A guest post from our friends at Fit Small Business

When it comes to digital marketing, every word you write, photo you share, or video you produce—all your content—is a reflection of your brand.

Anything you post to your channels or outlets is an opportunity to brand yourself. At any moment, your timely video or helpful blog post could go viral—and if you didn’t take the opportunity to brand that content, you’ll lose valuable eyeballs, leads, opportunities, and awareness.

Video content is particularly important to brand, since video is so popular—watching video makes up one-third of all online activity—and shareable (social video generates 1,200 percent more shares than text and images combined).    

If we know that video can be used to brand your store, the question becomes, how? What can you do when creating your videos to make them representative of what you sell?

Here are five creative ways (some subtle, some obvious) that you can use video to boost your brand marketing efforts:

  1. Create a welcome video for your homepage

A good welcome video—explaining the who, what, how, and why of your store (sorry, “where,” but for ecommerce sellers, the answer is “everywhere”) in 60-90 seconds or less—is helpful in two ways.

One, when someone visits your store for the first time, they are immediately drawn in to your sales funnel, and waste no time clicking around various links to find the point and purpose of your product or service.

And two, if the video is shared on other platforms, it can be just as effective in telling your story to people who didn’t come directly to your site.

For these videos, make sure you tailor the message to your target audience, and try to tell your story as quickly as possible. Social media platforms like Instagram cut off videos at one minute, so if your clip is shared there, you want the entire message to stay intact.

  1. Create an animated explainer video

Animated explainers are one of the most popular styles of branded video on the web. They check the all-important boxes of short (because they can be rather labor-intensive, it’s best to keep them brief), informational, and to-the-point.

Animated explainers straddle the line between visual and verbal learning, meaning they are more likely to resonate with a larger overall audience. Another benefit is you can create characters that resonate with your target audience—a good, easy way to instill empathy and connection between your brand and your potential customers.  

They’re also just plain fun to watch, if made well—a key factor in capturing and retaining the attention of internet passersby.

  1. Make a screen recording

Short of reaching through the computer screen (an impossibility at this point, at least), the best way to show customers how to browse your store, place orders, or otherwise interact with your company and brand is to create a screen recording.

A screen recording—essentially just mirroring what it takes to complete a task on your website, and posting a video of it for the world to see—is helpful for branding in two important ways.

For one, you’re providing useful information to users: guiding them step-by-step through a process and keeping them from clicking off if they run into any obstacles they don’t understand.

And two, a screen recording of your website pages is going to be chock full of your branding already. Your logo, colors, URL, and more will be prominently featured throughout. (More on the use of branding in your videos below.)

  1. Enlist an influencer to promote your brand

Influencer marketing is big, and getting bigger. Brands of all sizes are enlisting influencers, who also run the gamut from huge to “micro,” to use their products in their videos.

Creating and fostering an organic relationship with someone carrying a huge influence with the market you’re trying to reach can be a boon for both parties, and is a great way to bring awareness to your brand that you couldn’t do alone.

  1. Be bold with your branding in whatever you create

Even if you make a video that is ostensibly not to explicitly market your product (though remember, everything you create is part of your marketing campaign), you can be bold with your branding in ways that subtle but effective.

For example, when creating an animated explainer, or product demonstration, or any other kind of video, go heavy on the colors of your brand whenever possible. Use the font you use on your website; the voice and tone of your other content; and any other distinctive elements. That way, even a video that isn’t “for” your store will feel like it.

Video content should be unique, fun, shareable, and a chance for your marketing team to balance promoting the brand outright with creativity. Give your videos the power to tell your brand’s story, in ways big and small, and you’ll see a difference quickly.