What are the most effective ways to use images and videos for your brand identity?

Effectively using images and videos for your brand identity involves maintaining consistency in visual style, ensuring high-quality content, storytelling that resonates with your audience, evoking emotions, showing authenticity, and incorporating visual branding elements like logos and colors. User-generated content can build trust, and optimizing content for different platforms is crucial. Engage with your audience on social media, use visuals for educational purposes, and encourage specific actions through calls to action (CTAs). Analyzing performance data helps refine your visual content strategy, and staying current with design trends is key to maintaining a fresh and engaging brand identity.

Are you aiming to educate, entertain, or inspire? Knowing this will guide the content creation process. Make sure your visuals resonate with your audience. Show you understand their needs and desires, and that your brand is the solution. After all, empathy and support form the basis of genuine connections.

It's primordial to remember that not all type of content fits all channels. So, have a look into how your audience consumes their content on the channels you're targetting before you make any decision. It's all about them. So ask them! In my experience, videos have always worked 80% better than any other type of content, but that was also because my audience was in the 15-25s and they were all on Instagram and TikTok. It'd be a different story with 40-50s.

First, know your goals and who you're talking to. Share your brand story through videos if you want trust. Be consistent. Your visuals must match your brand, like using the right colors and logos. Quality matters a lot. Use pro images and videos to build trust. Mix it up! Try different formats like GIFs or live videos. Lastly, keep an eye on how your visuals are doing. It helps you improve. Now a days, images and videos are like your brand's voice. Use them wisely to connect with your audience and make a lasting impression.

Knowing your goals and intended audience is essential before creating content for your brand. Your goals determine what you want to achieve with your visual content. either increasing brand awareness, generating leads, driving sales, or something else? Your audience's interests and understanding kind of content they consume help you drive your visual content creative direction.

Make sure visuals truly reflect who you are as a brand. Your visuals should tell a story, evoke emotions, and be consistent with your brand messaging. Be bold and brave with your content. Your visuals should feel like an extension of your brand, so be genuine, consistent and relatable. At the end of the day, people love authenticity and this is your chance to show it in a visually compelling way. Remember, engaging visuals not only create interest, but they also build trust and connection with your audience. So, make each image and video count!

It is crucial to have visual elements like logo designs, icons or favicons, brand colors and fonts to reflect what your brand represents. Clarify the message you want to convey to the audience and make sure that people pick up on it through the visuals. Creating visual elements that show what your brand truly stands for is how you maintain longevity and boost recognition among wider audiences.

"Align your visual with your brand identity" - Aka. Make everything boring. Nobody ever got tired of picking visuals that got picked by the design firm that created your visual identity. While there is certainly a place for that, I think brands (especially smaller up-and-coming brands) would do better to push past the comfort zone a bit with the visual styles of their brand identity. That way you can collaborate with your audience on the visual direction of your brand over time.

But what about small businesses who can't afford a brand image yet? Or its not clearly defined? My advice, is to keep it simple. Pick some striking colours that help you stand out in the feed, don't over complicate things, and sometimes, all you need is a logo, combined with you on video to be the most effective. Go look at the amazingly popular Alex hormozi to see what I mean!

Create visuals that are accessible to people with disabilities. Include alt text for images and captions for videos. Ensure that your website and mobile apps are designed with accessibility features, such as adjustable text sizes and high-contrast modes. By prioritizing accessibility, you demonstrate your brand's commitment to inclusivity and social responsibility.

Create both. Have quality AND quantity. Make efficient work flows, use tools such as descript, riverside, social bee and others to create huge amounts of content from very little input. If you're smart, you can create both quantity AND quality... Something your competitors don't have.

Variety is the spice of life, and it's the same with brand imaging. Employing a mix of formats and types like photos, infographics, GIFs, and videos can make your brand identity diverse and appealing. It speaks volumes and caters to different taste buds. Some people are captivated by stunning images, others prefer the storytelling aspect of videos. On a different note, let's not forget about the power of controversy. Done tactfully, it can draw attention and stimulate discussion. Keep in mind, connection is important, tell a story that speaks to your audience, tap into their emotions. Support and engage them. Remember, the way you use images and videos says a lot about your brand, make it compelling and authentic. Use it wisely!

When it comes to content marketing, you really should spend a great deal of effort testing new formats and types of content. You don't get winning formats by copying others in your industry. You get them from from experimentings and then honing in on the best tests.

Different platforms and algorithms like different content. Different audiences populate them and don't always cross over, so it's important to understand the demographics on those platforms and where they hang out online. But content can be repurposed once it has been created – video shot in 4k resolution is easily resized, cropped and formatted for different platforms. There are even AI tools that will do it for you now. But let's not talk about them : ) Square or 4:3 is a great format for photos and video because it covers the most real estate of a smart phone. When we scroll, this format gives us an intimacy that landscape doesn't and a composition potential that 9:16 vertical video can't. But overall, repurposing is great for reach.

Explore interactive formats like polls, quizzes, and shoppable videos. For instance, if you have a skincare brand, create a quiz that helps customers find the perfect products for their skin type. Additionally, consider incorporating AR or VR experiences into your visuals. Imagine allowing customers to virtually try on makeup products or see how furniture items would look in their home

Finding ways to recreate your video content in a variety of formats allows you to test what works and what doesn't. New platforms, new styles, new formats. Don't stay with the status quo, innovate. Don't copy your competition, stand on their shoulders. Stop "thinking about" that podcast, just get it done!!

Recognize that what works in one region may not resonate in another. Localize your visual content by incorporating cultural nuances, language, and preferences. For instance, if you're a global food brand, create videos that feature local cuisines and traditions in each market you operate in. This approach shows respect for local cultures and builds a stronger connection with diverse audiences.

But for the love of all that is holy, stop worrying about vanity metrics!!! Remember, content creation is about helping to educate your audience. They need to know, like and trust you before they will buy from you. Viewers and comments are great for the purpose they are intended for... But more often than not, your ideal client will never comment or like your posts. This is about creating awareness and education, not creating leads. And if you're going to measure anything, consider "time to lose"...(am I attracting the right sort of people), win conversion rate (am I winning deals where the target audience is right?) and deal cycle length (is this shortening my average deal cycle?) Measure things that drive revenue directly!

Often a client will be lead by what's trending rather than look at the longer-term implications of moving too fast towards something which might not last. This could be a video they've seen that's gone viral, or a technique which may date or contradict their brand vision. The important thing in my experience is to guide that client towards something that is right for their own audience or customer base. They may not have data to rely on if they are on an early part of their brand journey so it could be important to help them avoid making decisions based on what the competition is doing. Going deep into the research of their sector is often very useful here.