Video Marketing for Beginners

Video is the most powerful form of marketing. It packs more information than any other media format, and its engagement potential is still unmatched.

In the past, only big companies with well-funded marketing departments could afford to include video in their marketing strategy. Today, anyone can use video marketing tools to create effective video marketing content.

So what’s the best way to get started with video marketing for business? We believe that the best approach is to skip theory, and start making videos as soon as possible. This will help you get some experience under your belt, and you can even use the materials you’ve made for an existing marketing campaign.

With that in mind, here are 10 marketing video examples to use as a guideline when making your first videos.

1. Product Demo

Description: A product demo is a video for showcasing the features of your product. It’s purpose is to teach customers everything they need to know before committing to a purchase. Product videos make for excellent social media content – they’re short, they’re informative, and they’re great for arousing curiosity. But the best part is that they’re really easy to make. You can do a lot with simple footage and a couple of well placed captions.

Practical Tips:

• Film your product from multiple angles to give customers a fair representation.
• Record during the day (or in a studio with professional lighting) for a crisp image.
• Keep it short and only include essential information.

2. Branding Video

Description: A branding video is similar to a product demo, in that its purpose is to showcase something, namely the ideas behind your brand. They are more flexible in terms of style and subject matter because the point is not to sell a specific product, but to convey an idea. Branding videos typically feature staff talking about their experiences working for a company.

Practical Tips:

• Branding videos work best when presented as a story with a beginning, middle, and end.
• Sometimes visual metaphors work better at conveying a message than words, so use them liberally.
• Pay attention to tone and consistency- you don’t want whimsy if you’re a serious brand, and vice versa.

3. Event Highlights

Description: Event highlight videos chronicle your participation in industry events such as trade shows, meetups, or team-building exercises. They are excellent for showing the human side of your  brand. Event videos can be educational as well, particularly if there are industry experts giving keynote speeches during the event.

Practical Tips:

• Record casual interactions between your business and other participants – it works great as side material for your social media channels.
• Pay attention to audio, environmental noise can ruin otherwise great content.
• Capture footage with attendees to highlight how approachable you are.

4. Video Interview

Description: An interview is a one-on-one conversation meant to explore some topic in greater detail. Interviews with industry experts are both engaging and educational, and have wider appeal than regular marketing videos. In terms of production values, video interviews easy to produce and don’t require much editing.

Practical Tips:

• Invest in a good microphone if you plan on recording interviews, phone mics simply won’t do the job.
• Aim for hour-long interviews at the start, then make longer episodes with special guests.
• If you have regular interviews, turn them into a podcast series and upload them to podcasting platforms.

5. How-to Video

Description: A how-to video is exactly what is says on the tin: a video explaining how to use a product or service, or perform some other action. They are usually aimed at customers, but internal how-to videos are not uncommon, especially in companies with many employees and a wide variety of procedures. How-to videos have a high perceived value among customers, so they’re a good way to spread positive word of mouth about your business.

Practical Tips:

• Be clear and concise with your explanations, and think from the customers’ perspective when writing the script.
• Use illustrations, diagrams, and other visual aids to make your videos more memorable.
• Share how-to videos in your email newsletter for to keep your customers around for longer.

6. Social Media Story

Description: Social media stories are a form of ephemeral content, that is, content which expires after a set period time. The purpose of ephemeral content is to engage the audience on daily basis with simple, lightly edited videos. They good for quick news updates, minor announcements, and other non-essential information that might be interesting to your audience.

Practical Tips:

• Don’t spend too much time producing stories, it’s usually not worth it to invest in something that disappears after 24 hours.
• Pay attention to video format – different social media platforms have different requirements in terms of framerate, resolution, aspect ration, length, and file size for story content.
• You can afford to be informal with social media stories, so prioritize humor over information value.

7. Training Video

Description: Training videos are a teaching tool that companies use to onboard new employees. They teach essential skills, standard procedures, and sometimes company values. Training videos can significantly reduce HR and hiring costs, especially for companies with a limited HR staff.

Practical Tips:

• A good place to host training videos is your company’s knowledge-base.
• Clarity and up-to-date information are two qualities to pursue when producing the video, engagement and production values come secondary.
• Try to keep things short.

8. Customer Testimonial

Description: Customer testimonial videos are a way of presenting your company from the outside. Their role is to provide evidence in support of your existing reputation. This is an excellent way to improve your brand authority and generate positive word of mouth.

Practical Tips:

• Never do paid testimonials – it’s extremely easy to spot a fake one, which can do irreparable damage to your brand.
• Keep testimonials on your main website as proof of your dedication to customers.
• You can do employee testimonials, but be aware that employees might be under pressure to say only positive things about your brand.

9. Animated Guide

Description: Animation is used less often in a business context, but it’s potential for video marketing shouldn’t be underestimated. Animation allows you to express complex ideas more easily, and it works well with visual aids such as graphs, pie-charts, or tables. Note that talented animators are hard to come by, so we recommend browsing video platforms such as YouTube to scout for talent among less popular channels.

Practical Tips:

• Pick a mascot for your animation videos – it might sound cheesy, but there’s evidence that people respond favorably to animate characters thanks to associations with cartoons of their chidlhood.
• Keep the videos short – animation can be expensive and time-consuming to make, so it’s better to keep it limited.
• Don’t forget sound – you can ask employees to borrow their voices for characters to save money on professional voice actors.

10. Personalized Video Message

Description: This is a catch-all term for all videos that are custom-made for specific clients and customers. They can be of any format or length, as long as they match the interest of their target. The role of personalized video messages is to secure priority customers and clients. 

Practical Tips:

• Production values are not essential here, the point is to be personal, not to vow the correspondent with how much money you have to spend on video marketing.
• Be candid about your intention when sending a personalized video message.
• Be short and to the point in your first message – if the target responds well, you can produce more elaborate content.

Conclusion

That covers the basics of video marketing from a practical point of view. Use the examples we have provided to start making your own marketing videos. You’ll get better at it in no time, and hopefully see better marketing results in the future.