Case Study: video for internal and external communications

When you absolutely need to get an important message to a community… email isn’t your only route. As a matter of fact, you should be using multiple methods.

But I mean, hey, you’re a communicator… you know that already!

Okay, here’s something a lot of communicators miss.

Again… if you ABSOLUTELY need to get an important message to a community, you better be using more than the written word.

You should be using video as well.

Now, I specifically wrote, “as well.”

I’m not suggesting you don’t write something and that video should replace the written word.

What I’m getting at is you have an audience that will prefer to read, and one that will prefer to watch.

And the one that rather watch is probably bigger than you think.

Case Study: Alverno College

Alverno College is a private women’s college located in Milwaukee.

Like many businesses and organizations, school leaders were challenged with getting critical information out to two distinct communities about all the changes taking place due to COVID-19.

Alverno needed to make sure its faculty, staff, and students were all up-to-date on everything taking place to combat the virus and keep everyone safe.

Think about that for a second from a communicator’s perspective.

That’s two distinct audiences.

  • Faculty and staff: so… college employees, an internal audience
  • Students: aka paying customers, an external audience

Those groups are pretty different from one another, especially from an age perspective.

While written emails and social posts were certainly part of the mix, their leadership knew they needed to use something else as well to ensure as many people as possible would get the message.

Enter internal and external communications videos

Having produced several videos in the past, the communication staff knew many in their two communities might not read an email, but they would watch a video.

So producing videos during the pandemic became an important part of keeping people informed and reassured that school officials were working hard to protect everyone.

They also recognized while a pandemic might be going on, the job of marketing the college to new students needed to continue.

Current students got the same updates the faculty and staff were receiving, but prospective students also began receiving special communications with a revised marketing message that took COVID-19 into account.

And you guessed it… it included a newly produced recruiting video.

Give me the stats

I know, all of this is pretty self-serving, I am a video producer after all.

But as my friend Andy Crestodina says, “Don’t bring an opinion to a data fight.”

In this case, there is a TON of data supporting how important video is to your communication strategy.

When it comes to delivering an important message, you want to remove as many barriers as possible, and video is a great way to breakdown walls of text many people won’t read.

We all send email.

We all use social.

But if you want the most amount of people possible to get your message, video helps.

A lot.

According to Campaign Monitor, video can increase email open rates by 19% and click rates by 65%.

And social media…

The bottom line is video catches people’s attention.

They click, they watch.

So write and share your message, just make sure to include a video as well.

I don’t have the budget for video

You might be thinking… AWESOME IDEA!… but how am I going to pay for it?

True… a good, professionally produced video will cost you something. You should definitely do a cost-benefit analysis.

How important is getting your message across versus how much money do you have in your budget?

Our most popular blog post happens to be How-to Figure Out Video Production Cost, so if you need some help in that department we have you covered.

We also created a video to go along with it.

We walk the walk.

The DIY Video Option

Beyond that… I’m going to make a radical suggestion.

Well, radical because again, I’m video producer.

You could DIY your video.

See… I’m not totally self-serving. The truth is I believe DIY video has a place.

As a matter of fact, I’ve been know to help people improve the quality of their DIY videos because I want to make sure they’re putting their best foot forward.

I do have some criteria for producing any kid of internal and external communications corporate videos, so let’s take a look at those first.

  • No budget: if you truly don’t have any budget at all. I mean, you don’t allocate any money for marketing or internal comms… no budget… if that’s the case, you can DIY your video.
  • Kitschy company: if you have a company culture that is kind kitschy, and your employees and customers know this about you, I actually encourage you to DIY your videos.
  • Short social media videos: if your message is simply something short you’re going to post on Instagram or maybe do a Facebook Live, you don’t need a professional video.

If you don’t fall into one of these categories, hire a pro to produce your video.

Why? It’s simple.

You probably work really hard to ensure you’re a trusted company/organization. You want customers and employees to look at you and have confidence in what you have to offer.

Well, there are few things that can crush your reputation and credibility like a bad video.

All of a sudden you go from respected to being laughed at.

Don’t let this happen to you.

A video professional is going to produce a video faster and better than anything you can DIY in-house.

If this is a serious message you want to get out, make sure the quality of your video matches the importance of your content.

Wrapping up

We all have important messages we need to deliver.

No doubt, video adds some work… and expense.

However, if that message is mission critical, then you better consider producing a video to go along with your text.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau - T60 ProductionsTony Gnau is the Founder and Chief Storytelling Officer at T60 Productions. He’s a three-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, has led T60 Productions to winning 18 Telly Awards for its corporate videos, and is the author of the Amazon #1 Bestseller “Lights, Camera, Impact: storytelling, branding, and production tips for engaging corporate videos.”