By Claudia Perez Riva | September, 2024

My dear small business owners, I am glad to know that you are reading these lines and that your interest in the marketing world persists as mine. To start our journey through today’s post I would like you to think and answer these following questions: Do you like videos? Do you enjoy watching a Geico or a Pepsi ad? Do you like funny commercials? Do you prefer to watch a commercial, read a promotion or a commercial blog?

I’m sure I will receive a variety of answers. Many will answer that they love videos, others will tell me stories of funny or cool videos with high technology, perhaps many will answer that they prefer commercials to written texts and others will tell me that they enjoy reading content texts. Precisely my dear readers, in these answers lies part of the solution to today’s question and whose answer I will reserve for a little later. Let’s start by understanding why these two formats used in communication are so popular.

The strengths of videos
Videos are a powerful force to convey a vast amount of information content and emotions, in a short time and in a very attractive way. Videos use images and sounds that can influence our moods and emotions. They can provoke laughter, fear, nostalgia, pleasure, desire and relaxation. Music used in videos, for example, can reduce levels of anxiety and pain, or can provoke excitement and joy. It comes to my mind, for example, the commercial “Friends: The reunion” which was fantastic, because it used iconic elements of the series such as the different characters, sets/locations, funny situations all set musically with the theme of the series and playing with music levels intentionally. Do not tell me my dear readers that does not cause nostalgia, excitement and joyful memories of a past time? I’m sure many of you watched the special episode and others may have re-watched the series.

So what about words?
Words and texts have been an essential form of communication since ancient times and will continue to be so. Written content provides detailed information and allows users to examine specific topics in greater depth that catch their attention. This format allows the inclusion of links and references of a specific topic. In addition, written content is fundamental for SEO, as search engines index keywords and textual content.

Then the question comes: The sword of the word or the power of the image?
The answer is relative and depends a lot on the context. At this point we must go back to the theory and the Intention based Communication model, as well as the 4Cs. It is important to move away from the traditional communication model, where the starting point is the industry (sellers), it is important to invert this classic model and make the market (customers) our starting point. If we follow this logic, our first step will be to identify and/or define our target audience, then get to know our customers in order to better identify and understand their needs, which will finally lead us to define the best contexts to reach them. Just on this way we will be able to know whether it is better to use the sword of the word or the power of the video.
Let’s take two simple examples to illustrate.
If we launch a new phone, the use of video is a great tool because it can capture the customer’s attention, show the public the product, explain in a simplified way complex messages such as the features of the equipment and convey emotions in a genuine and quick way. Although telephones have a wide and diverse audience, are widely consumed by young people, who do not stop their attention in such long contents. However, a business consulting company can work better if it uses written content to convey its messages, because its product (in this case a service) is more specific, requires greater understanding and needs a more detailed explanation. This company’s audience is interested in finding solutions to problems, so they will invest time in researching and reading about the best way to solve them.
Because union makes strength.
As we mentioned before, there is no supremacy between one format or the other, these two formats are not mutually exclusive, nor do they oppose each other, and we will obtain better results if we use them in an integrated way in the right contexts. My dear readers, if we integrate them correctly, we can have a better product, as the writer and content marketing creator Ann Handleys has pointed out in her interview “Why We Need to Challenge Our Assumptions as Content Marketers”, where she addresses the issues, we have mentioned today and on which we share visions.
In a summarized and conclusively way, if we can combine the advantages that both formats offer us, using them in the right contexts, the capture and retention of information will be much more effective. Now that you know the answer to today’s question: Can you imagine my dear readers, small business owners, what you could achieve with this combination bomb in your business?
I’ll see you next week to continue talking about marketing.