You’ve heard about the growth of video as a marketing tool, you’re starting to notice video pop up on more and more websites and you’re considering adding video to enhance your marketing efforts. Where do you start? The following is a list of things to consider before starting your next video project.
1. What is your goal? Video for the sake of video is a bad idea. You should have a business goal in mind when you begin a video project. Am I trying to show people how my product or service works? Am I trying to provide engaging testimonials from my clients? Am I trying to highlight a complicated concept in simple terms? There are lots of ways to take advantage of video (See 26 ways to use video) but each one of them should have a well defined and measurable objective.
2. What is your budget? There are many factors that determine the cost of a video (See What does an Online Video cost). A video can cost under $1,000 to produce and it can cost tens of thousands of dollars. A video production company can take you through the process and show you examples and explain the cost associated with each type of video. That said, if you know you only have $ 2500 dollars to spend you will save everyone a lot of time and effort by saying so.
3. What can you bring to the table? Do you have a clearly defined audience, positioning strategy, business goals and market differentiators that should be highlighted in the video? Video is just another marketing medium – more engaging to be sure, but still a communications tool that has to be developed based on clear business objectives. Aside from a good budget, clear business guidance is the best thing you can provide to your video production company.
4. What should my video production company bring to the table? I remember a client telling me about an awful experience they had when a graphic designer redid their website. “It looked good but was sort of useless?” They hired a graphic designer… what did they expect? Videographers and video production companies come in many different shapes and sizes and have very different skills. Some production companies do corporate work to maintain cash flow between entertainment projects. Some independent videographers are great camera people but have limited business experience. Some social media companies have great experience with web 2.0 projects but may have limited experience with video. Most ad agencies, design shops and marketing firms list video as a core competence. That may be true. Everyone has a specialty. It should be clear what skills and experience the companies you are considering bring to the table.
5. What is the timeline and approval process? Don’t leave this to chance. If you are planning a sizable production you will need a script and probably a storyboard. There should be no surprises. If you need approvals get them worked out before the shooting starts. Make sure you assign a project lead who is responsible for the outcome of the project.
6. Are you building in interaction? The more interaction you can build into the experience the more engaged the viewer is with your brand. Interest, engagement and interaction should be the goals of online video “Click here to…” is a good start. What do you want the viewer to do when they have finished watching your web video? How deep do you want to take your viewer in an interactive presentation? Ultimately conversion is what counts. What do you want the viewer to do after they have watched the video?
7. Show them, don’t tell them. Late night infomercials may be a marketing cliché, but you can’t deny the guilty pleasure of watching that little plastic blender create fourteen meals in 5 minutes. Educators and trainers have long known that the true benefit of video is that it generates much higher retention rates because it engages more than one of the senses at the same time. Retention rates can triple when what you hear is being reinforced by what you see. The ability to show your customers how your product works, how it solves their problems and how it is used by others is where video marketing and rich media is unsurpassed as a vehicle to engage and persuade your audience. A walk-through of your software interface may be helpful – but it doesn’t demonstrate to prospects the benefits of your product or how your products or services fit into their processes or business cycles. Video, animation and interactive flash programming can build compelling visual examples of exactly how your products work and why they solve your customers’ problems.
8. Are you supporting your brand? Good viral video can be very effective, but good viral video is really, really hard to do. Crappy viral video is surprisingly easy to accomplish. Video should be engaging and it should tell a good story, but it should also support your brand. If you goal is just to create entertainment then you should consider selling tickets. Your internal marketing team and/or ad agency have spent a lot of time and effort on building and supporting your brand. If one of the goals of your rich media efforts is ‘branding’ (building brand awareness) then it is essential that the style, tone and content of your video rich media tools all support your desired positioning in the marketplace. (Most viral videos seem to do the opposite of this today.)
9. Are you promoting the video? Posting the video on your website is a great start, especially if your site recieves a lot of traffic. But one of the true benefits of video over any other marketing medium is it’s reach. Websites as destinations are becoming less important. Social media and changing online behaviours are causing companies to bring their messages to where their audiences are online – instead of just hoping that people find your website.
10. Are you optimizing the video for SEO? Google likes video. You need to consider how you are promoting the ideas, the terms and keywords in your video to help with your SEO activities. Good meta data and titling are important.
11. Who’s perspective are you considering? There is only one perspective that matters in business – your customer’s. No one really cares about you or your product but they do care about how you might be able to solve their problem. Are you speaking your customers language?
12. Authenticity is important. Sure ‘authenticity’ has become a marketing cliche but social media is all about connecting on a human level. There are many different styles and approaches you can take when developing video but ‘authentic’ is a really good place to start.
13. Is your video Shareable? Are you going to put it up on YouTube, Facebook or any of the many other social media sites? Why not?
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