You’ve probably heard this before, but we’re going to say it again: video is the most effective way to promote a business and are suitable for any business. But the fact that video content has a good rate of success doesn’t mean that everyone should just pick up a camera and start filming and sharing anything, in the hope that it will bring us visibility and create business for us. Success in video marketing, just like in any other type of marketing, comes from great planning and well thought out strategies.
In video production, the planning stage is called “preproduction”.
How do you go about planning you video shoots? For starters, you need to answer a few questions.
1. What do you want to promote?
What do you want to get from the videos you are going to produce? How are they connected to the other elements of your marketing plan? Do you want more awareness around your business name? Do you want to promote a new product or service? Do you want to establish yourself better as a professional? All these goals will dictate what type of content you will produce and the way you wild address your audience.
2. What do you want viewers to do after they’ve watched your videos?
After you’ve decided what you want to say in your videos, you must think about the effect you want this content to have on viewers. Do you want your videos to make them act – buy, ask for free counseling, sign up for a newsletter, follow you on social media etc.? Then you will have to include a Call-To-Action in all your videos, a distinct indication of what you want them to do. The shape and message of this Call-To-Action will depend on your business profile and on what stage of the customer’s buying process your video is aiming for.
Which brings us to…
Create content that follows your customer’s buying process
Just like any other type of content, videos need to be part of a clear strategy that targets a certain customer profile. Once you’ve decided on this profile, you will also need to set your tone of voice and you will have to figure out where in the buying process that customer is.
The content you are publishing doesn’t necessarily need to try to sell, but to help the customers reach their goals, find answers to their questions and solutions to the problems they’re facing. You also need to take into consideration the fact that, in certain phases of the process, the customers might not be aware yet what problems they might want solved, so you might need to also guide them on this path as well.
Below we will be exploring the phases of the buying process and we will suggest different types of content that businesses can produce to help their customers. These phases make up what marketers call “the marketing funnel”, as the entire process, when represented graphically, resembles that particular household item.
The Awareness Phase
Your potential customer wants to find a solution to a problem he’s facing. Your role is to get in from of him and make him aware of who you are, but also to help him better identify the problem he wants to solve and to understand why you are the answer to his problem.
Helpful in this phase are:
– Content that is brief and to the point
– Motivational and inspirational videos
– Funny videos about you company culture
– How-to videos that are short and fun to watch
– Calls to look for more in-depth content
The Evaluation Phase
In this stage, the customer has already identified the problem and has started to look closer for ways to solve it. Now is the time for you to show them the solutions you offer. You can explain to them why these solutions are a good fit, and you can establish a relationship between them and your brand.
In this phase, you can produce:
– Medium-length content
– Content that blends information and entertainment
– Explainer videos
– Product demos
– Customer testimonials
– Case studies
– Calls to access content that will help them make a decision
The Decision Phase
The customer is ready to make the purchase, and al he’s doing now is decide what to buy and from whom. Your role now is to present yourself as the obvious solution, through thorough explaining, reviews, guides and discounts.
In the Decision phase, you can publish:
– Videos of any length
– Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
– Testimonials, reviews and “unboxing”-type videos (product unpacking and first sight reviews)
– Thorough user guides
– Calls To Action referring to offers or discounts that convince the customer to buy
The Preproduction Plan
For the planning to be as simple and as efficient as possible, you need to answer the following questions:
1. Why? What is the purpose of the video? This information should be share with everyone involved in the project, so that everyone knows what the end-result needs to be.
2. Who? Assign roles for all you team members. Decides who will appear on camera, who will be doing the filming, who will edit, publish and promote the final product.
3. What? What is the step-by-step “battle plan” for the shoot? What is the script, what products or props do you need, what will you set dressing look like, will you require special effects, makeup, costumes etc.? A few well-written paragraphs will do wonders, because they will help you make sure you’re not missing anything,
4. Where and How? Settle on your filming locations and the days or times of day when you will need to film in each of them. Make sure they are accessible, that you won’t be interrupted, or you won’t be interrupting others. Again, send all this information to everyone involved, so they have time to prepare everything.
What video format will you choose?
It’s not enough to only decide that you’re going to produce a video, that piece of content needs to have a clear structure, a preset length and so on. The format that you choose will influence distribution, as well as the impact that these videos will have on the audience.
Live videos
Live videos are some of the easiest to produce pieces of video content, especially since now there are smartphones and tablets capable of shooting high-definition video. You can go live on channels such as Facebook or YouTube and you can see who’s watching and reacting in real time. But don’t limit your production to this type of video only, because live videos also have disadvantages, such as the fact that there are no redo’s and any mishaps will be seen by everyone in attendance.
Short videos
People are becoming busier, information is coming at them from all directions, and their attention spans have adapted to this. Short videos have higher chances of attracting and keeping viewer attention, for the simple reason that they don’t take much time. So, if you’re not targeting an audience who is passionate about your domain, the best way to go about is to keep your videos short, If, however, you decide to take on a more complex topic, you can use short videos as teasers for your longer productions, and this way you will know that you’ve attracted an audience who is actually interested in seeing that content.
Long videos
In a long video, you can feature any type of content. You can upload it to YouTube, you can embed it into your website, on its own page, and if the information is truly valuable, you can even charge an access fee for it.
