Essential Storytelling Tips for Corporate Video Production

Let Your Customer Be the Hero, Not You

We all consider ourselves the hero in our own story. A person doesn’t want to watch a video where your company is the hero. They will watch a video about how your company removes obstacles they face, so they can be even more heroic in their own story.

“When we position our customer as the hero and ourselves as their guide, we will be recognized as a sought-after character to help them along their journey,” said Donald Miller, CEO of StoryBrand. 

Miller’s assertion is built on the understanding that we want to build trust with customers so that we can better serve them. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, brand trust ranks among the top five buying considerations when today's consumers make purchases. Would you let someone guide you, anywhere, without trusting them? Probably not. So, developing this brand trust is an important part of ensuring your messaging will resonate.

Provide Value By Focusing On Solutions

Keep it Personal

Too often, companies and organizations want to hammer on messaging about external problems. But really, this often zooms right over people’s heads. Don’t offer solutions or wax on about external factors; instead, showcase how your business or organization provides customers with solutions to their internal problems. 

For example, many banks create marketing materials around their long-standing history and their interest rates compared to other banks. Then, they wonder why they have difficulty differentiating themselves, without realizing that these offerings have nothing to do with their customers. Customers care about what money provides: a sense of security, the ability to travel, buy fancy gelato, the list goes on. In short, your message should explain how your brand will help your customer get where they want to be.

This is another time when your target personas will prove useful. Use your understanding and insights about your audiences to solve their personal problems. Ask yourself, “What does my customer desire?” “Where are they trying to go?”

Become a Trusted Guide with a Plan

As established above, your business or organization is not the hero of this storytelling journey; instead, you are Skywalker’s Yoda, Harry Potter’s Dumbledore, George Banks’ Mary Poppins, Frodo’s Gandalf (okay, I know you get the point). What we’re trying to say is that every hero needs a trusted guide, and that’s where you come in. Guides come in all shapes, sizes, and personalities, and that’s where your messaging can also become uniquely tailored to showcase who you are and what you have to offer. 

One key trait of a guide is to show empathy, to put yourself in the hero’s shoes, and help your hero forge a plan. Brands able to use empathetic marketing will always place their audience at the center of all of their marketing efforts.

Highlight A Dramatic Question

A good story should always contain some kind of drama. From before the amphitheaters of ancient Greece to Hollywood’s blockbuster industry of today, humans have always been drawn to emotional stories driven by an overarching dramatic question. You can use a dramatic question as an overarching thought in your video, that will hold your audience’s attention, such as:

Establish a Viewer Connection

Highlight Emotional Stories

When Catholic Charities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis launched a capital campaign to replace an overcrowded and run-down homeless shelter, their initial impulse was to feature someone in leadership and to go into detail about the fundraising goals of the campaign. Thinking about the audience and how to connect with them—we suggested a different route.

The campaign was a huge success and today the campus includes Dorothy Day Place, Higher Ground Saint Paul, and the Saint Paul Opportunity Center with permanent housing for more than 500 people, dignified shelter, transitional care for those leaving the hospital, and space for dedicated services to help create pathways to opportunity.   

While not every business has access to such emotional stories—it illustrates the power of really thinking through who the characters are who are telling your story. Sometimes the top executives really are the right choice for a video—but sometimes you’ll do a better job of connecting with your audience by going a different route.

Focus On People-Centered Stories

This might already be obvious, but it’s so important, we’ll say it again. Don't tell stories about your building, your earnings, or anniversary stories. Your customers likely don’t care about those. When we're talking about storytelling for businesses, it’s your people—your leadership, team members, and customers you serve—who will bring your business to life. 

Pro tip: In general, video stories about one person are more powerful than stories about several people. It’s easier to connect and relate to an individual than to several people at once.

Keep the Story Simple

In today’s day and age, customers often feel overwhelmed with their choices of what to buy, which causes to support, where to go for a fun night out, and thousands of other decisions throughout their days. That’s why one of the greatest gifts you can provide to your customers is the gift of a simple message. Think Goldilocks and the Three Bears, not Crime and Punishment.

You might have the greatest product in the world, the best team, and unlimited resources available to share with your customers, but if they don’t understand what you’re providing, they’ll walk away. In truth, many times, customers don’t end up buying the best products or services, they buy the ones they understand.