Video marketing has rocketed in popularity in recent years, and it is now one of the most important marketing techniques for businesses of all sizes across the world. But how do you get started? And how can you turn your business into a brand using the power of video?
Having an excellent video marketing agency can make things easier. For instance, if you want a brand video to present your business, they will make sure to work with you during the entire process, using content to educate your consumers and customers and increase engagement on your digital and social channels.
Whether you plan to do it in house or outsource it to an agency, here we take a look at what’s involved.
Why Do You Need a Brand?
First of all, why do you need a
brand anyway? The simple answer is that a brand stands out from the competition
and creates a deeper connection with your audience.
When you have a brand, people
will connect with it emotionally and associate your business with certain
values and attributes. By ensuring these values are positive, you can get more
leads, more engagement and more customers.
Why Video Marketing?
Video is an integral part of building a modern brand,
and it has many benefits including:
- Boosts visibility, especially on mobile
- Drives more organic traffic
- Encourages more engagement with your business
- Develops an emotional connection through the use of stories
Video is growing in popularity
all the time (a third of all online activity is spent watching
videos), and any business can take advantage of it. However, there are a few
things you need to do before you start publishing videos.
Know Your Audience
Before you get started, you need
to know exactly who you are targeting. This can take a while, but it is an
essential step that you shouldn’t skip.
Who are your existing customers?
What are their challenges? What specific problems do you help them resolve?
What are their likes and dislikes?
You can find out this by
observing their activities online, visiting forums, looking at your social
media analytics or simply asking them. Send them surveys, ask to speak to them
on the phone, and try to find out as much as you can about them.
Try to put together a detailed customer
persona including everything you have learned about them, and then
use this to guide your video strategy.
Determine Your Goals
You also need to know what you want to achieve with your videos
before you start to create and publish them.
Your overall goal could be to get more recognition and ensure more people are familiar with your brand. But more specific goals could be to promote particular products, drive traffic to startup website, get more likes on Facebook or encourage more social shares.
How to Use Video to Build Your Brand
You’ve worked out who you are
targeting and you’ve determined your goals. Now you need to get started
creating and publishing videos.
Develop a distinctive style
You want your videos to be
immediately recognisable as your own. However, that doesn’t mean you need to
stick to only one type of video. You can have long videos, short videos,
animated videos, interviews and more – but they should all be in your own distinctive
style.
The aesthetics should be
familiar. People should be able to see your video and know that it is yours,
whether they are watching on social media, YouTube or anywhere else.
You can do this by starting each
video by presenting your logo and brand colours along with some intro music. Do
the same for every video and you will make them more recognisable.
Study your competition
Create videos that stand out from the competition. If you just do the same as your competitors, you won’t distinguish yourself effectively.
Watch your competitors’ videos
and work out what they are doing right and wrong. Can you see gaps that you
could fill with your own videos? Are they only publishing one video a month?
Perhaps you can publish one a week.
Use your competitors to
brainstorm ideas that make you distinctive from the competition. Think about
the videos they have missed out on, the important topics that you have
identified that they are not doing.
You can also study the reactions
to their videos. Do people like the videos? Are they leaving negative comments?
These can all present opportunities for your own video marketing strategy.
Give every video a purpose
You know your overall goals for
your video strategy, but now you should determine a specific purpose for every
video.
Don’t just produce a video for
the sake of it. What do you want to achieve? Do you want to highlight a new
product? Answer a specific question? Send traffic to a landing page? Choose one
goal for every video to keep it simple.
Create videos that stand out
Finally, make sure your videos
reflect well on your business and help to reinforce a positive brand identity.
Whichever types of videos you
publish, make sure they are professional and positive so that whenever people
watch them, they go away feeling a positive connection with your brand.
Grow Your Brand with Video Marketing
Video marketing is powerful when
you do it properly, and it can help you to develop and grow your brand
effectively. Start slowly and determine what your brand stands for, who your
audience is and what your goals are. Then start creating and publishing videos.
The more videos you create, the more you will spread the word about your brand, helping to generate more engagement and more business.