What Videos Should a Small Business Actually Make?

[00:00:00] Chris Schwager: Okay. Welcome to the show. I'm your host Chris Schwager and on this episode of DIY Video for Professionals, I'm going to give you the 50 top ways that you can be using video in your business right now. There's a lot of talk about video. There's a lot of people doing video and video is everywhere. And yet there's still so many people that don't know how to fully extend the lifespan and extend the leverage of video and all the wonderful capabilities that video has on offer.

[00:00:27] Chris Schwager: So here are my top 50 in no particular order, starting with the company introduction video. What we call the company profile video. So important, particularly if you are having difficulty trying to articulate the basic capabilities of your business in video form. While a company introduction video introduces your business to the world with a snappy video that showcases your ethos and all the wonderful things, it's really your chance to spruik.

[00:00:54] Chris Schwager: Number two is brand story. Share your journey, values and mission to create a deeper connection with your audience. Typically, this is. seen in larger firms. We haven't done a lot of brand story stuff. It's effectively not the what, it's very much the why in the brand story videos and very effective, particularly for those that are wanting to search deeper or you're also looking for a more emotive way to attract Your market rather than getting into the detail and technical detail, which is a lot of what we do currently number three testimonial videos Oh my god, I love testimonial videos when they're done, right mind you they're not done, right?

[00:01:34] Chris Schwager: They can also be not go in the opposite direction, but they're just not as effective as they could be Right, so go to the Ridge Films website. We published about Over I think is over ten testimonial videos on our site We've only done it recently from all of our clients all over the world Oh my god, the amount of people that comment on those videos.

[00:01:53] Chris Schwager: And they're not saying how wonderful the video is, because there's really not much. The video's wonderful, yes. But it's not like, all the bells and whistles. There's not a lot of editing, whiz bang editing gone into it. But it's, The message that it's conveying is the fact that potential buyers are looking at testimonial videos, seeing themselves, and this is when it's done well, seeing themselves in those testimonial videos, and that's going to help support that whole brand trust thing, right?

[00:02:21] Chris Schwager: Let your satisfied clients do the talking. And in most cases, they're going to be also demonstrating that authentic way and in doing so building that trust, which we can all do with. Now. Testimony videos cannot speak highly enough. It's changed our business. Go stack them all over your website and people will love you for it because it gives them a great clear picture of who you are, what you do, what the product is and how it'll work for them.

[00:02:45] Chris Schwager: Moving on. Number four, behind the scenes videos. Oh, I love these two. Behind the scenes videos. I'm so passionate about all these videos. Behind the scenes videos gets an opportunity for outsiders to see inside, right? Show what goes on behind the curtain. So to speak, people love a peek into the business, into the processes behind the business.

[00:03:04] Chris Schwager: And it really does give them again, a better snapshot of how things work, right? And how you operate and the details and the effort that goes into your product, service or brand. Number five, explain a video is not my favorite. This is probably the one I'm least passionate about actually. Only because it had a trend some time ago.

[00:03:22] Chris Schwager: And I think everybody just started to gravitate towards explainer videos because it was little effort. There's a little humanization. People didn't know to worry about going on camera. Oh, don't go on camera. And yet the real reason explainer videos exist in the first place is to simplify complex products or services with animated or animation to help the Support the message.

[00:03:46] Chris Schwager: Now, I just think what happened with explainer videos is people overuse them and they use them where they didn't need to be used, and I often it's funny about explainer videos. I saw explainer videos that also over explained and it became quite frustrating because they tried to pack way too much information in to a short period of time and it was overwhelming.

[00:04:09] Chris Schwager: So explainer videos, they still have their purpose. I we've done plenty of them and they are great. where it's very difficult for a human to articulate the complexity of what you're trying to get through, get across. Okay. So that's where explainer videos can do a very good job. So not dissing it completely, but I just think there's so many other.

[00:04:33] Chris Schwager: More human ways to express complex ideas, right? So number six, brand culture videos. We did so many of these back in the day internal comms videos for larger firms, energy companies, and all that. So it's a highlighting a company's culture to attract. Like minded talent and clients. So culture videos, good for recruitment, good for internal comms small business, probably not that big a deal, like the [00:05:00] perception of brand culture video, I was talking about this the other day when I was speaking at DigiMarCon.

[00:05:04] Chris Schwager: DigiMarCon. DigiMarCon. About, about culture and what we have is a a video that sits, oh, so an out of office video, which absolutely went down like a treat. Everybody loved to watch that little 20 second video that substitutes a, Boring text based out of office email. And instead there's this video there, right?

[00:05:27] Chris Schwager: And saying, hi, I'm out of the office. And this woman, lying on the beach seeking, sipping her Mai Tai or whatever, and I'll be right back with you just soon. But in the meantime, please reach out to Greg and Greg comes on and introduces himself. It's super cool, right? It's super funny.

[00:05:40] Chris Schwager: Always gets a laugh. People love it. That expresses culture because it shows people a different side of the team that they're not all about the. The analytics and the detail and the, the transaction, they're also there. They can also be human and fun, which is really cool. Number seven, team introduction.

[00:05:59] Chris Schwager: We've got one of these, in fact still lingering from about 10 years ago, team introduction, personalize your brand by introducing the. So where we put out team introduction is after an inquiry. So when you make a website inquiry, the video that appears there is the team and it probably goes for about maybe 30 seconds or something, but everybody gets on and they, Oh, hi, I'm Tom.

[00:06:23] Chris Schwager: Hi, I'm Jenny. Hi, I'm Chris, and we're here to help you, blah, blah, blah. It's really cool. It's really creative and really fun. And again, just. Opens up that behind the scenes, the area, that a lot of people, we don't see on the website which is really cool. So that's a really sweet video that you can be producing as well.

[00:06:39] Chris Schwager: Number eight, CSR initiative. We're ethical. Yeah, I get it. Probably more relevant to the larger corporates, not so much to the small business. Number nine, product launch teasers. General buzz before launching a new product or service. Yeah. You would have seen this on Apple and all that. We've done a bunch of these.

[00:07:00] Chris Schwager: In fact, we just produced what? Five rewards card videos for a client recently. So yeah very useful. Raj. Number 10, brand anthem video, a cinematic piece that encapsulates your brand's identity, probably not so relevant to the small business. But brand anthem video, a cinematic piece that encapsulates your brand's identity.

[00:07:25] Chris Schwager: I'd probably still stick with the company profile. I think that's all that you need. Now, the next 10, number 11. Okay. Social media ads. Oh yes. Changed our business. Creating catchy short form videos tailored for platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, or TikTok. Been hugely advantageous. Such a game changer to our business.

[00:07:45] Chris Schwager: If you're not doing ads at the moment and you're in hibernation or you've just got a very predictable lead flow or not predictable, unpredictable, I should say, start thinking about ads. It changed our business, right? Number 12, email campaigns. Man, we pump so much video into emails and this is probably relevant, boost open rates with embedded videos in your email campaign.

[00:08:08] Chris Schwager: So this is like newsletters and whatnot. Yes, I've got plenty of data on this. Having the words video in your subject line, having the player in the email body. These are all game changers for people in terms of using video versus not huge lift. Number 13 product demos show don't tell demonstration how your product works in real life.

[00:08:29] Chris Schwager: Yeah. Look, speaks for itself, really important. Keep it short, keep it succinct. And there's no reason to do anything else with product demos. Just do what it says, demonstrate the product, right? Number 14, event promotion, build excitement with videos, promoting up and coming events, webinars, or workshops.

[00:08:45] Chris Schwager: You probably have seen many of these. Yeah. I think it's really important to have that particularly with event promotion videos. It's not just about promoting the event that was, but the event that is about to happen. And I just watched actually, DigiMarCon, I went on their site and had a look at a video that they'd produced like four or five years ago.

[00:09:02] Chris Schwager: So it was probably well and truly out of date and past its use by day, at least, but it's still good, right? It still gave you an idea of what the event was and the caliber of the speakers the show that they put on the room and the, all the bits and pieces. So it is a really useful tool for those that are trying to attend not trying to attend that are attending or may attend in the future.

[00:09:21] Chris Schwager: Number 15 season greetings. I used to do this all the time. My former business partner, Brandon, we used to get on there and do our season greetings, geez, it was fun. Like it was just, it's not so much about, um, it's about thanking your clients, spread a little joy with holiday or event specific greetings.

[00:09:40] Chris Schwager: But it's also an opportunity to say we're closed, we'll be back on the, second of January or whatever, just send a message in with that as well. But thank. For the year that was, thank specific people if you want to and also give a little bit of credibility to, to the achievements and how your clients have also helped you achieve that as well.

[00:09:58] Chris Schwager: So really great, such a cool [00:10:00] idea and it doesn't need to be overly creative. You could just do a simple message as well. Number 16, influencer collaborations, partner with influencers to extend your reach. I haven't done a lot of that. But I can see how important that might be influencer collaboration, particularly when you've got known names involved in those engagements in that video certainly adds to the credibility.

[00:10:24] Chris Schwager: 17 webinars, engage and educate your audience with live or recorded webinars. We just updated our website, go to ridgefilms.com.au and go to the resources area. Oh, I love it. There's actually a tab there. Hopefully it's still there by the time you get there. It's called webinars and that's some of our lunch and learn our free stuff.

[00:10:43] Chris Schwager: So you should totally get on there and check that out because it's been fun producing those. But webinars are for engaging and educating your audience with live or recorded content. Number 18, limited time offers. Urge action by promoting limited time deals or discounts. Great. To embed that into EDMs.

[00:11:05] Chris Schwager: You can also have that on your site. Really useful as well. Particularly when there's a great deal on number 19 video contests, encourage user generated content by running video contests. I think we've done. One or two of these over the past and it's actually been really good, particularly again, if the prize is big enough, it's works a treat particularly good.

[00:11:28] Chris Schwager: Number 20 video virtual tours offer virtual walkthrough of your office store or fertility. You would have seen lots of these in real estate. Virtual tours are very good quickly showing the Aesthetics of buildings I think is probably the main reason. Could be any type of building, not just a house.

[00:11:47] Chris Schwager: Could be anything really. So important particularly for those that are trying to sell property or office space or whatever it might be. Actually, come to think of it, we did one for a virtual office years and years ago. That was fun. Really good fun. I enjoyed it. Number 21 FAQ videos address common queries with a series of FAQ FAQs on our website.

[00:12:11] Chris Schwager: I think last week somebody said, ah, should those all should be videos. And I agree. And those videos should go into our resources area as well. So that is on my to do list. 22 onboarding videos, welcome new clients with a tailored onboarding video. This aligns probably, Oh no. Okay. So I thought it might align to that introducing the team video, but onboarding videos, yeah we have a whole bunch of onboarding videos, particularly for people that are, connecting to their DIY video studio helping them through that as well giving them into our learning portal as well.

[00:12:46] Chris Schwager: We had an onboarding video just explaining how people should use the portal and whatnot. So that's really useful. Totally. 23 case study videos, dive deep into this successful client collaborations to highlight your expertise. Just so important again, it aligns to the testimonials. It's social proof. Ah, so powerful, right?

[00:13:06] Chris Schwager: You got to just stack yourself and your website with reasons to believe, right? And case studies is a reason to believe that somebody else has gone through the process and learning all the details from start to finish. What is it? Problem solution results. Okay. Number 24, how to guides provide step by step instructions on using your products or services.

[00:13:28] Chris Schwager: So good. How to videos have been pretty much the whole success of YouTube has been built on how to videos. 25 customer success stories. Yeah, very similar to case studies. I'd say share in depth stories of how you've helped your client succeed. Yeah, actually Perfect Contracting. God, geez, they've been a good client.

[00:13:50] Chris Schwager: They've commissioned us to do, like Netflix style customer success story. Geez, it's been good. Cause these are the, being a demolition company, these have been about, demolishing these massive structures heritage buildings and, disrupting community and all that sort of stuff.

[00:14:05] Chris Schwager: And they've been really great at at showing how they, the process behind how they're going in and. And making it streamlined and smooth for the community for heritage buildings and just safety. So it's been such a joy working with those guys. You should, if you're in the, you're in the construction demolition game, go and check them out.

[00:14:25] Chris Schwager: perfectcontracting.com.au. 26 live Q and A sessions. Engage your audience in real time with live questions and. And answers to questions. So yeah, probably in the lunch and learny thing. If it's live, yeah. It's totally like in that webinar environment or on zoom or whatever. Very good Q and a, what do they call them now?

[00:14:49] Chris Schwager: Like fireside chats, and those types of things are very good at Again, raising things that ordinarily aren't raised, I think that's an important thing. I always find some presentations to be really [00:15:00] great when they get to the Q and A and actually, the formal part of the presentation's out of the way and now they're relaxed and they're just answering candidly, which really does freshens up.

[00:15:11] Chris Schwager: The whole video, 27 personalized video messages. I think if you've ever listened to this podcast, you would know how important personalized video messages are in our business and what we're conveying to our clients. This is your opportunity to send tailored video messages to clients for a personal touch.

[00:15:28] Chris Schwager: And it works like a treat. Number 28 milestones, celebrations, celebrate significant milestones, yours or your clients with a video. Yeah, man, do it. You can do it as can, this could be as simple as getting on an award ceremony and putting a little less than 60 second video together. Add an award ceremony and publish it on LinkedIn.

[00:15:51] Chris Schwager: That could be as that easy just from your smartphone. 29 interactive videos, create videos that allow viewers to sh to choose their own path. Okay. I, an example of that is VideoAsk, go and check out VideoAsk. We have one on our site. We've got to do more of it, but it is a choose your own adventure.

[00:16:12] Chris Schwager: I personally think that you really got to make sure that you've got the audience for that because you may just end up. Producing a whole bunch of videos that nobody ends up choosing their own venture on. So just be careful. I would say just keep the production value or the production quality simple.

[00:16:29] Chris Schwager: Keep it simple. When you're recording those videos, you just want to make sure that you measuring the data and that people are finding it useful. Otherwise you might just be wasting a lot of time. Not saying no to it. I think it'll, I think it's a sick idea. Go to VideoAsk and have a look at how they've done it.

[00:16:42] Chris Schwager: And I think it's free too, because it's still on our site. Number 30, user generated content. So UGC is more and more prevalent now. Highlight the best user generated content featuring your products. I love to do more of this. I'd love to my clients to, to be able to do this on our behalf. We had a little bit of it.

[00:17:00] Chris Schwager: We haven't had much recently, but cause we're the one doing all the generating clients like, Oh, we don't need to worry. User generated content really powerful. Particularly aligns a little bit more to that unbiased kind of testimonial style thing as well. Like I use this product and I use it because it makes me feel better.

[00:17:18] Chris Schwager: And you should use it too, because it's super cheap and affordable and useful and you'll, you'll feel better for it. That's the kind of usually thing it goes into demonstrating product. It goes into a whole bunch of different areas that I've already explained in these other videos.

[00:17:31] Chris Schwager: Number 31, video proposals. Oh man, I'm so big on video proposals. Make your sales pitch pop with video enhanced proposals. You understand the concept of somebody looking at your invoice or your quota, your proposal, and usually. Flicking right to the bottom where they can see the price first.

[00:17:47] Chris Schwager: And they're either making impulsive decisions based on what they see there without even looking at the content of the video. And what you're trying to do in a video proposal is distract them. So have video at the top and bang that out before you, to save them going to the bottom and, you're able to demonstrate your value.

[00:18:04] Chris Schwager: And what's included in the process and all these wonderful things. I've done a whole bunch of speaking around video proposals. I've got more to do around it on the resources page. Stay tuned landing page videos, increased conversions by adding video to your landing page, man. That's just so relevant.

[00:18:19] Chris Schwager: So important. It's in, it hugely increases the conversions. Number 33, lead nurturing using video in your lead nurturing process to keep potential clients engaged. So yeah, that can happen right at the start after an inquiry. As well, straight away. I've got about three or four, probably more than that.

[00:18:37] Chris Schwager: Three or four videos that I have in that need lead nurturing sequence, which are really useful. Gives people a healthy dose of Chris before they start to jump on the call. Particularly those that don't know me they'll jump on that call and go, Hey man, I've seen all your videos. Very familiar to them.

[00:18:52] Chris Schwager: 34 test drive or free trial promo encourage users to try before they buy with a promo video. Yep. You could probably easily tack that onto your company profile and your product view overview and explain a video. Any of those, that kind of concept could be tacked on anywhere. Number 35, follow up videos, send video follow ups after meetings or sales calls.

[00:19:13] Chris Schwager: Woo 36. And we do that by the way. Follow up. 36 product comparison videos help prospects make decisions by comparing a product with competitors. You can see plenty of examples of that on YouTube. We haven't done a lot ourselves, but hugely important on YouTube, particularly when you're trying to decide on a product and you're not sure which one to get.

[00:19:33] Chris Schwager: 37 upsell cross sell videos suggest additional products or services through Video recommendations, upsell, cross out. Yeah. Okay. You bought, thank you so much for buying. I'm so happy that you're pleased. Now have a look at this. Why don't you try video coaching? Oh, we've got a limited time deal on this, right?

[00:19:48] Chris Schwager: Ask your friends about this, right? So a huge opportunity to re engage clients. So upsell, cross out, love it. That is 38 sales pitch videos, [00:20:00] create short, impactful sales pitch, tailored videos to specific segments. I think that's. Lining back to the sales pitchy company profile videos how to videos, those types of things are all, they can all be segments of sales pitch videos as well, but you could just go straight down the barrel with a sales pitch which, I think is really great.

[00:20:24] Chris Schwager: Particularly great. And particularly good because they can watch it in their own time whenever they want. 39 client testimonial mashups combine multiple testimonials into one powerhouse of a video. I'm in the process of doing that. It's taken me a bloody long time though, but yes, that we've been doing mashups for years and love it.

[00:20:43] Chris Schwager: I love it because you can just get little sound bites of people. They're best things and just get them all. In the one video, one minute long, boom, bang them all out. Look at all these happy clients. It's like having the same as like having all these testimonials on the video at once.

[00:20:56] Chris Schwager: It's really great to for social proof 40 video. Thank you. Notes show. Appreciate with personalized video. Thank you. Great. Love it. You can do that as easy as pick up your phone and send them an SMS video or video and SMS 41 training videos, educate your team or clients with instructional videos.

[00:21:13] Chris Schwager: 42 internal announcements, keep your team informed with video updates on your company news. Oh man, this is just all this stuff aligns so well to the desktop video studio that we have. 43 employee onboarding, simply simplify the onboarding process with a series of training videos. 44 leadership messages.

[00:21:33] Chris Schwager: Share company goals and visions directly from the leadership team, directly from your desktop video studio. 45 employee recognition, celebrate employee achievements with a video. Shout out. Yeah, great. Love it. And nobody there's don't tell me anybody doesn't love being. Had their name dropped into a video.

[00:21:50] Chris Schwager: You feel so special. It's awesome. 46 safety training, ensure compliance with safety protocols through video tutorials. So good. So good. Induction videos aligned to that very much. So safety training yeah, making sure everyone's compliant and following the rules. 47 quarterly business reviews.

[00:22:09] Chris Schwager: Summarize your business performance in a distinct way. The digestible video format. And that's also much like market updates from our financial planners. Who you get on there, I think once a month and bang out a whole bunch of video or a video on the report on the month's performance, 48 team building recaps, capture team building events and share the highlights yet again, aligns.

[00:22:32] Chris Schwager: To the event highlight type thing. So similar 49 change management, help guide your team through transition with explanatory videos. So we used to do that. We did that for some big companies years ago that had, thousands of employees, really great video. And number 50, oh my God, I can't believe I got here.

[00:22:52] Chris Schwager: I don't know how long this has been. It feels like about half an hour remote. Team communication, keep remote team connected with regular video updates. Not a big finish for me, but by the end of this, you could see that these are the 50 ways of tailoring your videos and getting your DIY desktop studio, if you've got one working harder for you, ensuring that you're using video effectively to boost engagement, sales, and brand loyalty.