The dream of video marketers has finally come true: people want to see more videos from the brands they love. It’s not a sales pitch or the promise of a distant future. People really prefer videos over other content types. That should be reason enough to put them at the center of your content marketing strategy.

Chances are you are already doing it, and it’s highly likely that it’s working out for you. So, what’s the next step? Keep putting out videos without rhyme or reason? Of course not. Just shooting videos because people want to watch them is a poor excuse.

Instead, infusing your sales funnel with the right kind of videos is the work you need to do for a shot at video marketing glory. Giving people what they want when they want it is what every winning strategy is about.

The following video types are guaranteed to make your business stand out from the crowd, gain potential customers and build brand trust. Let’s check them out!

Educational Videos

Educating your audience about their pain points is essential. These videos are obviously for that. They dig deeper into those pain points to help people understand what they are going through – and what they can do to solve it.

Videos showing things to keep in mind when maintaining the health of your car’s motor, positioning in the top spot of YouTube, or making your dog less anxious are all great examples of this type. That’s because they all show the 2 basic features of educational videos:

• Relevant: they are about problems that your target audience care about and want to know more
• Valuable: they give out answers without beating around the bush and without pushing a sale

If you provide those things with your educational videos, you’ll get all the benefits that come with them. Namely:

• More visibility and awareness. People will stumble into your video whenever they are looking to learn more about a topic (marketing, pets, nutrition) and find out about your brand in the process.
• Increased traffic to your site. If you play your cards right, you can capitalize on the traffic that a good educational video can get you. Well-placed links and CTAs can bring a part of the video’s audience to your site, where you’ll have more chances to show who you are.
• More qualified leads. An audience that watches educational videos shows a willingness to learn more, therefore, to further engage with whomever offers them more educational content (that’s you, BTW).
• Recognition as a leader or expert in your industry. Educational videos aren’t just about finding those willing to learn but also about positioning yourself as the brand able to educate them. Educational videos know the tricks of the trade and are selfless enough to give that knowledge away for free. That creates trust and puts you as an authority in the matter in front of your audience.

Those angles include:

• Entertainment value: 73% of people want their videos to be entertaining. You can’t afford to be boring, even if your topic seems like it. Your videos have to be lighthearted and dynamic for people to actually want to keep watching them. Mind you, we’re not necessarily talking about being funny – you can be entertaining and serious at the same time.
• Specificity: People are getting more selective with what the pay attention to. So you can’t tackle multiple issues in just one educational video. Don’t go overboard to explain a problem. Just be concise and on-point.
• Coherence: This applies to all of your videos, but since educational videos are almost always your first contact with your target audience, it bears an explanation here. Basically, you need to establish your brand’s tone and visual style. Thus, people will start associating that particular way of communication with you.

A final suggestion is that you have to create educational videos only for the questions your audience wants answered. Research beforehand and only tackle the issues that your customers are eagerly waiting for.

How-To Videos

If you’re thinking “hey, how-to videos are kind of educational, aren’t they?”, you’re not wrong. So why cover them individually? Because these videos have a very particular language and form – and because their position as one of the most watched video types calls for just that.

The goal of these videos is to give you step-by-step explanations on how to do certain things such as creating an Instagram story, replacing an accessory in your coffee maker, or how to wash that nasty stain from your jeans.

That’s why every how-to video should be:

• Procedural: explaining something through a step-by-step narrative calls for some structure. The video needs to go from the start (the problem that needs to be solved) to the end (the issue getting fixed).
• Simple: you know that saying that goes “it’s as simple as 1-2-3”? That’s precisely what you need to show here. Every step should be super easy to follow and understand.
• Clear: for clarity’s sake, you have to illustrate everything you explain in your video. Use close-ups, annotations, graphics and animations to better explain everything you are putting on the screen.

How can how-to videos boost your content marketing? By doing these:

• Educating your audience. Since how-to videos are educational videos in themselves, all the benefits that I’ve mentioned above also work here.
• Increasing the trust in what you offer. Chances are, you are using your product or service to demonstrate how something is done. By putting that on video, you are showing that what you offer actually works in solving the problem.
• Helping in cross-selling and up-selling. How-to videos are also a great way to show complementary products or better versions of them. Whenever you are showing how to solve a problem with your product, identify the opportunities in the video to put other products from your catalog in front of that new audience.
• Generating visits to the brand’s site. If your how-to video is good enough, people will want to know more about your solution. Here, the CTAs and links are key to bringing all that traffic to a well-curated page in your site to keep educating your audience on the benefits of your product.

Here’s what you need to stand out with yours.

• Freshness. There are tons of how-to videos out there, so you need yours to be as fresh as possible. That can be an issue that no one has covered before you (or that has been covered poorly) or even something that’s tangentially related to your business.
• Creativity. Adding to that freshness, a great how-to video is flashy, catchy and feels fun, even if its topic isn’t. You can go with animation, 360 videos, interactive how-tos – you name it.
• Duration. You’re not running a race here. Though people tend to favor shorter videos, the point of how-to videos is to thoroughly explain a process. So, if that process takes several steps, you should take them all in proper time. You can mix things up here, sort of like what Tasty does with its recipe videos, where they show how to cook something delicious in just a handful of seconds – the best of both worlds.

Explainer Videos

A short video explaining your company sounds like the most basic thing there is – and that’s true! An explainer video is an essential resource for any brand to engage with its potential customers. These videos are a mixture of informational and educational content that focus on a specific problem while providing some insight into the company’s solution for it.

The key features of any explainer video include:

• Short: no longer than 90 seconds
• Simple: answer to the “what”, “how” and “why” of the service or product
• Targeted: it’s intended for a specific audience that’s facing the issue that your product or service solves
• Branded: since these videos are frequently the first contact with your target audience, the entire video has to have the look and feel of your company
• Voiceover: all that’s in the video is underlined by a professional narrator to make the explanation even more simple.

Some of them are:

• Increase conversions. 73% of people are more willing to buy something after they saw its explainer video. That’s because they understand the product’s benefits better and are able to make more informed decisions.
• Get quality leads. Informed customers are closer to closing a deal, simply because they have a better understanding of their problems and the alternatives to solve them. If you get leads from your explainer videos, you’ll get leads that are willing to learn more and be willing to listen to what you have to offer.
• Reduce the bounce rate. All videos do that – they catch your visitors’ attention and make them want to stay to check the video out. But explainer videos are especially great at it since they cover the whole spectrum of who you are in under a couple of minutes. People that go to your site only have to watch it to get an idea of what you do, instead of going through blocks and blocks of texts.
• Generate brand awareness. This is done by displaying the brand as a solution for specific pain points. People will reach your video while looking for a way to solve an issue and will leave it knowing you exist.
• Help the site’s SEO. A page with a video on it has its chance of getting on Google’s front page multiplied by a factor of 53. Explainer videos tackle the basis of your business, so if you use it right (on your home, on landing pages), you’ll see a boost in your organic traffic.
• Rank by itself on YouTube and search engines. It’s not just about ranking your site. Using this video in your social profiles and YouTube will give it a life of its own. So, you won’t depend on people finding what you do on your site. You’ll have the possibility to be found on multiple platforms and wherever your customers are.

Customer Testimonials

Any experienced business owner knows that there’s no better marketing than having your customers be happy. But perhaps you don’t realize how much that means in the digital era. Just listen to this – 85% of American consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

That’s why you’ve surely seen a rise of customer testimonial videos across the land. They focus on satisfied customers and trust them to show why your brand is worth doing business with.

The key features of any customer testimonial include:

• Single focus: a video is about only one customer and how your brand changed his or her life. His or her experience takes the spotlight.
• Structured: these videos follow a simple yet powerful narrative. The customer talks about the problem that took him or her to your brand and how your product or service helped in solving that issue. They always go from problem to solution.
• Context: these videos are about real people in real life situations, so context is crucial for the audience to connect with the customer in the video. That’s why these videos show the customers in their daily lives, now improved thanks to your product.

Those 3 things combined can make for a strong testimonial video capable of giving you some nice benefits, like:

• Increase trust in your brand. If that 85% I’ve cited above is proof of anything, it surely has to be about the trust you can build with online reviews. And testimonials are the video form of them! In a way, they’re enhanced versions, as happy customers don’t just lend their name and image to promote your brand but also take the time to shoot the video.
• Humanize your brand. In an experience and emotion-based marketing landscape, being perceived as a “human brand” is insanely important. People will be willing to connect more if they are convinced there are real people on the other side – not just a faceless company. That’s why testimonials are great for that: because people are putting themselves as examples of great experiences with your brand, thus boosting the identification with positive emotions surrounding your brand.
• Boost sales. Customers are 58% more likely to convert whenever they interact with a review of your product or brand. That’s a huge margin you can get with testimonial videos and the endorsement of your happy customers.
• Get your leads closer to a shopping decision

• Don’t force anything: To put it another way, don’t script what your customer has to say. Let him or her talk candidly about his or her real experience. People have developed a sense to call BS on testimonials that feel awkward or false. Just let the camera roll and edit the useless parts out.
• Be prepared: I know I’ve said you didn’t need a script, but you’ll definitely want to have a questionnaire on your side. Having some guiding questions will keep the customer grounded and to the point. If you don’t have these questions, chances are you’ll end up with hours of pointless chattering.
• Use your pain points: the audience will only identify with your happy customer as long as they relate to the issue he or she set out to solve with your product. Be sure to include that “origin story” that brought the customer to you in the first place. Chances are your target audience is feeling the same way and will be willing to research a little more about you after.

Company Story Videos

While explainer and product videos put your products and services in the forefront, company story videos put you and the people behind the brand in the spotlight. These kinds of videos are designed to showcase your core values and the people that embody them. They are meant to show your human side and to empathize with your customers on a more meaningful level.

What are the features that make a company story video?

• Unique: since your company is a group of people that are unlike any other out there, it’s impossible for a company story video to be a copy of something else. I mean, you can copy a certain “vibe” but these videos, in general, are very different from one another simply because they are focused on different people and their stories.
• Purposeful: all companies have a mission to fulfill and a need to satisfy. These videos aim for those things – to show the passion behind the group of people that create the product or service that’s being offered. It’s a glimpse into the minds of the people that understand the customer’s issues.
• Representative: company videos are a window into the company. They should feel as if someone put a camera inside your office and let it roll. It’s about showing who the people of the brand truly are. In that sense, it can’t be very different from the rest of the videos you put out, because the music, the editing, and the dynamic should feel natural for anyone that has watched other videos you’ve put out.

Believe it or not, company story videos can help with several marketing goals (as well as supporting your recruiting efforts). They might seem trite and cliché to some people, but in reality, they can:

• Increase brand trust. Showing a face puts people at ease because they know they aren’t talking to a faceless company but rather to a team of people that are transparent enough to show their faces and their place of work. That increases the trust in working with you.
• Humanize the brand. A company video, with its light-hearted nature, brings a more real vibe to your company. If done right, people will watch your video and feel like you’re genuinely in business for passion and not just for the money.
• Generate a stronger connection with your target audience. Again, the human touch can do wonders. If your audience knows your face and those of the ones on your team, it makes them feel as if they know you. That creates a stronger bond because people feel closer to the things they know better.
• Boost the sales percentage. This is a more indirect benefit, as a company video in and by itself won’t boost your sales. But the humanization vibe it brings to the table, paired with the other videos you put out talking about your product and how it can help them solve their problem, is what really counts to boost that percentage.

• Show who you truly are: sounds easy but you won’t believe how many companies try their best to show something they are not. That doesn’t mean that you have to be super formal if all of your marketing materials are like that but don’t overdo it. Just keep the music, the editing and the content in line with your company’s spirit.
• Give everyone a chance to speak: all the people in your company have a unique point of view. Let them be heard! The most experienced employees might recall the humble beginnings while the newer ones may shed some light on how the company was able to capture a younger generations attention.
• Show, don’t tell: the writer’s golden rule is most useful here. If your company is trying to convey its innovation, be sure to show it by putting your newer technologies in the video. If you want to underline your trajectory, show how your product has evolved. The idea is simple yet challenging – put in images of what your employees are saying.

As with all of the videos above, all the benefits for your content marketing depend on how well you create these explainer videos.

These are some of the things you should keep in mind:

• The right duration: I’ve said that one of the defining characteristics of an explainer video is how short they are. In my experience, 90 seconds is a perfect duration for these videos. However, shorter videos can also perform well. How much shorter? Depends on how much information you can share. Finding the balance between how much info you’re sharing and the video’s runtime is key.
• Make it custom: you want people watching to feel identified with what they see on-screen. That’s only possible if the video protagonists look, talk and behave like your target audience. Use your knowledge about your market and be sure that everything in your explainer video speaks directly to them.
• Go with the pros: since the explainer video will be the foundation of your video marketing strategy, you have to be sure that it has the highest of quality. That means you have to put everything in it – even if it costs you a little more. There’s no second first-impression, so you need professional actors, narrators and scriptwriters to create the best video possible.

Some final words

A well-nurtured video marketing strategy will have you creating more videos than the ones listed here. However, these are great as starting points since the benefits they can bring you are invaluable – more traffic, more brand awareness, more quality leads, more conversions, a positive impact on your SEO, and more.

And since the whole world is already moving towards video, having a basic set of video types to go to whenever you need to feed a special part of your buyer’s journey is mandatory at this point. Don’t want to feel left out? Then these videos are where you should be starting.

You may also want to read: How To Improve Your Lead Generation With Video Marketing

How to Inspire Emotional Engagement With Video Marketing

How To Use Video Marketing In The Era Of Short User Attention Span

4 Ways To Amplify Your Content Using Video Marketing

Featured image: Copyright: ‘https://www.123rf.com/profile_theromb‘ / 123RF Stock Photo

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Victor Blasco

CEO at Yum Yum Videos

Víctor Blasco is the founder and CEO of the explainer video company Yum Yum Videos. He is also an audiovisual designer and video marketing expert. Aside from running the business, he loves studying Chinese Philosophy and is a real geek for science fiction films and comics!

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