Before the television was invented, most products on grocery stores were generic products. You had “soap” and “toothpaste” and “cooking oil.”
Once the television was invented, advertisers were slow to jump on board. Radio advertising worked for some brands, but not for others. A few pioneering advertisers decided to try running commercials on television.
These commercials exploded the success of their brands. Brands promoted on television quickly became household names and outsold all their competitors. Ever since, television advertising has been a fierce battleground for marketers of all sorts.
Video is one of the most powerful mediums you could tap into as a marketer. The invention of the internet and cheap electronics has made video marketing available to everyone, not just Fortune 500 companies.
How can you use video to convey your personality? How can you use it to build warmth?
==> Having a Human Face Builds Warmth
Having a human face to put to a brand, website or concept can really help build trust.
Gary Vaynerchuk gave a face to wine. Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz gave a face to SEO. Ronald McDonald gave a face to McDonald’s.
It’s hard to build a relationship with a brand. It’s hard to have a conversation with a brand. On the other hand, people easily and naturally build credibility with people.
==> Production Value Can Build Credibility
Another way to use video is to build credibility. Your content is critical for building credibility, but so are your production values.
A video that’s extremely well made will build credibility all on its own. If you have a killer intro, high quality video, high quality audio and a video that looks like it was professionally made, that alone can build a lot of trust.
==> Use Video to Convey Excitement
Emotions like excitement are conveyed through body language and voice tone. When you’re around a friend who’s excited, it’s only natural to get excited as well.
Likewise, video can have a similar effect. No matter how excited you get about your product, if your medium is the written word, there will be a limit to how much other people will get excited.
On the other hand, if your medium is video, once people see how excited you are about your product, some of that excitement will transfer over to them.
==> A Variety of Ways to Convey Information
Video gives you a large number of ways to transfer information to your customer.
You can convey information through just talking at the camera, as if you were having a one on one conversation. You could use a PowerPoint presentation. You could use an animated mindmap. You could use a variety of special effects to spruce things up. You could use a slideshow. You could use stop-motion.
The list of different ways to use video to build trust, excitement and connection with your customers is almost endless.