There is no doubt that video marketing is here to stay. Companies keep increasing their video budgets, hoping that videos can help them boost brand awareness and recognition.
However, video can do more than that. One of the perks of running a consistent video marketing strategy is higher customer loyalty. Consumers love when they can extract something useful from the content produced by their favorite brand and will readily consume more of it if such content keeps delivering value.
But here’s a dilemma – how long should videos be to actually boost customer loyalty?
The statistics show that the optimal length of the video is about 5 minutes. The average length of B2B is 4 minutes and 28 seconds, and for B2C videos, this length is even shorter – around 2 minutes.
The reason why short videos work better for customer loyalty is explained by our inability to maintain focus for too long. The more straight-to-the-point the video is, the better we perceive it.
At the same time, it can be quite challenging to come up with ideas for truly informative short videos. After all, how can you properly cover the topic if you only have a couple of minutes?
If you find yourself unsure about the answer right now, here are a few creative short video ideas that not only deliver value but also boost customer loyalty.
1. A Look Behind the Scenes
Consumers always want to participate in their favorite brand’s life. Besides, they want to see your brand raw and authentic, and behind-the-scenes content can help you achieve that effect.
Essentially, behind-the-scenes content provides a more insider look at your business, shows work in progress, and the process of making your customers’ favorite products.
Besides showing your brand as it is, without embellishments and exaggerations, behind-the-scenes content has a ton of other benefits:
- facilitating a closer relationship with your customers:
- humanizing your brand
- boosting customer loyalty
Behind-the-scenes content can also help you attract more clients by forging a positive opinion of your brand from the start. If you nurture new customers with such content from the beginning, they will also be more likely to eventually become loyal to your brand.
A good example of a behind-the-scenes video is Lush’s clip on how the brand makes its signature bath bombs:
Credit: Lush Cosmetics
In this two-minute video, a Lush compounder (a person who creates bath bombs) reveals the entire process of making Lush’s most popular product, from creating the colors to mixing all the components together. This helps the fans of the brand to learn more about Lush’s bath bombs and see for themselves that they are made from safe ingredients.
The biggest perk of behind-the-scenes videos is that it opens the door to creativity. You can film any episode from your brand’s life and even upload the video as it is, without edits and manipulation.
2. Videos with Educational Value
Video content has two main purposes – entertainment and education. Both work well for creating a successful marketing strategy, but both broadcast very different values.
Although it’s always a good idea to produce short videos for entertainment purposes every now and then, educational videos should prevail because they are the source of valuable information about your brand and product.
Educational videos absolutely can be short, even though they should be as rich in information as possible. Just take a look at how Tidio, a chatbot company, managed to create a 2-minute product tutorial for setting up their chatbot on Shopify:
Credit: Tidio
As you can see, two minutes are enough to tell people about one key feature of your product. And if you want to cover more product features, just break them down into several videos.
One more way you can create short educational videos is by making them interactive. Such videos work extremely well to not just boost customer loyalty but generate new leads as well.
However, it is also important to note that interactive videos are often based on a storyline, which means that you will need a thorough script to film such a video. The process of writing a script can be quite overwhelming and chaotic. That’s why you need proper tools to structure this process. Employing such writing and editing tools as StudioBinder, GetGoodGrade, or WriterDuet can help you make script writing less challenging and more optimized.
A great example of a brand that produces a series of short, interactive videos is Banqer, an online financial education school. For instance, below, you can see a video that teaches people how to manage financial risks:
Credit: Banqer
Basically, a video presents a series of situations, and the final outcome will depend on the choices you make. As a result, the viewers not only have a fun time watching this video but also learn something valuable.
3. Storytime Involving Influencers
You probably already know about the power of storytelling in content marketing – it helps make the narrative more natural and present your brand as genuine. Besides, people are always drawn by good stories.
Storytelling videos are already powerful marketing tools on their own. But if you want to take their power to the next level, you can involve influencers and create a storytime video.
You might have seen Nike doing this kind of videos quite often with the golf champion Tiger Woods and Serena Williams, a world-renowned tennis star, and LeBron James, an NBA superstar:
Credit: Nike
Involving influencers helps Nike push its brand values – perseverance, dedication, and commitment to sports, not to mention that these videos are very motivational.
Even though there are obvious perks of making storytelling videos with influencers, you need to be careful about who you are choosing to feature. When choosing an influencer, keep in mind that they should belong to your niche. For instance, Nike wouldn’t choose a musician to promote its sportswear.
Besides, an influencer should have an audience that would find your brand and product relevant. Otherwise, you risk wasting money filming an expensive video and targeting the wrong people.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, it’s absolutely possible to be creative with short videos, even if it seems that they limit you.
First of all, you can film the behind-the-scenes chronicles of your business. This way, you’ll bring your brand closer to your customers and appear more ‘human’ to them.
Also, you can film educational videos that share useful information about your product or simply teach your viewers something valuable. Your customers will appreciate such content because they will be able to find a use for it in their everyday life.
Lastly, try involving influencers and creating short storytime videos. But make sure that influencers come from your niche and have a relevant audience.
As a result, you will not just have great short videos for marketing your brand but also for boosting customer loyalty. You will establish the authority as a brand that shares meaningful content with its customers, and who wouldn’t want to stay loyal to a brand like this?
