10 Video Marketing Tips That Make Your Corporate Film Even Better

Improving a company’s image is a proven marketing tool that is becoming ever more important in times of social media, online marketing and increasingly anonymous customer relationships. Here you will find tried-and-tested tips for your image marketing that really help and may give you an idea or two.

What is corporate film marketing?

Corporate film marketing – or video marketing – covers all marketing with moving images. Most companies use the term “corporate film” as a synonym for any kind of company film, including explainer videos, trade fair films, product videos and event videos, which is why the term has become so established.

A corporate film is, however, a distinct form of the broader company film: a film that conveys an image. To do this, corporate film marketing usually works with emotions, strong images and messages on the semantic level.

The corporate film – everything companies need to know

Do I really need video marketing?

Corporate film marketing – let’s call it video marketing for clarity – now takes place in almost all of a company’s communication channels and runs through all business areas, such as:

1. Marketing: increasing market presence and reach
2. Sales: supporting sales, increasing sales volume and revenue
3. HR: building an employer brand, becoming more attractive to skilled workers, increasing employee loyalty
4. Quality assurance: training employees
5. PR: communicating the image to society and politics

Of course you don’t need a corporate film or video marketing, and your marketing and business goals should always come first. However, more and more companies are relying on corporate film marketing – especially online and on social media, where users’ attention spans are particularly short and moving images are ideal for conveying information quickly and linking it with emotions.

When you DON’T need a corporate film and what you can do for your marketing instead.

10 corporate film marketing tips

These video marketing tips help you get the most out of your corporate film or video content – whether you already have a corporate film or are just getting started. As always, we recommend bringing a partner you trust on board, whether it’s your experienced advertising agency or a film production company. Let’s go:

1. Give your corporate film a goal

The most important thing is that you don’t produce a corporate film because we all love film, but because it supports your business, communication or marketing goals.

If you give your corporate film a goal, you can measure its success directly – and that makes budgeting and assessing profitability much easier. Examples of corporate film marketing goals could be:

• Attracting more motivated applicants and skilled workers to the company
• Speeding up the time to a purchase decision and reducing sales effort
• Taking the load off support
• Training (new) employees more efficiently
• Showing an audiovisual company presentation at the open day
• Inspiring employees even more at the next team-building event
• Ranking the website better on Google and offering audiovisual added value
• Starting a YouTube channel
• Feeding the social media channels

* Note: not all of these film forms are corporate films.

If you already have a corporate film or video content, check it against these goals and, if necessary, use it again in a targeted way so that it pays off even better.

2. Focus on emotions

The days of the market crier are over; products and services increasingly sell through benefit promises and emotions. It feels as if almost everyone has the best, cheapest, most professional, most unique product features, so customers are increasingly developing a resistance to these sales slogans.

On the other hand, if someone buys purely on the lowest price, you won’t convince them even with the best corporate film. (In this case, a commercial or product video to promote sales is worthwhile.)

The fact is: people want to do business with people – especially at a time when digitalisation, automation and remote business have reduced (inter)personal communication to a minimum.

It is no coincidence that the most successful brands worldwide are those whose promise goes beyond the product itself: they are the companies that manage to charge their product with an emotion and convey a particular feeling (about life). Apple is particularly creative, Google particularly modern, Siemens particularly reliable. Coca-Cola has Father Christmas and the family, and Veltins promises a good time with friends.

• IKEA means family
• Apple is particularly creative
• Google is modern and transparent
• Siemens is extremely reliable
• Coca-Cola has Father Christmas
• and Veltins promises a good time with friends

Of course, these are just examples – and perhaps these brands mean something completely different to you personally. The fact remains: you no longer sell a product (or service). You sell a feeling. And your corporate film should convey that above all other tools.

So if you already have a corporate film, ask yourself critically: does it really convey the personality and feeling of your brand/company? Or does it merely present your business areas and product features?

3. Set content priorities

As a film production company, we often find that our clients would like to show everything in their corporate film: the many employees, the big machines, the new coffee machine and the foundation stone from the year the company was founded. The basic idea makes sense: if you’re spending money anyway, you might as well do it properly. Right?

Yes and no. It’s true that a corporate film should give a good overview of your company. But we mustn’t forget that its main job is to convey emotions. And unfortunately, there is no such thing as a jack of all trades here.

In fact, the most successful corporate films among our clients are those that set content priorities on our advice. You don’t have to say everything (and in many cases talk it to death) to convey a sense of the size, history and importance of the company.

So my sincere advice: trust your film production company (or advertising agency). And set content priorities together so that your corporate film marketing becomes a real success.

4. Start with a bang

A few seconds.

You often have only a few seconds to win someone over online.

But perhaps you have noticed yourself that you decide faster than before whether content is interesting to you or not. That is completely normal and understandable, given the sheer flood of media and information that mass media, the internet and social media bombard us with every day.

What we as marketers (and we as film producers) should learn from this: start with a bang. No matter how good your film is, if viewers switch off after 10 seconds, nobody will see your successful company and your positive messages.

So make sure (or get your film production company/advertising agency to make sure) that the film opens in a way that viewers simply HAVE to keep watching.

5. Don’t save in the wrong places

Closely linked to corporate film marketing tip number 4 is my next tip: always try to save money, but please don’t save in the wrong places.

Saved money on the aerial footage and so missed the great opportunity to show the impressive production site and demonstrate scale? Booked only two of the recommended three shooting days and so failed to capture essential sequences – or got everything done, but neither aesthetically nor technically well (because it’s shaky, rushed or badly lit)? Did without a professional voice-over artist and so ended up with unprofessional stuttering over impressive images?

There are many wrong levers that make good corporate films fail. In my view, the worst is trading professionalism for a low price. This happens particularly often with the notorious “trainee or intern projects” (after all, the younger generation knows how to make a video, right?) – or when you entrust such an important project as your audiovisual company image to your nephew or a film student.

The most important mistakes at a glance:

• Booking too few shooting days
• Booking no voice-over artist or an unprofessional one
• Entrusting the corporate film to trainees or interns
• Hiring inexperienced or unprofessional filmmakers
• Not booking aerial footage

My tip: get advice from the film production company or advertising agency you trust to find possible levers where you can save on corporate film costs.

What does a good corporate film cost?

6. Optimise your corporate film

You already have a corporate film? Excellent! You have probably already been making comparisons in your head while reading corporate film marketing tips 1–5. If your corporate film meets the tips mentioned: congratulations – you, your marketing team and your film production company or advertising agency have done everything right!

If your corporate film falls short of the ideal in some or all respects: don’t worry! The investment wasn’t in vain, because in the vast majority of cases it can be revised. You can use your existing corporate film (or any other moving-image material) as the basis for creating a new corporate film or other video content.

What if I no longer like my corporate film?

7. Show your corporate film in the right channels

Marketing is almost more important than the content of your corporate film. Because whatever goal your corporate film or online marketing has, you have to make sure it reaches the right target groups.

So in corporate film marketing it is just as important to keep not only the goal in mind but also the target group – and the place where it will be when it sees the film. Examples of channels for video marketing:

• Online channels
  • Company website
  • Product landing page
  • Social media channels, e.g. Instagram and Facebook
  • Video platforms, e.g. YouTube or Vimeo
• Sales presentations outside the company
• Training sessions
•  Events
  • Trade fair stands
  • In-house exhibitions and your own events
  • Reception area, your own premises
• Mass media
  • TV
  • Cinema

You can find more ideas on where to use video marketing in our article: “Where should I show my corporate film? How to reach the most customers.”

8. Set a budget for marketing your film

Closely linked to choosing the right channel for your corporate film marketing is setting aside an appropriate budget for distribution.

Because no matter how much or how little money you have invested in your corporate film (or other company films), any film becomes unbearably expensive if nobody sees it. So make sure your target group sees your film!

You don’t have to spend hard cash on every channel: showing the corporate film in the entrance hall or the product video at every sales presentation costs nothing extra but can bring a lot.

Of course, you get really big reach best through the mass media – cinema, TV, trade fairs – and the internet, including social media. Here you need to pay attention to two things: usage rights and distribution costs.

First, usage rights, which, based on German copyright law, can vary in cost for different channels. The internet and social media are almost always included; for trade fairs, cinema and TV, on the other hand, you will very probably have to acquire separate usage rights.

Second, you should set aside a budget for distribution. This could be booking ad breaks in the cinema and on TV. But also running ads on Google Ads (then called AdWords) or on social media, such as Facebook ads, Instagram ad posts or sponsored stories.

The size of the budget should be based on your goals, and modern analytics quickly give you a good overview of how much reach or action you can achieve with how much budget. Your advertising agency or film production company can also advise you on this.

9. Bring your employees on board

Probably the cheapest and fastest way to show your film to as many people as possible is to bring your employees on board. Ideally this happens during production, for example by having employees take part in the shoot.

Afterwards, too, we often find that a corporate film (and the production behind it, especially when the film is shot on your own premises) brings employees closer together and fosters loyalty to the company. It is not unusual for the corporate film shoot to become the highlight of the year for employees, which they talk about fondly for a long time and whose finished film they automatically and proudly show to their friends, relatives and acquaintances.

This is another way to increase your film’s reach. If your employees identify with the project, there is a good chance they will share it with their circle of friends and on their social media profiles. So if 10 employees share your video, it can reach many more people through their personal networks.

10 tips that improve your company’s image straight away.

10. Trust your film production company

My last corporate film marketing tip is especially for when you now have a rough idea of how to improve your video marketing, but don’t know exactly how or where to start.

Can and should you use your existing corporate film or other material, or should you perhaps start again from scratch? Which goals and target groups should you prioritise, and which emotions or messages do you want to focus on in the first place?

The best thing is to ask your advertising agency, if it knows about film, or a film production company you trust. The consultation is usually free of charge and can give you valuable ideas and inspiration.

Be open to approaches that may seem far-fetched to you at first. Creative minds often think differently from business strategists. But they often hit the target group’s heart much more precisely and open up completely new possibilities for your corporate film marketing.

Conclusion: good corporate film marketing

These ten video marketing tips can help make your corporate film even more successful. Because the most expensive corporate film is the one that doesn’t achieve its goal. That can also be the case if it isn’t seen by the right target group or by too few people. So while it is important to produce a good, entertaining, high-quality corporate film, the right video marketing is at least as important. Our tip: don’t save in the wrong places, and ideally think about all the places where you can present your corporate film in advance. The film production company you trust will help you decide and can give you valuable tips on how to use it.

You can also arrange a no-obligation conversation with us right here. Just click here.

If you would like to look into corporate film marketing in more depth, I recommend the following articles:

1. How companies can improve their image
2. The corporate film – everything companies need to know
3. When you DON’T need a corporate film: 10 examples
4. Where should I show my corporate film? How to reach the most customers
5. Changing your corporate film: what if you no longer like it?