Video is one of the best marketing tools around. Here’s why it’s time to invest.
In the past few years, video has come to dominate the field of online marketing across every sector, from online advertising to social media to Michigan web design. Businesses are using video to highlight products and services, increase brand awareness, promote events, and deliver thoughtful messages in times of crisis.
Many of us understand the power of a good brand video the moment we see it. Yet many brands still hesitate when it comes time to produce one for themselves. Despite its success, many businesses struggle to see video as a necessity.
However, the truth is that brand videos are becoming more and more of a requirement for organizations that want to be taken seriously online. The more ubiquitous video becomes, the more brands appear behind the times by not using it on their own sites. And the more audiences become accustomed to seeing videos on social media shot by friends and family—or maybe even themselves—the more they start to question why a brand doesn’t have something on their own site.
So, if you’re still on the fence about whether investing in a brand video makes sense for your business, here are three reasons to help you make up your mind.
1. The video production process puts the spotlight on your brand values.
Many brands have difficulty articulating their brand values. They want to be able to communicate what makes their business special and worthwhile, but getting to the heart of it is a challenge. Fortunately, the video process itself helps cut through the static to deliver a clear narrative about your brand. Here are a few of the things any good brand video brings focus to:
- Company history. When did your company begin, and why did you start it? We have yet to find a business that couldn’t answer this question in a sincere and meaningful way. As basic as this question is, it’s a great way to introduce customers to your brand.
- The storyboard is where we spend the most time thinking about how to arrange your brand story in a compelling way. We work out the script, the pacing, and the emphasis of each beat to craft a narrative that communicates effectively with your audience.
- Shot selection. What do you need to show audiences in our video to drive home the right message? Your facilities? Your products and services? Aspects of your process that give an inside look at how you run your company? Your employees hard at work? The shots you choose speak volumes about how you see your business.
- Stakeholder interviews. Finally, the people you choose to tell your story matter. Whether you decide to include clips from your owner and founder, interviews with employees, testimonials from customers, or even endorsements from well-known figures in your industry, these advocates will have a significant influence on how your message is received.
Answering these questions may seem like a lot when you’re just doing them as part of an esoteric exercise and you have all the time in the world. But nothing brings clarity faster than putting them into a video where every second counts.
2. Video lets you show your brand story—including the people behind it.
Contrary to what the Wizard of Oz might have you believe, there’s something almost magical about getting a glimpse at what happens behind the curtains at a company. Every good storyteller knows to “show, don’t tell,” and video offers an opportunity like no other.
This can be true for almost any industry. Do you work in a manufacturing industry? Show video of your production line at work. Do you work in a technical field? Interview your employees about how they do their jobs. Do you own a business with a brick-and-mortar storefront? Show the shop itself. Do you produce products? Show clips of those products being made and in use.
Customers are more comfortable when they can connect with your company in this way. They will want to come to your store, purchase your products, and engage with your employees when they are reassured that they’re something authentic behind your website interface. Which brings us to point number three…
3. Video makes your brand appear more legitimate—thereby increasing buyer confidence.
There’s a lot that’s fake on the internet, and whether people think about it or not, we’re usually aware of it in our subconscious.
This is why the best brand videos are done using videographers who will come on-location to shoot footage at your facilities. Given how much can be done on the Internet using generic photography, stock videography, and text graphics, having something authentic to show your customers is a real game changer.
Videos can also be a status symbol. If you want to convince someone that you run a stable company, showing video is a way of signaling the quality of your business—for the same reasons it’s important to have a well-designed website or nice business cards. It’s just more professional.
Telling your brand story lets you cast your business as the hero.
The rise of brand storytelling is linked to increasing interest among consumers in knowing about the companies they purchase from, but it’s also more than that. Everyone loves a good story. It helps us relate to the people behind the brands we purchase, and it gives us confidence that those people are honest, and that the goods they’re selling are worthwhile.
A well-told brand story casts the company as the hero. That’s why you hear recurring themes of, “we discovered a new way to solve an old problem,” “we realized we could deliver better goods for half the cost,” and “we saw that many customers in our industry were confused, and we wanted to help them make more informed decisions.”
In fact, the story we tell about our own brand in our video is much the same: we didn’t like how other businesses in our industry operated, we came up with a solution that would be better for our customers as well as their users, and that’s how we built the expertise we needed to deliver better quality for everyone.
Your brand story deserves to be told in this way, too. If you’ve built a brand centered on delivering honest labor, quality service, and critical aid to your audience, then it’s time you put yourself in the spotlight.
Because as far as we’re concerned, doing a job well and serving consumer demand is heroic. It’s time your customers saw that for themselves.