The Value of Video Storytelling in Content Marketing

DataReportal’s Digital 2023 Global Overview Report shows that 92.8% of global internet users watch online videos weekly. With billions of viewers, it’s no surprise that video storytelling has a powerful impact on marketing strategy.

Storytelling marketing uses a narrative to capture the audience’s attention and convey your brand’s message. Storytelling for the marketing biz has always been essential, but the current trending value of visual storytelling can dramatically impact your business.

Educate Your Audience

Storytelling through video is one of the best ways to educate your target audience. Maybe you want to show off a new product or service in an explainer video. You can hit on customers’ pain points and include a sales pitch.

Or, you may want to create video content for LinkedIn to show you’re hiring. You can educate viewers about the company’s mission, available positions, and the candidates you want to join your team.

Regardless of what you want to share about your company, you can do it through a storytelling video. Just keep in mind where you want to post the content so you know which video format to use.

Establish Your Brand Voice

All successful businesses have a compelling brand story. Before you explore video marketing, you need to have a fully conceptualized brand identity.

Then, create a brand storytelling video that uses emotion to compel customers to take action. Some studies found that videos with emotional and compelling stories are nearly twice as effective as those with only rational content.

Check out this campaign we put together for Adidas that tells inspiring stories of rising star athletes. Connecting with your audience through storytelling and emotional marketing in your brand video is a sure way to get your audience to engage with your business. Not only will they notice your company, but they will also remember it, share it with others, and buy from it.

Video Storytelling Tips

Although storytelling through video is highly effective, you want to ensure you make quality videos for existing and new customers. Filmmakers will tell you there’s a lot that goes into the process of successfully telling stories.

So here are six tips to follow, with some video storytelling examples, to create great video ads and content.

Pay Attention to Colors

Colors easily capture a viewer’s attention, create a mood, and share a message. In fact, most major brands use the color psychology method in their video marketing materials. The concept helps you understand the feelings each color evokes.

For instance, in our video for Centura Health titled “Health Is Why,” we use the colors blue and white. Healthcare is often a stressful and confusing topic. Yet, blue evokes feelings of wisdom, hope, and reason, while white evokes truth. Together these colors allow customers to feel more confident and relaxed in choosing their healthcare provider.

Show, Don’t Tell

Consumers watch more than half of video content on social media with the sound off. This highlights the importance of using visual elements to tell your story.

Viewers need to understand the message of your video without sound. While video captions and voiceover narrations make your videos more accessible and inclusive, the idea is to demonstrate the functionality of your product by sight alone.

You can view our video story for Oasis of the Seas to see how we built a story with only  images and no dialogue in order to  “show, don’t tell.”

Keep It Simple

For this marketing tool to be successful, you need to keep it simple. While you still need a strong story arc, ideally, your video should be two minutes or less. It should grab the attention of your viewer right away and have a straightforward story that they can understand and connect with almost immediately.

After all, human attention spans are on the decline, so it’s better for the audience if you keep your videos

• Short
• Clear
• To the point

As the saying goes, if you can say it in five seconds, don’t spend 30 on it.

Focus on One Message

It’s imperative you create one main takeaway for viewers and keep this message at the forefront of the video. Don’t let other elements like music or visual effects dilute the takeaway.

For example, if you want to make an animated video, don’t let the animations and special effects stray from the message simply because they look cool. Instead, the storyboard should flow to highlight the message you want to convey.

Our video for 1Voice titled “Hands” is a perfect example of how we focused on one message: we can overcome anything when we come together as one.

Be Authentic

With billions of online videos available, your brand must be authentic to connect with customers. A video that feels like an ad will fall flat. No one likes a sales pitch that’s in your face.

While templates can help beginners produce video content, they lack authenticity. This is why it’s best to work with video marketing professionals to create your content.

An easy way to be authentic is through transparency. You can use testimonials to highlight what customers love about your business. You can also use testimonials to show how your company has grown or evolved with complaints. We have a guide on tips for video testimonials to help you out.

The video we made for AdventHealth titled “Feel Whole” took a unique spin on using testimonials. Instead of traditional customer comments, we showed customers’ tweets using #feelingwhole. Customers revealed how they overcame their health challenges with AdventHealth healthcare, giving it a real-world feel and relatability.

Take Your Time

Even though you want to focus on one message and keep your video simple, you still want to take your time telling the story. This helps build an emotional connection with the real people watching.

A good story needs a narrative and script. A strong story arc and writing capture attention at the beginning and keep engagement high until the end of the video.

Contact Slice: The Video Storytelling Experts

Video storytelling is necessary for your marketing strategy. It reaches a vast audience and keeps viewers engaged enough to take action and interact with your product or service.

As a business owner, you may have no idea where to get started with creating video content. That’s why we’re here! Our video production team has everything you need to help you achieve your goals. From script writing to post-production, we’ll handle it all.

So contact us today at Slice to begin!