Best practices to make engaging internal videos

By Vanessa Holding | vanessa@arcandcrown.com

Vanessa Holding shares the five steps you should consider to ensure your content will resonate with audiences.  

The power of video is in its ability to condense information and get the main message across in a quick and visually engaging fashion. YouTube is now the place to watch videos for entertainment, get news, research a product, or learn a new skill. This is why when you’re thinking about getting an internal audience to pay attention to something, it makes sense to give them content in a form they’re already used to and enjoy consuming. But before you start diving into a new video project, here are five steps you should consider to ensure your content will resonate with audiences.

1. Be clear on your objectives

When starting a project you should be clear on who the video is targeting, what the main KPIs are, and how you’re going to track them. That way every other question you answer during the process, from who will appear in the video to what music should be in the background, will be mindful of those main objectives and help you achieve success.

2. Determine how you want to make your viewers feel

We like to think that we’re logical beings who are in full control of our decisions, but the truth is we’re far more rationalizing than we are rational. Tons of studies have shown that our behaviour is largely influenced by emotions, which we then use to back our decisions with logic.

A great video that moves your audience emotionally can also really drive their behaviour – whether to sign-up for an event, learn more, etc. So based on your objectives, determine how you will use emotion in your video to help stimulate your audience. Do you want them to laugh or cry, make them inspired or contemplative? What emotion will best resonate with your target audience and help get your message across?

3. Do your research

Once you have a sense of what type of video you’re looking to create and how you want to inspire your audience, do some research online to see how other companies have executed videos for a similar purpose. This is a great way to draw inspiration and provoke your unique ideas for what shape your video could take.

Example: When our company was looking up culture videos, we stumbled on one that Dropbox had created which took a normal “talking head interview” format and gave it a very out of the box delivery. Check it out here.

4. Over-prepare for success

The preparation stage of a video project is called pre-production. It’s everything that happens before the cameras start rolling. Anyone in production would tell you that this is the most important part of the process, as it’s where the vision is laid out on paper in the script, shot list and/or storyboard format, and it’s what every other stage in the process relies on. It’s important to bring in key stakeholders during this period, and ensure they are aligned with the concepts. Adjustments to scripts and storyboards are much more cost-effective in comparison to “fix it in post” in the editing stage.

5. Plan for distribution

Think about your distribution strategy before you produce your video. This should be a point of discussion early on, as you will need to consider certain elements that are dependent on where you are posting your video. For example, if social media is a key platform you want to post your content, you may want to consider adding subtitles, not only for AODA compliance but also for ease of viewing for all audiences.

As you’ll see through the five tips I’ve laid out above, most of the hard work happens before “lights, camera, action” ever take place.