Have you ever asked yourself what video content audiences just love to watch? If so, you may be aware what is trending right now for developing high performance in video marketing. If you answer “maybe” or need to learn more about 5 major trends in video marketing then, keep reading!
Today, 72% of businesses say video has improved their conversion rate.
Video continues its onward march as the bannerman of the content revolution, yet it’s fairly safe to say that most start-ups and scale-ups have yet to take full advantage of video marketing for their brand.
When it comes to content marketing, video comes in at only number three on the list of type of content used.
A big hurdle to video production is, of course, upfront cost. But an even bigger hurdle is lack of creativity. Many companies wouldn’t know how to diversify their video offering even if you gave them the money to do so.
Most people believe that Blog posts and articles just seem a whole lot safer and easier to manage. It’s easy to write about a different topic each week, and much more daunting to produce a different video each week.
But if YouTube celebrities can do it, so can you and your business!
So here are 5 useful types of video content that your viewers will enjoy. Word to the wise, when your viewers are enjoying themselves, you’ll have already separated yourself from the competition:
1. Workplace Culture
When Robert Iger convinced Steve Jobs to sell Pixar to Disney, Jobs was adamant that Iger maintain the culture of the company, which he believed played a huge part in Pixar’s runaway success.
The culture behind the brand or company is the secret sauce that whets employee appetites and perks up bored, disenchanted consumers. But even if you don’t have a whimsical, fairytale culture like Google or Pixar, you still have a company culture that you can share with viewers. Good content marketing makes your brand more human and more alive. And there’s no better medium for tapping human engagement than video.
“Culture Videos” can include slice-of-life employee interviews, work days in the office, milestones being reached, celebrations, birthday parties, and everything in between.
The goal is to show that your brand isn’t just clockwork, but a human fabric with a lot of personality. These types of videos also go hand in hand with HR, and can be used to attract the best and brightest job candidates.
These days, with all the noise out there, companies are struggling to stand out from the pack.
The truth is, it’s hard to create unique, powerful content that “cuts through the noise” through research alone. At some level, you’re just regurgitating material that’s already out there.
The only way to truly stand out and be unique is by differentiating yourself through your personality, not through tactics and techniques.
And the easiest way to showcase your company’s personality is by showing a “behind the scenes” look at what goes on in your office, and what your company culture or workplace culture looks like.
2. Events
One step up from a webinar is an event video, which covers the proceedings of a corporate event, usually B2C, in a polished and highly shareable fashion.
Traditionally, event videos have a higher compared to other video types because it takes an entire crew and multiple cameras to do them justice. However, with the popularity of 15-second Instagrams, many companies are starting to capture snippets of their events in montage form.
Event videos bring the party to viewers who couldn’t make it and extend the reach of any single event exponentially. Think of the Macy’s Day Parade in NYC. How many of us actually went to that parade, ever? Now compare that to how many of us know about it, and have seen it year after year, because it was covered on television.
A great event video increases your company’s online presence in a way that the live event itself is not able to by reaching the right verticals.
3. Presentations
Video marketing using presentations in front of an audience have become extremely popular, but the popularity of these “short, powerful talks” is sort of hard to pin down. Are they hugely popular because of the quality of speakers and the chosen topics?
A presentation takes the excitement of an event and combines it with the usefulness of a webinar to create a compelling and shareable narrative. When you really think about it, most speakers are just men and women looking to increase their brand presence.
If they can do it, why not you? One waycompanies can use the mojo of presentations to their advantage is by giving targeted presentations at company events or small-scale networking events.
4. Testimonials
If you’ve been doing a decent job with content so far, then you should be amassing a sizeable number of quotable testimonials you can use in your marketing videos. Figuring out how to get those customer testimonials on camera can be a bit tricky but worth all of the effort.
Our advice? You don’t want it to seem like your testimonial videos are populated entirely by actors. Testimonials are a type of product review and more of a “company review”, so they need to look absolutely genuine.
If you’re a B2C company, try throwing an event to attract existing customers whom you can record live for a fun testimonial. Or create a contest for customer review videos that you couldn’t possibly have written yourself. If possible, you may even offer existing clients a one-time monthly discount for an in-person video testimonial.
Here are a few questions we have had success with in order to help clients gather powerful, persuasive testimonials:
- What was your main concern about buying our product or service?No matter how “ready” your customers are to buy, there will always be hesitations that they have. They might be concerned about the price, whether your product will deliver results as promised or whether another product is a better fit for their specific situation.
- What results did you get after buying the product or service?Immediately following the prior question, asking satisfied customers to talk about their specific problem and solution can help persuade potential customers. Through this question, your potential customers get to hear what results they can expect to get.
- What specifically did you like most? By asking your successful customers to highlight the feature that they liked most, you’ll get a “richer” success story than if you asked them to explain in general terms what they liked or didn’t like. The more specific you can get with your questions, the more specific the answers you’ll get.
- What are 2-3 other “unexpected” benefits you got as a result of our product? With this question, you’ll get a better understanding of the unadvertised benefits your customers are getting from your product or service.
- What would you say to potential customers out there who might be on the fence?The best way to persuade potential customers to buy is by asking your current customers to convince them. By hearing their answers to this question, you’re more likely to tip over potential customers who are on the fence.
5. Animation / Motion Graphics
Technically, animation is more a style of video than a type of video, but what a powerful style it is! Animated or motion graphics videos have the power to leave viewers in a feel-good frame of mind and will also save a hefty chunk of your budget compared to live-action.
Animated videos are perfect for companies that have complex products and services that can be difficult to explain, which is why the most popular types of animated video are landing page explainer videos.
Whiteboard animations are an extremely affordable and popular type of explainer video that’s currently trending.
Since animated videos are best used to explain complexities, they’re perfectly suited for product tutorials and business presentations. If you need to explain exactly what your business does or how your product can make a business more efficient, then a motion graphics video often works best.
So…which is best for you or your company?
At the end of the day, these different types of video content won’t do you much good if you aren’t approaching content marketing from the right place. Great content engages by having an intrinsic value of its own apart from any product or service so create video content that will really wow your viewers!
Regardless of type, your video should immediately convey its value and answer that “why should I watch it?” question that will be on your audience’s mind. Should they watch it because it will make them laugh, because it will inspire them to act or because it will teach them something new?
Like we always say, “Make the first 10 seconds count!”
