Planning a company video is no small feat. It sounds easy enough though, doesn’t it? Just whip out your cell phone and start shooting, right? Wrong! You’ve seen those types of videos on YouTube and I’m guessing that you didn’t spend much time watching them. As a result, you probably didn’t take the company seriously.

This happens all too often. Because of this, many businesses miss out on the power of visual storytelling that video offers. Video is the hottest marketing medium today, and customers are coming to expect video from companies they do business with. It’s a sign that you’re current and technologically savvy.

So, let’s get started learning about what you need to know before producing a video…

Know Your Video’s Purpose

When you begin to brainstorm for your video, first write down the purpose. Why are you making this video? Who is it supposed to help? That would be your video’s mission and target audience.

Sometimes it helps to write down a list of characteristics for your target audience member. This is called a customer avatar or buyer persona. It’s a pretend person that you imagine as your target customer. Is he or she a parent? Do they work in a specific occupation? How old are they? These are a few characteristics of a target customer. Make note of the ones that are most important to selling your product.

When you write about your purpose, think of key messages that will express or support that purpose. During this phase, make sure to note if your video is part of a strategy or campaign. If so, make sure your video’s purpose and target audience are in accordance to that campaign’s intended message.

Planning is Essential

Timing and budget are essential pieces of planning for your video. You’ll want to map out a detailed timeline from start to finish. Along with each point of the timeline, guestimate how much it will cost and assign this research to someone in your firm. You’ll want your researcher to find out how much each step will cost.

Once you receive the figures for each item in the timeline, decide how you’ll measure the return on investment (ROI).

To do so, choose the metrics that are most relevant to your mission and only focus on those. If your goal of the video is to build your brand, then you’ll need to focus on how many social shares and views you get as well as the reach.

When measuring ROI, pay attention to the following metrics:

  • Conversion rate
  • Engagement
  • Social sharing
  • Total cost of creating the video
  • Feedback

For comparison purposes, you’ll want screenshots or figures before the video marketing campaign and after. Afterward, you should be able to see what part of the video didn’t work and what did. This data will help you tweak future videos. The idea is to weigh the metrics against the total cost of creating the video. That gives you an idea of what the ROI is.

All those numbers can make your head spin. Now for creative planning, you’ll want to create a story map of the scenes you envision for the video. What emotion do you want to evoke in each scene? Do the visuals align with the emotion? If not, that scene may feel out of place with the rest of the production.

Setting

Choosing the right setting can make or break a video. If you choose a distracting background, your message will suffer. If you choose a special location that requires a permit, your schedule may suffer. When possible, choose your company campus as a backdrop for a company production. However, choosing a place with limited lighting can make a video of low quality.

Strategic Props

Will you need props to support your message? Make sure you gather those before production. Also, if you want items showing your company logo, order those at least a week ahead of time if you use a service like Vistaprint for your marketing swag.

Speaker

Find a capable speaker to speak on behalf of the organization. A good voice and a friendly demeanor go a long way in video.

Scripting

Decide on what questions you’d like to ask the interview subjects or write a script for an informative video delivered by a speaker. Perhaps it could be a video about a charity that the company supports, or maybe a behind the scenes video into the manufacturing and production of your product. Plan for mistakes or unexpected answers from interview subjects. When scripting, you’ll want to keep it short and informative. Don’t fill up video time with unnecessary talk. It’s a good idea to get right to the topic of the video. Ask your speaker or script writer to keep the content conversational and avoid jargon. Speaking directly to the audience is most effective, too.

It’s a wrap!

After you’ve completed your marketing video, decide who needs to give the final approval of the video before distribution. Then distribute the video to the most popular social media platforms.

If your looking for help creating your next video production, let's talk about it.

Get Started