Connect Your Audience To Your Video

Maximize the connection between your video and your intended audience.

Creating video content in today’s digital age is essential for any organization’s digital footprint. Videos help you engage with followers on social media, showcase products or services that your organization provides, and the ever-difficult struggle to keep up with the changing SEO landscape. With the risk of investing in making videos, a big question that most organizations face is, how do I make sure this is an effective piece for MY audience? In this blog, we will go through 3 key elements to help connect your content to your intended audience.

The first thing to keep in mind is emotion. No matter what the objective of your content is, if the audience does not have anything to connect to, it will more than likely be lost in the sea of content that is out there. You have to have something for your audience to grab onto. 

Emotion

Emotion can mean a lot of different things based on the objectives of your video. For instance, you could be using humor to catch your audience off guard and show some personality to your organization or campaign, like in this video below. Or capture the heart of your audience, making them understand your goals as an organization and follow your mission. Whatever emotion you are trying to convey, using those themes helps your video resonate with your audience. 

You might be wondering, why is this important? Why can’t I just read off a list of facts about an upcoming service, sale, or event and have my audience get all the information they need? Well, you can, but how well will your audience remember that information? Think about how many advertisements you see on a daily basis. How many do you remember? 

Emotion is key because it gives your audience something to grab hold of your video and keep your organization at the top of their minds. It allows them to connect to your cause and gives them a reason to be invested. Gerald Zelter of the Harvard Business School once stated that 95% of our purchase decision-making process comes from our subconscious. Using emotion in your videos helps make that decision for your audience to choose you over the other options that they have available to them.

Intrigue/Interest

While emotions are something that you want your audience to take away from your content, you also need something to give them a reason to watch in the first place. That thing is something we like to call, intrigue. It's what hooks your audience into your video and keeps them watching. 

The most common way we do this is through a good story. Stories have always helped people connect with others, and connecting your audience to a story positions them as part of something bigger than themselves. It also engages the audience and positions them as someone with a stake in what is happening with your organization. 

Another way to build intrigue is by addressing key questions or problems that your audience is currently facing. This requires some research, both into the demographics and psychographics of your intended audience. However, positioning yourself as the answer to your audience's problems early on in your video helps keep that audience hooked till the end of your video.

Clarity

While earlier in this blog we stressed the importance of emotion, it is equally important to make sure that your intentions with your content are clear and understandable to your audience. It could be letting them know of a new product, a fundraising opportunity, or a new initiative that your organization is starting. Whatever it is, you do not want your audience to not understand what they gained from viewing your content. 

Clarity does not just mean getting all of your points across to your audience, it's also about being as concise as possible in what you are trying to communicate. It's tough for your audience to find the purpose of your video if it is bogged down with things that have nothing to do with your objective. So try to widdle down your ideas to the exact purpose of that video. 

One way to avoid confusion for your audience is to include a clear call to action at the end of your video. Give them something to do after watching. It could be going to your website, your store, donating to your cause, or a multitude of other things. If they are invested in your story and your mission, you need to turn that investment into something actionable for you.

When it comes to connecting to your audience, it’s essential to stay relevant among all the other content that meets their eyeballs every day. You have to suck them in, giving them a reason to watch, then give them a reason to care. Once your audience has a reason to care about your content, send them on a path to do something more with that information. It’s a formula that takes a lot of research and planning, but with the right team, it can be accomplished. 

To learn more, check out some amazing stories at lakefxmedia.com