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When my oldest daughter was still a baby, my family moved to a large city that happened to have one of the highest crime rates in the country. I asked a friend who lived there if he had any advice. “Don’t be stupid,” he said. What he meant was “be aware of your surroundings, don’t go where you shouldn’t go, lock your doors at night, look around your car when you park,” and other common-sense crime prevention tips. Good advice.

With all due respect, that three-word sentence is good advice for banks as they approach their video marketing, too. Marketing has changed, and so have consumers. No longer can we just push our messages about rates and products out to the public and expect the needle to move. You’ve got to be … smart.

In the 21st century, that means video

It also means telling your video story in a way that resonates with a consumer who is being bombarded by thousands of messages per day, even by other banks who offer basically the same products and services you do. So the first trend is…

Connect emotionally with your audience

To tell a story that connects emotionally, try creating buyer personas and understanding your customers’ real desires, aspirations and challenges. Then, don’t be a bank selling products and services. Be a friend who can help out. Differentiation in financial services is tough. Emotion can help you stand out from the crowd. Research shows that humans use emotion rather than logic when evaluating brands, so don’t be afraid to show yours. As counterintuitive as it may sound to us marketers, “tell, don’t sell.” And “people, not products.” The more you can personalize your message and show actual people in your video, the better.

Check out this ebook on telling digital stories that sell.

It’s all about the content

Content marketing — which includes a healthy dose of video — has been ranked the most significant digital marketing trend, ahead of pay per click, paid search and display ads. A couple of factors put content marketing in the forefront: its affordability, believability and searchability. Like all of your bank marketing content, your video marketing should be engaging, relevant and authentic — that’s what consumers react to.

Use captions

The majority of videos watched on smart phones are watched with the sound off. Admit it: you watch videos on your desktop computer at work with the sound off and captions on, right? See? It works. So caption your video.

Sometimes you just want to say thank you

Maybe this is not so much a trend as a reminder of my friend’s three-word advice in the first paragraph. Don’t forget to say thank you to your customers. They’re why you’re in business, after all. There are simple ways to do this in-branch. And there are amazingly awesome viral ways to do it, as this video shows.

Have fun

If your bank video is boring, shame on you. There’s no rule that says it has to be. It can be funny, charming, sentimental, exciting, silly, enlightening or a dozen other “feels.” It should reflect your brand, of course, but it doesn’t have to hit customers over the head with a sales message. In fact, that’s a great way to turn customers off. They’re wily creatures, those customers.

Video marketing is super effective at engaging customers, if it’s done well. So do it right, make it original, highlight your brand values and… have fun. Check these examples.

To see how Thoma Thoma can help you improve your video content, contact our Senior Digital Strategist Ashley Steele at 501.975.4694 or at ashley@thomathoma.com.

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Author Thoma Thoma

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