Video content continues to prove to be a fantastic marketing asset across all niches.
Every year, more and more businesses decide to jump into the video marketing game, and for excellent reasons if the numbers are to be believed .
However, having a video campaign that actually benefits the bottom line takes more than recording something and uploading it to YouTube.
You need a strategy, quality content, an effective piece that serve specific marketing goals!
That’s what this article is all about.
What follows is a quick guide on a few of the most popular styles of marketing videos designed to improve your sales.
Covering how they work, why they work, and including a few examples along the way.
1 Explainer Videos
Explainers are the darlings of video marketing .
They give you a perfect medium to showcase to your audience how your product or service works, and do so in fun, compelling, and entertaining ways.
The secret to effective explainer videos lies in the power of storytelling.
Often having a relatable narration that gets your audience from point A to point B of how to solve an issue they have.
Explainers come in many shapes and sizes, they can be animated, live-action, use particular styles like whiteboard, or 3D, but they share some commonalities.
They are often short – as most marketing videos tend to be – mirror your target audience, and follow an effective three-act formula.
As for coverage, explainers can fit in most marketing campaigns across all niches.
However, they are particularly effective in the tech and healthcare sectors.
Their ability to condense a lot of complex information and make it interesting gives them an edge over other types of videos.
2 How-to Videos (Tutorials)
Tutorials and How-to videos are everywhere, and many companies have already caught on to how they can help you improve your sales.
Anybody can enjoy – and be appreciative of – a piece of content that delivers value.
And tutorials, designed to provide helpful tips and tricks that help people solve everyday problems, deliver that in spades.
A great thing about tutorials is that you can cover a wide range of subjects, even those not immediately tied to your brand or product!
For example, if your company sells tires, you don’t need to settle with tutorials about changing tires effectively – that’s just low-hanging fruit!
You can do a whole series of useful how-to’s about vehicle tires, maintenance, seasonal preparation, diagnosis…
The list goes on, and the same principle applies to all niches.
And every piece of video can bring new eyes to your brand and content being shared and passed along due to their usefulness.
While tutorials can be a nice addition in most stages of a sales funnel, they are particularly useful in the awareness stage.
In other words, they work marvelously to grow your audience and reach.
3 Culture videos
Culture videos are meant to tell the story of who your company is.
They are meant to reflect your brand’s values, and showcase the real people behind the logo, working hard to service your customers.
Their idea is to show your viewers your human side, and show them why you are worth doing business with.
And in an era where audiences expect more from the brands they interact with, culture videos can be key for improving your sales.
When working on culture videos, focus on telling your story and making a real connection with your customers.
Ask yourself: What do they care about?
Maybe they are interested in your work ethic, or they want a behind the scenes of your workplace, maybe they’d just like to meet the team…
Get to know your audience, and the answer will soon follow.
These videos should tell your audience “ we speak your language ,” and that means much more than just word choice.
Every element, narrative, sound design, imagery, should convey a bit about your business.
Corporate videos can work in both the awareness and the decision-making stages, as they excel at garnering trust from your audience, and display your business in a great light.
4 Testimonials
These can follow the review or interview format and can reach out to your audience in a way you never could.
Testimonials usually involve a happy customer sharing their experiences and satisfaction with your product or brand – making it easier for others to choose to do the same and, ultimately, to improve your sales.
Testimonials are meant to bolster potential customers’ trust and can approach your audience in ways you never could.
After all, you’ll always have a vested interest, but having a third party talk about your product’s benefits will be a boon.
Testimonials tend to be shorter ( usually under two minutes ) bun in their review form can extend way beyond that.
And can be gathered spontaneously at an event, or follow a production process.
The key, however, is to make them genuine. Interview real customers and leave room for spontaneity to change your pre-production ideas.
Much like company culture videos, testimonials work great at the latter stages of a buyer’s journey – Giving your audience that extra bit of convincing about trusting your product.
5 Social Videos
Social media is now an integral piece of marketing, and if your company is not taking advantage of it, the competition is.
The good news is that video content can help you make an impact on social channels, and help you connect with an audience you didn’t even know were there.
Social videos are those created specifically to be shared through social media channels.
And while they share some attributes with many of the types of videos we’ve talked about already, they change and adapt to the social channel you intend to use them on.
Some social platforms like Facebook and YouTube respond well to longer videos, while short video ads or quick tips guides perform best on sites like twitter and apps like Instagram.
The secret to effective social videos lies in understanding what each platform’s audience favors, and adapting your content to meet their expectations.
Any business can benefit from social videos if done right.
You just need to deliver content your audience will value, and do so in a format their platform of choice prefers.
Wrapping It Up
Done right video content can be the key to improve your sales, really fast.
But as I mentioned in the beginning, it takes a clear understanding of the type of video you are using and the why.
The styles we talked about today can work great on their own, but you’ll most likely want to use a combination of them to tackle audiences at different stages of engagement.
Whether you go with an explainer video, a company story, or focus on short social videos, one thing you do need to keep in mind is quality.
Ask any video company worth their salt, and they’ll tell you that online, people judge the reliability of a business by the quality of their content.
The last thing you want is to have a video out there sending the wrong message.
Start by defining your marketing goals and understanding your target audience.
Then, choose a video that can accomplish one and appeal to the other, and get working.
Before long, you’ll have fantastic pieces of content out there, working 24/7 to improve your sales and drive new customers to your doorstep!
