How to Produce a Corporate or Business Video: Full Guide

To produce a corporate video, work through five phases. First, plan it: set one goal, pick one audience, write the script and book the crew. Second, film it with a small, skilled crew. Third, edit it, with colour, sound and graphics. Fourth, publish it where your audience already spends time. Fifth, measure what it did and use that to make the next video better. Most projects take 4 to 8 weeks from brief to delivery.

This guide explains each phase in detail. It also covers what a corporate video is, the nine common types, and the do’s and don’ts that keep a project on track. It is written for marketing and communications managers who need to brief a video, or run one themselves.

What's a Corporate Video?

Simply put, a corporate video is a video created by a company to promote its products or services or share news with its customers. There are different types of corporate videos (as we’ll discuss later) but all have one purpose, to convey a particular message.

Importantly, corporate videos aren't always aimed at external marketing or news sharing. They can also be used for internal training or recruitment purposes.

So how are these videos different from standard ads? Well, they strive to communicate engagingly, aiming not just to build brand awareness but also to reflect the company’s ethos, mission, and services to a diverse audience.

In other words, they aren't merely about promoting. They’re about providing valuable insights into the company’s culture and operations, creating a richer, more profound connection.

For example, Microsoft created a corporate video to showcase the rebranding of their headquarters. The video includes interviews from the branding agency they hired, which is an interesting way to engage customers and business partners alike.

What's Corporate Video Production?

Corporate video production is the process of creating a corporate video. It can vary depending on the brand’s objectives. However, the production process remains the same whether the brand is just starting out or is already a Fortune 500 company.

It includes the following three stages:

Pre-production: This process usually includes the video’s concept, script, budget, timeline, and other things relating to planning or management.
Production: This is the tricky part because filming takes place at this stage, so it’s best to hire a video production company here.
Post-production: In the post-production stage, a video editing expert will edit and colour grade the content. They might also add sound effects and VFX for additional aesthetics.

As an additional step of the video production process, the brand might look to promote the video through different marketing and social media channels.

Why Do You Need Corporate Videos?

Corporate videos are powerful marketing tools. Here are six reasons why you need them:

They improve your brand’s perception.
Video content ranks on search engine results pages.
Videos engage users better than text-based content like blog posts.
Video production drives organic traffic through YouTube and Google Search.
Video testimonials create social proof and can skyrocket your brand’s sales.
Videos make it easier to explain complex topics. This is great for businesses that offer a complex product or service.

Interestingly, if you look at the most successful brands out there, you’ll find one thing common among them. Almost all of them get their brand videography done by an expert video production company.

That’s because hiring a production company is a cost-effective and time-saving option. Most businesses lack the resources and expertise required to create high-quality corporate videos, which is where video production agencies step in. But before you head out to hire one, read the next section to understand the different types of corporate videos you can order.

Different Types of Corporate Videos

There are nine different types of corporate videos you can produce for your company. These include:

1. Explainer Videos

Corporate explainer videos are for explaining the features of a product or service. These videos are typically found on a brand’s landing and product pages.

Marketing managers also use explainer videos because they help present a solution to the target audience’s problems.

2. Product Demo Videos

Product demo videos are useful for highlighting the workings of a product. They're similar to explainer videos and focus more on driving conversions.

Product demo videos also include a strong call to action, prompting the customer to make the purchase. Additionally, these videos work best in the middle of the sales funnels where a customer already has an interest in your offerings.

This is exactly the kind of video our corporate video production team produces for clients every week.

3. Investor Relations Videos

Investor relations videos emphasise communication. In these videos, the company updates stakeholders and directors about objectives, achievements, and announcements.

When brand managers are producing investor relations videos, they should always aim to keep the videos concise and data-driven. This allows stakeholders to easily evaluate the company’s performance.

4. Showreel Corporate Videos

Showreel corporate videos are a highlight of all the milestones the company has completed in the past month or quarter. These videos are typically 2-3 minutes in length, showing potential clients a portfolio of your work.

They also help with establishing social proof through case studies and video testimonials. Brand managers should use these videos on the company’s landing page to maximise credibility.

5. Event Videos

Event videos offer potential clients or customers a glimpse into the company’s events, like conferences, exhibitions, and team activities.

The best way to approach event videos is to hire a professional film production company that captures all the key moments from the event. Event videos are known to have a positive impact on the company’s branding, creating a unique space for them in the industry.

6. Testimonial Videos

Testimonial videos are another effective method for establishing social proof. In a testimonial video, the company highlights what its customers are saying about its product or service in a visually engaging way.

What sets them apart from written testimonials is that these look more authentic in comparison. They also create a more personal connection between the brand and the customers by showcasing positive endorsements from past buyers.

7. Location Videos

Employees today prioritise choosing a workplace with a thriving work culture. Location videos offer potential recruits a walking tour of the company and how they approach their work.

Your target audience gets an inside look at how things work out behind the scenes, allowing you to attract and recruit top talent.

8. Case Study Corporate Videos

Potential clients or customers will come through your doors once you start showing them that you can deliver on your commitments.

Corporate case study videos are ideal for achieving that. They show your target audience your customer success stories. You can incorporate a flair of storytelling to persuade and attract your target audience, converting them in the process.

9. Product Launch Videos

Creating hype before launching a product or service is a time-tested method for boosting sales. Product launch videos create buzz and excitement for your offering even before it gets into the market.

These videos typically include the offering’s key features along with its benefits. Once the viewer watches the video, you can hook them in with a strong call to action for generating leads.

Corporate Video Production Process, The Five Phases

A well-planned and strategic corporate video production process involves 5 crucial phases. These include:

Pre-production

Pre-production is the foundation of your corporate video production project. At this stage, you, as a marketing manager, will plan out and shape the overall project.

You’ll start by collecting information about the company, like its unique selling proposition, objectives, and target audience. Answering these questions will help you get creative with your approach.

You’ll also get an in-depth insight into what will work for the project and what existing strategies competitors are using in their video production efforts.

Once you have a vision in mind, you can move on to create a script or storyboard, which would essentially be a roadmap for your corporate video production process.

In addition, you’ll also decide the production schedule, crew, location, equipment, and all other relevant resources. If you’re not sure how much time to allow, here’s how long corporate video production takes at each stage.

To put it briefly, anything that appears in the script should be available at the time of the production. If you need help with that, Ivory Media can provide you with professional production experts.

Production

Production is the actual filming of your corporate video. In this stage, you’ll work with visual and audio elements to create video content. This is the most intense and oftentimes the most expensive phase of the whole video production process.

That’s why you should hire a corporate video production company to streamline the process. Also, the success of this phase relies heavily on the pre-production phase. Because without the right planning in place, you can potentially waste hundreds of dollars during the production.

And even though you can decide on the number of crew members you need for the project, some professionals are a necessity to have onboard. These include a director, director of photography (DOP), audio engineer, and light operator.

Post-production

In the post-production phase, all of the elements come together into one coherent video. A professional editor will merge the footage, music, sound effects, and graphics using a video editing tool.

Unlike production, this phase doesn’t require 5-6 crew members to manage the work. Depending on your video’s production quality and scale, an editor or an editing team will apply all the technologies for polishing the content.

However, you might need a professional colorist to add personality and feel to the final product. They aren’t necessary but can come in handy if you want your corporate video to stand out.

Distribution And Marketing

To increase your video’s visibility, you'll also need to promote it on the appropriate marketing channels. Since we're specifically talking about corporate videos here, LinkedIn is the right social media network for promoting your video.

It's a platform built for companies and professionals and has a global user reach with millions of daily active users. So, if you do everything right, this network can put your video in front of the people who make buying decisions.

You can also grab organic search engine traffic by marketing the video on your website and YouTube channels. Other platforms that you can use to promote your corporate videos include Facebook, Twitter (now known as X.com), and Instagram.

Measuring Success

The final phase involves measuring the success of your corporate video. Here are the key performance indicators you can use to measure its reach:

Number of clicks
Video engagements and bounce rates
View-through rates
Social media shares
Returning users
Video conversion rates
Unique users
Bottom line conversions: calls, purchases, or signups
Impressions

As you analyse these KPIs, ensure that you optimise your video marketing strategy accordingly. With data-driven optimisation, you’ll gradually start seeing a rise in your video’s viewership.

Tips For Effective Corporate Video Production, The Do’s And Don’ts

Before we sign off, here are a few quick do’s and don’ts to help you make a perfect corporate video:

The Do’s

Keep the video concise: An attention-grabbing corporate video is concise with minimal length. Remember, the average viewer’s attention span is getting shorter, so remove any fluff that can bore the viewers.

Keep the target audience in mind: Your corporate video’s main focus should be your target audience and their pain points. Otherwise, it won’t communicate the intended message clearly.

Plan your budget: There are high chances that you’ll overspend your video production budget. That’s why it’s best to put all the expenses you're likely going to have and hire resources according to that specific budget.

The Don’ts

Forget about marketing: Marketing is crucial for your video production project, so besides relying on organic reach, keep a separate budget for social media or search engine ads.

Forget the call-to-action: Without a strong call-to-action, the viewers won’t take the desired action you want them to take. That’s why you should always include a concise CTA at the end of your video.

Be too salesy in the video: Forcing the viewers into buying your product or service will do more harm than good. Your video should always use the soft-sell approach for driving conversions.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you produce a corporate video?

Work through five phases: pre-production, production, post-production, distribution and measurement. Pre-production matters most. Set one goal, pick one audience, write the script and plan the shoot before anyone picks up a camera. Then film, edit, publish where your audience is, and track the results.

How long does it take to produce a corporate video?

Most corporate videos take 4 to 8 weeks from brief to delivery. A focused content project can move faster. For Obex, we went from shoot to delivery in two weeks: one hero video, three social videos and a full image library. See our corporate video production timeline for each stage.

Who do you need on a corporate video crew?

Most shoots need a director, a director of photography (DOP), an audio engineer and a lighting operator. In post-production you need an editor, and sometimes a colourist and a motion graphics designer. Bigger shoots add producers, assistants and talent.

Should you make a corporate video in-house or hire a production company?

It depends on how many videos you need, the skills in your team and the gear you own. In-house works for quick, simple content. A production company makes sense when the video carries your brand, needs a full crew or has a hard deadline. We compare both in in-house vs outsourced video production.

How long should a corporate video be?

Keep it as short as your message allows. Cut anything that does not serve your audience. The right length changes with the type of video and where people will watch it. Our guide on how long a corporate video should be breaks it down by type.

How much does it cost to produce a corporate video?

The cost depends on the number of shoot days, the crew size, locations, talent and how much editing and animation you need. A clear brief keeps the cost under control. Our guide to corporate video production cost in Australia explains what drives the price.

Final Thoughts

Corporate videos help brands explain what they do to a wider audience, in a more engaging way. They also build your brand’s image and support your marketing goals.

So, how do you produce a corporate video? Set one goal, plan it well, film with the right crew, edit with care, then put it where your audience will see it. Good planning does most of the work.

That is how we run every project at Ivory Media. We have delivered 5K+ videos for 100+ clients across Australia. If you want one team to run all five phases for you, see our corporate video production service.

Why Video SEO and Distribution Matter

According to VidYard, 70% of marketers agree that video produces more conversions than other content formats, and video gets 1,200% more social media shares than text and images combined. Thumbnails matter too: over 90% of the best-performing videos on YouTube use a custom thumbnail, so it's worth the extra five minutes to make one rather than rely on an auto-generated frame.

Want to get more from your corporate videos? Check out our latest articles and learn all about corporate video production and video production in Sydney, plus find out how we create professional videos that showcase your brand’s unique story.

Ready to plan your next corporate video? Book a strategy call to see what this could look like for your brand. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to see examples of our work.