How To Make An Outstanding Brand Video in 2021

Want to make an outstanding video for your business promotion this year?

Through 2020, video dominated the way we communicated in business. As a result, a regular face to camera video just doesn’t have the impact it used to when trying to make an outstanding brand video.

Meanwhile, video has become the most popular type of content across the majority of social media platforms, with several platforms being ONLY video (IGTV and Tik-Tok).

How will you keep up this coming year?

It’s simple…

If you want outstanding sales results in 2021, an outstanding video is the right place to start.

To achieve that, your video will need to be above average in the categories of concept, story structure, and building anticipation.

These three elements will massively improve the effect your brand video has on your audience, and take your video from average to outstanding!

The Main Ingredient

There is one main ingredient that (when done right) can guarantee your video will be more unique than anyone else’s, and get the exposure you’re looking for.

The main ingredient is story.

But not just any story. It’s got to be YOUR story.

Showcased effectively, your unique story can make people become fascinated with your brand!

Not just on a surface level, but on a deeper emotional level.

In this blog, I’ll walk through the three best storytelling strategies that you can apply to your promotional video so that you get outstanding results.

You don’t need to include all of these, but you must include at least one, in order to make your story stand out.

It’s time to become an expert in YOUR story, and bewitch people with your brand video.

Spend More Time On Concept

In order to make a video concept that really stands out, you’ll need to spend more time than you may be used to in the concept creation stage.

This is often called your Video Promotion Strategy.

Brands tend to rush through this stage, hoping to get their video to market.

Either they don’t feel comfortable with stepping outside their usual content, or they think they already know enough.

Meanwhile, those that get really creative end up with high performing videos.

More time spent on concept means more results for you.

But how do you create an outstanding concept for a brand video?

Here are the three steps.

1. Client Research

Figure out what your clients really need to hear.

I mean, really need to hear. Not what you assume they need to hear.

This involves spending some quality time asking them, or even interviewing them in depth.

Also, client’s needs change over time, and you may not be up to date on what they currently want.

If you want them to invest in your brand, you need to nail this in your video, so do some high quality client research.

2. Video Research

The next stage is to spend some time looking around online for what kind of videos successful brands are making, and what’s trending.

This will give you some great ideas, especially if you find something in a totally different industry and tweak it so that it has relevance to your field.

This approach will allow you to make something relevant, but totally original!

The Youtube Ads Leaderboard is a fantastic resource, since the majority of the ads there are high budget, which means they’ve spent a lot of time on research and concept.

You don’t need to compete with videos at this level, but it will inspire you to think bigger!

3. Trial And Error

Combining the first two (client’s needs and video concept) in a way that’s cohesive may not happen right away. It will likely take some time.

It’s like creating a new recipe. Take your time, and put together several ideas. Then get feedback from the rest of your team, and decide on a winner.

Again, the more time you’re willing to spend proofing your concept, the more outstanding a video you will create, and the more success you will have.

Here’s an example of a video concept that is totally original to its industry standard.

Tell A Full Story

If you want your brand video to stand out, it needs to function the way a great story does.

The problem is, the word “story” has been misconstrued by social media.

What “story” means to most people is:

A post
A picture
A carousel on Instagram
A tweet

THAT’S NOT A STORY! (Yes I was yelling right there.)

Three Acts

A full story should have at least three stages: A beginning, a middle, and an end.

Or even better: A beginning, a muddle, and an end.

When your story is impacted by a real problem, it becomes juicy, and it creates a desire in the viewer to want to see it solved.

Looking to create a client testimonial or case study video? This is what three steps could look like:

Act 1: Introduce the customer problem

Act 2: Customer takes journey to fix the problem (Very important to embellish this since this is also where you introduce your brand.)

And finally, in Act 3: Resolution is achieved, and your customer is overjoyed.

Not only is this proper story structure, but it’s going to be the most relatable to your new prospects, who want to know if you truly understand them, and care about their problems.

This is a full story, and it’s important when making an outstanding brand video.

Here’s an example:

Build More Anticipation

If you’ve got a great concept, and a great story in which to execute the concept, then anticipation is the final ingredient you need in order to make an outstanding brand video.

This is the ingredient that will really keep your viewer engaged in your video.

How do you achieve anticipation?

Disturbance In The Force

By first recognizing the disturbance of balance in the world your client lives in.

Once the balance has been upset, people want to see it returned back to normal, and will often wait around to see if it happens in your story.

The more accurately you can portray what’s truly threatening your ideal client, the better anticipation you can build.

Ask yourself, what can you make happen in your story to portray the upset of balance and build anticipation?

Production Quality

Strong production quality will attract your viewer like a fly to a light.

Our generation is attracted to beautiful images and videos. When a video looks beautiful, people are much more willing to watch it.

Now that so many of us are using video calls on a daily basis, a video with real production value is going to create a stark visual contrast, and set the tone that says “Hey! This video is different.”

Here is an example of a video that builds anticipation using its production value alone, but also has an original concept to match.

The ideas they’ve come up with make it watchable to the very end.

Keep It Short

Our attention spans are much shorter than we’d like to admit.

For that reason alone, you need to keep your video short.

Brands like Nike and Apple can easily get away with longer videos because they’ve won the trust of their audience, and people know their videos are kick-ass.

However, they still make short videos!

Why?

Because when you set out to make a short video (60 seconds or less, for example), you are challenging yourself to make your content as concise as possible.

The shorter your video is, the more impactful your messaging needs to be. This is a challenge for many brands because they feel the need to communicate so many of their important details.

But that’s often a lot to ask from just one video.

Simplify your messaging, and even your desired outcome from your video, and you will have a better time achieving results.

This in turn will give you confidence in using videos to promote.

Getting To The Heart Of Your Story

If you help people, you have a story.

And the exact way in which you help people, is a story worth telling.

However, if people don’t engage in your brand video, you may feel like your brand doesn’t have the impact you thought it did.

But that’s not true. It’s your storytelling that doesn’t have impact.

So we need to get this part right.

Getting to the heart of your story, is more about the “Why” and less about the “How”.

The Why is far more compelling.

Sure, your brand video can include both. But dive deeper into the “Why” before you start scriptwriting and shot planning.

A simple rule to follow is to make your story more about your client, and less about you.

This makes your brand story more magnetic, although that may seem counterintuitive.

If you position your client at the heart of your story, you’ve got a great foundation for a story that your prospects will want to hear.