Last month, we listed 22 ways that your business can start using video. This included things like customer testimonial videos, product demonstrations, and recruitment videos.

The benefits of video are numerous, both offline and on the web. It can help to increase viewer engagement and to improve retention while helping with lead generation and conversions. But it doesn’t stop there.

Here are 11 more ways that your business can start using video today.

11 More Ways to Use Video for Your Business

1. Holiday E-Card Videos

The goal when sending out a Holiday e-card should be to engage, to entertain, and to generally enhance the recipient’s day. Those boring holiday emails do none of these things. So why not produce a video instead?

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. A fun, amateur production might go a long way with your customers and colleagues. But if your mailing list is large enough and you do have the budget, working with a professional agency couldn’t hurt.

Animated videos are a very effective way to capture the spirit and imagery of a particular holiday, but even an on-camera greeting from your staff can work. Better yet, why not tell a story?

2. Keyword Targeted Videos

As with a landing page video or as part of a content marketing strategy, you might consider using video to help your website rank higher in search engines for a given search term.

This takes search engine optimization to the next level. By also including a targeted video, your webpage may rank higher for a given search term. In fact, video can rank even higher in organic search results than the text-only content of a similar nature – reportedly, 50 times more likely to rank on the first page of Google.

A side benefit is that your page may better stand-out within the search results, even if it’s lower down on the first page since a large, colourful thumbnail of your video will also be included. Remember though, the video should be related to the webpage contents and keywords for it to convert effectively.

3. Brand Launch Videos

Picture this: Your company has just spent large amounts of time and money re-developing its brand. Now, how are you going to best communicate this to all of your employees in a consistent and exciting way?

Tell the story of your re-brand in a video, including how the team arrived at the look and the message the new brand carries, and how you plan on rolling it out. Key executives could be interviewed or featured on-camera reading from a teleprompter. The new brand can be brought to life using motion graphics or perhaps live-action footage (ie. for a retail environment).

The resulting video can be posted online and sent to all of your employees and is sure to engage and get them energized for the new direction ahead.

4. Video Press Releases

A standard press release can be supplemented with video to help tell a much more engaging story. This video should be purpose-made to directly support a specific announcement, but it could definitely incorporate any existing ‘b-roll’ footage that you may already have ‘in the can’.

5. Website FAQ Videos

The Frequently Asked Questions page on your website may be informative, but it could definitely be made more engaging by using video.

Your staff could be filmed answering questions on-camera. This will not only keep your costs down but provides the added benefit of transparency and authenticity that a paid spokesperson couldn’t provide (ie. one of the very customer service reps featured that customers may eventually be speaking to).

6. Employee Profile Videos

People buy from people, and potential customers want to know who they’ll be working with!

Staff bios are great but staff video introductions are even better. This could be as simple as a single take of a new employee introducing themselves to-camera, perhaps discussing what excites them about your industry, and showing a bit of personality with a personal anecdote.

7. Sales Pitch Videos

For those who sell business-to-business, have you ever wished you could get in front of a client to present a proposal and perhaps bring your team with you, but just don’t have the opportunity due to time or geography? Film your pitch!

We’ve used this technique ourselves, filming our creative director, account manager and one of our producers discussing the unique approach and creative treatment that we had developed for a client. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it gave the client a chance to ‘meet the team’ and allowed us to explain the idea much better and to show our passion for it. And we won it!

8. Employee Appreciation Videos

Once a year, many of our clients will have us produce some form of employee engagement or appreciation video. This can mean different things to different companies, depending on their industry and culture. This could feature employees talking about some of the things that make their job great, perhaps providing examples of some of the ways they’ve been able to help customers. You could even highlight any special HR programs that are in place.

The feedback has always been great and our clients’ employees clearly love, not only watching the videos but, being involved in their creation.

9. AGM or Annual Review Videos

Similar to an employee engagement video, many progressive HR teams are having AGM or annual review videos produced. These will typically feature members of the executive team reviewing the company’s performance in key strategic areas over the past year, highlighting many of its accomplishments, and perhaps discussing areas for improvement.

While engaging and showing appreciation for your company’s shareholders (if applicable), the goal should be to not only inform about the past year but to inspire all stakeholders about the year ahead.

10. Screen Capture Videos

Most software companies are already doing these internally as screen capture software has become very cost effective and easy to use. A professional video production company can help with then recording a voice-over and in adding some standardized motion graphics to the beginning and end of the video for a little polish.

11. Public Service Announcements

When something important is happening in your industry that the public should be aware of, video may be the most effective way to communicate and to engage the widest audience possible.

Animated ‘explainer videos’ are a great way to explain a complicated concept (eg. changes to industry regulations), and video can provide an important emotional component to message (eg. discussing environmental impact).

We hope these examples may have sparked some ideas for you. Be sure to read the other 22 ways that your business can use video as well. To learn more about how we can help your business communicate using video, contact us for a consultation today.