Here’s Why Video Is The Most Powerful Medium To Share Your Brand’s Story

There’s a video style for every brand. The trick is deciding what works for your particular brand’s story. What you choose depends on what your brand is trying to achieve.

It’s not a cut-and-paste process for everyone – it depends on what your desired outcome is. What will make this video successful – is it reach? Engagement? Donations? What are you trying to inspire your audience to do after watching? Are you trying to inform them? Are you trying to demonstrate something, or are you trying to inspire them to attend your virtual event?

Start by asking yourself some questions about your video’s purpose, and then think about style. Let’s say you’re making a video to train analysts about cognitive biases. Sounds like a complicated video with a ton of information, right? Where do you even begin?

Start by answering these questions:

• Who are we trying to inform?
• What do they care about?
• Why do we need them to watch this video?
• How/Where will they be consuming the content?
• What do they already know about the subject?
• What action are we trying to inspire them to take?
• How do we want them to react emotionally?
• What tone works best for presenting the information?

Questions like these begin to reveal style choices that lend themselves naturally to the way the story should be crafted. The process often ends up being more intuitive than you might expect. For example, in a case like cognitive bias, you wouldn’t likely suggest an emotional documentary because that’s not how your targeted audience will best receive the information, and the style just doesn’t match your topic. It’s not emotional and definitely too long-form for what you’re trying to achieve. You’d go with an approach that’s conducive to education, with graphics to supplement to make it a little easier to grasp the complex ideas you’re sharing.

You need to start with an understanding of what it is that you’re ultimately trying to inspire your audience to do and the overall goal of the video.

When it comes to engagement, a great way to inspire participation is to be open and give viewers a really easy way to interact with your brand.

Share your videos on social media where viewers can comment, like, and share your video with their follower base. The most important part is that your brand engages with your audience, too. It’s a two-way street!

Show your audience that your brand is accessible and that you acknowledge their support. It creates a sense of exclusivity for those that engage with you and shines a more human light on your organization.

We’ll keep shouting this from the rooftops – AUTHENTICITY IS KEY! When a video is over-polished, it seems unrealistic and doesn’t give your audience a true chance to connect with you. You want to show your viewers who you really are – the ping pong table in the kitchen, the midday employee coffee walks – give them an inside-look. It’s so much easier for your audience to connect when what you’re sharing is relatable. Not many people can relate to a slow-motion-pan of an executive smiling against a beautifully-lit city skyline on top of a skyscraper roof deck that you don’t work in.

Transparency allows people to see themselves there – engaging with your product, service or working as an employee.