Building Video into Your Company’s Culture

Oliver Bridge

Video brings a range of benefits to the table for all kinds of companies. And while most of us know that video is an effective strategy, it may still be hard to get buy-in from your team.

Though marketers across the globe say that video is the type of content with the highest ROI, many companies struggle to make it a part of their company culture. Now, we’re not talking about company culture videos. Instead, we'll look at how can you get your employees to feel more comfortable using the medium to connect with prospects and customers.

We’ll admit it—video can sure be intimidating. Ubiquitous as it is, many people feel self-conscious about being on camera. It’s like having someone listen in on a phone call where you don’t have all of the answers. 

In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can create a company culture where video becomes just another tool for interacting with customers, colleagues, and prospects. Let’s dive in.

Being on Camera—It’s a Process

As much as video is a core component of any major marketing strategy, it’s also really challenging for a lot of us. Here’s a video from our knowledge base that provides some info on how to get started if you’re new to video content. 

Beyond that, here are a few more things to pass along to your team:

  • Encourage staff to practice at home. While a script is good, reading it verbatim is not. Make sure those using videos “learn their lines” and get comfortable with a bit of improv. It might be a good idea to create a script that looks more like a bullet point outline to encourage more natural speech.
  • Dress for success. It’s the old, “if you look good, you feel good” concept. Dressing for the camera is less about being formal and more about choosing a clean, flattering shirt, combing your hair, and making yourself feel confident. 
  • Create space in the office for recording. While some folks might feel totally fine recording at their desk or in the conference room, it’s nice to give video beginners some space to play around with the strategy.

Don’t Compare Yourself to Other Companies (Yet)

Video is like blogging, in that, you want to look at the content that's out there and make something better and/or different than what your competitors are doing. However, spending too much time thinking about how companies like Moz, Vimeo (pictured below), or Mailchimp are nailing video content before you get your feet wet can feel a bit discouraging. 

Many of the companies that have emerged as thought leaders in the space seem really comfortable with the medium. The other part of this is the budget. All of those great explainer videos must cost a fortune to produce, right? 

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That’s not necessarily true. Sure, if you're creating a video commercial for a new car or high-profile snack food, that's millions in production costs, easy. However, sending a video voicemail to new client costs next to nothing. Producing a five-minute tutorial won't blow your budget either. Neither will a behind-the-scenes Instagram Story or an onboarding video for new clients. 

If this were an advertisement for Bonjoro, we’d go into all of the bullet points outlining how accessible, affordable, and fast making video for customers can be. We won’t get into it, but the point is, anyone with a modern phone (like going a few iPhone generations back, even) or webcam can make a video that looks good and makes a personal connection with users. 

Discuss Where You Can Use Video

Want to get people excited about video? Great. Then let’s look at it in terms of selling the strategy to your team by highlighting the benefits and potential for transformation. Hey, that’s what you’re doing for your prospects, right?

We think it always helps to think about the content as it relates to each stage in the buying cycle. Here’s an example, in case you need to jog your memory, though stages vary based on your business model and approach.

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Here are just a few of the countless ways that you can use video to level up your internal marketing strategy.

  • Capture and Share Knowledge 
  • Manage Performance Expectations
  • Offer On-Demand Training
  • Create Short Demos for Consumers
  • Highlight Products
  • Show Off Company Culture
  • Connect with Far-Away Customers and Prospects

So, looking back at the examples listed above, you'll want to discuss these areas with the whole team to come up with a unified approach toward making a place for video in your company culture. 

A few areas to look at:

  • Consider pain points to address in each video and build a short script around how you stand to address each issue.
  • Get relevant staff involved in creating the workflow--coming up with a concept, figuring out what they want to say, and providing the tools needed to execute the final product.
  • Come up with a strategy for incorporating video into existing content hubs like your knowledge base, social media channels, and training documentation.
  • Create templates to help new content creators get more comfortable with the format. You might make a few of these to address different needs. For example, one template might be used for reaching out to individual customers, another for explaining the features/benefits of your product/service. 

Beyond that, how do you ensure widespread adoption?

  • Building in some flexibility so people can experiment and find their own use cases. 
  • Start with topics and content categories and build a strategy around that. 
  • Design a style guide that lays out how each video should look, what kind of language to use/avoid, color schemes, and other branding elements. Keep in mind that while you want your staff to put up a unified front, allow for their individual personalities to show through. So long as videos are friendly and professional, your audience will likely appreciate seeing the "real" person over the branded version. 

Cultural change isn't easy--whether you're dealing with a new boss or a push toward modernizing your communications strategy, there are always a few nay-sayers that will resist. 

While some resistance can be expected, the critical thing to think about is making sure that all internal stakeholders have access to the tools they need to carry out their video projects from end-to-end. Otherwise, uncertainty and approval bottlenecks will get in the way.

Finally, Make Sure You Measure Success

Adopting any new strategy means dealing with a few growing pains on the road to success. If you’re in a management role, this means you’ll want to come up with a way to tie video adoption to measurable goals.

 Look at metrics like retention rate, average deal size, open rates, sales, and more. Be sure to get a baseline measure for all key metrics before deploying your video strategy and stick with it for a while to track growth over time. 

You’ll also want to review how people consume your content to see if you’re hitting the right notes. This means looking at things like watch rates, engagement, shares, and responses. Keep an eye out for specific areas where people tend to drop off--as that may suggest that you need to cut something slow or irrelevant. 

Here’s Bonjoro’s monthly stats dashboard, which when clicked, allows you to drill down into video metrics like opens, clicks, and replies. Our software also syncs up with a long list of integrations, so you can track the metrics that matter most.

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Wrapping Up

In the end, we know that all new strategies come with a learning curve. A lot of companies felt the same way about social media a few years back, after all.

The point is, making video part of your company culture doesn't need to be a big deal. Make it fun, highlight the benefits, and provide the tools and guidance necessary to make your new program a success. Easier said than done, sure. 

With Bonjoro, bringing video into the fold means giving your team an easy solution with a minimal learning curve. While you may need to teach them some on-camera dos and don'ts, the rest of the process is as easy as sending an email or leaving a voicemail. Sign up for a free account and you'll see the benefits (and simplicity) for yourself. 

Category
Video tips
About the author
Oliver Bridge
Growth Grizzly
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