How can you measure the impact of a corporate video?

A successful corporate video starts with a good brief. Understanding the goals around messaging and context where the video will be used can determine overall approach and ultimately success. Is the video used in sales meetings with potential clients? Will it live online? Or play at a large event in an event space? All of these factors can impact the creative approach to setting the right tone and overall impact of your video. Measuring the impact of the video involves tracking and analyzing key metrics that align with the video's objectives. For example, viewership data, engagement rates, click-through rates, and website traffic. Surveys and feedback can provide valuable insights into audience perception and sentiment as well.

Corporate videos need to start with a clearly defined purpose in order to have a measurable impact. If you're playing the video at an event, an easy way to measure impact is with a short paper or mobile survey after the video plays. Alternatively, the host of the video can illicit audience feedback directly after. If the video is being played online, there are simple tools through social media tracking and google to measure the depth and reach that the video attains.

Watch the audience closely while screening a corporate video. If they show signs of lack of interest, the video is not engaging enough. However, if the video is crisp and vibrant, with interesting content, activity or people, the audience do not care about the play time. People with humour, messages that come from the heart, long processes presented short, interesting camera angles, artistic lighting, seamless edit, minimal texts and animation and live sound can elevate a corporate video. Break the monotony, try different ways to treat a corporate video. Any corporate video can convey the message, impact is something that a filmmaker creates.

Defining your purpose is about being specific, you can not plan a video to resolve everything. Is your video there to build brand? Make the customers journey easier? Teach your audience something? If you go with one purpose for each video then 2 things happen 1. a better quality video with a clear message 2. You get more video ideas for each video purpose making you more consistent

Making documentary films with messages that make sense for brands to attach as sponsors. Producing stories in a 3-act structure, with high-level story-telling, compelling characters and themes that entice viewers to stay tuned in and brands to want to be part of the next big thing.

When it comes to the impact it's often a mistake to look at quantitative results: - Likes - Views - Etc Which is why I always encourage people to collect qualitative data (and just impact from that). How did people react? What did they say? What was the feedback? That's always more important than how many views you get.

View counts, showing how many people have watched it. Engagement metrics, such as likes, comments, and shares, indicate how well your video resonates with the audience. The click-through rate is valuable for measuring the effectiveness of call-to-action elements within the video. Conversion rates reveal how successful the video is in driving desired actions, such as product purchases or newsletter sign-ups. Watch time and audience retention metrics help assess the video's ability to hold viewers' attention, which can be critical for conveying your message effectively. All these metrics offer insights into your video's performance, enabling you to make data-driven decisions and refine your video marketing.

"Corporate video" is a broad term, so I find it easiest to look at some common success metrics by function: Marketing, top of funnel “awareness” videos: ? Play rate ? Shares ? Engagement Marketing, lower funnel videos: ? Play rate ? Engagement, especially multiple views by a single viewer ? Click-through rates Sales: ? Play rate ? Engagement ? Click-through rates ? Responses to an email Customer success: ? Engagement ? Play rate ? Retention ? Positive responses to a survey “Vanity metrics” like views might feel great, but even if your goal is brand awareness, they’re not always an indication that someone identifies with your message. Audience engagement, share rate, or subscriptions tell us much more.

Watch time is the key indicator on all video content, If your video is keeping people engaged for longer periods of time then you have a successful action, if someone is going on to another video your keeping their interest in you this is relationship building. The challenge is how do you get them to come to your site so you can collect their information, have a strong Call to Action with a landing page so you can collect their details and build this relationship further on your own platform.

The metrics should align with the goal you have identified. Metrics also go beyond views, like and comments. Be sure to include metrics tied to the company goals. For example, if the company goal is increase lead quality and this video is intended to generate leads, include a metric for lead quantity and quality so you can make sure it's serving the right purpose.

Several powerful apps and tools available for measuring video data are: Google Analytics, when integrated with YouTube, provides detailed insights into video performance. YouTube Studio offers in-depth analytics, including watch time, engagement, and revenue data. Vimeo's analytics suite allows users to monitor video views, engagement, and custom interactions. Facebook and Instagram provide their own set of analytics tools for video posts, offering information on reach, engagement, and audience demographics. Wistia and Brightcove are excellent choices for businesses seeking advanced video analytics with features like viewer heatmaps and A/B testing. Vidyard and SproutVideo offer insights into video performance across platforms.

You want to see who are coming to your site, and showing interest in your service/product. Make use of unique landing pages for each video. Create a capture form to collect details. As I said previously, watch time and session times are key to your video content success. Aim to make the best video possible and then improve it by 1% on the next one.

Gain a holistic perspective Once your chosen metrics are in place, it's time to harness various tools and platforms to comprehensively track and collect data, unveiling the true impact of your corporate video. Utilize resources like YouTube Analytics for detailed viewer insights, Google Analytics for website conversion and user behavior analysis, and social media analytics tools from platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to gauge performance and engagement. Furthermore, consider video hosting platforms such as Vimeo, Wistia, or Vidyard, which provide advanced metrics like heatmaps, attention span, play rate, and lead generation, offering a well-rounded view of your video's effectiveness.

Evaluating your results involves looking at the goals you had set and comparing it to the results the video created. Determining whether the video was a success or failure comes down to the data analysis. This is the reason identifying what you want to track and the performance metric is so important. The ultimate question is: Did the corporate video deliver on the goal? If yes, what performed well. If no, what went wrong and can be done differently next time.

There isn't a single way to evaluate the results of corporate content. Many people look for direct ROI or empirical metrics. You always need to go back to the brief at the start of project and measure the success of the results against that. Increase awareness = impressions. Behaviour change = watch time. Ego boost for yourself = likes. Message acceptance = talk to the target audience and see what they accept, reject or ignored. Not empirical but vital data.

Has it made a process easier? Is your brand building? is your sales journey being made easier? Are you answering the questions before being asked? Are more people visiting your site? These are the true ways of determining a video success. Look at the bottom line is it making money or giving you time back?

Gain insights from the data you've gathered by evaluating the results. Reflect on whether the video effectively connected with your intended audience, prompted desired actions, and surpassed your objectives. Analyze both strengths and weaknesses to inform improvements for future endeavors. This process allows you to gauge the corporate video's influence on your business growth and success.

Before posting your new video, you may want to share it with stakeholders, and even your current customers, to get some feedback. Customer feedback would be the most helpful, as they'll have the perspective viewers will have. Ask questions like: - Was this video helpful? - How did it make you feel? - Was it confusing, or did it make sense? - Did we miss anything?