What is brand awareness and how does it affect your larger business? As it turns out, it affects things a great deal. According to Harvard Business Review, 64% of people said that shared values were the main reason why they had a relationship with a brand in the first place. Regardless of the industry that you’re operating in, building brand awareness should essentially be one of your highest priorities at all times.
In many ways, brand recognition is about a lot more than whether someone instantly recognizes your logo when they see it or not. It’s about the long-lasting, meaningful relationship that you’re able to forge with your target audience. It’s about the feeling and emotion that you’re able to invoke at the mere mention of your company. It’s about loyalty, respect and honor – all in one convenient package.
In 2017, it’s clear that video is one of the best ways to build brand awareness that is currently available. Not only is most of the traffic on the Internet solely dedicated to video, but it’s also a terrific way to increase conversion rates, generate new leads, and boost engagement at the same time. All of this will be hugely beneficial when it comes to using video for that always-important goal of raising brand awareness.
First things first
If you really want to use video to increase brand awareness, you’ll need to first start by defining your target audience. It can’t be “everyone” – that will have you trying to essentially hit far too many moving targets. Think about your ideal customers and the specific types of people you’re trying to reach:
- Where do they watch videos?
- What type of videos do they watch?
- What do they find helpful?
- What do they need?
The answer to these questions will give you a better idea of how you must proceed when creating content moving forward.
Along these lines, you should always tailor your value proposition to different buying audiences. It’s difficult to get a Baby Boomer and a Millennial to agree on just about anything, even if they both inherently like the same idea. As a result, your video content will need to re-frame your message to better communicate with the specific people you’re trying to reach at the moment.
The power of “About Us” video
When it comes to building brand awareness, trust is one quality that you can never have too much of. As a result, your first priority should be in creating an “About Us” video in an effort to build trust with your audience. Tell your company story – talk about what your company does, why it does it and how you’re trying to make the world a better place. You can even create a video interview with company leadership to give a first-hand account to why your offering is better or more meaningful than that of your competitors.
Experimenting with other types of video content
The most important thing to remember about all this is that “video,” as a communications medium, is inherently malleable. Different types of videos can all accomplish different things, provided you approach things from an angle that is easily digestible to your target audience.
General explainer videos are a great way to help audiences understand not just your value proposition and what you’re offering, but why these things matter in their lives. This is the key to building brand awareness regardless of the product or service you are offering, and this is what makes each and every company create explainer videos for their audiences.
A product overview video, for example, can be a perfect way to spark interest for your product or brand by showing off what makes it unique and what problems it can solve. A demonstration video can be a huge boost to people who may be on the fence about a purchase (along with your sales teams) by explaining complicated technical details in an easy-to-understand way.
Customer testimonials are also great types of videos, as peer recommendations are very impactful for consumers. They’re essential for creating an emotional appeal for your brand, and more and more people today rely on online testimonials as much as on personal recommendations.
Digital outreach channels
Once you’ve taken steps to create your video content, distribution becomes your next focus. Video ads are a great way to get your content in front of the eyes of as many people as possible, by leveraging paid advertising, PPC channels, and social ads to your advantage.
Videos can also be a tremendous way to engage your audience through social media. Not only can social videos entertain, but also educate or inspire your followers, helping establish a thought leadership (or any other) position for your brand. A huge portion of your audience is hanging out on social media right now and you suddenly have a mechanism (video) to reach them every waking hour of the day, which makes social videos one of the most-used type of content so far.
The bottom line
It’s also important for you to remember that there is no real “one size fits all” way to generate brand awareness. Different audiences will need to be reached in different ways and even though video is powerful, a single video isn’t enough to get the job done. You will need to become intimately familiar with the folks you’re trying to reach so that you can get the right message in front of the right people in the right way at the right time.
Have you incorporated video content into your marketing and PR efforts so far? If so, how do the videos vary for different channels? Share your best practices in the comments below.