The Ultimate Guide to All Different Types of Videos and When To Use Them

The digital age paved the way for video to be the most widely-used medium for communication. Once considered a fringe accessory, video is now the most effective form of content marketing. Video content is recognized by search engines and consumers for providing relevant, essential information about your brand value and the products and services you provide. If you are looking for editing tools for your videos, try Bounce Color.

Videos are watched at an astounding rate that continues to grow with each passing year. The following statistics highlight the ways videos have taken over the internet:

• 78% of people watch online videos every week, and more than half will view at least one video every day.
• Videos on social media are shared 1200% more than posts with text or photos. (G2 Crowd)
• 72% of online consumers say they use video to help make their purchasing decisions. (HubSpot)
• YouTube users watch a combined 500 million hours of video content every day, and Facebook users consume up to 100 million hours of video daily.

Video content and YouTube statistics can be effective for a wide range of objectives. Video is most often used to:

• Highlight brand trust, loyalty among your customer base.
• Inform target audiences.
• Introduce a product line or service expansion.
• Increase online exposure, consumer engagement.
• Increase sales, revenue, and profits.
• Explain complex concepts and mechanisms.

Types of Videos for Digital Marketing

Your business presents unique marketing challenges and needs. Video is a flexible medium that allows you to use different content types for a variety of digital marketing strategies.  Comprehensive marketing campaigns use a mix of video types posted on a range of digital platforms to achieve specific marketing goals and objectives.

Sales Generation

Video can engage consumers and compel them to act.  Whether you are appealing to the masses with a broad-range commercial or connecting with a specific segment of a target audience, video content distributed to the proper channels and platforms can help to increase sales and revenue.

• Television, Streaming Commercials: Through all the media consumption changes in recent years, television remains the top mass media vehicle to reach the largest audience. The addition of streaming services offers a more diversified approach to producing television commercials that attract and compel potential customers.
• Funny Video: Making an audience laugh is a memorable way to connect and have them associate positive feelings with your brand. Whether declaring it is time to make the doughnuts or asking where the beef is, humor is historically an effective marketing tool used to drive up sales.
• Testimonial Video: One of the best ways to increase sales is by having a satisfied customer share their experiences in a testimonial video. An actual customer detailing your products and services benefits organically attaches a sense of trust and reliability to your brand.

Product Introduction

Product videos offer the chance to showcase your products in the most dynamic and engaging way. A combination of live-action, animation, and motion graphics allows video to educate consumers and highlight the solutions you provide to their problems.

• Product Demonstration: Product demonstration videos are among the most-viewed videos on social media. A product demo video details your product’s finer points and provides detailed information on how the product benefits viewers.
• Lifestyle Video: A lifestyle video presents your brand as relatable and reliable. Seeing your products or services being used in real-life situations connects with consumers and makes them feel comfortable with your brand.
• Openbox Video: There are dozens of YouTube channels dedicated to showing people opening up the packaging of various kinds of products and using them for the first time. Openbox videos are compelling to the point of being mesmerizing. They show your product in the best light and in the most engaging way.

Brand Awareness

Your brand is one of your business’s most important assets. Your marketing strategy focuses on making as many consumers as possible aware of what makes your brand stand out from the competition. Several different types of corporate videos are designed to help boost your online presence and increase your brand awareness.

• Company Profile: Video can be used to introduce your company and how you do business to those consumers with little or no prior exposure to your company and the products you provide. Company profile videos are embedded on your website home page, posted on your social media pages, included in email marketing campaigns and other marketing efforts.
• Culture Video: Company culture videos represent who you are and what your business stands for. It sets expectations for prospects, customers, and potential employees. They help you tell your brand’s story, so viewers connect personally and get excited about doing business with you.
• Recruiting Video: Competition for quality employees can be as fierce as attracting consumers. Recruitment videos showcase the best of your company and form a connection with potential candidates.

Educate and Inform

Educate your viewers about why your products and services are the best in your industry or field. Educational videos present your products, services, and brand as a trusted industry leader and a valuable resource for existing and potential customers.

• Explainer Video: An explainer video is a concise presentation that offers the chance to share your product details with viewers on your website, social media, email marketing, and other digital marketing assets. Explainer videos, a powerful form of video marketing, show how your product or service provides solutions to specific problems in an engaging and memorable method.
• How-To Video: Consumers look to YouTube and other multimedia platforms for how-to videos to find the best solutions to various problems. Video breaks down complex concepts and mechanisms better than any other format or medium. Online users place a high value on these informative videos, as evidenced by the high volume of searches beginning with the phrase “how to…”
• Webinar: Long-form virtual meetings allow you to deliver large amounts of important information to unlimited numbers of viewers through live streaming events and on-demand video. Webinars are valuable digital events that can be used for a variety of marketing, sales, and internal presentations.

Use Video To Increase Online Visibility To Grow Your Business

Video is an integral part of any modern marketing plan in the digital age. Video is effective at getting the attention of consumers in today’s crowded marketing spaces. Selecting the suitable types of marketing videos for your business and distributing them on the best platforms to generate interest and engage consumers will compel them to click through to your website and make a purchase or schedule a service call.

About the Author

Torrey Tayenaka is the co-founder and CEO at Sparkhouse, an Orange County-based video production agency. He is often asked to contribute expertise in publications like Entrepreneur, Single Grain, and Forbes. Sparkhouse is known for transforming video marketing and advertising into real conversations. Rather than hitting the consumer over the head with blatant ads, Sparkhouse creates interesting, entertaining, and useful videos that enrich the lives of his clients’ customers. In addition to Sparkhouse, Torrey has also founded the companies Eva Smart Shower, Litehouse & Forge54.