Low-Cost Video Marketing Ideas for Entrepreneurs

Of the many mistakes entrepreneurs make, the one you can easily avoid is shying away from video advertising and believing that it’s only an option that befits huge corporations or those that are willing to part with enormous amounts of cash.  

Well, a couple of years back, this was somewhat true. In fact, video advertising mostly aired on broadcast media like television. But a lot has changed over the years.

For example, the tools required for video advertising have gotten cheaper, better, and more accessible. There are inexpensive and even free apps to assist you in your video marketing efforts. New techniques, trends, and video marketing technologies keep emerging year after year, their intention being to make video marketing as smooth and effective than ever before.

Online video platforms have also blown up and boast of billions of users thirsting for video content that will satisfy their different needs.

To an entrepreneur, this should be treated as good news because armed with your creativity, a few inexpensive tools, SEO and DIY techniques, you can create an excellent marketing video with the potential to achieve just as much as other great marketing videos, expensive and otherwise, have achieved.

Today, you will learn of low-cost video marketing ideas that not only eliminate the stereotype we mentioned earlier, but also carry the potential to turn around your video marketing strategy and bring you closer to success.

1. Tap Into Your Audience For Content/ Video Testimonials

The special thing about user-generated content is that it feels more genuine and organic compared to content created by the organization.

You can begin by giving your customers a chance to take part in your marketing campaigns. This usually works well with e-commerce store owners. You can source for and keep tabs on video testimonials on your product or service or request your customers to come up with one.

You can also invite them over for a recording in which they’ll share their experience with your product or service, just like in this video in which Sarah shares her experience with Freshbooks and how it changed her life.

If possible, offer your customers something such as a discount or a nice offer in return for a video testimonial of your service or product.

Granted, many such videos may lack quality or professionalism, but the upside to this is that this is what makes them genuine, trustable, and easily shareable, not to mention that they convey social proof.

Additionally, you can come up with fun contests and competitions. For instance, you can ask your customers to record themselves using your product, say a rowing machine, and whoever has the best video, wins something valuable. This may be one of your own products, a gift card, or anything that would incentify your customer to participate. You can always try different offers to see which one fits your customer base the best. Or better yet, survey a portion of your customer base to see what they would deem as valuable.

Such a move will motivate your customers while, at the same time, give your brand a chance to spread its name through the videos. Don’t forget that you can do all these without spending a lot of extra money.

2. Consider Animated Explainer Videos

With an animated explainer video, you can tell your audience what you do, who you are, why you are their best option, and so on in just a few seconds or minutes. Like most effective videos, they involve both auditory and visual senses, which in turn makes them more engaging.

If what you offer isn’t self-explanatory or pretty unfamiliar and you would like to show your audience how your product works, an animated explainer video is the perfect option. Whiteboard videos, for instance, can be great for educational purposes, especially when you want to break down complex concepts.

However, quality animated explainer videos don’t come cheap because, in most cases, you have to hire an agency to create one and this will require you to part with a significant amount of money.

You may not be able to shell out a huge budget, but the good thing is, there’s an alternative option. Unlike before, now we have plenty of DIY animation tools, some free while others are relatively low in price. Examples include Animaker (free version plus affordable premium options) and Powtoon (free version plus affordable premium options).

With such tools, you can still create a decent animated explainer video with the potential to deliver an excellent result.

3. Inexpensive/Free Tools And Techniques

Year after year, developers come up with clever tools designed to make video production easier and better. Of course, some are quite expensive, but still, there’s a majority that are free, if not incredibly cheap.

For instance, if you are a MAC user, instead of hiring a professional to edit your videos, you can use iMovie to carry out video editing work such as trimming videos, syncing audio, merging video clips, adding background music, and so much more. Windows users also have a similar option: the Windows Movie maker.

Not only are these tools great for those with limited budgets but they are also ideal for amateurs and those with busy schedules. Some of the free video editing apps such as Magisto and Animoto come with affordable premium options just in case you might want to experience more than what you are getting from the free versions.

It’s the same situation for techniques. Now we have interactive videos, personalized videos, virtual reality videos, 360 videos, you name it. All have demonstrated great potential to achieve remarkable results and while some, such as virtual reality videos, can cost a lot, others like personalized and interactive videos can be affordable and will perform just as good as any other great marketing video.

4. Do A Vlog

A vlog is a shortened term for video blog. And just as the name suggests, this is the act of creating and publishing video content on online platforms. It’s the alternative to a written blog post and, like blogging, vlogging ought to be done consistently in order to achieve success.

In recent years, vlogging has gained plenty of popularity due to many reasons, key amongst them being that it’s a cost-effective way to drive visibility and boost engagement with an online audience, which is exactly what you need to grow a business.

Gary Vee, a celebrated American entrepreneur, has successfully used vlogs to grow his businesses. You can watch one of his vlogs below.

Unlike other forms of video marketing, with vlogging, you will encounter just a few entry costs when starting out and what’s more, you can go ahead to re-use the content you’ve already shared on social media, email, or your website.

To produce a vlog, what you need is a vlogging camera (there’s plenty of good affordable cameras for vlogging) and just show up for your shoot. In fact, you can do all these on your own. Some post-production work may be involved, but if you have an idea about basic video editing, this won’t be a challenge.

Final Word

Looking at marketing videos that have performed well in the recent past (like Dollar Shave Club’s viral marketing video), it’s pretty clear that you don’t need to be a huge brand or to invest millions of dollars in your video production in order to make your marketing video effective.

Even with that tiny budget, you can still come up with a marketing video that can achieve just as much success as the great marketing videos of our time. And to get started, these low cost video marketing ideas have got you covered. What’s left is for you to use the knowledge you’ve gained, the creativity in you, and the resources at your disposal to create a video that will propel your business to the next level.

Also, now is the best time to upgrade your video marketing strategy, especially if you are operating under a small budget. And if you are yet to launch your strategy, don’t fail to consider these four ideas.

Author Bio:

Robyn Howard is a proud video enthusiast and also content manager at VideoRemix.io. She works with a devoted team of techies to help people create, edit, personalize, and publish production-quality video campaigns to engage their audience. Clients can use personalized video software to create videos for prospects on websites, landing pages, video-sharing sites, Facebook and more.

 

Please let Robyn and I know what you think!