Don’t let the wide range of video content intimidate you - learn to harness effective formats to directly benefit your business.
What kind of video do we need to produce?
It’s a simple enough question but one which often causes headaches in strategy planning.
Facing this challenge can be particularly difficult for small and new businesses. With a wealth of video content available to consumers across different channels, it’s sometimes difficult to narrow down exactly what format will communicate your message most effectively.
Not to mention that taking the leap into video production can be costly and time consuming if you don’t have a precise plan of action.
It is vital to determine a crystal-clear video marketing strategy, and the first step is understanding the strengths of different types of videos, and how they can serve your purpose.
At VidOps we believe that visual content can and should be a creative and engaging form of outreach. Once you understand the benefits of each type of video, you can plan content that is unique to your business, leverages brand storytelling and cuts through the noise to directly engage your audience.
It’s worth noting that it is critical to vary the type of content you produce and be consistent in your output. But don’t let that put you off.
Whether you work with a content marketing agency, or produce in-house, it’s important to get to grips with the basic styles of video content, and you can reap the rewards. An incredible 87% of marketers say that video gives them a high, measurable ROI – you can too!
We’ve put together the 6 most popular types of video content you can leverage to showcase your message, and the fun you can have when you strategize with intention.
Don’t assume that a promotional video is the same as a traditional advert! A promo should be clearly targeted towards a specific audience with a measurable goal in mind.
An easy example would be if you ran a small e-commerce sportswear shop and were throwing a mid-season sale – you’ll design a promo video with the specific aim of bringing customers to the sale. You could showcase the great discounts on equipment, why now is the perfect time to stock up for a holiday and maybe an additional discount with a referral code.
There’s a multitude of ways to drum up interest, and promotional videos will help you directly target the audience you want.
VidOps Example:
Sendit.Money had a simple goal - to inspire an audience to visit their CrowdCube page. Blending statistics, inspirational insight and clear CTAs, the promo video generated huge interest and an incredible drive to their fundraising initiative.
Testimonials are a hugely effective benefit to any strategy. By spotlighting happy customers and clients, you show the real-world value of your goods or services, and your audience gets an insight into the customer journey.
This type of organic social proof has never been more relevant.
Consumers and decision makers are increasingly well-informed, and are progressively turning to online reviews, word-of-mouth, and testimonials before they’ll even consider making a purchase.
Testimonial videos are a great opportunity to create an emotional connection with your target audience and then simply let your results speak for themselves.
VidOps Example:
This great testimonial for Paymentsense from coffee shop, bar and kitchen Bear is a perfect example of testimonial and brand storytelling working together. Seeing how an eclectic company found exactly what they were looking for in a payment service, meeting all their demands and more inspires huge confidence for potential customers, whilst promoting Bear at the same time.
Does your business use an innovative app? Do you address a specific pain point? Or do you simply keep finding yourself answering the question; “What does it do?”
Then why not try an Explainer?
These videos are a brilliant way to quickly demonstrate your USPs and help the buyer visualise how they would use your product or service.
Explainer videos are especially useful if you often answer the same support questions repeatedly. You can create tailored videos to address each question, significantly cutting down the time spent in support calls and establishing a rapport with potential customers even before they get in touch.
VidOps Example:
This short and sweet explainer video from Subly does a great job of succinctly clarifying exactly what you can expect from the platform, what pain points it addresses and the unique features you, the customer, could benefit from. What more do you need?
Your parents probably taught you that teasing isn’t nice. And they’re right of course, except when it comes to teaser videos.
Audiences want to be enticed and creating excitement and curiosity is a perfect way to spark an interest in something new.
Let’s say you were rebranding and launching your revamped website. You want to capture a new demographic, but you don’t want to isolate any of your dedicated customers. Teaser videos (when done well) should inspire new leads by promoting your new web presence, without alienating your current clients.
Unifying these two groups is easy when your teaser video is generating anticipation for everybody and creates a buzz around your brand that can sometimes seem hard to achieve.
VidOps Example:
Not to toot our own horn, but we really loved our VidOps teaser video, drumming up excitement for our newly developed production platform, which enables easy, remote onboarding and connects production teams around the globe. We wanted a simple video with big impact, and the presentation of this video did just that.
Great animation can evoke places, people, and situations that you may not be able to achieve in real life. Whether this is due to budget constraints, remote working or pitching to an international market, animation might well be the answer.
A massive benefit to animation is the ability to quickly produce content. If your strategy is focused on a ‘little and often’ approach, animation should certainly be in the mix. Animation services can assist in presenting and streamlining the big ideas, helping you to simplify complex topics or give a dynamic visual to otherwise difficult to digest information.
Another nice capacity of animation is its flexibility. Why not combine styles and issue several animated promotional videos to highlight different offers or events? Created an animated video to illustrate a glowing testimonial? The world is your oyster.
VidOps Example:
This video for Allied Site Services could have been a nightmare to produce in real life. Health and safety issues, a grand location, an enormous overhead. Allied were able to sidestep these issues by using animation and were able to get the exact visuals and tone they were looking for - without having to compromise.
6.Event Video
Before the world started working remotely, events videos were a key part of video marketing strategies – and they still should be!
Corporate events, conferences or milestone celebrations make fantastic video content. The ‘behind the scenes’ insight into your brand, your working style and the people behind the company makes for compelling viewing, with the bonus of generating a little FOMO in your viewer.
In a post-COVID world this still rings true. One of the most exciting things to see in 2020 was the creativity marketers used to generate events videos from the virtual space.
LaterCon was a lovely example of combining a virtual event with video content. Later not only offered an amazing learning opportunity for digital marketers, but used it as a launchpad for partnered brands, an opportunity to showcase new services and as a result, generated some incredible event videos which showcase the fun, youthful company ethos, and made anybody who couldn’t make it desperate to attend another (and sign up to their mailing list!).
VidOps Example:
Doesn’t this sleek and glittering Christmas party look epic? Kit and Caboodle created an incredible event for their clients and wanted a video to capture the magic and evoke the feeling of one of their events. We think this video does all that and more – we wish we were there!
So back to the original question:
What kind of video do we need to produce?
The answer is: whatever you like!
Now you have a guide to effective formats and how they can benefit your business, you can jump straight in.
Video production shouldn’t be prescriptive. When you work with a content creation company like VidOps, we encourage creativity. We work alongside you to generate the strategic video you want, at a price point and schedule to suit you.
So, don’t let video production be a hurdle, embrace the challenge and see a big impact in your business growth.