One of the easiest ways to market your small business is to turn your photos into video. You must have lots of photos lying around that you can use for this purpose. However, if you want to make the most of this highly effective marketing option, you can be more deliberate about what photos you take and the videos you create.
The program I have used over the last few years for turning photos into video is called Animoto which is an online service that is spectacularly easy to use.
Animoto uses the very latest in cinematography to produce stunning videos that you can upload to your blog/website, YouTube or any other video hosting site. You can use the video to promote your small business and/or your services and products. The online program uses state-of-the-art cinematography to create a video from images, video clips and music. So you end up with an animated musical video created from your photos.
The steps are quite simple to turn photos into video:
- upload images to Animoto
- identify the two or three images you want to highlight
- decide what music track you want (yours or theirs)
- press “create video”
- upload video to your computer and/or YouTube (press a button)
- press remix as often as you like to make alternative videos
- admire your handywork.
You can adopt a number of strategies for your small business video marketing.
1. Create an eye-catching video from your photos:
This is illustrated by the rainforest video at the end of this paragraph. Here you are simply creating an attractive video that people like to watch (e.g. some holiday snaps). Your aim is to redirect the traffic from the video site (e.g. YouTube, Facebook or Flickr) to your website or blog. The rainforest video has attracted nearly 3,000 views on YouTube (and many more elsewhere). A number of people have placed the video on their own websites as well:
2. Produce a video about your small business and your staff
Animoto is great for this because you can add text to the video that you create from your photos. You can also splice in 30 second videos created elsewhere. Here’s an illustration of what I have created to promote our own business, Merit Solutions Australia:
3. Promote your local area
There are stats that show most small businesses generate up to 80% of their business from their local area. So a video highlighting your town or city can attract the attention of residents as well as potential tourists. You are then able to reinforce the fact that your business is local. The following video was taken during a holiday but it could be used to promote your local business if you lived in the beachside town of Mooloolaba:
Animoto offers both free and paid versions of their program. The free version allows you to create as many 30 second videos as you want (for non-commercial use). A very cheap option allows you make as many non-commercial videos as you want of any length (you are not restricted to 30 seconds). The paid or business option includes unlimited videos of any length as well as the production of high definition versions of your videos.
This can be an exciting area of small business marketing because you can combine your love of photography with promoting your business. I frequently take photos on my holidays and business trips to use in videos that I create to promote my small business. Animoto opens up a whole creative world and makes it easy for you to turn photos into video.