Use Video Storytelling to Make a Connection
Use Video Storytelling to Make a Connection
Video storytelling is becoming increasingly popular in today’s society. Businesses and brands put a ton of effort into incorporating storytelling into their videos. It doesn't matter if video content appears on a website, on social media, or on television, it's important to show up in the right way.
But how does a business or brand create something more than just clever ads that drive sales? That's where storytelling comes into play. Creating videos that consumers want to watch, content that triggers a response emotion, and helps your business connect is hard work.
Marketers and Visual Narrative
The average person’s attention span is getting shorter and shorter from the days of yesteryear. This means that businesses and brands have an uphill battle creating engaging videos that drive sales and revenue. Through effective storytelling, you will be able to inspire and delight a consistently engaged audience.
Small business trends reported that by 2021, the average consumer will be spending around 100 minutes each day watching online video content. More and more people are getting information and making purchase decisions based on video content rather than written or printed content. Each and every brand needs to get in on the action. Read on for a few video storytelling tips that will help make the process easy and pain-free.
More on Storytelling Through Video
Want to be a video storyteller? First, it will help to know a little more about how video is used to tell a story. This might even help inspire some ideas to get you started.
Video storytelling is a tool used by marketers to create engaging content that helps tell a story about a company, a brand, or a specific product. Video narratives have an opportunity to make a connection with audiences based on emotion. How a business or brand makes a person feel is equally as important as the product/service provided these days. How can you make a person feel seen, heard, and understood through creative videos that incorporate a strong sense of story?
Take Your Audience on a Journey
Viewers can be guided through a well-crafted and relatable narrative. Good videos cut to the chase, addressing pain points or igniting some sort of emotional connection in the process. A well-made video will help present your target audience with a viable solution to a specific problem, always keeping the perspective of your customers in mind.
Through video storytelling, a viewer can be pulled into what is happening on-screen. This can happen through creative camera angles, convincing characters, inspiring soundtrack, not to mention copy that appears on the screen. Making the material personal to your target audience will also help pull viewers in.
Focus on video storytelling that incorporates more than just a sales pitch. Video content takes aim at telling a story instead of going for a quick sale. Storytelling through video is a fantastic way to build lasting brand loyalty rather than focusing on content that boosts short-term profits.
Video Storytelling Basics
You’ll want to have a plan before you go out and start creating video content. The early stages of producing a piece of video content can be viewed as pre-production. During pre-production, it’s essential to answer a few questions that will help guide you through an arduous process.
First, it’s important to know your target audience. Are you making content for younger audiences or people who are more advanced in age? Is your product or service primarily geared toward men, women, or both?
Who you intend on reaching will influence casting, setting, and a variety of additional aspects of filmmaking, so knowing what you'd like to do will help save you time, money, and headaches.
Important Video Storytelling Tips
Experienced visual storytelling specialists will always ask themselves a few questions before they get started, even when writing simple ads. You should, too!
You will want to answer the important questions Who, What, Where, When, and Why? Make sure to have your answers before you even start writing the script.
The Protagonist of Your Video
Who is the protagonist of your story? What are they trying to accomplish? Where (and when) does the story take place and why is the story happening now? Think about what is most compelling about your story and how you can drive engagement.
Having a strong idea of these story aspects will help ensure that every creative choice you make is in line with your business goals. When every decision that shows up on screen is on-brand, your video narrative is far more likely to succeed. Becoming an expert on the story you're trying to tell will help you avoid any costly missteps.
Plotting Your Video Story
The plot of your story is an important consideration to keep in mind as well. What kind of story do you want to tell and what is the genre?
You will want to have a strong structure. Having a clear beginning, middle, and end is crucial. The most powerful video stories generally have introductions, conflicts, and complications.
Antagonists, Endings, and Cliffhangers
Some video content even features an antagonist for our hero. Among the many ideas you play with, make sure to also include a satisfying resolution or cliffhanger (if you intend on continuing your story).
It’s also important to think about the takeaway. What is the purpose of your video story and what do you want viewers to do after they get done watching? At the end of your video, you may want to include a call to action that will help guide the viewer toward your resolution.
What About the Talent?
The main characters of your story are tremendously important as well. The characters you create should be relatable and believable. Creating a believable story actually takes a tremendous amount of effort and skill. However, your final product will likely make it all look easy.
You’ll want to make sure to hire talent who can get the job done. You want actors who fit the demographics of the people you’re trying to reach.
Get Actors Who Help Tell a Story
Make sure that the talent you choose has the range to capture the emotion you're trying to convey. Once everyone is on set and the director yells "Action," you'll want to make sure that you have actors who... know how to act.
Often, if you’re working with an actor who is good at their craft and can engage an audience, they will help breathe life into the role and bring their own ideas. A talented actor will bring something to the table that you couldn’t have foreseen. Industry heavies call these Happy Accidents.
Basically, hire talented folks who make your job easy and make you look good at the same time.
Location, Location, Location!
Another tremendously important aspect of video marketing is location/setting. You’ll want to lock down a good location where the main plot points and drama of your story can take place. Find a compelling location to film so that viewers will tune in.
If you can find a location where sound can be controlled, this will make your job tremendously easier. If you end up choosing a location where there are awesome visuals but there is a ton of random noise that can't be quelled, you're going to run into problems during your production.
It doesn’t matter if you create a brand video and intend on using a friend or colleague’s apartment, a rented warehouse, or any other location you can get, you will want to make sure that the location is secure and controlled. A controlled environment will help ensure that coveted movie magic surely happens.
Selecting Your Audience as a Video Storyteller
Remember to think of the person who will primarily be viewing this video. You might be creating a piece of video storytelling for future and prospective clients, current employees, or even potential investors.
You’ll want to make sure that setting, props, colors, and cast all reflect what your target audience wishes to see. Making choices that connect with your target audience on a personal level is a must.
TV, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Social Media?
Lastly, you’ll also want to think about where you’re going to share your quality piece of visual content after you’re finished making it. Whether you plan on using YouTube, LinkedIn, your website, social media, or even plan on putting it on the small screen, knowing where the content is going to be featured will influence your decision-making and production process.
Visual Storytelling: Marketing with Argonaut Productions
Now that you have a fairly solid idea of what it takes to create video content and why it's tremendously important to do so for the prosperity of your business/brand, you might be thinking that you’re a little out of your element. That’s where Argonaut Productions comes in.
Argonaut Productions specializes in building your online presence through video storytelling for organizations that want to make a difference and an emotional connection. We’ll help you establish and execute a successful and strategic approach to your video marketing efforts.
We’ll help you better connect with your audience, no matter the demographic. We use advanced and industry-leading equipment and techniques that will help you craft especially memorable video content that has the potential to go viral.