Telling your brand story can incorporate text and visual elements. Visual branding isn’t just what people remember, it is the type of content that social media platforms are prioritizing for the future (Instagram via The Verge). How do brands convey their brand story visually? Video content has become so impactful to branding that 54% of online consumers want to watch videos from brands they are following (HubSpot). For example, the way brands incorporate visual images can impact conversion rates and a business’s bottom line.
A few ways to create visual images that help convert followers into customers include breaking the fourth wall and storytelling through emojis. Playing with data and catering to decreased attention spans with short-form videos are additional ways to showcase your personal brand. Additionally, utilizing visual branding techniques can increase engagement with your core audience, which in turn, may create an uptick in conversion rates as well.
HOW TO BREAK THE FOURTH WALL AND WHAT IS THE FOURTH WALL?
Organizations that confine product descriptions to be read as boring manufacturers’ specifications on product pages and eCommerce websites won’t inspire customers to purchase their products. For instance, incorporating your brand story into product pages can help you relate to your audience. By providing them with reasons for making each product, you can speak directly to your audience.
How do you speak directly to your audience? Break the fourth wall! By breaking the fourth wall, you give your business an opportunity to speak directly with consumers.
What exactly is a fourth wall?
“The fourth wall is the screen that we’re watching,” according to Studio Binder.
Studio Binder
Filmmakers use multiple tools to get their message across to viewers. These tools include lighting, scripts, actors, physical props, and more to tell a story. Speaking directly to the viewer would be breaking this wall and is a creative decision each filmmaker must make.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS
Product descriptions on eCommerce websites can be dull and mechanical. Adding product images and incorporating your brand story can entice the viewer to take notice. Visual branding involves breaking the barrier. Break the barrier between you and your customer by using the following tips to create a two-way conversation that converts.
- Add captions to product videos to make them more accessible
- Use overlays to bring elements into your product videos in a cascading fashion
- Highlight product features by incorporating music that moves the consumer
TELL YOUR BRAND STORYTELLING
How many times have you heard that communication is key? Intentionality is at the heart of your communication. How you relay your personal brand story is one of the most important aspects of marketing and communication. Similarly, if you are not able to effectively communicate your personal brand story, your customers may not feel a connection to you or your brand. A lack of connection may contribute to your audience seeking out alternatives.
HOW TO TELL A GOOD BRAND STORY
When you tell your brand story, ask yourself if you are telling a personal story? Or, are you telling a story about your brand? Many business owners struggle to tell their brand story. This is unfortunate because many businesses have a very personal brand story. The story that you tell needs to be unique and told from an authentic place. Crafting your brand story is a very important piece of your overall brand presence online. For example, presenting your brand story visually is one way to stimulate the senses and command the attention of your ideal customers.
Many business owners have an “About” section on their websites. The “About” page is informative and can showcase business milestones. Your brand story can resonate with readers by simply stating the history of your organization. For example, your “About” page can humanize your business. By telling your brand story, you have an opportunity to make a true connection with your audience.
BUSINESS EVOLUTION
Evolving a business involves telling your brand story. You will find a few common brand story attributes below that you can can incorporate into your brand story:
- Identify the reason you began your business
- Relay how helping your customers makes you feel
- Outline the steps you took to start your business
- Convey how far your business has come
- Showcase significant moments with moving images
- Use media to present short and long-form social media posts
- Craft documentary-style YouTube content
TRANSITIONING YOUR BRAND VOICE INTO EMOJIS
What can an emoji do for your brand? 10 billion emojis and 700 million stickers and gifs are sent every day through direct messaging. Your brand identity can be visualized by an emoji, sticker, or gif, with nothing more than the tap of a button. However, the process of selecting the right emoji might take a little longer to adhere to your brand guidelines and visual aesthetic.
Firstly, to transition your brand voice into emojis, conduct a brand audit to see what your brand is already communicating. Secondly, and your audit is analyzed, choose moments where to interject a branded gif or emoji instead of text. Thirdly, implementing this visual communication takes a skilled eye and a tuned-in social media and marketing team. However, emojis don’t always appear in the same format across all mobile devices, and it is important to know what each emoji fully means to utilize it appropriately.
EMOJI RESOURCES
Resources like Emojimeanings.net or Emojipedia.org can help businesses decipher the true definition of each emoji. Bookmark these websites in your web browser to keep them handy for research. Emojis display differently understand across mobile devices. Drilling down on the emoji types can improve your brand recognizability. Likewise, conditioning your customer to recognize your communication style can impact engagement and click-through rates.
PLAYING WITH DATA CAN HIGHLIGHT GAPS IN YOUR COMMUNICATION
Color psychology enhances how people feel about seeing a particular image or message. Visual stimulation is a necessary part of the first impression used by marketers to gain audience attention. For example, using visual imagery can drive customer engagement and retention. Most importantly, segmenting consumers based on previous engagement and psychographics is an important part of playing with data. Businesses can implement targeted segmentation to add revenue.
Analyzing social media insights and website metrics can greatly improve your ability to target the right consumer for your products or services. Brand insights can help you find the right set of attributes to solidify your ideal customer avatar. Similarly, data can help your company scale faster if you can pinpoint drop-off points where your customers are leaving your website. Acknowledging where your audience becomes disengaged with your content is critical to improving your retention.
SHORT-FORM VIDEOS ARE SKYROCKETING ENGAGEMENT
Businesses need to know where customers are hanging out and why they disengage with branded messaging. Meanwhile, gaining access to the youthful Gen Z market share is important for business longevity. Most importantly, it is ideal for businesses to gain a customer base at a young age, and provide great customer service and product selection. This in turn helps retain customers and form loyalty relationships.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT Insights: Brand Data Analysis and Storytelling
WHAT ABOUT TIKTOK?
TikTok is a major social media platform that has disrupted the marketplace. Certainly, it has captured the attention span of many consumers and rivaled Facebook and Instagram for the past two years. With over 1 billion downloads, TikTok has created the short-form vehicle many businesses have yet to master. Subsequently, the platform has played such a huge role in how consumers are entertained, educated, and inspired, that other social media heavyweights have tried to replicate their success. To clarify, competitor social media platforms have created short-form video content features like Instagram REELS, Pinterest Idea Pins, and YouTube Shorts.
FOCUS ON FREE NOT PAID CONTENT
To keep costs down, focus on free content like social billboards and social group membership. As a result, by joining Facebook Groups or Meetups, your content can be seen without spending any money.
Additionally, you can set your profile to “Creator Mode” on LinkedIn to enable new features that highlight a short profile video behind your profile image. This may allow you to put more information about your business into your profile. There are many features that are actively promoting creators on the LinkedIn platform. However, video doesn’t have the reach like on other platforms. However, I recommend utilizing LinkedIn’s Live video streaming to attract new audiences to your LinkedIn Business Page.
Twitter is becoming a place for community. For example, you can apply to have a Twitter Community, ticketed Twitter Spaces, and Super Follows on Twitter. To clarify, Super Follows is a feature that allows you to charge followers to access your premium content. Super Follows can be employed as an added revenue stream for your business. Furthermore, Twitter, Facebook Groups can also be a way to increase revenue. You can join or starting your own group. Inside of the Facebook Group you can post content about your business, forge relationships, and generate leads. Additionally, it is free to create and join Facebook Groups and you can also nurture your Facebook Group members to prime them to become paying customers.
TECH SOLUTIONS FOR NON-TECH BUSINESS OWNERS
There are many software solutions to help you to develop your personal brand’s visual identity. Small business owners can take back more time by utilizing design software. If you want to uplevel your visual brand identity, here are a few solutions that will help you save time:
- Canva
- PicMonkey
- Adobe Creative Cloud Express
- Snappa
- Pablo
- Crello
CONNECTING WITH CONSUMERS AND AUTHENTICITY
Above all, connection to consumers begins with having an authentic brand voice. To strike a chord with consumers, your personal brand needs to start to convey who you are, whom you serve, and, why you do what you do. It’s simple. However, there is no need to make your messaging complicated. Simply bring your authenticity to the table. The best way to show your authenticity is to highlight your brand story with visual brand assets.
What do you need to start relating to your online audience? To better connect with consumers, establishing a visual brand identity is imperative. Furthermore, utilizing the techniques outlined above can increase your customer conversions. Firstly, break the fourth wall to speak directly to your audience. Secondly, your business needs to craft a visual brand story that moves your clients. Thirdly, distinguish your communication style with emojis. Fourthly, establish your brand voice and segment your data to retarget customers. Finally, create a better first impression with a short-form video.
In conclusion, consumers of social media have short attention spans. Stopping the scroll on social media is difficult considering that Facebook alone “generates 3,000 years of video watch time per day” (Social Pilot). By engaging customers with these techniques, you can assist your business in making a good first impression and a lasting impact. Lastly, this will show up as you analyze your engagement metrics, customer affinity, and conversion rates.
