5 Strategies for Building Brand Trust Through Video

Building trust with customers makes them far more likely to buy your products and services and continue doing business with you over the long term. Established businesses succeed because they’ve built trust into their brand reputation and forged a genuine bond with their customers.

Newer and smaller companies must also create this bond to show customers that they can trust you to provide a quality product or service, handle their payment data securely, and take care of any customer service issues.

Here’s where video marketing can prove invaluable to your business. The intimacy of a video marketing campaign makes it uniquely well-suited to building trust. We’ll highlight effective trust-building strategies businesses can incorporate into their video marketing campaigns.

How to build brand trust through video marketing

Building trust is more than aiming for customer satisfaction. It’s a commitment to fulfill the customer’s needs over the long term and deliver a quality experience. Here are five ways to use video to build trust and ensure customer loyalty.

1. Tell your brand’s story through video.

Specific videos in your marketing campaign are  called cornerstone videos. They build the foundation of your brand’s identity, voice, mission and goals by telling your brand’s story — what it’s about and why it was created.

Here are some tips for creating storytelling videos:

• Tell your customers what they can expect. Storytelling videos likely don’t highlight specific products or services. Instead, they tell your customers what they can expect from your business and how it’s different from the competition.
• Create a narrative about your business. Customers don’t want to hear a list of facts about a business. They want a narrative — how the business originated, how it grew, and what struggles it faced. These elements create a memorable, relatable and compelling brand story.
• Introduce your employees, customers, and relationships. Storytelling videos can include information about your employees and customers — your business’s environment and its impact on the community.

Storytelling videos will inform your other advertising messages, creating a foundation of crucial, timeless content you can use throughout your brand’s marketing efforts.

2. Create customer testimonial videos to build trust.

Customers naturally build trust with other customers. This is why third-party review sites and word-of-mouth advertising are so effective. Once customers know about your business, they want to know how others feel about you.

Video testimonials are a valuable tool to show that your customers trust your business. A good video customer testimonial contains the following elements:

• Explain the initial problem. The customer should begin by explaining a problem they faced.
• Share how the business helped. The customer should discuss how the business worked with them to help fix their problem.
• Show the solution. They should wrap up by highlighting the product or solution’s ultimate results and discussing how they feel about the business. They can say why they value the business and their relationship or why the product or service differs from the competition.

Above all, a good customer testimonial must be earnest and can’t seem coached. It must come from real customers with real problems.

To find people to create video testimonials, reach out to customers with whom you have excellent relationships. They’ll be your most valuable advocates — they may even become the cornerstone of a future brand advocacy program.

3. Engage your customers directly with video.

Video shouldn’t be a one-way street. The more interactive and engaging your videos, the more your customers will know and trust you. Your customers may feel disconnected if you distribute videos without context or engagement.

Here are a few ways to improve your video engagement:

• Answer questions in video format. If you receive questions from your customers, post a follow-up video and address them directly. Answer questions and post clarifications or corrections as needed. This response helps customers feel like they’re part of your video community.
• Start using live videos. Live video streams are an excellent way to interact with your audience. You can see comments and reactions as you record on many platforms, such as Facebook Live Q&As. Use the live video for question-and-answer sessions or to show customers your daily routine. Consider making explainer videos or showing customers a behind-the-scenes look at your company’s processes.
• Always respond to comments. Most video-posting platforms allow comments. Responding to comments shows your personality and establishes you as an expert in your products, services and industry.
• Share videos directly. Share appropriate videos when customers ask questions about products, and share relevant videos on social media. Sharing videos increases your audience exposure.
• Respond to other videos. If others make videos about your product or service, chime in with helpful tips, corrections or additional promotions. Never respond harshly or take feedback personally. Criticism will happen; how you respond is crucial to how others see you.
• Interact consistently. Don’t post videos and forget they exist. Focus on continually interacting and sharing with your audience. The more your audience interacts with you, the more fond they become of your company. You’ll create memories associated with your business and positive impressions customers will discuss in the future.

4. Use video to highlight your industry.

Industry highlights are an excellent way to demonstrate your expertise. Here are some tips for industry-highlight videos.

• Partner with other businesses. Work with other non-competitive businesses in your industry to highlight their products and ask questions about their processes. This gives your audience more information about products and services they’re likely interested in and provides additional content for your company. Additionally, creating industry-highlight videos can help you forge valuable partnerships with other companies. Increase your reach by swapping videos with a network of supportive businesses.
• Create videos about trends. Highlight industry information as it grows and changes, including recent industry trends, new product styles and tech innovations. Conventions are an excellent resource for this video type. For example, you can record live videos at a convention and post information, news and tidbits you discover. If you’re a conference speaker, post a video of your presentation. You’ll be able to provide industry updates while establishing credibility.
• Interview brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors are independent individuals who know a lot about your industry and products. Reach out to them and request additional information about how they use your products and why they feel your business is unique. Interviewing brand ambassadors is a great way to build trust with customers and gain insights into their thoughts.

5. Always be authentic in your video marketing.

Above all, your video marketing campaign must be authentic. Customers are savvy to overly polished advertising messages and don’t respond as well as they would to a genuine message.

Here are a few ways to be authentic in your videos.

• Show your company, flaws and all. Use real people — customers and employees — instead of actors, and show what really goes on behind the scenes. Customers are usually willing to embrace the company’s minor flaws as long as they feel the business is being honest.
• Consider your customers and their needs. There’s such a thing as being too clever in video marketing campaigns. Instead of trying to manipulate customers into a sale, genuinely consider what they want and how you can fulfill their needs. Approaching from this perspective will inform your videos with honesty and help you speak directly to your audience.
• Use focus groups to ensure you’re being genuine. Trying too hard be authentic can result in a very inauthentic outcome. Consider testing your videos with small focus groups to see if anything strikes them as inauthentic or artificial. Focus groups are a great way to gauge how customers will receive your videos.

 

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