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Introduction

Corporate videos are vital communication products for a company wishing to portray its products or services or gain brand legitimacy. A corporate video can be for the purpose of marketing the services or for training for the intended staff, while communicating with the employees and stakeholders within the organization. However, the production of a corporate video requires proper planning, creativity, and a clear understanding of the goals of the company. Here, we will tell you how to create the perfect corporate video that works into your business goals and resonates with your audience.

What is a Corporate Video?

To produce a corporate video, communicate specific messages to internal or external audiences. Corporate videos serve multiple purposes:

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Marking: Through this, companies can use corporate videos for marketing campaigns for any products, services, or the company itself.

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Training: Corporate videos can be helpful in internal company training and onboarding of new employees. This can make information more accessible and easier to consume.

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Internal Communications: Videos are a good medium for delivering company updates, team-building content, or simply to bring in changes in the organization. Corporate videos may be professional, scripted productions, informal, and behind-the-scenes footage, depending on what a company needs to communicate and to whom they are communicating it.

Importance of Corporate Video Making

Corporate videos have enormous benefits for the corporation to achieve its desired communication goals.

1. Flexibility

Corporate videos can be used for any manner of purpose, from launching new product portfolios to onboarding new employees. In this regard, their versatility only makes them a valuable investment for businesses.

2. Trust and Credibility

A professionally done corporate video can create trust with target clients and business partners. A professional video can improve the perception of your brand and further deepen your quality commitment.

3. Higher Conversion Rates

Videos are effective in increasing the conversion rate. Whether the video is embedded on your landing page, used as part of an email campaign, or on social media, people are likely to respond to video more than plain text.

4. Cost-Effective

Video production can cost you an arm and a leg. However it's a great bang for your buck. Because videos can be duplicated and replicated in numerous campaigns and streams, you don't need to constantly create content.

5. Showcase Company Culture

Corporate videos offer you the chance to mention your company culture, values, and mission. This is highly significant in recruitment and brand-building because people want to work with or buy from a company whose values seem aligned with theirs.

Types of Corporate Videos

There are different kinds of corporate videos that cater to various purposes according to the business goals. Here are some of the most common types:

1. Testimonial Video

Testimonial videos would be comprised of your clients or customers talking about their positive experiences about your company. It creates credibility and trust among potential customers by way of testimonials of real success.

2. Promotional Video

Promotional videos are used as marketing tools for the advertisement of the products or services offered by your company. In the promotional video, you are going to capture the attention of your audience and highlight the benefit of what you are offering.

3. Explainer Video

An explainer video tends to be brief and help elucidate how a product, service, or process works. Such videos are pretty efficient in making complicated topics easy.

4. Recruiting Video

Recruitment videos are made to attract new talent by giving a glimpse of your company culture, its values, and work environment. Such videos let the potential employees gain an understanding of the environment and conditions in which they would be working.

5. Training Video

Training videos become part of the employee education process, thus equipping them with knowledge to do their work more effectively. It can be on safety training, customer service training, or even product demonstrations.

6. Event Video

Event videos record major corporate events like conferences, product launches, or trade shows. It enables the event to reach audiences beyond those that attended the event.

7. Product Demo Video

Product demo videos: These are video demonstrations, showcasing a product in action, highlighting its features, and its benefits. These kinds of videos drive sales like no other, especially for tech or complex products.

8. Onboarding Videos

These are videos used to welcome new employees to the company while providing them with essential information about the company, its culture, and their role.

9. Product Launch

Launch product videos introduce a new product or service into the marketplace for a company. Tend to be more cinematic in nature, designed to generate excitement and buzz around your new product or service.

10. Video Case Study

Video case studies are in-depth stories from satisfied customers who have used your products and services successfully. These videos are excellent proof of value from your organization.

Produce a Corporate Video (Process)

Plan and break down the project into clear stages so that the whole process is done efficiently, each stage significantly contributing to a general polished final output. This explanation of the entire video production process begins with the conceptualization stage up to the review of the final output.

1. Pre-production

The video production process begins with pre-production: that is the foundational phase where initial planning and preparation take place; it is important to ensure the shoot occurs in a smooth and successful manner since it will help eliminate probable issues that may have arisen later.

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a. Planning

The first act of the pre-production stage involves planning a detailed plan. This involves outlining the purpose and scope of the video, identifying your audience, and determining the key message you would like to convey. Planning also involves determining the tone and tone of the video-to be formal or informative, fun, or emotional. Overall objectives of the video must be well defined, ensuring that every decision thereafter will serve the purposes of the project's overall goals.

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b. Scriptwriting

A video script constitutes the skeleton of your video. In other words, it specifies all the dialogue, action, and key communications that you intend to convey in the video. A good script will ensure keeping one focused and sticking to the message. The text should therefore be concise in its offering yet informative; additionally, its language should lend itself for viewership: be it professionals in an industry or a wider general public. Scriptwriting Corporate video scripts are to be written from a perspective that wears the cloak of brand voice but is clear nonetheless. 

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C. Storyboarding

A storyboard is a visual mapping out of the video scenes. Storyboards break down the script into separate shots, giving both the director and crew a visual guide as to what the audience will witness in each scene. This way, everyone knows what has to be shot in what order. A storyboard in detail would include sketches or reference images, camera angle descriptions, and transitions, effects, or special requirements.

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d. Logistics

Logistical planning is one of the most lightly recognized but highly crucial areas in pre-production. This entails the following:

• Setting locations for filming
• Booking of equipment
• Hiring a production crew
• Finalization of casting decisions

All elements that go into the logistical process must be considered to avoid scheduling problems, equipment failures, or running over budget. It can also be acquired in permits or permissions required when filming in public spaces or at specific venues.

2. Production

After all the planning is done, the production part comes into the picture. This can also be called actual shooting. This is where all the effort of pre production finally comes to life. Organization, flexibility, and following details come into play for a smooth process in production.

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a. Filming

Filming, or shooting is basically the core of the production stage. It could be a shooting of the live-action scenes or capturing on-screen interviews or getting b-roll footage depending upon to produce a corporate video. Great production values are essentials to your corporate video success. Pay attention to lighting, framing, and sound. Filming also means that the scenes appear as planned in the script and storyboard.

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b. Directing

The central position of the director will allow the video produced to be well aligned with the desired creativity. He assures close communications with the camera operators, actors, and all members within the crew to bring the script and storyboard into reality. The on-screen talent's performance is also made sure that it captures the general intended tone and message. For instance, for corporate videos, this might translate to the offering of comments on how a testimonial by a client is being delivered or ensuring that product demonstrations are in simple terms.

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c. Monitoring

Monitoring everything closely during production will ensure everything is captured right. This includes reviewing footage live for continuity, quality, and performance. A few on-the-fly alterations to the set, lighting, or actor performance could be needed to improve your final product. Monitoring will prevent costly reshoots and will ensure everything filmed is according to plan.

3. Post-production

This is after filming. The project now enters post-production where raw video footage is reshaped into a polished final product. Post-production in relation to this project will entail the stitching of everything together through editing, sound design, and visual effects.

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a. Editing

At the top of the list of the most important steps in post-production is post-production editing. Being an editor means putting together the best shots; cutting the video into the right length; and making sure the pace and flow of the video is going to be interesting, gripping, and attractive to the audience. It also involves choosing the best angles, trimming unnecessary footage, and ensuring smooth transitions from one scene to another. The editor can then include motion graphics, a title screen, and on-screen text that would make the message of the video clear.

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b. Enhancements

Color correction is needed to ensure that the color in the footage is balanced throughout the video. Meanwhile, color grading gives artistic effects that would bring out the mood and tone of the video. A corporate video might have a use of bright and vibrant colors to send a very positive and upbeat message or neutral tones for professionalism purposes. The grading process cannot be avoided since it is pretty essential in achieving a shiny, film-like output.

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C. Review

After conducting the edit process, a final video copy will be forwarded to key stakeholders for their review. The review may need several revisions rounds whereby the stakeholders provide notes on adjustments or changes that would have to be implemented. The video will be fine-tuned as needed in relation to all requirements and brand standards within the company.

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Best Practices for Creating Corporate Videos

Creating a good corporate video is not just about technical expertise. But rather, people understand their target audience, with clear objectives and authenticity, are some of the best practices followed to ensure that the corporate video does resonate with the viewer. Here's more on expanded best practices, which could lead you through the process.

1. Know Your Audience

Knowing your audience is the key to producing an excellent corporate video. It actually affects everything about the kind of language and tone you use to the style itself. In making a corporate video for internal audiences, the tone might be more relaxed, and familiar. Videos that are directed to clients or prospective clients will need a more professional polished texture.

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To know your audience:

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• Research their preferences, demographics, and behaviors.
• Define personas that will guide the development of the content. People to include in those personas would be their roles, challenges, and interests as well as what they would like to learn from your video.
• They would mold the messaging and visuals as per their preference or requirements.
• Knowing your audience also means getting to understand where they are along the buyer's journey. A corporate video targeted at new prospects will have a completely different tone and message than one targeted at long-time customers or employees.

2. Set Clear Objectives

Define your purpose before you start production. What is the point of your video? Are you seeking leads, educating your customer base, increasing brand awareness, or recruiting a new workforce? Set that objective early so that it drives all your decisions while you produce a corporate video.

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• SMART Objectives: The objectives formulated must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, hence SMART. For example, if the objective is lead generation, measurement against the number of conversions due to the video is possible.
• Video KPIs: You must have specific KPIs to measure success. These can range from views, click-through rates, engagement, shares, or even sales directly attributed to the video.
• Targeted Messaging: Once you have defined your objectives, then ensure that the messaging in your video supports your goals. All scenes and messaging must be supportive of your end goal.

3. Plan Thoroughly

The last requirement for great corporate video production is planning thoroughly. The more you invest in the planning stage, the smoother your shoot will run. This means script development, storyboarding, scheduling, and resource allocation.

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• Detailed Screenwriting: A good script in place helps you to keep your video on-course and on-message. Think of writing a script using a storytelling technique or taking the audience through a story.
• Storyboarding: You do want to visualize your video ahead of time using a detailed storyboard. This will be your road map in getting to understand how the final product will flow visually. A storyboard is your roadmap for your director to familiarize himself with the crew during filming.
• Scheduling and Logistics: Expect so much planning, because during this stage, you should inform your team of which days you will shoot in specific locations and who is going to be held accountable for it. Time management is critical here, because most planning experts caution you that without them, your budget will run amok, and deadlines sneak up on you.
• Budget Allocation: During the planning process, you carefully look into which areas you can put your money into. This has everything to do with what your objective entails. Basically, what this means is that if the brand requires high-end exposure, you start allocating your budget by spending more on talent and equipment.

Real and authentic video content can interact more with viewers. Since audiences know the openness of social media, they quickly realize when something feels too staged or rehearsed.

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4. Stay Authentic

If possible, use real stories, interviews, or client testimonials. Authenticity allows trust to develop in your audience.

• Humanize Your Brand: Use your video to make your audience care about it. You can do this by humanizing your business by using interviews of team members, behind-the-scenes footages, or customer success stories.
• Don't Overproduce a corporate video: Make sure you have good production values. However, be very careful not to overdo it in such a way that the production sounds very staged or fake. A simple, straightforward approach might resonate more in your audience than glossy visuals.

5. Focus on Distribution

• Wining half-battle: Good corporate video is but one half of the victory. You have to have a full-proof distribution plan that ensures that the right people see it. Consider the time when you will most likely find your audience and align the video distribution plan with that.
• Multiple Channel Strategy: Corporate videos can be disseminated through various media channels, such as social media, email campaigns, on your website, and even on video sharing portals like YouTube or Vimeo.
• Optimize for Different Formats: The video should be optimized to fit different devices and formats. For instance, videos on social media are most likely to be shorter than those on your website.
• Use SEO: Even though you are uploading it to platforms like YouTube, don't forget that all of these programs require you to optimize your video for search engines to find your videos relevant to a user's search. You should come up with a catchy title, description, and keywords and fill out the tags.
• Targeted Campaigns: Run a targeted ad campaign on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube, to name a few, to target specific demographics or industries. The paid ad will amplify the reach of your video with the right audience.

6. Be Concise and Clear

Your Corporate Video should be concise and have a clear message. Attention is lost if the video is too long or carries too much information.

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• Keep it short, as short as possible yet informative enough. Videos less than 2-3 minutes in length have shown to achieve better performances for they are likely to engage viewers by watching the whole video.
• Presentation of Simple Complex Ideas. If you're speaking about a particularly complex topic, then you'll want to break down the simple ideas you want your audience to understand. Provide evidence that using jargon and overly technical words is not well-suited unless relevant to your target audience.
• One central idea: Don't pile too many messages into one video. Have one central idea or objective, so the audience doesn't get confused.

7. Include Your Brand Voice

Your corporate video should really reflect your company's unique brand voice. Whether your brand is funny and casual, professional and formal, innovative and bold, and whatever your tone of voice, the tone of the video must be aligned with the personality of your brand.

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• Consistency Across Channels: The video should support your existing marketing materials, website, and social media channels. That will create consistency and strengthen brand identity.
• Visual Identity: Use colors, logos, typefaces, and style adhering to your brand guidelines. A unified visual identity is more likely to strengthen brand recognition.
• Tone and Messaging: A video should reflect the voice of the company. For instance, a company that touts innovation will also have an avant-garde or state-of-the-art video.

8. Include a Strong Call to Action (CTA)

A corporate video needs to end with a clear Call to Action telling your viewer what to do next. Be it landing on your website, form submission, or getting in touch with your team, your CTA should stand out.

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• Be Clear: Let viewers know exactly what you want them to do-be it schedule a demo, sign up for the newsletter, or follow your company on social media.
• Timing is Gold: Put your CTA at the very end of the video, but also consider sprinkling in reminders mid-video. For instance, if your video is quite long, include a mid-video CTA to get viewers re-engaged.
• Match CTA to Goal: Ensure that what you are asking them to do in the video aligns with what you want. If your goal is brand awareness, your CTA might be softer and more like "Learn More." If your goal is to generate leads, you might ask them to "Sign Up" or "Contact Us."

Cost of Producing a Corporate Video

The cost of making a corporate video runs from a few hundred dollars to a million dollars, depending on many factors:

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Video Length: The larger the video, the more time and resources involved in creating it; thus, it incurs a higher cost.

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Complexity of the script and scenes: A complex script or multiple locations with special effects or a large cast will surely drive up the production costs.

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Number of shooting locations: Multiple locations drive up logistics costs, such as travel and set up.

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Talent/actors involved: Third-party actors or voiceovers drive up total costs.

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Equipment and technology used:  High definition cameras, lighting and sound equipment increase the cost of production.

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Post-production Needs: The more editing, sound design and visual effects needed the higher the post-production budget will be.

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Licenses for Music or third party content: If you decide to use licensed music or content, add this to your budget as well.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

A corporate video is a fantastic way to communicate your message if it is approached with careful planning and execution with the right visuals, but pitfalls may otherwise harm the final product. Be wary of these common pitfalls to ensure your video really does carry out the mission and has an impact on your audience.

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1. Don't Be Too Salesy

One of the biggest things that companies get wrong when creating their corporate video is they focus too much on selling. One has to inform of value proposition, but if they think they're being sold something, viewers will quickly change the channel.

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Instead of being pushy with a hard sell, deliver value in the form of good storytelling, education, or insight. Videos with very useful or informative content are far more engaging than infomercial videos. A video product demonstration on how your solution solves real-world problems beats an over-the-top sales pitch of an infomercial video.

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For instance, a business can use testimonial marketing to produce a corporate video where a happy client talks about their experience with the product while pulling in the benefits in a tender way not trying to haggle in high pitch sales techniques.

2. Avoid Making a Long Video

This is arguably the most mistakes most individuals make today; creating lengthy videos. Individuals in this digital world have low attention spans. Your video may take too long such that you begin losing viewership.

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Solution: Keep the corporate videos short and to the point. In most cases, the optimal length of corporate videos is 2-3 minutes, especially if they will be posted on social media or websites. If you have information that you need to impart and it cannot fit into such a video, consider breaking it up into several short videos instead of one single long video. This will also yield a video series you can use to engage your audience over time.

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Example: Instead of one 10-minute demo of a product, you may have a series of a few shorter films that each answer a different question about the product: how it is configured, what are its major features, and what are its benefits.

3. Don’t Use Jargon

Another common error is jargon-laden, overly technical language that is very industry-specific. Your employees and other industry insiders will understand your jargon; more than likely, however, your target market will not, which could be alienating and unengaging to view.

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Solution: Use simple clear language that everyone can understand to get your message across. In a clear, simple explanation, focus on engaging your audience in terms of your message. Should you have to use technical terms, you must define the terms and/or provide context for this video so your vast viewing audience will understand. Clearly, you want everyone to be able to enjoy watching your video.

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Example: While creating an explainer video about new software for a company, the company should not use jargons related to technology, but state how it helps the final user in the solving of problems and improving the workflow.

4. Don’t Settle for the First Draft

Under any circumstance, companies end up showing the first version that has been proposed unless there is enough pressure to deliver the product by a certain deadline. That will only amount to an underwhelming or incomplete final result because the review and revision process might be rushed through.

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Solution: Plan to do a few rounds of reviews and revisions. Engage key stakeholders and get their feedback to make sure the video aligns with your company's goals and messaging. If you thoroughly review the video, you will be able to pinpoint inconsistencies, errors, or things that will not resonate with your audience. Constructive criticism from diverse departments such as marketing, sales, and customer service may sometimes help identify and pinpoint exactly where you are going wrong.

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Example: After the initial draft of the corporate video on training, the HR has probably viewed some critical safety processes missed that then need to be edited prior to getting the final cut of the presentation approved.

5. Don't Overcomplicate the Message

Many companies pack too many things into a single video, which is a recipe for confusing the view of message loss. That usually happens if business organizations attempt to achieve several objectives or cover vast areas of subject matters in a single production.

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Solution: Identify one key message or objective to focus on per video. This will keep the video focused and ensure that the viewers take home something they would learn from watching the video. If you have many different messages that you want the viewers to hear then it could be best to have different videos each for the subject rather than forcing a lot of things in one. Also, simplification results in the message being remembered better.

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Instead of creating a video where all its products are exhibited, a company could create a very short video featuring only one new product launch with the aspects that make it of value to the customers.

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Conclusion

Creating a corporate video means careful planning, creativity, and most of all, a good understanding of the objectives you want to achieve. The following tips and best practices will enable you to create a video that communicates the right message, holds your audience's attention, and is brand aligned. Some types of productions include product demos, training videos, and company culture. A successful video will lean on a well-structured production process.

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