We all know video has always been a powerful way to advertise. Nowadays, video is becoming more action-oriented as it’s expanding across the entire customer journey, leveraged by platforms like YouTube where new video formats allow marketers to start optimizing for specific user actions, like signing up for a service or buying a product.
The big question is how do you create a video – that apart of telling a good story, can also drive real business results?
Well, today Vidico will share three tips brands do really well in terms of effective storytelling video ads and full-funnel video marketing that we think other advertisers could learn from.
1. Use Humor To Tell Your Story
The most effective way to grab attention and break through the noise is by educating through humor. It makes sense that this strategy works considering the main reasons why people use platforms like YouTube or Vimeo it is to be entertained and/or to learn something new.
One helpful tip is to avoid the common mistake of starting from the solution and listing features. Instead, figure out your audience’s pain points to show that you can empathise with their problems, and use humour to explore how your going to solve these problems with real benefits.
Check out this example where we collaborated with the awesome team at Vervoe to create their official brand video.
2. Make It Effortless for Viewers To Become Customers
Telling an inspiring story is a powerful tool for brand awareness. However, the idea is not only to educate and entertain, but also invite viewers to click and make further action along the funnel. Storytelling (or shall we say storyselling?) is all about movement. It means your video should explain how to get from one state of being to another. In the viewer’s case, it would mean how they get from the old obsolete way of doing something to the easier and smarter way.
The best way of doing this is indeed showing viewers what they need, or what to do as a next step. Bear in mind, a successful resolution needs to be at the end of a great story — but more than this, it needs to create an action point for your viewer. This is known as your call-to-action. This can be a link to purchase, a free sign-up offer or a simple call to get in touch. Typically the call-to-action with a specific offer will always yield the best results.
That’s why it’s important for videos to be concise and engaging because the more viewers who lose interest due to duration half-way through, the less people you’re going to be exposing to the next action step — and you’ll miss out on that vital customer interaction.
When it comes to promotional content, it’s much more beneficial to make a short, sharp and punch video that viewers get to the end of, than to create a long and detailed one.
To watch an example check out our commercial video produced for Vidello’s video hosting and marketing solutions.
3. Test and Measure What Really Matters
It’s very common for digital marketers to set KPIs around views and click-through rates, and then correlate these metrics with conversions and return on ad spend. This becomes a problem when you realise you need to change something in the messaging.
That’s why when thinking about video marketing campaigns it’s highly recommended to shoot multiple versions of your video — or at least certain scenes, and then testing them with small audiences to get feedback and track conversions.
