The old saying goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words,” but what about when you’re viewing 24-60 pictures a second online?

Well, video content is an increasingly popular medium for businesses, and for good reason: Videos are more engaging, more memorable and more popular among younger consumers (when done well) than any other type of content!

No matter what industry or market you’re in, video content can help you promote your products and raise awareness of your brand in new and exciting ways. One of the most common problems that marketers face is how to increase engagement and traffic around key products, whether you’re a B2B or B2C company, and video content helps to drive these important factors.

Unlike other mediums, videos give you an amazing opportunity to demonstrate your products, services and brand identity first-hand. Once you’ve made your video, it can then be shared on social media, posted on your site and even posted/referenced in blog posts, increasing the lifespan of the videos for a long time to come.

A powerful way to persuade potential customers that their lives would be better with your product/service is to show them exactly how in a video. Even just a sneak peek of your product in action would improve a landing page or product description.

Showing your product/service in action is way more exciting than a product description could ever be, and it’s extremely useful for managing customer expectations, demonstrating exactly how it works in real life.

It may not seem obvious, but people love tutorials, instructions and demonstrations: just look at the explosion of cooking shows in recent years. Better yet, if you can give helpful tips on how best to use your product (think life hacks) you can inform and persuade potential customers.

The best part of tutorial/demonstration content is that it helps to quickly move people along the journey to buyer consideration. What’s more, you can easily demonstrate in 15 seconds what might have taken thousands of words to describe.

Lastly, product demonstration videos help to sell your products/services without sounding like a sales pitch. You’re just showing them how the product works and allowing the customer to reach their own conclusions, rather than trying to push them into anything.

If you’re lucky enough to have fans who are singing your praises or even other industry experts who would be happy to give testimony, these are a great addition to your overall video content strategy. Customer testimonials help to demonstrate proof of demand, showing others that you have satisfied customers, making your products/services seem more desirable.

While we like to think of ourselves as independent, nearly 70% of online consumers will look at reviews before buying a product, so why not select and highlight flattering testimonials to serve as reviews? Customer reviews don’t have to be anything too fancy – even filming content in-store can work well – and some companies get customers to make their own videos with incentives.

Ultimately, people want to know that your product or service can solve their problems or meet their needs. Demonstrate this with satisfied customers or let the results speak for themselves and you’ve got compelling video content to show to the world!

Moving on, let’s talk about using entertainment as a tool to help engage audiences and sell your product.  Content that can make your audience laugh or think are extremely powerful when used as part of a larger campaign showcasing your business’s mission, products or services.

You should be wary of actively trying to create ‘viral’ content, as online culture moves fast and successful examples of ‘viral videos’ are often lightning-in-a-jar moments. Instead, work to understand your core audience; where they go online, what they buy and what they’re most interested in.

With an idea of how this content fits into your wider marketing strategy, understanding of your audience and a creative vision, you’re well on the way to making great video content. No matter what kind of business you are, this type of content is a powerful way to strengthen brand rapport and get the attention of more potential customers.

Even if you want to focus on your company’s core product, service, or mission in your videos, there’s still a lot of scope for creativity and entertainment value. For example, Dollar Shave Club’s breakout  promotional video – titled “Our Blades are F***ing Great” – showcases the USP, core values and benefits of the business, all with irreverent humour.

But remember, if you want to entertain, you need to tell some sort of a story: after all, every joke needs a payoff and every story needs an ending. In the Dollar Shave Club example, we see a coherent narrative with a beginning, middle and end of a sort:

• Beginning: Explaining the premise of Dollar Shave Club’s business model
• Middle: Walking through a delivery centre, interacting with ‘workers’
• End: Celebratory dancing with money and US flag,

Sure, the script isn’t exactly Citizen Kane, but it concisely explains what the business is about, what kind of people the products are aimed at and the benefits of their products with humour. This kind of proud profanity and low-budget aesthetic may not be right for your business, but with over 26million views (at the time of writing) it’s worth taking notes.

I hope this article has helped to explain how video content can help your marketing strategy get better results and reach an even wider audience. You don’t have to be a professional director to get views and persuade potential customers, so why not try filming some promotional material or consulting our expert artists and editors for help today