Remote work have a best buddy – online video calls. Something more appropriate is arising, though – branded video calls.
By now it is clear to everybody that remote and hybrid work are here to stay. Therefore, it is high time we stopped comparing in-person meetings with online video calls.
Instead, it is time to move the focus on improving online experiences for us, the hosts and moderators of online meetings. What we’ll cover in this article:
What I thought branding is about
To be honest, back in the day, branding sounded like some jibber-jabber to me.
I was always imagining Coca-Cola funding a huge campaign, where Santa Claus is an elderly man with a white beard and red clothing, drinking a glass of Coke. And yes, Coca-Cola did kind of invent the modern-day image of Santa Claus, thus helping their brand tremendously.
Obviously, there is only one Santa Claus and Coca-Cola have claimed him. However, the ‘Mad Men’ era of advertising and branding is gone. Therefore, branding means something different now.
What branding is actually about
Nowadays, branding is all about two things:
- Making your brand recognizable
- Associating your brand with others
Making your brand recognizable
Remember 2015?
If you met someone new that would normally be in person. You would want them to know who you are and what you do. We used to mention this information in conversations.
Sometimes you needed someone to remember who you are. Thus, you would give them your… business card.
Yes. Seems like a lifetime ago but people used to give out business cards all the time.
And they still would, if it wasn’t for the pandemic.
Now, we must find smarter ways to make our brands known. Everything is digital-first, so we’ve got our websites, LinkedIn accounts, etc.
Today, if you want your brand to be seen, you need to try hard to make it seen.
On your website, you always mention your brand name. LinkedIn is also good – it is designed to showcase your current position next to your name.
What about all the other places you appear in?
You should always be thinking about how to showcase your brand. It could be added to your profile photos (e.g. you could be wearing a T-shirt of your brand).
Another idea is to add your brand to your Slack/Discord community name, e.g. instead of calling yourself John Smith, you could go with ‘John Smith | Brand X’. Every time you write something, people would see your brand name.
There are also smarter ways to achieve this, which we will revisit a bit later.
Associating your brand with others
The second main ingredient of branding is to find advocates that will help you popularize your brand.
Research shows that 80% of the purchases made in 2021 were influenced by someone – family, friends, or just people on the Internet.
It seems that if you want to build your brand further, you need the help of others.
The best-case scenario is brand evangelists, a term which Guy Kawasaki came up with. Evangelism marketing refers to cases where customers of your product believe so strongly in it that they convince everyone they see to use it. To be an evangelist, one needs to be an advocate for free, though.
If we had to come up with ‘paid evangelists’ as a term, that would be modern-day social media influencers. What an influencer does is influence people. In other words, change people’s minds or incept new ideas.
If you are not there yet, you must be asking yourself: what are the immediate steps you can make to accelerate the branding process?
How to build a brand in a remote world: branded video calls
The current world is remote-first. Let’s not kid ourselves – we meet new people through online video calls.
Therefore, our attitude toward branding has to be video call driven. And here’s a sleek and novel way to popularize your brand with little to no effort – branded video conferencing.
What is branded video conferencing?
Branded video conferencing (a.k.a. branded video call) is when the hosting party has branded the software that is used for the video call.
Here’s one example.
Let’s try to understand what’s going on there.
Video meeting room logo
First and foremost – video meeting room logo. This is probably the most prominent branding mark that you can have. If someone enters a video meeting room, they will surely see it. Except for the Arab world, people all around the world analyze new situations visually from the top left corner to the bottom right corner.
That’s why you should make sure to have your branding there. Think of it as your modern-day business card.
Custom domain meeting links
Another important aspect of this image is the custom domain of the meeting link, sometimes called the custom domain video meeting room. To truly brand a video call, you don’t only need your logo, but also the domain itself.
Keep in mind that the URL is practically the location of the meeting. It is as if you have invited the participants to your own office. In this analogy, if you invite them to a random Zoom link it is like bringing them to the Zoom cafeteria downstairs.
Therefore, having a custom domain video call is absolutely crucial to building your authority.
Branded virtual background
There is one final touch you can add – your custom-branded virtual background.
I am not the biggest fan but it does work for quite a lot of people.
Think of it as the ‘modern-day branded T-shirt’. If they are looking at you while you are speaking, they will see your branding.
Mission accomplished.
How to get started with branded video calls?
If you are ready to take your online presence to the next level there is no better way to do so than 3veta. Start branding your meeting rooms right away!
If you are already there, feel free to check the state-of-the-art videoconference etiquette and the best video call setups out there!