Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Email, TV, click ads– there are loads of places to promote and utilize video to market your business, reach a lot of viewers, and be potentially shared.
70% of users say they have shared a business’ video either with a friend or through social media channels (Wyzowl).
Videos are not just easy to share, they are eye-catching and can communicate a lot in an entertaining or an educational manner. Much more dynamic than a blog post.
With proper video editing and a solid idea, you can create a video that truly captivates your brand. Video isn’t going anywhere anytime soon; we all love a good video.
Just like anything else, there are many ways to do video. To know what kind of video you should choose, take a step back and think about your goal for making a video and what will work best with your brand.
You can use many types of videos at different times, so let’s dig deep to find out what video works best for you right now.
1. Educational Videos
An educational video can really demystify aspects of your brand or product that aren’t well-known or understood.
You can explain how you get certain parts of your product and why it’s important to do something in a certain way. You can also explain terms and phrases related to your products, so your customers have a better understanding.
If you have a business that is more service-minded, educational videos can be great to bring awareness to a certain social issue or misconception that is important to you.
So, if you have a nonprofit or a business that is highly philanthropic, you could probably make more than one of these videos to bring attention to certain aspects of an issue.
Educational videos can be done in a variety of styles. A whiteboard kind of video can be especially nice to organize and communicate your information. Following someone’s story is also a personal and interesting way to draw people in.
People love stories about other people. Regardless of what you use, don’t forget to dive into the issue and provide a few statistics where need be.
2. Testimonial Videos
Testimonial videos are extremely useful for adding credibility to your business as you’ll see with this video on YouTube. You should reach out to a few of your customers who have left good reviews in the past and see if they would be willing to be recorded telling their story.
To make it easier, provide them with questions and examples so that they have something to work with while filming.
Try to avoid a “talking head” video. That means that you need to add more than just a video of the customer speaking to the camera. Add some footage of them using your product and some statistics if you can.
Customer success stories are more involved but much more engaging. This is when you tell the “complete story” of the customer and show how it made their life better.
This style of video is similar to a testimonial, but it means you actually follow the full story and work more closely with the customer during the process.
3. Entertainment Videos
People love to share entertaining content. These are videos that tell a fun little story or joke with some subtle branding throughout the story or at the end of the video.
We commonly see these videos in cartoon form and live-action. Although, you can produce them however you like, as long as it is truly enjoyable.
A perfect example of this was the “moldy Whopper” video campaign that went viral last year for Burger King. Or, the GIF or JIF video utilized by JIF when they launched a cross-branding promotion with GIPHY.
The tricky part about an entertainment video is to hit the right chord between fun and promoting your brand. As well as finding a way to incorporate a call to action that’ll be noticed.
You definitely don’t want to promote so much that it takes the joy out of the video, but you also don’t want to create a video that has lost its promotional purpose.
Case studies show that an effective marketing strategy should include 80% entertaining video content and 20% promotional content.
4. Explanatory Videos
Here you can set up a problem and explain how your business can fix the problem with “explainer videos”. Whether it’s live-action or a cartoon, you can follow someone’s story to see how your product or service added to their life.
An explanatory video can be entertaining, shareable, and packed full of information to sway your audience. Start by brainstorming all of the ways your product can add to someone’s life.
Once you have a winning idea, tell the story in your video so the rest of the world can understand your product better and why they need it.
5. Behind The Scenes Videos
If your brand needs a bit of a personal touch, a good behind-the-scenes video can get you just that and more.
With this style of video, you can display your service and all of the hard work that goes into it. Try following the story of one of your loyal employees and show what their day looks like when at work.
You can show what all is involved in getting a product finished. Following the story of one piece of your product, and how it gets added to, can show a lot of your process in an intriguing way.
Where do your materials come from? Who works in your office? How is it made? These are all questions you can answer in a behind-the-scenes video.
6. Introduction Videos
Time to introduce, or reintroduce, your business to the world in a video. Tell your story, how your business came to be, what you bring to customers, and what your dreams are for every service or product.
The key is to be personable and honest.
In this style of video, you can show what your workspace looks like and who all works there. Remember that it is human nature to like listening to stories of other people, so don’t just sell your business.
Tell your story. If you tell a good story, you will end up promoting your business well. Everyone has a story to tell. If you feel stumped, just dig a little deeper so you can better articulate why your business matters.
7. How To Videos
This business video style is best used for customer support. It’s a great video to not only put on your social media, but on your website.
You can explain everything your customer needs to know about your product so that they can use it to its full potential.
There are a lot of people out there who don’t read manuals. Videos can communicate what you need to about a product so your customers have the best experience possible.
Though these videos are less “shareable,” they benefit your customer. If you have happy customers, that means you did a great job with your service, perfect, and you will hopefully get some word-of-mouth advertising as well.
Ready to Start Creating Video Content for Your Business?
If you would like any help with your online marketing needs or help to decide what kind of video is best for your business, contact us via the form below for a free consultation!
