With the human brain processing and retaining more information visually, video has become the most effective content format you can use.Mobile internet users drive this growth further. Take YouTube videos, for instance. About 90% of its video views come from mobile devices. Meanwhile, TikTok’s mobile-first, vertical videos rack up an average of 18,000 views.
So it comes as no surprise that 89% of businesses are using video to promote their products and services. And then there’s you — wondering if and how to invest in video production.
But here’s the thing: just recording videos won’t get you far. To succeed, you need a video strategy — a game plan to guide your efforts, track performance, and improve results over time.
This guide will teach you everything— from the types of videos you can create to the right tools you’ll need.
Let’s get on with it. Feel free to jump ahead to a specific section:
- What is video marketing?
- Why video marketing matters today
- Key types of video marketing content
- How to create a successful video marketing strategy
- Video marketing best practices to keep in mind
[#TOC1]What is video marketing?[#TOC1]
Video marketing is the use of video content to promote a brand, product, or service across different online platforms. It can take many forms, from product demonstrations and explainer videos to customer testimonials and behind-the-scenes footage. The goal is to connect with your audience in a way that is engaging, informative, and easy to understand.
Unlike traditional marketing formats, video allows businesses to showcase their message visually, making it easier to capture attention and drive engagement. Whether it's a short-form video on social media or a detailed product tutorial on a website, video content helps brands communicate more effectively while keeping their audience interested.
[#TOC2]Why video marketing matters today[#TOC2]
Well-made videos hold attention far better than text alone can. They showcase your authenticity and strengthen brand recall — turning engagement into conversions over time.
Research proves it too:
People love video (and nope, it’s not a fading trend)
In the first quarter of 2024 alone, around 92% of internet users watched online video every month. Social video platforms in the US also saw users engage more with videos, at an average of 52 minutes daily.
And when Wyzowl asked businesses about the importance of video in their marketing campaigns, 95% said it’s an important part of their strategy. 93% also agreed video marketing delivers a good ROI.
Videos impact consumer behavior too
90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual, making video-based content not only easier to digest but also easier to retain than text-based formats.
No wonder, 90% of marketers confirm video has helped them increase brand awareness.
Videos featuring you or your team members also show your brand’s human side, building credibility and trust.
As for sales? Videos influence purchase decisions too with 78% saying they prefer short videos to learn about a product or service. This pretty much explains why 84% of marketers report video directly increases their sales.
Video enhances marketing effectiveness
33% of respondents in a HubSpot survey confirm video generates more leads than any other type of marketing content. 29% also say it boosts SEO rankings, and another 29% report videos get more engagement than other content types.
In a separate survey, 84% of marketers also agreed video has helped them increase web traffic and the time visitors spend on their websites.
Video content is also prevailing on social media platforms. After being the fastest-growing format on Instagram in 2022, it’s now having its moment on LinkedIn, with the platform revealing that video uploads are up 34% year on year.
[#TOC3]Key types of video marketing content[#TOC3]
Brand video
Brand videos showcase a company’s mission, values, and identity — in short, your human side — allowing you to emotionally connect with your audience and build trust.
OLIPOP’s messaging in this short video, for example, aims to show what their brand stands for (turning nostalgic soda flavors into gut-friendly drinks):
Brand videos can come in various shapes and sizes: behind-the-scenes content, story-led films, company culture videos, and so on.
Explainer videos
Explainer videos make complex ideas and concepts easy to understand, making them a useful asset for marketing B2B, SaaS products, and technical services. In fact, explainer videos were the most popular video marketing use case in 2024. Here’s one example:
Product demos and tutorials
Unlike explainer videos that describe what a product does, demo videos and tutorials show how it works.
For example, our ‘How to Make a Video Online: VEED for Beginners’ and ‘VEED University: How to Edit Videos with VEED’ playlists provide step-by-step guidance on creating and editing videos using our tool:
Product videos aren’t just for a B2B video marketing strategy though — B2C companies can also use them to educate customers about their products, as Jones Road Beauty does in this reel.
Testimonial videos and case studies
Customer testimonials and video case studies share social proof to boost credibility, helping brands build trust with potential buyers.
These videos can be straightforward case studies showing before-and-after results, but there are no strict format rules. You can also create narrative-driven videos highlighting customer challenges and how your product solved their problem, on-camera interviews, influencer testimonials, or animated testimonials.
Here’s an example from Dropbox’s customer stories series:
Live videos and webinars
Live videos and webinars allow brands to engage with their audience in real time to establish authenticity.
You can always host one-off webinars or run regular live shows to build an engaged audience like Sequel does with their CMO Series:
To ensure webinar success, select topics that resonate with your audience, make sessions interactive, and promote the event online to drive attendance.
Short-form social media videos
Thanks to growing mobile video consumption, social media videos are the most widely used video format among marketers — and one that delivers the highest ROI compared to long-form and live videos.
With so many possibilities, you can experiment with different types of videos: educational, fun/snappy, relatable content, vlogs, update videos, behind-the-scenes, and so on.
Dig deeper: 7 Social Media Video Examples to Fuel Your Creativity
Educational and training videos
Finally, there are educational, how-to videos — focused more on value-sharing than selling — that brands can leverage to establish trust and authority.
These videos can feature interviews with subject matter experts (SMEs) or tap into founder insights to share actionable thought leadership content with viewers.
[#TOC4]How to create a successful video marketing strategy[#TOC4]
A defined video strategy highlights who to create videos for and how to reach them. This is essential for creating content that drives results. Follow these six steps to nail strategy planning:
Step 1: Define your goals and performance metrics
Start by selecting video marketing goals most relevant to your marketing objectives. Is it to increase brand awareness? Engagement? Sales? Something else?
From there, identify specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to evaluate performance. For instance, track.
- Views, impressions, brand mentions, and shares to measure brand awareness
- Likes, comments, shares, and average watch time to measure audience engagement
- Click-through rate and leads generated to measure revenue/sales growth
With goals and KPIs set, narrow down the types of videos you’ll create. Remember, different video formats help achieve different goals.
For example, behind-the-scenes videos and live sessions drive customer engagement. Similarly, explainer videos and product tutorials increase conversions.
Here’s a cheat sheet for three most common broad marketing goals. Use it to flesh out your goals, KPIs, and video types:
Step 2: Understand your target viewer
Next, drill into your audience demographics, interests, and behavior. This is key to creating tailored content that resonates and builds trust.
Take these steps to understand your target viewer — even sketch a viewer persona:
- Analyze existing customer data. Review data from your Google Analytics, social media insights, and CRM tool to understand target viewers’ demographics (gender, age, location) and behavior (pages visited, most read topics, etc.).
- Conduct surveys and polls. Ask your existing audience — social media followers, email subscribers, or community members — about their challenges and interests.
- Study competitor content. Go through your competitors’ video content for insights on what topics resonate with your intended viewers and where there’s a gap in the content competitors are creating.
- Audit and engage in community conversations. Go through social media and community comments to identify potential topics and interests. You can also actively participate in these discussions, asking open-ended questions, to understand your audience in depth.
Step 3: Choose the right platforms
Selecting the right video marketing channels depends on four main factors:
- Your target audience. Identify platforms your intended viewers use the most. Say, if you want to reach Gen Z, TikTok would be an ideal choice since Gen Zers make up 60% of its user base.
- Your strengths or interests. Zero in on the video types and channels that interest you the most as your curiosity to learn will keep you going — creating, iterating, and understanding which videos resonate the most with your audience
- Budget and resources. Evaluate your time and budget to decide which video types and platforms you can invest in. Ask yourself: do you have the resources to prioritize long-form videos, or would recording on-the-go videos be a better starting point?
- Platform pros and cons. Consider the benefits and shortcomings of each video marketing platform. YouTube gets you wide reach, for example, but production costs are high. TikTok, on the other hand, simplifies video creation but fast-changing trends require frequent posting. Here’s a breakdown:
Aiming to share video content across multiple platforms? Repurpose your videos: cross-post short videos from TikTok to Instagram and vice versa, resize videos using a tool like VEED, or break long videos into bite-sized YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels.
Dig deeper: Use Clips by VEED to Automatically Turn Your Long Videos into Short Clips.
Step 4: Craft compelling messaging
Your video marketing’s success highly depends on how well you nail storytelling.
Storytelling humanizes your brand, showcasing its authentic side and building emotional connections with viewers.
You’ll master video storytelling with time though. For a head start, work on the following elements to strengthen your messaging:
- Start with an attention-grabbing opening. This could be an intriguing question, a bold statement, or a surprising fact.
- Focus on a relatable problem. Address concerns that resonate with your viewer — topics relevant to their challenges, interests, or desires.
- Offer value or insights. Include a quick lesson, action step, or inspiring message in your videos — like a humorous take on a common struggle.
- Show personality or brand voice. Use your unique tone, style, and/or visuals to show your brand’s human side.
- End with an encouraging prompt. Close videos with a strong call-to-action (CTA), whether it's prompting viewers to follow you, subscribe to your channel, or check out your products.
One more thing to keep in mind: balance educational, entertaining, and promotional content. The 80/20 rule works as a solid guide here. For every five videos, create four focused on trust-building and one video that encourages conversions.
Step 5: Allocate budget and resources
Decide between creating videos in-house or outsourcing them.
If you’re planning a one-off video marketing campaign, using specialized help can be more cost-effective since you wouldn’t need to invest in video creation and editing tools.
If you’re looking to go all in into video marketing though, learning video creation and getting production equipment would be more economical. In-house video production also gives you more creative control, helping maintain brand consistency.
The best part? You can get reliable video equipment on any budget. At a minimum, you’ll need:
- Camera. Your phone’s camera will do if you’re on a tight budget. Alternatively, invest in a webcam like Logitech C920 for live streaming or a DSLR camera such as Canon G7 X Mark II for recording high-quality professional videos.
- Video editing software. A robust, intuitive tool makes it easy to record, trim, edit (add transitions, music, thumbnails, subtitles, etc.), and resize videos. VEED is one example of such a tool, but here’s a complete list of the best video editing software on the market.
- Video hosting tool. If you plan to host videos on your website, you’ll need an online video platform to upload, embed, and track their performance. Refer to this rundown of 11 free and paid video hosting tools to find the best solution for your needs.
Step 6: Measure success with key metrics
Once your video content strategy is in motion, regularly revisit the KPIs you planned to track in step one.
Review performance and note areas for improvement. Studying your video analytics will also show you which types of videos resonate most with your audience, so you can focus on creating more of them.
[#TOC5]Video marketing best practices to keep in mind[#TOC5]
Structure your video effectively
Plan your content in three key sections: the hook, body, and call-to-action (CTA). Start with an attention-holding hook within the first three seconds, deliver value concisely, and end with a CTA that encourages people to take action (e.g., follow your content).
Edit your videos for maximum impact
When editing videos, ask yourself: is this scene adding to the story, or can we do without it? This ensures you’re creating fluff-free, engaging videos. Also, enhance storytelling by adding complementary music, graphics, and animations.
Maintain brand consistency
Use your brand colors, fonts, and illustrations to follow a uniform style across your videos. A video marketing tool that lets you save and use a brand kit can help you be more consistent — especially when working with a marketing team.
Use AI and automation tools
Tools like VEED, Canva, and Descript simplify video creation. For example, using their AI capabilities, you can automatically add subtitles to your videos, making them more accessible without having to manually transcribe scripts.
46% of marketers also use AI to create short-form videos. All you need to do is prepare a script or use a published blog post (even a slide deck) and convert the text into a video.
Dig deeper: 19 Best AI Tools in 2025 (The Only List You’ll Need)
Optimize your videos for search (SEO)
Use tools like Google Trends and YouTube’s autocomplete feature to find relevant keywords to add to your video script, title, and description. Be sure to include the main keyword early in your video’s opening to help search engines understand your content and improve discoverability.
Targeting a multilingual audience? Auto-translate your videos to boost rankings further.
Dig deeper: Best Video Translation Software to Try in 2025
A/B test for video optimization
Experiment with different video formats and styles. If one starts working well, double down on it, but continue dedicating a slice of your resources to trying other formats on a small scale. And remember to test small tweaks — such as different CTAs, video length, thumbnails, and hooks — to understand what performs better.
Let’s get you started with video marketing today
With video’s rapid growth, strong ROI potential, and your audience’s love for the format, there’s no better time to push past your hesitations and use video marketing.
Two things to keep in mind as you begin: start small and don’t aim for perfection.
Commit to planning a video content marketing strategy, executing and testing it, then refining it. Such a learning-by-doing approach brings far more success than a lofty plan for a viral video.
The good news: getting started is now easier than ever before — thanks to user-friendly video editing tools that help you create high-quality content.
Hard to believe? Try VEED for free to see how it makes video creation simple for you.