Why coming up with video ideas is the hard part
Posting one video a week is a reasonable goal for a small team, and short vertical video is one of the main ways new customers find small businesses on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. The first few videos usually come easily. You film a product demo, a founder introduction, and maybe a customer shout-out. Then the obvious ideas are gone, and every Monday starts with a blank page.
A good weekly video idea has three parts:
- It's grounded in something true. A real customer result, a specific feature, a price, a common objection, or a story from how the business started gives the video something concrete to say.
- It serves what you're working on. If this month's goal is more trial signups, this week's video should give someone a reason to start a trial, not just remind them you exist.
- It borrows a format that's working. The hooks, structures, and lengths that hold attention in your category change often. Looking at what's running now tells you which shape to give your idea.
That's a research job as much as a creative one, and it's work an AI marketer is well suited to. It can keep your positioning, customers, and goals in mind, scan your category every week, and hand you a few strong options so your only job is choosing.
Kite is an AI marketer. It researches your business, builds a growth strategy, and ships the work that brings you new customers. Here's how it keeps a new video idea coming every week.
How Kite proposes a marketing video every week
Kite starts from what it already knows about your company. During onboarding, it researches your website, products, customers, competitors, brand voice, and visual identity, and it keeps all of that in your team's wiki. It also tracks the marketing goals you've agreed on together.
Once a week, Kite reads those pages and your newest active goal and looks for one video worth making. If it finds a grounded angle, it opens a new video in Videos, under Marketing assets in the Kite web app, and tells you about it. Kite then researches what's running in your category, writes several directions, and waits for your pick. Once you choose, it makes the video, posts it in the conversation when it's ready, and makes new versions from your notes.
- Pick an angle that serves this week's goal
- See what's working in your category
- Choose from several ready directions
- Get the finished video made
- Review the video and ask for changes
Pick an angle that serves this week's goal
Each weekly proposal starts with a brief, and the brief is built from your goal and your wiki. Kite takes the newest goal still in progress as the week's priority. It looks for an angle that speaks to the audience your wiki describes and rests on a claim or proof your wiki already holds, such as a customer result or a product detail.
The brief names the audience, the goal the video serves, the angle in one sentence, and the promise to the viewer in one sentence. It also lists the proof behind the claim, a suggested format and length, and the call to action. The format might be a founder speaking to camera, a product demo, or a customer story.
Here's an example. Say you run a bookkeeping service and your current goal is to book more discovery calls with restaurant owners. Kite might propose a 20-second founder-to-camera video about the three receipts restaurant owners most often lose at tax time, closing with a link to book a call. The angle comes from a pain point already recorded in your customer research, and the call to action matches the goal.
Kite uses the words in your wiki for every claim, so it doesn't invent a number, a result, or a customer to make an idea sound better. When your wiki and goals don't give it a grounded angle, Kite skips the week instead of proposing something generic. It also waits until you have a website or another marketing asset to work from.
See what's working in your category
Before it writes a single direction, Kite searches the market for the video you're about to make. It looks at up to five of your competitors and up to four search terms, chosen from the words your buyers and competitors use for what you sell, along with the format of the video.
The search covers ads running in the Meta Ad Library, short videos on TikTok and YouTube Shorts, and ecommerce advertising trends. Kite keeps the ads and videos that actually speak to your market and stores them with the video, so you can see them in Videos under "What Kite looked at." Each one shows how many days an ad has been running or how many views a video has, with a link to the original.
Those references shape the directions. When a hook, structure, or format fits your company, Kite builds a direction on it and tells you what it borrowed. It borrows the structure, never another brand's footage or lines.
Choose from several ready directions
Kite writes at least three directions for each weekly video, and each one starts from a different true detail about your company. One might lead with a customer result, another with a product moment, and a third with a common question your buyers ask. A real choice between different kinds of ideas is more useful than three variations on the same one.
Every direction you see in Videos includes:
- a title and a one-line promise that says what the viewer gets
- the hook that opens the video
- the format, such as a founder to camera or a product demo
- a script broken into timed lines, each labeled with its job, such as the hook, how it works, the offer, or the call to action
- a short "Why this direction" note that explains the idea, why it fits the brief, and which reference it builds on
The video waits for your pick. Read the scripts, then press "Make this" on the direction you like. If none of them is right, tell Kite what you want instead, and it writes new directions that differ from the ones you've already seen. Kite doesn't spend anything on footage, voices, or rendering until you've chosen.
Get the finished video made
After you pick a direction, Kite makes the video from that direction's script. A video for social media is vertical and 15 to 34 seconds long unless the brief or you ask for something else. Kite can make any length from 5 to 90 seconds, and it also makes 20-second cinematic ads and 60-second launch films.
Kite starts with your own material. It collects images, product screens, and footage from your website and product, then generates only what the video still needs, such as people, voices, music, or sound. It sets everything in your brand's fonts and colors. Videos shows each stage as Kite works, and Kite posts the video in the conversation when it's ready.
Review the video and ask for changes
Every video Kite makes can be reviewed frame by frame. In Videos, open the review player, pause on any moment, and pin a note to that spot. You can also mark a range of seconds or leave a note on the whole video. A note might say "Move the logo here" or "Make this line shorter."
When you ask for a new version, Kite changes what your notes point to and leaves everything else alone. It answers each note so you can see what it did, and the new version appears beside the earlier ones. You can also edit the script lines yourself once a version is ready and ask Kite to make a new version with those changes. When you're happy with the video, download it and post it to your channels.
What you get
A weekly video brief
One proposed video each week, with the audience, the goal it serves, the angle, the proof behind it, a suggested format and length, and a call to action.
Research from your category
The ads and short videos Kite found on Meta, TikTok, and YouTube, stored with the video so you can see what each direction builds on.
Several directions to choose from
At least three ready ideas, each with a hook, a timed script, and a plain explanation of why it fits your brief.
A finished video
A playable file in your brand's fonts and colors, made from the direction you picked and ready to download and post.
New versions from your notes
Pin notes to any frame or range and get a version with only those changes made.
How to get started
Sign up for Kite and let it research your business. You can work with Kite in your browser or in Slack. Kite needs a website or another marketing asset to build ideas from, and it works best once you've agreed on at least one marketing goal, since that's what each weekly video serves.
To get your first set of ideas, ask Kite in plain language. You might say, "Give me three ideas for this week's video," or "Show me a few directions for a short video that gets restaurant owners to book a call." Kite writes the brief, researches your category, and puts the directions in Videos for you to pick from.
Add Kite to Slack, and it also proposes one video every week on its own. On Tuesday, Kite posts a short message in your team's Slack channel with the week's angle, why it fits this week, and a button that opens the video in Videos, where the directions are waiting for your pick. One video a week is the limit, so the proposals stay a steady habit instead of a flood.
Integrations used for weekly video ideas
Kite's weekly videos run on tools that come built into Kite, so you don't need to connect any accounts to get started.
Research what's working
Make the video
Common questions
What are some good marketing video ideas for a small business?
The most reliable ideas come from things only your business can say. A customer explaining the result they got, a 20-second demo of the feature people ask about most, an answer to the objection you hear on every sales call, and the founder explaining why the company exists all work well because they're specific. Kite starts each direction from a different true detail like these and pairs it with a format that's holding attention in your category right now.
How long should a weekly marketing video be?
For TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, 15 to 34 seconds is a good range, and it's Kite's default for social video. Shorter videos are easier to watch to the end, which matters on platforms that reward completion. If you need a different length for a specific placement, tell Kite, and it can make anything from 5 to 90 seconds.
What if I don't like any of the ideas Kite proposes?
Tell Kite what you'd prefer, and it writes new directions that are different in kind from the ones you've already seen. You can also skip a week. Nothing is made until you pick a direction, so an idea you pass on doesn't cost you a finished video.
Can I give Kite my own idea for this week's video?
Yes. Describe the idea, the product, or the message you want to get across, and Kite treats it as the brief. It keeps anything you tell it to keep, such as words you quoted or a claim you need included, and builds the directions around it.
Does Kite post the video to my social accounts?
Kite makes the finished video and you post it. Download the file from Videos and upload it to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or wherever your audience watches.
Will the weekly ideas repeat?
Each weekly proposal starts from your newest goal and what's in your wiki, and the wiki grows as Kite works with you. As your goals change and Kite learns more about your customers and results, the angles change with them.