Video on a small business website: what's worth filming.

Video keeps coming up in marketing advice for UK small businesses, and for once the advice is fairly sensible. The suggestion is not to become a YouTuber. It is to film short, useful clips that answer the questions customers already ask you, then put them where they help someone decide.

Most of that advice is about social media. The bit that gets skipped is your website, which is where people go once they are seriously considering you. Here is how we think about video on a small business site.

Start with the questions you answer every week

The easiest videos to make are the ones you have already rehearsed a hundred times on the phone. Write down the questions that come up again and again, then pick the three that cost you the most time.

• Trades: "How long will the job take?" or "What happens on the first day?"
• Shops and makers: "What does it actually look like up close?" or "How is it made?"
• Professional services: "What do I get, and what do I need to prepare?"

Answer each one in 30 to 60 seconds. One question per clip. No intro music, no logo sting. Just you, decent light and a clear answer.

Show the work, not a showreel

A polished brand film is nice to have. A ten second clip of the thing you do is often more persuasive. A before and after of a finished job. A product being unboxed. Your hands doing the bit that takes skill.

We saw this with Merch Hive, a premium merchandise and print studio at Norwich Airport. Their problem was that most merchandise sites look like a cluttered catalogue, and they had plenty of work to show, from notebooks and onboarding packs to live embossing at events, but nowhere to show it properly. The site we built sells the service through strong photography and motion, so visitors see the craft before they read a word. It has also grown since launch, with seasonal pages such as live embossing added without a redesign.

People trust what they can see you doing far more than what you say you can do.

Where video belongs on your site

A video only works if it sits next to the decision it helps with. Dumping everything on a "Videos" page that nobody visits is the most common mistake.

1. Service or product pages: a short clip showing the thing being bought, right beside the price or the enquiry button.
2. FAQ answers: a short video under the written answer, for people who would rather watch.
3. A learning library: if you teach or advise, a home for your tutorials builds trust over time.

That last one is what we did for Jacked Personal Training, a personal trainer at Phoenix Gym in Norwich. Jack had training content to share but no home for it. His site now has a free tutorial library that he adds to himself from a simple admin, no developer needed. It sits alongside his packages and prices, so someone who likes a tutorial is one click from seeing what it costs to train with him.

Always pair video with words

Video should never be the only way to get the information. Some people are on a train with no headphones. Some cannot hear the audio. And search engines read text far more reliably than they watch clips.

• Add captions to every video with speech.
• Write a short summary or transcript underneath.
• Do not set videos with sound to autoplay. It annoys people and drives them away.

Do not let video weigh your site down

Uploading a large video file straight into your website is a reliable way to slow it to a crawl. For most clips, host them on YouTube or Vimeo and embed them, ideally showing a still image until someone presses play. For short, silent background loops, ask your developer to compress them properly and keep them brief. If you are not sure how your site handles it, that is a five minute question for whoever looks after it.

Get more from every clip you film

You do not need a content calendar. You need a habit of reusing what you have.

• Film one longer explanation, then cut it into three or four short clips.
• Use each clip on your site and on social media.
• Turn the transcript into the start of a blog post or FAQ answer.
• Ask a happy customer for 30 seconds on camera. It is a testimonial people actually believe.

What to skip

Be honest about what will not move the needle. A generic "welcome to our website" video rarely gets watched. Stock footage of handshakes and city skylines tells nobody anything about you. And a video that has not been updated in years, showing old prices or staff who have left, does more harm than having none.

Pick one or two videos you can do well and keep current, rather than a dozen you will never touch again.

If you would like video on your site without slowing it down, or a simple admin so you can add clips yourself, we are happy to talk it through. We are based in Norwich and work with businesses across Norfolk.