March Madness of Video Types for Business: The Ultimate Video Content Showdown
Written By: Joe Tjosvold
Published: 3/3/2025
In the fast-paced world of marketing, video has become an indispensable tool for small businesses aiming to engage with their audience, increase brand awareness, and boost sales. But with so many video types to choose from, how do you determine which ones will provide the most value for your business?
In this blog, we’re doing a March Madness-style bracket of 16 popular video types, assessing their effectiveness based on popularity and practical value for small businesses. While effectiveness can vary depending on company size, industry, and budget, we’re ranking these video types according to their overall impact.
The Sweet Sixteen - West Region
(1) Brand Storytelling Video vs (8) Webinar
Brand storytelling is a powerful way to connect emotionally with your audience. These videos highlight your company’s journey, mission, and values, often focusing on your “why.” They are perfect for building a narrative that resonates with customers, strengthening their connection to your brand and creating long-term loyalty. Brand storytelling is one of the most effective tools in creating a memorable and lasting impact.
Webinars provide in-depth knowledge and education on a given topic, often positioning your business as an expert in your industry. They work particularly well for B2B companies, service-based businesses, or industries where complex products and services need explanation.
Result: (1) Brand Storytelling Video
Brand storytelling videos create an emotional connection by showcasing your brand’s journey and values. Webinars are effective for providing in-depth information, but they lack the emotional impact of brand storytelling.
(2) Company Culture Video vs (7) Animated Video
Company culture videos are excellent for building trust and connecting with both customers and employees. By showcasing your team, values, and work environment, you humanize your brand and strengthen relationships with clients. This type of video is crucial for attracting talent and building long-term loyalty.
Animated videos are perfect for businesses looking to simplify complex topics or add a creative flair to their messaging. They can be used to explain concepts, tell stories, or even just entertain. Animation can make even the most technical subjects more engaging and can help differentiate your brand in a crowded marketplace.
Result: (7) Animated Video
Upset Alert! While company culture videos humanize your brand, making it relatable and trustworthy. I picked Animated videos because of the impact on explaining complex messages in a really engaging way.
(3) Social Media Content vs (6) Year-in-Review Video
Social Media Content is short, engaging videos designed specifically for social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok can drive high engagement and shareability. With the rise of platforms prioritizing video, social media content is a key component in any marketing strategy.
Year-in-review videos recap the accomplishments, milestones, and highlights of the past year. They’re a fantastic way to showcase your business’s growth, thank customers, and set the stage for the future. These videos are especially popular for end-of-year campaigns.
Result: (3) Social Media Content
Social media content is engaging and highly shareable, making it ideal for platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook. Year-in-review videos are reflective, but they don’t have the same level of immediate impact or engagement which is why I selected Social Media Content.
(4) Employee Onboarding Video vs (5) Employee Spotlight Video
While not always customer-facing, onboarding videos streamline internal processes, helping new hires get up to speed quickly. For businesses scaling up, these videos are efficient and cost-effective, ensuring that all team members understand company processes and values.
Employee spotlight videos are an excellent way to put a face to your business and highlight the talents, values, and personalities of your team. These videos foster a sense of community and can build deeper connections with customers.
Result: (5) Employee Spotlight Video
Employee spotlight videos provide an excellent way to showcase your team and connect with customers. Onboarding videos, while essential internally, don’t carry the same customer-facing value.
The Sweet Sixteen - East Region
(1) Video Ads vs (8) Product Demo Video
Video ads are one of the most widely used video types for small businesses, especially when launching a product, service, or campaign. A well-crafted ad can engage viewers, communicate a clear message, and encourage action. These ads typically aim for high conversion rates, making them a great tool for lead generation and sales.
Product demo videos are essential for showing potential customers how your product works in real-time. These videos help overcome objections, clarify any uncertainties, and provide a hands-on view of your offerings. They are especially effective for e-commerce businesses or companies launching new products.
Result: (1) Video Ads
Video ads are highly effective for grabbing attention and driving conversions quickly. Product demos are great for showing how something works, but video ads have a broader reach and more immediate impact.
(2) Customer Testimonial Video vs (7) Day in the Life Video
Customer testimonials offer social proof, one of the most trusted forms of marketing. By featuring happy clients sharing their experiences, you validate your product or service’s effectiveness. These videos are highly persuasive and are essential for businesses looking to build credibility and trust with new customers.
Day in the Life videos give potential clients and customers a glimpse behind the curtain of your business. They help humanize the brand and make it more relatable. This video type can be particularly effective for businesses offering services where personal interaction plays a major role in customer satisfaction.
Result: (2) Customer Testimonial Video
Customer testimonial videos build trust and authenticity, making them more persuasive in converting leads. Day-in-the-life videos humanize your brand but don’t offer the same level of credibility.
(3) Explainer Video vs (6) Event Highlight Video
Explainer videos break down complex products or services into easily digestible, engaging content. They are crucial for industries that offer products or services requiring some explanation, such as software companies, educational institutions, or healthcare providers. A well-crafted explainer video can significantly improve customer understanding and drive conversions.
Event highlight videos are a great way to capture the energy and excitement of live events, conferences, or trade shows. They showcase the event’s key moments, build anticipation for future events, and increase engagement with your audience. These videos are often shared on social media to increase visibility and promote your brand’s involvement in important industry gatherings.
Result: (6) Event Highlight Video
Upset Alert! While an explainer video simplify complex concepts, which is great for educating your audience, an event highlight video is such an entertaining video to showcase your company culture in a fun way.
(4) FAQ Videos vs (5) Educational/How-To Videos
FAQ videos help address common customer questions in a straightforward, engaging manner. They can be used to reduce friction in the sales process and improve customer satisfaction by providing clear answers to potential concerns. These videos are great for boosting SEO and providing helpful content that customers are actively searching for.
Educational or How-To videos are incredibly valuable because they provide direct value to the viewer by teaching them something useful. These videos can cover anything from tutorials on using a product to industry-specific insights, making them perfect for businesses that want to showcase their expertise and help their audience solve problems.
Result: (4) FAQ Videos
I picked FAQ here because I think its more of a versatile video for most businesses versus Educational videos with not every industry needing them.
The Elite Eight
(1) Brand Storytelling Video vs. (5) Employee Spotlight Videos
Employee spotlight videos are great for connecting with your audience on a personal level, but brand storytelling videos create a deeper, more meaningful emotional connection.
Result: (1) Brand Storytelling Video
(3) Social Media Content vs. (7) Animated Video
A lot of times Social Media Content falls flat because your playing the long game. Whereas animated videos can really drive excitement with your brand especially when you’re in an industry like software where it can be difficult to show how cool the work your doing is on a camera. The Animated Video continued its Cinderella run past the Elite Eight and into the Final Four!
Result: (7) Animated Video
(1) Video Ads vs. (4) FAQ Video
Video ads are perfect for driving conversions and increasing brand awareness quickly, while FAQ videos are valuable for providing direct information. However, video ads are far more effective for immediate impact and broader reach.
Result: (1) Video Ads
(2) Customer Testimonial Videos vs. (6) Event Highlight Videos
Event Highlight videos are highly creative and engaging, but customer testimonial videos carry more weight in terms of trust and authenticity. Hearing real customers share their experiences provides social proof that is hard to beat in terms of effectiveness for business growth.
Result: (2) Customer Testimonial Videos
Final Four
(1) Brand Storytelling Video vs (7) Animated Videos
Animated videos are creative, but brand storytelling videos create a stronger emotional connection that helps build long-term customer loyalty. It was fun while it lasted, but the 7th seed Animated Video gets bumped from the tournament.
Result: (1) Brand Storytelling Video
(1) Video Ads vs. (2) Customer Testimonial Videos
Video ads drive quick conversions, but customer testimonial videos build deeper, long-term trust. Testimonials are key for building credibility and fostering loyalty. And the tournament favorite gets eliminated.
Result: (2) Customer Testimonial Videos
Championship
(1) Brand Storytelling Video vs. (2) Customer Testimonial Videos
While brand storytelling videos create an emotional narrative, customer testimonial videos offer social proof and are more persuasive when it comes to establishing trust. The authenticity of customer testimonials wins the championship due to their power in building credibility and trust with the audience.
Result: (2) Customer Testimonial Videos
Final Thoughts
Choosing the right video type for your business depends on your goals, audience, and industry. While some videos are better suited for direct conversions (like scripted video ads or product demos), others (like brand storytelling and company culture videos) work to build long-term relationships and customer loyalty.
Ultimately, small businesses need a mix of video types to engage with their audience at every stage of the buyer’s journey. And as luck would have it, at Chezy we produce up to 12 different videos with our Classic Chezy Plan so you can get all of these video styles!
Ready to see which video type will make the biggest impact for your business? Let’s create it together. Contact Chezy today.
Looking for more? Visit our blog page for video marketing insights, travel stories, and featured videos.
Don’t forget to share this post!