The marketing reports are in, and all the experts agree: online video is the marketing wave of the future. While businesses of all sizes are finally starting to embrace this marketing medium, it is hardly news in the tech industry. By 2012, the head of global partnerships for YouTube, Robert Kyncl, had already announced that as much as 90 percent of online content will soon be video. This may have seemed like a wild prediction at first, but in 2011 alone YouTube had more than 1 trillion hits. Since then, advancement in technology has made it easier to produce and post videos online, and consumers have grown more and more accustom to getting their information and entertainment at video websites like YouTube, Vine and Vimeo.

GIVE THE CUSTOMERS WHAT THEY WANT

While major brands like Samsung and Nike have been capitalizing on online videos for years, small business has had its share of inspiring successes too. Graham Hunt, owner of Valencia Properties in Spain, decided to make online videos as a way to keep his small real estate business afloat during an economic downturn. The British-born realtor began by making videos of homes for sale, which he posted on YouTube and TubeMogal (a video advertising platform), but soon he turned to other topics that might interest his customers — short videos about the Spanish lifestyle and tips for moving there from other countries. Client visits quickly increased, and sales more than doubled.

The secret to Hunt’s success? He created a variety of video content. Of course, producing videos that showed homes was important. This is the equivalent of a car wash video demonstrating a Lexus taking a ride through a state-of-the-art automated car wash. Videos that are purely informative won’t keep the viewer’s attention for long, which is the real goal of video created for marketing purposes. Hunt said, “I had an idea a few years ago that people don’t actually buy a house, even though they obviously do. They actually buy the lifestyle, the dream or the ideal. Therefore, I thought they wanted to see more about what it was like living in Spain rather than the normal individual house videos.”

Customers want to feel emotionally connected when they make purchases. They want to feel a sense of trust or shared values with a company. Video can foster these connections, but the key is selecting the right content. Businesses want to create videos that keep customers watching (and hopefully re-watching), and the videos don’t necessarily need to be directly related to the company’s services or products. For instance, in regions where cars are part of a lifestyle choice, car wash companies could produce videos about local car shows. Or companies specializing in detailing could attract high-end auto-enthusiasts by producing a regular series of pimp-my-ride-type videos.

THE FUNNIER FACE OF BUSINESS

Another key to connecting with online video audiences is giving them a face they can trust, and hopefully one that makes them chuckle a little. Chuck Testa, proprietor of Ojia Valley Taxidermy, was rocketed into Internet superstardom when a comical commercial promoting his taxidermy business went viral. The commercial had been made after Testa agreed to be part of a 2011 reality television show. The show itself didn’t have much of on impact on Testa’s business, but on a whim, Testa’s son posted the video on YouTube. “It was up about a month or so, and we had something like 300 views and then all of a sudden, all hell broke loose,” Testa said. “My computer crashed and my shop phone started ringing, and it rang solid for almost two years. 24 hours a day.”

What Testa experienced is exactly what every business that posts videos wants: for the video to spread across the Internet, watched and re-watched by thousands, providing a massive amount of free publicity. Soon, the video began to attract a new type of customer, and his company was going to have to adjust to meet their needs. Testa explained, “The video drove a lot of my regular customers away. They didn’t understand because they were older, in their 40s, 50s or 60s. It turned around, though, with younger customers. I might have lost the old customers, but I gained the tech-savvy ones, the up-and-coming younger crowd. And I do think it saved my business in the recession. We are going through really bad economic times, and taxidermy is a nonessential item.”

These days, Testa produces a variety of videos, everything from a regular tips series in which he demos taxidermy techniques to a music video with a local rapper. “I just do things for fun like that. The thing I learned about YouTube is that you can’t really make a video go viral. It has to be organic. You can’t really plan it,” Testa said.

OFFER TO HELP SOMEONE FAMOUS — OR AT LEAST WELL-KNOWN

Testa may be correct that one can’t plan a viral video, but there are ways that small business owners can make videos more engaging, increasing the likelihood that they will be shared.

Richard Sasso, owner and operator of Mr. Squeaky Car Wash, a Pampino Beach, Florida, operation named by Modern Car Care as one of the top 50 car washes in 2007, had the bold idea to contact Jimmy Fallon’s management and propose a charity car wash to raise money for the Fisher House, an organization that provides convenient housing for the families of military personnel who have been hospitalized. Surprisingly, Fallon agreed, spending the day entertaining crowds with his song Car Wash for Peace while the Mr. Squeaky staff washed more than 200 cars.

Sasso capitalized on the publicity by making a video of the event itself. “People took video that day, and we hired a professional editor to combine them into one short video, which is on our website,” he said. “We get comments about that video all the time. It’s not going to draw someone from Minnesota to Florida to get a car wash, but it does give us credibility within this community. When customers have a video that they relate to on a personal level in today’s world where there is so much media, it makes a huge impact,” Sasso explained.

VIDEO PRODUCTION MADE EASY

Many business owners never consider producing videos because they assume it will be a costly, time-consuming process. Video production, though, can actually be a fairly painless do-it-yourself experience. Hunt, for example, shoots video using his iPad, records the sound using his iPhone, and edits it with iMovie, which comes free with Macs. And the videos don’t take long to make. Shooting, editing and uploading a short video can be done in 40 minutes or less, Hunt said. “If you take the view that 90 percent of perfect is good enough, then it doesn’t take forever. If you are a perfectionist, it can take longer of course,” Hunt said.

A word of warning: There’s a fine line between a DIY video with a charmingly authentic look and feel and one that reflects poorly on your brand. Don’t be afraid to test your skills at video creation, but be sure to ask for feedback from a trusted advisor before publishing something that could be detrimental to your brand.

Another way to reap the rewards of online video but bypass the technical challenges is to host a contest, offering a prize for the best video. Creative customers with a flair for technology will not only do all the video-production work, but they will also be naturally inclined to share it with friends and family themselves. As long as the prize is big enough to attract a good-sized number of entrants, video contests are a great low-risk way to establish a video presence online.

As we move steadily forward into the digital age, online business videos is still a relatively new marketing medium, and owners are free to approach it from any number of angles. They can make videos that are funny, informative or that showcase company’s values. At this early stage, there is no entirely wrong approach to the online video trend — except, of course, ignoring it and hoping it will go away. (It almost certainly won’t.) Instead, business owners who feel sheepish about video production should take the advice taxidermist-turned-video-star Chuck Testa gives himself: “Just try it. If you fall on your face, you are still 5 feet ahead of where you were before.”

Tips for Creating Engaging Videos

Be Concise – The shorter the video, the more likely you are to hold the viewer’s brief attention span. Start by making a 6-second video and posting it on Vine, the video equivalent of Twitter.

Be Natural – If you are in the videos, wear your normal work clothes and don’t use a script. Just be yourself. Viewers want to connect to the human side of a business.

Be Interesting – What are your customers interested in? Create a regular video series dedicated to that topic, even if it is not directly related to your business.

Be Lighthearted – Audiences will watch and re-watch a video that makes them chuckle before they will watch something that feels like a traditional commercial. Having a sense of humor (or even a funny soundtrack) can go a long way.

Encourage Customers to Contribute – Offer incentives (cash, prizes and free car washes) for customer-created videos. Post the best ones on social media and online video outlets like YouTube so that the creators can easily share them.