What Kind of Video Does Your Business Actually Need?
At some point, someone in your organisation decided you need a video.
Maybe it was the MD, who saw a competitor's brand film and felt a specific kind of professional envy. Maybe it was marketing, who have been quietly building a case for six months and have finally got budget sign-off. Maybe it was you, reading this article, which would make this a pleasingly self-referential moment.
Whoever it was, they were probably right. Video works. The data on this is consistent enough to be boring. Businesses that use video effectively generate more leads, convert more prospects, and explain complex things more efficiently than businesses that don't.
But "we need a video" is not a brief. It's a starting point. And starting points, handled badly, produce the wrong video, which is worse than no video at all, because at least no video doesn't cost £8,000 and sit on your website doing nothing.
So. What kind of video does your business actually need?
Let's find out.
First, The Question Nobody Asks
Before we get into formats, there's a question that will save you significant time and money, and it's this:
What is the one thing this video needs to make someone think, feel, or do?
Not three things. Not a list of messages the senior leadership team would like communicated. One thing.
If you can answer that question cleanly and specifically, the format will follow almost automatically. If you can't and the answer is something like "raise awareness of our brand and what we do and also showcase our culture and explain our new product line" then you're not ready to commission a video yet. You're ready to commission a strategy conversation.
With that established, here are the main types of corporate video, what they're for, and when you actually need them.
Brand Video
What it is: A cinematic overview of who your company is, what you believe, and why it matters. Usually 60 to 90 seconds. Heavy on feel, lighter on detail.
What it's for: First impressions. The homepage. The pitch deck. The moment before someone decides whether to take the meeting.
When you need it: When your business has a genuine point of view and a visual identity strong enough to carry it. When the answer to "why you?" is more interesting than "because we're experienced and client-focused."
When you don't need it: When you haven't yet figured out what makes you different. A brand video made before that work is done is just an expensive way of broadcasting your confusion in high definition.
Corporate Overview Video
What it is: A structured explanation of what your business does, who it serves, and how. Usually 90 seconds to two minutes. Informative rather than emotional.
What it's for: Website, sales decks, email outreach. Prospects who want to understand your offer before they invest time in a conversation.
When you need it: When you're regularly explaining the same thing to the same type of person and finding yourself wishing you could just send them something instead of having the call.
When you don't need it: When your business is simple enough that a well-written paragraph does the same job. Not everything needs a video. Some things just need better copy.
Client Testimonial Video
What it is: A real client, on camera, talking about what working with you was actually like. Usually 60 to 90 seconds, sometimes longer if the story warrants it.
What it's for: Trust. Social proof. The specific credibility that comes from hearing someone who has no commercial reason to be complimentary say something complimentary anyway.
When you need it: When you're in a competitive market where multiple providers can make similar claims, and the differentiator is experience rather than product. Which is most professional services businesses, most of the time.
When you don't need it: When your clients aren't willing to go on camera. A reluctant testimonial — stilted, clearly scripted, delivered by someone who would rather be literally anywhere else — does more damage than good. If they won't do it enthusiastically, don't do it.
Case Study Video
What it is: A mini-documentary structured around a client problem, your solution, and the outcome. Usually two to three minutes. Narrative-driven.
What it's for: Mid and late-stage sales conversations. Prospects who are already considering you and need to see evidence of results in a context that's relevant to their situation.
When you need it: When your work is complex enough that the results need explaining, not just stating. When "we increased their revenue by 40%" is the end of a story that the prospect needs to understand in full to appreciate what that actually means.
When you don't need it: When you don't yet have the client relationships or results that make the story worth telling. A case study video about a mediocre outcome is worse than no case study video.
Product Explainer Video
What it is: An animated or live-action walkthrough of how a product or service works. Usually 60 to 90 seconds for simple products, up to three minutes for complex ones.
What it's for: Onboarding, website product pages, sales support. Reducing the cognitive load of understanding something that's difficult to explain in text.
When you need it: When your product has a learning curve and you're losing people at the "how does it work?" stage. When your support team is answering the same questions repeatedly. When your sales team spends the first twenty minutes of every call explaining the basics.
When you don't need it: When your product is straightforward enough that a screenshot and a paragraph will do. Animation is expensive. Use it when it's genuinely the best tool for the job.
Recruitment Video
What it is: A window into your company culture, your people, and what working there is actually like. Usually 90 seconds to two minutes.
What it's for: Attracting the right candidates before the interview process begins. Reducing the number of people who get to the offer stage and then decide it's not what they expected.
When you need it: When you're growing fast and spending significant time interviewing candidates who turn out to be the wrong fit. When your employer brand is a genuine differentiator in a competitive talent market.
When you don't need it: When your culture isn't yet something you'd want to put on camera. A recruitment video that shows people enjoying ping pong in a breakout area when the reality is sixty-hour weeks and a toxic management layer is not a recruitment tool. It's a liability.
Social Video Content
What it is: Short-form video designed for LinkedIn, Instagram, or other platforms. Usually under sixty seconds. Vertical or square format. Hook in the first three seconds or it's already over.
What it's for: Visibility, thought leadership, staying in front of your network. The content that keeps your brand present in people's feeds between the moments when they actively need you.
When you need it: When you have something worth saying regularly and the discipline to say it. Social video works on consistency. One great video every six months is not a social video strategy. It's a reminder that you used to have one.
When you don't need it: When you don't have the bandwidth or the content pipeline to sustain it. Starting a social video programme and abandoning it after three posts is worse for your brand than not starting it.
Event Coverage Video
What it is: Documentary-style footage of a conference, product launch, or company event. Usually two to four minutes, sometimes with shorter social cuts.
What it's for: Extending the life of an event beyond the people who were in the room. Demonstrating scale and credibility to people who weren't there.
When you need it: When your events are genuinely impressive and you want the evidence to outlast the day itself. When your prospects are the kind of people who would be influenced by seeing the room you can fill.
When you don't need it: When the event isn't impressive enough to film. A video of forty people in a hotel conference room does not communicate scale. It communicates forty people in a hotel conference room.
So, What Kind of Video Do You Actually Need?
Here's the honest answer.
It depends on where your prospects are in their journey, what objection you're trying to overcome, and what you want them to do next.
If they don't know you exist: brand video or social content. If they know you exist but don't understand what you do: corporate overview or explainer. If they understand what you do but haven't decided to trust you: testimonial or case study. If they're close to a decision but need one more push: case study or a targeted sales video.
Map the video to the moment. Not to the format that looks most impressive in a pitch, or the one the MD saw on a competitor's website, or the one that sounds most exciting in a briefing meeting.
The right video for your business is the one that solves the specific problem your prospects have at the specific moment they have it.
Everything else is just content for content's sake.
And there is, the world will tell you, quite enough of that already.
