In an age that celebrates storytelling and imagery, the use of videos to promote brand awareness has skyrocketed. B2B branding and sales-related videos–whether they appear on a Facebook page, YouTube channel or on short-format platforms like Vine or Instagram–are quickly becoming the content-marketing tool of choice among top brand marketers.
Businesses also post branding videos on their websites, including on:
- Landing pages
- Product detail pages
- Virtually everywhere on the site as a sidebar feature
Videos can be circulated via email, newsletter and virtually every way you communicate with current and prospective customers.
So if you haven’t yet told your story on video, now’s a good time to start. Here are tips to get you going:
Know your objectives. Broadly speaking, there are two main types of business-branding videos to consider–conversion videos and brand-building videos. A conversion video is chiefly designed to generate leads and drive sales. A branding video seeks to position your brand within the larger industry or demonstrate to viewers how use of your product or service will benefit them. Knowing your ultimate branding or marketing objectives in advance (rather than determining them afterward) can save you considerable time and money.
Tailor the video to your preferred audience. Because the tone and subject-matter of videos can vary widely, it’s important to understand how your audience will likely respond. Some target customers enjoy a tongue-in-cheek approach, but the same approach can alienate viewers in another market. No single type of video will appeal to everyone, so don’t even try.
You also need to gauge the level of knowledge and sophistication among your intended viewers. Senior decision-makers, industry experts and influencers will respond more favorably to an in-depth approach, while those new to your business will get lost if the subject-matter is too dry and detailed. Consider the proper tone for the video (corporate, humorous, traditional, informal, etc.) during the planning process.
Decide on the right type of video. Assessing the desired audience response can help guide you toward the type of video you want to make. There are dozens of potential video format choices, such as:
- On location or at an event
- Two or more talking heads
- Product demonstration or “how-to” format
- A look behind the scenes of your business
- Customer testimonials
- Animation
- Case study
Whatever approach you choose, keep in mind our human predilection toward storytelling. Not every type of video naturally lends itself to a narrative format, but with a little imagination, most of them do. Your brand is your story – how you choose to tell it should resonate with your target market. Make people care about your product or service. That’s how brands become better known and followed.
Optimize your video for SEO. What search optimization keywords do you presently use on your website and in your online marketing materials? Incorporate those same words and phrases into the video’s title, metadata and elsewhere. For example, a link to your website should appear prominently in the video (usually at the beginning and end).
“How-to” videos (such as the basic informational type seen in great numbers on YouTube) are an effective way to improve your search engine ranking. Think about how often people type in “how to …” as part of their online search. If your instructional video includes “how to” in the title (combined with key phrases most often used by your target audience), it stands a good chance of driving targeted traffic back to your website.
Make your video easy to share. When people come upon a video they like, they’re apt to share it with friends and colleagues in their social media networks. Offer easy ways to embed your video so they can share it on various blogs or websites. Also, set up a YouTube business channel, where viewers can locate your video and promote it via Twitter, Facebook and other platforms.
Creating videos to boost your brand doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. As long as you focus on entertaining and informing the target audience, yours could be the next video to go viral.
