How to Stand Out in a Sea of Southsea Deckchairs
Running a business in Pompey is a brilliant, bustling, and sometimes brutally competitive game, isn’t it? Whether you’re a cafe in Southsea, a tech firm in Cosham, or a shop in the city centre, you’re constantly fighting to get noticed. With so much competition, how do you make your business the one that people remember and, more importantly, spend their money with?
Flyers and local paper ads still have their place, but if you want to properly get ahead of the pack, you need a secret weapon. In 2025, that weapon is smart, effective video.
Video is, without a doubt, the most powerful tool you have for telling your story, building trust with local customers, and showing off what makes your business special. But it’s not just about pointing your phone at something and hoping for the best. You need a game plan. This guide will give you five simple, actionable Portsmouth video marketing tips to help you cut through the noise and get ahead of the competition.
Tip #1: Don’t Just Be in Pompey, Be of Pompey
Your biggest advantage over the big, faceless national chains is that you are right here, part of the fabric of this city. Your video marketing needs to absolutely scream this from the rooftops! Don’t create generic videos that could have been filmed anywhere. Make them unmistakably Portsmouth.
What does that mean? It means getting out of the office and using the city as your backdrop. Film a quick business tip on the seafront at Southsea with the pier in the background. Feature a shot of the Spinnaker Tower. Interview a happy customer on the cobbles of Old Portsmouth. When local people see familiar sights in your videos, it creates an instant, powerful connection.
Tell a local story. Talk about why you love running a business in this city. Feature your local staff. Give a shout-out to another brilliant local business you work with. Tapping into that unique Pompey pride is a massively effective Portsmouth video marketing strategy because it shows you’re not just a business; you’re a neighbour.
Tip #2: Let Your Happy Customers Do the Talking
You can tell people how brilliant your business is until you’re blue in the face, but it will never be as powerful as a happy customer saying it for you. The single most persuasive tool in your marketing arsenal is social proof, and nothing delivers that better than a video testimonial.
Forget dry, written reviews on your website. A short, 60-second video of a real, local customer sharing their genuine, positive experience is absolute marketing gold. It builds a level of trust and authenticity that you simply can’t buy.
Find one of your most passionate, articulate customers from the local area and ask if you can film a quick chat with them. Ask them to tell the story: what problem did they have, and how did your business solve it? Film them in their own home or workplace in Portsmouth to add that extra layer of local relatability. A video of a real person from Fratton or Cosham raving about your work is the most trustworthy form of video marketing in Portsmouth there is.
Tip #3: Mobile is King – A Crucial Portsmouth Video Marketing Tip
Here’s a simple fact that will change the way you think about video: the overwhelming majority of people who see your content will be watching it on their mobile phone. They’ll be scrolling through their social media feed on the bus, on their lunch break, or sat on the sofa. If your video isn’t made for their phone, you’ve already lost.
This means you need to think vertically. For platforms like Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts—which are incredible for reaching a local audience—your video needs to be in a vertical format to fill the screen. A traditional horizontal video will look tiny and amateurish.
You also need to grab their attention in 3 seconds flat. People scroll fast! Your video needs to start with a punch, not a slow, gentle fade-in. Finally, and this is non-negotiable, you must use subtitles. Most people watch videos with the sound off. If your video has someone talking, you need clear, easy-to-read captions on the screen, or your message is completely lost. Understanding how people actually consume video is essential for effective Portsmouth video marketing.
Tip #4: Give Away Your Best Advice for Free
This might sound a bit mad, but one of the most effective marketing tactics is to give away your knowledge. Don’t just create videos that sell your service; create videos that are genuinely helpful to your audience. This is how you position yourself as the go-to, trusted expert in your field.
Think about the questions your customers ask you all the time. Now, answer them in a short, 60-second video! A local butcher in Portsmouth could film a quick video on “How to tell if a steak is perfectly cooked.” A local estate agent could do a “Three simple things that add value to your home” video. A local IT support company could offer a “One simple trick to speed up your laptop” tip.
This kind of “how-to” content is incredibly valuable. It builds immense trust and goodwill because you’re helping people with no expectation of an immediate sale. But when those viewers eventually do need to pay for a professional, who will be the first person they think of? The helpful, friendly expert they’ve been watching for weeks. Creating helpful content is a cornerstone of modern Portsmouth video marketing.
Tip #5: Use a Small Ad Budget to Go Hyper-Local
The words “paid advertising” can sound scary and expensive for a small local business, but they don’t have to be. The incredible power of social media ads is that you can be ridiculously specific about who sees them, which makes even a tiny budget incredibly effective.
Here’s the plan. Take your single best video—whether it’s a brilliant customer testimonial or a super-helpful ‘how-to’ clip—and put a small budget of just £20 or £30 behind it on a platform like Facebook or Instagram. The magic is in the targeting. You can set the ad to be shown only to people who live within, say, a 5-mile radius of your shop in Portsmouth.
You can then get even more specific, targeting people in that area who have shown an interest in topics related to your business. This is the single fastest and most efficient way to get your brand in front of hundreds of potential new local customers who don’t already follow your page. A targeted ad campaign is the final piece of the puzzle for a complete Portsmouth video marketing strategy.
Your Final Pompey Marketing Questions: An FAQ
Q: How long should my marketing videos actually be?
A: Shorter than you think! For social media platforms like Instagram Reels and TikTok, the sweet spot is between 15 and 45 seconds. You need to grab attention and deliver your message quickly. For a main video on your website homepage, you can go a little longer, maybe 60-90 seconds. The golden rule is to always make your point as concisely as possible and respect your viewer’s time.
Q: Do I have to be in the videos myself? I’m not confident on camera!
A: You don’t have to be, but it is incredibly powerful if you are. People love to see the real person behind a local business. However, if it’s really not for you, there are options. You can create videos that showcase your products with text and music, or you could find a confident member of your staff to be the “face” of your videos. The most important thing is authenticity.
Q: What’s the one thing that will make my videos look more professional instantly?
A: Sort out your audio. It’s the secret giveaway of amateur video. You can have a slightly shaky phone video that’s full of charm, but if the sound is a horrible, echoey mess with wind noise, people will click away instantly. Investing in a simple, cheap lapel microphone that clips to your shirt will make you sound a thousand times more professional. It’s a crucial part of any Portsmouth video marketing plan.
