Your Video marketing strategy will bring the desired results when used well in every level of the funnel in your customer journey. Thus, the need to create videos consistently for all types of customers at all levels of the funnel is vital. Each type of video serves a different level in the funnel.
When it comes to the types of videos, there are few which can be used in a B2B context. Below are such types of videos.
- Personalised videos
- Disappearing videos
- Testimonial videos
- Interviews
- How-to videos
- Live videos
- Explainer videos
- 360-degree videos
- Event videos
- Animation videos
- Product demo videos
- Brand commercials
Personalised Videos
When you make videos specifically of a person, it is known as personalised videos. In B2B, to nurture the leads, the marketing team use personalised videos especially when a personal meeting is not possible or restricted or not necessary. These types of videos have a specific purpose and are used on specific platforms to serve the respective purpose alone. After the purpose is served, the videos are deleted or archived. These types of videos hold no other purpose.
There are several online platforms that help you to create these types of personal videos. These mostly work in a subscription model where you can create videos using computer’s webcam and make the necessary edits, add annotations, screenshots, and even screencast and share it with your prospects. That’s a personalised video.
These types of videos are simple, effective, instant, and help to establish a personal connection and make the sales process faster. Some online platforms that help you to make such videos are Hippo video, Loom.
Disappearing Videos
This is the favourite type of video for social media influencers and wannabe influencers. The videos being posted on social media particularly in the stories section are disappearing videos. They are there for a specific time and then it disappears, hence the name. The purpose is to stay in touch with their fan base.
These types of videos can be created by using the smartphone cameras and the respective application will do the rest like minor edits, adding emoticons, texts, effects, time and location.
There are separate mobile/desktop-based applications to make and edit such videos.
These types of videos are not much used in B2B.
Testimonial Videos
When your customer talks about you and recommends you to others in a video, it becomes the most powerful asset for your business.
Testimonial videos are the best tool to build the credibility of your brand. When your customer talks about your product/services, it helps directly to build your credibility.
Make a list of your customers and explain to them your wish to make testimonial videos, and where you will be using it. At least 50% of your customers will agree to make one. Hire a video team and make this type of video as much as possible and publish it on your website’s homepage.
The testimonial video with the below format works like a charm:
- Ask them about the person and their company’s business.
- Ask them the context of the problem where your product/service was utilised.
- How your product/services helped them solve it in a breeze.
- Their recommendations for your brand.
The duration of the video can be about 2 minutes.
By hiring a team, you ensure good quality in the output. The production value and your brand perception go hand in hand.
Interview Videos
When you and an expert discuss your industry or domain in a formal interview set up, it increases your credibility and expertise level.
These videos are to be consistently made to work in favour of your brand. This works well for building your brand, building your authority in the domain. There are not many restrictions on which types of businesses should use these videos.
Invite your guest who can also be your complimentary counterpart, prepare the list of questions to be asked, conduct the shoot, edit and publish the video, and thank the guest for participating. Probably give them a unique gift that is related to your industry.
There are a few ways to make such kinds of videos. You can make it with one camera set up or 2-camera set up. Also, it is advisable to have a studio setup and an editing team to make it an effective one or outsource it altogether to one team. They can bring a lot of value to you by taking care of shooting in a studio setup, editing, and publishing. You can focus on the guests, content, and other things.
With a little bit of production cost, you can create high-quality videos. The benefits are immense if you make the interviews consistent, whether it’s every fortnight or every month, it’s up to your bandwidth. These are sometimes called as video podcasts.
How-to Videos
If you explain a concept or a thing well through a video, essentially answering ‘How to make “X”?’, ‘How to work on “Y”’, or ‘How “Z” works?’, and so on and so forth, it’s called a ‘How-to’ video. Cooking videos are a perfect example of this.
This type of video demands a bit of editing to include the images, video footage of the concept you are explaining. Add a little branding to make it an exceptional one.
These videos help you build yourself as an authority in the domain you choose. Again, consistency is the key here. For instance, if you take the topic of ‘Minimalism’, a series of videos can be made about setting up a minimalist lifestyle.
Please note that, if you’ve got an in-depth knowledge in a particular domain, you can create a lot of videos around it.
All types of videos through slides,
Live Videos
All the live videos you watch on social media and the sports events that are telecasted in real-time fall under this category. Well, you all know this. Either you would have conducted one or you would have been part of a live cast.
But there is more to it, live videos are real-time, there is little to no editing in the video. You can use your smartphone and make videos from your location. But that is an individual’s approach. How about the same person conducting live online classes to a set of paid audiences, where they expect good quality video? Studio setup with live casting facilities becomes necessary here.
A similar setup in a big way can help conduct virtual conferences and events. The ‘big way’ here means a set of speakers and organisers (5-50 nos) come to the studio set up and conduct the event. It is perfectly fine even if the event is for 2 or 3 days.
You can have more people participating in virtual events, how about 10000 or even more? There is no limit. These types of virtual conferences were happening even before this pandemic, now the current situation has amplified the need for conducting virtual conferences.
Explainer Videos
You explain a concept, your product, services and display it on your website homepage for a better connection with your website visitors through this type of video. These can be made with the help of screencasts, animations and graphics, but losses the human touch.
What if your company sells software and there are tons of features in it, which demands explaining all of it to your customers? When you explain your software’s features, the user gets to know about your product benefits completely.
This type of video generally involves adding a screen recording of your product in use and or including images/screenshots in editing and adding voice over to explain it well.
It helps in a big way if you make videos that directly make the prospects understand the software in action. If you explain all the features of your product through videos, the possibility of getting the right customers are high and conversions become easier.
360-degree videos
This is a unique type of video where you can pan the video while playing the remaining 180 degrees to see the other parts of the scene, also in the vertical direction as well. This is a different type of video altogether and it’s kind of fancier too. A unique set of equipment and software are needed to record and edit.
Equipment to make these videos ranges from a dedicated camera, special edit tools, and unique host platforms as well. YouTube does have 360-degree videos that you may be aware of. Because of the complex nature of recording videos in 360-degree, the resolution part gets tricky and the videos are visually not in good quality like the ones you would have seen in other HD videos.
This type of video did not pick up much. It requires the user to pan the video frame while watching to get the full feel of a 360-degree video.
Event Videos
These types of videos are pretty straight forward where we recorded an event and make it a consumable one in the editing.
Every video from an event, speeches, panel discussions, conferences, the highlight coverage of the event, etc, falls under this category.
Publishing videos from the event brings a lot of visibility to the event and the registration for future events becomes easier. Event videos are consumed fresh, hence the delivery time of the video from your video partner is crucial and holds immense benefits.
Publishing them on social media channels gives a much bigger mileage to the event organisers which can be achieved otherwise by spending a lot on advertising!
Animated Videos
Unlike any other types of videos listed here, animated video is the only one that is created completely on a computer. All other types of videos are either streamed live or are recorded and published after editing.
Animation videos help to explain a concept better, especially when you have a digital product or provide a digital solution. Also, this suits well for the subscription model business.
Animation videos range from 2D to 3D animation. Generally, it demands some amount of preparation, characters, colour schema, and also the things which are needed for usual videos like, script, voice-over etc.
One such animation video we made for a solar energy company,
Demo Videos
If a physical product is displayed and explained through demonstrations, it is called demo videos. Here, it’s expected to explain the features, performances and educate the viewer, and this takes them ideally into the purchase journey.
Nowadays, product demo videos are shot by a programmed robot where unimaginable camera angles can be set and filmed.
Brand Commercials
The brand commercial is another type of video that’s different overall. It is one of the costly types of videos in this list which often explains the organisation’s principles, values and the product’s primary feature.
Brand Commercials generally goes through the standard filmmaking process of scripting, storyboarding, pre-production and post-production. The concept is the king of a successful brand commercial.
We have one of our blog post about outstanding brand commercials.
Great article to read, all the tips are great….