Establishing a new brand is a tough task which needs a concentrated marketing strategy. Business owners must exploit all channels to promote their brand.
A video is a very powerful medium that can be used for the purpose. Videos can be effective tools for brand emotion and at the same time help meet other marketing goals like better conversion rate and improved product understanding.
A clip that goes viral over the internet can turn an unknown entity into a household name. With more and more internet users searching for visual content, it makes sense to use it as an advertising tool.
Here is a list of video marketing tips to boost brand awareness that will help small brands grow big.
Let’s take a look at what can be achieved with video marketing.
1. Brand Awareness Objectives To Be Met
Creating awareness about a product or service is necessary for increasing its sales. The more people know about a brand, the better the chances of it being purchased by them.
The new customers will also tell their friends about the new product. Brand awareness is all about defining a brand and the following objectives can be realized through it:
1. Portraying The Image Of The Brand
One of the biggest challenges for any new product is to effectively portray its image among prospective customers. It must be decided beforehand how you want to position your product.
Do you want to project it as a fun brand or you want to emphasize its dependability? The marketing campaign must be created accordingly and the messaging must be consistent across all channels. Let’s consider the example of Colgate toothpaste.
It has built up its image as a reliable product for dental hygiene. Even when it uses kids in its commercials, the focus is on the trustworthiness rather than fun elements.
Whether print, TV or any other medium, the messaging remains the same- a toothpaste that fights germs. Building a brand image is the biggest objective of any new business.
It helps in influencing customer’s buying behavior and improves the sales.
2. Communicating The USP
Communicating your unique selling proposition (USP) or the feature that makes your product unique is another key marketing objective. The USP helps potential customers understand the problem you are solving apart from the value being offered by your brand.
USPs are crucial for establishing a new entrant in a crowded field. They also help influence customers in choosing the product over its rivals. A well-thought selling proposition will effectively communicate your brand’s advantage in a persuasive manner.
In fact, the USP must be the foundation on which the entire promotional strategy must be created. Focusing on the USP in this manner will ensure that all marketing campaigns are in perfect synchronization.
A compelling proposition that is easily recalled by people will be helpful in influencing their buying choices.
3. Consistency In Communicating The Message
In order to establish a brand in its domain, the promotional message must be conveyed in a consistent manner across diverse channels. The design elements or the slogans must be the same whether they appear in print or on an electronic medium. A good example of this is Coca-Cola.
The above image appeared in the “We Do” campaign run by the company in the United Kingdom earlier this year. You do not need to read the whole copy and a glance is enough to understand that it’s a Coca-Cola ad.
Whether an ad campaign has been made for social media or for print, the uniformity in design is evident. The beverage giant uses the same taglines across different mediums.
Imagine the effect on potential consumers who are being conveyed the same message on different channels. It will leave an impression on their minds and chances are a majority of them will choose Coke.
2. How To Boost Brand Awareness With Video
Let’s now take a look at some helpful video marketing tips to boost brand awareness.
1. Research Your Target Audience
The messaging of the video must resonate with potential customers. It becomes necessary, therefore, to research your target audience to understand their tastes and choices.
Conduct surveys to know their interests and the type of language they use for communication. This will help in creating the content for the clips. Youngsters use a lot of slang and if they are the target audience, then the video must reflect that.
On the other hand, when focusing on sophisticated clientele, formal language in a business-like tone will be required. The audience must connect with the visuals for it to be effective. Once you know the mindset of your ideal customer, it will be easy to fashion content that he/she will like.
2. Create Original And Arresting Content
You need to make your video stand out from the billions of clips floating in the virtual world. In order to grab people’s attention, you need to make a clip with unique and arresting content.
No one is interested in watching a kind of content that they have seen earlier. The screengrab given below is from the “Friends Furever” campaign of Android which came out in 2015.
Its a collection of visuals featuring different animals playing with each other. It showed even hostile species like a kitten and chicks playing together which justified its tagline “Be Together. Not The Same.”
It was one of the most shared videos of that year. The clips curated for the ad might not have been original but the idea behind it definitely was.
3. Create A Clear But Concise Message
One of the most important factors to be considered is the length of the video. The attention span of modern customers is extremely low. You cannot expect them to spend more than a few minutes to watch your content.
The branding message must have clarity in order to be effective but it also needs to be concise. Take a look at how the popular fast food chain McDonald’s delivered an effective branding message in a few seconds.
Everyone knows about the Big Mac, the legendary burger offered by the chain. Last year, it ran a funny campaign on the occasion of April Fool’s day to launch the Micro Mac. Just about 30 seconds long the clip created a buzz around the brand.
A simple but effective idea presented in a few seconds resulted in a successful campaign. This ad perfectly conveys the power of a brand.
4. Promote The Content Extensively
You might have created the best video but no one will see it if they do not know about it. All the effort and resources that were invested in the creation will go waste.
Promote the content extensively across all possible platforms. Post it on video-sharing networks like YouTube and share it on social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. Send it out in email newsletters to your existing clients.
If there is another industry-specific platform in your business domain, use it too. Do not leave any stone unturned in promoting your clip.
Give it a chance to be seen by the maximum possible people so that it can be shared even more. Do not forget to post the clip on the platforms frequented the most by your target audience.
5. Never Compromise On Quality
The video content created for your brand must be of high quality. People today are regularly being exposed to beautifully shot and cut videos.
They will not watch a clip made without any technical finesse. Engage professionals to shoot and edit the film. This may cost money but a viral video giving immense publicity to your brand is definitely worth every penny.
Featured above is a screenshot from the Reebok 25,915 days. A part of the #HonorYourDays campaign the video showed the journey of a woman from birth to old age- in reverse.
The clip starts with an old woman running the Spartan race and ends with a baby in a hospital crib. The video showed how the sportswear brand was a part of the majority of days of that woman’s life.
The message could have been conveyed in the usual fashion-showing the journey from childhood to old age.
The innovative use of showing it in reverse apart from brilliant use of technology in merging graphics with the visuals made it one of the most popular videos.
Conclusion:
Visuals have immense communicating power and videos can be used to effectively promote any product or service. What you must remember though, is that you get a single chance to make a lasting first impression.
Take help from the above-mentioned video marketing tips to brand awareness to create a clip that will be not only liked but also shared by members of your target audience.