9 types of videos for B2B and how to use them in the buyer´s journey

Video marketing has skyrocketed over the last couple of years, and the rocket shows no signs of slowing down. It’s not too late for your business to launch and receive the benefits of video and strengthen your brand – but you shouldn’t wait too long. 

Your business should have different goals, and each type of video used should serve the purposes of those goals. That is when video achieves the best results. A good video strategy needs to reach your prospects throughout the buyer’s journey. The plan needs elements that attract, educate, convert and retain your prospects and customers.

But what kind of videos should you use, and for what purpose? Let’s get to it!

Explainer Videos

This is a short, but powerful video that captures your brand promise and shows your potential customers what your business is providing and why this could be helpful to the prospects’ needs. These types of videos should be around 60 to 90 seconds and are great for the Attract and Educate phase of the funnel.

Since these videos are short, they work their magic on social media, websites, youtube, and in ads.

What you should keep in mind when you are creating explainer videos includes:

• Having a maximum of one to two messages
• Focusing on your audience and how you can help them
• Making sure your video catches the viewer's attention right away.
• Building a personal connection with the viewer by using words like «you» 
• Ensuring the video is short and entertaining
• Having the storyline and tone of voice in mind
• Your video answering your audience’s questions
• Always include a powerful call-to-action at the end

How-To Videos

This is a deeper and lengthier video that takes the viewer through the steps needed to complete a task. These types of videos can be between 2 to 10 minutes. Combined with visuals, text, or audio instructions, how-to videos give the viewer a clear and concise guide – step by step. This also makes this video powerful in all phases of the funnel.

How-to videos are popular online content and perform well on websites, emails, social media, and YouTube.

What you should keep in mind when you are creating how-to videos:

• Research and map out common questions to answer throughout the video
• Keep it clean and easy to follow – the steps should be in a logical order
• Build trust with your audience and highlight expertise
• Include keywords in the title and a description that you know will give your video a good SEO-performance considering your targeted audience
• Don't be afraid to include an enticing thumbnail to make sure people will actually click to watch
• Don’t have «selling» as an agenda for the video. How-to videos have an educational purpose

Promo Videos

This type of video serves the purpose of promoting something. This could be anything from a content asset, a product or service or even the brand. These types of videos should be short and work best in the Attract phase of the funnel. Keep it between 30 to 60 seconds. This is like a movie trailer for your business.

Since promo videos aim to be short and have high entertainment value, these bad boys perform very well on multiple platforms – websites, email, social media, YouTube and in ads.

What you should keep in mind when you are creating promo videos:

• It needs to be short
• Script it and practice beforehand
• The focus should be on emotions
• Make it as a teaser – don't give away all the good stuff. This will make a promo video spark curiosity in the audience
• Don’t hesitate on getting the crowd excited with music in the video
• Always include a powerful CTA so that the promo actually leads to what you are promoting

Thought Leadership Videos

This is where your business really can shine and show your expertise, share knowledge and increase influence. These videos are great for building trust with your audience. Thought leadership videos can be as long as 10 to 15 minutes and work best in the Attract and Educate phase in the funnel. The length limits the platforms you should use these videos on quite a bit. Social media and YouTube are the go-to channels when distributing these videos.

What you should keep in mind when you are creating thought leadership videos includes:

• Showing your personality and being authentic, both to yourself and the brand you represent
• Showing your unique point of view. People don’t want to watch the same old story just from different people.
• Stick to a topic you know, otherwise, the audience will quickly catch on and see through your statements
• Sharing knowledge as the main focus and purpose
• Not scripting it, for authenticity's sake, but preparing some talking points
• Increase the reach by considering partnering with other thought leaders
• Being consistent and thinking of the videos as a series

Webinars

A webinar is a seminar, just held online instead of in person. The webinars should be educational and can be done in many different forms – lectures, panel interviews or Q&A sessions. A webinar can be anything from 15 to 60 minutes and work really well in the Attract, Educate and Retain phases in the funnel.

You can run your webinars on your website, emails, social media or YouTube.

What you should keep in mind when you are running a webinar:

• Always be focused on educating the participants
• Choose the right speakers with relevant topics
• In a digital world, technical issues are recognisable, therefore, have a moderator ready to troubleshoot if needed
• Record the webinar for valuable content after the live session. You should also make a hub for all of your webinars
• Keep track of the attendees and send them related content after your webinar for lead nurturing

Case Study Videos

This is pure gold for your business. A case study video is where you can tell the story of how you helped a customer achieve their goals with your services or products. This will resonate with the potential customers in your market and give them a problem they can relate to. Also, it shows how your business can help them with their problems.

These videos should be between 5 to 10 minutes and used in the Educate, Convert and Retain phase of the funnel. Works well on your website, emails, social media, and YouTube.

What you should keep in mind when you are creating case study videos:

• Interview the customer you have helped and have them tell their story – this builds credibility
• Plan the shoot day for the best result, this includes questions to be asked, etc.
• The focus should be on benefits rather than features
• Include stats and metrics to back up your story
• Make sure you shoot B-roll footage for a smooth visual result

Culture Videos

Employer branding is important and culture videos are your friend here. These types of videos are perfect for showing your brand’s culture and spirit. You can show this to prospects, customers or even potential employees. The purpose is to tell your brand story and get people excited about doing business with you.

Limit the videos to around 2-4 minutes. Works best in the Educate and Retain phase of the funnel and performs well on your website, emails, social media, and/or YouTube.

What you should keep in mind when you are creating culture videos:

• Have the intended audience in mind and think about what stories to tell
• Show your true self and have your personality shine through
• Don’t hide your brand values
• Connect with your audience through humor
• Don’t be fake! Keep it real and authentic throughout the whole video
• Let your employees shine in the videos (just don’t force them to participate)
• Don’t use this as a sales pitch, tell a story!

Demo Videos

A demo video is where you show how something works – a product demonstration video. This can be done in different formats, so use your creativity. Demo videos perform best in the Educate and Convert phase and they should not be longer than 2 to 5 minutes. 

These types of videos should be on your website or sent to your potential customers in emails.

What you should keep in mind when you are creating demo videos:

• Don’t just throw something out there, do some research on what people actually want to see
• To avoid the amount of bloopers material, practice before recording
• Be concise and clear, skip acronyms and jargon
• Make sure you know the script and avoid filler words (like «um») in narration
• Include subtitles
• Don’t be afraid of creating demo-series
• Keep some «secrets» so the viewers have a reason to contact sales

Personalized Videos

This is a customized video that «interacts» with the viewer. To interact, you can include things like the viewer’s name, company, or photo. This is useful to build a personal connection with the viewer and works well in the Educate and Convert phase of the funnel. Limit these videos to not more than 1 to 2 minutes and use it on your website or send it in emails.

What you should keep in mind when you are creating:

• Make a decision on how you want to deliver the video
• Have a plan on how you want to personalise it before you start filming
• Don’t be afraid to be creative
• Let there be a link between your message and the personalised elements
• Don’t appear like a stalker, this will perhaps freak out the viewer
• At least three points of personalisation are fine

This blog post is inspired by Vidyard’s 9 Types of Video Every Business Must Have to Succeed. Make sure to check that out - you'll find examples of videos in the blogpost too!