How Videos and Video Editing Can Boost Your Brand Storytelling

If you are promoting a brand, video is a potent tool that can help you relay your message. Videos bring products to life and can reveal many more aspects than simply still images or written descriptions can. To optimize your video creation, you should learn specific editing techniques. Fortunately, this is now easier than ever before thanks to advanced software programs, many of which are user-friendly and offer clear instructions on how to use them. You can even cut video for free, which makes the editing process seamless and straightforward. Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the techniques you should use to optimize your brand storytelling.

Enhance your brand storytelling

More than just editing

Compelling storytelling is about much more than cutting and trimming techniques. It’s about learning how to capture and engage your audience with your brand. In the sections below, we will cover several approaches that will help you relay your brand’s message through videos.

Use emotion

Creating a solid brand means coming up with a product that is unique and powerful. And this means the ability to evoke emotions in people. And this isn’t just speculation: A recent study indicated that 71% of people surveyed would straightforwardly admit to recommending brands that make them emotional. You should be able to tell a story with your brand that will bring out emotions and hit your viewers in the gut. This will also help ensure that your message stays with your viewers and makes them remember you in the future.

Think about which emotions your brand should evoke in people and work on integrating them into your brand storytelling. This can include both visual and audio elements. Incorporating music clips into your videos can give them an extra edge to really grasp your viewers’ attention. Consider your brand’s personality or the one you want to project from the archetypes shown below. Creating a match between your perceived personality and your target market is a great tool for success.

Create an interactive experience

People will be far more likely to stay engaged if they feel like they are personally involved in a production. You can accomplish this in a number of different ways. You can include things like games, trivia sessions, or even virtual reality clips into your videos. Particularly if your brand is one that you want people to get a feel for, immersing them in it in a “real-world” environment could be very beneficial for you.

Build authenticity

Whether it’s visual or text-based, authenticity in brand storytelling is critical for marketing success.

Here’s what Karl Moore had to say about authenticity in an article on Forbes:

The authentic self is a goal for all four generations alive today: Seniors, Boomers, Xers, but most especially, Millennials. It can mean something different for each generation, and it evolves over time. We believe that Millennials are the most critical – they are the future. The better you are at being an authentic leader, the more your Millennials employees will appreciate you.

We’ve heard time and time again that the postmodern worldview is increasingly shaped by the influence of technology and social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… the plethora of social media has made it harder to fake it. People can learn about others much easier in this day and age and put their stories to the test. Before any scheduled meeting, strangers can (and do) simply Google your name and have instant access to your information, from your LinkedIn profile to other more random information about you. I am amazed what people I have never met can bring up in our first meeting. Being authentic, these days, has much to do with the self you portray both online and offline – do they match up, or is one, presumably your on-line one, merely a persona?

Authenticity means exposing your true self and sharing authentic content as a corporation. Don’t try to be something you’re not, and don’t expect your community to engage with inauthentic content.

Authenticity, whether in visual storytelling or text storytelling, means you present a consistent brand across online and offline sources. That you don’t just talk the talk, but live it.

A good example is McDonald’s. Through its various charitable efforts, McDonald’s is authentic when it tells a story of community involvement and its efforts to be a good corporate citizen. In fact, McDonald’s would do well to play this up more in its visual storytelling.

Now contrast that with Coke, which uses sappy visual storytelling, such as its role in family gatherings. This doesn’t ring as true as Coke, as a company, does little to support the story other than exist.

Use aspiration

If you believe that your brand is something that can help people improve or make the world a better place, use your brand storytelling to draw out this characteristic. Videos can be anything you want them to be, of course, so you can create a picture of a world in which using your product can make people happier, more productive, successful, or whatever your brand strives towards.

This doesn’t mean that you have to deceive people. Your videos can be futuristic and fun, for example, but mesh with your brand’s primary message.

Illustrate your brand’s values

Many people identify with brands that they feel they can personally relate to. In fact, the reason that Corporate Social Responsibility has become such a major talking point is that many people are starting to insist on certain ethical standards with regard to brands. If you make your brand’s values clear to your audience, you will be much more likely to gain devoted followers than if you simply create a brand that tries to be all things to all people.

If you create something that is eco-conscious, use your videos to illustrate this. Many software programs include great coloring techniques that can help you use green or eco-friendly tones in your videos. Below are some values that are important to Gen Z consumers. A different target market might include a different set of values or a different distribution of them.

Incorporate user-generated content

User-generated content is becoming increasingly popular with brands in all industries. It can be a very powerful tool because viewers can more easily relate to other product users than they can to marketers.

If you are creating videos, try to include clips of people using or talking about your product. People will identify with other people who look like them and will more easily visualize using your product if they see others being satisfied with it. This doesn’t mean that you should leave out your own message entirely, but try to incorporate these clips tastefully and in the right proportion.

How to become a brand storyteller

Some brands just aren’t comfortable telling a story, while others don’t know how to tell brand stories. So, here are some ideas to get you started.

Plan

First, consider your target market and the brand image that you feel will resonate with them. Define your image based on those of your competition, as well, to ensure you stand out in the crowded market most companies swim in. That means research is the first step as you redefine the customer experience for your brand. Determine not only what your brand stands for but how to translate that into meaningful messages and visuals to use ubiquitously across your marketing efforts. Stay consistent by creating a style guide that reinforces that image, including the colors, images, fonts, and messages that support your brand.

For instance, I have a brand called Living While Gray. The messaging is one that resonates with my target market (I hope), which is comprised of women over 50 who want to be heard in a world that seems only to value youth. The tagline is: “Women of a certain age who never learned to sit down, shut up, and act their age.” The color scheme is vibrant and the images show women in active pursuits that celebrate this time in their lives without the common theme of how to look or feel younger.

Execute

Nothing creates engagement more than a powerful visual. So, include great images and videos as part of your brand story. Ensure these stories aren’t just statements of fact but contain emotional content that drives engagement by hooking your audience on the characters and the problems they face.

Stay consistent so the story doesn’t get muddled. And since nothing happens overnight, plan to produce stories and supporting materials frequently.

Assess

Assess the performance of your stories. Which stories work well and which ones don’t? That means creating KPIs for not only terminal goals like conversion but intermediate goals such as engagement and awareness. By assessing your performance across these multiple goals, you will get better at creating stories to engage your market over time and convert them into customers.

Distribute your videos

Once you have created your videos, be sure to share them on the channels that you think will be most beneficial for your brand’s growth. Do some research on the media most frequently used by your target audience and focus your efforts on those places. This will help ensure that you reach the right people and keep their attention once you find them.

Conclusion

Incorporating brand storytelling into your videos and using high-quality video editing techniques to enhance these stories can help your business reach its target market and create a lasting, emotional connection with these consumers.

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