Are you a B2B marketer or communications manager searching for a way to reach executives? Did you know that 75% of them watch work-related videos every week?!
Humans are visual creatures, and that includes business folks of all kinds. If you find that all the traditional methods of getting at your customers are not working anymore, have you considered using corporate videos to get at them instead?
There is so much to learn about corporate videos that we have created this detailed overview below on what corporate videos are and how to use them in your sales and marketing plan.
So, What Exactly Are Corporate Videos?
Any video communication used for internal or external corporate messaging falls under this vast umbrella term of “corporate videos.” The primary way you can tell that a video is a corporate one as opposed to something else is by looking at who is being targeted.
If you create a video for the general public, you will not label it a corporate video. It is only when your target audience is primarily made up of business stakeholders that it is labeled a corporate video.
Here are some examples of corporate videos to get your creativity started:
- A video presenting financial results to stakeholders
- A video highlighting a new initiative within the company and its potential
- Employee training videos
- Promotional videos for new product lines or services
We have created many corporate videos at our company. For example, we created a cinema production video to make FrieslandCampina employees feel how special milk is.
We also created a corporate video for 30HARVESTS to make audiences see and believe that farmers can be climate superheroes worth rooting for. Browse through our case studies and review some of our productions to get an idea of how we do corporate videos.
Still from an annual report corporate video for AkzoNobel
What Are the Benefits of Using Corporate Videos?
This brings us to the crucial question: Why should you or anyone bother with corporate videos? Producing brochures or PowerPoint presentations is much easier, simpler, and cheaper. So why should you put in the effort to create a corporate video, which requires more creative effort and a bigger budget?
There are many reasons why corporations need to start thinking outside the tiny box they have created for themselves and use video to their business advantage. We will look at some of the benefits of corporate videos below in detail.
Get Higher Engagement From Your Target Audience
The most significant benefit of using visual promotional materials like corporate videos is that people from all walks of life (72% of them) prefer videos over other media forms. You know this yourself—when you see a video, your attention perks up much more than if you read a long-form blog post.
Visual elements are more appealing to humans than anything else. Our eyes naturally move towards such factors, and there is a stickiness to it that other kinds of marketing materials lack.
That is why corporate videos are the way to do it best if you have a message that needs to get out. You will not get as much impact or have as high of an engagement with any other media.
Yes, Your Video Could Go Viral—More Easily Than You Think
If you only use the video internally, this benefit will not matter to you. This is even more true if your video contains confidential materials that cannot be shared outside the company.
But suppose you are using the video to market to folks inside and outside the company and placing it on your website and other social media channels. In that case, if the content is done right, there is a high potential your video could go viral. This means hundreds of thousands or even millions of people might end up watching your video, getting you that publicity boost for pennies on the dollar.
Dramatically Boost the SEO of Your Website
Google loves video content, which shows how much they promote videos on their first-page search results over other types of content. That is why corporate videos are one way to do it if you want to get into Google’s good books.
Adding corporate videos to your website will boost your SEO rankings with Google, and that is something every business wants more of.
Increase Traffic to Your Site or Social Media Channels
Video content matters because it boosts SEO rankings and increases traffic toward your website or other social media channels. This is because Google prefers video content over different kinds of content, and folks do as well. As a result, they will flock to your video on your website or social media rather than read someone else’s boring, long-form written content.
If you have struggled to boost your website’s traffic, creating engaging, exciting video content is a great way to do it.
Create, Generate, and Improve Brand Awareness
Your corporate video, if done right, will showcase your company’s culture and brand impeccably. It will show in a few seconds to anyone watching what your organization is about—what matters to you and what you focus on.
This is an easy way to create brand awareness in someone’s mind if they have never met your brand or improve it if they already know about you.
Cater to the Fast-Growing Mobile Audience
The facts are clear. Most folks will view your website on their mobile rather than on a laptop or a bigger screen. That is why creating a mobile-friendly website is so crucial.
But more than that, video content helps you cater more to the mobile audience because that is what folks do when browsing on their smartphones. They are not reading blog posts or books (mostly) but watching videos and browsing through images.
Take Advantage of the Opportunity for a Stronger Call to Action
We use storytelling and true cinema to create corporate videos that end up being award-winners. That is because you can make a strong message and call to action when creating video content.
You can tug at those heartstrings and make people believe in your tagline or brand message. It is possible because a video can hit those notes that a blog post or image cannot.
It is also relatively easy to convey a large amount of information in a relatively short time using videos, which is why it is great for explaining a complex project, idea, or product.
Learn How to Make a Good Corporate Video
But you cannot just throw something together and call it a corporate video. Certain key elements make up a good or even great corporate video.
Let us look at some of these vital elements in detail below.
Everything Start With the Word “Purpose”
You do not want to create videos willy-nilly without defining a clear purpose and goal beforehand. Why do you wish to make this corporate video? What exactly do you want to achieve through it?
Make sure your team in charge of creating the video meets up several times to define this purpose, so you know precisely what to inform the video production company. Then, with a more precise goal from the outset, your video production company can create a better corporate video and better translate your ideas into reality.
Aim for Professional Quality
There are many different kinds of videos out there. You must have seen the vlog-style videos that are pretty common nowadays. Everyone with a camera on the phone has started creating videos of themselves doing crazy, silly, and sometimes awesome things.
But that is probably not the style or quality you want when creating corporate videos. The idea with corporate videos is that, first and foremost, they need to be of extremely high professional-level quality.
You will be showing it to folks inside and outside your company, and it needs to be impeccably made for that to happen without shaming you or the company.
Still from corporate video Van hell.
Start Feeling: Emotions Come First
As with everything marketing-related, you want to tug at the heartstrings of the person watching the video. Whether these are hardened executives or regular folk watching these videos, they all want to watch something with heart and impact.
The way to do this is to use emotions. Not only do you want to use emotional language, but you want to use storytelling to send a message that hits them where it counts.
Use Both Audio and Video Elements
According to the Cone of Learning by Edgar Dale, you retain 30% of the information received when watching a video and 50% of it if you are watching live instructions or an exhibit. That is why it is important to have audio and visual elements in your video and make it as interactive as possible.
This will allow the individual to retain much more information and remember the message in your video rather than forgetting it ten seconds after the video ends. Or worse, getting distracted while watching the video, daydreaming about what they will eat later.
Distribute It: Getting Your Content Out There
Finally, you must distribute your videos properly after you have finished creating them (or after receiving them from your video production company. Depending on the video’s purpose and the goals you already outlined, you will know exactly what to do with the videos.
If it is only meant for internal sharing, you will probably show them at your corporate event or in internal meetings. And perhaps you will also share them on the intranet if you have one.
On the other hand, if the video is meant for widespread dissemination, you will want to share it everywhere you can imagine. Of course, you can place it on your website and social media channels. But you could also consider doing a press release with it and sending it out to media folks, who could perhaps share it with their followers or on their networks.
Please speak to your video production company about this because they might have ideas for you that you will not come up with on your own.
How to Use Corporate Videos in Your Organization?
Now comes the juicy part. It is time to figure out how to use the magic of corporate videos in your organization. Unfortunately, despite popular belief, it is not as easy as coming up with an idea and making a video.
Especially if you wish to create a corporate video that has a widespread impact, you will want to spend a lot of time in planning mode before ever lifting a camera to take a shot. And that is where a company like ours comes in.
We have worked with dozens of organizations like yours, and we know what it takes to create a video that can make it into the hearts and minds of consumers and executives everywhere. Storytelling and cinema—both of these play a significant role in the videos we create.
There is a reason why we have created so many award-winning corporate films. It is not just by chance but because we make films that invoke feeling through storytelling, building a moment of meaning and connectedness.
Contact Us to Make Your Own Corporate Videos
We are ready to help make your corporate videos come to life. If you are curious about what we can do for you, it begins with meeting our Head of Production and starting a conversation.
Contact us today by phone at +31 (0)20 416 6407 or fill out your details on this webpage. Let us make magic happen through film.
