Building trust with a customer makes them far more likely to commit to your products and services. Trust is the one element that factors into nearly every purchasing decision for a customer, regardless of what the item is. That's where video marketing can prove valuable to your business. While 83 percent of businesses believe their video marketing campaign is producing solid ROI, video marketing isn't just about brand and product exposure. Fostering trust is central to video marketing.
The intimacy of a video marketing campaign makes it uniquely well-suited to building trust. Here are some of the trust-building strategies that you can begin implementing in your campaigns today.
1. Begin with your brand's story
There are certain videos in your marketing campaign that can be considered "cornerstone" videos. These are the videos that build a foundation of your brand's identity, voice, mission and goals. These videos explain your brand's story. They share what your brand is about and why it was created. These stories may not highlight any specific products or services, but they instead tell your customers what they can expect from your business and ways your business is different.
Customers don't want to be doled out a list of facts about a business; they want to be told a narrative. They want to know how the business originated, how it grew and what struggles it had to face. All of these things make the brand memorable and relatable.
In addition to brand story videos, videos can include information about your employees and your customers – information about the environment that your business is in and what your business does for the local community. These topics link to and inform your other advertising messages. All of these videos help build a foundation of important, timeless content you can use throughout your brand's campaign.
You can also update your brand identity from time to time as your business evolves and new challenges arise.
2. Create customer testimonials
Customers naturally build trust with other customers. This is why third-party review sites and word-of-mouth advertising are so effective. Once a customer knows about your business, the customer wants to know more about what others think about your business. This is where your valuable customer testimonials come in. Again, it's all about telling a story.
A good customer testimonial should begin by explaining the problem the customer faced. From there, the testimonial should discuss how the business worked with them to help fix their problem. At the end, the customer should wrap up by sharing a highlight of the ultimate results of the product or the solution – and how they feel about the business. Customers can discuss why they value the business and their relationship with it, or why the product or service differs from that of the business's competitors.
Above all, a good customer testimonial has to be earnest and can't seem coached. It needs to be written by real customers with real problems. Reach out to the customers you have the best relationships with. These customers are going to be your most valuable advocates – in fact, you may even be able to turn your customers into brand advocates with a little work and nurturing.
3. Engage your customers directly
Video doesn't have to be a one-way street. In fact, it really shouldn't be. The more interactive and engaging your videos are, the more your customers are going to feel as though they know and trust you. If your videos are simply distributed without any type of context or engagement, your customers may not feel as though they can come to you with their concerns. Here are a few ways you can improve your video engagement.
- Answer questions in video format. If you receive questions from your customers, post a follow up and address them directly. Give them answers to their questions and post clarifications or even corrections as needed. This helps customers feel as though they are truly a part of something. They are a part of your video community.
- Start using live videos. Live video streams are a great way to interact with your audience. On many platforms, you can see comments and reactions as you film your live video. You can launch a question and answer session, or simply show your customers what you're doing day-to-day. Consider making fast explainer videos or showing them a behind the scenes look at your company's process.
- Always respond to comments. Wherever your video is posted, it will likely allow comments at the bottom. Responding to comments is a good way to give your customers an idea of the person you are – as well as establishing that you know a lot about your product, service and industry.
- Share videos directly. Share your applicable videos when customers ask questions about products, and share your videos on social media when they're relevant. By sharing your videos, you can increase your audience exposure. You can also create videos responses about things going on in the world, such as current news events.
- Respond to other videos. If videos are made about your product or your service, make sure to chime in with some helpful tips, corrections or other professional promotion. Just remember: don't respond in a harsh or personal way to criticism. Criticism is always going to happen, but it's how you respond to that criticism that is ultimately going to be important.
You don't want to post videos and then forget they exist. You want to continue interacting and sharing with your audience. The more often your audience interacts with you, the more fond they become of your company. You will create memories associated with your business, and positive impressions of your business that they can take away and talk about in the future.
4. Highlight your industry
Industry highlights are an excellent way to show your audience that you know your stuff. Work with other businesses in your industry, highlight their products and ask them questions about their business processes. Not only does this give your audience more information about the products and services that they're likely interested in, but it also gives your company additional content.
You can highlight industry information as it grows and changes, such as recent trends within your industry, new styles of product and new innovations in technology. Some great industry related videos occur at conventions. You can take live video at the convention and post information, news and tidbits that you discover along the way. Those interested in your industry and products will be drawn in and learn more about your own services.
Industry highlights also connect you to other businesses within your industry, and you should never take that type of networking for granted. If you can start producing videos with other businesses in or related to your industry, you can further increase your reach. By swapping videos, you and other businesses can grow your audience and create a network of supportive businesses.
At this point, you may also want to reach out to brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors are independent individuals who know a lot about your industry and enjoy your products. You can reach out to them and request additional information about how they use your products and why they feel your business is special. By interviewing them, you can obtain more information about a customer's thoughts while building trust with your customers at the same time.
5. Always be authentic
Above all, your video marketing campaign must be authentic. Customers are extremely savvy to overly polished advertising messages. They simply don't impact them the way an earnest, honest message does. Authenticity can come in many ways, from using real people rather than actors to using live video to show what really goes on behind the scenes. For most businesses, customers are willing to embrace the company's flaws as long as they feel the business is being honest with them.
There's such a thing as being too clever when it comes to your video marketing campaigns. Rather than thinking about what might manipulate a customer into a sale, genuinely consider what your customers want and how you can fulfill their needs. If you are able to meet your customer's needs in a way that also meets your own, it's a mutually beneficial relationship. Approaching from this context will help give your videos the earnestness that will speak directly to your audience.
Authenticity can be difficult to approach from the outside. After all, trying to be authentic can already be an issue in and of itself. You can test your videos against small focus groups to find out if there's anything about your videos that happens to strike them as inauthentic or artificial. Focus groups are often the best method to get a bead on how your customers are going to approach your video.
With the right video marketing campaign, you can easily establish a rapport with your customers and slowly build trust over time. This trust will come back to you multiplied later on, as these customers will continue to return to your business time and time again.