How to Build Trust in Your Brand Using Video

This is a guest post by Neil Davidson.

Instead of requiring users to navigate, scroll, and click to access information, online video is a one-stop destination for information. It takes less time to engage the user than reading, and the user is then engaged until ready to follow an embedded call to action.

In today’s society, the personal connection that a brand can make with a consumer is crucial. Consumers are tired of being placed purely on the receiving end of information and want a chance to give feedback and get involved in brand identity.

A few general points to bear in mind before creating your videos:

• Content is the number one way you can build trust with potential clients. By creating meaningful and thought provoking content, you are building a bridge to later sell that person your services.
• Tell a Story: The stories surrounding your company or organization are the only things that differentiate you from your competitors. It is extremely important that you give your consumers the chance to tell your story. Forget about feeding them mission statements and vision statements; address your consumers individually and ask for their feedback.
• Transparency is a key issue when creating videos with good content. To be a successful brand, you need to come across as a brand with a human dimension. Consumers want to know how you have changed the lives of an individual, such as the viewer.

This leads nicely onto the next video:

Dove Evolution Commercial

This spot, produced by Ogilvy & Mather in 2006, went viral and won one of the most prestigious advertising awards in the world. Depicting a time-lapsed look at a model being made up and then photoshopped for a billboard, it successfully demonstrates how our perceptions of beauty have been manipulated and distorted.

The video builds consumer trust through its transparent look into the makings of a commercial. The brand gives us a pertinent insight into the different stages that make a model beautiful.

The compact length of this video and time-lapse feature, increase its powerful message that society’s perception of beauty is distorted. Yet the flowing, continuous nature of this ad means that as a consumer we do not feel like we are having a message forced down our throats.

As with all good commercials, parodies have been rife. Here is a particularly humorous one, called Slob Evolution:

Customer Testimonial Videos

Customer testimonial videos are a great way to reinforce existing relationships through a two way process: both by your business recognizing and appreciating its best customers, and by the customers themselves going through the process of clarifying and expressing what it is specifically that they love about your brand.

How do you feel about bragging? It’s probably fair to say that you try to keep a fairly subdued, professional tone in your marketing strategy. Well, your customers don’t have to! Customer testimonial videos are the best way to showcase the kind of exciting, high praise that companies are seldom willing to or able to give themselves. They’re a ready-made license for your customers to say all of the great things about your organization that you can’t say without seeming overly boastful.

Check out this excellent example of a customer testimonial video for Delcam, a CADCAM software solution company.

This video consists of short clips of Delcam customers from across many different industries in the UK and US highlighting why they chose Delcam solutions. Importantly, the customers are all filmed in their working environment and the professional tone of the video validates Delcam’s reputation as a leading company within the CADCAM software industry.

Alongside customer testimonial videos, another effective type of video is one that depicts a corporate story.

Corporate story

Corporate story videos tell consumers about the history of a company/brand and the values and ethics behind it. They give customers an important insight into the workings of a company.

Fieldale Farms in northeast Georgia is one of the largest independent poultry producers in the world, but their corporate video emphasises the fact that they remain a family-owned business that keep to the values of their founding fathers. If you have a few minutes to spare, check out their informative video below, which although a little too lengthy at 8 minutes, is nevertheless very well-produced. It places trust in their brand by reassuring customers that all their chicken is produced under the highest health and safety standards.

Product Reviews

Product reviews (particularly ones that are third party produced) are a great way of building trust in your brand via impartial means.

Here is an example of a fantastic video product review accompanied by a written review of the Motorola XOOM 2 tablet computer produced by Siliconrepublic.

Alongside customer testimonials and product reviews, the future of online video promises to bring far more personaliation and interactive functionality to videos.

Videos with Interactive Functionality

Videos with a functional element engage customers best. Within the fashion industry, one of the best ways to build trust in your brand is by using catwalk videos on your site. ASOS, the online retailer, brings together high street brands alongside its own in-house collection to offer shoppers a huge selection of fashion to choose from.

Here is an example of one of ASOS’s catwalk videos (click the “View Catwalk” under the product image).

Catwalk videos replicate the exciting experience of having a front row seat at a fashion show. They advise customers exactly how items of clothes will hang once worn and bring to life each item of clothing in a way that photographs of the same item are unable to. They are a great help to a consumer deciding whether they want to purchase an item of clothing. It also goes without saying that the consumer appreciates ASOS’s tremendous effort of producing catwalk videos for every single item of clothing on their website, which considering the extent of their collections is certainly no mean feat!

Why is video personalization so great?

Personalized videos offer customers the experience of shopping in-store. They bridge the gap between live and virtual experiences, and most importantly, they offer great customer service. Good customer service ensures better customer loyalty, brand awareness, and in turn, better ROI.

Land’s End is a great example of a website which is always looking for ways to improve its customer experience. They even employ live chat personal representatives that you can talk with either by text or face-to-face. The video chat/recommendation also works on several mobile devices.

Another particularly innovative video personalization tool is Live Link. Live Link videos combine the quality and accessibility of online video with the interactivity of hyperlinks. With Live Link Video, you give your potential customers the power to not only watch but also “touch” and purchase the products, services, or ideas you are trying to sell in your video by clicking on the products in your video.

Ideally, it is best to advertise your brand with video marketing using a mixture of video product reviews, customer testimonials, corporate stories, and other video methods.

While using these different methods, always remember to look for innovative ways of involving your brand evangelists (whether they be employees, customers, or fans) in the marketing of your products. Having a dedicated team of brand evangelists who are passionate about your products and can engage personally with your customers will do wonders for building brand trust and identity.

Neil Davidson is the Founder of My Web Presenters, who are a leading Web Video Production specialist. They work with businesses of all sizes to create and market compelling and emotive video that helps them to communicate with their specific audience.