You can (and should) be having fun whilst growing your business. A great way to do this is with video content. Check out our top vlogging tips to help get you off the ground!

You’re probably already well aware that social media platforms are the perfect way to advertise your business online for free. You can use Instagram as a marketing tool to reach bigger audiences and share your brand. Using short videos to promote your business on TikTok is a great way to show some personality and keep up to date with the latest trends.

But, as the world goes crazy for short form video, we shouldn’t be overlooking the power of vlogging. Simply a portmanteau of video and blog, a vlog is a longer form video that you can create to share information with your audience. In fact, you can share just about whatever you like.

Using YouTube as a content marketing tool is pretty vital for any modern business, and having a YouTube strategy will see your business grow much more quickly.

YouTube for Marketing

There’s a lot more to running a YouTube channel that just uploading videos about whatever you fancy. First, you’ll need to pick a stand-out channel name that represents your business but is memorable.

Getting to grips with YouTube analytics is also crucial for helping you to understand how your content performs and whether it’s reaching the right people. Since YouTube is essentially the second most powerful SEO tool (after Google, its own parent company), it’s important to understand how to carry out keyword research and plan your content. Doing this will ensure your videos are targeted towards your desired customer, resulting in brand recognition, and hopefully sales.

Vlogging Tips

Besides having a handle on how analytics work in theory, you’re going to need to put this into practice. The only way to do this is to get vlogging!

You’ll need to learn at least the basics of video editing, which you can do with some great online classes from Skillshare. This may require some decent video editing software, so you can make your content look beautiful and attractive to your audience. We’re not saying vlogging is style over substance, but it’s definitely a combination of the two.

Using a good vlogging camera to ensure quality video is important too. Sharing poor quality video might suggest that you don’t take your business seriously, which is never a good look for potential customers. You can get hold of great vlogging kits geared towards beginners.

Once you’ve got the technical stuff covered, you need to think about the content itself and how you present it. We’ve got some vlogging tips to help guide you in the right direction, so you can start creating content that’ll make your business rocket off the ground!

Create in Batches

As someone who is running a business, you probably find yourself short on time… most of the time. This means you can’t dedicate days every week to shooting video content and editing it all to perfection. But, luckily you don’t need to.

If you figure out your video ideas for a block of time – a month is a good goal – then you can shoot it all in one afternoon or day. This will save time setting up equipment and sets, and also enable you to get stuck into editing everything in one session.

Keep Things Simple

You don’t have to be creating highly produced, elaborate 20-minute long videos. A good video content strategy will work with simple 7-minute talking head vlogs.

Try to come up with ideas that involve minimal editing (you’re not trying to recreate a Marvel movie), and that only need an easy set up. By using closed captions and fun subtitles, you can give even basic content where you’re sat talking at your desk an added layer of interest and engagement.

Repurpose Content

There’s no need to constantly try and reinvent the wheel. Coming up with fresh content ideas can be challenging, particular when you have so much other stuff to think about. To give your brain a break, you can reuse old content.

This tip only really works if you’ve been vlogging for a little while already. You can take an old video, a product review from a year ago, for example, and update it. You can share your thoughts on the product a year later, or you could react to your original review and share your new thoughts. Adding a picture in picture will give your content a professional look, which is always a bonus.

Post Videos Consistently

We mentioned creating videos in batches earlier. A month’s worth of content could be 4 videos, 8 videos, even 24 videos. The key is to keep it consistent. This means choosing a regular amount of videos that feels achievable.

You might be keen to build up a healthy library of online content, but quality shouldn’t be sacrificed for quantity. It’s better to produce one high quality and valuable video a week, than 4 badly made and pointless videos a week.

Consistency is also important because it helps people to get familiar with you. Like they watch their favourite shows on TV, people love a viewing schedule. If you promise your audience a new video every Sunday evening, you need to deliver on that promise. Not only will your audience appreciate you for this, but the YouTube algorithm will shine favourably upon you as well.

Stay Positive

This is one of those vlogging tips you could take or leave, depending on your style as a content creator, but we feel it’s a good one. As a business, you’re striving to forge a reputation. Ideally, you want it to be a good one, so that customers are loyal to you and proud to buy from you.

Generally, it’s a good idea to keep your tone and content positive. Of course, you can review products and be honest, but it’s better to be constructive than needlessly brutal. If you’re negative and harsh in your content, this could scare people away from you.

The same goes for any interactions between you and your audience. Which leads us onto our next vlogging tip…

Engage in the Community

There’s a split in opinion as to whether YouTube classifies as a social media platform. Though its predominant purpose is video sharing, you can interact with content like social media. You can like or dislike videos, comment on posts, and even share posts on your YouTube community tab.

Getting the most out of your business with vlogging means going beyond the videos. Once you gain subscribers, you need to work on keeping them. You can hold polls in the community tab, asking your audience what sort of videos they’d like to see next. That way, you’ll know you’re giving people exactly what they want. Also, you can use community posts to share updates, promote new content, and thank your subscribers for being part of your business adventure.

Cross Platform Promotion

Whilst vlogs are best shared on YouTube, on account of them being longer, you can use them to market yourself on other platforms.

By cleverly structuring your vlog, you can easily cut it up into smaller nuggets of content, which can be shared as a Reel on Instagram, or on TikTok. If you use Instagram already, using Reels to grow your business is wise, since the platform has confirmed it’s valuing Reels content over all else lately.

You can do this by following this structure:

  • Title – Like you’d write at the start of a blog, make the very first introductions by sharing the title or general idea of your vlog. This can be done conversationally, e.g. “So, you want to know how to sew your own tote bag?”
  • Hook/Intro – This is your opportunity to lay out briefly what the vlog will entail, and also hook your viewers in with an irresistible promise or tantalising teaser.
  • Main Body – You can split the main body of your vlog up even smaller, into 3 or 4 chunks. Doing this will make it even easier to carve up into shorter content types later on.
  • Wrap Up & CTA – Summarise your vlog and remind viewers of what they’ve learned. Don’t forget to include a call to action, whether that’s watching another video or visiting your website.

Once you get quick with chopping up vlogs into shorter videos or even transcribing them as blogs or social media captions, you’ll be able to promote your business on a number of platforms with hardly any more effort!

With these vlogging tips, you’ll see your content marketing game take flight. Give it even more of a lift by adding awesome music to your videos.

Sign up to Synchedin to discover a huge library of fantastic royalty free music that you can use in your YouTube videos with no copyright hassle. Subscribe from just $4.99 per month to access unlimited downloads, and give your content the audio love it deserves!