Create About Us or culture videos for the middle of the funnel
Create About Us or culture videos for the middle of the funnel
1. Define what you want your audience to know about your company and its value proposition.
Based on your target audience and goals for the video, choose a storyline that answers at least one of these central questions: What’s the story behind your company? What are your company’s core beliefs? Who are the people who make up your company? What’s it like to work at your company? What makes your company special? For example, Sweet Loren’s video outlines the company’s story. The founder shares how her cancer diagnosis spurred her on to develop a healthy cookie. In the video, the founder introduces a conflict and a resolution that results in wholesome, delicious cookies.
2. List out the story structure, talking points, and the accompanying video visuals.
Take, for example, a video by the owners of Harwood House Stansted B&B. In the video, the owners tout the unique selling points of their inn, such as a homemade breakfast, comfortable rooms, and proximity to the airport. The video flows in a logical order. It starts with breakfast and then moves on to the owner dropping off guests at the airport. After returning from the airport, the owner picks up a call from another guest who wants to book a visit. The visuals include footage of the owners cooking breakfast and getting rooms ready. Overall, the video has human interest, charm, and authenticity.
3. Choose a video production method that fits your company's needs.
If your budget only allows a DIY approach, keep the shots simple and minimal, like the company founder sitting in front of a camera. If you have a more visually interesting video in mind, like BambooHR’s video that uses stop-motion editing, or you want your video to look as polished as possible, consider working with a professional production team. To prepare for the shoot: Create a draft that describes each shot needed to tell your story, like interview shots, behind-the-scenes office shots, exterior office building shots, or production shots. Choose a location that reflects your company culture, which is typically inside your office building. Gather equipment, such as a camera, tripod, three-point lighting kit, and microphones. Use an external microphone, like a shotgun boom mic or wireless lav kit, to record audio for speaking parts. Schedule the shooting day in advance so that employees can prepare for appearances on camera.
4. Record employees talking about human interest events in ways that reflect your company's values.
Most About Us videos position the speaker in front of the camera so that the speaker appears to be addressing the audience directly. Use language that’s consistent with your brand and resonates with your target audience. For example, Atlassian’s video is humorous, light-hearted, and includes swear words because that type of messaging fits their brand and target audience. Record high-quality audio by using an external microphone and choosing a location that has limited background noise.
5. Shoot b-roll footage to add more context to the audio, create the right mood, and showcase your brand identity.
Avoid stock footage for About Us videos. Choose footage that’s relevant to the storyline and dialogue. This may include b-roll footage of a workday, photographs that support the founder’s story, scenes of employees laughing and smiling, event footage, or employees performing actions described in the narration.
6. Edit the footage to reflect the story you want to tell and add finishing touches, like background music.
Use video editing software, like Adobe Premiere Pro (paid) or Lightworks (free), to edit your video. Possible editing tasks: Splice and drag your clips into a cohesive story, with a beginning, middle, and end. Look back at your story outline to piece everything together in the right order. Add b-roll footage with the audio playing, like this HubSpot video. Add lower-third titles, graphic overlays in the lower-third region of a video screen, with the employee’s name and job title each time the employee speaks. Add background music that fits the tone of the video, like an upbeat song for a light-hearted video. Make sure the song is quieter than the dialogue. Find royalty-free music on sites like YouTube Audio Library, Bensound, or HookSounds. Perform basic audio and color correction to get a polished video. Keep the video’s length to between 1 and 4 minutes.
7. Upload your video to a video hosting site like YouTube, Vimeo, or Wistia.
Choose a video hosting site based on your company’s needs: YouTube: The pros are it’s free, and you can embed the videos on your website. You can also find a diverse audience on the platform. The cons are annoying ads and limited embedding options. Vimeo: The pros are easy and customizable embedding, no ads, and great video quality. The cons are that there’s a narrow audience base on Vimeo. Wistia: The pros are it’s designed for marketers, with features like lead captures, customizable embeds, CRM integrations, and detailed analytics. The cons are the high price and lack of an organic audience.
8. Embed your video on your website's About Us page, and optimize the video for SEO.
To optimize the video on your website’s About Us page: Make the About Us video the first or only video on the page. Make the video the focus of the page by putting it above the fold or near the top of the page. Only embed the video in one place on your website. Add a transcript to your video through YouTube captioning or with a transcription service like Trint. Choose a video title and description that include your company name, keywords, and is descriptive, such as BambooHR’s Work/Life Balance at BambooHR.
9. Publish a recently created About Us video to other relevant communication channels, like LinkedIn or Facebook.
Upload your video to LinkedIn to reach your audience. Share a link to your website’s About Us page and drive traffic to your website by encouraging visitors to check out your new About Us video on Facebook or Twitter.