High-quality marketing videos have historically been out of the reach of small businesses. Today, however, owners have the opposite problem! Making videos is more accessible than ever, but with thousands of small business videos flooding social channels each day, it’s confusing to figure out where to start and how to break through the noise.
So, if you’ve been putting off experimenting with videos for your small business, let 2024 be the year you give it a shot. And we will help you out by sharing a list of some of the most accessible and effective video ideas that you can use to kickstart your brand’s growth right away. Once you have clarity on what ideas you want to pursue, you can easily turn them into thumb-stopping videos with InVideo for business where you get tailor-made templates for all your business needs and video editing on demand. Get your free demo here.
Here are the ideas we will cover in our guide to videos for small businesses in 2024:
1. Create bite-sized ads
2. Create TikTok videos for your brand
3. Get active on Instagram Reels to gain traction
4. Explainer videos
5. Customer testimonials
6. Brand story videos
7. Product launch videos
8. Event promo videos
9. Webinar promo videos
10. How to jumpstart your video creation with InVideo in 2024
11. Tips and tricks that will instantly improve any video you make in 2024
Let’s get started.
1. Create bite-sized ads to promote your services
With the human attention span reportedly getting shorter by the day, it comes as no surprise that short video ads are proving to be a much more effective marketing strategy than longer ads and research proves this too. A study published by the Advertising Research Foundation shows that seven-second ads are 60% as effective as 30-second ads.
Creating bite-sized ads is therefore imperative. But how do you go about making one that hooks your small business’s target demographic? Think of bite-sized ads as the elevator pitch for your business. Your goal should be to pique your audience’s interest without overloading them with information. This means you need to have a single point of focus and keep your message short and sweet. Check out this blog to understand how to use bite-sized ads for creating effective marketing campaigns.
Take a look at this 4-second ad from Krispy Kreme that showcases donuts underneath a waterfall of sugary glaze on their famous conveyor belt – it is beautiful to look at, it attracts the user to the brand’s core product, and it does all of this in under 5 seconds.
If you’re looking to create your own bite-sized small business video ad, you can easily do that with tailor-made templates you get by signing up to InVideo for business. Get your free demo here.
And if you'd like to get started now, check out this template which is only 9 seconds long.
Click here to get started with this template.
2. Create TikTok videos to get visibility for your business
Several small businesses and indie brands have blown up on TikTok and this was more evident than ever during the first 20 months of the pandemic when a tidal of support for small businesses emerged on the platform with over 75% US consumers supporting at least one small business. In fact the hashtag #smallbusiness received 33.8 billion views in 2021.
At the time of publishing this article, this video from small business owner Nichole Jacklyne of her packing orders received over 500,000 likes.
Needless to say that creating content on TikTok could potentially expose your brand to millions of viewers without spending even a quarter of what traditional advertising requires. But that doesn’t mean that you can post anything and expect to blow up. Here are a few TikTok themes that are well-suited for small business videos:
- Showcase a product and set it to music that reflects your brand
- Provide a quick tip, tutorial, or how-to and use background music and graphics
- Show your process and include a “before and after” shot
- Jump on a hashtag or sound trend. Just remember that fads die and take off quickly on the app, so make sure to spend time on TikTok to stay on top of trends.
- Don’t forget to add hashtags to your TikTok video. Try researching competitors on the app and see which hashtags they’re using. For your own video, strive to balance broad terms and niche ones
To make a TikTok you can go the traditional route and use the app’s interface and resources or you can use templates on InVideo to give your TikTok videos a more polished look and feel. This template for the “Don’t be surprised if one day I just” trend is a great one to showcase your vision board for your business:
Click here to get started with this template
Pro Tip: With InVideo for business you can get ad and video templates that are customized for your brand. Get your free demo here.
3. Get active on Instagram Reels to gain traction
90% of users on Instagram follow a small business, making this a platform that you must be putting out content on if you want to grow your brand in 2024. The advent of Reels – Instagram’s answer to TikTok – has made it all the more easier to blow up on the platform and have your business reach a wider audience.
If you need any more proof, take a look at this video by cosmetics giant Sephora using Reels to promote their latest discounts and offers:
A great benefit of using Reels is that since the feature is relatively new as compared to other post formats, there’s a lot less competition as compared to TikTok and you can use that to your advantage.
To create compelling reels focus on keeping your video short, using trending sounds, having short and clear text, and putting the relevant hashtags. Unlike the TikTok editor, however, the Reels editor is more difficult to navigate and often crashes because of bugs. You can bypass that and create a slick, professional-looking Reel using one of the thousands of templates available on InVideo. Here’s one such template you can get started with.
4. Talk about your products with engaging explainer videos
Explainer videos have been around since the early 2000s and there’s a reason they’re still popular – they help give information in a simple, easy-to-comprehend format that works well for capturing the audience’s attention. The best explainer videos clearly demonstrate how the business can solve a pain point for the customer.
Research even shows that consumers prefer to watch videos to learn about products and services. In fact, they want to see more explanatory content from businesses.
Here are some tips on how to make an impactful small business video explainer:
- Keep it short and to the point, think 30 seconds to a minute in most cases.
- Follow a structure where your product/service demonstrates solving a problem that your audience is facing.
- Don’t overwhelm your audience with too much information
- Focus on communicating the benefits of your product/service
- Add audio and make sure the sound is clear and the volume high enough; a professional-sounding voiceover with music that reflects the tone of your brand will pack a punch
- Use text to optimize for silent viewing
Here’s a memorable example from TUSHY, a company that produces bidets. This explainer video where a friendly employee walks the viewers through the benefits of using a bidet, managed to rack up over 120,000 views thanks to its creative style and humorous approach.
Investing in explanatory and educational content is a time-tested tactic to attract motivated customers and build strong brand loyalty and InVideo templates can help you create such explainer videos in no time. Here’s one that’s already set up that address the pain point and the solution:
Get started with this template.
Pro Tip: If you're having trouble creating explainer videos from scratch, look no further than InVideo for business where you can get video editing on-demand as well as templates customized to suit the kind of explainer videos you want to make. Get your free demo here.
5. Highlight your best features with customer testimonial videos
Customer testimonials are another enduring marketing tactic because when potential customers see you receive a recommendation from a real person, it helps them build trust in your product or service.
Testimonials only succeed, however, when they feel sincere. As a result, testimonial videos tend to be more persuasive when they feature a real customer sharing their real experience with a business. However, even if you only include text-based reviews in your testimonial videos, avoid the temptation to over-edit them. Testimonials should sound like a casual conversation with a trusted friend.
As with any piece of video content in 2024, aim to go shorter. A succinct customer testimonial carries more weight, as this example from Freshbooks demonstrates. The successful cloud accounting software company spotlights just one of their thousands of customers.
You can also incorporate graphics and text overlays to highlight data or your business’s unique value proposition in your small business video. This will hold your audience’s attention and will help them retain important information about your business. This InVideo template allows you to do just that:
Get started with this template.
6. Prioritize brand story videos
Consumers increasingly gravitate towards businesses that have an authentic brand persona and that conduct themselves with transparency. Creating video content that captures your values is something to prioritize in 2024.
Brand videos are all about emotion: ask yourself, if your business was a person, how would they make your customers feel? Empowered, warm and fuzzy, hopeful, determined, or excited? What successful brands all have in common is that they strive to make customers feel good about themselves, and by extension, the brand.
This ad from Guinness creates the association between its product and empathy and friendship through effective short-form storytelling. It also defies typical beer commercial tropes, which makes it more memorable.
Humans connect with each other through stories. Reflect on whether there’s an anecdote in your past that encapsulates your company’s values and purpose. You could also cover your small business’s origin story and conclude with your mission statement. The goal for your small business video is to elicit an emotional response without telling your audience how you want them to feel.
You can create a video from scratch using InVideo’s online video editor by interspersing behind-the-scenes footage with shots of company stakeholders speaking from the heart about the business’s mission or you could use a template like this one to fast track things and create an engaging brand story video in minutes:
Get started with this template.
Pro tip: Not sure how to go about creating your brand story videos? InVideo for business where you get tailor-made templates for all your business needs and video editing on demand. Get your free demo here.
7. Get customers excited with product launch videos
The goal of a teaser or launch video is to create awareness — and hype — around a new product or service you’re introducing.
One of the keys to generating excitement is to say less and highlight the best, most exciting features of your product or service. This will keep your video short and concise, which is better for social sharing. Make sure to include links that the consumer can follow to get more information about your product or service.
On that note, be sure you’re very clear about who your target demographic is and what problem your product or service solves. With only seconds to grab your viewers’ attention, you need to ensure you’re drawing attention from the right people and to the right things.
Here’s an example from Fitbit. This is a launch video for the Fitbit Charge 5. In under two minutes, the video takes you through the myriad features of its newest smartwatch, like the exercise tracker, sleep monitor, corresponding app, and more.
The Fitbit launch video employs 3-D animation and professionally-shot video to generate excitement about its latest offering.
Here are some other things to keep in mind as you create your small business video:
- Launch videos are all about quality, so be sure to include professional photos or videos.
- Add music to set the right mood.
- Engaging copy will draw attention to features you want to highlight, but don’t clutter the frame with it. You can add a clickable link within the video to take your audience to a landing page with more content.
- Cap your video to about 30 seconds in length.
As a small business, you, too, can generate excitement on a small budget, as long as you demonstrate that you can solve the customer’s problem. Use a template to begin with and make it your own using InVideo’s online video editor. Here’s a great one for a product launch that you can edit to make your own:
Get started with this template.
8. Build excitement with event promo videos
In-person events are back in some parts of the world and you can use this opportunity to generate awareness and drum up excitement for any in-store activities you’re planning in 2024 by creating an event promo video.
Ideally, an effective event promo video gives a taste of what to expect in a minute or less. Here’s an example from the marketing software firm Hubspot, which puts on an annual marketing conference called Inbound. The length of the video is justified given Hubspot’s large following and the quality of the footage: high-profile speakers, bright lights, DJ booths, and an unusual art display made with rubber ducks.
Compelling footage from previous events, like the kind shown in Hubspot’s video, is always beneficial to include. If this is the first event of its kind, you can interview some of the special guests who will be in attendance or any experts who will be present.
Adding subtitles helps make the event promo more shareable and improves the likelihood your viewers will retain critical details such as where the event will take place, the time of the event, and contact information. Remember to include a link to a landing page where they can sign up for the event. Event promo videos are also perfect for sharing through email and social media.
Here’s an InVideo template that you can use and customize to promote your next in-person event:
Get started with this template.
9. Build awareness about online events with webinar promo videos
Webinars were a huge value-add for businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and they are likely to continue gaining popularity as more and more workplaces are switching to hybrid work policies.
Here are some events that work well as webinars: educational or expert panels, live Q&A sessions, or even a direct selling webinar, first popularized by multi-level marketing ambassadors.
While webinars do require a lot of preparation, don’t forget to promote your webinar on your social media platforms. Small businesses will want to leverage their customer email list, and social media following to drum up awareness, in addition to posting it on the company’s website.
Make sure you’ve included the following details in the small business video for your webinar:
- The event title
- A call-to-action
- Tag your participants
- The event’s objective/any takeaways your audience will leave with
Most importantly, your small business video ad needs to be short and to the point. Here’s an InVideo template you can customize and use to promote your webinar. And if you want templates customized to your brand's needs, you can sign up to InVideo for business. Get your free demo here.
Now that you have quite a few ideas on your list, let’s understand how you can start creating videos for your brand or business in 2024.
10. How to jumpstart your video creation with InVideo in 2024
InVideo makes it easy to create professional-looking videos on a small budget. With InVideo’s library of 5000+ templates, there’s a video for almost any occasion. You can customize it with royalty-free music and stock images and animations. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create your first small business video using a template from InVideo.
Step 1: Sign up or log in for a free account on InVideo and search for a template that you’d like to use. Alternatively, you can also choose to start by converting a piece of text to video or start with the “Blank Canvas” option.
You can also filter your searches based on your preferred aspect ratios. You want to choose the right size and orientation of video based on where you’re planning on posting it. For example, you’ll want to choose the vertical video option (9:16 aspect ratio) for Instagram and TikTok content and the 16:9 aspect ratio for YouTube videos. Click the “Use this template” to get started.
Step 2: After you pick the template, you’ll be taken to the InVideo editing workspace. InVideo’s image, video, and music libraries are housed in the toolbar on the left hand side. Click the “Image” button to choose a new background image. Simply drag and drop the image onto the template and click “Replace” to add it.
Alternatively, you can upload your own media. To do that click on the “Upload Media” button.
Step 3: To add a video clip, click the “Video” to start searching from the InVideo library. Next, drag and drop the video into the workspace. A trim window will appear and from here you can edit the length and volume of the clip. Click “Trim video to fit the scene” to do it automatically. Hit “Done” to add the video to your template. Repeat this step to add video to the other scenes.
You can change the order of scenes by dragging and dropping the cards in the timeline bar located at the bottom of the editor. You can also increase or decrease the time of each scene.
Step 4: Next, let’s customize some text. Just click on the text to make the text box appear and then type out your preferred text to replace the default.
Step 5: To add music to your video, click on the “Music” button. There are dozens of genres to choose from. By clicking on individual songs, you can preview the music. When you find what you like, click the 3 dots. Choose “Replace music” to add it to your template.
Directly underneath the timeline bar is the audio control bar. From here, you can loop, trim, and adjust the volume of your audio (you can even upload your own music or get rid of it entirely). And beneath that is where your voice over will be stored, if you choose to record one.
Step 6: Not satisfied with the default color scheme? You can change that, too. Just click on the “Colors” button and find one you like. You can even shuffle through each individual color scheme to change the dominant colors within the scheme. The new color scheme will be automatically applied to all the scenes in your video.
Prefer the default setting? Not a problem: click “Revert to Default” to change it back.
Step 7: Let’s drive up those conversions and add a CTA to your video. Click the “Stickers” button and choose the CTA that aligns with your goals. Drag the sticker into the workspace and place it where you want.
Step 8: Your video journey is almost complete. Download your video by clicking “Download and share” on the upper right corner of the editor. Choose the resolution and click “Export.”
Once your video is ready, you can save it to your desktop or share it directly onto a variety of social platforms. You’re done!
At any point you feel like you need some extra guidance, you can check out InVideo’s library of tutorials. You can also book a time with an InVideo expert who will offer one-on-one assistance and answer any questions you might have.
11. Tips and tricks that will instantly improve any video you make in 2024.
Depending on your business goals, you might find that some of the video templates listed in this guide are a more natural fit for your business. That’s totally fine — you don’t need to tackle the whole list to reap the benefits of video for your business. However, there are certain elements that can be incorporated into any video you make this year, regardless of template, to help you get better results.
A) Snackable videos are here to stay
Keep your videos short. There is so much video content out there that people feel the urge to scroll immediately after one video starts. Zero-in on the main point you want to make and deliver it in an entertaining fashion. Short video clips are twice as likely to be shared and 84% of consumers surveyed took action after viewing them. With data like that, all signs point to the fact that snackable videos are here to stay.
B) Customize your content for each platform
Repurposing your small business videos is a great way to simultaneously build an audience and credibility across multiple platforms. However, you need to keep in mind that the kind of content that works for each platform is different. So before you go ahead and repurpose, you want to make slight changes to make sure that your content is suited for the platform you’re posting on. One obvious change is resizing the video, which you can easily do using InVideo. Check this post to understand how to do it quickly and easily. Another change you want to make is ensuring that your primary platform’s watermark isn’t present on the video you’re reposting because doing this risks your videos from getting deprioritized.
C) Add subtitles
Over 90% of social media users watch videos with the sound off. Adding subtitles to videos that include narration ensures your content won’t get skipped over.
D) Research important keywords
Search engine optimization (SEO) has been around since, well, search engines — basically, a long time. But SEO is as relevant as ever in 2024. Not only will keyword research help you come up with video ideas (by revealing what topics people are interested in as well as the level of interest), but including keywords is an important ranking factor for search engines. Creating high-quality video content around relevant keywords will help your business become more visible in search results.
Summing up
If you’ve made it this far, you’re more than ready to start making videos for your small business in 2024. Creating videos has become super simple with InVideo for business where you get tailor-made templates for all your business needs and video editing on demand. Get your free demo here.
Want to learn more but prefer video tutorials? Check out InVideo’s YouTube channel. We upload content daily about the latest video trends, as well as tips and tricks you can try out today.
This post was written by Leah Golob and edited by Adete from Team InVideo
