You want to add video to your marketing. Makes sense. Online videos are more popular than ever. A third of all online activity is spent watching video, and Youtube now receives more than one billion visitors a month.*
But there are a lot of different styles of video. Such as animated explainer, whiteboard, kinetic typography, live action demo, testimonial. The list goes on. So how do you figure out which types are right for your needs, give value appropriate to potential customers, and help them along your marketing funnel? In other words, produce results.
Three Simple Video Strategies
I’m going to cover three basic ways of looking at your video marketing: a strategic view, tactical perspective, and an overview of video types that work best for particular goals.
Keep in mind, video is just another type of marketing you can now add to your toolkit. At some point you had to add a webpage, a Facebook page and maybe even an email campaign. The idea of implementing them may have been daunting at one time, but you did it. Well, video is just another online tool, but a powerful one that can be used to boost them all.
Strategies
Introduce
If you have a unique business type or product that potential customers don’t already know, then you need to introduce and explain it. Think AirBnB, August Home, or Dollar Shave Club. All three businesses are old concepts, renting a room for a night, locking your front door and purchasing a razor, but with a new twist. We’re all familiar with renting a place to stay for the night at a hotel or motel, but AirBnB’s service, connecting you with an alternative housing host to rent from, is unique and needs to be explained to new customers.
Introduction videos keep it short, 1-2 minutes. If you go longer, say 2-5 minutes, make sure to introduce the new product or service in the beginning. Think of it as the “lead” of an article, which ensures the viewer is sufficiently informed offering them any in-depth info.
Types of Introduction videos: Short explainer, short demo.
Educate
If you have a more traditional product or service you don’t need to introduce it, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have useful information to give. I don’t need to explain what a video production company does, but I do have information that is helpful, like how to choose the right type of online video. An education video helps guide potential customers further along the marketing pipeline before they contact you. What information do you already give out in marketing material to potential customers?
Education video types: In-depth explainers, tutorials, product videos, and webinars.
Convey
Some prospective customers want to know about you and your enterprise, in addition to your product or service: how long you’ve been in business, what your business culture is like, and what other people have to say about you. This is your opportunity to convey a sense of your business culture and the goodwill it’s built over time, to show prospects how you may be a cultural fit for them.
Videos that convey: Testimonial, and culture videos.
Hybrids
What if you need to not only educate potential customers about your service, but also convey your company's personal touch? A combination of strategies will work. You may not need a cultural video, but incorporating elements of one into your informational video may be a good idea.
A short video statement by your CEO or sales lead speaking to the camera at the end of your video, or footage of your staff producing your product may help give a face to and impart a sense of your company’s culture.
You may add client interviews about their experience working with you to your explainer video, which brings an element of testimonials and helps establish credibility.
You probably already use this strategy if you produce any live events. If you're in a panel discussion or host a presentation, you're not only educating, but conveying your company culture.
Hybrid video types: behind the scenes, live streaming, event presentation, interviews, panel discussion videos, and vlogs.
Types of online marketing videos and the strategies they work with best.
Tactics
Now that you know what strategies you want to use let's look at examples of some common types of video, tactics, and the strategies that fit with them.
Introduce
Animated Explainer videos
These videos explain or demonstrate new concepts and products such as apps, software, and other complex services or products. They focus on clearly and concisely explaining a new concept, and are commonly 2D animated videos using either type, motion graphics or cell animation. Explainers can be 2D animated, 3D, kinetic type or a mix of live action and animation.
Animated explainer video: Essential Pharmaceuticals
By TD Post and Animation
Demo Videos
Demo videos are popular with startups and are usually a mix of live action with animated graphics, and screenshots of their app or website. They’re perfect when you need to explain a concept in a way that’s more relatable, by showing people using your product or service.
Demo video: Hostfully
By Pixel Valley Studio
Demo video: August Smart Lock
Educate
Informational video (in-depth explainer)
Every business fields questions from prospective customers while they’re in the sales cycle. If your business installs in-ground pools, for example, you probably answer a lot of questions before a sale. What’s the best type of pool? Is my yard too small to work with? How do I decide on the design? Do I need a pool fence to meet local regulations? The good news is that you’ve already answered, blogged and written FAQs dedicated to answering these questions. Creating an informational video based on them is a great way to educate potential clients before they reach out to you, while also showing them the product/service in action.
Information Video: River Pools
Tutorial Video
A tutorial differs from an informational video only in its intent: to instruct current customers how to use, maintain and augment the product or service they’ve purchased. But we’ve all looked at these types of videos while in the buying phase, in order to get a sense of what a product or service might be like. They serve a double purpose by helping guide potential buyers further along the marketing process.
Tutorial: Sephora Boscia Charcoal Jelly Ball Cleanser.
Convey
Testimonial videos
Potential buyers are interested in more than just product and service information, but also feedback from your customers. Reviews on Amazon and other sites can make or break a sale. A great way to help sell on trust and social validation is with testimonial videos. They're particularly good for companies when reliability, security and user feedback are important. Think AirBnB.
A testimonial video could help you stand out in a crowded field. If there were a few inground pool installers in your area, customer testimonials could spell the difference by conveying how customers trusted you to take care of their property and built them a great addition to their home. They say the proof's in the pudding, and solid, happy customer testimonials can really impart that message.
Testimonal video: Airbnb
Culture video
While testimonials help sell and showcase positive feedback, a culture video conveys your company's culture. For some clients, it’s important to know if you're a fit for them, especially if you’re going to work together for a long time, or you need to create assets that fit their style and values. If you’re a boutique graphic design agency, for example, they may already like your portfolio but also want to get a sense of what you’re like to work with, your style, and how you solve problems.
If your brand is already well known in your community, but the culture is not clear, a culture video could help. For example, in the San Francisco area, where coffee is a really big deal, Philz coffee is iconic. They created a wonderful culture video about their founder Phil, that conveys why your experience in any Philz coffee is always great. I'm already a fan, but now I know why I am after watching this video. I want to meet Phil and hang out with this guy. We’re a cultural fit, and the goodwill of his company just rose levels for me. I can’t wait to walk into a Philz.
Culture video: Philz Coffee
by Northbound Films
Hybrids
The right video for you may be a combination. You may not need a cultural video, but incorporating elements of one into into your informational video may be a good idea. A short video statement by your CEO or sales lead speaking to the camera, or footage of staff producing your product, may help give a face to your business and offer a sense of your company’s culture.
An explainer video that includes client interviews about their experience working with you could also bring an element of testimonials and convey trust.
Hybrid video (Explainer, Live Action, Culture Video): Airbnb
Focusing strategically on what you need to communicate, will help you decide if you need to introduce, educate or convey. After that you can focus on the tactics; which specific video types will work best for you and your video production vendor. Video can help get your product or service in front of potential customers, but only the right type will give value to them, and support your marketing goals and boost your bottom line.
Additional Notes
What about all those other types of videos like "kinetic typography" and "whiteboard" videos? They're graphic techniques that can be used in an explainer, tutorial and other types of videos. Kinetic typography refers to animated text on the screen which may be accompanied by a narrator. Whiteboard videos are either animated or live action, and show text and graphics drawn on a whiteboard to illustrate a narrator's points.
*Hubspot: 31 Video Marketing Statistics to Inform Your 2017 Strategy
Frank Dellario
Frank has been working in the film and video business for 30 years and producing online video and animation for 20. He was a pioneer in the process of Machinima animation and publisher of FilmCrew magazine. He's currently a producer/director at his company Pixel Valley Studio.