12 Great Video Ideas For Marketing & Communications
Quick video to jog the memory; here's 12 things you could be doing to help reach your audience using video. If you were looking for more, you can check out the article below.
21 Video Ideas and How You Can Use Them.
Before going through the list, I want to put another idea in your mind. Video creation, as with any investment of time and money, instantly conjures up thoughts connected to ROI. If you're in Marketing, you'll naturally drift to towards things like clickthrough rates when measuring campaigns.
I want to offer a more global perspective on the use of video, because limiting it to only the customer-facing side of your business could mean you're missing out on other opportunities.
If you could improve margins by using video to increase employee engagement, productivity, and loyalty, should you be ignoring that?
Employee welfare has an under-estimated human and monetary value and is more difficult to measure than clicks & sales. So, as you go through the list think about your business as a whole and not just customer-facing campaigns. Rethinking Internal Communications to effectively express, explain, or encourage your workforce can also build your profits.
1) Explaining
Videos
Pre-sell: “Show Don’t Tell” how your product/service will a change a customer’s life.
Post-sell: Walk a customer through the full power of your product to make sure they stick around and become loyal.
2) Social Media Videos
You only have 2 seconds between swipes. Grab the eye's attention immediately and keep the whole affair short, snappy, and to the point. If you don’t, the competition will scoop them up with half the marketing budget whilst you’re using “cheaper” stock photos.
3) Menu Videos
Your customer may be hungry. But to make their visit is worthwhile, and ensure sure they keep coming back, you need to actively broadcast. Both inside and outside, online and offline, video menus continually flick the taste buds.
Don’t own a restaurant? Have you thought of creating a Video Menu of Services so that your clients understanding everything that have to offer? This is your chance to increase Customer Lifetime Value.
4) Social Calls to Action
Cross-fertilise social media by sending traffic from one platform to another. They may be on YouTube now, but they’re constantly chatting with Friends on Messenger, so it makes sense to hook-up with them on Facebook.
5) Long Sales Videos
You’ve caught their attention once in a 15 second video, then you sparked more interest with a 30 second follow up. Now it’s time to address the questions and concerns that are keeping your audience from clicking the Buy Button.
6) On-boarding Videos
Your customer has bought, but your product has so many great features that they don’t know where to start.
Feel their pain and soothe it.
Don’t send them a 3,000-word document. Lead them gentle by the hand with a video series. It’s not just better for them, it’s cheaper and better for your Support staff who are sick of answering the same old questions.
7) Internal Company Videos
So, your company is doing great. You have a monthly Newsletter that gets emailed to employees, but quite frankly they don’t give a damn and it barely gets a click.
That’s a shame, because you want them to be inspired by your vision, and you want them to be engaged and productive. Use video to communicate your strategies or new initiatives to make employees feel involved in your journey.
8) Crowdfunding & Investment Videos
You know it’s a great idea but raising capital can be a very personal thing. When you’re asking people to put their hand in their pocket you need to show passion, and drive emotion. Normally you can only do that by being in the room. Once you’ve left, your potential investors just have a pile of papers.
Get them to take you seriously and show that you’ve already invested in yourself. Backing your dream with an inspirational video can break the ice and deliver a strong visual identity; rather than ammo for the wastepaper basketball hoop.
9) Promotional Videos
Aren’t all videos meant to promote? Well, in a sense Yes, but there’s a difference between a direct sell and building awareness. Do you have a product launch, or maybe you’re halfway through a cycle and you need to push harder to tip the balance? Create a promotional video campaign with increased engagement and multiple touch points on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram.
10) Email Campaign Video
You have an email list, but engagement is tailing off. The hot leads have already bought, and the remainder are cooling off. It’s time to re-engage them by dripping some click-worthy video content. Gradually bring them back on-board, show them a clear and concise route, and increase your ROI.
11) How-To Videos
It’s easy when you know how. But when even an Ikea guide can have you putting the cupboard doors on upside-down, you know that nothing is fool proof. Provide self-serve support videos for customers to make sure they’re hailing you, not hounding you.
12) Tutorial Videos
Whether you’re creating courses for employees or users, it can often induce all the excitement of a visit to the dentist. By using professional overlays, callouts, transitions, and a high-quality background track you can turn a simple screencast into an engaging informational broadcast.
13) Testimonials Videos
Leverage your existing customer base by animating or overlaying customer experiences. We all know seeing happy customers advocate services swings the balance, so bring that in as part of your sales machine.
Harnessing the power of clients, big-names or not, can work well on background screens at trade events or served up on screens around your waiting areas.
14) Festive Videos
You don’t have to wait until official holiday periods to bring some warmth to your customer's hearts. Don’t just hit them with Sales opportunities like Black Friday, Easter Clear-outs, Mother's Day Specials. Take the time to wish clients Happy New Year and remind them you care.
15) About Us Videos
An About page is often a place of self-indulgence, spouting about your company’s mission and vision. Whilst that is partially the point, it’s probably a good time to engage directly with the client and make videos about what you can do for them. Make it About how you improve their life with the mission you chose to accomplish.
16) Recruitment Videos
To attract high-calibre candidates should be creating high-calibre recruitment content. There’s an assumption that people are desperate to get themselves a new position, but the A-Players are vetting the companies as much as the companies are vetting the candidates.
Make your company stand out from the pack by using a recruitment video. There’s a reason that companies like Indeed and Monster run video campaigns, and it’s not just because they like spending your money.
17) Jingle Videos
Ah, I can’t get it out of my head! That annoying dancing ferret that keeps haunting you all-day-long can feel a little cheesy at times. But whether your selling Accounting software, or actually selling cheese, it keeps you exactly where you want to be; on the mind of a potential client.
18) Glimpse Videos
A day in the life of your company or a behind the scenes video. Building awareness of your company environment can be an important step in your marketing strategy. Taken as part of an extended campaign, or as an “Year-End Round-Up”, it can give a great insight into anything from culture to production methods.
19) Transformation Videos
Before & After. The first thing that springs to mind are things like make-overs. But there’s so much more. If you improve a process, show how you turned 10 Steps (before) into just 3 Steps (after).
Of course, classics like cleaning, building improvement, and beauty salons all work a treat, but if you think outside the box, you’ll always find something. Fast food companies use an angle for storytelling, like the chaotic car journey full of hungry screaming kids turned into the zen stomach-filled calm of happy smiling faces. It's a simple "Where you are now" and "Where you want to be" story.
20) Highlight Videos
Show your accomplishments. It can be good to brag a little.
Used internally, it can be used to praise employees for a job well done or bring attention to background improvements that staff aren't aware of.
Externally you can show awards, certifications or commendations you have received on video autopilot. Use them in series with other videos at trade fairs. Potential clients will realise they've come to the right place before they've even spoke to you. They'll never see your expensive brochure at 20 metres, but they'll see your screens from 40.
21) Tips & Tricks Videos
Education that builds your authority. We use things in the way that seems obvious to us. That doesn’t always mean it’s the best, most efficient, or the latest updated way to accomplish a task. Now's the time to show your prowess by hitting viewers with great shortcuts, workarounds, or outside the box ideas that bring value to their life.
And maybe we should add a number 22.
Thank You Videos
Reward people who take desired actions. Taking your viewers on a journey where they are thanked and rewarded with extra information at each step has multiple benefits. It builds rapport along the way, gaining you time and loyalty further down the line.
Thanks for reading to the end of this article. I hope you found some value as well as ideas.
All the Best,
Kevin Williamson
Founder of Loop Europe