As a business owner, there are a lot of boxes to check when it comes to creating content. These days, successful brands run Instagram, dominate TikTok, create SEO-optimized blog content, and maintain a YouTube channel. With so many different platforms, it can be tricky to master all the different trends and algorithms while staying true to the heart of your brand.

If you feel overwhelmed trying to create effective branded marketing materials, you are not alone. Luckily, we have the solution you need!

If you want to start creating video content that is instantly recognizable as coming from your brand, you need to create a video style guide. A personalized video style guide will help you clarify:

Your brand’s aesthetic ✨
Your communication style ✏️
Your message ✉️

Today, we’ll help you understand exactly what a video style guide is and what you need to include in it.

What Is a Video Style Guide?

Behind every successful brand and content creator, you will find a clearly outlined style guide. But what exactly is a video style guide?

At its core, a style guide is just a clearly outlined map that helps you define exactly how you want your videos to look, sound, and feel. At its simplest, a style guide is useful in helping you clarify your specific brand identity. It can help ensure that whichever employees you have creating videos have clear brand guidelines to follow. This will help to create consistent branding that your customers will recognize.

However, if you are outsourcing your videos with a video agency, a brand style guide is absolutely critical! Outside agencies have video editing skills that can make your content look incredible, but they may not have the deep understanding of your brand that you want. A brand style guide can help fill in any gaps in communication or understanding.

Why Is a Video Style Guide Helpful?

As we’ve mentioned previously, a video style guide works primarily as a communication tool between different members of your team so that you can create consistent branding across all of your content. But there are numerous reasons why a brand style guide could be useful for you and your business. Here are some of our top reasons why:

Find Your Audience 🔎 – All businesses need to have a keen understanding of who their audience is and how their products and/or services will positively affect their life. Sitting down to create a style guide will help you hone in on exactly who will benefit from your product.
Save Time ⏰ – If you find yourself spending hours coming up with a compelling end card or opening for your video, you are wasting precious time that could be spent elsewhere. A style guide won’t just give your videos a consistent look. It will also help streamline the video-making process.
Build Brand Recognition 🔨 – When you create consistent content, you will start to build brand recognition with your target audience. Brand recognition is important when it comes to getting people to stay on your page and think of you when a problem comes up.

10 Style Guide Elements You Need

Wondering what you should include in your video style guide? Here are the ten brand elements you need to include in your plan.

1) Brand Logo

Have you been including your brand logo in your video content? If not, it’s time to start! Adding in your brand logo is one of the easiest ways for audiences to identify you, without distracting them from the actual content you are creating. We recommend having a small version of your logo in the opening or in the bottom right corner of the video.

2) Color Scheme

If your website, logo, and marketing materials all use a specific color scheme, then your video should reflect that as well. Brand colors can be used in a variety of different ways, from making recognizable thumbnails to designing graphics.

3) Fonts

Everyone remembers being in elementary school and playing around with different fonts in a Word document. As adults, though, we’ve learned that less is more. Picking one or two consistent fonts that you want to use throughout your videos will help keep everything looking cohesive.

4) Opening

First impressions matter. The same is true with video content. Your opening sequence sets up who you are and what your brand is about. Creating a clear, branded opening sequence will help potential make a split-second decision about whether they are interested in what you have to say.

5) Tone

Out of all the important elements on this list, we think tone might be the most important one of all! Tone refers to the language and pacing of your video. This helps establish what it is like to work with your company.

Are you serious and professional? Down to earth and funny? Whatever you choose, that should be reflected in the language you choose to use on camera.

6) Editing Style

Remember the early days of YouTube vlogging when jump cuts were used every few seconds? Or maybe you’re more accustomed to seeing the slick, Tik-Tok style transitions used in short-form videos these days.

Different platforms and styles of video rely on distinctive editing styles to help them stand apart from the crowd. Whether you want your videos to feel natural, polished, or humorous, choosing an editing style can help you stay on brand.

7) Accessibility

Everyone deserves to have access to the quality content that you are making. That’s why it is good to establish video guidelines around accessibility.

Are you adding captions into your videos? What about providing transcripts of your video content? These little touches can help your company stand out and ensure equal access for everyone.

8) Graphics

If you are considering creating animated videos or using graphics, it is a good idea to include some style guidelines in your overall brand style guide. This might mean sourcing images that you feel exemplify your brand or working with a graphic designer to come up with some image templates that you have on file for when you need them.

9) Thumbnails

Thumbnails are the first thing that your potential customers will see of your video content. It may even be the thing that entices them to click in the first place! While platforms like YouTube will automatically generate thumbnails for you, we always recommend creating something that looks cohesive and curated. This may mean including your company logo or simply using the same font and design template for all the videos.

10) End Cards

We’ve mentioned that first impressions are important, but so is the ending! A quality end card featuring your company logo will help you remind customers to check out more content from your favorite brands. We recommend having a premade end card that you can easily slot into the end of any video.

Get Professional Guidance

If you are ready to step up your company’s video branding, then you need the team at Stringline Pictures on your side. As a full-service video production company, we can help you clarify your vision and produce and edit high-quality video content that keeps customers coming back time and time again. Contact us today to start developing your video branding!