We all know how important and effective video is. We consume insane amounts of it every single day.
The question for many businesses is what video should we produce?
Where do I start? What type of video is going to help drive the desired result and produce an ROI?
To help answer some of these questions, I’ve put together a list of different types of videos that can be really useful for businesses. Something to keep in mind as you read (and something I’ve found many times with clients), is that ROI doesn’t only come in the form of money. Sometimes the biggest ROI they’re after is saving time.
This post should give you ideas to get the juices flowing and hone in on the best fit for your business, and the desired result.
Commercial:
This is the obvious one. You want people to know about your company, a sale, etc. So, you have a video produced to use as a commercial. On television, commercials are typically 30 seconds or less, and they don’t include large amounts of information.
On Facebook or Youtube, commercials may be quite a bit longer and contain a lot more information.
Commercials should hook your customers and help create brand awareness. Often commercials use comedy, special effects, drama, or other effective means to hook our attention and create an emotional connection.
It’s typical for commercials to have high production value, and therefore a higher price tag than some of the other types of content in this list.
Here’s a popular commercial from Coca Cola. Personally, I loved the way they had the murals moving around town. I was drawn in by it, and what were they after? An ice cold Coca Cola on a hot summer day. Of course.
Branded Content:
Branded content is one of my personal favorites when it comes to video production and marketing.
Why? Because branded content typically involves a larger degree of storytelling than other types of video. The advertising is less “in your face.” Really, the advertising just comes from the fact that the video is associated with or produced by the brand.
Branded Content is not in your face like this classic Wayne’s World clip:
Branded content can be very short like a commercial, or it can be in a longer form like a short film or documentary.
Branded content often tackles a specific issue in society. The video evokes emotion in the audience, which should result in engagement and brand loyalty.
Effective branded content can also focus around someone or something in the company’s industry. For example, Red Bull has many action and sports videos. The people in the videos aren’t telling you how great Red Bull tastes. They’re jumping off cliffs, surfing big waves, racing F1 cars, and other extreme sports.
We watch, we enjoy the video, and we look forward to more content from Red Bull. We share it with friends, associate “awesome content” with Red Bull, and increase our loyalty to the brand.
That’s why today they have around 9.25 million subscribers on their Youtube channel.
Check out this video from Red Bull:
Note that you never once see someone drink a Red Bull, or talk about the product. You see the brand, you know it’s on their channel, but the video is about relating the brand to the lifestyle. Even if you do see them drink a Red Bull, it’s likely done as part of the story, not blatant advertising of the product.
That’s Branded Content.
Toyo Tire is another great channel on Youtube to check out for Branded Content.
Customer Story / Testimonials
Reviews and experiences from our peers play a huge role in the decision making process for potential customers
In these videos you want to share positive experiences from existing and former customers. In the video they’ll talk about the challenge they faced, and how your product or service provided a great solution. The customer should also talk about how wonderful your company was to work with.
These videos can be produced fairly quickly, and usually involve an interview mixed with footage showing the process, use of the product/service, and results.
Testimonials are great for sharing on social media, on your website, or in emails to potential customers.
Testimonials and Customer Story videos can really help sell those customers who are considering your product or service, but still on the fence. These videos are very effective, especially when potential customers are in the research phase.
Informational Videos, Educational Videos, and Tutorials:
This type of video is produced to provide helpful content to potential clients in the first stages of awareness, or after a purchase.
Let’s look at both.
First Stages:
Let’s say you own a lawn and garden store. You want to target folks who are interested in buying a lawn mower. So, you create a video that provides information about lawn mowers to inform the purchasing decision for the viewer. How much horsepower do you need? Gas or electric? Push mower or riding mower? Etc. etc.
This provides valuable information to the viewer. You’ve also increased the chances that they’ll pay it forward and buy from you. It helps establish brand awareness and establishes you as an expert. Why go somewhere else to buy a mower when you have the knowledge?
Once someone has made a purchase, informational videos can still play a vital role for you and your customer.
Post Purchase Stage:
A video leading to a landing page with a purchase button isn’t the only way to produce an ROI.
For example, say your top selling lawn mower comes in a box and has to be assembled. Your sales team and customer service team are constantly inundated answering the same questions about the assembly by customers who’ve purchased the lawn mower.
Making your sales team assemble the mowers doesn’t make sense either. In this case, a tutorial video may help save your team tens if not hundreds of hours because they don’t have to answer the same questions over and over. So, you have a video produced that goes through the assembly process.
If you want to create brand awareness and establish yourself as an expert, then an informational video or an educational video video may be a great choice.
Likewise, if your team constantly has the same questions that they have to answer, then an informational video may be the perfect video to produce. The video can be posted on the product page, linked in the email with the purchase confirmation, and sent as a reply when the question is inevitably asked again.
The ROI comes in the form of time. Saved time means more productivity. More productivity can lead to better customer service, and more sales.
Explainer Videos:
Some products or services are more complex than others. Explainer videos are a great way to take a process or product, and break it down so it’s easily understood by viewers.
These are great for tech products or services.
Explainer videos are typically animated videos with color schemes and graphics that match the company brand. You can use voiceover as well to guide the video and further explain the process.
These are commonly used on websites to give site visitors an understanding of the product and company that they’re exploring.
Brand or Company Story
As it says right on the homepage of our website, we all love stories.
Creating a brand or company story helps viewers connect with you. This again helps with brand loyalty.
In this type of video you can share the story of how your company was created, struggles that you’ve overcome, proud moments, and where you plan on taking the company in the future.
A company story video will typically feature high level folks in the company. Founders, executives, CEO’s, Directors, etc. I’ve done several of these when a company hits an anniversary or a milestone, like the 30 year mark.
Similar to the customer story video, a company story can really help in the decision making process of potential clients. Hearing your story and philosophy might be what really matters in making the final decision to purchase, or not purchase your product or service.
Company story videos are typically found on the homepage or about page on a website, and also posted to social media.
Training Videos:
For large companies with a lot of employees, training videos can be extremely helpful.
Training videos help establish a standard operating procedure within the company.
Again the ROI can quickly come in the form of time. If higher level employees can share a training video rather than do the training themselves, then it will save time. Time is money.
Training videos are usually for internal purposes, but on occasion can be shared publicly to show potential customers the kind of care and training that your company utilizes.
Product Launch Videos:
Product launch videos can be a lot of fun. This type of video is created to help build excitement around the launch of a new product.
They can be expensive because the production value of the video is usually pretty high. You can also get some great beauty shots by doing a product shoot in a studio. During COVID, this has been a great solution for a lot of companies selling products.
Product launch videos are typically used on social media, in marketing campaigns, in email blasts, on the company website, and on the landing pages.
Here’s a product launch video that we did for APEX Performance Race Parts to help launch their new forged wheel:
Event Videos:
Event videos are pretty self explanatory, but they can be used in several ways.
Here’s a few ways event videos can be used:
- To cover an event for those who couldn’t be there in person
- To create short snippets for social media
- To create a highlight video to generate more sales for future events
- To create a recorded version for paid access later
I’ve filmed both public and private events. I’ve seen the content used for a variety of purposes. There’s so much that goes into putting on an event, so it’s really smart to capture it and re-use the content later for marketing or paid purposes.
Well, there you go. Of course there’s many other forms of videos and ways to use them, but this list should get the creative juices flowing to help you decide what video is the best fit for your current goals and situation.
Ready to start a video for your business? Drop a line and let’s talk!
Dragonfly 44 Productions is a video Production and Post Production company in Sacramento, CA that creates impactful content for clients all over.
Areas Served include: Roseville, Folsom, Auburn, Rocklin, San Francisco, Sonoma, Santa Rosa, Stockton, Yuba City, Chico, Redding, Vacaville, and all over!
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