Jeff HiltyAs human beings, we’re hardwired to respond to stories. Stories are how we relate to the world around us, how we understand and remember things. So by telling your brand’s story, you help people connect with it, understand it, and remember it.
Corporate storytelling is about presenting your brand identity and the value you bring to your customers using narrative techniques. It’s a communication strategy to engage your audience by inviting them to your universe.
Storytelling is the most powerful technique for marketing communication, and video is the most powerful vehicle for telling those stories. No other medium allows you to connect with your audience on an emotional level in the same way or create the same feeling of authenticity.
In this article, we’ll share some tips on how to tell your story to make sure it resonates with your audience and helps you grow your brand.
Related reading: Creating a Story Arch For Corporate Storytelling
Dare To Be Personal
Perhaps you’ve heard the saying that “the most personal is the most universal.” This is a great guiding light when it comes to telling stories in a way that resonates with people. Often, we tend to think we need to lift things and experiences to a more abstract and general to make them universally applicable. Still, in reality, the opposite is true. By recounting one person’s experience in detail and allowing that person to take center stage, you have a far better chance of creating something engaging than you would if you talk in more general terms.
Use The Right Medium
Choosing a suitable medium is crucial when it comes to telling your story. While video is always a good idea (what do you mean, we’re biased?), you also need to pick the right type of video to get your message across in the best possible way. While some stories are well suited for an animated format, others require a docu-style approach where real people get to tell their stories.
Related reading: Animated video vs. Live-Action Video
Stand Out and Be Unique
Don’t try to emulate what your competitors are doing. That’s a common marketing mistake and will usually have you end up with content that is “meh” at best. Sure, it’s great to seek inspiration in other people’s work; no need to reinvent the wheel. But you want your content to stand out, not blend in, so therefore it’s better to get your inspo from other industries or completely different contexts.
Let Your Customers Tell Your Story
Every marketer knows that few things are more powerful than a great testimonial. And video testimonials are the ones that rule them all. Getting your customers to go on video and tell the world why they love your product is often the single most important investment a marketing team can make.
Related reading: Telling the Story of Food Rescue
Be Authentic And Inspire Trust
No other media has the power to trigger feelings, tell stories, and build brand trust the same way that video has. But to reap those benefits, it has to be done right. Millennials and Gen Z audiences are savvy consumers exposed to a myriad of marketing messages every day – written ones, visual ones, and yes, in video format. Just making videos will not set your brand apart, not in itself. The key here is authenticity. Only when your video content feels (and is!) authentic will it capture people’s attention and build the trust you’re looking for.
Related reading: How To Create Authentic Brand Videos – And Why It Matters
Let Your Humanity Show
People are interested in other people. And nothing is more off-putting than companies that come across as robotic, emotionless, and devoid of humanity. If your target group consists of humans, and we’ll go out on a limb and assume it does, you need to be human in your approach. This means making room for humor, emoticons, and self-distance in your communication. It means getting rid of corporate platitudes and telling your story in a way that wouldn’t make you cringe if you told it that way to a friend.
Related reading: Documentary and Docu-Style Video For Brands
Spark Emotion and Build Connection
There’s no one perfect formula for corporate storytelling. Stories can be told in an infinite number of ways, but there’s one test that it needs to pass to make sure it’s a keeper. If your video’s production and narrative trigger emotions and engagement, you’re on the right track. Because even though we all like to think of ourselves as rational beings, the fact of the matter is that emotion is what drives 95% of buying decisions.
How Covalent Can Help
Covalent is a creative video agency, and we spend all our waking hours producing some of the best brand videos out there. We specialize in unique, creative content and excel in genres like brand documentary, docu-style case studies, and all kinds of corporate and brand video.
If you have an idea for how you want to tell your story, we can make it happen. We’re also happy to be a part of your creative process from start to finish and support you all the way from the ideation stage to the finished product.
Your story matters, and we’re here to help you tell it. Get in touch, and we’ll share the vast opportunities of video marketing with you.