Every company has a story. Without it, your company becomes generic. Whereas with a story, you go beyond petty selling points, and you become a distinguishable brand.
What’s your “Company Story”? This quote is from E-Myth Wordwide, one of the leading business consultants, on a “Company Story”:
When we say Company Story, we mean the story that illustrates the essence of what your business is all about. It is a tale of passion, motivation and opportunity. It’s the inspiration that recruits, sells and impacts all your constituencies the way you always intended. (link)
The story is what makes your company different from all the others; it’s the key difference to why you’re in the business you’re in.
Here’s a perfect video that tells the story of DoDocase:
If your business doesn’t have video, then you’re company is relying on two mediums to get your story across: words and pictures.
In this internet age, these mediums aren’t enough to get your story across to your potential customer, and the following reasons are why videos are necessary for any business.
1. MEMORY
Videos are more powerful than words or pictures, and thus are more easily accessible by memory. When we remember, we don’t think in words, we think visually, and our minds make more connections when we use video to convey our meaning.
The 1984 apple commercial is universally remembered as “one of the most memorable and successful American television commercials of all time.”
It was ranked in the top 10 commercials in the last 30 years by USAToday. http://www.spike.com/collection/15178
There’s a reason why this video is memorable, and it’s what differentiates it from other videos: emotion. It’s the emotion that the video creates that makes it memorable. Yes, photos and words do create emotion, but there is a better chance of having the audience feel with a video. It’s the emotion behind the message that’s key to reaching your potential customers.
2. TIME
The internet has developed a culture of instant gratification, where anyone’s immediate desires can be reached with a click of a button.
In terms of time, a video is much faster to watch than to actually read words. People are also more willing to watch videos instead of reading something. This in turn, increases the chances of people watching the video.
The goal is not to replace the words with video, but to supplicate the words if the potential customer wants to get to know more about the product or service you’re offering, they have a choice. But when the average attention span is only a couple of minutes online, it’s crucial to have an easily accessible and digestible delivery medium for your message.
3. BRANDING
Branding is key to differentiate yourself from the competitor and what better way to do so than with video. The video is the story, and branding is the message wrapped in a delicious visual burrito.
With a message you can brand yourself as the go-to company that
Videos help with branding because you’re in control of your story, instead of leaving it up to other people or your competitor.
You position the product or service in the customer’s mind, and because perception is reality, you mold the customer’s mind to think only what you want them to think about your company.
You don’t want to be mistaken for a competitor’s product or service, so the way we brand your story is with specific videos that differentiate your company within specific areas. There are product demonstrations, viral videos, promotional videos, infotainments, and commercials. Depending on your goal, we choose the right one for you.
Let’s take for example, a successful series of product demonstrations from Blentech. They sell blenders, that’s their product. They sell powerful blenders. That’s their message. But where’s the emotion? The story? The video is the key.
They’ve had close to 130 million total views (I know, I counted them myself). Why was it so successful?
Reason # 1: You can’t feel the power of a blender through a picture or words, you have to see it.
Reason #2: Playful videos that are lighthearted.
Reason #3: Reoccurring Series. Almost every week, they’re blending something new (and/or expensive) into shreds.
Reason #4: Audience participation: People send in requests to blend items.
These are just some of the reasons that made the “Will it blend?” series successful.
4. CONNECTION
Connecting with your current and potential customer base is the difference between fishing and farming. If you don’t connect with your customer, then you’re constantly fishing for new ones. If you do connect with your customers, you’re cultivating a farm from where you can grow a larger and larger customer base.
Different ways to connect with video:
Behind the Scenes videos
How to videos
Interview Vidoes
Video blogs
5. TARGET
With videos, you increase your chances of reaching your target audience. Certain types of videos attract certain audiences.
If you make a funny video, you get a wide age range. However, if you get a video about how to make a rare species of garden lilies, then you’ll definitely find your niche audience if someone is looking for that video in particular.
These days, it’s not enough to just try to get everyone to watch your video because “everyone” is not your potential customer. “Everyone” is not suited to buy or use your company.
Videos have several capabilities that make them easier to reach your target demographic. If the target audience likes your video, the video is easily shared among specific social networks like Facebook, Digg, Myspace, Twitter, etc.
