In this article
Storytelling is the art of using words, imagery, sounds, and emotions to weave in your brand’s message and connect with your target audience. It has now become a powerful tool to capture attention, communicate value, and persuade the target audience to take action.
TikTok. Instagram. YouTube. Every channel is now inundated with appealing videos. Brands are weaving in storytelling in video marketing to build a strong brand identity.
This article digs deeper into storytelling in video marketing. We further discuss how to craft a winning video storytelling strategy to drive results.
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Why storytelling matters in video marketing
There are several reasons why storytelling matters in video marketing. Let’s look at a few primary reasons a little closer.
Better engagement
Wyzowl surveyed 967 marketing professionals and online consumers. They found that 91% of businesses used video as a marketing tool in 2023. In the same survey, 88% of video marketers claimed video marketing to be essential to their overall marketing strategy.
The reason is simple. Humans are naturally drawn to stories. They help us make sense of the world and our place in it. When viewers see storytelling videos, it captivates their attention more effectively than mere facts and figures.
Emotional connection
Stories can evoke emotions, creating a deeper bond between the brand and the viewer. This emotional connection can build trust and turn new customers into loyal brand advocates.
Look at this Volkswagon video marketing campaign, for instance:
In the ad, a mother reassures her daughter about her first day of school. A parallel story shows a distracted woman driving to work.
The narratives intersect, creating tension but ending happily. This emotionally charged storytelling highlights safety and helps build a connection with viewers.
Staying memorable
Research shows that stories activate brain parts associated with visual and auditory processing. This makes the information more memorable.
In a marketplace filled with constant sensory overload, weaving a narrative in your video marketing campaigns can help you set your brand apart and build a special place in your viewers’ minds.
Whether it’s for marketing campaigns, social media content, or corporate presentations, your brand image gets affected. So, you can always go with video editing services to elevate your brand’s image and leave a lasting impression on your audience.
For example, Nike’s video campaigns often tell stories of determination and overcoming challenges. This narrative aligns with the brand’s message and leaves a lasting impression.
Nike – Dream Crazier | #JustDoIt
Types of video marketing
Different video types perform unique roles in sharing the brand’s message.
Don’t know where to start? Here’s an overview of some of the most popular types of video marketing content:
1. Brand films
Brand films are an integral part of a company’s content operations. They’re like movie trailers, showing a brand’s values and mission through emotions.
Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign is a perfect example of this type of video marketing campaign. Dove uses short films to promote body positivity, which helps the brand enhance their image and invoke customer loyalty.
2. Live streams
Live streams help you engage your audience by:
- Broadcasting company events
- Holding Q&A sessions
- Displaying behind-the-scenes activities
- Or hosting other real-time interactions
The best part? Major social platforms like Facebook and Instagram let you conduct live streams for free.
For example, if you want to generate leads on Facebook using content marketing, consider hosting a live stream on the platform. It’s a fun and interactive way to connect with your audience!
3. Product demos or explainer videos
This video format helps you simplify how your product works. You could do it through animations, graphics, or straightforward demonstrations.
Take the Sprouts explainer video on “The Design Thinking Process,” for example. It uses clear visuals and explanations to break down the concept, making it easy for anyone to grasp.
These types of explainer videos are particularly effective for complex products or services, as they can distill complicated information into digestible, engaging content.
4. User-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) is when customers share content related to your brand. It involves sharing videos using your product or participating in a brand-related challenge.
In the tech world, for example, enthusiasts might create comparison videos like ‘Avast VPN vs NordVPN‘ to help others choose the best VPN service based on their needs. This kind of authentic content can be incredibly valuable for potential customers who are looking for unbiased reviews and insights.
These videos from real customers rather than planned campaigns build more trust with viewers.
5. Testimonials or case studies
You can request your customers to record themselves on a webcam recorder, talking about their experiences with your product or service.
This is a great way to provide potential customers with social proof and real-world examples.
6. Webinars
Brands often use webinars to host online seminars or presentations to educate their audience about their product. They help brands generate leads or establish authority in a subject area.
Take Adobe, for example. The tech giant regularly hosts webinars to show off its upcoming features and educate customers.
Crafting your video storytelling strategy
The following steps provide a framework for creating a successful video storytelling strategy.
Know your audience
Whether you’re creating a high-conversion landing page or crafting your video storytelling strategy, identifying your target audience is usually the first step in any form of online marketing. For this purpose, you can even consider hiring a marketing agency to help discover your target audience, develop a buyer persona, analyze social media data, and implement the use of web analytics tools.
Knowing your audience will help you tailor your stories to their needs, interests, and preferences. After all, they’re the ones who will watch your videos, relate to your stories, and take action on your message.
To know your audience, you need to do some research and analysis. Here are some ways to do that:
- Define your target market. Who are the ideal customers or clients for your product or service? What are their demographics, psychographics, and behaviors? What are their pain points, objectives, and motivations?
- Create buyer personas. Buyer personas represent your ideal customers based on their needs, challenges, and expectations. You can use tools like HubSpot’s Make My Persona to create your own buyer personas.
- Conduct surveys. Surveys help you ask your audience about their preferences and opinions. Use tools like SurveyMonkey or Typeform to build online surveys or run polls on social media platforms like Instagram.
- Analyze social media data. Most offer social media analytical tools to help you track your audience’s behavior and engagement. You can also use tools like BuzzSumo to analyze online conversations and trends related to your brand and industry.
- Use web analytics tools. You can use tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar to determine the user behavior on your website, what pages they visit, how long they stay, what actions they take, and what sources they come from.
Once you have the necessary details about your target audience, you’ll be in a much better position to craft stories that resonate with them on an emotional level. This will help you capture their attention and build a lasting connection.
For instance, Protector & Gamble knows their target audience is specifically looking for ways to clean their houses as quickly as possible. To appeal to their potential customers, they created a fun storytelling ad that cleverly shows characters completing chores using their products.
Procter & Gamble Super Bowl 2020 TV Commercial When We Come Together Featuring Sofia Vergara
This approach works because it resonates with their target audience through relatable scenarios.
Develop a compelling arc
Creating a compelling arc entails taking your viewers on a journey in your video.
Simply put, a story arc is the sequence of events that builds up tension, conflict, and resolution in a narrative. A good story arc should have a clear beginning, middle, and end and follow a logical and coherent progression.
A good story progression usually consists of four main parts:
- Exposition: This is where you’ll hook your viewers’ attention and make them curious about what will happen next. Introduce your characters, setting, and your story’s main problem or goal.
- Rising action: This is where you develop your plot and increase the stakes. Show how your product can help overcome obstacles. If relevant, show how it can help you face complications and encounter twists and turns.
- Climax: This involves building up the story towards a high point of drama or action around two-thirds of the video. This is where the problem comes to a head.
- Conclusion: This is where you create a satisfying resolution. It ties up all the loose ends and leaves your viewers with a strong impression.
A classic example is Apple’s famous “Mac vs. PC” ad series, which presented conflicts and resolutions in a humorous, relatable manner.
Complete 66 Mac vs PC ads + Mac & PC WWDC Intro + Siri Intro
Weave in your brand message
The goal isn’t to merely tell a story. The goal is to tell your brand’s story in a way that appeals to your audience.
The key is to weave your brand message seamlessly into the narrative while ensuring your story unanimously reflects your brand’s voice and values.
Consider also changing the background of your photo or video content to add your brand colors or even logo to subtly reinforce your brand identity.
Red Bull does this excellently by associating its brand with extreme sports and adventure. This aligns with its tagline, “Red Bull gives you wings.”
Include captivating visuals
One of the golden rules of video storytelling is to show, not tell.
This includes using visual elements to convey your message rather than relying on text or narration alone. Visual storytelling is more memorable and can create a stronger connection with your viewers.
You can use high-definition images, animations, appealing graphics, transitions, and colors.
At the same time, maintain a consistent visual style throughout your online presence to build a strong brand identity. For example, Apple’s sleek, minimalist aesthetic is evident in all its visuals. Similarly, a cooking channel might focus on showcasing solo meals with high quality ingredients, highlighting the textures, colors, and freshness to create an engaging and appetizing visual experience.
You don’t have to stop here. Make use of artificial intelligence (AI) and visual techniques like 360-degree videos to help viewers visualize your brand and product with more clarity.
Prioritize sound design
A video campaign is incomplete without sound design. They add depth and dimension to your story and enhance its mood, atmosphere, and emotion.
Sound design includes the music, voice-over, sound effects, ambient noises, and transitions that create a realistic and immersive audio experience for your viewers.
To enhance your audiences’ experience, consider the following sound design tips:
- Choose the right music for your video. Pick suitable tunes for your music video based on your video’s genre, tempo, and message. You can use royalty-free music libraries like Bensound to do that.
- Use a voice-over to narrate your story. Hire voice actors or record your own voice. You can also use text-to-speech or text-to-video tools.
- Add sound effects. Sound effects and ambient noises will help you create a more realistic experience. Use libraries like Freesound or Soundsnap to find appropriate sounds for your video.
- Edit and mix your sound design. Finally, polish your video’s sound by adjusting its volume, pitch, and timing.
Using AI to create impactful marketing videos
If you’re involved in any form of online marketing, you know how useful AI can be. AI is everywhere — from helping you enhance your web SEO to creating content.
When it comes to creating an impactful marketing video, an AI video generator can help you with scripting, editing, voiceover, animation, and more.
AI tools can also sift through large datasets. This helps you identify audience preferences, predict trends, and deliver personalized content.
But where do you start? Here’s how you can strategize:
- Begin with audience insights. Begin with target audience research to understand your customers’ needs. Use AI tools like Qualifyed.AI to generate customer insights. You can predict lookalike audiences, automate market research, and create user personas.
- Create personalized video content (scripts and scenes). Generic marketing messages won’t do anymore. Every major brand now uses personalization to make their customers feel special. AI, again comes in handy here. For example, AI tools like InVideo can help you generate scripts and video scenes tailored to your target audience. Additionally, you should follow authentic video marketing tactics to create a result-oriented video marketing campaign for your brand.
- Finally, leverage AI-driven video production. Once you have your script, you can use another AI-based video platform, like Colossyan, to create captivating visuals. Colossyan is an AI video generator that allows you to turn text into video using AI avatars. You can choose from different AI avatars that act as presenters for your video content. You can also upload PDFs or PowerPoint slides and convert them into videos with one click.
How to measure video storytelling success
Your video marketing efforts don’t end with production. All the video storytelling efforts lead to these questions: Do your viewers appreciate the video? Is it helping you convert them into loyal customers of your brand? Are you successful in entertaining and educating them?
To measure success, you need to track key performance indicators that align with your goals.
Some of the most common video KPIs are:
- View count and engagement rates (likes, shares, comments). These metrics give an idea of your video’s outreach and whether it entertained the viewers.
- Click-through rate (CTR). It indicates the percentage of viewers who click on a link or a CTA in your video. It further tells you about your video’s conversion and revenue potential.
- Calculate conversion rates. It’s the percentage of viewers who complete an action after watching the video. It could be signing up for your newsletter or purchasing your product.
Start your video storytelling journey!
Online businesses realized the importance of video marketing and started making visually appealing videos in huge numbers.
But with increasing competition, merely creating brand videos isn’t enough. You have to infuse storytelling in video marketing to make your campaigns more unique, memorable, and persuasive.
In this article, we discussed how to achieve that — from identifying your target audience to best practices for a compelling video. We also discussed how AI tools can make it easier to help you create captivating video stories and reach your marketing goals.
If you’re unsure about taking on the entire process, outsource it to content production companies like Codeless.io. They can help you leverage storytelling in your overall video marketing strategy. Whether you need a product explainer, a customer testimonial, or a brand story, Codeless can deliver video content that works.