With the passing of the late great content mogul, Sumner Redstone, the phrase he coined, “Content is King”, is more relevant today than ever. During this pandemic, major productions have ground to a halt, leaving us grasping for any interesting digital content. With audience’s thirst growing to be entertained, this is where smaller production companies and single entities can really shine and show off their talents. Using their one-time disadvantage of being a small production and using that to their advantage to advance projects during the pandemic. How can this relate to your small business and drive the traffic you need?
You are a small tire shop looking to help draw in traffic to your site, hypothetically speaking. How can you take advantage of this? You may not have the equipment and expensive cameras, plus you may not even know how to begin editing it, so it seems daunting at first. With a current-gen smartphone, a low budget does not have to mean low quality. Most phones have a video editor app on them when purchased, and most are user-friendly for any level user. By dragging and dropping clips together, along with some background music, you would be surprised how good the end-product can be. There are also apps that cost a couple of dollars to increase the ease of adding filters or effects to videos. At the end of the day, the content of the video will most likely outweigh the quality of the video. This goes for photos, as well. The digital age has brought on shooting with reckless abandon and trashing the ones that did not make the cut. Hit YouTube for videos on the best angles to shoot at and do that. There is no need to recreate the wheel. Do what works and what you like. How can this help that tire shop we spoke of?
If you want to show your brand to your audience, the message must come across fast. According to Digital Information World’s info graph(https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2018/09/the-human-attention-span-infographic.html), the average attention span in 2015 was 8.25 seconds. This is down from the study in 2000 that had the average attention span at 12 seconds. You can only assume this number will drop with more and more options on what there is to view. So, the video, photo, blog, or whatever must target your audience and their interests. You need to identify your audience to do that. A tire shop has such a broad base to target, after all, almost every adult has a vehicle. Tires are a need so competition will be heavy. The idea would be to find your “selling point” as a company and maximize that. Are you a smaller family-owned tire shop? Maybe show a mother with kids pulling in with a flat tire. You change the tire, smile at the kids, and wave as they drive off happily home. You have just sent multiple messages to your base audience by targeting the values of your company, the reliability of being there for your community, and that you care for the lives of each person that comes to you for help. It would not be hard to shoot, it would be low budget, and you can post this across all major social media outlets to represent your company. It does not have to be a flat tire either. Think of the major companies and how they use storms and rain to sell their tires. The fear factor is strong, considering you cannot control the elements.
How can this help the tire company? Videos and photos are an example of content, and easily viewed and digested content, at that. If you are up to par with your local Google My Business posts and are labeling your images correctly before loading, plus tagging all of your YouTube videos accordingly, it can boost your local visibility significantly. If you haven’t optimized your business listing on Google, read this article (https://vikingseopro.com/2020/02/25/are-you-using-google-my-business/) for reasons why you should be doing this actively. Having a smaller business means you can thrive in your local listing. Most places stop at putting in information and moving on. Google loves new stuff, whatever that stuff maybe. Load it to your business profile, and have it optimized and watch the calls come in.
Remember, we just want to be entertained so do not be afraid to push some boundaries and get out of your comfort zone. You can use humor to deliver the message or just be direct and sincere. There is no wrong way to do content because once you create it, it is out of your hands and for the public to judge. A wise man once said give me an A or an F and I can sell it. It is that middle ground where he said he cannot do anything with. Is your content bad? Own it, and if it is bad enough, you can still achieve your desired outcome. Just be consistent and steady and you will reap the rewards. There are also a lot of talented people out of work right now who may be able to help with your content. Reach out on freelancer sites and you would be surprised at how reasonable you can get pretty good quality content tailored to your company.