Why and How to Use Video in Your Marketing — with Examples

July 11, 2023

In today’s digital landscape, video marketing has become essential to business marketing strategy. With the rise of social media and the increasing popularity of online video platforms like YouTube and TikTok, video has become one of the most effective ways to engage with customers and build brand awareness.

In this blog post, we explain why businesses should invest in marketing videos, the different kinds of marketing videos and how they can be used, and how to create effective marketing videos. We’ll also offer some cool examples for you to check out.

What Is Video Marketing?

Generally speaking, “video marketing” is pretty self-explanatory, right? You use videos to promote and market your brand, products, and/or services. Specifically, this can include anything from product demos and customer testimonials to explainer videos and behind-the-scenes footage of a project. The goal of video marketing is to engage and educate your audience, build brand awareness, and ultimately drive sales.

Why Your Business Should Invest in Marketing Videos

There are many compelling reasons why businesses should invest in marketing videos. According to different studies ^{1, 2, 3} on both consumers and video marketers, some benefits of video marketing are:

Improve Brand Awareness: 95% of marketers say marketing videos help them increase brand awareness
Influences Buying decisions: 89% of people say watching a video has convinced them to buy a product or service, and they say it’s the #1 way they discover a brand they later buy from
Return on Investment: 92% of marketers say marketing videos got them good ROI.
People are expecting it: 91% of people say they are expecting more online videos from the brands they follow.
Helps with SEO: 87% of marketers say video has made users stay on their website longer, which is a good SEO indicator

Examples of Different Kinds of Marketing Videos

There are many different types of marketing videos businesses can create. Here are some of the most common, with links to examples you can watch for ideas:

Brand Videos

Showcase a brand’s personality, values, and mission to its target audience. Brand videos typically feature a mix of live-action footage, animation, graphics, and voice-over narration to create an emotional connection with the viewer. They help businesses establish a strong brand identity, increase brand awareness, and improve customer engagement and loyalty. Check out this brief brand video from Straight Line Construction.

Brand video for Straight Line Construction.

Customer Testimonials

Feature satisfied customers sharing their positive experiences with your product or service, which can help build trust with potential customers and encourage newbies to make a purchase.

Client testimonial and case study for Hurd Construction.

Explainer Videos & How-To Videos

Explain complex concepts or processes in a clear and concise manner. With step-by-step visuals to accompany audio or written instructions, viewers are more likely to understand exactly what you’re explaining because they can watch the demonstration. Demo videos are great to teach customers how to use your product or service, which also helps reduce customer support calls and improves customer experience.

Video tutorial for City of Newberry.

YouTube Video Ads

Short video clips that businesses can use to promote their products or services on the world’s biggest video streaming platform. Your video ads can appear before or during a regular content video and are typically skippable after a few seconds. With YouTube’s targeting options, you can reach potential customers who are more likely to be interested in your products or services.

YouTube Ad for Straight Line Construction.

Social Media Ads

Short, engaging videos can be used as ads on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. These can help increase brand awareness and user engagement, plus drive traffic to your website. Similar to YouTube ads, social media ads have very specific targeting capabilities. At Liquid, we’ve found social media ads to be very helpful.

Social media video ad for Liquid Creative.

Animated Videos

Animation is used to tell a story or convey a message. This method can make a heavy topic more palatable for the viewer to watch; it is also useful when you don’t have access to live actors. Often used to explain complex concepts, showcase a product or service, or entertain and engage an audience, one of the main benefits of animated videos is that they are highly versatile and can be used in a variety of settings, from social media to website landing pages. We created an animated video to announce the upcoming show season for the Ocala Civic Theatre, and animation was a great vehicle for the content we were showcasing.

Season reveal 22/23 for the Ocala Civic Theater.

Walkthrough Videos

Tutorials that guide viewers through a product, service, process, or even a location. They can be used to educate customers, increase product understanding and adoption, and improve customer satisfaction. Walkthrough videos can also be used to highlight product features and benefits that may not be immediately apparent in print.

Walk Through Video for Grove Street Games.

Team Intros

Short videos that introduce a business’s team members, showcasing their personalities, roles, and contributions to the company. These videos humanize a brand, build trust and credibility with customers, and create a sense of connection and community. By putting a face to the name, team members become more relatable and approachable, helping to build stronger relationships with customers.

Team Intro Video for Pat Myers Electric.
Other forms of video marketing include webinars, vlogs, behind-the-scenes footage, live streaming, and more.

But How Do I Create a Marketing Video?

We’re glad you asked. Now that you know what you need, let’s talk about how to do it.

First, it’s important to understand that video marketing goes beyond creating one-off videos. Brands should integrate video across all their platforms, all the time.

One business that does this well is Straight Line Construction (you saw several of their video examples featured above). Liquid Creative has been working for Straight Line for two years, and we are constantly creating new video content for them—brand videos, team videos, video ads, client testimonials, and social media videos. Because of the effectiveness of this holistic video campaign, we received the Grand Image Award 2022 in the marketing video category.

We know that creating an effective marketing video can be a daunting task. Some of the reasons for not starting doing video campaigns that we’ve heard from business owners include time constraints, they don’t know where to start, lack of resources, lack of expertise, fear of being on camera, or they aren’t sure if the return will be worth the investment.

But creating a video doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are some steps to ensure your video is engaging, memorable, and achieves your marketing goals:

Decide who is filming your video: Are you doing it in-house (with your team and resources), or are you hiring a video production agency?
Determine your goal: Before creating your video, it’s important to know what you want to achieve. Do you want to increase sales, improve brand awareness, or educate your audience? This will help you create a video that is focused on achieving that goal.
Know your audience: Understanding your target audience is key to creating a video that resonates with them. Consider their age, gender, interests, and “pain points.” Pain points include the questions they are asking, the products they need, and the problems they need to solve. Taking the time to discover this information will help you create content that speaks directly to them.
Craft your message: Once you know your goal and audience, it’s time to craft your message. Your message should be clear, concise, and focused on the benefits your users will receive if they choose your product or service.
Plan your visuals: The visuals of your video are just as important as the message. Plan out what you want your audience to see and how you want to present it. This could include graphics, animations, or live-action footage.
Write your script: Your script should be engaging, memorable, and short. Well, brief enough to capture and hold interest—and just long enough to cover the main idea. Most sources suggest keeping the word count around 60–75 for a 30-second video. You don’t want to speed read because you will lose key inflections and emphasis, and your audience won’t understand or remember much of what you said. According to JL Recording Studios, three words per second is an acceptable pace for video script writing. Consider using storytelling techniques to make your video more memorable. Everyone likes a good story, whether it’s funny, nostalgic, or sentimental. And it’s always smart to end with a Call-to-Action of some kind, even if it’s just to get in touch (with your contact info included).
Choose your music & sound effects: Music and sound effects can make or break a video. Choose music that complements your message and adds to the emotional impact of the video. If the script covers a serious subject, an upbeat, happy tune will undermine your message.
Test & refine: Once you’ve created your video, test it with a focus group or a small sample of your target audience. Use their feedback to refine your video and make it even more effective before you publish the video on your platforms.

By now you know that video marketing is a powerful tool to help businesses achieve their marketing goals. With engaging, memorable videos, businesses can increase brand awareness, generate more leads, and improve customer engagement. With the right strategy and tactics, any company can use video marketing to their advantage.

If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to start incorporating video into your digital marketing strategy and see (pun intended) the results for yourself. If you’re interested in working with an award-winning video production agency, be sure to contact us so we can discuss your projects.