Video content marketing is changing the game, permanently. That change is happening around you right now, and if you aren’t ready to catch that wave when it comes, you risk being left behind for good.

There are statistics all over the internet showing how strong this movement really is. Some of the headlines:

• Video will account for 80% of all web traffic by 2019.
• 90% of customers reported that product videos helped them make purchasing decisions.
• 59% of company decision makers would rather watch a video than read an article or blog post.

Video is a natural fit for how people best process information, using a combination of audio, visual and movement cues. Thanks to advances in technology, great quality video is more achievable than ever before, especially on the modest budget available to small businesses.

What’s more, 80% of people can remember a video they watched in the last month. This retention is a godsend for your brand, and give you a firm foundation upon which to build greater recognition. With benefits for SEO, great performance on all platforms and the chance of virality, there really is no better tool to use for promotion.

If you’re wondering how to make marketing videos, you’ll need a camera, basic editing software, and high quality sound recording equipment. Alternatively, you can use animation (which doesn’t require a camera). Or you can hire freelance video producers to work with your company. 85% of businesses now have internal staff and resources for producing video content.

Today, we’ll be looking at seven creative ways you can diversify your video portfolio and maximize the impact your brand has on customers.

1. Commercial

Let’s start with the obvious – the advertisement. This is what most people still think of when think about business video. A commercial attempts to tell a story about a brand or product that compels people to buy.

Commercials these days tend to centre on promoting lifestyle and values, and character journeys their products enable people to go on.

Samsung anthropomorphized the flightless Ostrich and taught it to fly using VR headset in an uplifting commercial.

The New York Times used a literally phoned-in voice over and still images to create a compelling video explaining their value proposition as a heritage brand in the 21st century.

The quality of the photographs and the story of the people mean the lack of ‘production value’ doesn’t matter.

In both cases, from the ridiculous to the sublime, they used narrative to drive emotional engagement. Relatively little focus is given to the product in either case – the focus is on the results the product enables people to get.

This is worth remembering if you decide to create marketing videos for your business. A little art, mixed with a little story, goes a long way.

2. Explainer Videos

Explainer videos help people to grasp a concept relevant to the industry you’re working in, ideally something that relates to a problem your services can solve.

HubSpot created this explainer for AI – delving into the current reality, history and forecast for artificial intelligence and machine learning. The animation is beautiful and the voice over is relaxed but engaging. It takes people through the different manifestations of AI in the modern world, and demystifies many of the more fearful predictions made about its capabilities.

TechInsider took an audience question – just how deep is the ocean – and used animation to visualize the answer using real world examples. They sink Everest to the deepest point in the ocean to reveal there is more than a mile of ocean above the peak. They show the relative depths of whales, submarines and more. They chart James Cameron’s deep sea dive to 35,756 feet below the surface (the cruising height of a passenger plane is 35,000 feet above).

These videos allow you to demonstrate your expertise. The best explainers collate the most useful and interesting information, and take real care to present it in a visually compelling and novel way. They use the inherent advantages of video – moving pictures – to make information easier to understand.

3. Product Demos & Tutorials

Product demonstration videos and tutorials help people to understand how to use your products and services, and how to get the most out of them.

These are often created by third parties for Electronic Devices, based on user requests. This video unboxing explains how to use a GoPro HERO with a practical, hands on walk through the buttons, settings and results.

That doesn’t mean demos can’t be creative, or impactful. Volvo demonstrated the precision of their trucks’ Dynamic Steering by having Jean Claude Van Damme do the splits between two of their trucks as they drove backwards down a highway.

This video tutorial explains Twitter for Small Business in under two minutes, using a recipe book as a format. It explains how the new features work, and how advertising using the platform is both beneficial and easy to do.

This format allows you to clearly explain the process required to use a product or service, while highlighting the advantages.

4. How To Videos

How To videos differ from product demos because they approach things from a more third-party perspective, and cover “stretch” uses of products, and may even cover things outside the scope of the product itself, simply including it in some way.

Sephora make up created an in-depth tutorial on contouring, blushing and highlighting. The video uses an expert make-up artist together with a naïve observer to demonstrate advanced make-up techniques, accentuating bone structure using highlights to direct attention around the face.

Martha Stewart created a how-to on a common household challenge: how to fold a fitted sheet. The sense of humour shines, the expert misses instructions and the naïve audience member fails repeatedly, getting laughs from a live audience.

In both cases, authority comes with a sense of warmth and fun, while expertise is still clearly demonstrated throughout. How to videos allow you to show more personality, and remember: people sell to people.

5. Introductory Videos For New Businesses

If you’re a new business, a video can be the best possible way to introduce yourself to audiences. A great intro video is fundamental to effective business video marketing, as new audiences should be discovering your business all the time.

Dollar Shave Club is a famous example of a great success in this field. The voice over talks people through the simple way in which the company differentiates itself from competitors. While many shavers are caught in an arms race stacking more and more blades on top of one another, and charging more and more for refills, dollar shave club sends single blades to subcribers every month for a dollar. The video explains this while being hilariously entertaining, as the CEO bungles his way through a ‘seamless’ presentation with unshakable confidence.

Purple Feather introduced the value of copywriting is a brilliant video with a powerful message, but distinctly average production values. The production values here don’t matter, because that’s the whole point of video: it’s the words that matter. It expertly demonstrates the power of professional copywriting services.

Introductory videos explain the business, the brand, the product offer all in one, helping people understand who you are in as little time as possible. The more creative, the better.

6. Recruitment Videos

Part of making your business a success is hiring the right people. Have you considered using video to make working for your company more desirable?

Quintiq in Malaysia did just that, creating a video that showcases their stunning office space, worldwide clientele, broad range of industries served, and introduce you to the people you’ll be working with if you decide to apply. The video includes information on the role, and what kind of candidate would be suitable to apply. This makes the company seem like a quintessentially modern place to work, and you can go into an interview already having met the people you’ll be talking to.

Recruitment videos will become more and more popular as video itself continues to dominate the web. Because these are available to the public, who are increasingly concerned about how businesses treat their employees, this transparency around process can also be a real PR victory.

7. Training Videos

Training videos can help you on-board new hires and existing staff with the latest procedures and best practices.

Xcelus used a climbing metaphor to talk about how the process staff follow in accordance with regulatory compliance is just as important as the destination.

Xsell training and development created a faux-documentary to follow one of their staff on a sales call, simulating the real environment new recruits will experience and giving instruction through a mentor/mentee relationship on screen. It uses comedy, drama and an underdog story to get across core concepts about how their unique sales process works.

By using video to model or simulate scenarios employees will encounter, they can quickly synthesize that information as though it were a real experience.

CASE STUDY: Tourism Malaysia

Tourism Malaysia created a video campaign that combined captivating images of Malaysia with an original song by Yuna. The video, devised by M&C Saatchi, aimed to establish Malaysia as a worldwide tourism destination. It celebrates the racial, cultural and topographical variety of the country while showcasing some of many activities holidaymakers can undertake, with the messaging “The Soul of Asia”.

It won a bronze medal for Music Video at the Telly Awards, an Ecotourism and Responsible Travel Award at the third Deauville Green Awards, and first prize in “country” at the International Tourism Film and Media Competition.

What’s more, since it was released in 2014, Malaysia has seen a 4% increase in tourist count, bringing RM82.1 billion to the country, an increase of almost 20%.

The power of video to showcase a nation is no different than its ability to showcase a business. These results can be replicated.

Video Is The Future, and The Future Is Now

Video production is an essential tool in your marketing arsenal, and there are a huge number of different ways you can deploy video in order to help your business prosper. I hope this article has been informative and inspirational for you, and has driven you to think more about how you could be utilizing video to increase the prospects of your business.

Some final things to consider before you embark on your video production journey:

• Consistency – Make sure you develop a suite of visual assets that are consistent across all your videos. Create a 2 second indent for your business that features your logo prominently. Make sure your credits, titles and mounts are the same across every video. This will help you create an ‘identity’ that is reinforced every time someone sees another one of your videos.

• Tone – if you decide to make a strong choice like Dollar Shave Club, this creates a ‘personality’ for your brand, which means all your other communication needs to be consistent with this personality. You need to establish a tone that is authentic to your business, and stick to it. Keeping the same ‘presenter’ or lead individual in your video content will help.

• Sound – Your video quality can be average, but your sound quality really can’t be. If the sound quality is poor people will switch off from your videos in half the time. If you invest in only one element of production value, giving yourself the ability to capture great sound will make everything feel more premium as a result.

• Brevity – Keep it short. Understand the power of editing to cut down waffle and create a sharp focus on the information that matters most. 56% of videos posted online are under two minutes, and for good reason – people often won’t watch til the end.

• Inverted Pyramid – with that in mind, put your most important information first. Traditionally people enjoyed spending time setting the scene and taking people on a journey. Now, you need to show them the destination up front as a preview, and THEN take them to it. Too much mystery and people will simply navigate away. Think of a “how to” video – the title tells you the destination!

Have you experienced success with online video as a means of promotion? Tell us your story in the comments below!