It’s not too hard to see why video is so popular these days, for one thing, it’s an easy-to-digest format that gives our eyes a rest from the overabundance of textual information online. This would be why the world reportedly watches “1 billion hours” of YouTube social video per day.
In general, there are three main types of marketing and promotional videos;
Awareness: Create visibility, get on your customers’ radar. These videos typically have high-entertainment value and broad appeal, so they attract as many people as possible.
Engagement: Create a reaction, whether that’s a like, comment, or share. Videos in this category usually play to the viewer’s emotions.
Education: Teach your audience something. If you’re targeting potential customers, that might mean a customer case study. If you’re targeting current customers, it could be a how-to video, or a product or service update.
Let’s look at the specific categories within each area;
Awareness
Company culture / Meet the team video
If you want to give customers a sense of your organisation’s values, culture, strategy, team members, experience and skills, a video showcasing your culture or introducing a new team member is always good. These videos help people understand why your company is different and strengthens their brand loyalty.
Behind the scenes, (BTS)
People love being in on the behind the scenes action. If you have exclusive insight into a process, project, or situation your customers would be interested in, consider making a behind-the-scenes (BTS) video. These are usually less polished than traditional videos and incorporate lots of raw adhoc footage. These work for both Business to Consumer, (B2C), and Business to Business, (B2B), brands.
Interview
Interview videos usually spotlight one or two people answering (you guessed it) questions. The interviewee should either be someone your audience already knows (an influencer, a well-known speaker, an author, etc.) or someone they don’t know but would enjoy hearing from. This type of video is fantastic for sharing your company’s values and aligning yourself with an interesting or inspiring person.
Engagement
Humorous video
Getting your viewers to smile or laugh makes them feel good and your brand seem relatable. These videos are also more likely to be shared across social media platforms.
Vlog
A vlog, or “video blog,” is diary-style and typically filmed by one person in front of their camera or webcam. A typical vlog describes someone’s personal experience or thoughts on a specific topic.
While influencers tend to use vlogging more than brands, however you can still take advantage of this popular genre. To give you an idea, you could ask one of your employees to do a one-day takeover of your YouTube account, showing your audience around the office, taking them along to an industry event, interviewing other team members, and so on. There is a trend towards less polished corporate style videos for social media channels.
Education
How-to / Explainer
A how-to video/explainer walks your viewers through a process or answers a common question. They’re great for building brand credibility and getting your audience to trust you.
In this video, a Squarespace employee lays out the differences between a domain and web hosting. Squarespace happens to provide both — so anyone who watches this video is probably a good customer.
To make your first how-to/explainer video, come up with a list of questions your buyers and customer usually have. Pick one that’s relatively straightforward and shoot a short video explaining it.
Product review
Few consumers buy products these days without consulting, “Google”. That’s why a product review video can be so successful: Your audience feels like they’re getting an honest take from someone they like and trust in a highly convenient format.
However, it’s hard to review your own product without seeming biased or false. With that in mind, try giving influencers a sample, trial, or freebie and asking them to share their thoughts in a video.
Q&A
There are a couple different variations on the “Question and Answer,” or Q&A, video. You can record someone interviewing another — think someone from your team interviewing an expert. Or you can take questions from your audience and answer them on-camera.
The first is probably best for B2B companies, while the second is ideal for consumer brands.
Announcement / Launch video
Have some big news to share with your audience? Whether you’re launching a new product, having an event, opening another store, or starting an initiative, an announcement video helps you get you the message across and build excitement. Announcement videos doesn’t have to be humorous, but they should be attention-grabbing.
Case study / Testimonial
When it comes to conversion, you can’t beat case studies and testimonials. It’s all thanks to social proof, or the psychological phenomenon that causes people to want something when they see others using it.
Product / Service tour
Most first-time visitors to your website want to know how your product will improve their lives, or help them with a particular issue or requirement. They don’t want to read a bunch of text or scroll through a ton of images, that’s too much work until they know what you are offering is relevant to their need.
A basic overview of your products or services gives them the answer. They can see for themselves what your product or service looks like and does. If it’s compelling you will find more interest in your product, service or message.
Feature explainer
It can be helpful to focus in on one aspect or feature of your product. A feature explainer is a great way to do just that: Rather than covering the main features as you would in a product tour, explain how one thing works, its most common use cases, and why it’s so valuable.
Putting video clips like this shown on your website, and you can send them to prospects who are interested in specific features, services or products.
Presentations / Live Talks
If a team member is giving a presentation, filming this is an easy way of generating relevant content, and normally requires little editing.
Summary
Videos can play a valuable role during every stage of your marketing funnel, from attracting new leads to turning them into potential clients.
About the Author
Turkey Red Media is a multi-disciplined media company based in Scotland’s central belt. We provide a variety of services including video for TV & Cinema, Corporate, Online Streaming & Web. We are UK CAA licenced drone operators as well as Google approved photographers. We provide a variety of content to support online digital marketing, offering a full digital marketing service from campaign design, online marketing & promotion to analysis and reporting on the success of social media campaigns All of the video thumbnails shown in this article were filmed and edited by Turkey Red Media.