Company stories are among the best types of content you can use to foster customer trust and empathy toward your company, as they let you showcase the human side behind your brand.
However, grabbing the attention of your potential customers is not an easy task these days. There are plenty of companies putting high-quality marketing videos out there to connect with potential clients, so it’s essential that you develop a video optimized to do the heavy lifting and help you stand out.
That’s where a great company story video comes in!
In this piece, we’ll explore the ins and outs of great company story videos and give you some insights on how to make one that contributes to your overall branding strategy.
What Company Story Videos Are All About
When you get down to it, people don’t really buy products and services so much as they buy solutions to their problems. They buy results.
In today’s marketing landscape, it’s not enough to talk about your products or services. If you want to stand out from your competitors and make your clients want to come to you, you need to actually build trust with your potential customers and show them that your brand aligns with their needs and wants.
There may be other companies that create similar products or services as yours, but there’s a unique value you can provide your ideal customers that no one else can.
A company story video is a piece of content that speaks to your ideal client about your company’s personality while engaging potential clients by humanizing your brand and showcasing your unique value.
4 Popular Types of Company Story Videos You Can Work On
Whether you’re trying to get your customers to know more about your company story or you want to communicate a specific corporate value to enhance brand awareness, these videos provide a great channel to help you do so.
However, there are many approaches you can take with this type of content. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most popular ones.
About Us Videos
You can use ‘About Us’ videos to get people to learn more about what your company does and how it does it.
The key to creating a great About Us video? Don’t make it all about you.
Instead, make it all about your clients. People don’t really care that much about you; they care about themselves. That’s why every ‘About Us’ section of your content should really be focused on your clients and how you can help them.
Pro Tip: Think about your clients’ main challenges, needs, and wants. Then think about how your company story, values, mission, and vision work toward fulfilling them.
A Day at the Workplace
People love having a sneak peek behind-the-scenes. The production process of the products and services they buy, the people working behind those processes, or even how the office looks are always interesting to potential clients.
It’s also worth mentioning that the best videos of this type also speak about your brand’s values and help your target customers feel identified with them. They just do it under the framework of providing an “insider look” at how your company operates.
Pro Tip: Choose a set of values you want to show and highlight them in your video by how they influence your day-to-day operations. If you say you’re an innovative tech startup, for example, make a good show of how modern your facilities are.
Employee Stories or Case Studies
Employee or client stories showcase the tangible impact your company can have in your clients’ lives. Not only because of the specific products or services you provide but because of the experience you sell, the results your customers and employees get, and the impact your way of working has on improving their life experience.
These videos are all about telling your success stories and how they lead to your client’s or customer’s situation improving.
Pro Tip: think of any employee or one of your best clients’ transformations and interview them about their experience!
Workplace Culture Videos
Workplace culture videos are all about translating into short video sequences what working at your company looks and feels like and tying that to how your clients should get from the products or services you provide.
Pro Tip:: Choose 1-2 values of your company and ask your employees what those values represent in their daily work. You’ll be surprised by the answers, and you’ll get plenty of material for translating that into benefits for the customers.
Seasonal Video Content
Special times of the year provide great opportunities to catch the attention of your current and potential customers. Seasonal Story Videos are all about showcasing how that particular season or celebration is having an impact on your company and your workforce.
The holidays, Easter, Thanksgiving, Independence Day, and other relevant dates should feature on your content marketing calendar whenever possible.
Pro Tip: Make sure your content adds value. Be original. Don’t just stand there wishing your clients happy holidays. Tell a funny story, give valuable information, quote inspiring people, or show relevant statistics of how you improved your clients’ lives and say thank you for being part of your year.
Making a Company Story Video: A Few Things You Should Know
Creating a company story video can be as simple as interviewing your employees, editing the interviews, and putting a corporate background song to make it look professional. However, settling for just that can also land you on top of a pile of similar videos in the “never watched” Youtube section.
As mentioned before, grabbing people’s attention is more challenging these days. So you need to develop a branding strategy that will give them reasons to watch your content until the end.
General Tips to Make These Videos Shine
Here are some key things to keep in mind when creating story videos that enhance your brand and attract potential clients:
- Don’t just tell; SHOW: it’s not so much about what people hear you saying as what people see in your video and the way you showcase it.
- Your employees are the ones that live and breathe your company culture: have them participate and tell people what working at your company is all about.
- Focus on the unique thing about your mission, vision, and values that connect with your ideal client: remember, it’s not (just) about you!
- Include a CTA (Call To Action): every promotional content piece has a purpose, even company story videos. Make sure to include a Call To Action at the end of your video to keep people engaged with your brand.
3 Technical Aspects to Polish for a Successful Company Story Video
Here are some key aspects that you’ll need to spend some time polishing as you work on your video production (and a few tips on how to do so!)
1. The Structure
In spite of what you might think, great company story videos aren’t just about turning your camera on and recording some interviews. You need to strategically define what your video will be about way before starting to shoot it, and the best time to do so is as you work on your script, video outline, or interview questionnaire.
- Define your target audience: knowing exactly who you’re talking to will define the tone of your message and the material you’ll include in your video.
- Select the values you want to share: less is more. Focus on 1 or 2 values maximum to not confuse your audience.
- Choose a type of video: the ones we talked about earlier in the articles are great alternatives to get you started, but there are many others that might better suit your company and goals.
- Build a story around your core idea: stories are great for connecting with people. Make sure you know exactly what you want to say and build the script around that.
- Avoid scripting your interviews: people can sense rehearsed “opinions” from a mile away. While a script can help you define the tone and overall narrative of your videos, whatever interview you use as part of your piece should be unscripted and genuine (more on this in a bit!).
2. Visuals and Sound Design
You probably think you’ll need expensive equipment to create a quality, eye-catching company story video.
Well, while using top-of-the-line tech is always a plus, you’ll likely discover that you have in hand more technical equipment than you thought you had. Most of today’s smartphones come with high-quality cameras that you’ll be able to use to produce the type of content you want.
Having two smartphones to film everything can do the trick for most interviews if you have good lighting. Use one for close-up shots and the other one for a further view and additional shots. Make sure you film horizontally.
You will most likely want dedicated gear for audio, though. Recording the audio separately will ensure great sound quality for your video.
3. Interviews
Interviews are probably one of the most challenging parts of recording a company story video. They need to be done in a way that looks casual, which requires your interviewees to feel comfortable in front of the camera.
However, you also have the challenge of keeping the interview genuine and not constraining your on-camera talent while also hitting the relevant points you want to cover. So, how do you do it?
Draft the questionnaire you are going to work with and share it in advance with the interviewee, but be flexible. Being open to a casual conversation will help you get the most out of the interview. Make open-ended questions: remember you can edit everything. Wide questions prompt interviewees to talk.
Wrapping up
Company story video content is great for enhancing your brand image and engaging your clients with your mission, vision, and values. Emotional connection is stronger than any words you can say or images you can show.
Creating video content in this era is challenging, so you need to develop a great content marketing strategy that communicates your unique value and helps you stand out from your competitors. Use the step-by-step process we shared with you in this article, and you’ll be able to make outstanding company story videos!
