10 Ways to Make Your Business Videos More Effective

Torrey Tayenaka, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Sparkhouse strategic brand films, is known for transforming video marketing and advertising into real conversations.

As the CEO of a video marketing agency for the past 10 years, I know how powerful video can be for engagement. It's an effective way to connect with your audience and advance your goals, especially as video traffic continues to rise. I have seen small startups as well as Fortune 500 companies take advantage and see amazing results by implementing a few key strategies to their video marketing. It can be a pretty scary project to attack, but to be honest, with a little guidance, it can be a very achievable and even fun experience for you and your brand. So why wait? Here are 10 tips I've learned from my line of business. Pick a few that might work for you and get started.

1. Share your knowledge and establish yourself as an industry expert. Creating a how-to video or a video blog with helpful tips is a quick and easy video style. It will show off your expertise and build trust with your customers. This will help with more leads, more conversions and better SEO. Google owns YouTube, so if you are looking to be ranked on the front page, video is a trick that can get you there quickly.
2. Simplify a complex product or service with an animated explainer video. Animated explainer videos are powerful, popular tools for marketing almost any business, product or service. You can still be in the prototype, manufacturing or conception stages of an offering and present an animated explainer video to get your audience excited about its debut -- effectively targeting potential customers, investors or even partners in your quest to get the word out. Animations are also effective at explaining ideas that are misunderstood or hard to understand. The combination of heavy visuals and a very concise voice-over really drives the point home.
3. Boost downloads by promoting your mobile app's launch. Make sure to market your video to mobile apps because it allows you to show the full user experience of the app more than screen shots and words can alone. Mobile apps also make videos more shareable and easier to include a CTA. You can bring big production value like Playworks did to promote their Playbook App, or simply use a live screen capture of your application's features. To top it off, the Apple App Store now features videos, not just photos.
4. Recruit new members to your team. If you already have quality videos, leverage them for recruiting the right talent. From a company overview to employee profiles, there are many ways to approach a recruitment video. For Corvel's recruitment video, they had actual employees talk about why they like working there. By seeing real employees with genuine statements, new recruits are able to quickly see the company's culture and make a smart decision about joining their team.
5. Promote a contest thrown by your brand. Contests are a great way to market a product, service or brand. They get consumers excited about your brand, and they are especially shareable. However, you have to promote the contest for it to be effective. Video is a powerful strategy to help promote contests. I often see videos announcing contests shared across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter with huge success.
6. Make your e-commerce move with videos that show your product in action. Product "open box" videos allow you to introduce new products with unique features, showcase your innovative designs, and demonstrate various uses. Share open box videos on your site, on relevant forums, in e-newsletters, and via video blogging for optimal reach. Check out this open box video from Vizio, for one example. Video goes beyond a photo for e-commerce shoppers. They are able to see the product in action and make a quick decision to purchase your product online.
7. Build your brand with a customer lifestyle testimonials. If you have a log of written testimonials, there's no reason why you can't include them in your video. You're not just selling a product or service -- you're asking your target audience to buy into the lifestyle that comes with it. Lifestyle marketing engages your potential customers by showing them how others are benefitting from your company's offerings, which gets the viewer to picture themselves with your brand and builds an emotional attachment to your company.
8. Reach the masses with a TV commercial. TV ad strategy involves an intentional message that either directly or indirectly benefits your bottom line. Tools like age-based segmentation and cross-promotion across social media and online outlets improve the reach and profitability of your TV commercial and serve to build brand awareness, one viewer at a time.
9. Use video to help raise funds and awareness for a good cause. Whether you are a nonprofit trying to fundraise or a business trying to raise awareness for your corporate responsibility efforts, you can include your messaging in videos. It's also a great vehicle for showing potential donors the impact they can make by giving to a good cause.
10. Make a big splash with for your new product launch. Why just tell people about your products when you can actually show them? Product videos done right can be a fantastic tool to help your target audience understand your product and the philosophy that sets your company apart. You can use your product video to engage your customers in every step of the launch.