4 Ways to Promote Your Business with Video While Social Distancing

Business owners are staying home. Customers are staying home. For now, at least, this is the reality of the COVID-19 crisis. As a society, we may have stopped socializing, but we haven’t stopped spending.

According to our survey of over 1,000 consumers, 58% of consumers visit a brand’s social media pages before visiting their website. For the foreseeable future, your social media presence is your storefront.

Whether you’re on online business or if you have a brick and mortar store, now is the time to step up your efforts on social. Here are 4 ways that you can promote your business with video while social distancing.

Increase web and foot traffic with service change updates

Your customers will only know about changes at your business if you tell them. Communicate early and communicate often.

Frequent updates will keep your business top of mind for potential customers. This will help increase web traffic and give you consistent opportunities to market sales and new offerings. Moreover, your customers will appreciate being kept in the loop.

Here are a few questions that your customers might be asking that you can answer with social video posts.

• Have you modified your offerings?
• Are you making deliveries?
• Are you offering some sort of online substitute for what would normally be an in-person service?
• Have you changed your hours?

When a customer sees your video in the social feed, it should inspire them to consider your business. If a customer visits your social pages with questions, your videos should set their mind at ease.

Promote sales with gift card ads

If customers can’t shop at your business in the same way that they usually can, give them a new way to do so! People want to support the businesses that mean something to them.

If you’ve had to seriously change what you can offer to your customers, or even put a pause on things altogether, consider creating a gift card program.

Your gift card video can:

• Tout individual services
• Announce a temporary closure or service changes
• Thank customers for their support
• Promote the gift cards themselves

Gift card sales can help support your business as we navigate uncertain times. They’ll also incentivize customers to return to shop with you once things begin to get back to normal.

Get more sales online by hosting a promotion

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to encourage customers to make a purchase. Everyone loves a deal. If you’ve hosted sales before, take a look at what’s been successful for you in the past, and rework it for the current moment.

Here are a few sale ideas to get you started. You can also check out our Product Promotion and Service Promotion templates for inspiration.

• Offer free shipping
• Give a discount on your entire catalog
• Mark down prices on certain products or collections
• Announce a new product at a special introductory price

If you’re looking for a jumping off point, our Seasonal Promotion template is a good place to start. It’s designed to grab your viewer’s attention, quickly communicate what you’re offering, and explain why they should shop with you.

As you customize the template, you can make reference to the COVID-19 situation if it feels appropriate, or let your discounts do most of the talking.

Collect email addresses and signups by hosting a webinar

While they’re stuck at home, many customers will be more receptive to longer-form webinar-style content. Webinars present an opportunity for you to share your expertise. Craft content that establishes your credibility while simultaneously promoting your offerings.

As you promote your webinar, collect the email addresses of all RSVPs for future email promotions. The content of your webinar should also encourage viewers to make a purchase with your business.

Potential webinars you can create include:

• Host online training sessions
• Invite clients or business partners to speak
• Adapt a popular blog post
• Answer industry FAQs

No matter what content you choose, social video will be key to promoting attendance. Check out all of our event templates here or get started with our Webinar Event Promo template below.

What are you creating for social?

We hope you found some ideas that you’re excited to use on your social accounts. We also want to know what we missed. What are you sharing? What’s been successful for your business? Any surprises? Let us know in the comments. We also invite you to join our Facebook group, the Animoto Social Video Marketing Community, where you’ll find feedback, support, and ideas from fellow video creators.