13 Types Of Business Videos You Should Be Making

Last year Forbes declared that 2017 would be the year for video marketing. Indeed a study predicted that by 2019 80% of all internet consumption will be videos. Videos are becoming less of a ‘maybe’ and more of a ‘must have’ when it comes to marketing your business but it’s hard to know where to begin.

Most people who walk into our studio like to begin with shareable educational videos. These are great because educating the public about what you do builds trust. But there’s so much more that might reach different audiences or have a greater impact.

Here’s a helpful list of video ideas that are easy to make and your audience will love.

• Product Demonstration Videos

• Welcome Videos

• Internal Training Videos

• Explainer Videos

• Testimonial Videos

• Seasonal & Holiday Videos

• Promotional Videos

• Company Culture Videos

• Price Comparison Videos

• Review Videos

• FAQ Videos

• CEO Testimonials

• Behind the Scenes & Office Tours

Product Demonstrations

Who they’re for: People who sell tangible products. 

Product demonstration videos are intended to explore your products features and benefits. They’re good for introducing new products if everyone already knows what you sell. They’re also great for explaining how to use a product that might be difficult to use.

This kind of video is particularly useful for customers who are currently in the buying stage and need a little push to purchase. Try to not only focus on the mechanics of the product, but talk about the problem, the solution, and the experience.

To make these videos more interesting try a unique spin on what the product can accomplish. Purple Mattresses came up with an amazing way to show their products were a cut above the rest by demonstrating the egg test.

This video accomplishes a variety of things to take note of:

• Establishes their product as a cut above the rest
• Establishes a humorous, enjoyable take on their advertisement that makes you want to watch more.
• Engages you with good dialogue and narration
• Challenges you to try the test yourself
• Comes across as professional through the video quality alone, leaving the content free to be silly and fun
• Long enough to be useful, short enough to be consumable.

It IS possible to achieve all that on a tight budget. Challenge yourself to come up with some ideas.

Welcome Videos

Create a welcome video to get started on the right foot with new clients. These videos should be to give new customers a warm welcome and helpful introduction to your business. Think of it as a welcome to the family.

A welcome video should include a quick introduction to who you are and what your new client can expect from you in the days, week or months ahead. It could outline where to go if they need assistance or explain the different departments of what you do.

There are huge additional benefits to these videos if you have a complicated to understand product. According to industry reports, a website video is 53 times more likely to appear in Google search results. Welcome videos can answer some of the immediate questions that always come up so you can spend less time explaining and more time doing what you do best. This also applies to FAQ videos.

You can also do welcome videos for your website header or for the lobby of your establishment (if you have one). Just look at Michael Buble’s one.

Internal Training Videos

The cost of training new employees can often run in the thousands of dollars. If you spend time training each and every new member directly then you will probably benefit from training videos.

These videos take new employees through the complicated process of how your company works and what their role is within it. With videos you can plan the context and delivery of the training and use helpful photos or illustrations. New employees can also re-watch the videos if they do not understand the concepts the first time around.

Imagine everything you have to take new employees through during their training. Now imagine never having to do that again because you can just direct them to premade training videos. Bliss.

Here’s a video that Mcdonald’s uses to train its staff:

Workplace training videos can take a long time to prepare for because you want to strike the right tone and balance. You might want to set up situations and scenarios using actors which take time and can run the cost up. However it is very possible to achieve great looking an effective training videos with a green screen, a subject and some graphics.

Explainer Videos

This is the kind of video we get most of the time. Explainer videos build trust with potential clients and take some of the FAQs off your hands by explaining various aspects of your business or educating people on how to do things themselves.

How-to videos are some of the most popular online. With the explosion of the internet lots of people became DIY experts. According to Google 91% of smartphone users consult their device when completing a task. At a first glance you might be tempted to think this would be bad for your business – “who wants to hire me when theres videos teaching people to do it themselves?” – but actually these guides are a big help.

Firstly they establish you as an expert within your industry and someone worth talking to about their problem. They filter out the people who wouldn’t have bought from you anyway and built a rapport with those who will.

That being said it’s important to not make your videos too in depth. Too much information at once tends to turn away customers. Your best bet is to think of these videos as 2-10 minute concept introductions that are easy to consume and understand. Take this Apple Pay video for example:

Testimonial Videos

Interestingly testimonial pages are some of the most routinely ignored yet most important sections of a website. People WANT to read testimonials but often get turned away when they’re hard to find or not dressed up. In a web design sense this means making your testimonials viewable from the homepage and including photos, but a more effective way is to have testimonial videos.

At this point you might be thinking about how hard it is to get written testimonials from clients, and wondering how you’re then supposed to get them on camera. Actually video testimonials can be easier than written ones because all it takes is to flick on a camera and talk for 30 seconds.

If your clients come into your office take a moment at the end of the interaction to request a quick video testimonial. Don’t forget to tell them it’s not mandatory. Many customers will jump at the chance, especially if they have businesses of their own (who doesn’t like free exposure).

Pepper these testimonial videos throughout your website and social media pages for greatest impact.

Vidyard.com shares 7 components of a believable testimonial video as such:

• Set expectations – make your subject feel at ease by explaining what you expect from the video.
• Skip the script – videos sound so much more natural if the person is speaking from memory instead of reading from a page.
• Capture attention right away – don’t go for long introductions, get right to the heart quickly.
• Benefits, benefits, benefits – have your subject talk about what benefits your product or service brought them.
• Short video, long conversation – encourage a genuine conversation within a 1-3 minute video
• Simplicity – cherry pick the best bits to keep viewers focused and keep it simple.
• Share the screen – don’t be afraid to get involved. An interview situation is sometimes more engaging.

Seasonal & Holiday Videos

This one is simple. Wishing your customers a merry Christmas or happy 4th of July is a great opportunity to remind them you’re there and update them on your latest products or services. It establishes you as a personal brand that cares about the lives of your customers and the community. Holiday videos could also serve as a way to demonstrate your more playful or humorous side as they don’t directly deal with the products or services you offer.

You can make all of these videos in advance and there’s plenty of holidays to cover. Try to avoid overselling or maybe even selling at all because it dilutes the message of the video.

Also, don’t forget to express gratitude!

Here are a few holidays that would be good opportunities for videos:

• Christmas (duh)
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• Easter
• Independance Day
• New Years
• Valentines Day
• St Patrick’s Day

Promotional Videos

Have you got a new product coming out? Or an event coming up? These videos are perfect for talking about something new or coming up and inviting people to come out and take part.

These videos could outline what you expect visitors to gain from your event or product. They should include a brief overview and a call to action to get people to sign up. If you’re making a promo video for an event you’ve hosted before consider using photos and videos from the previous years. When the event comes around try to capture videos and photos for the next events promo.

Company Culture Videos

These videos are primarily used to attract new talent to your company but can be a wonderful way of demonstrating what your company does and how it approaches customer service.

When it comes to attracting the talent, the best company culture videos try to capture the atmosphere someone can expect when working with you. They honestly depict the work environment, fellow employees, core values, additional benefits and work hours.

As a promotional video you might choose to forgo showing company benefits and work hours in exchange for displaying how the culture of your company inspires you to create a better product or service.

You’ll find some great examples of company culture videos here. Here’s a wonderful example from Google:

Price Comparison Videos

These videos are perfect if you sell lots of products or are comfortable talking openly about your competition (which you should be, but that’s a topic for a different blog).

A price comparison video takes two or more products and compares their features against what someone might be expected to pay for them. This will lead customers to making more informed choices and higher trust for your brand.

Customers love price comparison videos. We’re particularly drawn to knowledge that tells us what the best and the worst is in any given industry. Customers will be doing this kind of price comparison themselves with or without you so making a video is a great way to own the conversation.

Review Videos

Like I said above, as consumers we love to compare products before we purchase. Reviews are a big part of that obsession. Look no further than Yelp, Google Reviews, Consumer Reports or half the videos on Youtube for a demonstration of this. Customers will do their own comparisons, and they will look at reviews. They might as well be YOUR comparisons and reviews.

Reviews are a great way to grow your network through talking about other people’s products. The more reviews you have, the more authority you command. Don’t be afraid to talk about other people’s products because they’ll be watching them on YOUR platform.

Hal Linino from Tubular Insights gives five great tips on making great review videos that I will now shamelessly paraphrase:

• Try to keep it under three minutes (Perhaps I don’t completely agree with this point but you should keep it concise).
• Focus on the product, not the reviewer, and keep it fair.
• Concentrate on the features and what they do
• Keep the script concise. Don’t babble.
• Use quick. Clean. Edits.

FAQs

FAQ sections on a website are always a boring, tired affair. They’re also the most underappreciated section. A well research and places FAQ section will be a huge boost to your SEO and you have the opportunity to answer questions that no one else will. Just be sure to answer what your customers are asking, not what you think they’re asking. To find great questions try answerthepublic.com or Quora.

If you want your videos to connect with your customers that little bit more, ask people for questions and them mention them in the FAQ video. It will make them feel heard and appreciated.

FAQ videos, like how-to’s are great for spreading all over the internet and a very easy way to bulk up the content on your site.

CEO Testimonials

A testimonial from the head of your company may be the final push a sale needs. These videos are usually used to convey the top down passion your company has for the products you offer. It’s a great way to reiterate the company’s values.

Sounds like I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel here, doesn’t it? Well CEO testimonials can be incredible effective. Just take a look at this one from The Dollar Shave Club:

Behind The Scenes & Office Tours

These videos give customers an insight into the inner workings of your business and can help them connect with your brand. They can be very easy to make, all you need to do it walk around your office with a smartphone.

This kind of content isn’t for everyone, we’re not all blessed with a great looking office, but when used effectively it will draw customers in and help them understand your company culture.

The statistics looking at how video helps business are undeniable. Simply put it is THE marketing strategy that you should be taking advantage of in the near future. It doesn’t even stop at the kind of videos I’ve talked about here. With just one of these pieces of content you can create blogs, podcasts, images, webinars, social media updates and a whole host of other content to spread across the internet. According to studies, a video on your home page can increase conversion rates by 20% or more.

Creating this kind of content can be difficult and confusing, but it gets much, much easier the more you try. If you’re looking to get started in video production for your business, don’t hesitate to contact Jolly Good Media today.