Video Marketing for Businesses: 8 Video Types for Success

Video is undoubtedly an engaging media format. It attracts more engagement and shares than any other content type.

Video is also useful at every stage of the customer journey, and it’s a powerful tool for acquisition, awareness, and retention. To get started, here are 8 video promotion ideas.

1. Showcase Product Features

Even professional photographs can leave your audience unsure of what your products actually do and how they work. For example, if you sell a tool or appliance, your audience may struggle to visualize how it works or what it will be like to operate it. 

In these instances, consider making a brief product feature showcase. Where a picture might fail to communicate the complete message, a quick 15-second video can make your purpose clear.

To get started, start by shooting your product from different angles. Then, walk through a short demonstration of the different functions. This can be broken down into short videos to include on your product page, along with photos and descriptions.

2. Share Special Promotions

Special discounts or other promotions are great ways to attract new customers. When you tie your promotions to holidays or other special events, they’re even more effective. However, if you aren’t using video to announce your promotions and spread the word about your brand, you are missing out on key opportunities to reach a wider audience.

When you use video to talk about your promotions, you may find better outcomes than if you simply relied on images and text. Additionally, you can share these promotional videos on various platforms to reach as many prospective customers as possible while your sale event is active.

3. Create a Company Profile Video

People want to know who they’re buying from. They want to make purchases from brands that have inspirational stories and people who share their values. For this reason, a company profile video is a valuable piece of brand awareness content that can inspire people to learn more about your online business. Additionally, your profile video could be the deciding factor between your company and one of your competitors.

Before you shoot your video, make a list of key values you want to communicate. Then, think about your story. Why do you make the product you do or offer the services you provide? What inspired you, and who are you trying to reach?

4. Customer Testimonials

If your brand is entirely online, potential customers can’t go to a brick-and-mortar store to see your products in person or test them out. That may make some people hesitant to make a purchase. Fortunately, you can use customer testimonial videos to at least partially bridge this gap.

When brands make positive claims about their products, consumers take it with a grain of salt. However, positive customer reviews and testimonials carry a lot of weight. When those are delivered via video, they have even more credibility. 

Reach out to your satisfied customers and ask if they would be willing to provide a video testimonial. Many will be open to the experience, especially if you provide a small incentive. Just make sure that you don’t violate the terms of any e-commerce platform by offering these incentives.

5. How-To Videos

How do your products make your customers’ lives easier? What can they do with your offerings to save time or money, increase enjoyment, or make tasks simpler? Share how-to videos that answer these questions, and you’ll attract attention while driving traffic to your website.

6. FAQ Videos

Do your customer support agents field the same questions repeatedly? If so, you could take those questions and answer them in a video. Then, add that as a resource to your website and share it on your brand’s YouTube channel. This way, you serve your customers while generating traffic.

7. Social Responsibility or Community Awareness Videos

People prefer doing business with online brands that give back to the community and take action to demonstrate social responsibility. Does your company have a volunteer initiative, mentoring program, sustainability efforts, or give back in some other way? If so, create a video showcasing it! This could give you a competitive advantage, particularly at the awareness stage.

8. Video Ads

Thanks to the high engagement rates that different video types offer, neglecting video advertisements is a missed opportunity. Make sure you take a look at your current ad creatives and determine whether any of them would perform better if they were repurposed as videos. You will likely find that your ads perform better when they include video.

Connect with Your Audience

There are so many options for connecting with your audience via video. Make sure you try these options for your brand — or use these as inspiration to come up with your own!

Whatever you choose, remember that producing video is just the beginning. Pair each video with a call to action, and encourage viewers to comment and share. This will help your brand reach the largest audience possible.