In today's world, it's more important than ever that your company reaches out to its targeted audience with a human appeal. People are more likely to revisit your business if they can emotionally connect with your product or service.
Documentary style ads effectively create powerful connections between your company and potential customers.
Still, you may wonder how exactly documentary-style ads work and how they help me better engage with my customers?
Documentary-style ads help you better engage with your customers by providing them with an emotional, human connection through storytelling. These types of adverts allow your customers to see beyond your company as just a business. They allow you to share how your business is an integral part of a community. Not to mention, your audience will be more likely to share these ads with friends and family.
Let's take a deep dive into documentary-style ads. Below, we review what documentary-style ads are, then break down all the benefits of using these ads to create stronger connections between your business and target market. To learn more about the different ways a documentary-style ad could help you connect with your customers, keep reading; we've got you covered.
What are Documentary-Style Videos?
Generally speaking, documentary-style videos tell a story by utilizing interviews, b-roll, music, and visual elements to reveal the humanity in whatever or whoever the subject is.
These kinds of videos help engage people intellectually and emotionally to inspire them to take action. Documentary videos help get people interested in a cause, business, or individual. You know what this looks like if you've ever seen a biopic of your favorite music artist, a historical figure, or brand.
What are Documentary Style Ads?
Documentary-style ads can reach viewers more profoundly than ordinary advertising because they provide relatable stories for customers to engage and connect emotionally with your brand. Think of sharing your offer or product like a reality-tv show. These stories are accurate and are a great way to communicate with your audience to provide meaningful calls to action.
Why Popular Brands are Using Documentary Style Ads
More famous brands, along with up-and-coming ones, are using documentary style ads because they can hold the attention of their customers longer. Longer audience retention creates an opportunity to make stronger connections with them and leave a lasting impression. The bottom line is these types of transparent, story-based ads are effective.
Scroll through Facebook, Twitter, or other major social networking sites. You will see notable brands like Norton using documentary-style ads. Many people at first thought may think Norton is boring to engage with. However, using the power of storytelling, they created interesting content that draws the right customers to their brand.
What Are the Benefits of Using Documentary-Style Ads
The benefits of documentary-style ads are that they humanize your business. This crucial element to your product creates meaningful opportunities for customers to see your offer as something that solves their problem, rather than just a product you want to sell them.
Using documentary style ads will help your business appear more professional. A company must be aware of the problem their offer solves and effectively communicate so that customers respond. Documentary advertising provides a human element for people to feel connected to; if this seems insignificant, when was the last time you bought a product that didn't solve a problem for you?
Below are five of the most significant benefits of using documentary style ads, so you can begin thinking about how you could incorporate this type of advertising into your marketing efforts.
5 Benefits Of Documentary Style Ads
Documentary adverts shine a light on the human side of your company: With documentary style ads, you can take people behind the scenes and let them know that you're not just a company; you're a group of genuine, breathing people with wants, emotions, and desires, just like everyone else. This human connection will keep people coming back to your brand.
Documentary advertising provides an opportunity to express creativity: Creativity is often a doorway into human emotion and response. When customers hear and see a story that somehow touches them, they usually associate that the same level of care goes into your product, work, or service. Of course, they'd be right!
Documentary style adverts make your business look more professional: The look and feel of your documentary indicate the level of expertise and professionalism that your company strives to achieve. Using a poorly shot video that also lacks a clear and concise story, on the other hand, will not serve or represent your company well.
Documentary style ads feel different from traditional advertising: Generally, people do not like being sold to; they prefer to be guided or educated during the buying experience. Fortunately, one of the best advantages of documentary style-ads is that they don't feel like ads. They feel more like short films. Audiences are more receptive to an enjoyable short story than typical brand-first commercials.
Documentary style marketing helps audiences discover your company: With the advent of social media, people share videos like crazy. If you use documentary-style ads that connect with your target market, they will be more apt to share your advertising with friends, family, and colleagues. With the right ad, you can quickly increase awareness of your brand.
As you can see, there are apparent reasons why documentary style ads are so popular. Should you consider using documentary-style ads for your company? Share your brand in a way that communicates your level of professionalism, creativity, and most importantly, how much you care about solving your customer's problem.
In today's world, people crave human connectivity more than ever. Engage with the people who need your products or services in an authentic, genuine, and transparent way using the power of documentary style marketing.
When Should Businesses Consider Using Documentary Style Ads?
A business should consider using a documentary-style ad to better connect with their customers using the power of storytelling. As long as it's within your budget and you have a service or product that solves a problem, documentary-style ads can work for your business.
Should You Make the Ad In-House Or Hire A Professional?
Indeed, no one understands or knows your business better than your team. While making a documentary-style ad yourself is possible, it's probably not a good idea unless you or someone on your team has extensive video production and story-based marketing experience.
If neither of those things is the case, you should hire professionals with expertise like us at Iron House Studios. Our years of experience, top-of-the-line equipment, creativity, and simple process can help reveal the most engaging story content within your business.
So Really, How Can Documentary-Style Ads Help Your Business?
Documentary-style ads help you connect with, retain, and even grow your audience no matter your current stage of business. Reaching a larger audience within the right market means a larger pool of potential customers to serve.
Remember, documentary style ads can engage customers on a human level, tell the story of your business, and encourage people to share your content. The right content can validate your offer and happily move people to invest in it.