5 Ways to Use Video to Share Your Brand’s Story
There’s a misconception that marketing is all about advertising to your customer. While that is partially what marketing is about, the way that you advertise is what differentiates a great marketer from someone that is just starting out. In fact, real marketing is about storytelling more than it is about advertising.
GET A QUICK QUOTE
In fact, many brands are finding that when they share their brand story through video that brings viewers into their world and shows them who their brand truly is, they see much greater benefits from their efforts versus other forms of marketing and brand storytelling.
In fact, using video to tell your brand’s story is so important, we’ve outlined the following 5 ways to use video to share your brand’s story in great detail.
Stories are the most effective way that you can communicate your brand to an audience and connect with them on an emotional level. This builds trust and helps your consumers to empathize with your brand thus making them more likely to be attracted to purchase from you.
Video is the best medium to generate this emotion and, therefore, telling your brand story with video is the best option! Follow along as we help you understand why video is the best option to share your brand’s story.
1. Define the Core Purpose & Explain Your Why
Using video to explain to your customers why your brand is the way they are, who your brand is, and what your brand is about will deliver your story in a way that builds passion and a love for your brand among the audience.
This is where you will start with your “Why” and explain to the audience why you do what you do. What is it that makes you passionate about the product or service offering for your brand? Why is your brand involved in certain missions or what values does your brand have that are different or better than others?
The Why
As you define your core purpose with video you are creating a background for your brand that your audience can connect with and truly understand. Before you say, “well, the WHY of my brand really has nothing to do with our target audience,” think again!
There’s a very strong likelihood that your why has something to do with solving a problem, doing good for someone, or helping in some fashion and all you need to do is deliver this information to your audience so that your brand connects with them on a shared, common ground.
If you’re not sure what your core values are or what the purpose of your brand is, or you can’t seem to figure out how your brand connects deeper with customers, try this:
- Pull together as many members of your team as you can and ask them all what the brand means to them. Have each member describe the solutions that your brand provides, the values that are delivered and the “WHY” that they think of when they think of the brand.
- As you review the answers, do you see a common theme or element? Does your business appear to mean something specific to most everyone in the group? That’s your why!
- Now, ask the group to explain what it is that they love about the brand in a short sentence or two. Consider all answers and how those may apply to customers.
Now that you know what it is your brand is all about, you can create a video that shares that concept with your consumers.
2. Use Visuals that Reflect Your Brand Style
Does your brand use a set of colors or graphics on a regular basis? Perhaps you already have a style guide that the brand follows in regards to graphics that are shared on your website, marketing materials, product packaging, etc. These are the visuals that reflect your brand.
When you create videos to share your brand story you should be focusing on the ways that you can connect with the audience by psychologically sharing colors and styles that they already recognize as part of your brand.
For example
The colors, locations or office space, graphics and elements that are already included in your everyday branding can be included in your video content as you tell your brand’s story.
If you don’t have these item already figured out, now is the time to put together a list of colors, styles, graphics and elements that you can use to tell your brand story in a way that connects with the audience and that is in line with your core values and goals.
If you are struggling with this step, consider working with a creative video production agency that will help you express your brand’s emotion graphically and through color.
Filmmaking choices are endless, and the amount of design that can go into graphics and text layovers for your film will come into play early in the production planning process so it’s important to have these elements figured out when you get started.
3. Videos Show Your Story
Remember grade school, when once a week or maybe once a month you would have “Show and Tell” day? It was the most exciting day.
Some teachers themed it so that you had to bring something of a certain letter or color, or from a certain theme such as “sports” or “favorite show,” but no matter how Show and Tell Worked in the classroom, there’s no doubt, it was an exciting day for students.
FINALLY a time where we could SHOW our friends that special toy we had talked to much about. FINALLY we didn’t have to just “tell” what it was.
Show and Tell
Video is like show and tell day for your brand! Finally you can Show your brand’s story instead of just telling it like you have been. Finally, you can share with the world all those visual details of the office, and the team and the products and services in action. Finally you don’t have to just tell.
Brands that use video to show their story connect with the audience in a whole new way. Visuals, sound, text and graphic elements all come together to share your brand’s story visually.
As you plan a way to express your core values and to share your story visually, don’t get stuck on focusing too much on yourself. Remember, it’s the brand story that you want to deliver here. Make the audience feel like they are seeing your story in a way that they fully, unequivocally connect with.
Don’t just tell your story, show it!
How?
Consider the following:
- Define a particular person that your brand helps. Remember those core values and your why? Use that to help you define the consumer that your brand helps on a regular basis.
- Tell their story. Show the consumer, and the problem so that the viewer can connect and understand where the consumer is coming from.
- Think about how your brand helps them to overcome the problem and share the actions with the audience. Show the audience how the consumer feels when their problem is solved and the emotional connection that occurs when they finally stop struggling with the same problem and your brand helps them to achieve a particular goal.
We can’t tell you how to visually tell your brand’s story. But, we can say this: Visually, deep emotional connections take place not because we see someone say, “this is our brand story, we like to help people do this and when we do they feel this way.”
Visually, emotional connections come as a result of storytelling and inferred references. Your story will connect with the audience if you take the time out to know them and to focus on how you can deliver powerful content that they appreciate.
4. Get Creative with Video Storytelling
Now is the time to use video to tell your brand’s story in a way that is visually creative. You know what your brand is about, you know why the brand is valuable to consumers, now how can you deliver this message in a creative way?
Brands use video to tell their story through a variety of different video mediums including:
- Video documentaries that show the background of a brand or the problems a brand has solved.
- Video case studies that prove the ability of a brand to help the consumer.
- Homage videos that help the consumer to relate the brand to some other element of time, history, or situation.
- Narrative that uses fictional characters to deliver the story in a captivating, yet logical manner.
As you come up with ways that you can deliver your brand’s story with video, make sure that you are being creative and unique. No brand will benefit from sharing “Their” story in a way that makes the consumer think of another brand.
5. Immerse the Consumer
Finally, brands use video to share a story in a way that immerses the consumer into the video and helps them to feel as if they are a part of the brand itself.
So many different video technologies exist to help you create an immersive video that the consumer will enjoy. While immersive video content may require additional steps in production, the end results are almost always successful.
Consider This
As you consider the ways that you can use an immersive experience to your advantage, consider the use of 360 degree video content. 360-degree video that is shared on social media or online allows the viewer to see the full panoramic scene of your set from every angle.
These types of videos are great for brands that want to showcase things like processes that are taking place, their location such as the office or a medical building, or an environment that is otherwise relative and connected to their brand.
Think of an ocean cleanup agency that uses immersive 360-degree video to share their brand story while showing the consumer the ocean floor from all angles and the cleanliness of it–wouldn’t that keep the viewer super-engaged in what you have to share?
360 degree video
This allows viewers to learn about your brand by exploring the locations that you are involved in, where your brand works, or where your consumers are most likely to interact.
This is just one of the many ways that brands are using video to share their story and immerse the consumer in the elements relative to their brand.
Need help telling your story with video? Contact Beverly Boy Productions today! We can’t wait to help you put video to work for your business!