5 Tips for Using Video for Marketing Your Business

Rather than making your videos whenever the fancy strikes, shoot all the sessions you know you’ll need for the next few weeks or month at once. For businesses with owners and managers who double as their marketing agents, this saves time that you could spend working on other projects. It’s also less disruptive and not as much of a hassle as it would be to bring out your filming equipment whenever inspiration strikes.

At Sunset Hill Stoneware, we like to film as much material as we can in a single session. It’s the best way for us to manage our marketing team’s time without disrupting our shop crew multiple times a month.

Otherwise, we’d disrupt them too many times in the middle of their workday to ask them questions and put a camera in their faces. This is a common practice at marketing agencies as well, to minimize the time specialists have to spend working with clients in the field.

Once we’ve finished recording everything we need, we can make multiple different videos from the same session. Since people and various social platforms tend to prefer their videos to be either very short or more than 10 minutes long, we like to use the material we’ve recorded in multiple shorter videos.

2. Reuse B-Roll

Every video you make is a story. The principal photography you use tells that story, while B-roll gives details and context to the viewer so they can engage with your message.

When Sunset Hill Stoneware films B-roll of our potters, handlers, glazers or other teammates, we like to reuse shots we’ve taken later. After all, those shots of our shop team working are engaging to watch and give an insider look at how Sunset Hill Stoneware makes a custom stoneware coffee mug. You may have seen some of these shots in posts on our Facebook page, where we like to use clips to advertise our stoneware coffee mugs to new fans.

In your own business, there are plenty of ways to use and reuse B-roll depending on the message you’re trying to convey. For example, if you run a company that makes or sells outdoor equipment, you could use footage of people using your kayaks or tents in countless short videos to promote your products on social media. Clips like these can be used for years to come as you advertise and grow your business.

The possibilities for reusing B-roll are endless. As you start to record more videos for your business, keep these clips handy on an external hard drive or USB stick so you have them backed up and ready to use for future marketing opportunities.

3. Recycle Clips Later On

You never know when that audio from your most recent video session might be useful for a future project. The same goes for other clips you used for a short piece of your products or services in action.

Bringing back a discontinued product after months or years? Utilize that video you took back in the day when you first debuted the project to make a new video announcing its return. Looking at doing a year-in-review video once December rolls around? That clip from when you debuted a popular new product is a perfect highlight from your year.

As an example, our friends at Iron Bean Coffee Companyhave used this trick to engage with their fans. When company owners Fred and Chanell came to Sunset Hill Stoneware’s facility in February 2019, we showed them the process of making their mugs. Even after the visit was over and the cameras were put away, Iron Bean used that day’s clips to show what they’d learned about making pottery later on Facebook.

There are plenty of creative ways to reuse full clips for your paid marketing strategy as well. After working with Discover Mediaworks to make a video showing what our business has to offer, we began using pieces of the original videos in other areas. These short clips can now be found on web pages like our New Customer Offer and in ads across the internet. Never pass up the opportunity to reuse clips in this manner, since it’s a cheaper and easier way to bring more customers to your business.

4. Use the Right Software

There are plenty of video editing programs out there, some of which might be right on your computer already or available for free. The first step is to find the right program to fit your needs.

Most current PCs and Mac computers come with basic editing software like Video Editor on Windows or iMovie on iOS. While these are basic programs with limited capabilities, they’re good for putting together quick videos. Use them to show off new products, announce sales and make other engaging content for your company’s social media platforms.

For those who want to learn to use the tricks used in professional film companies, look into programs like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro. Although these programs are more expensive, video marketing specialists swear by them. Their ability to do almost anything you might need or want with effects, overlaying and audio clips is unmatched.

On a budget? There are countless video editing programs that are available for free. Some of the most reputable programs available for free include OpenShot, DaVinci Resolve and Lightworks. All three offer professional effects without being too expensive, so they’re an excellent solution if you want to produce quality videos.

Since we already have an Adobe subscription, Sunset Hill Stoneware uses Adobe Premiere Pro to bring our videos to life. It allows us to do just about anything we want to make movie magic, including special effects if we need them. We use this program to make everything from tutorials to Q&As with our potters, and it’s been both an excellent editing program and a good learning tool as our marketing team diversifies itself.

5. Remember Your Brand Voice

Any video for marketing you make should add to your brand voice. There are many ways to edit and reuse video, but none of them will be effective if they don’t contribute to your company’s voice. In fact, they might even scare potential customers away from interacting with your business.

Sunset Hill Stoneware uses its videos to show who we are: a company full of hardworking artisans. Everything, from the specific shots we use of our shop crew at work to the music we pick for our video ads, explains that in ways most people might not expect. The end result is not only a video that showcases our company values, but helps hundreds of customers find us online.

Video material isn’t something that you should forget about after you’ve published your favorite clips to your Facebook and Instagram. Using your video again later on is better for your brand’s investment and can help people find you across countless platforms for years to come.