Extremists, gangs, militaries, and private military contractors (PMC)/mercenaries share the need to recruit, and all employ video for this purpose. How they use these videos to attract new members remains unclear, however. The study is a response to calls for a visual turn in violent extremism and builds upon an emerging shift within the literature, which examines the persuasive power of videos produced by some violence organisations (VOs), exploring the role that narratives, multimodalities, and symbols play in recruitment. It takes an empirical approach to answer the question, ‘what visual strategies are used by violence organisations to recruit members to their group or call them to action?’ Theoretically, it combines Hogg's theory on group membership and identity, Ellul's work on myths and the technique of propaganda, and Mirzoeff’s approach to intervisuality. Through primary analysis of 117 videos, produced and/or circulated by VOs, it shows that VOs encode their videos with similar cues designed to enhance feelings of belonging, identity, and shared beliefs in order to persuade and influence viewers. It therefore makes a pertinent contribution to the literature regarding comparative analysis, which tends to treat these VOs as distinct groups, failing to adequately consider the significance of shared approaches. The findings indicate that VOs’ recruitment and call to action videos should not be viewed independently, but as part of the broader ecosystem of online video content, designed not merely to entertain, but also to persuade; thus, they have implications for responding to extremist content.