It’s true that video is one of the best tools for achieving your internal communications goals. However, it’s also true that you’ll get better results if you make better videos.
Fortunately, making great internal comms videos isn’t rocket science. It’s just a matter of applying a few tips and tricks during your video-creation process.
We’ve packaged up our top-ten insider tips to help you make an impact with your internal communication videos.
1. Split your internal communication goals into manageable video topics
The first order of business is to take a good look at your internal communication goals and then identify several small, manageable topics to go with each goal. This enables you to address a single, focused point in each video.
It may be tempting to include multiple points in each video. But this causes your videos to be meandering and difficult to follow.
Trying to cover too much in a video also makes it rather long. This diminishes your video’s value for internal communication, because it can be difficult to watch longer videos during work.
When you have several topics to cover, make a separate video for each topic to create snackable, self-service video resources that employees can watch whenever they have a few minutes to spare.
2. Work from a template
If you’re new to video making, it’s hard to know where to start. What do you include in your video? How do you pace it out? How do you layer the story so it flows well?
That’s why it’s wise to work from a template. All of the templates in Biteable Teams are customizable. Use a template as inspiration or as your foundation, then change it up as little or as much as you like or build it out by adding in some brandable scenes.
This gives you all the benefits of working from a template, with plenty of room for creativity.
Learn more
Choosing the right Biteable Teams template for your next video. Read more in our guide below.
3. Build a logical video structure
The goal here is to create a video that moves sensibly through a topic. However, your approach will vary slightly based on the topic of your video.
Every video should approach its central topic through the classical structure with a beginning, middle, and end.
For most videos, here’s what this structure looks like:
- Beginning: An intro scene with video title and your logo; then a short scene introducing the video topic.
- Middle: Deliver the central idea.
- End: Wrap up with a brief recap of main ideas; end with a call-to-action.
For videos covering larger topics, you’ll need to take more time and flesh out the middle section — or “peel the onion” as it were.
By peeling the onion, we mean starting with the broad, high-level information about the topic, then getting progressively more detailed as you move along.
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4. Be intentional with your color combinations
This is an area of video creation that gets very little attention. As long as the colors are on-brand and look good, everything is fine, right?
Yes, but not as fine as they could be.
Your internal comms videos will improve if you’re a little more intentional about your color combos. What we mean by this is that you can use your color combinations to influence the style of your videos.
The first step is to make sure you have all six of your color combinations set up in your Biteable Teams brand. That way you have as much flexibility as possible, without overwhelming anyone with options.
Then use the style tab to see an overview of your video scenes and deploy those color combinations based on the tone of your video.
- For exciting, fun videos: Use a lot of variation in your color combinations.
- For serious topics or a more professional feel: Use combos in a more repetitive way.
Learn more
How to use the style tab in Biteable Teams and a quick way to edit multiple scenes. Read more below.
5. Use language that works for your audience
If you’re an internal communication professional, you already know one of the biggest challenges in communication is that people tend to use language they understand, but that may not work well for their audience.
The key to solving this problem in video communication is similar to how you solve it for written communication.
First, identify your primary audience. Who is your video for? Is it for leadership or for rank-and-file employees? Is it for everyone at your company or for a single department? Does this department use specific terminology?
Think of it as creating a video for a specific person in your target audience, Then tailor the language to ensure that person will understand everything in your video. Obviously, some viewers will find the language too simple. But that’s because the video is for people who aren’t as familiar with the topic.
No video can be perfect for everyone. It’s much better to create a video that feels too simple for some people than a video that’s confusing for people who need to understand the content.
6. Reinforce your message with matching visuals
Just like every video has a central focus, each scene also has a primary piece of information. Your videos are more engaging when the visuals reinforce the information in the scene.
For example, if you have a scene that presents a single data point, use visuals that draw attention to the numbers. This helps viewers collect and process the information quickly. Likewise, scenes with animated characters are ideal for describing actions.
The brandable scenes in Biteable are categorized to help you quickly find visuals that match your message:
- Title scenes for video intros.
- Text scenes for info that’s tough to visualize or for adding details to an idea.
- Number scenes for presenting big data points.
- Media scenes for adding a human touch with stock images and video clips.
- Logo scenes to brand your videos.
- Background scenes for the same purpose as text scenes, but with a background to further reinforce the theme.
- Icon scenes for adding visuals to ideas.
- Word scenes for reinforcing a big main idea or theme.
- Character scenes for describing actions or ideas that can be represented by people doing things.
As you can see from the categories, there are ways to support most information with imagery, animations, or video footage. And you’ll get the best results from video if you leverage the combined power of text, visuals, and sound.
7. Keep videos as short as possible
This video best practice is very often misunderstood. People usually think it means that every video needs to be super short.
Yes, it’s wise to establish guidelines for how long videos should be. However, every video still needs to be long enough to adequately cover the topic at hand.
Shortening the video isn’t quite the right goal, because you never want to cut important information just to keep runtime in check.
The best way to keep your videos as short as possible is to limit the scale of the topics you cover and to cover those topics as efficiently as possible. If your topic is too large, break it up into subtopics and create a series of videos instead.
All of that being said, it’s a good idea to set rough parameters for maximum video lengths, especially if multiple people on your team will be making videos. These guidelines can be flexible, but they set a general standard and prompt people to break up their ideas into more manageable chunks.
8. Be mindful of diversity
Representation is important in internal comms videos. People are more likely to engage with your message if they feel seen, heard, and represented.
Brandable scenes in Biteable Teams are hands-down the easiest way to represent the diversity of your team without the headache of shooting footage or slogging through stock photos.
The scenes library has plenty of brandable character scenes that are designed with diversity in mind. For many of these scenes, you can even change the characters’ hair and skin colors to best fit your team.
9. Include a call-to-action
This might be taking a page out of the marketing playbook. But it works. Every internal comms message has an ideal follow-up action. Asking viewers point blank to take that action is the best way to get it done.
It’s easy to add a call-to-action to your videos without feeling pushy or aggressive. Just add a clickable link with a handful of words that clearly state what to do next.
“Read the full report” works perfectly for a report companion video. “Click to RSVP” is all you need for an event announcement video. Leave the clickable link on screen for five to ten seconds and your call-to-action is good to go.
Learn more
How to add a call-to-action button to your videos. Read more in our guide below.
10. Keep an eye on your analytics
One of the huge advantages of video is that you can use analytics to see how many people have watched your video and whether or not they watched to the end.
Share your video using the unique link generated in Biteable Teams, and then head to the video’s analytics dashboard to see how your audience is responding.
We recommend checking your analytics three days after sending a video. If engagement is low, either resend the video or create a new one to further reinforce your message.
Taking this action helps you fine-tune your videos and ensures your critical messages get the attention they deserve.
