Business owners know when they have a good thing going. The problem: they’re too likely to assume their prospective customers will feel that way, too. It comes out in the way leaders often think about marketing.
The thought process goes like this: “Awareness is the problem. Once people know about us, we’ll get sales.”
For the best-run businesses, there might be a kernel of truth to this. You could have something going on that’s so good, so special, that anyone in your target audience who really sits down and thinks about it will want to take action on your offer. The problem: it takes more than simple brand awareness to get to that point.
Today’s consumers are under attack. The average person absorbs hundreds or even thousands of marketing messages on a daily basis. The only ones who escape the deluge are those actively avoiding marketing and advertising using tools like ad blockers or outright avoidance of their phone.
In other words, you won’t reach those people either way.
The potential buyers you can connect with are the ones whose attention is already being pulled in a dozen directions every day. Having a terrific product or service is important, but not enough: your message has to capture enough attention, enough times, that your audience remembers you.
The Average Customer Is More Forgetful (and More Cynical) Than You Think
You might work with smart, savvy customers who do their research and know what they want. But even so, the quality of a person’s decisions is limited by their working memory – how much information they can hold in their mind at one time. Demands on working memory reduce a person’s ability to recall details later.
As far back as 1989, researchers at Stanford discovered that similar, competing ads interfered with recall for study participants asked to remember them later. And that was in the heyday of print advertising: today, the sheer volume of advertisements and the ways you run into them have increased enormously.
More recently, researchers in Germany discovered that high exposure to advertising not only affects memory but also makes consumers more skeptical. The message is clear: not only does your brand need to be memorable, but the claims you make need to immediately come across as more credible than those of competitors.
That’s a tall order. But there is a solution.
You can’t make people trust marketing intuitively. That ship sailed so long ago, it was probably a steamboat. But you can frame your marketing in a way that makes it memorable, accessible, and more likely to be acted on. The “secret” is simple: it’s in how people process video content compared to text content.
Study after study and survey after survey have shown that people are far more likely to remember what they see in a video compared to what they read in text. And the difference isn’t subtle. Some sources report huge differences: 95% retention of a video message compared to just 10% of a text-based message.
For most of digital history, text was the #1 form of communication:
- Brands used text-heavy blogs to cultivate search engine visibility.
- They “stayed in the conversation” with text-focused social media.
- Email marketing and other brand updates were text-first articles.
With the passage of time and the broad appeal of today’s online technology, consumer tastes have changed. Nearly every customer has enough bandwidth to view high-quality video content at home and on the go. A video portrays your business as more polished, professional, and trustworthy.
In general, people find videos to be:
- Easier to understand than text.
- Easier to remember than text.
- More likely to inspire action.
Along with its convenience, digital technology flipped credibility on its head. In the old days, anyone could pull out their phone and record a video, but a well-written article took effort and expertise. Now, anyone can (and does) pump out mediocre text-based content. Serious brands speak with video.
It’s common wisdom in marketing that the average person will need to encounter your brand seven to twelve times before they’re willing to do business with you. By prioritizing video production, Tampa businesses have the opportunity to make each customer touchpoint more memorable and impactful.
Video Is the Path to Brand Differentiation Tampa Businesses Need to Get Remembered
Unlike text, video speaks with your voice. And it builds a stronger human connection.
Ever since the lockdowns of years ago, video has stood out as the next best thing to meeting in person. Done well, it sparks a sense of rapport with a person or team you haven’t had the chance to meet yet, so that you feel like you already understand each other. That perceived bond is the key to being remembered.
The deeper challenge isn’t just using video, but using it in the most memorable ways.
Emotional connection is easier with video, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. The most persuasive, compelling brands have mastered all the aspects of video: the technical science of videography and the timeless art of good storytelling. By viewing ancient tools through a modern lens, companies don’t just publish video.
They build relationships.
The foundational truth of all relationships – that friends are remembered easily, and strangers are just as easily forgotten – is something your brand can leverage to meet its objectives. Let’s look at the different elements that work together to make video marketing the cornerstone of a more memorable brand:
1. Authentic Stories
You don’t need a literature degree to know that “a story” has a beginning, a middle, and an end. One reason so much corporate communication falls flat is that brand teams try to tell the audience everything at nearly every opportunity. There is no authenticity because there is no coherent story at the center.
Lots of teams are surprised when they discover the most effective approach to video is also the most intuitive: ask yourself whose story you’re telling and focus your script on that person or group. What do they want, and what’s standing in their way? How do they ultimately achieve their goal with your help?
Think in terms of case studies, not vague overviews.
2. Customer Experiences
With point #1 in mind, it’s wise to be prudent in choosing which stories to tell about yourself versus which you tell about your customers. You can certainly tell the tale of how your brand came to be: in fact, people need to see who you are, what you do, and how your way is different. But, in the end, viewers don’t identify with you.
Everyone you meet is the hero of their own story. They react best to brands positioned as wise advisors – like Gandalf or Alfred, not Frodo or Batman. For that starring role, it’s essential to have videos that showcase all the use cases of your product or service. That way, people can see people “just like them” succeed with your help.
It’s easy to approach this through video testimonials where customers get to speak for themselves.
3. Consistent Brand Messaging
In face-to-face communication, relationships thrive on consistency. You can’t really trust someone until you have a picture in your head of what to expect from them: their strengths, weaknesses, and unique quirks. Gradual change is okay in a strong relationship, but erratic behavior undermines trust.
Since your brand can only “speak” through your media, that means being consistent about:
- What your core message is.
- How that message is shared.
For video, the most trusted teams ensure that underlying fundamentals (like your color scheme, logo, and especially your brand voice) are easily recognizable in all the multimedia content you publish. Your brand communication then becomes familiar to customers who stick with you, just like a friend’s voice is.
A strategic approach to video is the driving force behind video production that Tampa businesses can rely on to succeed. A content marketing strategy infused with compelling business storytelling separates you from competitors at a glance – and it helps ensure you’ll be remembered long afterwards.
Marketing video production traditionally had high barriers to entry. That’s why so many otherwise great brands and marketing agencies haven’t tapped into its power yet. You don’t have to go tilting at windmills by building an in-house video marketing team. Instead, look for video marketing experts who extend your capabilities fast.
Paper Jacket doesn’t just “do video” – we help your brand become unforgettable. Contact us to get started.