Guide to All Different Types of Videos

Should all marketing videos need to be professional productions to convert consumers? Or does a sneak peek at a new product in a series of social media stories fit the bill? 

When it comes to video marketing, as long as your videos offer your target audience value, education, or entertainment, they’re all contributing to your marketing and conversion efforts. 

But what kind of videos are suitable for each section of the marketing funnel? 

The truth is some video types overlap different areas of the sales funnel. A branding video might lead directly to a sale if the customer is engaged enough. 

So what types of videos are suitable for different business goals? 

Brand Awareness And Promotion

At the top of the marketing funnel, the awareness stage is the first step towards guiding your prospect towards a sale. 

Any videos in this stage need to grab attention, hook potential customers in, and persuade them to find out more. 

Brand Videos 

Any new customer coming to your website wants to know if you align with their needs and values. Brand videos help highlight the culture and values of your business

Authenticity is high on the must-have list of consumers, so humanizing your brands has never been more important. 

You can show authenticity and humanize your brand with content like behind-the-scenes footage, employee highlights, or short spots about company culture. Short introductory videos on your home page, along with stories and short videos on social media, help customers get to know you and increase brand awareness. 

Pro tip: Don’t produce videos for the sake of it. Have an end goal in mind. Viewers will tell straight away if you aren’t being sincere. 

Explainer Videos

When a potential customer lands on your website, they have a specific problem and look to you to solve it. 

Explainer videos are great because website user attention spans are short. So by grabbing attention with a video that highlights the solution to their pain point, it keeps users on the page longer. 

Furthermore, research shows that brand videos convince 84% of people to buy after watching—excellent news for awareness, promotion, and conversion goals. 

Pro tip: Focus on one or two points to hold your audience’s attention and place the video on your home page for maximum visibility. 

Product Videos 

Educational and instructional videos improve the user experience of the consumer. Better still, they tell the viewer all the benefits of your product. 

Using product videos is a chance to show off and differentiate your product from others on the market. It’s a golden opportunity to catch buyers in the awareness stage and show them why your brand is the solution they’re seeking. 

Pro tip: Product videos shouldn’t be longer than 30 seconds to hold attention. 

Customer-Focused Videos To Increase Conversions 

Once you have your potential customers engaged, it’s time to shift them further along the sales funnel and aim to convert to a sale.

And the best way to do that? 

Use social proof. 

Customer Testimonials 

One of the best ways to get a conversion is through customer testimonials. 

Authentically sharing a customer’s opinions can increase trust in your brand. In fact, 88% of consumers say that video testimonials make them more likely to buy. 

However, a word of caution. 

Customer testimonials should never be fiction. Consumers can see through staged reviews (think the cheesy customer testimonials you see on TV adverts), which destroys credibility. So only use genuine customer views. 

Pro tip: When asking for a testimonial, provide the customer with a structure to guide them. By asking the right questions, you’ll get answers that highlight the benefits of your product. 

Case Studies 

Video is the perfect medium for case studies. It highlights the emotion of your customer and adds authenticity to the study. Sometimes the written copy isn’t enough to portray customer satisfaction in the effective way a video can. 

Pro tip: When creating video case studies, think about: 

  • What is the end goal for the case study? 
  • Who is your target audience, and does the case study target their wants and needs
  • Does the case study highlight the benefits of your product?
  • Have you structured the case study with carefully constructed questions? 

Faq Videos

Perfect for answering common customer concerns and questions, FAQ videos are quicker and easier than scrolling through written questions. It also shows your consumers that you care about their needs and want to help them.

Equally, having an FAQ page boosts your SEO and ranking as Google tends to prefer video content. 

Pro tip: Points to include in an FAQ video could consist of:

  • How to set up and how to use the product
  • Information about warranties
  • What to avoid when using the product
  • How to store the product 
  • Information about returns and exchanges

Use The Correct Type Of Video For Your Marketing Goals And Watch Your ROI Rise 

There are many other video types out there, including corporate expertise, recruitment, and webinar videos. Which video you choose to use depends on your customer research – match your video to where your target audience hangs out online, what content they want to see, and what video style best suits their needs.

Author Bio:

Torrey Tayenaka

Torrey Tayenaka is the co-founder and CEO at Sparkhouse, an Orange County based video marketing 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.

Top 5 Things to Know Before Hiring a Video Agency

Right now, almost every business is moving towards video marketing to get their brand known among consumers. However, just like a first-timer at anything, they know very little about the complexities and details they must look after to hire the right video agency for their project.

Thus resulting in a highly conflicting video-making process and a not-so-effective end product that is 180 degrees of what they needed or imagined. To make sure that does not happen to you, we have come up with “beginner advice” that will help you find the right fit for your video marketing.

So let’s dive in!

  1. Know the type of video you need

The type of video you need directly correlates with your brand identity and digital marketing strategy. So you need to identify whether you want to proactively spread the word among the masses, inspire them by sharing your brand story, or need something that solely emphasizes leads and conversions. Plus, which medium do you intend to use to present it to your audience? Is it Youtube? Facebook? Instagram? Or just your company’s landing page?

To figure this out, you must take your team on board and determine the strategy they have in mind to propagate your brand message regarding your products or services towards your target audience.

If your company hasn’t done any video marketing before, that’s even better because it gives you a lot of flexibility. You get the opportunity to try out different approaches, from humorous and quirky ones to more serious and professional ones. Plus, you always have the opportunity to study what’s working for your competitors and integrate their critical factors in your videos right from the beginning.

Remember, the type of video you plan to use will directly influence who you choose for the project. There’s a vast number of video agencies covering specific areas of video making. Where some might specialize in live-action, others might emphasize animation. A clear plan will narrow down your research circle significantly.

  1. The cost of video production

Well, let’s cut it short. When talking about an agency, video production is expensive. Therefore, it’s necessary to keep your budget on realistic grounds before reaching out to a reputed video production company.

Since video production agencies have hundreds, or in some cases, thousands of projects under their belt, speaking loudly of their skill and craft in the field, the prices automatically go higher with respect to their portfolio.

But here’s the good stuff! You will get value for your payment 99% of the time in the form of high ROI. For a starter, a reputed video production company will cost you around $5000+ and above per project.

If your budget somehow doesn’t allow you to make such hefty investments, you can also try DIY video production using in-house equipment. However, this way, the process will involve a lot of trial and error, which often gets frustrating and extremely time-consuming.

  1. Qualities of a great video agency

Now that you know what kind of video your business needs and are ready to invest in, the next step is to find a video production agency that perfectly corroborates your needs and requirements. And for that, you must judge it from a lot of angles.

So, first things first, when you visit their website, head straight to their portfolio section and see if they have produced anything in your industry, or at least something close to it in the past. If you find something relevant, move to the next step and analyze their storytelling skills.

As video production is all about engagement and persuasiveness, you don’t want to present something that puts your audience to sleep halfway through the video; creativity is inevitable. So even if the portfolio seems like it is clicking with your project’s nature, talk to the agency representatives and see if they understand your needs fully.

Moreover, analyze their working ethic by talking to someone who has worked with them in the past or by simply studying their past customer reviews. See if they involve their clients amidst the project and listen to their suggestions and needs. Such micro-scale management is essential to get an outstanding end product.

  1. Time required for video production

For all that we know, video production is time-consuming. To be more precise, a two minutes video takes about 5 weeks or so to be executed perfectly.

Now you must be thinking, why wait so much when I can get an emergency service for paying extra? Well, that’s the biggest mistake you’ll ever make…allow us to elaborate.

So, video production involves a lot of pre-production planning. This involves research about the relevant industry and audience, creative planning, drawing story sketch, scriptwriting (very, very important), and a lot of trial and error to squeeze the best product out of it.

Once that’s done, the agency moves towards the production phase and shoots (or animate) the video, which, again, is a process that will determine the overall quality of the end product. Not to mention the post-production editing that involves assembling the rough cuts, color correction, and music to complement the story arc.

That being clear, imagine if all this is done in a matter of a week or two. Will the agency team have enough time to put the required amount of creativity into the project? Or will the production be as effective and polished as it would be if given the extra days? Well, the answer is pretty straightforward.

So why not pay the regular amount and get the best product than paying extra and getting something not as good? Remember, you should never rush video production, even if you have the convenience of emergency services at hand.

  1. The red flags

And last but not least, it’s essential to watch for some red flags to avoid getting scammed. For instance, you shouldn’t hire a company that doesn’t have enough portfolio to showcase their successfully executed past projects, a considerable number of positive client reviews, and authentic client references from which you can verify the quality of work and the agency’s claims.

I’d recommend doing a little due diligence to check whether the videos that they claim as part of their portfolio were made by them (and not stolen from another company’s portfolio).

Also, watch out for additional fees mentioned in the quote. Some companies start with low initial prices that go up as the project progresses, simply looting you through nickels and dimes from time to time.

Conclusion

Video production is a long, costly, and complicated process that you cannot risk handing someone incompetent. However, since it’s difficult for a first-timer to find a good agency, it is crucial to have the basic knowledge of video production and the distinguishing factors of a good video agency. We hope our two cents on the topic helps you find the right fit for your marketing campaign.

Good luck!

Author’s Bio:

Alex Safavinia is the CEO and Creative Director of Kasra Design, an award-winning animation company specializing in 3D animation and explainer video production. He began his career as a motion graphics artist in 2006 and soon converted his passion into a successful animation company by gathering up a team of talented animators and artists.

How To Use TikTok Like A Pro: Secret Tips You Should Know

While speaking about short-term videos, TikTok stands at its best, containing a wide variety of short-term videos from comedy clips to emotional clips. Being appreciative of this short term video-sharing app, we are here to share TikTok’s secret tips with you all. So. keep scrolling!

TikTok’s Secret Tips in 2020

If you are a creator, often get trolled for no reason, these secret tips act as a shield for you. Keep scrolling on!

1. Access Private Account

For users who are looking for their privacy on TikTok, this feature is handy. Once you enable the private account option, only approved users follow you and watch your videos and engage with your videos. If you are looking to get more people to look at your TikTok videos, you need to gain TikTok likes, hence boosting engagement. And also, remember that existing users won’t be affected anymore. To activate the private account, Open the TikTok app – click the profile option in the bottom-right corner – click the more option in the top-right corner – privacy and safety. You can see the private account option, turn on the option to activate it.

2. Restrict Everyone To Download Your Videos

If you hate when someone downloads your video, luckily, TikTok has an excellent feature of restricting everyone from downloading your videos. Open the TikTok app – click the profile option in the bottom-right corner – click the more options in the top-right corner – tap the privacy and safety option. Scroll to the safety option and choose the off option in the “Allow your videos to be downloaded” tab.

3. Bury The Comments With Certain Keywords

Social media sites might also include the home for negativity and trollers. And if you often get nasty comments, the comment filters on TikTok are ready to bring the best result for you. Yes, this option lets you restrict the words to your videos with specific keywords. To activate it, Open the TikTok app – click the profile option in the bottom-right corner – click the more options in the top-right corner – tap the privacy and safety option. Then, scroll down to the comment filters section. Here, turn on the option and add multiple keywords to restrict the comments.

4. Pick The One To Duet With Your Videos

If you want the specific persons to duet with your video, well, you can access the unique feature on TikTok to do so. To activate it, Open the TikTok app – click the profile option in the bottom-right corner – click the more options in the top-right corner – tap the privacy and safety option. Scroll down, and select friends on the “Who Can Duet With Your Friends” tab.

5. Enable Only Friends To Respond Your Videos

If you wish to be aware of unwanted reactions and comments to your videos from unknown persons, you can use the TikTok feature to stop the video reactions from new users. To activate it, Open the TikTok app – click the profile option in the bottom-right corner – click the more options in the top-right corner – tap the privacy and safety option. Choose the Friends option in the “Who Can React To Your Videos” under the safety section.

6. Save Your Favorite TikTok Videos

You can save the stunning and cool TikTok videos to watch them later, even if there is no internet connection. So, if you get any excellent videos that impress you, touch and hold on the video, a popup appears, then click the save option from the popup.

These are the simple secret tips you should know to use the TikTok platform like a pro. I hope you are benefited through these secret tips like responding to videos, staying away from unwanted comments, etc. Work it out, and shine like a TikTok pro.

Author Bio

Anne Joseph is a passionate social media writer and working at Bouxtie. She has strong strategy skills in developing and managing social media campaigns. She loves to make new connections and enjoy the opportunity to work with social media influencers.