7 Simple Tricks to Improve Your Marketing Video
Before you can get customers to buy from you, they have to know what your brand is—and why your products or services are worth the money. One of the best ways to introduce new customers to your brand is through an introductory brand video, sometimes called an explainer video, meant to make a good first impression and help customers decide what to do next.
However, not just any video will suffice here. If you want to make the right impression and attract more customers to your brand, you need to know how to get the most out of this powerful medium.
The Benefits of Brand Videos
Understanding the unique benefits of brand videos will help you optimize yours to see its full potential.
- Conciseness: Today’s consumer is impatient, and always in a rush. They don’t have time to read your lengthy About page. Videos offer a concise, convenient way to learn about a brand in a minute or two.
- Applicability: Video content is also easy to use for other marketing methods, so in addition to offering an explainer video on your homepage, you can also include it on social media and your other outbound efforts. Considering video attracts three times more inbound links than comparable alternative strategies, it’s well worth your investment.
- Personality: It’s easier to show off your personality in a video than it is through writing since you’ll have access to visual and audio stimulation. You can even make an in-person appearance to make an even more personal connection.
- Direction: Videos also tend to come with calls to action, which drive customers to make faster and better-informed purchasing decisions.
The Extra Touches
You probably already have an idea of what you want to say. You know your brand inside and out and can probably communicate those ideas to your customers. But if you want to stand out from the competition and blow your customers away, you’ll have to go the extra mile to spice up your video.
These are just some of the ways you can do it:
- Start with a script: You might feel like you can improvise the video, especially if you’ve been working on this business for years, but it’s always better to start with a script—or at least an outline of what you want to say. Just be careful not to over-rehearse it, or you might come off as robotic and impersonal.
- Add the right music: Professionally recorded music can add ambiance and character to your video. It’s easy to add with a service like Soundstripe, a subscription-based platform that connects you to a practically unlimited archive of tracks. However you source it, make sure you get something original that fits with the mood and tone of your brand.
- Get a professional voiceover: While you’re at it, invest in professional voiceover work with Voices.com. It’s a good idea to feature the business owner or a charismatic internal spokesperson, in the video, but to supplement those appearances, a prominent, professional voice actor can help drive your message home.
- Add animation: Animation is perfect for brands that want a casual or playful image, and it can add a ton of personality to your finished product. Best of all, software like Pow Toon makes it easy even for inexperienced amateurs to create animations that look professional.
- Show your product in action: Don’t just explain what your product does—show it in action. Customers won’t make a final purchasing decision until they feel confident they’ve seen what your product can do. The more realistic you can make this demonstration, the better.
- Include real customers: Social proof is one of the most persuasive tools you have in your arsenal, so make good use of it by featuring real customers in your video. Collect interviews and comments from a wide selection of customers, then include some of the most significant or memorable sections in your finished work.
- Crack a few jokes: Even if your brand voice is more serious than casual, it’s a good idea to include some humor in your brand video. Humor makes your work more watchable and entertaining, but more importantly, it humanizes your work. People want to feel like they’ve connected with you, and humor can do the trick.
If you truly want to maximize your potential, consider making multiple variations of your brand video, posting them on different landing pages, and AB testing them to see which one is most effective. Because audiences can be unpredictable, experimentation is the only way to verify the effectiveness of your materials, so don’t be afraid to tinker with your variables and come up with alternative ideas. In the long run, it’s only going to make your finished product better.
