Video is the future of digital marketing, but it’s also the present. Video is expected to make up 82% of all internet traffic by 2021. Plus, 80% of today’s marketers have confirmed video helps increase sales.
As a small business owner, video marketing — using video to promote or market your brand — is should definitely be part of your overall marketing strategy. Ready to up your video marketing game with helpful software for every phase of video marketing?
Here's your guide to the best video marketing tools for small businesses.
So what is video marketing software, exactly?
Video marketing software hands the power to create and edit video, and share widely — including small business owners.
No matter what step in the video process you find yourself in, there's video marketing software out there to help you get the job done. Video marketing software empowers you to take on sophisticated animation, editing, and can even satisfy technical requirements you might not think of automatically.
Video is no longer expert-exclusive. There’s a plethora of software options out there to make your video dreams a powerful reality.
The smartphone era puts much of this software in the palm of your hand. Smartphones have opened up unprecedented access to technology and information, especially when it comes to video. So much so that kids barely old enough to read are mastering seamless transitions on apps like TikTok.
It’s never been easier for small business owners to churn out professional quality content.
Features in video marketing software that might matter to your small business
Here are some factors to consider when investigating the best video marketing software for your business:
- How much does it cost? Prices can range from free to over $500. Know your budget before hunting for the right software.
- Is there a free trial? Free trials are perfect for figuring out what you like when you’re just dipping your toes in the cool, refreshing waters of video marketing.
- Subscription model or yearly fee? Some companies have you pay a monthly fee, while others advertise the monthly cost but have you pay the entire year upfront.
- Does it integrate with other video tools you use? Having software that integrates with your social media accounts, website, and other tools you use makes your video marketing process easier and more efficient.
- Desktop or mobile? If you have a preference for working on desktop or mobile, you’ll want to look for software that accommodates that need.
- What can it do? Consider your video marketing goals and what software functionalities could support them (for example, needing an animator or closed caption software).
15 mission-critical varieties of video marketing software (plus examples!)
Video animation software
\With video animation software, you can still give your audience the video they crave, even if you’re camera shy or don’t have the time to film content.
Video animation software helps you create moving graphics from digital files. You can use 2D, 3D, hand drawn, or computer generated graphics. Most software also lets you add music and special effects to create engaging video content without stepping in front of a camera.
Because animation can be one of the most technically-advanced video marketing techniques, we’ve included pros and cons of four of the most popular animation providers:
- Adobe Character Animator
- Vyond
- Renderforest
- Videoscribe
Storyboarding software
Storyboarding simplifies the video marketing process by helping you visualize every step of the process, from a fledgling idea to presentation. Sorting out your ideas on a storyboard makes the project direction digestible for your team, keeping everyone on the same page.
You can use storyboards for everything — advertising, product videos, planning out your million dollar feature idea for a Vimeo Staff Pick, you name it.
Here are some of our favorite storyboarding tools:
- Celtx. This tool lets you add descriptions to each shot, specify the shot type, and block each shot with a library of images that illustrate your scenes. There’s a free trial and a free version, so you can test it out for yourself.
- Storyboarder. This free, open source tool is perfect for smaller budgets. You can quickly sketch out shapes and characters, write dialogue, enter timing information, and designate shot type. You can edit your board in Photoshop as well, and it will update automatically in Storyboarder. Plus, you can export to Premiere, Final Cut, Avid, PDF, and GIF.
- Plot. Designed to be simple and fast, this storyboard software lets you add and delete scenes without copying and pasting text, add internet images to better formulate scenes, and lets you collaborate with teammates from within the platform
Writing scripts and project planning software
Keeping your video project organized from the start is super important-- after all, if you’re a mess from the beginning, you might never finish the job. Here are some tools to help you write and organize your scripts and manage your projects.
- Vimeo. Vimeo offers an AI script generator that makes it easy to go from idea to video script in just a few seconds.
- StudioBinder. This is a free professional scriptwriting software that’s intuitive and makes formatting super easy.
- Final Draft. This is an industry standard scriptwriting software equipped with a SmartType function that remembers scene elements and lets you reinsert them as you’re writing. It also comes with other tools like tagging and reporting to help you break down scene elements and organizational tools like Story Map, Beat Board, and Alternate Dialogue.
- Celtx Basic Scriptwriting Software. An affordable cloud based option with import features and collaboration capabilities. It integrates with other Celtx tools (like Storyboards).
- Asana. You’ve probably already heard about Asana, a robust project-planning software that helps you organize your projects and collaborate with your team. You can assign tasks to employees and link to assets within the program, housing everything you need to complete your video in your Asana project.
Video editing
When it comes to video editing software, we’ve got you. Vimeo Create is our go-to for editing and creation. We designed it specifically for the everyman — you don’t need prior editing experience to create killer content with Vimeo Create.
We have thousands of video templates and AI-generated guided templates to take the hassle that work with our complex editing magic to make video marketing a piece of cake. In fact, Vimeo Create even has high-performance video marketing tools so you can collaborate with your team, distribute content to social platforms and your website in one click, and track your video’s analytics all in one place.
The platform has everything you need for your wildest video marketing dreams. Make unique Instagram stories, video ads, 30-second promo videos and more, like this video stream announcement template:
Stock footage and b-roll
B-roll is extra footage that can be added into your video to fill gaps and make it more interesting. For example, if you’re filming a video talking directly to the camera, you can use b-roll to show viewers what you’re talking about. Stock footage and b-roll is a stock of video available for marketers to use as they please.
Having stock footage and b-roll at the ready can revolutionize your video marketing process because you no longer need huge amounts of custom assets or a full camera roll of your own footage to make great videos.
Our favorite example of this is Vimeo stock — our bank of high-quality stock footage available to all Pro users. It is s overflowing with high quality video of everything from NYC taxis to a crab scuttling across rocks on the beach.
Vimeo Create also has access to a built-in stock library, which makes it super easy to create marketing videos without ever picking up a camera.
You can also get stock footage from these providers to fill in the gaps (although you probably won’t need to):
- Creative Commons. A free video library archive
- Getty Images. Perfect for stock video clips
- Dareful. Completely free 4k stock video
- Pexels. Free stock video site with lots of GoPro action videos and drone footage
File converters
File converters come in handy for situations where you need to convert a file from one format to another. Here are a couple video tools you can use:
- WinX HD VIdeo Converter Deluxe. Free tool with a premium option. This tool lets you convert 4K/HD videos to MP4, AVI, MKV, WMV, MOV, MP3, and more.
- Aiseesoft Video Converter Ultimate. Starts at $25 per month. This tool lets you convert video and also offers filters, effects, subtitles, audio tracks, and more.
Software for audio, background music, and voiceover/narration
Audio sets the tone for your videos. Background music has the power to make viewers feel inspired, happy, sad, scared, etc.
When you use Vimeo Create, you get an audio library of royalty-free music at your fingertips.
Here are a few more audio options:
- GarageBand. If you’re a Mac user, GarageBand comes with thousands of free music loops you can use to make tracks for your videos.
- Adobe Audition. This audio software that lets you edit, mix, record, and even restore audio and can be used for creating voiceover.
- Audacity. A budget-friendly (free!) tool for creating, editing, and adding voiceover to your videos.
- Premium Beat. This software boasts stress-free licensing and has an exclusive music library filled with beats that will make your videos stand out.
Sound editing and recording
Screen recording is an easy way to combine audio and video, especially if you’re making tutorial videos, product demonstrations, or providing customer support.
Vimeo Record is a screen and webcam recorder you can use to create unlimited recordings completely for free. You can record up to two hours of video, making it a tool you can use for pretty much any of your video projects.
Screen recording is also a great way to reduce zoom fatigue, as you can send video messages with your teammates during the video planning process.
Here are some other sound editing tools you might want to check out:
- Adobe. This editing powerhouse has a bunch of editing tools for audio editing — you can even use their tools to eliminate pesky background noise.
- GarageBand. It’s a solid audio editing option for beginners (and the sound loops we mentioned above come in handy). This audio editor is specific to Macs.
- Logic Pro. Apple’s professional music production software. This software is the real deal — it can support a massive number of tracks in a single project file.
Integrations and lead capture
Once your masterpieces are ready to be watched, you can’t just send them out into the ether and hope for the best. This is where integrations for lead capture come in. Customizable contact forms can encourage your viewers to inspire their information and opt in to communications with you.
Vimeo integrates with marketing platforms like MailChimp and Constant Contact to make this super simple. Here’s how the lead gen process will look:
- Add a contact form to your video
- Sync the submissions with your email marketing platform of choice
- Engage with your leads and convert
You can even include GIFs from your videos in your follow-up email campaigns, which has been shown to boost conversions by up to 103%.
Email marketing software
Now that we’ve covered lead capture, it’s time to discuss the software you’ll use to nurture those leads. Email marketing is one way to distribute your larger video marketing efforts to new audiences (the ones who opted in after watching your videos).
Vimeo makes this easy peasy with an email marketing integration and the option to include video in email.
Here are some email marketing tools to try:
- Constant Contact. This user friendly tool lets you keep your old templates, schedule emails, analyze open rates, categorize your contacts for segmented emailing, and more.
- Mailchimp. This free video marketing app is an email marketing tool that offers ecommerce and marketing tools like A/B testing, tools for instagram, Facebook Ads, and posts, and even automation tools that remind shoppers who abandon their carts.
- Sendinblue. This tool has a free plan with unlimited contacts with a drag and drop editor, impressive automation, heat mapping and A/B testing, and more.
Advertising
Social tools like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc. are critical video marketing tools because they push your creative assets in front of a larger audience.
Smart Ads Creator is another helpful tool for online advertising. It’s a free design tool that takes care of the resizing of assets for you (a big time saver). It’s also great for creating quick photo ads from copy and images on your landing page.
Video advertising software can take your digital advertising game to the next level. Vimeo Create has tons of creative templates that you can customize to make stunning ads in minutes, whether you're promoting a powerful shampoo formula or your tech brand's latest drop.
The more time you save creating professional quality video ads, the more ads you can put out!
Distribution
In the context of video marketing, distribution means getting your video out there. You want as many eyes on your video as possible, and you want those eyes to be in your target audience. Here is some video marketing software to help you get that done:
- Appinions. This tool helps you harness the power of influencer marketing to grow your audience. It connects you with influencers who resonate with your target audience.
- SlideShare. This tool lets you upload slide decks and make easily digestible presentations that you can embed in blog posts, websites, and social media posts. It’s extensive sharing integrations make SlideShare a powerful distribution tool.
- Buffer. This affordable social media scheduler is a valuable asset to any consistent social media strategy. You can schedule your videos in posts to go live on multiple social channels, all in just a few clicks.
Video embedding
You can embed videos with Vimeo! All you have to do is grab the embed code on your video settings or hit the share button (it looks like a paper airplane). Next, just paste that code at your desired location.
Embedding video harnesses the power video has to draw users onto your site. Because the video is embedded, it plays right there on your site (or your social media post, etc.). Viewers don’t have to click away to watch the video, meaning they spend more time on your site.
You can also embed videos from sites like Dailymotion or YouTube by clicking the share button and copying the embed code.
Social media
A solid social media strategy can be a critical way for your small business to start scaling social media, and scheduling software is a key part of said strategy.
Video marketing software like Buffer, Hootsuite, and Planoly let you pre-schedule and pre-plan your content. This helps you create curated, strategic content way in advance. Creating all those posts one at a time is time-consuming. The apps save time by letting you upload multiple posts at once, so you can create months of posts in a single day of content planning.
- Hootsuite. This is the most robust of the social media software out there, but also the most expensive.
- Buffer and Planoly are pretty on par with each other, but only Planoly offers a free plan.
If you’re not ready to invest in social media software, have no fear! You can still make and publish videos to social media instantly from Vimeo Create. Here's how:
Tying it all together
Video marketing is no small feat for a small business, but with these helpful categories of video marketing software in your wheelhouse, you're off to a solid start.
