Considering using influencer video marketing?
Great idea.
As you’ve probably heard, influencer marketing is the best way to create and raise brand awareness.
For new companies, it could give a huge boost in sales, publicity, and positive reviews. Besides, this strategy is very versatile, as you could run a contest, a giveaway, make a how-to video, get a quick victory in a product comparison video, and run a referral campaign to get sales.
The possibilities to grow your brand are numerous, really, so let’s get to it.
Video Marketing and Brand Building: Statistics
When we say that video marketing is a proven method to build brands, we’ve got tons of evidence to prove it.
Many businesses have implemented video marketing – influencer video marketing included – to generate amazing results. So, there are many statistics on how video marketing strategies perform and generate ROI.
Here are the reasons why video marketing is perfect for brand building (source: Yans Media):
- Video improves brand recognition by 54% on average
- 80% of online shoppers have discovered a brand by watching a “branded video” on YouTube
- 84% of online customers prefer to interact with businesses through branded video
- 25% of customers say they lose interest in a brand that doesn’t do any video marketing
- 83% of online video viewers are likely to share a branded video with others if they really enjoyed it.
Seems impressive, right?
Totally is!
No other content matches the effectiveness of video when it comes to digital marketing and brand building.
Now, let’s see how you can grow your brand, too.
How to Use Influencer Video Marketing to Grow Brands
The experience of many brands with influencer video marketing has highlighted these six best ways to generate brand awareness.
1. Introduce Your Product with an Unboxing Video
In an unboxing video, an influencer films themselves opening a product and talking about their first impressions, features, use cases, and brand perks (free shipping, etc.). The product itself is usually provided by a brand.
Example–
Mia Maples, a beauty influencer, made this unboxing video for Jeffree Star Mystery Boxes. She reviewed the contents of the boxes, shared her impressions, and gave advice for whom the product might be useful.
Influencers create unboxing videos to help their followers learn about new products or decide if a product is worth buying. That’s why the videos are detailed, in-depth, and contain a lot of useful information for potential users of the product.
Unboxing videos present an opportunity to raise awareness of new products coming from young brands. Many influencers like to review products this way and will gladly accept a product from a brand if they’re sure that their audience might be interested in it.
2. Teach how to Use Your Product with a “How-to” Video
A “how-to” video is basically a step-by-step product tutorial. An influencer shows how to use a product while explaining many useful details – so the viewer can start using it confidently right away.
For young brands, “how-to” influencer videos are a great way to:
- Introduce customers to a new product
- Demonstrate the real value of the product
- Show detailed instructions on how to use and benefit from the product
- Explain why the product (or brand) – is better than competitors’
“How-to” videos are the most common in the beauty, fitness, and food industries. For example, many new makeup brands hire influencers to help show how their products can be used in creative ways.
But other industries can also rely on how-to’s.
For example, in this video called “How to set up a planner for college,” an influencer explains how to use an online password manager and a digital wallet app!
The tips on planning studies precede the tutorial, so students interested in managing their time for coursework writing and lectures will also find this video useful.
This way, the brand got their product in front of target customers in a more organic, non-pushy way. It’s a more effective strategy for new brands to raise awareness of their products, so definitely consider a “how-to” video if you’re going for influencer video marketing.
Pro tip: Ask your chosen influencer about the types of “how-to” videos they can make (for one, there 20 types of explainer videos). For example, they could advise you to try tutorials and guides, which are similar to how-tos and are just as educational.
Useful Recourse
15 Great Alternatives to YouTube
3. Promote Your Brand with an Expert Interview or Q&A
An expert interview or a QA is a video where an influencer can answer questions about your products. Unlike job video interview questions that probe the interviewee’s expertise, the questions aim to reveal the benefits of the product in question.
For example, you can talk about a problem your customers are struggling with and have an influencer explain how your product helps to solve it. Staying focused on customer needs and avoiding being pushy is important (being product-first might turn the video into a boring ad).
Here’s how brands do expert interviews and Q&As:
- Launch a customer survey to address customers’ pressing issues and get ideas for the video
- Create a list of questions based on the customer input in the survey
- Share the list with the influencer to help them come up with useful answers
- Record a video with the influencer.
Here’s an example–
A skincare influencer Susan Yara answers the questions about skincare questions from fans. Even though no particular brand was revealed during the video, it’s a great example of a format that you can get.
The best influencers to choose here are those with solid expertise in the area. For example, if you’d like to promote a nail polish collection, look for influencers who are also dermatologists or nail specialists.
Your customers are more likely to trust an expert and engage with the video or your brand. So, learn about the chosen influencers’ expertise and background to choose the best one to represent your new brand.
4. Share Products with a Contest Video
These are videos that will help you educate your customers on how to use your products. The more informative your video is, the better the chances your viewers will become engaged with your product and brand.
Simple ideas for social media contests:
- Like/comment/follow to win
- Tag-a-friend contest
- Best photo caption wins
- Trivia-based contest
- Customer-generated contest.
5. Silence Competitors with Product Comparison Video
No worries, we’re not going to roast your competitors. Keeping things objective and positive is a better tactic to make potential customers feel like they should choose your brand.
Two ways to show that your product is better with video influencer marketing:
- Highlight the best features of your products to the same in a competitor’s product
- Make a side-by-side comparison with a competitor’s product
Example–
Aaron Rutten, an influencer who does digital art tutorials, made this video where he compared the best drawing tablets.
Your chosen influencer is likely to have made some product comparisons in the past, so be sure to ask about their experience. Chances are, they might be able to advise you on how to approach this video based on the results of previous campaigns.
Regardless of the approach you decide on, make sure that the influencer gives clear reasons why they’ve made the final choice.
6. Run Referral Programs
Influencer marketing is a major driver of referral sales. That’s why many new brands reach out to social media influencers to get quick sales.
According to a recent Twitter study, an influencer campaign with referral links can score:
- +61% in brand favorability
- +88% in purchase intent.
These results, however, are achievable only when brands allow influencers to stay true to their image and keep the interest of followers at the center.
Example–
Philip DeFranco, an influencer with 6.3 million followers, has recently partnered with Nord VPN in this video. The brand has provided DeFranco with a discount code for 68% off a 2-year plan plus extra 4 months free.
With the 30-day money-back guarantee, it’s a pretty good deal. All the viewers had to do is go to a promotional link (nordvpn.com/phil) and apply the code.
The promo code is the most common referral program strategy for young brands. Let’s go through each step once again:
Give a unique promo code with an influencer
Create a landing page for the campaign where customers can apply the code
The influencer shares the promo code and details in their video.
To make the campaign even more effective, consider making an extra video for the website. This is a tactic that Nord VPN did with DeFranco – they filmed a very short video review with the influencer that was later added to the company’s website.
In this review video, he presents himself first and foremost as a customer, which also adds to the credibility of the campaign. It’s also the way for a brand to build a content marketing competency by figuring out what videos work the best.
Influencer Video Marketing: Summary
Influencer video marketing is a popular strategy to build a strong brand and generate sales. Why so many brands in different industries rely on it? The answer is simple:
It works.
If you’re interested in starting a journey in the world of video marketing, feel free to try a strategy from the list you’ve just read. Fingers crossed for your success!
