The first goal of marketing is to increase brand awareness. For your consumers to consider, compare, and buy your brand, they need to be aware of it. Video marketing is one of the most effective ways to do it with ease.
While thousands of small businesses have taken to video marketing to increase brand awareness and reach, some are still hesitant. This is understandable since videos were traditionally associated with large corporations. When people think of videos, they think of million-dollar commercials and celebrities endorsing brands.
But that’s not what video marketing is anymore. From brand videos to social media videos to how-to videos, there’s a world of opportunities for small businesses to increase brand awareness. It’s not a complicated process either. With the right video production agency, video marketing can be a seamless and highly efficient strategy.
If you’re a small business owner, here’s a step-by-step guide to using video marketing to increase your brand awareness.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Video Marketing for Brand Awareness
D efine Your Brand
Whether you want a brand video or a social media video, the first step is to understand your brand. What are its chief characteristics? What emotional response do you want your videos to create in your customer? Do you want to be seen as a friendly, or an authoritative brand? Are you conventional or rebellious?
This will help define the voice and tone of your video marketing. An important aspect of video marketing is the consistency of voice. That’s what will help your audience differentiate your brand from the competition. Once you know your brand identity, you’ll be able to consistently deliver the same emotional or rational connection in all your videos.
K now Your Objectives
Video marketing is always done with a particular objective. What do you want your audience to know or feel? Do you want to talk about a new product or service that you’re launching? Do you want your customers to know about your history? Or do you want them to know your employees and the culture of your business?
When you specify the goal, it’s easier to measure the performance of your videos. That will also help you refine and make the necessary changes.
D evelop Your Visual Identity
Every great brand has a unique visual identity. This makes it easier for your customers to remember and opt for your brand. A couple of seconds after your video starts playing, they should be able to realize that it’s from your business.
The design scheme of your videos will be derived from your brand identity. The colors, logo, animation, graphics, narration, background music, etc. should work toward establishing a distinct look and feel to your brand.
I dentify Your Audience
The next step in video marketing is to know your audience. This will determine not just the content but also the delivery module of your video marketing. Are you talking to consumers or other businesses? Are they new audiences or have you engaged with them before?
Along with knowing your audience, it’s equally important to realize their dreams and challenges. As a small business, it will also help you to know which stage of the user journey they are at. Are they looking for a solution or are they comparing different brands at this moment? Understanding these will make your communication relevant.
B e Unique
In video marketing, it’s exceptionally important to have distinct content and execution. If you sound like the rest, you’ll have to invest heavily to promote your videos. If your video is unique and attention-grabbing, users will be encouraged to share it.
The right video production agency will work with you to create an original and compelling script according to your objectives and brand personality.
C hoose the Right Type of Videos
There are several kinds of videos that small businesses can use to increase brand awareness. Depending on your objectives, one or several of these would suit your needs.
How-to Videos: This is how you explain how to use your product or service to your audience. These short-form videos are easy to understand and quite often use animation. It’s important to craft them like stories that can help bring your brand closer to the audience.
Brand Videos: These are videos that showcase your brand. You can use them to create an emotional appeal that will strike the right chord with your customers. These aspirational videos will play a huge part in helping your audience buy your product or service.
Social Media Videos: These can be either how-to videos or brand videos that you post on your social media pages. You can also create specific short-form videos to talk about your business, or answer questions. Your content strategy would need to have more social videos since the platforms would require you to be consistent.
Website Videos: Having a video on your website builds trust and dramatically improves conversion and sales. These videos will have to answer the question that your visitors may have. Website videos should be succinct and to the point. They should convey the benefit in a matter of seconds for the visitors to be interested.
Video Blogs: These can be either hosted on your company’s blog or its YouTube channel. These need not be advanced as they’re designed to answer specific questions about your product as part of a series.
Sales & Contest Videos: If you have any time-bound sales or contests, you can create videos to garner interest. These videos will specify the deals and the prizes in case of contests. These can be posted on your social media channels.
C onclusion
Video marketing will be the difference for companies that consistently generate interest, and acquire and retain customers. As small businesses are finding out, it doesn’t take much expertise to get started as long as you have the right video production agency. Contact Ventus Films to learn more.
