Videos for Companies: Types, Examples & a Planning Checklist

Why companies use video now

You already sense that videos for companies matter, either because a customer keeps asking the same confusing question or because someone above you said "we need more video" and left it there. The reason it works is simpler than the format suggests. Videos for companies build trust faster than a paragraph and explain a complicated thing in a minute that a page of text can't. It moves a hesitant buyer toward a decision without a sales call. A 2024 Wordstream report found that companies using video grow revenue 49% faster than those that don't, and pages with video convert at 4.8% against 2.9% for text-only pages. So the question was never whether to make video. The real problem is which one to make first, and that's what the rest of this piece solves.

Types of videos for companies

Each type below is a pattern. A pattern has a goal and an audience, and it fits a particular place, which means you can build your own version without a Nike budget. As you read, don't hunt for the prettiest example. Look for the one whose goal matches yours right now.

The categories overlap at the edges, and that's fine. What you want is the shape that fits the problem sitting on your desk this quarter.

Corporate brand videos

The goal of corporate brand videos is trust and identity. The audience is anyone forming a first impression of your company, whether that's a prospect landing on your homepage or a partner sizing you up before a meeting. It works when it shows real people and the culture that produces the work, instead of listing product features. The pattern is loose on purpose: a founder or a few staff on camera, with footage of the actual work happening.

Corporate brand videos are worth prioritizing once you have a story that separates you from competitors and enough traffic that first impressions are costing or winning you deals. This preference for video runs deep, since 59% of executives say they would rather watch a video than read text, according to Forrester Research. But for a smaller company chasing a tighter goal, a polished brand film is the classic distraction. It feels important and it photographs well, yet it rarely answers the specific question a buyer needs answered before they hand you money.

Product and explainer videos

Here the goal is comprehension. You help a viewer understand what your product does or how a concept works, so every choice in the video removes confusion. A product demo shows the thing in use, screen by screen or step by step. An explainer zooms out to the problem and why your approach solves it, usually with simple animation or voiceover. They differ in emphasis, but they share one job, and they cover different stages: an explainer warms up someone still deciding whether they have the problem, while a demo serves the buyer already comparing options.

There's a plain test for knowing you need this type. If your support inbox or sales calls keep surfacing the same question, that question is a script. The payoff is measurable, because a landing page with an embedded video converts at 86% higher rates than the text-only version, and B2B software pages with explainers see lifts above 100% in controlled tests. Videos for companies also lighten the load elsewhere, with 66% of video marketers reporting that it reduced support inquiries. Keep it between 60 and 90 seconds, which KlientBoost's testing points to as the range where engagement holds before it drops.

Testimonial and case study videos

This is the social-proof pattern: a real customer describing a problem they had and the result they got after working with you. It persuades in a way your own marketing can't, because a prospect discounts what you say about yourself and trusts what a peer says about you. The numbers back the instinct, with 72% of customers trusting a brand more after a positive video testimonial, and 79% of people saying a testimonial has convinced them to buy.

The pattern is simple enough to source from your own customers. Find one happy client, then let them talk about where they started and where they ended up. These belong on sales pages and in follow-up emails to leads who've gone quiet. G2's 2024 survey of B2B decision-makers found that 80% use testimonials at the start of the buying process and 78% return to them at the end when choosing between finalists. The one real hurdle is human. Getting a willing, articulate customer in front of a camera takes more asking than filming, so start that conversation early.

Internal and training videos

Not every video for companies points at the market. The internal pattern covers onboarding, process walkthroughs, and short microvideos aimed at your own employees. This category often delivers the fastest and cheapest win of anything on this list. A screen recording with your voice over it can replace an hour of repeated explanation.

These don't need polish. A two-to-five-minute clip shot on a laptop camera or a screen capture does the job, which is why the bar for production quality is low and the return is high. The Research Institute of America found that video-based training lifts retention to between 25% and 60%, against 8% to 10% for text. Structured onboarding, which video makes easy to standardize, improves new hire retention by 82%, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. File this type under operations and judge it by time saved.

Event and culture videos

This pattern captures moments. An event recap shows the human, lived side of the company to its audience. Behind-the-scenes clips and recruitment pieces serve the same goal. Where some videos for companies are composed and deliberate, culture footage is looser and more honest, and that looseness is the point. People trust what looks unstaged.

The budget earns itself when a real moment is happening anyway and the footage has a clear use afterward. Recruitment is the strongest case, since job postings with a recruitment video pull 34% more applications, per CareerBuilder, and 93% of candidates have watched an employer brand video to learn about a company. The trap is filming for the sake of it. If a clip has no home on a careers page or in a sales follow-up, it's vanity content. Before you point a camera at an event, decide where the footage will live.

How to pick the right type

The fastest way to freeze is to start from the format. Start from the goal instead. Write down the one business outcome you need in the next quarter in plain words, then name the audience who has to act for that outcome to happen. The pattern falls out of those two answers almost every time.

Match the goal to the pattern like this:

• If the goal is reducing the same support question, you need a product or explainer video aimed at current and near-term customers.

• If the goal is warming up cold or stalled leads, you need a testimonial that lets a peer vouch for you.

• If the goal is filling a role or shaping how outsiders see the company, an event or culture piece does more than a formal brand film.

Commit to one. The instinct to make sweeping corporate brand videos first is the exact instinct to resist, because they're the hardest to produce and the slowest to pay off. Pick the pattern tied to your nearest measurable outcome, and let the second video wait until the first one has taught you something.

A planning checklist for videos for companies

Once you've chosen a type, you need a brief. A brief is the short document a freelancer or agency reads to know what you actually want, and locking these decisions before anyone quotes a price is what keeps the project from ballooning. Skipping any one of them is where budgets quietly break, because a vague brief invites reshoots, scope creep, and a final cut nobody asked for.

Lock these five decisions first:

1. Objective. The single outcome videos for companies exist to produce, written as a result you can check later. "Cut demo requests from confused visitors" beats "raise awareness," because a vague objective gives the editor nothing to aim at.

2. Audience. The one person who watches and acts. Name their situation, not a category, so every choice serves them instead of everyone.

3. Core message. The one idea a viewer must remember if they forget the rest. If you can't say it in a sentence, the video won't either.

4. Call to action. The exact next step you want, such as booking a call or starting a trial. A video without one ends and leaves the viewer nowhere.

5. Deliverables. The concrete outputs and where they'll run, such as one 60-second cut for the homepage and a 15-second vertical version for social. This line alone prevents the most common billing dispute.

Stop there. Technical details belong in production, and setting them now would lock you into choices before you've hired anyone. Those decisions live in our deeper video production guide.

The company video production process

Once your brief is set, the company video production process runs in three broad stages, and knowing them keeps you from being blindsided by what an agency asks of you. In pre-production, the team turns your brief into a plan, and your job is to approve the script and direction so the shoot matches your intent. During production, the actual filming, your role shrinks to being available for decisions and making sure the right people or footage show up. In post-production, the editor assembles the cut, and you give focused feedback against the objective you set.

That's the whole company video production process at the altitude you need for now. The real detail, the part where the company video production process becomes hands-on work with timelines and revisions, lives in our dedicated video production for businesses guide. When you're ready to actually produce, go there.

The XTRND Approach to Business Video Strategy

At XTRND, we believe the most effective business videos start with a clear objective, not a camera. Rather than recommending the same format for every project, we help companies identify which type of video will deliver the greatest impact based on their goals, audience, and stage of the customer journey. Whether the priority is building brand awareness, explaining a product, supporting sales, strengthening recruitment, or improving internal communication, our team develops a strategy that aligns the right video format with measurable business outcomes. By combining strategic planning, creative storytelling, and an efficient production process, we help organizations create video content that supports long-term marketing and business growth instead of becoming another unused asset.

Your next step

Everything here comes down to one decision: choose a single video type and draft its brief. Starting small and specific with videos for companies beats waiting for a perfect strategy that never arrives, because the first finished video teaches you more than a quarter of planning. Fill in the five checklist items for your chosen type this week, then move to the production guide when you're ready to build it. If you'd rather talk it through, XTRND helps companies create videos from brief to final cut, and you can book a consultation to map your first project.