Engaging Your Audience Using Video Storytelling

By: Frank DePino | May 18, 2023

Video storytelling is a powerful tool to build your brand image and grab your audience’s attention. This narrative-based approach helps foster an emotional connection with the audience and can lead to increased brand loyalty. It offers a multitude of benefits that can also come in handy for creating a story for brand video marketing.

Video marketing can influence buyers’ decisions, helping grow your revenue, improve your website’s ranking on Google SERP, increase web traffic, and generate more shares. It can help you establish yourself as a credible source and a thought leader in your industry, giving you an edge over your competitors. 

Read on to learn more about video storytelling and how you can implement it effectively to your advantage. 

What is Video Storytelling? 

Video storytelling is like storyselling — only, it’s done by combining the power of words with the appeal of visuals. 

This marketing tactic is a unique and powerful method that uses a storytelling approach to forge an emotional connection with customers. When people get to know the person/people behind the screen, they are more invested in what you have to say and offer in terms of products and services.

A well-made, engaging video that focuses on the story rather than the product can build your reputation, drive engagement, and turn prospects into paying customers.

Essential Elements of Video Storytelling

Video storytelling, when done right, can give your brand a significant edge over its competitors. 

Incorporate these essential elements in your video to attract viewers and bring in conversions on a global scale. 

Big-Picture Themes

Product-focused videos are great, but videos that sell stories are even better.

Understand your product and tap into the spirit it embodies. You can then align with a cause that’s close to your core customer’s heart, and weave stories around it. 

For example, if you’re in the clock business, you can focus on a grandfather waiting for the clock to strike 4 pm when his granddaughter comes home from school.

Simple but intimate stories like these resonate and inspire. And, as people typically choose brands that stand for the same cause as them, you’ll be able to attract a loyal customer base. 

Effective Narrative Arc

Follow the tried-and-tested structure with narrative arcs — introduction targeting pain points, body focusing on how it impacted you and what you did to change that, then a conclusion wrapping things up. 

Storytelling has multiple facets to it. And it’s important to be familiar with them to ensure success in your marketing venture. 

To structure your video effectively, answer the four P’s — Plot, Purpose, People, and Place. 

Tap Into Emotions With Memorable Characters 

Video storytelling offers an immersive medium, so use it to your advantage.

Make content that emphasizes the emotional quotient. For example, if you’re a small business, adopt a persuasive storytelling approach. Show people what makes you unique by focusing on reviews of how your products were received and shared by your customers. 

Emotions compel people to take action. 

When creating the storyboard for your video, focus on what your audience will connect with. Introducing a lovable and memorable character to strengthen the human element can make a huge difference. Follow it up with a call to action to give them the push they need to make a purchase. 

Raise The Stakes

The character/s you portray in your video have to want what you offer with a purpose — and a strong one, at that. Without it, that want will be superficial. 

It’s one of the reasons luxury brands never sell a product, only the experience they offer. 

Give your character a moving backstory and keep the human element intact. Focus on what emotion you want to evoke, and construct a story around it. It will help produce an inspiring video that hits just the right spot. 

Why is Storytelling Important in Videos? 

An estimated 122.4 million households in the United States have access to televisions. Combine this with 298 million smartphone users in the nation, and you have all the tools you need in your arsenal to create a massive impact. 

Studies show that stories are more important than facts, and 54% of all consumers prefer to see videos from the brand/business they support. 

This means video storytelling is arguably the best possible approach to marketing. 

Video storytelling combines a number of essential factors such as camera angles, emotions, music, and characters to create maximum impact. This method of delivery can break language barriers to resonate with audiences on a global scale. 

Video storytelling can also:

• Grow your company sales, according to 76% of businesses. You can further improve your leads and conversions by creating an effective marketing funnel.
• Influence buying decisions and increase web traffic as 66% of people were found to be more likely to do business with your brand after watching an online video. 
• Improve your Google ranking. Blogs and websites with videos are 53 times more likely to come on top of Google SERP. Being on the first page of Google search results practically guarantees your success in the industry — of course, you just have to pair it with quality goods and services.

8 Tips For Creating Powerful Video Storytelling 

Storytelling can seem challenging in video content marketing, but it doesn’t have to be. You just have to make it relatable by putting your audience in the center for it to work. 

These B2B marketing strategies can help grow your business, but you can also take a more structured marketing approach.

1. Have a Purpose 

Use strategic marketing to determine whether you’re targeting the right audience through the right channels with the right message. 

To achieve this, you need to truly know your target audience and their pain points. You can use Facebook ad campaigns to target the right demographic and then offer them special offers and discounts in exchange for honest feedback on what they want from your brand.

Be very clear about the impact you want to create. If you are uncertain about a promotional video storytelling idea, sit it out. Do not go with the first thing that pops up in your mind. Ideate, discuss and see if you can come up with something even better. 

2. Focus on One Emotion and One Story

Choose an emotion — whether it’s happy, sad, or hopeful — to make your story appealing to viewers. 

And more importantly, make sure that every aspect of your video, right from the plot and character to clothes and music, aligns with it. 

3. Use Humor and Plot Twists 

You can incorporate humor and plot twists in your video to generate a sense of intrigue among your viewers and make them feel more connected to the story. 

The more memorable you make it, the more it will be shared across social media platforms. It will ultimately result in better engagement, leads, and conversions. 

4. Get Groovy

Music is a highly effective tool that can tug at one’s heartstrings. Using the right music will set the tone of your video and evoke the emotions you want your audience to feel. 

It can also facilitate a deep connection, which can help convert your audience into paying customers. 

5. Take a “Show, Don’t Tell” Approach

You can give people statistics, reviews, and testimonials to prove your point, but make sure to keep everything visual. 

Nike and Apple are great at the “show, don’t tell” approach; use their videos as inspiration. 

6. Use Color Psychology

Colors evoke feelings, which can connect with emotions to help you attract your targeted customer base. You can use the power of color psychology to set the tone of the story. 

When done right, it can help you portray your brand voice, statement, and beliefs effectively. 

7. Use the Rule of Thirds 

Structuring the video with the rule of thirds format allows you to focus on the key elements. It will also ensure that the viewers are focused on the right elements in your visual storytelling, which can help build an instant connection.

8. Keep it Short and Snappy

The average human has an attention span of only 8.5 seconds. 

So, keep your video concise and impactful or you may lose your audience’s attention. This may seem restrictive, but you can tell a story in a few words — sometimes, with no words at all! 

Remember, a solid framework can engage the right people to give you the results you desire. 

Examples of the Best Storytelling Videos 

Take a look at these brands’ video storytelling approach, and you’ll understand why they were such a big hit with the audience.

Ben & Jerry’s: Social Mission

Ben & Jerry’s built trust by sharing the story of their business. 

Instead of following the lead of other businesses and creating a “Mission” page, the company focused on the company’s social missions by creating a video detailing precisely that.

The founders explained how social consciousness drives every aspect of their business and their aim to create prosperity for everyone involved — right from the farms the ingredients are sourced from to employees, franchisees, and customers. 

They showcased their desire to make a positive impact, one delicious ice cream at a time.

McDonald’s – The Gift

In this short video, the brand pushed a heartwarming story about a mother and her son. 

We follow the journey of a teenager who receives a second-hand car from his mum on his birthday. He clearly isn’t satisfied with the car, but the first-car feeling soon reels him in and he gets home with some Maccies — specifically, chicken nuggets — for his mum, emphasizing the importance of the little things in life. 

This simple act shown in the video highlights that you don’t need a lot to be happy, while simultaneously showing that the items on the McDonald’s menu are low-cost. 

Tesla: Fully Charged | Testimonial

Tesla created a testimonial video to show its customers how the company is taking steps towards a more sustainable future. 

The captivating video focused on the day-to-day life of the customer, right from driving a Model S Tesla to removing food from the fridge with his toddler in one hand. 

It’s a simple video that focused on the positive product experience it can provide organically, without being product-centric.

Headspace: Company Culture

Headspace captures how employees feel about the brand’s desire to make the world healthier and happier. It focused on its employees and their experience in the company in a super-engaging video. You listen to the employees’ personal experiences as they explain how working at Headspace is so different than working at any other company — essentially because meditating every day is encouraged. 

As you listen to their experiences, you don’t even realize how subtle and effective the push toward their product — the meditation app — is. 

Looking for inspiration? Take a look at these amazing examples of brand storytelling to help you tell your brand story in the best way.

Word To the Wise

Video storytelling is a powerful tool, but only when it’s done right. 

Each business has a diverse customer base. It’s thus crucial to ensure that the narrative you’ve chosen for your corporate video storytelling resonates with your audience — irrespective of their age, sex, or race. 

Avoid controversial topics and political standings. They’re great for gaining attention and getting your 5-seconds of fame, but if you hit the wrong note, they could land your brand in some serious trouble. Case in point — Pepsi’s collaboration with Kendall Jenner. 

Instead, you can adopt a cold open approach to get your brand in front of the customer. Then, use statistics and feedback to draft a video that will not get lost in translation.

Conclusion

Compelling video storytelling is highly effective at building engagement, forming connections, and increasing brand recognition. However, it can be a pretty hard nut to crack. We, at MediaBoom, can turn the tide in your favor. You can contact us through our website to see what the art of video storytelling can do for your business.

By: Frank DePino

Frank DePino is Principal and Founder of Mediaboom. Since 2002, Frank has led Mediaboom’s award-winning staff of creative and technical professionals, building the most effective marketing and advertising solutions for its clients.