The stakes are high for branded videos. They are, after all, the medium that you’re using to define your brand and tell viewers exactly what you’re all about. In a minute or less, you can explain why they should take a chance on your brand, create an emotional connection, and drive real action. There’s a lot on the line.

You have a lot of wiggle room for what type of video you want to create and the story you want to tell, giving you enormous flexibility to develop content that will appeal to your audience and help you stand out. There are, however, a few things that you should always include in your branded videos no matter what your goals, audiences, or specific strategies are focused on.

Helping businesses and brands get results with this is pretty much our specialty, and in this post, we’re going to go over the 6 key elements you must include in every branded video to see significant results.

1. Visual Branding

This might seem obvious, but you might be surprised how many branded video campaigns actually lack any signs of visual branding altogether. No logo, no brand name overlaid on the screen, and not even any reference to the brand itself in the video title. Every time I see it, I cringe, because I know that the business had invested a lot into a campaign that won’t reach its absolute full potential.

Your brand logo can be subtle, and you have options for different placements. Some will feature the logo and/or brand name at the beginning of the video, in the corner of the video for its duration, at the very end, or a combo of all three.

Here are a few examples of what this might look like, with an outdo screen, an intro screen, and then subtle branding in the bottom corner:

2. A “Why”

Business owners are always being asked what their “why” is — what drives them to keep their business running. This is good to touch on in branded videos, especially since it helps you stand out. Stories are always a good thing. It might take on a form like this:

That being said, it’s also important to factor another “why” into the equation when creating your video marketing campaigns, and that’s the one that your audience needs to understand. Your video should be able to convey why users should care about you and your brand and why they should want to purchase from you or jump towards the action you’re encouraging them to take. This strategy looks like the following:

When focusing on the latter, take a close look at your customer’s needs and pain points, and talk about how you can solve them. This creates a strong emotional connection and interest in your product. Instead of someone saying “our home security system offers professional monitoring,” it elaborates with “so that your family is always safe and secure, and you know that someone is looking out for you.”

3. Information On Where They Can Learn/Do More

Your video should always provide information on what your viewers’ next steps should be, and where exactly they can be involved. Don’t just say “follow us,” because your video could be shared by a third party. Feature URLs to your website, social pages, or landing pages that you want to send users to.

Ideally, you should also include a clickable or at least copy-able link in the video description on whatever platform you’re using. The easier it is for users to take action, the more likely it is they’ll do so.

This is typically most effective when added to the end of your videos, often on an outro screen. Which bring us to the next key element…

4. An Outro Screen

The outro screen is a perfect place to let users process what they’ve seen and have a strong reminder that your brand is the one to associate with the message they’re thinking over. It’s why almost all of Shakr’s templates feature them at the end of every video.

The outro screen should take up at least two seconds of your video, and it should include your full brand name, your logo, a CTA and/or tag line, and a site address where you want to direct traffic. The URL here should be as short as possible to make it easier for users to follow through.

5. A Clear Purpose

Having a clear purpose for your video is more an internal element than an external one, but it’s still essential.

When creating each individual video, you need to decide up front what you want it to accomplish. What goals do you have in mind? Which audience do you want to connect with? What pain points or emotions are you going for? Focus in on just one goal, like lead generation, sales, or brand awareness, and see how the rest of the puzzle pieces fall into place.

You can always create more videos in the future, especially with options like our scale-friendly video templates. If you try to do too much in a single video, not only will the video likely be too long to maintain viewer retention and completion rates, but it also will likely be unsuccessful at achieving any of your goals in the long run.

6. Closed Captions

This is the last section in our post, but that doesn’t mean you should treat it as an afterthought. Closed captions are so important; more than 85% of videos are watched on Facebook alone without sound, and online content follows the same general patterns.

Include closed captions in all of your videos. If possible, opt for .SRT files, which are also crawlable by search engines and can, therefore, give you an SEO boost, too.

Conclusion

Strong branded video campaigns can take a lot of different shapes, and there’s so much room to create content that speaks to your audience. This is part of the reason why we developed Shakr ONBRAND, which creates video templates specifically for your brands’ needs. As long as you’re incorporating these 6 crucial elements and a great story alongside your strategy, you’ll be off to a great start.

Need help taking your branded video campaigns to the next level? Check out Shakr ONBRAND for customizable, made-for-you templates to scale your campaigns.