There’s No Shortage of Clever Clips, but Does Funny Equal Money?

A lot of businesses are getting really good at making content. Scroll through Instagram Reels and you’ll see local entrepreneurs and their staff making clever videos that obviously took a lot of thought and effort to produce.

They use trending audio well. Employees are willing to be on camera and do a great job. They’re clever and the algorithm seems to like them.

But are they actually generating sales for the business?

There’s an important difference between making a good Instagram post and making good marketing content. Sometimes they’re the same thing, and sometimes they aren’t.

A video can get thousands of views, generate comments, and make people laugh without giving the audience any reason to visit the business that made it.

Attention Is Valuable, but It’s Not the Goal

Obviously, getting someone to stop scrolling matters. Not to mention difficult. If nobody watches your video, it doesn’t have a chance to accomplish anything else.

But attention is only the beginning.

Instagram gives us a lot of feedback: views, likes, shares and follower counts. These numbers are easy to watch and when one video gets 20,000 views while another gets 20, it’s natural to assume one is more successful.

And for Instagram, it probably was.

For the business owner, the truth is a little more complicated.

A 2022 study on social media marketing and consumer purchasing looked at several aspects of content including entertainment, informativeness, relevance and interactivity.

The researchers found a positive link between purchasing and factors including informativeness and relevancy. Entertainment did not show the same direct relationship with purchasing decisions.

This doesn’t mean businesses should stop being entertaining. It just means entertainment has a job to do.

A single funny post does not need to generate an immediate sale to be worthwhile. Brand awareness matters, and customers often need multiple interactions with a business before they decide to buy.

The problem comes when the audience remembers the joke but repeatedly learns almost nothing about the business behind it.

The funny video gets someone through the door, figuratively speaking. The rest of the content still needs to show what your business can do for them.

Does Your Video Say a Latte About You?

Imagine scrolling through your Instagram feed and coming across a video created by a new Fort Collins coffee shop that you have never visited.

A staffer enters the back room and says, “Someone wants to talk to the manager.”

“Why are you telling me?” the employee sitting at a desk responds, her fingers pausing over a keyboard.

“You’re the manager, aren’t you?” the staffer says, leaning against the doorjamb, crossing her arms.

The employee at the desk shakes her head a little and puts her palms up.

“But you’re the owner.”

The video ends.

The writing is clever. Their timing is perfect, and the video is well produced. It’s funny and entertaining, and you might tap the heart and share it with a friend.

But so much is left on the table.

Do you know if they make a great latte? Do they even make lattes?

Do you know what the shop looks like? Is it a good place to meet someone or spend some time working remotely?

Do you know if you should go there instead of one of the many other shops downtown?

If the answer is no, then the video may have been successfully entertaining but it left the marketing job unfinished.

This is not to say that every post should be selling.

A general rule is the 80/20 approach, where eighty percent of your content is to “inform, educate, or entertain” and the remaining twenty is direct promotion.

But even entertainment-focused content can do a little more marketing work without turning into an ad.

Show the latte. Show the food. Show the store. Show a product being made.

Give the audience a reason to think, “I should go check that out.”

The video doesn’t have to be an infomercial, but it should make a connection between the entertainment and the reason the business exists.

Who Is the Video Actually For?

A common small-business social media trend is the behind-the-scenes skit: employees joking about difficult customers, avoiding responsibilities or making highly industry-specific jokes.

Some of these are genuinely funny. But they can also drift into content that is mostly entertaining to coworkers and other people in the same industry.

This creates a couple of potential problems: first, the joke may be lost on the customer, and second, the customer may end up being the butt of the joke.

Behind-the-scenes content can be some of the best material a small business has. It gives customers a chance to see the personalities of the staff, the culture of the business and an overall “vibe check”.

It’s only when they get too far into “inside baseball” that it loses marketing value.

Bike mechanics will get inside jokes about derailleurs.

Service industry folks will understand how it feels when a group of ten walks in minutes before closing.

But a potential customer may not. The trick is to use that insider humor to help customers understand what makes the business special.

If you own a bakery, make a skit about how much your baker hates getting up before sunrise to make the bread everyone loves.

If you own a retail store, show your best employee dressed up as the shelf-stocking fairy, costume wings and all, hard at work after everyone else has gone home.

Now the inside joke is doing some marketing work. It’s still entertaining, but it’s also showing evidence of quality, craftsmanship, expertise or care.

A Simple Checklist Before You Post

Before posting your next reel, ask a few questions.

Would someone stop and watch this?

You still need the hook. That scroll moves pretty fast, and if the content doesn’t grab someone, the rest of it doesn’t matter.

Will a potential customer understand it?

If the joke requires working in an industry for years to appreciate, you probably need to rethink it or give the audience a little more context.

Does it show anything valuable about the business?

Is there anything in the video that connects to the value proposition of the business? That might be the atmosphere, the expertise of the staff, the quality of the product, the experience of visiting, or something that sets the business apart from competitors.

Will someone remember your business or just the video?

This may be the most important question of them all.

A reel can get 20,000 views, tons of likes and shares, but if no one remembers what the business does it might as well be 20.

Views Aren’t Customers — but They Can Be

Social media has given businesses an opportunity they couldn’t have imagined not too long ago.

A shop, restaurant, or service business in Fort Collins can record a 30-second video on an employee’s phone that could be seen by thousands of potential customers.

All without traditional advertising.

But for a small business owner, success on Instagram or any other platform means more than just views. At some point, you want someone to walk in the door, make an appointment, place an order or remember your business when they need what you sell.

So keep making the funny videos, use the trending audio, and let your employees put their personality on full display.

But just make sure that somewhere in all that creativity you are giving people a reason to be a customer.

A lot of businesses have figured out how to make people watch. The most successful will give them a reason to come in the door.