Opinion: How to attract and connect with customers using video
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Emotion is the latest commodity in today’s business world – and it is in high demand. The explosion of video on our mobile and desktop screens is evident by Cisco’s finding that 80% of internet traffic is now video traffic. The reason for the proliferation of video is simple: it’s the best medium at capturing and distributing raw emotion, it will make you feel something a lot quicker and more effectively than just words or audio alone.
It’s this combination of elements, that when weaved correctly, can become so powerful for businesses – and especially for not for profit organisations. NFPs have always relied on emotion to gather support, so it’s surprising that there are still many organisations that haven’t fully leveraged the power of video to their advantage. So how exactly should they be using video to attract and connect with customers?
Be Emotive
Video stimulates more parts of our brain than any other medium. Our brain takes in 11 millions bits of information every second but only 40 of them are processed by our conscious part of the brain.
The rest are absorbed by our subconscious and it’s these “other bits” that play a driving role in how we feel – the ones that give us a “gut feel”, the ones that allow us to trust a person or a brand.
Make sure that when producing your videos emotion is front of mind. “How do want people to feel?” should always be the first questions you ask yourself in the pre-production stages of your video journey.
Be a Storyteller
The second is storytelling. Every single brand, person or business has got a compelling story to tell. Make sure you tell it well and leverage all the elements at your disposal to tell a good story through video.
Make good use of music, of visuals, of audio or close captions. Even the thumbnail that you choose for your video is part of the story.
Watching a video is more of a visual experience for people on your site, and the experience starts with the thumbnail so make sure it’s attractive and incites people to click on it.
Be selfless
When producing a video think about your customer/viewer. It’s very easy to fall down the rabbit hole of making a video to stroke your ego’s brand. Remember that it’s all about the emotion you’ll elicit from your viewer, not yourself!
Try and be as educational as possible. Educate people to the benefits of your product or service. Or why your plight (if you’re in the NFP space) deserves attention and money. Be honest, and showcase real life situations as to why you want viewers to take action.
Be prolific
In terms of connecting and creating true engagement with your audience then you have to be prolific in your video publication strategy.
If you really want people to feel that connection to you then you’ve got to treat everyone as creatures of habit.
Post regularly and, if you can, on set schedules so that people look forward to your videos. This is the secret to the success that many professional vloggers now experience.
Be yourself
Stick to your brand’s ‘why’ and always be yourself. It will help you in creating natural content a lot more easily and will not force you into scraping the barrel for video content that doesn’t align with your ethos.
Whether this is a simple piece to camera from yourself (or someone in your team) or a customer testimonial, keep it honest. People are too savvy now and will disengage if they feel the content is not genuine.
One of our most successful NFP videos was one produced on iPhone footage and filmed by children. When we edited together and showed at a gala dinner, it raised $100,000 for The Shepherd Centre.
This is because we embodied the five tips mentioned here in one film and let the video emotionally attract and connect with its viewers. Emotion in business truly is a priceless asset. And there’s no better way to leverage it than through video.
Sydney-based Michael Langdon is the founder of Levity, an award-winning eCommerce video strategy house that specialises in increasing conversion rates for ecommerce sites through product reviews produced at scale. He is also the author of Welcome to the age of Emotion: How to attract and connect with customers using video.
