What content should a small business make first?

By James Jones, founder of Granary Digital · Updated 5 November 2026

Make one short video of a real person in your business saying what you do and who it is for, then get a customer to say why they chose you, and then film both in one sitting with a good set of headshots. That order works for most service businesses because it puts the proof a buyer wants on your website first. Everything else (a podcast, a series, adverts) comes after those pieces are doing their job.

What the numbers say, and what they do not

The best-known annual video survey is Wyzowl's. The 2026 edition, run in late 2025, reports that:

• 91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool.
• 84% of consumers want to see more videos from brands in 2026.
• 63% would most like to learn about a product or service from a short video, against 12% from a text article.
• 71% think videos between 30 seconds and 2 minutes are the most effective length.
• 89% say video quality affects how much they trust a brand.
• The most common uses are social media videos (69%) and explainers (68%).

Treat these as direction, not proof. Wyzowl is a video company, and the survey had 266 respondents, a mix of marketers and consumers. The useful reading is the pattern. People expect short, clear video, and quality matters because it reads as a sign of how you work.

Among marketers who do not use video, the barriers were cost (24%), not feeling it is needed (24%), lack of time (19%), unclear return on investment (10%) and not knowing where to start (10%). The last one is what this page is for.

The order to make things in

1. A short "what we do" video

This is the single most useful piece. One person from the business talks to camera, or is interviewed, for 60 to 90 seconds on:

• Who you help and with what.
• What a customer gets when they work with you.
• What happens when they get in touch.

It goes on your home page, in your LinkedIn featured section and at the top of your Google Business Profile. Write it as answers to the questions people actually ask on the phone. If you struggle to say it in 90 seconds, that is information too. It means your offer needs sharpening before anyone films it.

2. A customer testimonial

A prospect trusts a customer more than they trust you. One filmed customer saying what the problem was and what changed does more than any claim you make about yourself. Our guide to getting customers to say yes to a testimonial video covers the asking, the questions and the consent.

3. Headshots

Your people appear everywhere: the website, LinkedIn, proposals, the email signature. A consistent set costs less than a video and is used more often. If you are starting from nothing, do this on the same day as the video.

4. A set of short clips

Cut the longer pieces into 15 to 45 second clips for social posts, so one filming session feeds several weeks of posting. The trick is to plan the clips before you film, so the person says things in short, self-contained answers. See shooting vertical and horizontal in one day for how to frame a shoot for both.

5. Only then: a podcast, a series or adverts

A podcast or video series is a commitment to a schedule. A lot of business shows stop in the first few months, and our guide on why business podcasts stop at episode seven explains why. Make the basics first, see which ones people watch, and build the next layer on that evidence. Paid advertising works best when you already have a video that people watch to the end.

Which first piece fits your business

If none of these fit, the content type chooser works through the decision.

How to film all of it in one day

A single planned day beats five separate bookings. The point is to run through everything while the lights, the camera and the people are already in place. A day usually runs like this:

1. Morning: headshots for the whole team, in short slots. People arrive, are done in ten minutes and go back to work.
2. Midday: the founder or senior person films the explainer and answers a list of questions for clips.
3. Afternoon: a customer or two, if they can come, or a plan to film them at their own premises later in the week.

Send the questions and the outline in advance. People film better when they know the first question. Wear what you would wear to meet a client, and bring more than one outfit if you want variety.

At the barn, Granary's Content in a Day is one produced day: one fully edited video podcast episode, ten retouched headshots and six captioned short-form cuts for £1,395 plus VAT. It suits a business that wants a recorded conversation to cut up, plus headshots, rather than a scripted explainer or a customer testimonial. Whoever you book, compare what you get at the end of the day, not what happens during it.

How to tell whether it worked

Decide before filming what a good result looks like, and pick something you can count without special software. For the explainer, ask new enquirers how they found you and note whether they mention the video. Watch how many people reach the end of it on the platform you uploaded it to. For the testimonial, see whether it gets used in sales conversations, because a piece your own team sends to prospects is doing its job.

Give each piece a few months before you judge it. A video on a page with few visitors needs traffic first, and a clip that does nothing on one platform may do better on another. If something is clearly not working, change the first ten seconds or the title before you change the whole idea. Keep a simple note of what you published, where and when, so that in three months you can compare pieces and see which one earned its place on the page.

Common mistakes

• Starting with the most ambitious idea. A brand film is exciting to plan and slow to make. A 90 second explainer ships in a week.
• Filming without a place to put it. Know where each piece will live before you shoot it.
• No clips planned. If a person speaks in long answers, the edit has nothing short to cut.
• Hiding the proof. A testimonial on a page nobody visits does nothing. Put it where the buyer decides.
• Asking everyone to be on camera. Pick the two people who are comfortable and let the others do the stills.

Your next step is to write down the five questions a customer asks you most often. They are the script for the first video.

Sources

• Wyzowl, Video Marketing Statistics 2026, read 5 November 2026

Related guides

• Content type chooser: explainer, testimonial, social, podcast
• Studio & production glossary
• All guides and tools

The picture at the top of this page is an illustration, not a photograph of a client or a real job.