The 4 Types of Video to Make as a Founder
As a Founder, you’ll understand that “build and they will come” in reality sounds much more like “research, build, spend every hour of your waking life thinking about it, tell everyone about it until you’re blue in the face, and, eventually, they will come.”
It’s hard work, but you are building a successful business out of it, so there’s that.
The thing is, if you actually wanna “tell everyone about it,” you need to be visible, online. And that means using video, not just text on a screen.
But while you’re a believer in doing what needs to be done, video is a minefield you tend to avoid.
Even having a background in marketing and video production, it took me a long time to figure out what works when it comes to Founder video marketing, and what is just noise.
So to start to unpick it, I’ve identified the only four videos you actually need to make as a Founder, as well as the two you might think you have to do but could end up just wasting your time, and that’s the last thing you want.
So without further ado, here are the 4 Types of Video to Make as a Founder.
The 4 Videos
Business Video – These are videos that help people understand your business
Expertise Videos – These are videos that demonstrate what you know and how you think
Sales Videos – These are videos that lead people towards a specific action
Video Updates – These are videos that bring your audience along the journey
Understanding these different videos and their purposes can help you build an audience that just doesn’t vaguely know of you, but understands what you do, values your thinking and knows how to work with or buy from you.
Notice this isn’t about short-form vs long-form, Reels vs TikTok, website vs YouTube, it’s about what you’re asking that video to do.
So while a business video would naturally lend itself to placement on your website, and an Expertise video on your LinkedIn feed, in theory, any of these videos could work anywhere.
1. Business Videos
Business videos help people understand the business, product or service behind the person they’re following.
They matter because building an audience and building understanding of your business aren’t necessarily the same thing. Someone might follow you because they enjoy your ideas without having a particularly clear undestanding of what you actually sell.
Business Videos help close that gap.
They might explain:
- who you are and what you’ve built
- what your business does
- the products or services you offer
- who they’re for
- how something works
- what it’s like to work with you
- the results you’ve achieved
Service explainers, founder stories, process videos, case studies, testimonials and FAQs are all types of business videos.
2. Expertise Videos
Expertise Videos demonstrate what you know and how you think. They are your more typical social media / content marketing videos.
They matter because they are often the reason that people come into your network in the first place. They want to learn from you, they want to get to know you, and then, for some of them, the commercial interest follows.
In Expertise Videos you might:
- tell a story
- answer questions
- explain an idea
- give advice
- challenge misconceptions
- comment on developments
- share your lessons
While there’s only so many Business Videos you can produce, the scope for your Expertise Videos is very broad. So they allow you to continually expand your network and create consistent visibility for your business without always centreing your business in the conversation.
You can get my breakdown on the different themes for your Expertise videos here.
Not all Expertise Videos need to be created from scratch though, many videos can be produced from existing footage. I call these Authority Clips and you can learn more about these here.
3. Sales Videos
Sales Videos are designed to lead someone towards a specific commercial action. These are typically your lead-generating videos.
They matter because they prompt decision-making and help you filter the people that have a genuine interest in what you do, not just a passive one. Without them, you’re relying on people to self-refer, and that’s a much smaller pool.
Sales Videos are distinguished by a closing call-to-action to click, register, apply or book.
And while Ads are are a type of Sales Videos, they don’t necessarily need to feel like an advert from the beginning. They might actually feel closer to an Expertise video, starting with an observation, a problem or a customer example.
The distinction is:
An Expertise Video can have a call-to-action. A Sales Video is reverse engineered from the call-to-action.
Campaign videos, landing page videos and video proposals are all types of sales videos.
4. Video Updates
Video Updates tell your audience about things that are happening now. They are typically the kind of videos that lends themselves to timeout features, like an Instagram story (which last for 24 hours), but can be used beyond that.
They matter because they keep you visible and allow for interaction without too much fore-thought.
Their content might include:
- a reaction to something that’s happened
- an idea you’re mulling over
- something you’re working on
- an event you’re attending
- a development in the business
The way you know you’re delivering an Update, as opposed to another kind of video, is to ask:
Does this hold outside of the current timing?
If you generally wouldn’t be able to post it again in the future, it’s most likely an Update, unlike an Expertise video, which is tends to be evergreen.
You don’t need equal amounts of all four
The point of these four types isn’t to create another content formula, it’s to simply understand the different jobs your videos can do, and to draw attention to how you could be using video more effectively.
If you naturally create a lot of of Expertise Videos but very little about your business or offers (this has always been my achilles heel!), you can build an audience that values your thinking without necessarily understanding what they can buy from you.
If everything you publish is about your business or what you’re selling, there is less reason for someone to keep following when they aren’t currently looking to buy.
Updates give people a way to connect and respond to you, while Expertise gives them a reason to value what you know.
The right mix will depend on you, your audience and what you’re building.
The important thing is to know why you’re making the video in the first place.
If you’d like a plan on how you can use videos to grow your Founder brand and business, completely customised to your current situation and goals, you can book my 1:1 Visibility Reset.