If you haven’t introduced video content marketing into your strategy yet, you’re missing out.

Adding this kind of content into your online presence can help to entertain your audience, push your products without seeming salesy and bring new people onto your website, too. It’s something that’s certainly worth looking into as a content creator online, especially if you’re looking to hone an affiliate marketing strategy. 

Moreover, video content is being heavily favoured by social media algorithms at the moment. If you’re looking to connect with social media audiences and get your brand name out there, video is one of the best ways to do this.

However, this can be easier said than done. If you’ve never created video content for your brand before, it can be quite overwhelming to add it in and know where to start when you’re looking to build your own style. That’s where we come in. 

To help you out with creating meaningful, exciting video content, we’ve handpicked 7 of the best formats for you to experiment with in your content marketing strategy. We’ll be looking at how key industries and content creators use these formats, and going over exactly how they can be used to your advantage online.

Content

• Product reviews and explanations
• Interviews
• Story times
• Daily video content
• Skits and comedy videos
• Mini documentaries
• Ephemeral videos
• Work with RevGlue to make an impact online

Product reviews and explanations

To start off with, simply creating reviews or tutorials is a great way to liven up your content marketing strategy with videos. Social video marketing campaigns thrive with personable, relatable content, and there’s no better way than this to show your audience what your product is like in the flesh. 

Additionally, it can be truly valuable to audience members to see how a product should be used. It may seem blindingly obvious to you how to use your product perfectly, but this may not be the case for a customer. This is especially true if you’re promoting something that’s more on the technical side of things, or if it has a learning curve. 

A great example of an online niche that does this effectively is the makeup and beauty community, specifically on YouTube and Instagram. Even if you don’t sell anything remotely like this, there’s a lot to learn from these creators.

Makeup gurus and beauty YouTubers showcase a range of products being used in a creative format. Makeup tutorials are one of the simplest ways to get fans talking about a new lipstick, for example, and they’re incredibly social media friendly/shareable, too. Moreover, this type of content creator has a fantastically personable tone which is worth emulating.

Interviews

If your aim is to demonstrate thought leadership and present your online brand as being knowledgeable, interview content is certainly the way forward. Sitting down and talking with key players in your sector - whether it’s about your product or something else entirely - can be both educational and entertaining for customers. 

An industry that provides a great example of effective interview content is the movie industry. For blockbusters and huge productions, most film companies will arrange for their actors to sit down with a journalist and do a fun, engaging interview. 

This style of content helps to drum up a lot of hype around the movie, and get people looking for tickets online. It’s personal and interesting, yet still drives home the key product - the movie. If you wanted to create interview content, you could interview team members or peers about the latest developments in your industry. 

Story times

This type of content shot up in popularity in recent years on YouTube, and can now be found on almost every social media platform. To put it simply, people love a good story- and it can be an effective way of getting a message across.

The most important thing to remember with story time content is that it has to be personable, and it has to be relatable. Story time content involves a creator sitting down to tell a story in the first person, chatting directly to the camera as if they’re speaking to a friend. Usually, these stories are shocking, funny or cautionary in nature. 

There are numerous sectors who do this kind of content well, and it’s worth exploring YouTube for key examples. Every kind of content creator, from true crime writers to DIY vloggers, seems to end up doing a story time video. This style can even be found on platforms like IGTV now, or in text formats on Twitter, too.

Daily video content

One of the most important things to remember about using video content for marketing is that it’s one of the most relatable forms of content. It’s inherently much easier for people to see themselves in a video, rather than trying to relate to a blog post or email.

This is why content like daily routines and vlogs are so brilliant for deepening relationships with audience members. Showing people a snippet of your life helps to draw them in and personify your brand, letting them get to know the person behind the screen. Moreover, it can be a great way to show off a product or key service in a natural, easygoing manner.

An example of an industry that achieves this well is the health and wellbeing industry. There are lots of content creators here who offer fab social video marketing examples that show off their daily skincare routines or self care routines in a vlog format. Here, they can talk about what they’re passionate about, show off items and allow people to see a more personal POV.

Skits and comedy videos

If you’re looking to really show off your personality and sense of humour, creating skits could be a great way forward. Humorous content can be difficult to land sometimes, especially as a business, but when it’s done right it can be immense. 

One important thing to note here is that if you’re referencing current memes or pop culture trends, you need to post your work quickly. Memes can go out of date within a few days or less, and posting an old meme can be harmful to your online presence. People will instinctively perceive your brand as being out of touch, so make sure you’re on the money with it.

Social media influencers on platforms like TikTok and Instagram are particularly good at this type of content. They’re in touch with the platforms themselves, and have a great understanding of what’s a hot topic at the moment. Another example, albeit slightly dated now, is the platform Vine- product placements on Vine videos were always fun and lighthearted. 

Mini documentaries

If you’re looking for a way to promote a key service or hero product, a mini documentary could be the way forward. This style of content can take a lot more planning and investment up front, but it can be an amazing way to engage with your audience and show them how much you care about what you’re promoting to them.

A fun example of this style of content is the ‘how it’s made’ format. Taking people behind the scenes and showing them step by step how your product is designed and made can be a wonderful way of demonstrating the quality and precision that your products are made with.

If you’re considering this type of content, try looking at it from your customer’s perspective to help yourself plan it more effectively. What do you think they’d like to know about your business? What questions might they have about how it’s made? Understanding what they’d like to know will help you to create the best videos possible. 

Ephemeral videos

Finally, we couldn’t miss ephemeral content from this list.If you’ve not heard of this before, the term ephemeral content simply refers to temporary content with a short lifespan. A good example of this is Instagram stories, or Snapchat messages. Using video to sell is one thing, but using video to connect with your audience like this is a whole other game. 

Creating ephemeral content for your online brand is an exceptional way to drum up hype around your products and services. Using story formats to show people behind the scenes and personal, realistic content about what goes into your products can deepen your relationship with your customer immensely. 

If you’ve not tried ephemeral video content before, an Instagram story question and answer session is a good place to start. Put up a question box for people to ask you things in, then answer them in simple, friendly short videos. Keep them in a highlight so that people can refer back to them when they’d like to rewatch. 

Work with RevGlue to make an impact online 

Generally speaking, if you haven’t introduced video content into your marketing strategy yet, now is the perfect time to do so. Video content is ideal for hooking the attention of viewers with limited time, and it’s heavily favoured by social media algorithms right now, too. Why not set aside time this week to plan your first video? It could make a lot of difference to your work.

If you’re looking for more content like this, make sure to check out our full website today. RevGlue is proud to help affiliate marketers and content strategy teams in every sector make their mark with smart, impactful affiliate marketing content and tools.