These 5 steps are the best way you can take a standard boring corporate video and turn it into a compelling video that serves an actual purpose. The first thing to note when it comes to corporate video is there is a lot of noise. As corporate videos gain popularity every year it is important to put some thought into your video and make it easy for consumers to understand.

Here are our top 5 tips for creating effective corporate videos.

01. Define your strategy.

Defining a strategy is single-handedly the most critical part of creating effective videos. It’s amazing how many corporate videos have no strategy. Just think, one billion hours of video is consumed every day on Youtube alone. Strategy is the key ingredient that will speak to the viewer and allow you to stand out.

Don’t be intimidated by strategy. It’s important to note strategy doesn’t need to be an overthought 10-page breakdown of every aspect of the video it can be fairly simple. If you can answer the 5 questions below you have a thorough enough strategy.

Who is your audience?
What’s the story?
How is it relevant?
What do you want to get out of the video?
What platforms will it be utilized on?

02. Define your target audience.

Today there are around 4.6 billion internet users in the world. Which means there is someone for everything. No matter what your target audience is, we can find them.

A simple exercise to define your target audience is by answering questions like: What is their educational background? How old are they? What do they resonate closely with? What do they value? If you can answer a few strong questions about the group you’re looking to target you will quickly find your target audience.

It is important to note that after all your video needs first address your audience’s issue and second show how you can help. This is the most effective and streamlined way to speak to your target audience.

03. Tie in a story.

Tying in a story is critical because it gives your brand power and lets the audience know that they can’t do it without you.

A basic story consists of the following
A character (your client) → Has a problem → Meets a guide (your business) → who gives them a plan → That helps them avoid failure → that ends in success.

To better illustrate, Let’s use a popular film (Finding Nemo) to help illustrate this.

Marlin and his son Nemo are living a happy life (A character) until they get split up (The problem). Marlin then meets Dory (The Guide). Dory then agrees to help Marlin find Nemo (The Plan). She navigates the ocean with Marlin and uses her expertise to stay out of trouble (Helps them avoid failure). Then they eventually find Nemo and everyone is happy (The end success).

Your company needs to be Dory.
Your client needs to be Marlin.
Their goals need to be Nemo.

A common mistake when tying in a story is when brands position themself as the main character/hero. It’s so important to position your brand as the guide for your client’s journey. Your client needs to be the hero in any journey and every story should end in their success. This is what gets people excited.

04. Tailor your video to your preferred platform.

This fourth step is oftentimes undervalued and can have a huge impact on how well the video performs.

When you’re creating content you need to cater to the platform you’re posting on. This will allow you to latch on to current trends and make your content feel like it is native to the platform.

If your content doesn’t fit the format of the platform the viewer is instantly skeptical.

Formatting is the first step. For example, If they are on TikTok or Instagram Reels (Both vertically oriented) and they come across your video in a horizontal format they immediately can tell it wasn’t designed for that platform. This content is quickly scrolled by or not consumed properly because it is clearly not on its native platform.

Using the platform for what it’s known for. Everyone goes to different platforms to consume different styles of content Youtube is a place where people go to learn, Instagram is a place where people go to engage & interact with friends, TikTok is a place where people go to laugh, and catch up on current trends within the app.

Playing into all these apps correctly will help you better speak to your target audience.

05. Have a good production team

If you’re looking to produce something impactful it’s important to approach the video with a who not how mentality. Yes, most brands have someone on staff who has some sort of marketing or media experience, yes everyone has an iPhone that can shoot great video content.

However, these solutions are never going to get you the results you’re looking for. The best thing you can do is hire someone who specializes in creating compelling commercials with real strategy and production value.

A production team can help plan out everything and produce quality that typically can’t be found in house.

We hope this helped! 

After spending years in the industry these are what we consider to be the 5 most impactful things to cover when creating a corporate video.