These days, video is perhaps the leading format out there for conveying a strong sense of brand identity to prospective customers.
As visual technology has become more and more advanced and dominant, the old adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words” appears to be more true than ever before.
Video has a way of reaching people on a deep and emotive level within a few seconds – in a way and to an extent that is difficult to match with all but the tightest and most well-crafted prose.
Of course, conveying a strong brand story via video requires a good deal of finesse, and is an art in and of itself – not just something that you can casually rush in an hour or two.
Here are some key elements of a successful brand story video – more specifically, here are a few things that you need to do in order to ensure that your video does a good job of conveying your brand story and identity in a way that will resonate with your intended target audience.
First things first: if you don’t have a clear sense of the vision you’re trying to impart and the story you are trying to tell, there is absolutely no chance that the people who are going to be viewing your video will be able to figure out what’s going on.
Every video project needs to begin with a clear message, and a clear direction. This might require spending some time brainstorming and refining your core brand identity and “USPs,” but at the very least, it will require you to identify a core motif or impression that you want to convey.
Video-making is a fairly involved and resource-intensive process – and it’s easy to try to do too much, and to end up with a jumbled and confusing mess as a result. Sidestep this entire issue by focusing your energies and cutting out anything that is likely to be extraneous.
Plan your brand video script carefully to make sure it really hits the spot, you can always make adjustments as you go but having a clear path to the end goal will help keep you on point with your messaging.
One mistake that people often make when trying to market their products or services, in general, is focusing on “features” rather than “benefits.”
In other words, it’s easy to end up waxing lyrical about the technical specs of a particular product or service of yours or to get completely caught up in presenting tables of numbers that you consider to be impressive and striking.
When all is said and done, though, this is rarely ever what prospective customers are actually looking for. Rather, they will have some problem that they need to be solved, and they will be looking for a company that can offer clear solutions and benefits.
In other words, it’s about the story and narrative of what your services can do to improve the life of your prospective customer. Therefore, when putting together a video, you need to focus on that narrative. You need to be emotionally evocative, and you have to paint a picture of how life will be better thanks to whatever it is your company provides.
This is the art of storytelling in its essence: a focus on the human element, rather than on data points. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t use references to data at all – but it does mean that you should only use those references insofar as they help to advance the narrative you’re trying to present.
If your prospective customers have particular expectations from the companies that operate within your niche – or, at least, if they have particular desires for how those companies should appear and conduct themselves – you will generally be well advised to try to meet those expectations rather than to go completely off in your own direction.
That is to say, when you’re putting a video together to display your brand identity, you should do a bit of research in order to see which sorts of motifs, images, and stories are popular with your prospective customer base.
Have a look at what your competitors are doing, get information from focus groups wherever possible, and attune your imagery to match those desires and expectations.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you have to – or should – be completely “by the numbers,” or that you should plagiarise or parrot anyone else’s content. But if – for example – a major desire among your customers is for an aura of respectability and affluence, you probably shouldn’t create an urban-inspired video featuring kids in casual-wear, with hip-hop music playing in the background.
A professional video hosting platform can go a very long way in helping you to actually optimise your video and get out there in a way that will most benefit you.
Among other things, professional video hosting platforms can help you to effortlessly stream your video wherever it might be best placed, in addition to allowing for live broadcasts and streaming, the creation of playlists, access to assorted agency tools, and more.
If you’re going to go to all the trouble of working on an effective video, the last thing you should want to do is to undermine it at the last possible moment, by going with a clunky free-to-use platform instead.
It’s often said among authors that “all writing is rewriting,” and there is no doubt something similar at play when it comes to video making, too.
You might have an excellent concept for a video in mind. You might then do a great job of choosing your setting, arranging the right motifs and elements, and all the rest.
But, you could still sabotage the entire project by being too hasty and sloppy with your editing process.
Generally speaking, all prospective customers will look for key indicators of professionalism in your content before they are willing to give you the time of day. A typo in your video, or an untidy and obvious jump cut, could therefore really sink the entire endeavour.
So finally, go the extra mile and comes editing your video carefully – and spend as much time as needed to do it well.
It doesn’t matter what size of business you have, from solopreneur marketing professional to a huge corporate; there’s a way for you to get started with video marketing straight away. And you don’t need a big budget, though if you have one, of course, you can well and truly run with this. Many people simply start off filming with their mobile phone and then update their equipment and their budget for advertising as they grow. But whichever way you do it, it’s important that you start.
The reality is that a well scripted and produced video actually requires an enormous amount of work! Despite the fact videos may last less than a minute, they can take months to get right if you're new to video production. Not every business has the budget to bring in experienced professionals, so if you are considering writing your own video script, we've got some top tips to help you get the right results, as well as a handy step-by-step guide that ensures you don't miss anything out.
