The 9 Most Effective Types of Video

The most effective types of video are the ones that match the job you are hiring the video to do, and every video does one of two jobs: it entertains, or it educates. Get that backward and the most beautiful production money can buy still misses. Get it right and a phone-shot clip outperforms a film crew. The format is the last decision, not the first. Below are the nine types we keep coming back to, ranked from the one that earns the least trust to the one that earns the most.

Why bother with video at all? Because it is where people now choose to learn about you. Sixty-three percent of people say that when they want to understand a product or service, the thing they would most like to do is watch a short video, ahead of articles, manuals, and sales calls combined. The audience already voted. The only open question is which video you put in front of them.

Read the one that fits your problem, or read all nine in order.

When is a highlight video worth making?

When something happened that only happens once or twice a year, and you want people to feel they missed out if they were not there.

This is number nine. A highlight video is your event, conference, or festival cut to fast, upbeat music with a flashy look. There is almost no story in it, and that is fine, because story is not its job. Its job is to show off the thing your brand did, and to make next year’s version feel unmissable. It earns the least lasting trust of the nine because it is mostly atmosphere. But for the right one-time moment, atmosphere is exactly the point.

Why would I cut a teaser when I already have the full video?

Because the long piece is the destination, and the teaser is the thing that gets people to drive there.

Number eight. A teaser is usually pulled from a longer piece of content you already made, and it is short on purpose. It is not trying to satisfy the viewer. It is trying to leave them wanting the full version badly enough to go watch it. The mistake here is making the teaser too complete. A teaser that answers the question kills the click. Leave the answer in the long form, where it does its real work.

What does a product review video do for a brand that does not sell the product?

It builds authority by being genuinely useful about something other than yourself.

This is number seven, and it is the one people misread most. A product review video is not a video about a product you sell. It is a video for the people in your industry, reviewing a tool you actually use, such as a social media management platform your team runs every day. You are not selling the platform. You are showing prospects that you know the world they work in, and you are catching the people already searching for that tool. Be useful about someone else’s product and you become the trusted source for your own.

We are new and nobody understands what we do. What kind of video fixes that?

An explainer video, told in your own words.

Number six is built for startups and new businesses carrying the heaviest burden in marketing: nobody yet knows what you do. An explainer puts it plainly, in your language, and ties it to the difference you are trying to make. The trap is explaining the mechanics of the product when you should be explaining the change it creates. Tell people what you are doing to make their world better, then show them how it works. Lead with the why, follow with the what.

What kind of video actually gets found in search?

A tutorial, because a tutorial answers a question people are already typing.

This is number five, and it is the most direct line from video to discovery. A how-to video educates the viewer on a specific thing, and the specific thing should be whatever your prospect is already searching for. So start there. What is your prospect typing into a search bar at the moment they need you? Make the video that answers it. The best tutorial is the answer to a question your customer already has, which is why it keeps earning views long after you publish it.

How does a vlog help a serious business, not just an influencer?

By making your business a place people want to keep coming back to, because they like the people in it.

Number four. A vlog documents what you actually do, in your daily life or your business life, and over time it builds a following of people genuinely interested in your brand. It works because it shows personality, the people behind the work, the texture of the place. This is also the type most businesses talk themselves out of, because it feels indulgent. It is not. People follow people, not companies, and a vlog is how a company lets its people be seen. Used well, it turns a brand into a face worth following.

Why are interview videos worth the trouble of booking a guest?

Because you borrow the guest’s authority and their audience at the same time.

This is number three. When you interview an expert or an authority in your industry, two things happen. You create a real resource for your potential customers, the kind of thing they save and share. And you grow your own audience by association, because the person you interviewed brings theirs. An interview lends you credibility you have not had to build alone, and it does it while making something your market actually wants. Few formats give back this much for the effort.

What is the single most powerful video a brand can make about itself?

A brand story video, because it gives people a reason to care before you ever ask them to buy.

Number two, and the highest-earning video you make in your own voice. A brand story gives your audience the big-picture context for why you exist. It carries your mission and your values. It brings in customers and the people invested in you to help tell it, and above all it runs on emotion and purpose rather than features and specs. This matters because people decide on feeling first and reason second, so the video that reaches the feeling reaches the decision. A feature list tells people what you sell. A brand story tells them why it is worth caring about. That is the difference between a video people watch and a video people remember.

Why does a customer’s video beat anything we could say about ourselves?

Because a stranger believes another customer long before they believe you.

This is number one, and it is not close. A testimonial is a third-party video about your business, and it outperforms everything above it for one plain reason: people believe a customer over a company. When you praise yourself, the audience discounts it automatically. When a customer does it, the same words land as evidence. There is a name for the mechanism. Robert Cialdini called it social proof: when people are unsure, they look to others like them to decide what is correct, and the more people they see doing a thing, the more correct it feels. A testimonial is social proof on film.

When we are unsure, we look to similar others to provide us with the correct actions to take.

Robert Cialdini

So the most persuasive thing on this list is the thing you have the least control over, which is exactly why it works. Earn the testimonials, then let them carry the weight you cannot carry yourself.

So which of the nine should you actually make?

Go back to the two jobs. Are you trying to entertain, or to educate? Then ask what you need to happen next. If nobody understands you, that is an explainer. If you need to be found, that is a tutorial. If you need to be believed, that is a testimonial. If you need people to care, that is a brand story.

You do not need all nine, and trying to make all nine at once is how good video budgets die. Pick the one that matches the job in front of you, make it well, and let it do its work before you reach for the next. The ranking tells you where the trust lives. The job you are hiring the video to do tells you which one to make.

For a different cut at the same question, sorted by the marketing goal each format serves rather than by trust earned, read our 7 types of video marketing. And to make any of these videos land harder, read our copywriting secrets.

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