When you think of your company or organization’s brand story, what do you think of? A mission statement? Branded advertisements? Your upper management’s vision for company growth? If any of those three listed answers were your response, it may be time to rethink the way your company is presenting itself to its customers in the new year. There are countless number of ways to tell your company’s story, but we believe that the most effective one is through video marketing. Read on to find out why:

Emotions dictate decisions. If you’ve been reading along on our blog for the last several months, or if you’re new to the Rooted Content space (hi!), one thing you should know about us is that we feel very strongly that emotions dictate decision making more often than rational facts do. While we’re not going to go into detail right now, neuroscientists like Damasio have made a compelling case for the philosophy of “I feel, therefore I am.” Building a brand narrative that is based around the story of what you and your company do is more likely to cause an emotional connection between your brand and your intended customer. If you create an emotional bond with your viewer/customer, you can make a customer for life just by effectively telling your brand’s story.
The quality of your storytelling reflects the quality of your product. If you click around the internet, you’ll see that more and more people are predicting the rise of video marketing in 2018. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are making live video content easily available to consumers. Here’s the thing, though, there are reasons that will make a viewer turn your video off. When people see a video campaign from you, they want it to represent the product they are purchasing related to that video. The more cohesive and company-appropriate your story is, the more likely it is to connect to your intended viewership. The more likely you are to win customers and keep them.
Storytelling can be more effective than advertising. While you think a TV commercial is supposed to come out and tell you what it’s selling, more and more companies are moving away from strict advertisements. (Think about an ad where you see a family eating around a table and they’re using a product, but no one ever specifically tells you to buy it.) We take this concept one step further by giving the viewer a story to hold on to that may not have anything to do with what your business is selling. Once again, we strive to make an emotional connection with viewers that transports them into the narrative they are seeing. This can create a lasting relationship between you and your audience.
Transporting audiences is a positive. One huge benefit of storytelling is that you allow your viewer an inroad to your company and its story that they would not otherwise have. For example, a medical group in the Carolinas approached us a few years ago to create an employee engagement campaign. Instead of interviewing people about why they love their jobs and giving a list of statistics about why the hospital was a good place to work, we chose a few individuals and told their specific stories. This allowed the viewing audience to be transported into what day-to-day life is like inside the hospital, and experience it almost first hand. If you put your viewer into your story, you have a better chance at influencing their emotions and their decision making.
Your story is worth telling. In this day and age, we are focused on the bottom line. In terms of advertising, strategy usually comes down to highlighting the usefulness of the product or service you sell. To make lasting relationships with your customers, a better strategy is to connect with your audience on a deeper level. Your brand’s story is worth telling. Give it a voice and see what reaction you garner from the people you want to market to. You might be surprised.

At Rooted Content, we believe that storytelling is a vital part of the success of any business. Rethink your strategy for 2018 and partner with us to tell a story no one has heard before. The story behind your brand.