Video storytelling is one of the most effective ways to craft videos that make consumers want to stay engaged with your brand long-term. This is a great means by which you can deliver relevant content. It gives you a method that does not feel like a sales pitch or like you are being pushy. There is a personalized nature to video storytelling that is becoming the tone that consumers expect when they are looking to learn more about a brand.
You could argue that all marketing campaigns are telling a story and that is how they work. But video storytelling is a different medium to deliver this information because it is so visual. Ad copy can do many things, but static ads are never as appealing to the eye. They cannot offer the same level of information transmission in a short span of time. This makes video storytelling much more effective than storytelling using traditional models of marketing outreach.
If you are ready to learn more about the ways that you connect to your target audience through video storytelling, you need to read on!
What is Video Storytelling?
Let’s first start out by defining what video storytelling is. This is the means by which you can offer brand outreach or marketing information through a timeless, engaging video story. A story is a kind of quest from point A to point B with challenges the hero must overcome and an eventual narrative peak. It sounds high and mighty, but it can be as simple as a customer testimonial all the way to a brand film.
You might even create a series of engaging live videos in other formats that offer cohesive information about your brand and what it can offer consumers in the form of a story.
These videos might be more focused on added content and drive traffic to your site or your product landing pages. They could be a directly advertising-focused campaign that is done in a series of videos or as a punchy video that is short and informative. There is no shortage of ways to make video storytelling work for your marketing needs. This medium is so flexible and offers room for a lot of creativity.
Connecting to Your Target Market Through Video Storytelling
There are some key ways that you can connect to your target market using this medium. You will want to consider all of the available ways to leverage this evergreen and effective means of outreach. Missing even a few opportunities to promote your brand and create engagement with your videos could cheat you of sales. You’ll also have fewer chances to form brand loyalty with consumers.
Video marketing is a truly effective way to create lasting impressions and bonds on your consumer base. Marketing videos offer the added benefit of being readily shared through social media and private messages. This is one of the best ways to create content that speaks to your brand’s ethos and personality as well as its quality.
1. Focus on Added Value Content
You want to be sure that you are making video content that does not feel spammy or like a sales pitch. Consumers are not interested in being talked down to or tricked into buying something these days. They want to see the real value of the items that you are offering for sale or the services that you can provide. No one wants to feel like they have watched an entire video and gotten nothing out of the experience.
Your video content that you are embedding into posts and onto landing pages or sending out to your email lists should offer value to potential consumers. Show them how your products work or explain how the industry as a whole operates. Tell the stories of how your services are a game changer using personal experiences of existing clients.
When you invest in your consumers, they will feel loyalty to your brand.
2. Create Video Series
As mentioned before, complex ideas can be better treated in shorter and easier-to-digest videos. Keeping the length of your videos down can help people to feel less overwhelmed by the commitment of engaging with them. If consumers see that your video is half-hour long, they are not going to be as likely to watch it. However, they might be if it were five or ten minutes long. Video segments can have a better impact when you embed them on your site as well. People will be much more likely to watch at least most of the video when they are visiting your landing pages and other site offerings.
Breaking long-form videos down into brief segments can help people to get the most from what you are trying to say. It will give people a chance to come back over and over again to your site to learn more. This is, after all, really your goal. Having people returning to your site multiple times is important for some forms of conversion.
3. Talk to Your Target Audience
You cannot just make generalized videos every time you create a story with a video. You will need to be sure that you are speaking to your target audience most of the time. However, you can create videos that will speak to people who aren’t your main market for more specialized products and services. Think about it this way, if you are selling software that is made for accountants but you are speaking to the general public in every one of your videos, you will not be speaking to the right people.
If you are cognizant that the tone and the wording are created for the right target market, they will be far more effective overall. Creating different kinds of videos can also help you to speak to the right people with the right kind of outreach. Not everyone wants to watch an information video that is higher level about a product. Simple tutorials or user guides can be a really great way to connect with consumers who are interested in a deeper dive into your products and your services.
4. Keep Your Tone Authentic
Consumers are very savvy and they can tell when you are not being upfront with them. When you create a video, you need to seem as genuine and normal as possible. You should consider that you are making a video that needs to speak to people comfortably. This means that you should not worry about sounding too close or friendly with your audience in most cases.
When you are shooting a live video, don’t worry if you bungle some words or if you have to correct yourself. This makes it clear that you are being genuine. And it can actually increase your consumer’s trust in your product and your business. People want to feel like they are connecting with companies on a real level. Being friendly and open without seeming artificial will make consumers much more likely to trust you when they watch your videos.
Check out one of our long-time client’s courses on storytelling to get some tips on telling your story authentically. It’s brilliant.
5. Offer Behind-the-Scenes Content
When you are willing to show your consumers what is going on behind closed doors, you are showing them that what you are doing can be trusted. This is a great way to build trust and to show people what your business is all about. You can introduce people who are working on the other side of the company that is not marketing-based. It’s also a good way to demonstrate processes, sustainability work, and more.
Behind-the-scenes videos perform very well overall and can be used in a variety of ways. This is a video style that is also likely to be evergreen. This means that shooting this kind of content can deliver impressions and engagement. It can even create conversions for years after it has been produced. You will get a lot of bang for your buck from offering up this content and these videos will pay you back with ease in most cases.
6. Answer Questions
One of the best ways that you can connect with consumers using video is to answer common questions. You can easily look up what the most searched questions are on Google for any topic. Whatever shows up in the search bar as autofill text can be a great starting point for questions that your videos should answer. You can also use the “people also ask” section of search results to see what questions are trending or are commonly asked online.
Offering an effective video reply to common questions can make many potential customers aware of your products and services. It can also give your brand a high level of visibility. This is one key way to use added-value content to drive traffic to your site and landing pages. Take the time to answer common questions first and then suggest your own products and services as solutions later. You will be much more likely to rank well with SEO and in search results for people all around the world who are looking for answers to common questions.
7. Connect With Influencers
Social media influencers make a living by exploring experiences, offering advice, and providing examples of how to do things to their followers. If your products and services connect readily with an audience that a social media influencer has built, you and the influencer can both benefit from working together. This is the kind of connection that can really do wonders to expose your brand to new consumers. And you can effectively show what your products can do for people when an influencer makes a video using your product or your service.
Using influencers to help advertise and expose your brand to new consumers is a great way to promote your brand. It won’t seem like you are bothering people or trying to make them buy something they might not want. Instead, these consumers automatically trust the influencer they are following. Then, they will immediately want to trust your brand if the influencer trusts it. This is a great way to get your goods and services in front of entirely new audiences with limited legwork on your part.
8. Be Consistent With Branding
When you are making video content for your brand, be sure that you are consistent with how you announce that it belongs to your company. You will want to use the same kind of intro footage for each video. Be mindful that the colors, logos, and more that are related to your brand are visible at the beginning and end of your video at a minimum. Some companies will also make videos that include employees or hired video creation teams wearing logo gear that makes it clear they are promoting your company.
Branding is key to all forms of outreach for your company. You don’t want to neglect this part of your video crafting process. Branding helps make it clear to the viewer that you are the company that is providing the service or good. Branding also helps to remind people about how to find you. The right branding content included in each video will help people to know what your brand stands for. It can also make it easy for people to remember the name of your company.
9. Consider a Consistent Format
Viewers who follow YouTube channels and other influencers online are attracted to consistent theming for the videos they like. Most successful video marketing is done with a consistent delivery style. This means that there will be a consistent intro style and the same people will present the topics that are being discussed. There might also be a format for each video that people come to expect.
This can work well if you are going to make tutorial or demonstration-style videos that showcase your product. You can set up stages of information delivery in these kinds of videos with ease. You can even separate each segment with a branding message drop that shows up on the screen.
Even if you are creating live footage or other video formats for your brand’s marketing plan, you will want to make sure that you are using a format that is uniquely your brand’s. This helps with brand recognition and brand loyalty. It also creates a more invested following because people like things that they feel they already know well.
Video Storytelling is a Key Method to Connect with Consumers
Using video storytelling is an important technique that will make your videos rank higher when searched online and connect more readily with consumers. Show people what they can expect from your brand and offer them added value. This can help to generate a loyal brand following that will last for years. Video marketing is the future. Most companies will need to convert at least part of their marketing outreach into video format in the coming year in order to keep up.
Consumers are increasingly impatient when shown sales pitches or ads that do not deliver any added value. Make sure that your brand does not become stale or frustrating to potential customers who are looking to engage with it. You can keep your marketing outreach fresh and relevant by generating quality video content. Use it to speak to consumers effectively and without feeling phony and your efforts will pay off.
Let us help you tell your brand’s story! At Early Light Media, we specialize in bringing brands to life through high-quality and engaging videos. Get started now to innovate your marketing and take your brand to the next level.
About Brianna York:
Brianna is a self-published author with a passion for sharing her knowledge and expertise on a variety of topics with people who are looking to find the perfect products and services for their needs. She loves making sure that the right kind of informative content is available to people looking for quality products of all kinds. She is an avid horseback rider and reader when she is not writing.
