The best brand videos give rather than take. They make it worth the the viewer’s time spent in watching them by creating customer value.
Creating Customer Value Matters
In a world where time is limited and options are nearly infinite, time matters. Never is this more true than in the area of video marketing. When we watch over a billion hours of videos in 60 minutes on YouTube you know brands have competition. This means your brand videos need to stand out from the crowd. They need to be special and do something better and more unique than your competition. Gone are the days when it was enough to create brand videos, now you have to create videos that stand out. The best way to do this is to create videos that add customer value. This means your videos give your customer content that can enhance their lives.
Who Are Your Customers?
“The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others.”
John Locke
Unless you understand who and where your customers are you cannot expect to create customer value. Video creation has to put your customers at the centre of your marketing proposition. To do this you need to throw aside any misconceptions you may have about them and go and do the research necessary.
How To Add Customer Value
When you have done the customer research you can start creating video content that resonates with your audience. The key is to create content that will help your customer. There are a couple of ways to do this.
1. Solve A Customer Problem
The easiest way to create valuable content is to answer a customer question. If you do your research right you will know the questions your customers are asking. Create a video that answers this question in a short informative way. Think about addressing the top 10 questions customers and potential customers typically ask. Encourage customers to ask questions on social media and address these in short, snappy videos.
2. Give A New Insight
Brands always have an abundance of tips related to their product or service. Create micro videos that demonstrate these tips. Market the availability of these tips to your customers. Video content often fails because brands forget to market it.
3. Showcase Customer Techniques
Customers often find new and innovative ways of using your products. These may be something you can highlight to your audience. They will resonate with your audience because they feature actual customers in real life scenarios.
4. Tell Them Something New
Brands are often repositories of vast amount of industry knowledge and industry trends long before their customers. This information is ideal for sharing using videos and demonstrates how your brand cares about how any developments in future may impact your customer.
5. Make It Fun
Like it or not brands are in the entertainment business. This means while as brand you may want to educate your audience you also have to entertain them. The best brand videos do both simultaneously. They know their audience and they know how to balance education and entertainment in a suitable manner. Remember just because a subject is important does not mean it has got to be boring. This is an opportunity to share your brand personality with your viewers. The one caveat I always give on this subject is that it has to be appropriate to your subject and audience.
The End Goal
“The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.”
William Osler
Understand who your audience is and what they expect from your video content. Create video that will make their time investment worthwhile. Make sure your video content is easy to understand and sticks to the message you are trying to deliver. Remember at the “end of the day” your audience will decide if you deliver customer value or not. If disappointed they will vote with their feet.