In a world where visual content is becoming popular every day, using a video in your brand marketing is inevitable. It plays a crucial role in the buyer’s journey and leads him from initial awareness to clicking on that buy now button. In this article, we will be talking about everything related to brand awareness, how it helps in a buyer’s journey, and how you can level it up with the help of video.
So without any ado, let’s jump in!
What is a customer’s journey?
If you know the ABC of marketing, you’ll also know that the buyer doesn’t wake up on some random day and buy your product on a whim. He goes through many different stages and thought processes before making the purchase. These stages are collectively known as the buyer’s journey.
Below given is a brief overview of each stage:
1. Awareness
This is the first step of the process. As the name suggests, in this stage, the buyers basically become aware of the fact that there’s some problem. Thus, they start looking for sources to help them accurately diagnose the problem and provide possible solutions.
At this stage, the buyer does not know what to do and where to go. They stumble upon whatever comes their way, whether a helpful video, a blog post, or some social media post made by an influencer.
This is a stage where you can shine as a brand by carefully helping them out through a brand awareness video that assesses their problem, provides them a solution and presents some solid points on why you should be on their list.
2. Consideration
In the consideration stage, the buyers know their problem. They are considering all the different possible solutions they have at hand. For example, if they have a device that isn’t working correctly, would it need to be replaced, or are there any third-party accessories that could quickly solve the issue?
Based on that, they look at different products and compare their pros and cons. Here, you must throw out everything that makes your brand unique and preferable. Everything counts to make an impression, from the UX of your website to the actual product’s qualities.
3. Conversion
Here, the buyers have already compared all the products and have made a decision about which one to get. However, it’s important to note that it’s still just a decision, and they still need to make a purchase.
To ensure they do, the brand should make the conversion process as easy as possible. It can be achieved by laying out all the important information crucial to facilitate the purchase, from your subscription plans/prices to incentives and anything in between.
Why is an effective brand awareness strategy important- how to improve it?
Well, here’s the thing! No one will buy your product if they don’t know you in the first place. You must put your brand out through every available channel possible to bring in new customers.
Mapping out an effective brand strategy helps you easily reach your target audience, influence their purchase decisions, and increase overall traffic.
In other words, it makes marketing so much easier. If you are mapping out your brand strategy, the following are some helpful tips you would like to keep in mind:
1. Tell a story
What is the best way to build a connection with your audience? It’s a story! Tell your audience about the brand and the story behind how it was made- the core values it’s built upon. This will humanize your brand and build a personal connection with the buyer. You can use many channels to tell your story; however, nothing works like a short and beautifully produced video in modern-day marketing. It can be either a live-action or animation or a mixture of both. Whatever sails your boat. 😉
2. Make your content shareable
While there’s no guaranteed formula for your content to go viral, you don’t want anything to hinder it if it does. For example, if you make a video that you know provides value to the audience, the next thing you should do is optimize it for all the social media platforms. It’s one of the most tried and tested methods of making your brand known.
3. Utilize the algorithms
Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have a feature called “recommended content” that the system’s AI puts forth to the users based on their watching habits. While you can’t control the algorithms, you can certainly collect some statistics and analyze your audience’s watching patterns on the platforms.
Based on that research, you can then make content that interests them. It will increase your chances of appearing on the algorithms and ensure you reach your target audience without breaking the bank.
4. Provide some freebies
If you are selling a SaaS product, you can help make the buyers’ decision easier by providing them with a free trial. If they find your product helpful, they will upgrade to the premium version, ultimately entering your conversion funnel. If it’s not a SaaS product, you can always rely on sending the consumers a free sample. Remember, it’s all about providing value in the end.
5. Run awareness ads
Almost all social media platforms know the importance of brand awareness. And since advertising is their primary revenue source, they try hard to provide advertisers as many incentives as possible. One of those is providing the “objective campaign” option. It allows you to target ads specifically toward audiences most likely to remember them. If utilized with the right type of content, it can do wonders for your brand awareness campaign.
Why use video for brand awareness?
Apart from the fundamental reason that video is the current shiznit in the online marketing world, there are many reasons you would like to use it for brand awareness. The following are some of them:
1. Video lets you tell a story
There’s nothing better than a video when it comes to storytelling. A video humanizes your brand and gives it a personality your audience can connect to. Ultimately, this leaves more emotional impact than a text or image ever could.
As every brand has a different story, it also increases your chances of standing out and leaving a lasting impression on the audience. About 93% of all brands who used video for brand awareness campaigns in 2022 said they got new leads.
2. It ranks well
The primary purpose of running an awareness campaign is to become visible to your audience. Using a video gives you the much-needed visibility boost on those search engines. In fact, by adding a video to your website, it is 62% more likely to appear in SERPs.
This improves your overall SEO and brings more traffic to your website. Or, If your video is compelling enough, it might even develop good conversions for you. According to statistics, a video is 50x more likely to get organic traffic than text. Incredible, isn’t it?
3. It’s versatile
A single video can be used on myriad different platforms with proper optimization. In brand awareness campaigns where you want to utilize every platform where you can reach your audience, this can be of significant help.
It needs some optimization, and it could be a bang-for-the-buck investment that works everywhere. Just keep the demographics and platform norms in the account, though. It will play a significant role in the video’s overall success.
4. It’s authentic
If you have been in marketing for long enough, you must have heard the famous marketing mantra, “people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” That being said, the authenticity visuals bring to storytelling strengthens your overall brand message by 10x.
Remember, modern audiences don’t just invest in products; they invest in a genuine connection, a brand that treats them like a big huge family. While this should primarily reflect in your overall customer experience, it should also be part of the message conveyed during the brand awareness campaign.
5 tips to make a great one!
Now that you know every basic thing about a great brand awareness video, let’s have a look at some practical tips you can use to make an excellent brand awareness video:
1. Establish your authority
When leading a brand awareness campaign, remember that more than half of your audience doesn’t know your brand, nor have they tried your product. Thus, you will need to earn their trust first to lead them through the different stages of their journey.
To achieve that, you shouldn’t be shy of investing a good amount in the overall production budget and sharing any information contributing to building authenticity. Knowing the core pain points of your audience, along with credible testimonials, would be helpful, too, in this regard.
2. Keep it entertaining
No one will stop scrolling for a brand they don’t know and a video they don’t care about. There are hundreds of ads each internet user sees daily. However, the ones that go viral have something entertaining to it. You always have to think out of the box.
Pick up any viral brand awareness or marketing video from the internet. The only thing common among all? It’s humor! Take Dollar Shave Club’s “Our Blades are F***ing Great,” for example. The video is filled with banter, yet it broke the internet and put the company in competition with industry giants like Gillette.
3. Keep it consistent
Another thing that brands (especially those with a following) should keep in check is whether the content they are putting out is consistent with their established brand image or not? The more consistent you are with your approach, the more memorable and recognizable your content will be.
If your audience knows you for your sassy remarks and quirky approach, keep it that way. Brands that do not stay consistent with their image for long are easily forgettable and have a lower chance of garnering any success with their marketing campaigns.
4. Brand your video
Branding your video matters greatly to make your content instantly recognizable as it appears on your audience’s feed. By owning a specific coloring, font, and logo, your brand stays “your’s,” that’s how we would put it. This point goes hand-in-hand with brand image consistency.
5. Optimize, optimize, optimize
We said it once, and we will repeat this! Optimize your video for every platform that there is. Everything should be familiar and optimal for the audience of a specific platform, from length to crop size. Read the audience’s expectations, and deliver accordingly.
What type of videos to use for brand awareness:
There are many video types and countless directions they can go in when it comes to brand awareness. Following are 5 of the most common types of videos you can use to boost your campaign:
1. Product demos
Product demos show your audience how your product works and how it can solve a particular problem. These videos can be long or short, depending on the nature of the problem and the solution you are providing. Since such videos are often concise, you can use them on any platform without problems.
2. Behind the scenes
These videos allow you to humanize your brand by showing them what goes on off the cameras. In such videos, you can tour your working space to the audience or give them a glimpse of the company’s culture. Since only a few companies are doing it, BTS videos can be a great option to make your brand memorable.
3. Testimonial videos
In such videos, you give your product to someone (preferably a renowned influencer), who tries and tests your product, and then honestly reviews it. You can also make these videos by reaching out to your brand advocates. In fact, collabing with real, regular customers is much more credible compared to influencers.
4. Brand story
As we mentioned earlier, when it comes to selling, it’s more about why you do it than what you do. Hence, sharing your brand story through a stellarly produced video can do wonders for your awareness campaigns.
5. Explainers
Explainers are fairly versatile when it comes to video marketing. They can tell your story, share your product, and be compelling, all in a single video. If used correctly, videos can do more for your brand awareness campaign than you think.
Final thoughts
Scaling a brand is never an overnight job, it’s a process that consists of little baby steps, each at a time. Effective brand awareness is one of the initial few ones. It puts you on the map, and helps you build new audiences, as well as potential customers. And given the popularity of videos in the current marketing world, nothing could help you achieve those goals without utilizing it wisely for that purpose.
We hope this article has been helpful in giving you all the basic info about brand awareness, how it helps you, and how you can use the power of video to level it up. Good luck, and see you with another one!