Like all of life’s endeavours, a little bit of planning goes a long way. In the world of video marketing production, this process is called Pre-Production, and it’s probably the most important part of any production.
If you give some thought to why you’re turning your camera on in the first place, what you’re going to be shooting, and who is going to watch it, your video marketing efforts will be much more successful.
Follow these 3 mega-important tips when you’re planning videos for your business, so you can make sure your original vision actually comes to fruition.
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1) Why Are You Making a Video?
The first thing you have to figure out is why you’re going to shoot a video. The reason this is so important is because you are going to use very different tools if you want to create a promotional video for an upcoming product compared a social media blast checking in with your audience.
We’ll get to specifics about tools later, but for now, start thinking about your: “Why?”
2) What is the Main Focus of the Video?
After you figure out why you’re shooting this video you have to figure out what you’re trying to feature.
Are you featuring a product, yourself, promoting an event, showing your followers a day in the life?
Making sure your video has a main focus not only helps you decide how you’re going to shoot the video, but also helps you stay focused as this production continues.
3) Who Are You Talking To in Your Video?
In order to properly get the attention of your audience, you have to know a bit about who they are.
For example, what age range are they in? Where are they from? Where are they viewing your content? What sort of attention span do they have?
Knowing the answer to a couple of those questions will help you not only nail your message, but also make sure your audience gets the most out of the video.
How All of This Video Pre-Production Benefits You
If you can answer the Why, What, and Who of your production, you can begin making a basic plan on how to properly bring your vision to fruition.
Here are 3 scenarios of the different levels of production and how you can use different equipment to suit the needs of your audience.
Show Your Audience What You’re Up To
“I want to talk to my 45+ years of age crowd via social media to let them know where in the world I am and what I’m doing.”
In this particular circumstance, you can use your mobile phone camera and you don’t need any sort of production equipment. Upload your video directly to Facebook and be sure to keep it under 60 seconds. Your audience will appreciate the time you took to show them exactly what you’re doing at that moment.
This method is the most authentic form of video marketing and can be used to make direct and deep connections with your fans.
Here’s an example of Phil Town showing his audience what he’s up to in a brief holiday video:
Promote Your Product
“I want to promote my 10-part product to my current audience so they will start to purchase it.”
In this situation, you’ll want to use a production camera, quality audio, and lighting. Film your video in a studio to get this kind of quality. Promoting your product to your customers requires a better production and will help establish you as an authority in your niche.
Here is an example of a Marie Forleo video promoting her product:
Shooting General Content Videos For Email
“I want to shoot general content videos to share in my emails or on my blog to educate my audience.”
When shooting general content, shoot under decent lighting with quality audio. You may want to shoot this in a studio but you can definitely curtail this to the audience that you’re teaching. Upload your video to YouTube and other social media platforms.
Here’s a general content video of our client Brian Tracy to show you what I mean:
To sum up, planning is one of the most important parts of video marketing. Without it, you’ll end up with a mish-mashed, jumbled-up, confusing piece of content.
Opt for something a little more planned out that will work for your audience.
Looking for some video marketing services in San Diego? We have an awesome studio set up in the heart of downtown and can help you plan and execute any video ideas you have.
Comments on how you like to shoot your content videos? Leave one below. Get more digital marketing knowledge delivered right to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter.
This is a really great blog. If you think of these questions before you shoot your marketing videos, this should help you get a much better product created.