Video is an important part of advertising, and can be instrumental in informing your customers about many aspects of your business, from your product line to your company culture to education. With so many different types of video, it’s important to assess your goals and decide which type will best help you reach them. Whether it’s a company overview or a series of interviews to demonstrate your expertise, do some serious planning before you commit to production to get the best value.
Some types of video to consider:
- Company overview – this video is usually a documentary-style video that can include b-roll of your business in action, short interview clips with your employees and/or customers, shots of your company culture, and usually has a music track playing in the background to help evoke an overall feel. Sometimes these can be quite moving, depending on the business. For example, we are working on a video for Shorecrest Preparatory School, and it’s quite beautiful, with a lot of emotive shots of the students and teachers in a passionate learning environment. The video truly evokes the culture of Shorecrest, and you are lucky if you finish watching it without shedding a tear. We also just finished a company culture video for Big Frog Custom T-Shirts – it really demonstrates what the Big Frog Franchise Group is all about and they are excited to use it to capture the hearts of new potential franchisees.
- Interviews – interview videos can serve several purposes, and are usually less time consuming than a full company overview and can be repurposed and used in other videos like the company overview, case studies, etc. Depending on your goal, interview videos may involve one of your staff answering questions about their expertise, process, or the company culture. You may invite clients to do an interview video for a case study about your company, or do an entire video with client testimonials.
- Case Studies – case study videos can focus on a particular project that you’ve worked on and may include many elements, from client testimonials to shots of your employees in action. These videos are a great way to demonstrate just how great your business is and how passionate you are about your work. This is an added bonus for your clients – when you post the video you should always tag your client to drive traffic to their site. Case study videos are a great marketing tool on multiple levels for that reason – you are promoting your work and your clients’ work, plus you are giving clients an incentive to hire you – you feature them in your beautiful videos!
- Video blogs – this is a blanket term that can include some of the other types of videos, especially interview videos, but these can also be somewhat more casual and some companies do these in-house with camera phones or personal video cameras. Video blogs can be anything from weekly or daily updates about new products, company news, or commentary on what’s happening in the industry. The sky is the limit with video blogs, in a way, because they are very specific to the atmosphere of your blog and your industry.
- Educational videos – educational videos can be created for your staff or your clients. These may be product demos, or instructional videos for training purposes. You may even create several of this type of video to use for your inbound marketing efforts. For example, a videographer may post a short video on how to create simple video blogs outlining the equipment needed, easy-to-use editing programs, and places to find stock music for background and inexpensive stock b-roll if needed. This is a great resource for potential clients, and if they need a more professional video produced in the future, you will probably come to mind.
Videos are great marketing tools – just make sure that if you make the investment, you plan properly and have clear goals in mind. Contact Pinstripe Marketing if you’d like to discuss your video project – we can help you plan and execute the perfect video for your company’s needs.
