If you’re not just getting started in advertising, you’re probably impressed by what’s going on with video as a mass medium these days.
With the global internet population and average broadband speeds rapidly growing, creating and watching videos has become a daily routine both for consumers and businesses.
According to one survey, 87% of companies used video for marketing purposes in 2019.
Google reports that watch time for videos increased more than 270% between July 2017 and June 2018.
Due to the emergence of 5G connections, ultra HD video, and virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) applications, Cisco projects more than 47% of all devices and connections worldwide will be video capable by 2023.
Having almost killed traditional broadcast television, streaming services (which spend billions of dollars on content) are forcing cable TV networks to accept the new rules and join the streaming wars.
In other words, the ways people consume video are changing tremendously. And clearly, this affects the ways businesses advertise themselves and the types of video marketing they use.
25 Types of Video Marketing for Advertising Your Business
Video is an awesome multi-purpose ad format. It can boost awareness for any business, spark the interest of customers in any industry, and increase conversions for any product or service. In this article, we’ll share ideas you can use to fulfill your marketing objectives and create valuable video content that leads to success. Let’s roll!
Branded Videos
There are different types of videos for marketing, but this type you’ll recognize at first sight.
Originally called TV spots and produced for television, branded videos have gained a second wind on social media. A branded video can introduce a new or revamp the image of an existing brand, product, or service.
The purpose of a branded video is to tell an engaging cinematic story rather than directly promote a brand. Typically, such stories are told in less than a minute — sometimes up to several minutes.
Demonstrations and Showcases
Also called unboxing videos, showcase videos are longer and more detailed versions of branded videos. They allow businesses and brands not only to demonstrate products and services but to review them in a more personalized way.
Check out some of the best product video ads to get inspiration for creating top-notch content.
Stories
Stories are one of the most excellent types of marketing video used on major ad platforms like Google, Facebook, and Instagram. The purpose of this video ad format is to create engaging and attractive narratives for mobile users.
Read this guide to learn everything about Facebook Stories Ads.
Read this guide to learn everything about Instagram Stories Ads.
Digests
Video digests are a great way to tell customers what’s been going on with a business, its products, or its services. One digest video can cover multiple topics.
These topics can be news, updates, events, and other information that will keep people informed and promote anything related to the business at the current moment.
Event Videos
In some industries, events are an integral part of promoting businesses. Video is the best method to capture an event and show the outcome to a brand’s community.
Event videos highlight big conferences, talks, meetings, and other special occasions arranged to advertise a company.
Trailers and Teasers
If you’re going to try different types of video ads, teasing your target audience is definitely worth testing when you’re going to announce something special like a pre-order campaign.
Trailers and teasers awaken interest in an upcoming event. Typically, teasers are a few seconds in length, while trailers last up to a few minutes.
Success Stories and Testimonials
Called success story videos or video testimonials, this type of video marketing provides marketers and advertisers with one more opportunity to display the advantages of a business or brand from the perspective of customers.
Just as Mailchimp showcases their customer using email marketing automation in the ad example above, any business or brand can inspire their audience by showing a video where customers share personal stories of how the business or brand helped them achieve their goals.
Interviews
Another method of collaborating with customers and demonstrating their appreciation of products and services is interviewing them. Face-to-face meetings recorded on video provide precious first-hand insights, increasing viewers’ interest in a business or brand.
The coolest part of this type of video marketing is the opportunity to invite different kinds of people such as brand ambassadors, team members, and industry professionals.
Question and Answer Videos
Question and answer (Q&A) is an interview format that’s worth a special mention.
Q&A videos allow a business or brand to discover customers’ concerns and requirements by collecting questions in advance and answering them in one video or in a series of videos.
Sponsored Videos
Sponsored videos are content produced by influencers who spend an allocated budget to promote a business or brand on their media resources such as websites, blogs, and social media.
Creating this type of video content is a good method to not only boost brand awareness but to find customers who really care about the brand.
Reviews
Sometimes, brands don’t pay for sponsored video content. People generate it on their own.
Reviews are third-party testimonials that give customers an alternative perspective on a product or service along with other types of promotional videos like success stories and showcases.
Live Streaming Videos
A great alternative to uploading a finished video that promotes a brand is starting a video stream on one of the top social media platforms.
Live streams are real-time videos where businesses and brands promote themselves by connecting with their audiences on social media and covering a certain topic. You can live stream anything from a product launch to a Q&A session.
Case Studies
People like facts and statistics. One of the best ways to convert viewers into customers is by demonstrating the results your company has achieved.
Case studies in the form of video presentations or animations can attract people who are interested in a company but who would never read case studies in the form of articles.
101 Videos
Every company has employees who are experts in their fields and who can share their knowledge with current and potential customers.
101 videos are an educational format where authors share the fundamental principles and aspects of a particular object, process, or phenomenon. These videos allow companies to organically mention their products and services by providing unique informational material and educating their audiences.
Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Videos
While 101 videos explain something in theory, do-it-yourself videos show the step-by-step process of creating, modifying, or changing things in practice.
In brand advertising, DIY videos are hosted by professionals who often use a brand’s products and show how to improve them at home using materials at hand.
How-to Videos
Need to show how to make something from scratch? Here’s the video type for you.
How-to videos are one of the most popular educational video marketing types because they allow any company to create a detailed tutorial on any topic, thus advertising their products or services.
Explainer Videos
Among different types of marketing videos that educate customers, explainer videos take a special place because they allow a business to explain basic information about a product or service in simple terms — how it works, what advantages it has over competing products and services, etc.
Tips and Tricks
These videos contain practical recommendations on how to better use a product or service.
\ \ This type of video marketing content is used by businesses to educate their customers and grow their communities on major social media platforms.Webinar Videos
Webinars are online educational events where a speaker explains a topic to an audience in the form of a presentation using slides, video, audio, and other types of content.
Typically, webinars are workshops, seminars, and training sessions that allow a speaker not only to explain a topic from A to Z but to interact with the audience in real time.
Vlogging
Also called web television, video blogs or vlogs are narratives that are extremely popular on YouTube and other social media channels.
This wonderful type of video marketing offers endless artistic freedom for creators who can use not only video but images, text, and other content to tell an engaging story.
Podcasts
Originally an audio medium, video podcasts have become extremely popular.
Podcasts are long talks that allow hosts to invite all kinds of guests and discuss lots of topics in as much detail as they like.
Documentaries
Documentaries are a powerful way of telling stories using video, allowing viewers to see a company from a totally different angle.
Brands use documentaries to tell long stories about themselves and their communities. These stories can be anything from a brand’s history to how a brand’s products and services are changing the world.
Video Clips
In some cases, it’s more effective to create lots of short clips instead of one long video because viewers like watching shorter videos.
Video clips are ideal for telling a story and promoting something because they can be ads and mini documentaries at the same time.
Behind the Scenes
There are lots of different types of video marketing, and when producing video content, there are always great moments behind the scenes. Taking into account that people love extra materials, why not share them?
Behind-the-scenes videos can be interesting enough to lure customers because they unveil what’s behind the curtain and let viewers feel the atmosphere on the set.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) videos are two of the newest marketing video types that are gaining popularity among advertisers and marketers.
These technologies allow companies to create 360-degree videos that let customers dive into an immersive shopping experience.
Generate Any Type of Video with Artificial Intelligence
Do you already know which type of video marketing you’re going to use for your business?
Keep in mind that the Softcube artificial intelligence platform can help you create different types of digital video ads at scale, automatically, and for all popular advertising platforms.
Softcube lets you upload your own video footage — or you can let its AI crawl your website to pick the best content for your business from a rich library of premade video content. Then it adds your branding to generate high-quality video ads based on templates for various purposes.
Good luck with your video marketing!