Today we’re going to describe one effective way to excel your marketing efforts for your start-up or small business.  We’ll also show you an example at the end.

Does your start-up or small business set out to solve a social or environmental problem? If so, a marketing video outlining the problem you’re solving is a great way to get the word out about your business. This is effective whether you’re solving a niche problem or a broader global problem.

Here are some guidelines:

It does not matter if your start-up or small business addresses a niche or larger problem.  If your story and message is inspiring, people will champion your cause and want to share it.

1) Make the video content exclusively about the problem, not your organization. If the video is done well, people will share it, and those viewers will want to know who made it.

2) Keep it short. How short? Absolutely under three minutes. As long as the video is impacting, the shorter the better.

3) Call to action at the end of the video. Effective documentaries, presentations, and video shorts almost always empower the viewer to get involved. This is important. People want to get involved after being inspired. When interviewed, many successful people can trace back to a single event that inspired them to follow the path they did in life that made such an impact. With our exposure to technology, many successful people down the road will be citing things they saw on the internet. Not a radio show (maybe streamed on the internet), live conversation, live play, live presentation, etc.  The internet!

Watch how this video implements all three of the guidelines above and use it as an example to create an inspiring video that will be shared around the internet.  Note: your marketing video does not have to be animated.

Use Less Plastic from TakePart on Vimeo.