CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS: 8 problems solved by VIDEO
Good communication is vital to a successful company. But the traditional ways that corporations communicate with employees, partners and clients are inflexible, uninspiring and riddled with issues.
So what’s a good alternative? 77% of communications professionals use video as an internal communications tool. And it gets results. A recent survey indicated that 80% of enterprises say video improves internal communication.
In this article, we cover 8 key corporate communications problems and how video can act as a solution to each one.
how are companies using corporate communications video?
Last year, the IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) published a report titled ‘The State of Video in Corporate Communication in 2020,’ detailing how communications professionals plan to use video. Take a look at the chart below for a breakdown of the different ways companies are using video as a communications tool.
Clearly, corporate communications video has a range of potential uses. They can engage employees, teams, partners, clients and job-seekers at all levels. They can also replace traditional communication tools such as emails, presentations, meetings, documents, reports, articles and more.
Want more insight into what corporate communications video is and how it works? Check out our 2021 Corporate Communications reel.
solving corporate communications problems with video:
problem 1: unengaging communication
It can be easy for workers to become fatigued by corporate emails, reports, articles, documents and other dry content.
When happens when your audience isn’t compelled to pay attention to the information and messaging your company is sending them? You don’t want to waste your time writing a message no one will read. Neither do you want to spend significant amounts of time catching people up with the information they’ve missed. And if people remain unaware of important updates and changes, more significant problems can arise.
SOLUTION: communicate with video
So how can you best share information to make sure people don’t just ignore it? According to Forrester Research, employees are 75% more likely to watch a video than to read documents, emails or web articles.
You can also combine more traditional forms of information with video to make people more likely to click on it:
- EMAIL: incorporating video can increase open rates by 19% and click rates by 65%
- WEB PAGES: the average web user spends 88% more time on a web page that has a video (Oberlo)
problem 2: low retention rates
Another issue with corporate communication is information retention. How can you make sure that your employees or clients take in and remember your message?
Well, generally, people won’t. Most of the ways businesses communicate are not suited to the human memory – which is frustratingly fickle. For instance, the average employee forgets 65% of the material covered in a training session within a week.
Written text is terrible for this. In fact, people tend to only retain 10% of the information they receive when reading text.
SOLUTION: video is memorable
So how can you memorably communicate important information? Interestingly, when people receive information from watching a video, they remember 95% of it – an increase of 85% over text.
problem 3: recruiting & onboarding new employees
How does your company currently approach recruitment and onboarding? For the foreseeable future. virtual recruitment and onboarding seem here to stay. A recent report compiled by Vimeo and GlobalWebIndex found that 35% of HR professionals face significant hurdles with training and onboarding employees virtually. How can companies get past these hurdles?
SOLUTION: use video as a recruitment & onboarding tool
When it comes to recruitment, high-tech companies are more likely to impress and attract job-seekers. Take a look at the above recruitment video we made for Skynamo for an example.
Video also ensures a consistent onboarding process for all new employees. No need to worry whether one new hire has received different information from another.
problem 4: the way we work is changing.
In general, expecting your entire team to meet in person for work is becoming more and more unrealistic.
Even before the pandemic, 70% of people globally said they worked remotely at least once a week. And 87% of professionals said that they believe flexible working helps their business to stay productive.
Following the pandemic, over 97% of workers want to work remotely at least part of the time for the rest of their careers.
SOLUTION: video can future-proof your company
How can you ensure your company is ready for these changes? Using video is a great way to modernise your business, and show people you know how to adapt.
Employees at video-forward companies were over 70% more likely to say their company was ready to face the future of work. And don’t we all want our employees to be confident in the adaptability of our companies?
PROBLEM 5: MULTIPLE TIME ZONES/WORK HOURS
Remote working is one issue. Trying to work collaboratively with people in different time zones is a trickier problem. Sharing information becomes more complicated when you don’t have the option to all talk at the same time. But it’s an issue a lot of teams face. 74% of workers say that people on their immediate team are in multiple time zones.
SOLUTION: asynchronous communication with video
Asynchronous communication is when a team can communicate and collaborate without being ‘present’ at the same moment in time. 70% of remote workers said that their companies encouraged asynchronous communication. So rather than struggling to align different time zones and schedules, people in your company can communicate important information through videos that can be watched at any time. These could be recordings of video calls and meetings, training videos, demonstrations, announcement videos and more.
problem 6. employees lack motivation & inspiration
Having a clear company mission, vision and values can help to motivate employees and connect people to the work that your company is doing. But for this to work, you have to communicate these missions, visions and values effectively.
According to the Harvard Business Review, only 40% of employees know anything about their organisation’s strategy and objectives. It’s no wonder that many millennials and Gen Z workers are sceptical about the positive impact of the companies they work for. And this scepticism can affect job loyalty. In 2020, 44% of Millennials and 49% of Gen Zs made choices over the type of work they are willing to do and who they would work for based on personal ethics and values.
SOLUTION: communicate your mission & values with video
Video is a great way to raise awareness and rally your team around your company’s mission or values. Additionally, you can share them with (potential and existing) partners, clients and recruits. Check out the mission video we made for Bloomfield Sustainable Solutions.
PROBLEM 7: employee loneliness
Employee wellbeing has become more and more of a talking point following the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, loneliness has long been regarded as one of the biggest issues with working remotely. In Buffer’s 2021 State of Remote Work Report, loneliness was one of the biggest struggles selected by remote workers. (Only behind issues with unplugging and difficulties with collaboration).
SOLUTION: personalise your communication with video
Video is a great way to make employees, coworkers, partners and clients feel more connected to each other and to the company. Being able to see and hear another person feels considerably more personal and encouraging than receiving an email or message. It also creates a sense of authenticity and helps to build trust in your company.
problem 8: too much guesswork in communication strategy
A lot of effort and resources go into communication strategies. So it’s important to know whether your efforts are working. But chances are, you don’t know. With traditional corporate communication mediums like text and PowerPoint presentations, there are no ways to track what is working, what isn’t, and just how much you are engaging your audience.
SOLUTION: inform your communications strategy with video analytics
With video, it becomes easier to measure and prove the impact of your company’s corporate communications efforts. Using detailed video analytics, you can find out which videos are getting the most engagement. The exact metrics available to you will depend on how and where you choose to host your videos. But typical metrics include total video views, total reach, average engagement, clicks and audience retention.
From this insight, you can understand what parts of your strategy are working, and where you might need to adjust your approach or content.
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