1. Know and narrow your audience

One of the first steps in video production is defining your audience. The shotgun approach, casting a wide net to include as many individuals as possible is ineffective. In striving to speak to so many, you fail to speak to anyone well. Marketing bombards people in a million different ways a day. Broad strokes of communication just lose people’s interest. By narrowing your audience, you can actually expand the number of people who connect with your content.

2. Storytelling – making an emotional connection

With the amount of media people consume today, it’s more important than ever to tell a compelling story. You can’t just tell your audience to buy your product, and expect them to hop online and do it. Consumers expect to be entertained by marketing media. When you look at the advertisements that see the most viral success, almost all of them have this in common: they contain well-crafted stories that make people feel something.

Here are three things storytelling can add to your video:

1. Emotion – Stories connect with people on an emotional level. In return, emotion helps people to better relate to your business and brand.

2. Subtlety – Repetitive sales pitches turn people away from your message. Through the lens of a story, you can share an experience with viewers allowing them to read between the lines and learn more about your brand.

3. Show it – It’s not show and tell, its show don’t tell. One of the amazing things about video is its bandwidth for information. It’s not necessary to tell the viewer every bit of information. In fact, its better if you don’t. Only say what’s necessary to tell the story and use actions and visuals whenever possible to convey information. This tactic not only makes your story more interesting  – but helps keep it short.

3. Focus on the audience – not the product

It’s important that a corporate video provide value for, and help an audience, not just pitch a product or service.  We get it – you love your product, it’s the best thing since – ever. Because of this, it’s easy to go down the rabbit hole of just pitching your product and service. Instead, focus on the story and how it relates to your audience. If people can see themselves in the situation you’re creating, they’re one step closer to becoming a customer.

4. Be authentic 

It goes without saying; don’t make promises you can’t keep. Brands need to deliver on promises and ensure that audiences trust them. Todays highly educated consumers can sniff out false promises and exaggerations like the k-9 unit on S.W.A.T.. Authenticity goes beyond honesty as well. Audiences are well versed in marketing lingo and see through it quickly. Most audiences value language that’s sincere and takes them into consideration. Assume your audience is intelligent and give credit to their point of view.

These are just a few rules approaches to take into consideration. Revaluate your process regularly and maintain a focus on your audience.