Videos are powerful tools for businesses. They can be used for improved internal communication. They can make announcing company news more powerful and exciting. They can help update shareholders and make them feel involved and invested in what you are doing. And they're powerful vehicles for marketing.
If your company wants to use videos in the most efficacious way possible, it's important to tell stories in your videos. Video storytelling ensures that each video you create is not just a rote, informational piece of media. Instead, video storytelling hooks a viewer and makes them pay attention to what you're saying. It can also help stir emotions in viewers, which is a powerful means for persuasion and inducing change. One good place to start if you want to make more powerful videos is learning about video storytelling techniques.
Why Do Video Storytelling Techniques Matter?
When you use video storytelling techniques, you can effectively create media that includes a narrative and works well for gripping viewers and delivering a message that moves. The most powerful video storytelling techniques inspire change in a viewer — whether that means they are convinced to buy, spread the word about your brand, or feel more loyal to the mission you're pursuing. Video storytelling techniques can be used in a wide range of video types. The videos that are the most suited for video storytelling are:
- Company history videos
- Company mission and value videos
- Product and service announcements
- Hiring and job search videos
- Company announcement videos
- Video blog posts
- Onboarding videos
One of the most important reasons to utilize video storytelling techniques is that stories have been shown to inspire emotion in viewers, and emotion creates empathy. When people feel empathetic, they feel like they can relate to you, increasing the changes they will accept your call to action.
Top Video Storytelling Techniques
There are essentially countless video storytelling techniques. But, there are a few basic approaches that work well for telling stories in videos.
Pick a Color Palette to Convey Tone
Your video should have an overall color palette that helps tell the story your video is telling. If your video has an overarching tone or mood, hone in on a color palette that matches that mood, and keep it consistent from start to finish. For example, if you're story is exciting, hopeful, and full of action, consider using vibrant, bright hues that help portray the feel of your tale. Alternatively, you can use color to portray a journey in a video—perhaps your video tells a story that goes from hopeless to hopeful, or from the past to the future. Choose colors that correspond with the specific parts of your tale, and they can help you convey movement and change visually.
Draw Viewers' Eyes
Focus on the most important parts of your story, or the most important characters, by drawing viewers' eyes to elements of the visuals. Use brighter colors or illumination to shift focus to what you want people to look at, or use camera movement to pan or zoom in to where people should be looking. You can guide people to what you want them to pay attention to in your visual story by using camera or coloring techniques.
Another way to draw in viewer's is with a branded video gallery. Viostream offers a number of customizable features to help you create a viewing experience for your audience that is unique to you. Start your free trial to try it for yourself.
Use Music to Aid Your Story
Music is a powerful way to stir emotion in video viewers. Consider using music in the background of your video to spark a reaction—whether that be hope, fear, sadness, or even tenderness. Choose a song that aligns with the feel or tone of your video story, and you can ensure that your viewers' emotional experience is even more palpable.
Note: To avoid running into copyright issues, make sure you obtain your music through a licensing service or stock music subscription. You can also commission an artist to develop your own unique songs.
Harness the Power of High-Quality, Beautiful Visuals
Use high-quality, beautiful images and video clips within your greater video story to grip viewers. You want them to enjoy what they're watching on the screen so they keep watching, from start to finish. High-quality visuals in a video story can also impress viewers, showing them that you have high-tech capabilities.
Consider Narration for the Hearing-Impaired
Some of your video audience may not be able to see the visuals in your video story. For those, include parts that are narrated, so people with a wide range of abilities can understand the message your video is attempting to convey.
How Viostream Can Help Tell Your Story
If you're ready to try out these video storytelling techniques to grow your brand, consider using Viostream. Viostream gives you one place to publish and store your videos before you send them out to the world. With Viostream, you can create a branded video library where people can watch all your videos in one place, and you can also rely on video analytics and reporting to get a good sense of who your video stories are landing with.
To see if Viostream works for your company, start your free trial and experience all the benefits of a centralized video platform from which to manage, share, and evaluate your video content.
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