informed to adapt your solution to their distinctive circumstances.
Refinery29's Turn It Into Art video campaign is a noteworthy example of how a small business disrupted its industry with a brand video built on an emotion-evoking storyline.
The video presented Refinery29's 29Rooms as more than regular events, promising an excitement-laden immersive experience for people who buy tickets.
Most notably, the video challenged viewers to break free from stereotypes and celebrate what separates them from the crowd.
By encouraging viewers to feast on their uniqueness, the video's story strikes a strong note with creatives who were its targeted audience.
Maximize video-based case studies to emphasize expertise
It is no longer news that many businesses today exaggerate the results they deliver. With such fake-it-till-you-make-it culture becoming entrenched among small businesses, buyers want proof of your capacity to deliver.
Video-based case studies are exceptionally effective ways to demonstrate your business's capacity, boosting the trust the customer has in.
These are videos where a real-life customer educates the audience on your solution's value and how well it changed the game for them.
Duda, a professional website builder, provides a great example of a credibility-boosting video in their case study with Amir Ghorbani, Co-Founder & CEO of Moovs.
Amir explains his company doubled its customer base and annual recurring revenue (ARR) in barely seven months by offering websites (designed with Duda) to their customers.
The case study establishes Amir's situation, pain point, and how Duda practically solved his problem.
With sufficient visual documentation of your capacity – as demonstrated in the video case study – buyers are better convinced that your service is worth their hard-earned dollars.
Leverage explainer videos to visually explain your service's unique selling proposition
Explainer videos are incredible marketing tools to present your brand's peculiarity to customers. Explainer videos save customers the labor of racking their brains trying to imagine your solution.
A compelling explainer video presents your brand's unique selling point concisely, strikingly, and memorably. Explainer videos are even more helpful for small businesses selling technical products.
Very few have the tolerance for reading through an intimidating heap of text explaining your product functionality. Come on; these guys have blockbusters to enjoy on Netflix!
Show them what your brand offers quickly in a compelling explainer video, just like Panaroma9 does in this exciting explainer video.
The explainer video presents IT-man in a 1980-game animation style solving a company's IT administrative bottlenecks with Panorama9.
This video captivatingly presents Panaroma9's technical strengths, weaving in a storyline that every IT admin can relate to.
Use influencer marketing videos to facilitate trust-building and market adoption
Celebrities command massive influence among their fans. Businesses are now harnessing such influence to boost their brand credibility.
Imagine a Dwayne-Johnson fanatic watching a video of Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson recommending your brand. Immediately, their adoration of The Rock translates into an animated trust in your brand.
Influencer marketing videos are some of the most effective inorganic channels to boost brand credibility and supercharge sales.
Statistics reveal that businesses earn $5.20 for each dollar they invest in influencer marketing.
Daniel Wellington wristwatch is one brand reaping massive success from well-targeted influencer video marketing on TikTok.
By tapping into the credibility these influencers have built with their communities on Tiktok, Daniel Wellington transforms from a brand the influencer's audience has never heard about to a brand they can trust.
However, as a small business, your pockets are unlikely deep enough to afford the legendary likes of Dwayne Johnson posing with your product with all those delectable abs.
You could go with micro-influencers as well. This works excellently when you have a significantly niched product with a very streamlined market.
Deploy user-generated video content like testimonials
User-generated video content loosely encompasses video reviews and testimonials, social media videos, video blogs, and video surveys, all from your customers.
The primary appeal of user-generated video content is that prospects get an authentic feel of your brand's credibility from another customer's experience with you.
When customers speak for you in such content, your brand's reliability and tangibility enjoy a massive boost in the eyes of prospective buyers.
Little wonders businesses enjoy 29% higher web conversions when they integrate user-generated content in their campaigns – compared to when they don't.
Utilize relatable and fun social videos to add "humanness" to your brand
Still remember the soundtrack for the 2013 Hollywood smash hit, The Great Gatsby? A Little Party Never Killed Nobody!
Just like a little party, a little fun never killed nobody – especially when your social videos are delicately garnished with humor.
Fun and relatable social videos promote your brand credibility because they make your brand more "human". Customers prefer dealing with humans instead of brands.
Why? Because humans care more than brands stereotypically perceived as dollar-chasing zombies.
Consequently, funny videos attach an emotionally relatable face to your brand.
This mental image helps your brand stay longer in your customer's memory, making your brand their first point of call when they need services related to your industry.
The D2D University made the best of such fun and relatable social videos in a collaboration with Lotusbrains Studio, an animation company that boosts sales with funny marketing videos.
The funny video hilariously demonstrates the rigors of door-to-door sales reps and the rejection they suffer from homeowners and how the D2D University solves that.
What to avoid when building credibility with video
When investing in video as a small business, there are some critical pit holes you should avoid.
First is the authenticity of your video marketing. Never commit the capital sin of falsifying the information in your brand videos to inflate your capacity artificially.
Never boast of accomplishments you have not performed in real life. There are a few ways more effective at cold-bloodedly murdering your reputation as doctored user-generated content.
Keep it real – and more importantly, keep it true.
Such a sense of candidness is particularly valuable for new small business owners who don't have lorryloads of feats in their portfolio.
Lastly, you want to avoid complicating your brand message in your brand videos. You want to win customers via your videos, not the Nobel Prize for literature.
Therefore, you must make your videos overly simplistic and cleanly shaved of jargon and heavy words. Remember, today's viewers are infamously starved of patience.
At the slightest lack of clarity in your video, whoosh, they are OFF!