A Good Corporate Video Does Not Sell

We're writing this to set something straight, once and for all.

A good corporate video does not sell.

That might sound strange, but at a time when 91% of people feel that video ads are more intrusive now than they were 3 years ago, it's vital that viewers do not feel like they are being sold to.

We are constantly bombarded with advertisements via video and a consequence of this is that consumers feel like they're being sold to, often even before they are. If you see video content from a brand, the immediate reaction is to feel like you're being sold to. 

And when you feel like you're being sold to - normally at a time when you're not wanting to be sold to - does that make you feel more or less engaged with the promotional video?

Less, right? (If you said 'more', I know you're just trying to be difficult....)

And if you feel like you're being sold to, are you more or less likely to view that brand in a positive light? 

We know the answer....

So what can you do?

We believe that all good corporate video content must primarily be engaging, informative and entertaining. It doesn't matter what subject you're talking about, this can be done.  

'How?', we hear you ask. 

Well, it's our belief that all good corporate video must tell a story. It might be the story of your company, how your product came about, or how you solve problems for your clients, but there must always be a story. (We actually love helping companies find and tell their story, so if you're not sure what yours should be, we'd love to chat to you about it/ And I bet you there'll be more than 1 story we find that are good enough to tell!) 

If you tell a story well, this engages a viewer. If a viewer is engaged, it will build brand recall, authenticity, and most importantly trust. And trust on its own goes against everything we talked about above in terms of how people react when they feel they're being sold to. Trust is a positive reaction, but when people feel like they're being sold to through a video, the reaction will be a negative one. 

For brands and companies, trust is one of the hardest things to build, but one of the most important if you're going to sell. Have you ever heard of someone buying from a person or company they don't trust? It doesn't happen - right? 

So this is where we feel all good corporate videos start - with a good story. 

From here, you then look at what the key messages are you want to get across, and how you can weave these in to your story, without harming your ability to build trust and authenticity.  

So going back to our point at the beginning - if you approach your video thinking 'how am I going to use this video to sell my product/service to the viewer?' you're approaching it all wrong. Think about how you can use that video to build brand affinity, recall, authenticity and TRUST. Then when there's an appropriate time to sell to that, making that sale will be that much easier. 

Good corporate video tells a story and builds trust. It doesn't sell to the viewer.