Why Video is Key to Your Internal Comms Strategy in 2023

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A strong internal communications strategy can play many roles in an organization. Examples of the purposes internal communications may serve include (but aren’t necessarily limited to) the following:

Providing employees with important updates
Boosting and maintaining employee engagement
Developing a strong company culture
Allowing workers to provide employee feedback, which can yield greater overall employee satisfaction

However, to serve these purposes effectively, your organization’s approach to internal comms should evolve and adapt to new communication trends. For example, in the digital age, it’s become increasingly important with each passing year for companies across a range of industries to embrace video internal communications. The following points should help you better understand why using video as a communication tool is a wise idea:

Remote Work is More Common

COVID-19 forced many organizations to make the switch to remote work arrangements sooner than expected. However, pre-pandemic, many were already slowly experimenting with a remote workplace. This is because allowing employees to work remotely has been shown to improve employee engagement and yield even greater productivity.

Thus, although the pandemic may no longer necessitate remote work, according to McKinsey, more than half of Americans have the option to work from home at least one day a week. The same research indicates about 35 percent of Americans work from home (or from remote locations) five days a week.

When your workforce is dispersed, using video for internal communications may be particularly helpful. Video-based communication allows you to easily reach all your employees regardless of where they may be working from. These are just a few examples of the types of videos you might share with those who work remotely:

Announcement videos
Explainer videos
Recruitment video
Cross-departmental communications videos

Video Content May Be More Engaging

You can’t reasonably expect your employees to always be enthusiastic when you reach out to communicate with them. For example, perhaps you’re sharing information about how to use a new software or solution your company has adopted.

Your workers may understand it’s necessary to learn this information. That doesn’t mean the process will excite them.

With that in mind, it’s smart to consider how you can potentially make your internal communications more engaging and attention-grabbing for your workers. One way to do so is to share messages in the form of videos.

Researchers have found that video content is often more engaging for consumers than other types of online content. This may be due to the fact that video content is dynamic and efficient. It can connect with a viewer on an emotional level while sharing a large amount of information in a fairly short span of time.

There’s no reason to assume video content wouldn’t have the same impact in on your employees. The next time you need to share what may be less-than-thrilling info with your workers, consider how a video internal communications strategy can help you do so in a manner that is more likely to capture the attention of your audience.

You might also consider how including a call-to-action in a dynamic video can potentially urge your employees to complete tasks they might otherwise postpone. For example, a bland Corporate Communication email requesting that employees update their intranet profiles (if your company has an intranet) may be less effective than an animated video demonstrating to your workers how easy it is to take this step.

Many Are Already Using Video for Internal Communications

Part of refining your approach to effective internal communications may simply involve studying what other organizations are doing to ensure you don’t fall behind on trends. One of the easiest ways to learn more about internal communications best practices is to determine how other leaders in your field are improving their strategies.

If you research how various major organizations are adjusting their employee communication methods, you’ll quickly find that many have already identified video as a useful tool.

Consider the following internal communications video examples:

Bayer uses video to share critical information about compliance with its workforce
The City of Edmonton’s waste management services department welcomes new employees to the team with an onboarding video
H&M uses video to share information about the company’s values with its employees
Cosmopolitan Las Vegas uses an internal video to make safety training more engaging than it might otherwise be

Those are just a few internal communications video examples. They illustrate two important points:

Visual communication can serve many purposes across a variety of niches
No matter what your industry may be, there’s a good chance your competitors are already using video for effective internal communications

Research how others in your field are using video for internal messaging. This can help you begin generating your own ideas for internal communications that involve using video and similar forms of visual communications.

Video Allows for Stronger Internal Branding and Marketing

You may already appreciate the importance of marketing your brand to potential customers. That said, experts recommend that companies practice internal branding and marketing as well. Branding doesn’t need to merely be a customer-facing endeavor.

Cultivating a sense of your company’s brand and values among your workers is an effective way to boost employee engagement. In the past, organizations may have achieved this goal at least in part by designing a physical workplace that represented an internal brand.

That’s no longer an option for some companies. Again, it’s becoming increasingly common for employees to work remotely. If employees aren’t sharing an office, their employers must identify other ways to forge a sense of community and shared values.

An internal communications strategy that emphasizes the use of video can help them do so. Compared to other forms of internal branding content, such as company newsletters, video can reinforce an organization’s collective values through the use of:

Music
Branded color schemes
Recorded messages from real team members
Videos showcasing in clear visual terms the way in which the work of a company’s employees directly and positively impacts the lives of others

It’s also worth noting that many types of branded internal videos can serve different purposes depending on the platform they are published on.

For instance, perhaps you’ve created a branded video for onboarding new members of your team. Internally, this video can help a new employee feel welcome.

You could also post this onboarding content on social media. Doing so may help you attract more candidates by expressing how working at your company offers employees a rewarding experience.

That’s a point to keep in mind when developing your communication plan. A communications campaign can include communication ideas that allow you to effectively communicate with both your employees and your customers without necessarily creating separate pieces of content for each audience all the time. Sometimes, content designed for internal communications can also serve to engage customers and leads.

Powtoon Makes Using Video for Internal Communications Easy

Internal communications best practices are always changing. As internal communication examples from many leading companies now illustrate, a proper company-wide messaging strategy should include using video.

Luckily, creating strong videos for internal communications doesn’t need to prove challenging, even if you don’t have a large video production budget. With Video Templates, animation tools, and various other resources, Powtoon allows users to create strong videos with ease. Get started today to optimize your approach to video internal communications.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in October 2021 and has been updated.

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Hanna Abitbul

Hanna is Powtoon's Content Marketing Strategist. She joined Powtoon as a copywriter in 2019, after graduating from university with a specialized degree in marketing and business. She continues to inspire people to create incredible video content with blog posts, videos, guides, and more. Hanna's passions include reading, singing, and caring for animals (#proudvegan). Nothing makes her happier than waking up to her two black kitties who, contrary to popular belief, are good luck!