
As a small business owner, you know how important it is to stand out in a crowded marketplace and make a lasting impression on your customers. One of the most effective ways to do that is through brand videos.
What Are Brand Videos?
Brand videos are short, engaging videos that are created to promote a brand or product. They can be used to tell a story, educate customers, or simply create a positive association with the brand. Brand videos can be used on a variety of channels, including social media, websites, and even in-store displays.
Why Brand Videos Are Vital for Small Businesses
Increase brand awareness - Tell compelling stories about your company and offerings through video to grab attention.
Build emotional connections - Videos allow you to connect with customers on a deeper, more personal level through storytelling.
Boost conversion rates - Educate and inform viewers about your products to turn them into buyers.
Improve website traffic - Drive viewers to your website by embedding videos and promoting them online.
Enhance SEO - On-page videos and transcripts help search engines index your content. The longer they remain on site, the stronger the signal to search engines that you are providing valuable content.
The Benefits of Brand Videos
Elevating Your Brand Presence with Video Content
Increasing Brand Awareness through Visual Storytelling
One of the best ways to use video content to increase brand awareness is to tell stories. People love stories, and they're more likely to remember a story than a list of facts. When you tell a story through video, you're able to connect with your audience on an emotional level, which can help to build brand loyalty. Your prospective client wants to know "why" you are in the business you are and how you are uniquely positioned to solve their pain. Telling the story of your founder and your core beliefs in business builds trust.
Craft videos that communicate your brand's values, mission, and vision.
Show how your brand is making a difference in the world or contributing to a cause.
Inspire your audience to align themselves with your brand by showcasing the positive impact you're creating.
Make your videos relatable and tap into the emotions that resonate with your target audience.
Engaging Customers with Authenticity and Emotion
In addition to telling stories, you can also use video content to engage with your customers on an emotional level. This can be done by sharing behind-the-scenes footage, interviewing your customers, or simply showing your team in action. When you show your customers that you're a real company with real people behind it, they're more likely to connect with your brand and do business with you.
Offer an exclusive peek into your company's behind-the-scenes operations, giving your audience a sense of transparency and authenticity.
Showcase your team, workplace, or production process to create a connection with your viewers.
Humanize your brand by letting your audience see the people behind the business.
Boosting Conversion Rates and Sales with Video Marketing
Video content can also be used to boost conversion rates and sales. This can be done by using video to explain your products or services, showcase your team, or simply give your customers a closer look at what you have to offer. When you use video to educate and inform your customers, you're more likely to convince them to take the next step, whether that's signing up for your email list, visiting your website, or making a purchase.
If you have a product or service that is at a luxury price point or has a difficult to explain concept, video can do that for you. Using explainer and on-boarding videos is a great way to move clients from information gathering to ready to purchase.
Demonstrate the features and benefits of your products or services through visually appealing videos.
Highlight how your offerings can solve your customers' problems or meet their needs.
Feature testimonials or case studies from satisfied customers who have benefited from your products or services.
Planning and Creating Your Brand Video
Crafting a Compelling Video Strategy
Defining Your Objectives and Target Audience
Start with a strong concept. Your brand video should have a clear purpose and message.
What do you want your audience to learn or feel after watching your video
Determine why you want to create brand videos. Is it to increase brand awareness, drive conversions, educate your audience, or showcase your products/services?
Align your objectives with your overall business goals to ensure that your videos contribute to your larger marketing strategy.
Ensure that your objectives address the needs, preferences, and motivations of your target audience.
Identifying Your Target Audience. Understanding your target audience is essential for creating brand videos that resonate with the right people. Here's how to define your target audience effectively:
Research your industry, competitors, and customer demographics to gain insights into who your target audience is.
Identify their characteristics, preferences, pain points, and behaviors.
Develop detailed buyer personas that represent your ideal customers.
Consider factors like age, gender, location, interests, needs, and purchasing behaviors.
Use these personas as a reference point when crafting your brand videos.
Consider the platforms and channels where your target audience is most active to ensure maximum reach and engagement.
Promote your brand videos. Once you've created your brand videos, you need to get them in front of your target audience. Promote your videos on social media, your website, and in your email marketing campaigns.
Establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for each video.
Examples include aiming for a certain number of views, engagement metrics, lead generation, or sales attributed to the video.
Identify the metrics that will help you measure the success of your brand videos.
These could include metrics like view count, click-through rates, social shares, conversions, or customer feedback.
Outlining Your Brand Story and Key Messages
Use storytelling to connect with your audience. People are more likely to remember and connect with stories. Use your brand videos to tell stories about your company, your products, or your customers. Your video should have the personality of your brand infused throughout.
Stay true to your branding voice and style. Your videos should be an extension of your overall brand presence.
Selecting the Right Video Format for Your Business
Use high-quality production values. Your brand videos should look and sound professional. This doesn't mean you have to spend a fortune on production, but you should make sure your videos are well-shot and edited.
Videos that will be hosted on YouTube and your website will most often be filmed in a horizontal mode so it fills the area of the screen.
Videos that are made exclusively for social media will be filmed or edited to a portrait mode for use on mobile devices.
Scripting and Storyboarding Your Brand Video
Crafting a Captivating Script That Aligns with Your Brand Voice
When crafting your brand video script, it's essential to consider your unique brand voice. Your brand voice is the personality and tone that represents your business. By aligning your script with your brand voice, you can create a cohesive and authentic video that resonates with your target audience. Whether your brand is fun and playful or professional and informative, the script sets the stage for communicating your message effectively.
Understand your brand voice: Take the time to define your brand voice. Is it conversational, formal, humorous, or authoritative? Clarifying this will help you maintain consistency across all your communication channels, including your brand videos.
Know your target audience: Consider the demographics, interests, and preferences of your target audience. This knowledge will guide your scriptwriting, ensuring that it speaks directly to your audience and resonates with them.
Use language that resonates: Tailor your script with language and vocabulary that aligns with your brand voice and appeals to your target audience. If you're targeting a younger demographic, you might incorporate slang or trendy phrases, while a more professional audience may require a polished and sophisticated tone. Unless you are in a highly technical field, avoid using industry jargon.
Inject personality and storytelling: Bring your brand to life through storytelling elements that showcase your personality. Use anecdotes, relatable situations, or testimonials to engage your audience and create an emotional connection.
Keep it concise and focused: Attention spans are short, so make sure your script is concise and focused. Get to the point quickly and deliver your message effectively within the allotted time frame.
Review and revise: Once you've written your script, review it for clarity, coherence, and alignment with your brand voice. Revise as needed, ensuring that every word contributes to the overall impact and resonates with your target audience.
Storyboarding Techniques for Visualizing Your Narrative
No artistic skills required. While you may think of storyboarding as drawing out shots for your video, at its heart, it's really a list of the shots and transitions needed for your video.
Outline the key scenes: Identify the key scenes or moments in your brand narrative that you want to capture in your video. Break down your narrative into distinct segments that will form the basis of your storyboard.
Determine shot types and angles: Determine the types of shots you want to include, such as close-ups, wide shots, or overhead shots. Think about the angles that will best showcase your products, convey emotions, or highlight important details.
Incorporating Calls-to-Action and Branding Elements
Incorporating compelling calls-to-action and branding elements into your brand videos is crucial for driving action and building brand recognition. CTAs prompt your audience to take a specific action, such as visiting your website, making a purchase, or subscribing to your newsletter. Meanwhile, branding elements, such as logos, taglines, and visual cues, reinforce your brand identity, making your videos instantly recognizable. By strategically integrating CTAs and branding elements, you can make your brand videos more impactful and ensure that your audience not only watches but also takes action. Brand videos are a key component of an effective inbound marketing strategy.
Define your desired actions: Determine the specific actions you want your audience to take after watching your brand video. Is it to visit your website, follow you on social media, or make a purchase? Clarify your desired actions to shape your CTAs effectively.
Make CTAs clear and compelling: Craft CTAs that are concise, direct, and compelling. Use actionable language and create a sense of urgency to encourage your viewers to take immediate action.
Position CTAs strategically: Place your CTAs at strategic points in your videos, such as at the end or during key moments that align with your desired actions. Ensure they are easily visible and stand out from the rest of the video content.
Use branding elements consistently: Incorporate your branding elements consistently throughout your brand videos. This includes your logo, brand colors, fonts, and any visual or audio cues that represent your brand. Consistency builds brand recognition and reinforces your identity.
Balance promotion with value: While CTAs are important for driving action, it's crucial to provide value to your audience. Strike a balance between promotional content and valuable information or entertainment that aligns with your target audience's interests.
Optimizing Your Brand Videos for Online Success
Implementing SEO Strategies for Video Content
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of improving the visibility of your website or web pages in search engine results pages (SERPs). By implementing SEO strategies for your video content, you can increase the chances that your videos will be seen by potential customers.
There are a number of things you can do to improve the SEO of your video content, including:
Optimize your video titles and descriptions. When you're uploading your videos to YouTube or other video hosting sites, be sure to optimize your titles and descriptions for relevant keywords. This will help your videos rank higher in SERPs when people search for those keywords.
Add transcripts to your videos. Transcripts are a great way to improve the accessibility of your videos and make them more SEO-friendly. When you add transcripts to your videos, search engines can index the text of your videos, which can help your videos rank higher in SERPs.
Promote your videos on social media. Social media is a great way to get the word out about your videos and drive traffic to your website. When you promote your videos on social media, be sure to use relevant hashtags and keywords so that people can find your videos when they search for those terms.
Conducting Keyword Research for Video Titles and Descriptions
Identify relevant keywords and phrases that align with your video content and are frequently searched by your target audience. Use keyword research tools or platforms like Google Trends to discover popular and relevant terms.
Optimizing Video Metadata for Better Search Rankings
Optimize video titles: Craft descriptive and keyword-rich titles for your videos. Include your target keywords at the beginning of the title to increase visibility in search results.
Write compelling video descriptions: Write detailed and engaging descriptions for your videos, incorporating relevant keywords naturally. Use this space to provide additional context, summarize the video's content, and include links to relevant resources or your website.
Utilize video tags: Add relevant tags to your videos to help search engines understand the content and context. Include both broad and specific tags that accurately represent the topics covered in your videos.
Optimize video thumbnails: Choose visually appealing and compelling thumbnails for your videos. Thumbnails play a significant role in attracting clicks and encouraging viewership.
Embedding Videos on Your Website and Enhancing User Experience
Promote video sharing and backlinks: Encourage viewers to share your videos on social media and embed them on their websites. This helps generate backlinks to your video content, indicating to search engines that your videos are valuable and relevant.
Monitor and analyze video performance: Use analytics tools to monitor the performance of your videos. Track metrics such as views, watch time, engagement, and referral sources to gain insights into what resonates with your audience and make data-driven optimizations.
Maximizing Video Performance
Repurposing and Recycling Brand Videos for Extended Reach.
Extracting Clips for Social Media Posts and Stories
Share it on social media. This is one of the best ways to get your brand video seen by a large audience. Be sure to share it on all of your social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Create smaller videos. If you have a longer form video, you may be able to edit your video into smaller bits that can be used for social media posts. When Media Plus Motion films a video, we make sure to grab smaller snippets that can be used for reels or FAQs.
Transforming Video Content into Blog Posts and Email Newsletters
Post it on your website. Include a link to your brand video on your website's homepage and in other relevant pages.
Re-use your script. Repurpose your script by expanding on the main themes in blog posts. Embed your video to these new blogs for extended reach.
Email it to your subscribers. If you have an email list, be sure to email your subscribers a link to your brand video.
Creating Video Series and Playlists for Consistent Engagement
Submit it to video sharing sites. There are a number of video sharing sites, such as Vimeo and YouTube, where you can submit your brand video. This is a great way to get your video seen by a wider audience.
Create playlists. Help your subscribers engage with your content by creating playlists of related videos.
Run paid advertising. If you want to reach a larger audience, you can run paid advertising for your brand video. This can be done on social media, search engines, and other websites.
How will I work with Media Plus Motion on my brand video?
Three Stages
Story Development
You are the author of your story, but every great story needs an editing team. You’ll work with our brand video team to develop your story, create an engaging script, and provide the right media to connect with your customer. We’ll help you develop the right tone, imagery, and on-screen messaging for your video project.
Filming
Our video production services team will guide your project from pre-production through the filming process. We’ll work with you to create the right look from sets to attire, the proper audio recording, lighting environment, and tie it all together with the perfect story telling elements.
Post Production
Our editing team will edit your video by the agreed on time and work with you directly to fine tune any editing requests. You’ll love your final video - and so will your customers.
Video content has become an indispensable tool for small businesses looking to elevate their brand presence and achieve their marketing goals. By harnessing the power of visual storytelling, authenticity, and emotion, you can increase brand awareness, engage customers, and boost conversion rates. Don't miss out on the opportunity to leverage video marketing to take your small business to new heights!
For more details on how brand videos help your business, read this article: