Ask an executive what role video plays in his or her organization, and I’ll bet you anything the answer is “marketing.” While this is true, it misses the big picture. Most video strategies do start in the marketing department, and marketing videos tend to be the most visible. They’re the ones on our home pages and YouTube channels, embedded in blogs and sent in emails. There is no doubt marketing videos are important, but I will also bet that videos are already being produced and used in virtually every other business unit in your company. And if they’re not, they should be.
The same benefits of video used to attract and engage prospects work for customers and employees, too. This isn’t news; it’s why companies use video to record internal all-hands meetings, run customer-focused webinars and train employees. What most organizations lack isn’t the understanding that video is effective or even the resources to use it across the company. It’s the holistic vision that hooks all of the strategies and tactics together for economies of scale and maximum business impact.
That sounds pretty lofty. But a business-wide video program doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It just applies the same principles used by marketers to new use cases and audiences. Here’s what that might look like for each of your teams:
Internal Communications
You probably already record important internal events, such as town halls or executive all-hands. But do you know who’s watching, for how long, and how your message is resonating? What happens to the video after the presentation? Let me guess: it gets put out to pasture on an intranet site, never to be seen again.
The goal here is engagement. Your employees are busy. They don’t have time to hunt down content on the intranet or stop their work in the middle of the day to click a link buried in an email. Embed your video directly and point to a branded player to increase interest and viewership. Then use video analytics to see how many people watched; if, when, and where they dropped off; and which specific employees did and did not see the presentation.
Each of these data points provides insight into the adoption of the organizational message. That means you can better understand, and build on, what’s most meaningful to your employees.
Human Resources
The possibilities for video within HR are almost endless. Create personalized recruiting videos that show candidates their name on a mug branded with your company logo. Onboard new employees efficiently and effectively with new-hire video content (goodbye, boring slide decks.) Build employee training modules that are actually interesting and helpful, not a chore, and track who watched them, when, and for how long. Offer online certification programs with built-in action items and completion data – no module skipping allowed. It’s cliché, but true: your people really are your best assets. Keep them up to speed and engaged with content that confirms why your company is so great.
Support
Showing is always better than telling, right? Empower your support team to produce and share video content that answers common questions, walks users through tricky tasks or demonstrates how to perform core functionality. Instead of answering ticket after ticket, support team members can simply send over the video. Your support team gets notified when users watch, if and when they stop watching, and it all gets automatically logged in your support system. If the user calls back and you can see they only watched 5% of the video, send it over again.
More impromptu video can play a great role here, too. If a user submits a more unique question that would be best answered visually, your support resource can simply record a quick screengrab to help resolve the issue.
Sales
As a cousin of marketing, your sales team likely uses video already. But video’s potential to speed up the sales cycle goes way beyond canned demos:
- Connect your video program to your CRM so inside sales teams can send the most relevant videos to prospects, then see who watches and for how long in order to identify the hottest leads.
- Get notified when potential customers open videos within an email, so you know exactly when to follow up and what to talk about.
- Use personalized video to bring viewers into the content and get higher click-through rates.
- Add calls-to-action directly into videos, so leads can contact you while they’re actively engaged.
- Tap into video analytics to see where prospects dropped off or rewatched to better understand what’s interesting and where you lost their attention.
Video’s ability to connect with people both emotionally and intellectually makes it incredibly useful to almost everyone in your business. If you approach it in a centralized way, leveraging similar capabilities and strategies for different use cases, it can also be scalable and efficient. Video marketing is powerful. It’s time to share the wealth.
Contributor
Michael Litt is CEO and co-founder of Vidyard.
