3 Ways to Create Emotional Impact with Video marketing

Nearly 85% of all internet users consume video content, making it one of the most powerful tools that businesses have at their disposal. Statistics show that 92% of marketers who use video say it is a crucial part of their overall strategy. Over 90% of current video marketers plan to maintain or increase their spend on the medium. 

Why? Because it’s effective. 

If you’re not using video in your marketing strategy, you’re missing out on a massive opportunity to raise brand awareness and convert your audience into paying customers. But to close a sale, it’s not enough to have entertaining viral clips that grab people’s attention. To cut through the online clutter, you must make an emotional connection with your audience.

The Human Brain and Video

From the moment we are born, we try to make sense of the world around us through what we see. Our brains are hardwired to respond to visual stimuli. More of the brain is devoted to processing the information our bodies receive from sight than any other of our other senses. In the cortex alone, 30% is devoted to visual processing neurons, compared to the 8% that are used to process touch and 3% that are devoted to sound. The optic nerves, which carry signals from the eyes to the brain, contains millions of fibers— a number far greater than the auditory nerve’s measly 30,000. 

Science supports what you might have already noticed in your own media consumption habits: visuals are more engaging than walls of text and lists of data. People’s attention spans are getting shorter, and grabbing an audience's attention is harder than ever before. The result is that the average website visitor reads only 20-28% of the words on a page. Visual content combats this in two ways: it keeps your readers interested in what you're saying and supports the information that you’re conveying in your written content. 

Understanding How Consumers Make Purchase Decisions

Aside from the attention-grabbing aspect of video, the medium is also effective because of the intense emotional responses that they can provoke. Whether you realize it or not, your brain is drawing conclusions based on everything it sees, down to the color.  

Many believe that consumers make purchase decisions based on rational and logical analysis. However, more and more scientific studies are proving otherwise. For example, fMRIs have shown that when evaluating brands, people tend to use feelings and experiences over brand features and facts.

Harvard School of Business professor Gerald Zaltman estimated that up to 95% of purchasing behavior is subconscious. Since emotion is what drives decision making, capitalizing on this is important. Seeing the right image at the right time can influence whether people stay on your page, subscribe to your newsletter, or buy your product. Furthermore, studies show that positive emotions towards a brand have a greater impact on consumer loyalty than other judgments based on information. 

Honing in on Emotional Connection in Video

Producing content that taps into human emotion doesn’t mean sharing some videos of cute puppies or tear-jerking reunions. It takes time and skill to craft the perfect video. If you go overboard with sappiness, your brand will appear disingenuous. If you put in too little effort, your video won’t land with customers. 

There are three broad tactics that brands can use to establish an emotional connection with their audiences: tell a story, show physical connection, and utilize technical aspects of filmmaking. 

Tell a Story 

Narrative storytelling isn’t just for stories of superheroes in the movie theater. It’s a powerful method that humans have been using since the beginning of time thanks to its remarkable power to engage people through data and emotions. 

Because of this, businesses should use video marketing as a way to tell others a story about their brand. Don’t just list facts. Weave them into a narrative and incorporate characters that your audience can relate to. Research shows that people remember information up to twenty-two times better when it is woven into a narrative than when it is just presented alone. 

Show Physical Connection

Science has proven the remarkable connection between physical touch and emotion. Physical connection between humans is a fundamental and universally understood language. Wanted handshakes, hugs, and friendly pats on the shoulder all trigger a release of oxytocin, which promotes feelings of trust, bonding, and devotion.

You can’t reach through the screen, but you can share these human moments with your audience. Showing groups of friends and families interacting with each other and with your brand cements positive associations in the mind. 

Don’t Forget the Details

Even the technical details of a video can be directed to convey the right emotions. Subtle acting moments, color temperature, camera movement, editing techniques, sound cues, and more guide the audience through the ad experience. All of these factors play an important role in how audiences perceive tone, mood, and message.

Businesses setting out to make their own video marketing content should always brush up on a little technical video how-to. Attention to detail is what sets amateur marketers apart from professional video content creators.

A Video is Worth a Million Words

If pictures are worth a thousand words, video is worth millions. Our brains have been hardwired to respond to images, giving businesses who use video the upper hand in marketing. By honing in on emotions through storytelling, physical connection, and attention to technical details, businesses can effectively connect to their audiences in a way that builds trust and prompts action.