5 Styles of Marketing Videos & How They Convert

5 Styles of Marketing Videos & How They Convert

Digital marketing is all about getting people to take notice and take action.

Meaningful and careful design go a long way toward achieving that goal.

“Being online” today has become all about exercising restraint.

About how long you get to focus your attention on something before the next notification pops up and breaks you out of it.

That’s the reason behind video content effectiveness.

Marketing videos provide you with a reliable channel to engage your audiences, long enough to prompt them into action.

It allows you to combine the power of storytelling, and the flexibility of visual art styles, to appeal to customers at different stages of the buyer’s journey.

Lastly, marketing videos lets you tailor your content, making it so that the right video takes an indifferent person, and has them paying attention.

You are sparking interest in your brand.

In this piece, I want to go over a few of the most popular video styles being used in digital marketing today, why they are so effective at what they do, and how you can use them to get more people connecting with your business.

1 – Generate Empathy Toward Your Products and Services

In the world of social media, marketing isn’t solely based on your product anymore.

Yes, you need to have a quality product or a helpful service at the core, but striking a chord with your audience is indispensable.

That’s what separates your brand from the crowd, and what leads people to choose you instead of them.

To have your products and services achieving that level of originality and familiarity, you can’t go wrong using animated explainer videos, and whiteboard animations.

Animated Explainer Videos

Explainers have grown to be a staple in digital marketing, and for a good reason.

With an explainer, you get to appeal to the basic human desire of knowing, using our built-in internal reward systems to generate engagement.

The basic mechanics are relatively straightforward: Pick a question or topic relevant to your intended audience. Address it in an entertaining, fun, and brief manner. Pepper it with subtle yet efficient marketing and branding strategies, et voila, you have in your hands an excellent explainer.

In practice, though, it might take a bit more than just that.
See, the real secret behind a good explainer comes from knowing your audience and being able to speak to their specific pain-points.

If you are well-informed on the issues your potential customers want to solve (the ones you can help them with), you know exactly how to focus the video information to make it relevant to them. That’s your message.

Now, why make them animate?

Simple, animation gives you a wide range of styles to choose from.

Styles you can fit your audiences’ likes, and tailor them to reinforce your message.

Combining all these elements – in the right amounts and order, like all good recipes – will give you a piece of video content that’s irresistible to your viewers.

Whiteboard Animation

Whiteboard animations are a particular style of explainer video, a flavour if you will.

They are the ideal way to make engaging video content out of complex, or somewhat convoluted topics.

Having a seemly “Spartan” black-and-white video actually brings to the table a bunch of powerful advantages that can’t be achieved with other types of marketing videos.

The first strong point whiteboard animation enjoys, is precisely that unique feel that the drawing is happening right in front of the viewer’s eyes.

That style is a powerful tool that prompts the viewer to get invested in what’s happening on the screen.

Combined with the proper voice talent and clear content to go along, whiteboard animations can be irresistible.

The second significant advantage of this style comes from the way of the absence of colour.

What many could misinterpret as a disadvantage in this age of 4k HD displays is hardly so.

Black and white animation strips distractions away, making it easier for the user to focus on your message.

The third comes from the fact that this “absence of colour” isn’t absolute.

Focusing on a mainly black and white style of animation makes it so that, when colour does pop up, it feels meaningful and relevant.

Combine that approach with the right timing and your company colour palette, and you get a killer effect.

2 – Bring Awareness to Your Company’s Work

As I mentioned above, one of the significant reasons videos are so popular is precisely that they help you stand out from the crowd.

People can’t engage with your company unless they know you exist.

Having them find you can be a challenge when they carry in their pockets a device that literally connects them with almost every business around the planet.

Well, there are a couple of video styles that can make this task a bit less herculean, social marketing videos and commercials.

Social Videos

Social videos are a style of marketing video content defined by the platform you use to distribute them.

As far as format, they can be – and usually are – a bit of everything.

From explainer videos in the form of How-tos to subtler forms on product videos like reviews.

The key feature of these marketing videos is how you tied them to their respective platform, and the conventions you should (have to) follow to make them successful.

Different social networks favour different types of contents, different lengths, or cater to wildly different audiences.

Twitter tends to react well to medium length videos that go in-depth on a topic, while Instagram is the king of short and spontaneous video content.

Two wildly different styles of content.

To make effective social marketing videos, you first need to understand the platform and type of content your audience prefers.

Then, learn about those platforms particular traits and make sure you account for them in your video.

Once you have those two boxes checked, it’s just a matter of providing value (whether that’s information, entertainment, or something else depending on your brand and audience) keeping up with the platform’s trends.

Commercials

Commercials are a very versatile style of marketing video.

You can make them live action or animated, and within those two there are dozens of different styles that will further differentiate your content from others’.

However, what truly makes commercials stand out in the post-internet era, is narrative.

The most effective commercials aren’t the ones that painstakingly go over product features from a droning list.

Or the ones that stretch thin with hyperbolics on how “unreliably amazing this new revolutionary toothpaste is”

No, the most effective commercials are the ones that tell a story that your audience can relate to.

The ones that can have them seeing themselves enjoying the benefits of what you are offering them.

Those are the commercials that leave an impression.

A well-made commercial with powerful storytelling is what keeps your brand in your audience’s mind.

But, how do you go about doing that?

You need to put forward the benefits you are providing but do so in a way that has your audience identifying and relating to your brand.

Think about that famous Dollar Shave Club.

Yes, on the surface, it was about selling razors, but it was so much more than just that.

It was about poking fun at the overpriced competition, and portraying a company with an attitude their customers could attach to.

That’s the basic principle your commercials should follow too.

3 – Humanise Your Brand and Make It Feel Approachable

Nowadays, customers aren’t satisfied with companies just for providing a good product or service.

We want our companies to be socially responsible, environmentally sound, and hey, we like it if they have a good sense of humour too.

Humanising a brand is a big part of doing business online.

People don’t go to your store and talk to your employees as much anymore.

Most of the business now takes place on a screen.

To help humanise your brand, and make it feel more approachable, you can use customer testimonials and company stories.

4 – Customer Testimonials

Testimonials usually pull double duty.

They help your customers approach your services from a more comfortable viewpoint, from someone like them who already got to enjoy what you provide.

That, in itself, holds great value.

Then, they also help you put forth your products or services best foot forward, subtly indicating its benefits without having to go for a more ham-fisted approach.

As for style, testimonials work best when you achieve a brisk, cheerful pace.

Covering all the bases as far as content goes, but without letting it bog down into a lecture or a sales pitch.

The best way to make sure you’ll have enough material later in the editing room to accomplish this is by making robust questionnaires.

Customers are the stars on testimonials, but to ensure you are making the most of your recording time, you should be preparing a thorough questionnaire.

One you will use during the recording to help the customer navigate their experiences with your product and keep things from rambling on for too long, and stay away from unproductive paths.

Here’s one of our favourites:

5 – Company Story Marketing Videos

Few things are better suited to help your brand feel relatable than a well-crafted company story video.

Company stories are all about showing the human side that powers every brand, and the individual stories that tie together to make the company.

They follow a somewhat similar style to testimonials, where soothing music and imagery helps reinforce the message you are trying to convey.

However, that message should be focused around your company’s background, its mission, vision, and the individuals that work hard to see them come to life.

What sets a good company story video apart is the attitude.

Each company, each brand, has an individual way of doing things, of communicating with their audience.

These marketing videos are the ideal platform to let that uniqueness shine.

Being genuine is paramount.

Audiences can easily tell real passion from a simulated one, and trying to fake your way through one of these videos can be fatal.

Focus on your company’s vision and the things you endeavour to work hard on to bring to your customers.

Let that attitude colour your message, and the final product will speak for itself.

As you can see, marketing videos are varied in their style and approaches, but they all have something in common: They are all channels to communicate with your audience.

Whether you are trying to grab their attention, explain something to them, or just give them an opportunity to get to know you better, videos are a channel to connect with.

The different marketing video styles help you to do it better.