Corporate videos are high-quality videos produced to share a company’s story, talk about a product or service, communicate key messages and updates, and help build trust by connecting the dots from past success to the future vision. Corporate videos most typically are used to build awareness and attraction to a business. Recently, corporate videos have been increasingly used to recruit employees, engage the current workforce, and build a more emotional connection to the brand overall.
Many purchases are being made online, and most decision making research has moved online. An effective video featuring an executive talking about your business will drive more traffic and engagement; a corporate video is the best way to showcase your brand. Google ranks websites on top, which are liked and shared more by visitors, adding videos to a website makes it more SEO friendly. Even better, adding video to your landing pages has been shown to increase conversion rate by as much as 80%.
Showcasing your CEO and executive leaders in corporate videos helps put a face with the brand. The CEO and executive leaders can authentically share vision, mission, and values firsthand with an engaging brand voice in an engaging, effective top-down communication process. Using executives in video also allows your company to build brand trust and leverage your executives in order to organically grow your brand presence.
Here are a few ways you can feature executives in your video content.
1. Company Vision Videos
Company vision and brand story videos are some of the longest standing forms of corporate videos. It’s only natural for your CEO and executive team to share their vision given they know best how the company is approaching growth and where the company is headed in the future. With a company vision video, your CEO plays their role perfectly by sharing the vision while building brand transparency and bring a personal touch.
2. Culture Videos
For many companies, human capital is the most important and valuable asset. Hopefully your executives have committed precious time to building your company’s culture. Give them the platform to talk about the culture and what some of the company’s values are – not only will the outside world appreciate what you’ve built, but your company’s employees will also appreciate the transparency.
3. Internal Communications
Workers look to company executives for high-level leadership. According to a Ketchum survey, 74% of employees consider effective communication from executives to be highly important. Great executive leaders are clear and consistent in their messaging and understand the value of regularly connecting with employees. With internal communication videos (which can be featured at events and in newsletters, broadcast live, or available on demand), executives can give real-time pulse updates on what’s happening with the business to keep employees engaged and up-to-date.
4. Industry Trends
For executives that are building their presence in the markets, they can use industry trend videos to share their expert perspectives and demonstrate they are on the cutting edge of the industry. It takes timely and thoughtful consideration to know just the right trend, with enough of a provocative perspective to get attention. If your executive can do so, both your brand and executive will gain credibility and engagement.
5. Thought Leadership Videos
More broadly than industry trend videos, thought leadership videos offer an educational perspective on a new idea. Your CEO, executive leaders, or industry experts can share a high level overview of a topic or issue, mixing in some practical advice and tips. The most popular and effective thought leadership videos engage communities, inspire action and challenge others to question the status quo. Thought leadership videos are an effective way to engage your community while making your voice stand out as a leader in your industry.
Summing up that corporate videos can have a mix of internal and external audiences. From an internal perspective, in today’s work environment with remote employees, it’s more difficult than ever to cultivate and maintain a solid culture and communicate well with employees. In a big organization, video can be a very effective tool for internal communications, with executives using video to communicate company values, company updates, or just to connect on a more personal level.
From an external perspective, executives, and especially B2B leaders are increasingly extending their presence beyond their website to LinkedIn and YouTube. What’s most common is starting with 1 or a few videos to get a comfort level of content, style, and voice. From there, many executives lean into the power of video for larger initiatives. For some inspiration and bigger ideas of what’s possible, sharing examples of executives who have taken their video content to the next level.
Alex Lieberman, Co-Founder, Morning Brew
On his personal LinkedIn page where he has over 100,000 followers, the Morning Brew Co-Founder has built quite a brand for himself, thanks in large part to his use and embrace of video.
Recently, he has started a new video series on LinkedIn titled “60 Second Startup,” in which he interviews founders and entrepreneurs and asks them to give a minute-long pitch for why investors should consider funding their business. It’s quick-hitting, engaging, and informative.
Susan Wojciki, CEO, YouTube
Is it any surprise that the CEO of YouTube has championed video use for her own brand? Wojciki uses her own YouTube profile to address creators directly with her series, “Creator Letter Videos,” as she updates users on new ways that creators can leverage the platform to make money, to create better content, or grow a following. And though she’s posting on her personal account, this video content is applicable to all YouTube users, ultimately helping the brand presence, as well.
Bill and Melinda Gates
Bill and Melinda Gates have both built a LinkedIn presence largely through their use of native video on the platform. They post anything from book recommendations to updates on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. If you’re an executive looking for a unique way to use video content to grow your brand, consider following the Gates’ lead.
There’s no right or wrong way to feature video content as an executive. These three aforementioned executives are all using video in different ways that fit in with their personal and professional brands. Apply that lesson to your company’s executives as well: develop ideas that fit their leadership styles and take the time to produce high-quality video.