Using video as a marketing tool to build your brand is a smart, effective, and compelling tactic. It’s no wonder why 86% of business owners are actively using video as a marketing tool.
There are many benefits to video marketing, which we’ll explore shortly. However, reaping the benefits demands a strong video marketing strategy, which can only be built and implemented when you first understand all the types of video and when to use them.
The Benefits Of Using Video To Build Your Brand
It’s understandable if you feel nervous about adding video to your marketing toolbox. After all, it takes a considerable effort, and you may feel doubtful about filming yourself. So, asking yourself, ‘is it really worth it?’ is fair.
But the answer to your question? In short: yes. Yes, it’s worth it.
Because video marketing opens up a whole world of opportunities, allowing your brand to grow. Amongst many others, the main benefits of using video to build your brand are:
- Videos have been proven to boost your conversion rate – in fact, placing a video on your landing page can skyrocket conversions by 80%.
- The data proves that implementing video provides a positive return on investment – There’s no doubt that video can be expensive depending on the avenue you decide to take. That said, with so much competition, there are many apps and downloadable software that are far cheaper now than they used to be. Plus, your iPhone or Android has stunning video quality. Even if you decided to splash out on your video marketing strategy, you can rest assured that 83% of businesses confirm it pays off, providing a good return on investment.
- A video can help build trust between your brand and your prospects – A business without trust is not a business. It’s a ticking time bomb waiting to collapse. Using a video with real-life people, talking about real-life things, shows that your brand is just that – real. Authenticity, relatability, and trustworthiness in spades.
- Videos prove to boost your rankings and improve your search engine optimization level – Google and other search engines are video lovers. Why? Because Google pays close attention to the ‘time on page’ metric. With video being so captivating and easy-to-follow, a prospect is far more likely to spend longer on your page. Ergo, you’re displayed higher on the search engine results page.
- Videos encourage shares on social media – Videos allow a greater depth of emotion to be felt. It’s easier to resonate. Once a prospect resonates enough, they’re likely to share the video on their social media platform. Remember when you’re creating videos for your brand to focus on the emotion, you wish the viewer to feel. People share based on the feeling they get when watching your video, so ensure it’s all done with strategy.
The Different Types Of Marketing Videos And When To Use Them
As with any form of content, there are subcategories you need to be aware of. Once you understand the different types of videos, you’re able to pinpoint the best location for them at certain phases during your sales funnel. If you’re posting videos with purpose, with an underlying solid strategy, you’ll see a quick return on investment.
Sales Generation Videos
What Are Sales Generation Videos?
Sales generation videos are videos posted with the intent of making a sale. On a large scale, historically, sales generation videos were commercials aired on television and radio.
Nowadays, however, an online sales generation video can be just as effective as a commercial on television.
Where Should I Post Sales Generation Videos?
Sales generation videos should be posted on social media platforms and landing pages.
When considering the type of social media platform you wish to publish your video on, you must understand your audience. Where does your ideal buyer or client spend most of their social time? Don’t underestimate the importance of market research prior to posting.
Sales generation videos perform brilliantly on landing pages, as they are often the final decision maker before clicking ‘buy now.’
When Should I Use Sales Generation Videos?
Remember, sales generation videos are crafted with the sole intent of selling a product or service. As such, it’s a form of direct response marketing and should be created with this in mind.
You must understand each stage of the buyer’s journey, as sales generation videos are best for the decision phase. Your audience needs to be warmed up first. Very rarely will a sales generation video convert with a cold audience, so ensure this is your final video in your sales funnels before the up or down-sell.
What Types Of Videos Are Sales Generation Videos?
Creating a sales generation video can take many forms. These can include:
- Paid ads – The online version of television commercials. With the virtual world being interlinked with daily life, you’ve got a massive audience waiting to be sold to.
- Brand awareness videos – These videos focus on introducing members of the team or company. With this, each member can explain what they can offer their audience, selling to them more gently than the paid ads method.
- Humorous videos – Humor is a fantastically effective persuasive tool, so it’s no wonder that so many brands opt for funny videos as a marketing technique. Humor captures and engages, which will then compel them to take action. If you’re looking to gain more shares, humor is your best bet.
What Do Sales Generation Videos Do?
If created properly, your sales generation video can:
- Convert leads into buyers
- Increase your online presence and promote brand awareness
- Capture your prospect’s attention, allowing them to make an easier purchasing decision
- Smash through customer’s objections
- Show your prospect that you understand and empathize with their pain point and offer your product or service as the clear solution.
Product-Specific Videos
What Are Product-Specific Videos?
Product-specific videos revolve around the product or service you sell. They’re a brilliant way to promote individual offers and highlight your brand’s ethos. They take an educational stance, teaching your audience how to use your product to better their life. This will inadvertently flow into your sales generation videos. However, product-specific videos’ purpose is to ensure your audience is problem and solution-aware rather than directly selling the product or offer.
Where Should I Post Product-Specific Videos?
The beauty of product-specific videos is that you can post them pretty much anywhere and everywhere.
These work exceptionally well as an addition to a blog post. The blog post can use written content to empathize and relate to your audience’s pain points, while the product-specific video can offer the solution.
You can also post product-specific videos within your emails. So long as your subject line is strong, you’ll find far more interest in the inbox than on a browser.
When Should I Use Product-Specific Videos?
Referring back to the buyer’s journey once again, product-specific videos work best during the consideration phase. Remember, product-specific videos aim to highlight the audience’s problem and offer the product or service as a solution.
There’s a critical difference between the consideration and decision phase. The decision phase means it’s crunch time. The consideration phase, however, suggests the potential buyer hasn’t reached the yes or no mindset. As such, you need to prepare them as best you can for a ‘yes’ when they reach the decision phase and are introduced to your sales generation video.
What Types Of Videos Are Product-Specific Videos?
Product-specific videos, unsurprisingly, revolve around the product or service you are offering. These can take several forms:
- Testimonial/review videos – These are highly effective as they serve as social proof but with added authenticity. A written review is powerful, but a video review has a proven track record of converting better. In fact, ⅔ of consumers state they’re more likely to purchase something after watching a testimonial clip explaining how the product or service solved their problem.
- Lifestyle videos – These videos are all about seeing your product or service in ‘real-life.’ It’s most effective when customers use the products, allowing your viewers to relate to them. They’ll feel that customers, who have the same pain points as them, have little reason to be biased, adding an element of trust. When you consider that a whopping 90% of consumers say that watching a video about a product or service is helpful for making buying decisions, it becomes clear how effective lifestyle videos are.
- Product demo videos – These videos work similarly to lifestyle videos in that they show the product and highlight the key benefits and features. However, these are often shot with a member of the team or brand owner who knows the product inside and out. These videos allow you to showcase why your product is the best option, beating out the competition and educating potential buyers on making the most out of their product after purchasing.
What Do Product Specific Videos Do?
When created with purpose and used to their maximum potential, product-specific videos can:
- Dive deep into the key benefits and features of your specific products
- Convey a sense of authority within your industry
- Out-perform the competition
- Create buyer loyalty
- Educate your potential buyers to improve the purchasing process
Educational Videos
What Are Educational Videos?
Educational videos are videos that teach a lesson to the viewer. These videos give you the chance to build trust by delivering heaps of value.
Educational videos are arguably the most frequently used videos by marketers to begin the sales journey, allowing you to nurture your audience through being their go-to within the industry.
Where Should I Post Educational Videos?
Like product-specific videos, educational videos work well in most places. However, there are particular locations that’ll help your educational videos thrive.
Social media is the prime location for educational videos. Whether you choose to shoot these videos live through IGTV on Instagram or Facebook Live, or any of the other ‘live-supporting’ social media platforms, or you prefer to pre-record your video content, social media does a great job in collecting and measuring the impact.
Also, consider the massive number of social media users. There are 4.33 billion active social media accounts out there. While there will be a large proportion of those accounts that won’t benefit from your product, there will also be many users who will.
Using educational videos to support your blog content is also a fantastic way to boost the time on page metric, leading to higher rankings on the search engine results page. This also allows your audience to either read through written content or watch the educational video, proving your brand’s dedication and flexibility.
This is also useful in terms of managing your time, as you don’t need to come up with new content ideas for each form of content. You can simply reiterate your written content in video form.
When Should I Use Educational Videos?
Educational videos are a great way to start your buyer’s journey. They hook the watcher, prove that you understand and empathize with them through the topics you address, and provide buckets of value.
However, delivering value shouldn’t start and end at the beginning of your funnel. You should aim to provide value throughout, showing your audience that your brand is a thought leader within the industry.
What Types Of Videos Are Educational Videos?
The purpose of an educational video is to teach a lesson your audience wants to learn. This can be in a variety of formats:
- Explainer videos – These videos are often short and to the point with simplified methods and language. They highlight specific subcategories of your product, service, or industry.
- How-to videos – The best place for ‘how to’ videos is, without a doubt, YouTube. With many searchers looking for live demonstrations of how to master a skill or use a product, how-to videos are quickly becoming one of the most effective forms of educational videos.
- Webinar videos – A webinar is an online version of a seminar, hence the name. These are often longer in length and offer a sense of community. The audience member will need to sign up for these, making it an excellent lead generation method. They are live-streamed and globally available. Plus, a webinar means those who sign up will be genuinely interested in what you’re teaching, making them far more likely to purchase your product or service.
What Do Educational Videos Do?
When implemented and used correctly, educational videos can:
- Capture leads through providing valuable information
- Create a more seamless flow between the discovery and the consideration phase
- Position your brand as a thought leader within your field
- Widen your brand’s reputation
- Create more interest and a more extensive and more dedicated following on social media
- Prove your brand understands your audience and their pain points while offering teachable content as solutions
What Are The Best Kind Of Videos To Increase Website Traffic?
The best kind of videos to build traffic and exposure on your website are:
- PPC Ads – PPC stands for ‘Pay-per-click,’ and these are useful if you’re aiming to generate more traffic to your website. They are generally placed on search engines and other highly populated websites. PPC ads are great because you’re charged only when someone clicks on your marketing video.
- Social media videos – As with PPC ads, you can also pay for broader exposure on social media in the form of social media ads. This allows you to reach a far more vast audience. You’re also able to filter through the demographics you wish the video to reach, such as age, gender, location, and purchasing behavior.
- Viral videos – Of course, viral videos had to make our list of the best kinds of videos to increase website traffic. That said, making a video go viral is no easy task, and there are no ‘set rules’ to making a viral video. If you’re hoping for a viral video, it’s best to focus on relatability, shareability, and your hook. With so many videos online, you need something that will genuinely captivate them from the beginning to the end.
Choosing The Right Kind Of Video To Market Your Brand
Ultimately, every video on this list deserves a prime place in your marketing strategy. However, it’s crucial to understand the optimum spot for them, where and when they will perform at their best. As such, make sure you consider the buyer’s journey and tailor your video content to the needs of your audience. Accommodate each phase with various video types, paying particular attention to the quality of the content you are posting. Do this, and you’ll be a part of the vast 83% of businesses who confirm that video provides a good return on investment.
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