by Not only will video branding clarify the messaging for a brand, it will also make it easier for brands to convey complex messaging more simply. Through the use of video branding, brands are also establishing themselves as a unique identity that audiences will quickly identify with. The wide variety of options available to consumers means that consumers will only choose to do business with brands that are perceived to be authentic.
The Building Blocks for Digital Brand Development that Strengthens Video Branding
The digital brand is a company’s overall look, sound, and communication style in the digital space.
Digital Branding Foundation
Companies should use consistent digital branding foundations when developing their Video Branding strategy to maximise the effectiveness of their Video Branding efforts. According to HubSpot, using consistent branding helps customers to identify and recognise a brand quicker and to develop greater trust in the brand.
When a company’s Video Branding aligns with the company’s core values, messaging and visuals utilized across its various Website(s) and Social Media Sites, the brand will benefit from increased brand recognition. The colours, fonts, styles, messages and voice of each video created with a company’s branding will be consistent across each video.
For example, Apple has established itself has a strong brand with loyal customers through the use of video branding. Because viewers will be familiar with the brand through previous videos, they will have less confusion and be able to recall the brand at a higher rate over an extended period of time (Part 2).
Storytelling and Audience-Centric Video Branding Techniques
As a result of building an emotional connection, the company can build an ongoing relationship with the audience. Research conducted by Wyzowl indicates that video content based on storytelling is more memorable and has a higher retention than non-storytelling video content.
Utilizing Video Styles Based on Consumption Habits
Instagram-Reels.jpg” alt=”https://www.socialpilot.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Instagram-Reels.jpg” />Utilizing video styles based on the consumption habits of your audience. A brand video is more engaging to viewers when you use their habits for using each social media channel and create a video that meets their needs. A short version of your product/service works best on TikTok and Instagram and a longer version is better suited for YouTube where people will see it as a resource to learn more about the product/service.
Establishing Natural Connections Through Video Branding
Video Branding should have a pace that is comfortable for the viewer, simple graphics that they can understand, and a conversational tone that makes them feel comfortable to interact with you and share their opinion without feeling intimidated. If a viewer interacts with the brand by liking, commenting, and sharing, it increases the likelihood of the viewer being ready for the next step of Video Branding, which is conversion focused.
Video Branding Strategies That Increase Conversions
Transform Video Branding into Actionable Content
Creating Clear Lines of Conversion
If each video has an identifiable purpose and direction, Video Branding is most effective in driving sales. After watching a video, the viewer should know exactly what action you want them to take for your brand. According to the Wistia study, videos that include clear Calls to Action are much more effective than those without Calls to Action and, therefore, only focus on building awareness.
Building Trust Prior to Requesting Action
Eliminate Doubt Through Transparency
Trust is an essential element of conversion. Video branding eliminates the doubts of consumers by providing the necessary information to help them make a purchase.
Using Videos to Increase Conversions Through Strategic Placement
Using Videos: Matching Content with User Actionable Items to Increase Conversions. How You Place Your Videos on Your Website Impacts Your Conversion Rate.
Creating A Brand’s Identity through Consistent Use of Video Branding
Using Consistent and Recognizable Visuals
A brand’s video branding is comprised of visually consistent and recognizable branding elements. Brands will use the same colors, images, and motion graphic styles repeatedly in order to create visual recognition for their audiences. Nike is an example of a global brand that has developed visual recognition through consistent use of its video branding elements.
Voice and Tone of Video Content Creating Familiarity with a Brand
Video content is one of the many ways that a brand communicates with its consumers; the manner in which a brand communicates will have a significant impact on how a consumer remembers that brand. When a brand creates a consistent tone in order to communicate who their Brand is, what they stand for, and how they want to be perceived, the brand can cultivate familiarity and create an emotional connection with its audiences over time.
According to a recent article published by Forbes, brands that communicate in a consistent voice develop a greater level of trust and loyalty from their customers and build that trust and loyalty over the long term. Video Formats Change, But Your Brand’s Identity Must Remain Stable. This stability allows you to provide more in-depth engagement opportunities as described in the next section.
Understanding Audience Preferences Through Data
Utilizing Data to Make Creative Decisions
By using the actual behaviours of your audiences to understand their video engagement, you can enhance the potential for greater engagement through video branding. You can measure your audiences’ behaviours with respect to engagement through various methods, including Watch Time and Drop-offs, which allow you to identify what caused the viewers to be interested.
Providing Audiences Personalized Video Content
For instance, by utilizing the audience’s preferences to match the video content they produce, Netflix is demonstrating that personalizing video branding increases engagement with their customers.
Utilizing Real People to Channel Authenticity
Utilizing Real People to Promote Inner Feelings and Channel Authenticity. The use of real people rather than over-produced images or actors allows the audience to develop a deeper emotional connection with video branding. When an individual communicates using natural language, it is much more likely that an emotional connection will occur with the audience. With this level of authenticity, audiences will be able to comfortably view conversion-related content in subsequent sections of the document.
How To Cross-Utilize Video Branding Throughout a Customer’s Journey And Inevitably Create More Conversion
Video Branding Strategies For The Awareness Stage
During the Awareness stage, your video branding efforts should focus on Educating The Audience and creating awareness of the Problem rather than promoting sales. Using Short Explainer Videos and Brand Stories will give the customer better insight into what they must deal with and the options available to them. According to HubSpot, if a brand creates helpful material to use during the Awareness Stage, it helps establish Trust and increases the chances of conversion later in the process.
Video Branding During the Consideration Stage
During the Consideration Stage, the audience would be looking to address their questions and clarify the options they are considering for solutions. A Video Branding Strategy Can Eliminate Any Uncertainty About How To Get Started and Build the Confidence They Need To Acquire Your Product. Through the Use of Salesforce Demo’s or Explainer videos, the Company Has Simplified Complex Concepts to Enable Customers to Make Confident Buying Decisions.
The Video Branding Content Should Build Confidence and Eliminate Any Remaining Roadblocks
The Video Branding Content Should Build Confidence and Eliminate Any Remaining Roadblocks at the Decision- Level (the End of the Buying Journey). When Reaching the Decision-Level During the Buying Process, Video Branding Must Remove the Risk Associated With Making a Purchase and Encourage Confident Action By Creating Social Proof In The Form of Testimonials, Guarantees, and Clear Calls to Action, That Allow Viewers to Feel Secure in Their Decision to Purchase.
By Providing A Structured Path to Increase Conversion Rates, Video Branding Also Reinforces The Brand Identity Through The Use Of Social Proof. Social proof is one of the most valuable assets available to a brand’s digital video marketing programme/strategy because the consumer has much more trust in the opinion of other customers when making a purchasing decision than they do in the marketing message of the company’s brand (the company). In fact, video branding that features actual customers providing their feedback about their experience with a brand has been shown to be far more relatable and trustworthy than any form of traditional marketing.
The company BrightLocal recently released a study that found that 76% of all consumers say they trust positive online reviews more than recommendations from family and friends, and they will actually make their purchasing decision based on the results of the positive online reviews.
Customer Testimonial Videos Enable Companies
Customer testimonial videos enable companies to allow their customers to share their honest and true thoughts about the products and/or services of that brand. When customers have the opportunity to share their honest and candid opinions about the products and/or services of that brand over and over again in their own words, they have provided a lot of emotional credibility to the products and/or services of that brand, thereby eliminating a lot of doubt in the minds of consumers as they move through the buying process for these products and/or services.
Companies that have customer testimonial videos (like the ones featured on Amazon) enable their customers to make quicker and more confident purchasing decisions.
When Done Correctly, the Use of Influencers
When done correctly, the use of influencers (aka: bloggers) and industry experts as sources of credible information about products and services can build credibility for brands via video branding. Brands can scale up their efforts with video branding without sacrificing authentic branding confidence.
A case in point is the effort to develop and release new video systems to brands. Brands must have a systematic and standardised approach to developing their brand image using consistent branding to create brand consistency.
Having a repeatable format and template ensures that brands can better scale their video branding efforts using sets of repeatable formats and templates.
Brands Have Established Video Branding Guidelines
Brands have established video branding guidelines to ensure that all of the company’s internal team members are aligned with each other and with the external video creators and providers of the company. Even though the number of videos produced may increase substantially, the overall performance of these videos will not be negatively affected by an increase in the volume of videos being produced.
By continually reviewing and analysing video performance statistics, companies can ensure that the quality of the videos they create is maintained at its highest level, and that they are in a position to implement video performance metrics and video optimisation initiatives as specified in Section Nine.
Video Engagement Performance and its Relevance to Digital Branding
A brand’s video branding and/or video marketing efforts are determined by its choice of video performance metrics and the level of viewer engagement with those videos. “View count” metrics alone do not convey the full picture regarding how successful a video has been. Third, brands should measure and report on video view interactions with their audiences.
Fortunately, brands have access to a wealth of data via YouTube Analytics, providing brands with detailed video viewing behaviour data to better understand what parts of the video audiences engaged with, when audiences engaged, and where audiences were lost during the video.
Digital Branding initiatives are executed most successfully when businesses establish connections between Video Engagement performance metrics with overall Digital Branding objectives (Examples: Increase Traffic, Increase Leads, Increase Sales). Through careful analysis of the conversion rate for video engagement, organisations can understand the extent to which their video content influences users’ behaviour on their sites or encourages them to sign up to receive marketing. Using Google Analytics allows brands to establish these connections between Video Engagement conversion rates and Customer Journey conversion rates.
Using Performance Data to Improve Future Video Initiatives
For brands, it is crucial to use the video performance data from their Digital Branding campaigns when creating new Video Initiatives, regardless of whether or not the organisation wants the new content to be similar to the previous versions of the videos. If brands do not analyse the performance data from their prior video campaign, there will be many missed opportunities to improve the structure, pacing and message of their video since they will not know what worked and what did not from the previous campaign. Brands will also be better positioned to prepare for the next phase of structured video testing and optimisation.
Testing and Experimenting with Video Formats and Messages Through A/B Testing
Another way to test your video production methods against each other is through A/B testing. Each difference between the videos’ formats, messages, and/or tones will inform the brand what types of formats, messages, and/or tones yield higher performance for them. Many video hosting providers such as Wistia provide A/B testing services that help companies experiment with their branding in a formalized manner without dramatically changing it.
Keeping Human Elements in Your Videos and Staying Current with Trends
When video content is being optimized, the need to be creative is just as critical to your video success as it was when it was originally created. Analytics can provide you with information regarding the types of videos that perform best within your audience’s demographics, while being creative provides a way for you to keep your brand’s human elements connected to your video content and maintain an element of relatability in your video content. Even as we continue to see trends evolve, balancing these two very different aspects will help ensure the continued effectiveness of your video branding as you develop future video strategies.
How Short-Form Video Align with Modern Attention Span
The rise of short-form video has been fueled by a more effective way of communicating to a younger audience: through extremely short-form videos, you can now create enough engagement for your audience to stay engaged and to take action. Brands who historically have used video in their branding strategy and are creating new video formats tailored to their evolving audience have had a higher degree of success than brands who have had to alter their video branding strategy in order to reach a new target audience in a different market.
Promoting Real over Perfection
With changing consumer preferences, many consumers want to see less polished, more authentic video content. Low-polish video content is viewed as ‘real’, and therefore, trusted more than highly polished advertisements. Brands who are willing to provide raw footage, of real people at real events, are more likely to build an engaged and loyal audience.
Maintaining consistency with core messaging will allow brands to create long-term digital branding opportunities. In addition to providing a foundation for the ultimate strategies that tie your brand to the audience, you will also create more flexible brands that will allow you to develop stronger digital strategies that are implemented in a consistent manner.
Incorporating Video Branding into Digital Paid Advertising
Video branding improves paid advertisements through visual and messaging consistency with your brand’s digital branding.
Branding creates trust and familiarity for your brand when advertisements have similar looks and feel.
Video ads capture viewers’ attention and provide ongoing engagement with viewers on both Meta Ads and Google Ads.
Align Your Advertisements to Your Audience’s Mind
The success of video branding paid advertisements is contingent upon the correlation of the advertisement’s content with the stage in your audience’s Buying Journey.
Awareness advertisements provide an educational connection, while retargeting advertisements provide a reassurance and/or additional value connection.
When your brand creates custom video content based on the target audiences’ intent, your brand will increase its ability to engage your target audience.
This also helps decrease your customer acquisition costs.
Establish Your Budget by Reviewing Performance Metrics
Utilize Performance Data to Optimize Your Ads
Performance metrics provide brands with the ability to improve the performance of their video advertisements, without increasing their advertising expenditures.
This ultimately helps improve personalisation strategies.
Brand Consistency Across Personalised Video Branding
The Importance of Personalising Video Branding Creating a Direct Connection with Your Audience
Using data ethically and transparently means creating personalised videos that feel relevant and valuable to your customers.
Brands have a responsibility to create messages for their customers that are specific to their behaviour, industry and interests while still maintaining their privacy.
Repeated Exposure Will Build Trust and Comfort
Thinking long term when it comes to video branding means building long lasting assets, not just short term marketing campaigns.
Evergreen content has the ability to support digital branding continuously after the video is initially released.
Creating evergreen video content allows brands to maintain ongoing levels of engagement with their audience through the creation of reusable video content.
Repeated exposure will increase trust and comfort with a brand’s elements of video branding.
This means the more often a brand uses video branding across many distribution platforms, the more trusted and comfortable the audience becomes with that brand.
A Long-Term View of Your Brand Affects Growth
Video branding can change, but it is imperative that brands maintain the message behind the branding as they continue to develop.
Brands should establish a systematic plan for building their video branding strategy over a prolonged period.
Promotional videos do not always work well for companies because they often turn off an audience when a brand is pushing too much of its product or service within one video.
The best performing type of video content usually gives value to the viewer prior to requesting anything (HubSpot).
In addition, the top performing video content types include educational and storytelling.
To enhance how brands create video branding strategies, brands should use data from comments, engagement metrics, and performance metrics.
If you do not gather this information, then how are you supposed to continue to grow?
Learning from audience feedback will improve your overall audience engagement.
This will also provide insights into applying best practices discussed in Section 16.
Successful Video Branding Strategies for the Future
When developing a plan for video branding you will create a video branding strategy that will generate a strong digital branding strategy.
What you would like to achieve, such as an increase in brand awareness, audience engagement, or conversions, will provide you with direction to develop your video branding strategy.
By establishing an initial set of goals for their video branding strategy before producing any video, brands establish a higher likelihood of creating successful video branding strategies that consistently deliver results.
One area of focus for video branding should be on investing in the appropriate quality of audio and video.
This should be done without spending excessively on creating a high-end video production.
By reviewing the videos previously created, brands will find areas where they can enhance their engagement with their audience further.
Conclusion
In closing, video branding has become a fundamental element of digital branding.
It serves as a vehicle for connecting the brand and audience on a personal, memorable basis.
Brands whose use of video branding clearly establishes their brand identity create a higher level of trust with their target audience.
This leads to a higher level of audience engagement over time.
In addition, well-established video branding strategies drive conversions.
By creating a clearly defined path for customers through a consistent value-based experience, brands reduce potential roadblocks and increase consumer confidence.
Brands that follow established best practices and continuously produce consistent messaging with an audience-first focus will also have long-term business success.
Through the avoidance of common mistakes while adhering to established best practices, the creation of video branding strategies that will serve the needs of businesses well into the future is possible.
Implementing a video branding strategy will create strong connections, increase audience engagement, and enable brands to achieve sustained growth across all digital marketing platforms.
