Online videos.

You’ve probably heard that people are watching them.

In fact, a lot of people are watching them. 1.3 billion people use YouTube, with 5 billion videos being watched every single day.

If you haven’t started experimenting with online video, now might be the time. You don’t need a fancy production crew or a big budget, either. You just need a good story and a smartphone or digital camera.

Here are five ways small organizations with limited budgets have used videos to:

1. Announce a fundraiser

Organization: Artists for Humanity

Campaign: To build excitement for their annual fundraiser, Artists for Humanity posts a quick video of scenes from previous “Greatest Party On Earth” events.

In the video, they showcase artwork, artists, food, music, entertainment, and an all-around good time for a good cause.

 2.  Tell your story

Organization: Flora Health

Campaign: Owner, Thomas Greither, acts as the narrator for this video which starts with the company’s drive to provide “premium, sustainable, organic products for a healthy lifestyle,” and continues with the company’s legacy, from his grandfather starting the company after taking ill, to his traveling the world for the best natural ingredients.

 3. Show people what you can do

Organization: Splintered Studios

Campaign: Stephen Quick is an artist by trade and he makes sure to feature a lot of his speed painting videos on YouTube. He has gained a fair amount of popularity from showing off the paintings — his painting of The Joker, for example, has nearly 263,000 views.

 4. Share a recipe

Organization: Johnson Farms Plants and Pumpkins

Campaign: In the fall, Jeanne Johnson shared her recipe for pumpkin puree for use in a variety of holiday recipes. In this short and sweet video, she shares the importance of picking the right type of pumpkin, as well as how to store the puree for use later.

5. Conduct an interview

Organization: Constant Contact

Campaign: At Constant Contact, Dave Charest, our Director of Content Marketing, has been filming our live “Power Hour Pro” interview series. All it takes is a webcam, a microphone, and an expert.

If you don’t have a webcam, use a digital camera, or better yet, a smartphone with a video camera and microphone built-in. You don’t even need a table and chairs, as your expert can join you remotely with video conferencing platforms that offer trial and basic plans that are free of charge.

If you don’t have an expert, opt for someone interesting, a company employee, or a customer who has a different/interesting point of view and ask them pointed questions.

Don’t forget the social part

Email marketing campaigns previewing online videos can be a great way to promote video to your loyal customers, but don’t forget to post it on other networks, too.

Aside from sharing the clip on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, why not set up a QR code in your store that leads visitors to the video? All you have to do is grab the URL and paste it into one of the free QR code generators.

The thing to keep in mind whenever you do post a video is, even if it doesn’t go viral, you’re still growing your audience and showing off your organization in a unique light—and that’s a resource that will always be there.

No one can predict what’s going to be popular next on the notoriously fickle YouTube, but better to have filmed and posted than to never have filmed at all.

Need more tips on social media marketing? Check out videos and step-by-step instructions on our Social Media Quickstarter site.

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