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The Importance of Internal Videos

By August 9, 2017 August 14th, 2017 Video

Over the past few years, video has been the ever-increasing form of digital media. Content ranging from news articles to a simple blog post about, let’s say, The Importance of Using Coconut Oil all seem to contain one visually intriguing aspect: video. We, the public, have had the amazing opportunity to learn by reading about anything and everything since the printing press in 1440 and especially since we gained access to the world wide web in 1991 (Emspak & Zimmerman). We’ve consumed that knowledge and used it to the best of our abilities in classrooms or perhaps just for pleasure in a public library. Now we can have that information  just about fed to us. All we need to do is sit lifelessly in front of a screen, watch, and listen. How great is that?

Inc. put what I’m saying into statistics. They explained, embedding a video in a landing page has the ability to increase conversion rates by 80%. For businesses, that is huge. Also, placing a video in marketing email campaigns can increase click-through rates by 200-300%. Imagine how that could aid a struggling business. Lastly, by 2019, video is believed to obtain more than 80% of web traffic. WHAT. I cannot fathom what video being 80% of all web traffic would look like. Anywho, I’m not here to talk to you about how video has increased and conclusively changed the game, not just with online marketing, but with the Internet in general. I want to explain how internal videos have affected Clix employee interactions, potential hires and prospecting clients.

To start things off, I am going to give you a bit of history about myself. I started working at Clix almost a year ago and it is my first ‘real’ job out of school. I’ve had internships in which I was working alongside a team, but nothing to this manner. To get the video ball rolling in my new position, we decided to do a boatload of internal videos. In only four weeks, we created 46 videos. That averages to 2.3 videos a day. The projects ranged from MySpace surveys that the team completed to FAQs about what goes on at Clix. Not to mention the short series in which our CEO broke down the importance of all things digital marketing. You could say that helped me get to know the team very well. SO, if that helped me understand the people I’m working with and the company I’m working for, imagine how it would influence an outsider– or even an insider.

A lot of our videos are humorous and that alone has increased the interaction of our employees. We were able to see and interact with everyone’s lighthearted and fun side. Work is work, but there’s also an opportunity to have productive, yet fun time with video. Take this Beauty and the Beast remake trailer. We made this when the new Beauty and the Beast was about to be released in theatres and, therefore, it was trending on social media. To make Clix prominent, the social media manager, Blake, and I decided to edit our employees into the new trailer. Here’s the result:

The video is short, entertaining and everyone had a great time filming. It gained traffic for Clix’s instagram account and besides being flagged on YouTube for copyright laws (oops), it was a huge success. The internal videos give those of us who work at Clix a second to laugh with the people who we debatably spend most of our time with. These are the people we learn to love, and to be able to laugh with them is something we cannot take for granted.

As for outside parties looking at our website, the videos provide a similar experience. Since working here, one of the best bits of feedback I received was from our CEO Jason. He explained that because of the videos, his friends knew Clix. To provide insight into how our company operates and interacts is a huge benefit– not to mention, what this does for potential employees. Since January, Clix has hired four new employees. I asked each of these individuals if the internal videos on our website / YouTube channel influenced their decision to join Clix and all of them agreed they did. Our new digital strategist even went as far to say that the videos swayed him to sign the offer letter. It’s difficult to say if we would still have these individuals without the videos, but that resounding “yes” from the new employees shows how powerful and influential internal videos can be. Ultimately, it can attract the kind of employee you are looking for and, therefore, decipher the business between good and great.

Potential clients also absorb the content a company puts out, whether it is professional or not. Though some of Clix’s clients have never met the team in person, they simply need to go to our YouTube or Facebook to encounter all of us and our personalities. We are no longer just a marketing team that relays information in quarterly meetings, discovering new ways to make your business grow and to aid your online presence. Well, we are, but we also are the people who say corny pickup lines on Valentine’s Day; we are the team that makes a video regarding the broken soap dispenser in the men’s room because it scarred all the males in the office, and we are the employees that have hobbies, and we want to share those with you. We are not all data and analytics, and we feel it is important to have that outlet. Though this all seems well and dandy, there are a couple of things to look out for regarding internal videos.

If clients see videos that have nothing to do with marketing or campaigns during the work hours, they may believe we are not using our time (and their money) to the best of our abilities. To aid this, we do our best for the videos to take the least amount of time and to link the content to marketing in one way or another. Though the Clix culture is fun and the employees here would say that the best part of working here is the people, there certainly are quiet days. It is not a party all the time and things do get serious, which is why throwing an educational video into the mix is beneficial so that potential employees know what to expect when coming to Clix.

To sum things up, internal videos are vitally important for the office atmosphere as it provides an outlet for the team to bond, it draws in potential employees that will mix well with the company, and it also builds and maintains relationships with clients. They say ‘a picture is worth a thousand words,’ well a video is essentially hundreds (if not thousands) of pictures sequenced together. The power and influence is undeniable and will do nothing but help your goal, your business, and your future.