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How Corporate Video Production Can Boost Your Company’s Likeability
“When it comes right down to it, whatever business you’re in, you’re in the people business. After all, people prefer to business with people and companies they find likeable.” – Karen Salmansohn
This best-selling author was a senior vice-president and creative director at an ad agency in her mid-20s before she took up writing, so she knows a thing or two about the importance of corporate image. One of these hard truths is that if your company is fairly indistinguishable from its competitors, people will be drawn to the entity with the most likeability.
Improving this aspect of your company is vital, and one of the ways this is frequently accomplished is by producing a corporate video. The power of video can engage your target audience much easier than words on a page can, and they’re much more likely to remember images rather than text. So if a video can effectively illustrate the essence of your company and the character of its people, viewers will perceive your company to be more likeable.
Clarify What Your Company Does
Has someone ever asked you what your company does, and as you’re answering the question you notice the person’s eyes starting to wander or droop? Not every company can make money by doing something which the world perceives as “fun,” so unless you’re a chocolatier, dog walker, or big-time video game designer, your work may not seem glamorous to a stranger.
However, a skillfully-produced corporate video can address this issue by fleshing out the important products and services that you provide. And it can do so in a way that grabs a viewer’s attention and explains your company’s processes and principles in an easy-to-understand format. Once your audience has a better grasp of what your company is all about, they’ll undoubtedly like you more.
Show Off Your Likeable Colleagues
Another way to improve your company’s likeability quotient is to showcase its most likeable team members. If your CEO is an entrepreneur with loads of charisma, he can project his personality to viewers as he talks about the company on camera. Also, you can invite your most energetic, photogenic, and jocular employees to share their experiences and extoll the virtues of their workplace and corporate mission.
Think about it: the average person is more likely to remember a friendly face instead of a collection of facts, data, or core competencies. In other words, chances are audiences won’t recall a company’s net worth, positioning statement, or recent accomplishments after watching your corporate video. But they probably will remember the smiling face of the marketing manager who started with the company five years ago as a salesperson and worked her way up through the ranks.
Tell the Audience a Story
This brings us to the next benefit provided by a corporate video: the ability to tell the story of your company. Almost everyone prefers to hear a captivating story about a company’s origin, growth, or purpose as opposed to a litany of bullet points about profits, competitive advantages, and growth projections. And if viewers are drawn in by your story, the odds are greater that they will like your company as well.
Perhaps your video could describe how the company began, especially if it grew out of an entrepreneurial vision or a commitment by its founders to improve on an existing idea. Or the story could revolve around the process by which the company completes a typical project or services its clients. Moreover, the video could include one or more testimonials from customers who can relate to the audience the story of how the company helped them or solved their problem.
Portray the Human Side of Your Employees
While many corporate videos outline the various facets of the company and its products or services, some of them go against the grain and instead portray the employees in situations which may not be directly work-related. A common approach is to highlight a company culture that is creative, laid-back, and fun. This tactic is effective for corporate videos which will be used for talent recruitment.
These types of videos can also accentuate the charitable side of the company. If its employees get together to volunteer for a good cause periodically or around the holidays, showcasing their endeavors to viewers can make the company more likeable. The same goes for the corporate sponsorship of a charity or the individual efforts of employees to help their community (such as through mentoring or working with area children).
Become “Liked” in the Digital Space
Using corporate video to improve a company’s likeability doesn’t end with winning over people. These videos can be an essential tool in garnering favor with web crawlers and Internet browsers as well. Whereas corporate videos in the 20th century could only be watched on VCRs or DVD players in offices or at trade shows, modern videos can be embedded on a web page and viewed by anyone with a computer or mobile device.
When employed as part of a well-planned digital marketing strategy, a corporate video can boost a company’s page rankings and bolster its SEO results by making the company more “liked” by search engines such as Google and Bing. As a result, the company’s website(s) will get more traffic which will hopefully lead to more customers and/or increased revenues.
Get “Likes” on Social Media
Similarly, your company’s digital marketing plan can leverage your corporate video (or a series of these videos) by displaying them on various social media sites. If your followers or online friends feel that the content of these videos is useful and/or entertaining, they might click their “Like” buttons or even share it with their social networks.
This organic distribution of your video will also catch the eye of web search engines. Because Google places a heavy emphasis on video when establishing its rankings, it will weight your corporate video more heavily if it is passed around the Internet by others – especially if it happens to go viral.
Let the Pros Help
Because of its potential impact on your company’s likeability, the assembly of a corporate video shouldn’t be left to amateurs. An experienced video production company not only will give the finished product the professional look it needs, but they also have the expertise to help craft and hone your intended message as well as the skills to create imagery that will effectively disseminate this message to your audience. And considering the enormous power that likeability can wield when a customer is choosing a business to partner with, entrusting your video to a production company is well worth the investment.
Need to boost your company’s likeability? Contact us today and let us show you how we can help.
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