We’ve all heard how video is the next big thing in business. It’s actually no longer the next big thing, it is THE thing. More and more companies are using corporate training videos to get their message across either within or outside of their companies. While you may think, “Well, isn’t that just commercials?” or “Yeah, but I’m no Spielberg.” There are many ways a corporate training video production can help your business.

A corporate training video production creates what is known as a corporate training video, also known as corporate video or business video. Whatever you call them, they can take on many forms and many uses. Business video is more than just a medium to showcase a new product, and it’s come a long way from the cheesy corporate videos of the 80’s and 90’s that you may have had the cringe-worthy opportunity to see. It can also be used to deliver timely messages to staff, train employees and leadership, and of course, tell a compelling story about you and your business.

More information is consumed by video now than ever before: It would take an individual more than 5 million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks each month in 2021. Not to mention that over 50% of internet users looked for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. A major worry for many businesses is that they don’t have the budget or time to engage a video production company. While it may seem like a large cost, a high-quality training video production can actually wind up saving you money.

Even with that in mind many still ask, “Why work with a corporate training video production company?”

In this article we will provide the information you need to help answer that question. Let’s take a look at few different types of corporate videos that are used by businesses just like yours, and why they are a better alternative than doing things the old fashioned way.

 

Safety Training Videos

Some workplaces can be more hazardous than others. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2015 there were 2.9 million workplace injuries in the United States. In this area of workforce engagement,  a safety video can save people from injury and hopefully save lives. Instead of a job aid or manual on safety, which usually are not captivating page-turners, a video or series of videos will draw your employees attention to a specific hazard(s) in a much more compelling way.

An airline that understands the power of video is Virgin America Airlines. Instead of having the flight attendants go through the monotony of repeating safety regulations, they created a music video that plays automatically as you are preparing for take-off. This allows the attendants to do other tasks in preparation for the flight. Whether it’s a slick music video or a narrated piece on safety, a video will enhance the viewer’s experience and retention, and can ultimately keep them from becoming a statistic.

 

Employee Training Videos

Let’s say your company just revised a specific policy or a process. You could opt for the webinar as a means of getting the message out. However, you would need to make sure everyone’s schedule is aligned, send out the information for the webinar, create content and a script, pay for the webinar, make sure everyone can access the webinar, facilitate the webinar, and hope attendees aren’t checking their emails instead of listening. For those who missed the webinar due to scheduling conflicts, have the recording available, because listening to a webinar recording is exciting, right? The other option is to do it all over again for a makeup session.

While webinars can seem like an easy way to get people together who have limited time and attention spans, they actually may cost just as much or more in time and resources than a corporate training video production.

Think of the time that went into the planning and execution, and yet you still don’t know if you had the intended impact on your audience because virtually nothing about webinars is engaging. When was the last time you said “I can’t wait to attend another webinar”?

The great thing about video is that it can be viewed by staff or your customers at the time that is most convenient for them. Once the video is available for viewing, there’s nothing more you have to do except take the credit for being a go-getter and saving your company money.

Change is a part of any business, big or small. Whenever a change occurs you want a way to quickly get that information out to staff and leadership. Microsoft found when it used video for training purposes it cut its training budget from $320 per employee to $17. 

When you partner with a video training production company, you tap into professionals with experience in film and video production. An experienced production team will know how to get the most out of your time and budget to make sure your employees and leaders are well informed of any changes and your new employees hit the ground running.

 

Business Training Videos

Video for soft skills such as sales, customer interaction, and company culture are also excellent ways of reaching your audience. In sales, an email that includes the word “video” in the subject line can get 7%-13% higher click-thru rates according to Experian. Sales and customer service representatives can even use video in email greetings to their customers. This delivers a more personalized message to your customer and allows them to connect better with you and your brand. When it comes to acquiring and keeping customers, don’t leave it up to email or newsletters alone. Connect to your customers through video.

When we make a business video for you, we make sure we keep you and your customers in mind. We have experience in script writing for businesses that make whatever message they are trying to convey as easy as possible for viewers to understand without losing its impact.

 

Educational Video Production

When most people think of a corporate video, they think of live action and seeing people, places and things move across the screen. However, there is a form of corporate training video production where there are no people on screen and no locations to shoot. These are software demo videos and/or screencasting videos. These types of videos can be considered the “how-to” videos of corporate training and customer facing videos.

Let’s say a process you wish to show only exists in a digital space like a computer program or the inner workings of a product that would be impossible to film. The educational video is perfect for employees, vendors, and consumers to help them understand this type of process.

For example, you can teach employees how to submit notes within a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) program. This type of video actually records or simulates a process within the program that will engage and educate your employees and allow them to watch it as many times as they wish as a refresher. On the customer side, you may get a lot of questions on how a certain feature works on your website or your product. Instead of posting an FAQ where you have to dig for the solution, show your customers the solution in a way that is more dynamic than just text on a page.

The next time you need to demonstrate a process or help your customers navigate your product, we can help you make it a smoother process for you and your viewers in a way that draws them in with a training video production.

 

Management Training Video Production

Corporate video is also a great way to help train and develop your leadership team. Leadership teams, from the CEO to VP’s, Managers and Supervisors, need just as much training and development as anyone else in the company. The person to whom the employee directly reports plays a pivotal role. Direct managers and supervisors are the most important part of the training process for their employees because they hold employees accountable for their performance. Video can make training engaging to your leadership team so in turn they are engaged and understand the concepts that are being taught to field any questions from their teams or departments. Poor or unengaging leadership training leads to poor and unengaged leaders, which causes a loss in productivity and in employee morale.

We understand that sometimes leadership teams seem not to have time for training, but video can make training easily accessible from anywhere. Classroom training, conference calls, and webinars take more time away from your day than watching a business video. Let us put the work in for you in creating the video that is right for your leadership team and will motivate them to be a force that develops talent within your business.

Now that you have learned about a few of the video types that can be created, let’s answer some common questions that we often hear when working with new clients.

“Can’t I just create my own training videos?”

The short answer is yes, but should you create your own videos? The internet is a treasure trove of ideas and information on how to make videos. We all carry a perfectly good video camera with us at all times in the form of our smart phones. However, just because a camera is good, doesn’t mean that anyone can make a quality corporate video.  A quick self-shot internal video for minor updates and announcements can be a good alternative to the company newsletter. Some CEOs do self-shot weekly videos on their phones, keeping everyone up-to-date on the current status of the company and that’s perfectly acceptable, as long as it is meant for quick internal consumption where no call to action or behavioral change is needed.

If you’re looking to go beyond that short self-shot video on your own, there are some questions you will want to consider before even picking up a camera and saying “Action!”

Who will be on camera?

Who you choose to represent you on camera is critical. They should have a great on-camera presence and good direction on how to deliver their lines.

How many will be on camera?

The number of people on camera will change the entire dynamic of a shoot. Even adding one more person into the shot may require a different set-up or different angles, lighting, and sound recording. Not being prepared for the number of people on screen can cause issues and delays during filming.

Who is going to write the script?

On the surface, script writing can seem simple. But when you actually try to write a script that sounds like a real conversation, it’s pretty tough. That’s because we don’t think of how we talk, we just do it. Trying to capture and think how we talk will sometimes have the opposite effect intended, and the script will come out sounding robotic or too clunky for someone to recite easily on camera.

How will we capture the sound?

If there is dialogue or a narrator in your video, you have to have a way to capture the sound. Your cell phone can record decent sound, but that leaves much to be desired. Good sound is one of the tell-tale signs of a quality video. When you are talking to a friend on your cell phone, if the reception is bad and cuts out, you’ll have to focus really hard to understand what they are saying. Chances are you won’t enjoy the conversation. The same goes for business video.

What type of camera, and how many cameras will we use?

You could go with your cell phone to film a video, but it does have its limitations. You could use a DSLR, but that may prove too complicated. If you do settle on a camera, you still need to decide how many you will need. You will also need to determine if you will have B-roll, and understand camera placement and angles that can bump up the visual factors.

How will the training video be lit?

Bad lighting, unlike bad sound, can be a forgivable offense for video, however no one will be requesting an encore. Before even picking what light you will use from the myriad of lighting options available you have to consider color, temperature and not to mention budget and time to mount them without blinding your on-camera talent.

How long is the training video going to be?

Video length is also something you must consider. Too long and you lose your audience, too short and you leave your audience feeling confused. A script in its proper format will equal about one page per minute of screen time. The video must convey the message at just the right speed to capture the proper engagement.

What is the message of the training video?

The message of the video, or the “point” of it must be very clear. If not, your audience will be wondering what just happened. This process doesn’t begin during filming or production, it begins at the scripting stage, however once on camera and being read aloud, you may need to make adjustments on the fly to keep your message coherent.

Who will edit the training video production?

Editing is an art form unto itself. You can capture the best images, best sound, and best lighting, but if a video is not edited correctly, ouch! Continuity, syncing sound with the movement of mouth, color correction, and even deciding when and where to cut are all issues an editor deals with. It can be a very tedious process and usually takes a good amount of time.

How will we edit the training video production?

There are a few free editing software and apps around, but a vast majority are very limited or have what are known as “watermarks” on them. Watermarks are small translucent logos of the company that will appear on your video. Some smart phones do come with editing capabilities, but those too are very limited. You could buy editing software, which can cost $100 for entry level software all the way up to hundreds of dollars for top of the line software, and then you would need to learn how to use it.

Will there be music in the training video production?

This is a very important question because while images and dialogue can give your video some life, music will give it it’s heart. The music you choose for your training video has to fit the emotion or feeling you are trying to convey. Picking the wrong song or playing it too loud or too softly in your video will become an unwanted distraction.

Where do we obtain music for the training video legally?

You can’t just download your favorite song and slap it onto your video. There are copyright laws and if broken, they can be very expensive. You can buy licenses for songs that are not as well known, but expect to pay quite a bit to use them legally. There are sites that offer “free” songs, but their license and usage restrictions can be a bit confusing as to when and where you can use them. Unless you know for a fact you own the song or paid for its use, you probably shouldn’t use it.

At the end of the training video, what do we expect the viewer to do?

This basic question must be answered before you begin the entire business video production process. Is it a call to action, a change in behavior or avoidance of a certain behavior? Is the viewer supposed to feel inspired, sad, or empowered at the end of this video? What do you want them to do with the information I just learned?

Unless you are 100% sure of how to answer each of those questions and understand the language of visual communication through video, then you need someone in your corner who can guide you through this whole process. Video can seem like a scary thing, but it doesn’t have to be. We are here to make the process as seamless, pain-free and fun as possible.

We started by asking the question, “why work with a corporate training video production company?” and as you have read the reasons are many.  Corporate videos are rearranging the landscape of business. In the end, the question is, are you or your company willing to make that change? If so, we are here to support you throughout the entire process.