How to create videos that engage potential clients.

According to a survey done in 2021, 74% of marketers say video has a better return on investment than static imagery. - https://biteable.com/ During the global pandemic, video content soared as brands adapted to create new experiences that didn’t need a physical component to them.

Video will continue to become more and more prevalent in almost every industry and country across the globe in years to come. This poses the question, how do you then stand out and actually get engagement from your potential customers? Two simple yet deeply rooted areas: Relatability and storytelling.

But how do you balance these two areas and how do you make sure they engage your audience? We have five tried and trusted techniques that you can use to hone in on your messaging.

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Techniques to creating videos that engage your target audience:

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‍1. Know & understand your ideal customer.

Before you start coming up with any ideas or concepts, first you need to really understand not only who your ideal customer is, but also how they communicate and what their interests are. How do we do this you might ask? Well, making sure that you ask the right questions to understand them are key.

• Who is your ideal customer? - How old are they? Are they male or female? Do they have children? What type of income bracket do they fall within? These are some of the questions to look for here. This information can be found within your current clients information as well as looking at competitors and who they are targeting.
• What are their current life challenges? - Have they recently gotten married? Have they started a family? Do they have good health? - Try and research this from looking at a few of the individual customers that used your services or purchased from you. Use a platform such as LinkedIn and other social media platforms to learn more about their careers and family insights.
• How do they communicate? Are they social media savvy? What types of language do they use?
• What activities do they enjoy? - What TV series are they watching? Where do they go out to enjoy themselves? Do they have any hobbies?
• These are a few of the ways to begin narrowing down your ideal customer. There may be many other additional pieces of key information that you might need to find out according to your relevant industry. An example of this might be if you have a medical brand that sells plasters, you would want to find information like what sports does your ideal customer participate in or do they have young children that could be prone to getting scratches. It all depends on what problem your service or product is solving.

From this information, you will be able to clearly understand who your audience is. This can then be used to communicate better to your audience.

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2. Define exactly what the objective of your video is.

Why do you want to make a video? Do you want to increase sales? Do you want to share knowledge with current or new customers? There always needs to be a clear objective for any piece of content, without it, the content is doomed to not be precise enough and in turn not engage viewers correctly.

The objective should also avoid having too many objectives. A big mistake many marketers make is having a piece of content that aims to get multiple objectives across as opposed to one or two objectives in a clear and concise way. Decide what the purpose is, is it to sell a specific product? Is it to tell a client's experience to use as a testimonial? Is it to highlight a unique service your business has? Is it to show your brand's industry knowledge and insights? Choose a clear direction and dig deep into it.

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3. Tell the right stories.

What is the right story? The right story might not just be one kind of approach. You need to decide which story will best serve all of the above information we have gathered, your audience's insights, their viewing platforms, how they communicate, and what the objective of your video is, etc.

A good story always has a strong balance between information and experience, information being what you are trying to tell a viewer and experience being how you are telling it. The right story for your video needs to be centred around what would illustrate your video's objective the best in relation to your audience. Here are some examples:

• A fashion brand creates a video for their new pair of denim jeans. The video story is set around a couple that are on a road trip down the coast. On this trip they do a few activities like have a swim and take some photos while enjoying the different scenery. This story is designed to give viewers a desire to go travelling as the time of the year is close to the holiday season. The activities highlight the jeans stylish design and durability, and lastly, all of this is shown with casting that is indicative and representative of their target audience. The video is then put onto Instagram and Facebook with a video for story format and one for newsfeed format, as this is where their target audience is most active.
• A SaaS company has released a new version of their latest online platform for productivity. They create tutorial videos on how to use the new features and what makes them so useful. The videos follow the story of Derek, a young man that is struggling to get control of his procrastination. Derek as a character emulate's the company's target audience in terms of age and problem they are having. By showing the procrastination process in a light hearted and relatable way, viewers can relate more and be more open to the solution that the company has to improving productivity. By making the story relatable, the tutorial videos don't feel like tutorials, they feel like relatable experiences. The videos are then uploaded to YouTube as well as being embedded on the company's website.

4. Speak in the right tone.

The right tone? Yes, the tone in which you communicate can mean all the difference. Imagine being a brand that creates luxury chocolate being portrayed with a slapstick humour approach, it would not align to the target audience who buys the brand for a premium experience and it's aspirational tone. There are a few key areas to always remember when addressing tonality:

• Copywriting - Whether it be onscreen text, dialogue, or voice over, you need to make sure that the words you choose are relevant, & respectful towards your target audience. Also remember not to use writing that is too complex or industry jargon filled if your viewer is not familiar with it.
• Music - Music is the heart and soul of any video. It is so important to make sure that you choose the right genre and tempo of your music choice. This will all be dependant on what style of video you are creating, what message you are trying to get across, and who your target audience is. You want music that correctly supports the story and tone of your video and is not too overpowering.
• Visual Style - What genre and style should your video have? This is done through lighting, colour, location, props and many other visual mediums. The goal here is to align your story with a look and feel that supports it. For example, a light hearted video might use a more airy and colourful tone.
• Performance - This could be either actors, presenters or even a voice over. Having the right performance is highly nuanced but extremely important. The simple incorrect word or sentence inflection/tone can cause disaster in any video piece. Take time to make sure that the performance you are capturing is inline with the story you are telling and message you are trying to convey. Performance nuances can also make videos that much more relatable to viewers. For example, if your target audience is a specific language and demographic, use performance to make them relate to your characters.

Here is an example of how a humorous tone was used to engage a highly specific target market of Afrikaans speaking South African farmers for a social media video campaign aimed at sharing togetherness during Heritage Day:

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5. Either educate, inspire or entertain.

These are the three main realms of engaging content. In order to engage a viewer, you need to give them value that isn't only a product or a deal offer.

1. Educating would be to provide valuable information that your viewer can use to better their approach or experience within their day to day life or information that can help them use your service better. This information should be aligned to what problem your business is trying to solve. This could be a sales video with a compelling offer, a tutorial or a tips & tricks video.
2. Inspiring content is great for aspirational brands such as sports brands and lifestyle brands. This doesn't mean that is the limit though, inspiring content can be found in almost every industry. Tell stories of your client wins, your employee growth stories, or even some cinematic visuals that relate to your brand essence and style.
3. Entertainment is the lifeblood of all three of these areas, without an entertaining factor, any piece of video content will fall on deaf ears. Entertainment factor can be a myriad of different approaches, you could use comedy, a strong dramatic scene, a well spoken voice over that tells a story, or even just a really well structured and concise explanation of a complex concept.

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Even with short content, the engagement factor should always be centred around one or two of these three areas.

To end off, creating the an engaging video to your target audience is all about understanding both how to communicate towards them as well as crafting stories that connect with their unique life experiences.

If you have any more questions about how to better target your video content, feel free to reach out to us and we would be happy to help!

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