If you’ve been keeping up with up-and-coming business trends, then you’ll definitely be more than familiar with the ins and outs of video advertising. Yes, marketing your business to the public may be everyone’s top priority, but channeling your focus inwards is just as important. As much as they excel at creating entertaining campaigns and persuasive advertorials, videos can also be used to beef up internal marketing—according to a study featured in Forbes Insights, 75% of executives view work-related clips at least weekly! So in case you’re wondering how, here are some ways in which videos help keep your business running like a well-oiled machine.
Facilitate onboarding
The onboarding process is one of the first instances with which new employees can judge your company by. Perhaps in the distant past, onboarding involved a simple office tour and hurried introductions, but not anymore. Now, many onboardings are streamlined into one short video that encapsulates all the basics, telling people who’s who and what’s what all in one sitting, and if newcomers forget, they can simply refer back. An onboarding video can be formatted in many different ways depending on the kind of tone you want to set from the get go. If your company is built on art and design, for instance, you might come up with a quirky animation to showcase seating arrangements, blueprints and standard protocols. You can even include clips of relevant staff members doing self introductions, and get fresh faces to send out video intros as well. Creative videos make the whole orientation process much more fun and welcoming, getting new employees hyped up to begin their journey with you!
Deliver news and updates
Keeping everyone in the loop is essential, no matter if you're running a small business or major operation. Whether it’s a company newsletter or announcements of recent changes and upcoming events, regular updates foster a culture of transparency from the top down, encouraging a sense of trust and making sure the whole team is on the same page. Instead of wasting time and energy sending out a stream of individual emails, why not compile all the highlights into a single video? Think of it as a weekly company news report—it doesn’t have to be overly sophisticated, so as long as it gets the job done.
Videos are also a viable replacement for physical training courses or tutorials. Cut down on the administrative nightmare of organising and executing such events, and let employees learn from the comfort of their own homes. With an instructional video, everyone’s learning styles and idiosyncrasies can be catered to. People who absorb information faster can speed up the video, while those who take more time can feel free to pause or rewind. What’s more, considering that the majority of people are visual learners, an animated or live action demonstration through video can help simplify complex concepts and drum in knowledge more effectively.
Make communication convenient
Aside from consolidating and delivering large amounts of information, videos (much like mass texts and emails) can be used to reach a wide audience. Let’s say a particular message is relevant to multiple parties in the office—rather than using one impersonal letter template or attempting to draft variations of the same notice, you can post a video message on the company website or attach the link to their emails. This method combines both the ease or mass-sending as well as the personal touch of seeing your face as you speak directly to them. To prevent overlapping responses, you can also include a comments section where queries can be posted and clarified for all to view at once.
Capture attention
It’s only human to grow sick and tired of all those monotonous work emails flooding our inboxes daily. For those facing an overwhelming influx of mail, they have become more than skilled at sifting through the list and opening only the most necessary emails. This means that if you hide your message within a lengthy text, it’s more than likely going to be briefly skimmed and discarded, causing many to miss out on any important news or urgent demands you might have. Catch your recipient’s eye by embedding a video with a unique thumbnail instead. Since videos resemble other popular forms of entertainment content, it becomes less of a chore to click on it and pay attention!
Connect workers
A team works best when each individual feels a sense of attachment and camaraderie. So the biggest mistake you can make is to never let your fellow workers transcend the clinical barrier of their screen. Let colleagues learn more about each other, beyond matter-of-fact text correspondences. Sending out video messages humanises digital communication and lets the personality of the creator/speaker to shine through, enabling viewers to gain a better understanding of the people they work alongside every day.
Create context
When schedules clash or face-to-face interaction proves impossible, videos are the next best form of communication. In a video, you don’t lose out on other crucial elements of human communication (since the nuances and subtexts of our language often lie in physical cues rather than verbal utterances). Filming yourself allows you to include such aspects—people can see your body language and facial expressions which will minimise any potential miscommunication that might lead to fallouts in the workplace.
Overcome physical distance
As we slip further into a culture of social distancing and work-from-home, now more than ever, we need to find ways to retain the human touch in the workplace. Perhaps your company might be entirely run online at the moment, but not having a common physical space to meet and interact does take its toll—prolonged isolation from colleagues or employers and cause one to feel disengaged and alienated from the company, resulting in a team that is lackluster and less encouraged to do their best. With video communication where people can see you speaking as if you were in the same room as them, you can bridge the gap between in-person conversations and online messaging just like that!
Give personal feedback
Many would agree that one of the hardest things to do in the office is provide objective criticism on another’s work. What if they take it the wrong way? What if they get offended? More often than not, the problem stems from the receiver feeling as if they aren’t treated with enough consideration or that their hard work has been brutally brushed aside. A video recording of yourself giving feedback verbally is inherently more personal—it puts a friendly face to your critique and softens the blow for particularly sensitive topics. Unlike a formal email or written comment that can indicate a sense of finality, a casual video of you talking makes you appear more approachable as a superior and lets the recipient know that opens up the floor for discussions and productive feedback loops.
Enhance company culture
If your business spans across international borders or is currently being run remotely, explainer videos, updates or chats can help forge a healthy company culture. Being able to put a face to online exchanges and discussions tells your team how much you value personal and engaging communication. Inculcating the habit of sending video messages or posts also lets people know the value of open and constant communication, which sets the foundation for loyalty and strong bonds within the company.
Conclusion
Internal communication videos can be a great way to enhance company culture and improve brand awareness within the company. If you do decide to use a video marketing strategy, why not engage a video production company? At En3, we’re a Singapore video production that offers a suite of services to meet your marketing needs:
- Interview videos
- Production Demo videos
- Tutorial videos
- Event highlights
- Announcement videos
- Behind the scenes videos
If you’re interested, drop us an email or message to find out how En3 can help you!
