Creating a loyal community of customers is the dream of every marketer. Customers who keep coming to you can impact your profits by encouraging repeat sales and referrals. But customer loyalty is a fickle beast — it doesn’t develop in isolation. Unless your brand adds significant value to the target customers’ lives and builds a relationship, you will always remain yet another product flooding an oversaturated market.
Here’s where video marketing can come in handy because the appeal is unmistakable. Due to its emotive nature, it is one of the more effective channels for brands to establish a direct line of communication with the target audience.
High-quality video content empowers your customers by giving them useful information they can use. It also contributes towards building brand transparency, which helps your customers identify your products as more trustworthy. Over some time, positive brand association and high recall value enhance customer engagement, which in turn fosters customer loyalty. Here are some compelling statistics that make a strong case for video marketing:
- 72 percent of your customers are more likely to learn about your product or service through a video and develop a better brand association.
- 50 percent of consumers prefer videos from their favorite brands over any other type of content.
- Compared to other customers, highly engaged customers are likely to purchase 90 percent more frequently and spend 60 percent more per transaction.
What are branded videos and how do they help to create customer loyalty?
Simply creating videos without a strong video marketing strategy is not enough for retaining customers. Here’s the bottom line — unless your videos are engaging, the customer will scroll past them in the blink of an eye. To do that, you can leverage the power of branded video content and nudge the consumers in the right direction.
But what exactly is a brand video? A branded video is not self-promotion. While the content is sponsored or created by your brand, the video focuses more on promoting the brand’s core values than merely advertising a product. By creating a solid first impression on the viewers, branded videos aim at humanizing the brand, making it easier for customers to connect.
Instagram and Facebook are perfect platforms for showcasing these videos, and you can experiment with different styles and formats such as product explainers, tutorials, case studies, product demo, or testimonials. Different types of brand videos can amplify your marketing efforts during various stages of your customer’s journey.
It is also a great tactic for health and lifestyle brands that can use the videos to place the spotlight on their brand aesthetic. When you market the aesthetic instead of hard-selling the product, it allows your target audience to see how they can use the product you are selling.
For example: Consider the social media marketing strategy of Hollister, an American lifestyle brand owned by Abercrombie & Fitch Co. Instead of selling the clothes directly, the video focuses on marketing the Californian dream of sun, surfing, and beautiful beaches. The ‘Socal Stylist’ shares handy tips to help the audience understand how they can style the clothes from Hollister.
https://www.instagram.com/p/jIeQbzr7YI/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
Apple Inc. is another brand that can teach you how to leverage video marketing for boosting customer loyalty. They don’t confuse their customers with too many options. They focus on keeping it simple to create a hardcore fan base. Take a quick look at the videos on their Instagram page, and you will notice how they consistently drive home the message that Apple is a cool, fun, and friendly brand — it almost makes you want to become a part of their community.
How to create high-impact brand videos that build loyalty?
Always speak in your brand’s voice — it is a critical element because every video is an extension of your brand identity.
How do you achieve that? Pull out the copy from your website and check the tonality — that’s how you should communicate through the video. Incorporate the brand colors in the frame for creating an on-brand feel. Add the logo of your brand as a watermark throughout the video for increasing brand recognition.
Finally, never underestimate the power of editing the video. Editing can bring the look and feel of the video in line with your brand. And you can do it without hiring a production crew — check out the free online video editor platforms that offer customizable templates for creating a personalized video for your brand.
Final words
Video marketing is going to get bigger. Using branded videos as part of your social media marketing strategy can make it incredibly easy to connect with your customers — show them that you care, and they will keep coming back for more.