Startups and businesses are facing more competition than ever. Most business owners now know how to build a website, facebook page, etc., to reach the masses. And if that’s the new baseline, one has to be more creative than ever to stand out amidst the #WhiteNoise.
Having a unique idea or compelling message is a good start, but the most crucial factor is how you develop, produce, and deploy that message to your audience. Yes, capturing the attention of potential customers is a long road and there is not ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, especially with the massive amount of content that one receives daily. All the more reason for you to think critically about WHO you are trying to reach, HOW you’ll reach them, WHAT value you are providing, and most importantly answering the WHY of it all…
Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading text.
Though there are many marketing tactics that one could use to fuel business growth, few prove more effective in today’s digital age than that of video content marketing. You’ve probably heard the ubiquitous moniker ‘Content is King’? Well if content is king, then video is the Supreme Being 
It’s the one medium with the capacity to affect and inspire the broadest range of human emotions, and if done right, can impact the hearts and minds of your customers in a way most of your competitors couldn’t dream of.Once considered more for its entertainment and even educational value, Video marketing is vastly changing the business landscape, including the ability to improve SEO, brand awareness & engagement, lead generation, and sales conversion.
So what’s the best way to unlock all that potential?
The ANSWER is to invest in a diverse slate of video content, tailored for each phase of the customer journey. Much like any other tactic in marketing, you wouldn’t rely on just one advertising asset, social post, or singular image to address all your needs. Different audiences, at different points of the sales funnel, call for targeted video content that helps address their needs and offers immersive insights like no other medium. Though every business is unique and these videos might not look or work the same way for everyone, here are seven great video marketing ideas that can make a massive impact on your marketing efforts and help boost your business immediately.
1. Company Mission Statement video
We believe every brand has a story to tell (at least the good brands, anyway) and video is the best vehicle to share that message in a concise, polished, and impactful way. Potential customers need to know who you are, what you do, how they can benefit, and as we’ve stated… WHY you do what you do. Customers are attracted to a brand’s purpose, inspiration, and drive to provide value.
This can be as simple as a founder introducing themselves and their company to the brand or establishing a personal connection with the personality of your company and team, above and beyond the more indirect channels of your website, social, and the rest.
Consumers are 27x more likely to click on a video ad than a banner ad.
A Vision and/or Mission video is critical to articulating your company’s founding story, and often help to answer critical internal questions you may not have considered before. Above all else, a company mission video is for attracting new customers by connecting them to your brand story and your brand mission.
Use your video on your website, share it periodically on your social accounts, run it as a video ad to attract new viewers, use it in email marketing campaigns, or use it to cross-promote your company in a guest post. The great news, this content is evergreen and can be used over and again, without losing its luster.
Notable examples
RL Leaders – brand video
Inspired interiors – brand video
cuisine restaurant – brand video
2. product video
The product video is another essential video format providing a focused and in-depth demonstration of your specific product or service. If you only sell one product, this is an absolute necessity. If you sell multiple products, pick your top seller or the product/service that you want to better promote, and dedicate a video solely to that one product. The results will reveal themselves relatively quickly and you’ll realize that creating a unique video for each of your key products is a no-brainer, worthwhile investment.
Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.
Product videos are typically less aspirational than brand videos, but that doesn’t mean they have to be all tech specs and marketing buzzwords. There are plenty of ways to bring product videos to life with unique style and vision.
They key to a well-produced product video is to engage, educate, and inspire customers to try or buy your product. Gone are the days of the smarmy infomercial salesperson or pitch-man, there are stronger ways to showcase the value of your offering without offending your customers with a hard sell, just as you would with your own brand story. For videos that are demonstrating a service, video helps succinctly summarizing the challenge/need you are addressing, the value your service offers, and a glimpse into how it all works.
The product video can be vital as part of your sales funnels, great for explaining how a product works on your Amazon or Shopify pages (INSERT STATISTIC HERE) and incredibly useful for a social media or email marketing campaign.
Notable examples
ACER – MIXED reality brand video
ACER – predator brand video
3. Customer Testimonial video
It has been said before, but the best way to sell your business is to let your customers do the talking. And because video is such a powerful medium, there’s no better way to share what your customers have to say than through video.
Online video ads deliver a boost of 35% in brand recall, 53% in message recall and 31% in likeability over TV alone.
Customer testimonial videos are powerful tools, especially when you are looking to build awareness, trust, and brand recognition. There’s no better way to nurture leads into potential customers than by providing them with insightful success stories from your own loyal customers. This content is designed to move leads from the consideration to the decision stages, helping validate the product or service offering, oftentimes the most pivotal and overlooked stage of the customer journey. Time to let your own customers do some closing for you 😉
Customer testimonials can be designed in a few different ways:
- They can be in the form of customer spotlight videos, where the video is all about the customer and how your company/product/service helped them with their problem.
- They can be before and after videos, where you show your customer before your product/service, and then again after.
- They can be event videos, where you capture real-time reactions from fans and customers who want to share their love for your business, product, or service.
Notable examples
Yoga Asylum – testimonial video
cellar fight & fitness – testimonial video
4. How To & Influencer/Expert Video
How-to videos are now the second most-watched videos on YouTube (behind “Entertainment”), averaging about ~8k views per video. They key to this format is the trusted demonstration by an influencer or industry expert, providing educational value and moving users through your marketing funnel. When you can feature your product or service through the lens of a pro stylist, makeup artist, chef, or personal trainer, it immediately elevates the perceived value of your offering.
Viewers of all ages are using YouTube to figure out how to do everything from change a tire, install a new product, learn how to apply makeup, style their wardrobe, become rich and famous… you get the point. If the information you’re providing is interesting, educational, and/or thought-provoking, users will take lean in and be primed to share this with their friends, which means that it’s a CRUCIAL investment for your content marketing plan. It also serves as an excellent opportunity to establish your company or spokesperson as an expert thought leader in your industry.
Website visitors are 64% more likely to buy a product on an online retail site after watching a video.
This information provides value and moves users through your marketing funnel.
How-to videos are especially good for engaging prospective leads looking to learn more about a specific topic or problem. Consider topics your business could cover:
- A how-to video explaining how to use your product or service.
- A easy to follow demonstration or showcase of your product/service in action.
- Tips & Tricks video series showcasing the versatility and value of your product in solving everyday problems for your consumer.
Notable examples
ACER – mixed reality setup video
Seiki – smart tv setup video
L’Oreal + Kerastase – Brand Video
5. Welcome or Thank Your Video
Good business is all about building strong relationships. What better way to build strong relationships than with a personal touch? That’s why welcome and thank you videos are great tools for building stronger brand-customers relationships. They are scaled out pieces of content that directly impact your users.
4x as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.
While they might not result in driving immediate sales, this type of video content is aimed at delighting customers. When customers have a positive experience with your company, they’re more likely to come back, which is why welcome and thank you videos can be so successful at turning a one-time sale into a lifelong customer. A little goes a long way, and showing you care by providing content even after they’ve handed you their money can do wonders.
There are a variety of styles a business can choose from, simple and complex, really depending on your needs and or budget. But You can’t go wrong with a clean and professional shot from a leader. A good example of a more complex video comes from email service provider Constant Contact, who created this amazing visual as their corporate thank you video.
constant contact – thank You Video
6. create a video series
Instead of investing a massive amount on a one-time, one-and-done commercial, why not create a series of multiple videos you can use across multiple platforms and mediums to reach your marketing goals? Gone are the days of creating a single explainer video, slapping it on your homepage, and calling it a day. The content lifecycle is getting shorter and more congested, therefore pushing content creators to create more than ever before, just to keep up the pace.
Including video in a landing page can increase conversion by 80%.
We believe in quality over quantity, which is why each video asset must be strategically developed, designed and produced to delight and engage your audience, rather than boring them in to attrition. We bring over 20 years of award-winning content creation experience from a variety of industry and platforms resulting in our own optimized winning formula designed to engage and convert your audience in to loyal customers. Yes, you can always hire your friend’s cousin’s neighbor to shoot and edit a basic video for you, just remember not all video is created equal 😉
Your video series will be specific to your business or brand. One excellent example of a long running, and very successful video series, comes from motivational speaker and entrepreneurial guru Gary Vaynerchuck. If you don’t know Gary, you should, he’s a master at producing great video content. One of his most popular video series is called DailyVee, where he talks about a wide range of topics. He uses pieces from his speeches, and interacts with users. As of this post he’s created 520 of these episodes.
gary vaynerchuck – daily vee Video series
start Creating Your Own Brand Content Videos
Looking for a video and content creating partner to help you get your video marketing game plan up to snuff?
We’d love to talk story with you…
Schedule a call with one of our creative producers today and we’d be happy to explore what the perfect video marketing package looks like for your business.
