In this blog post, I’m going to walk you through the stages you need to go through, to plan an effective video, so you can start creating video content that can really transform your business.
Critically we’ll also learn about how to establish the why, who and what of your video content – to make sure that your video marketing hits the spot every time.
The secret to great video is planning
Video works best when you tell the right story to the right people. Master this equation and you can unlock the real power video, which can transform business for the better in so many ways. So, before you go anywhere near a video camera, or any online forum discussions about what editing software to use, you need to plan. It may seem boring, but sadly it’s true.
1 – Identify what your business needs are
Do you need more leads? Do you need more brand awareness? Do you need to improve conversion rates? Whatever it is, you need to narrow these objectives down because these need to remain front and center during the entire process of producing your video, to make sure you end up creating video that will meet those needs.
2 – Decide how video can help you
What type of video do you need to produce? For example, it could be a profile video, a product demo, or an interview with an industry expert.
There are hundreds of types of video that can be created to meet different needs, but fundamentally, the type of video you choose to produce must be driven by an actual defined need in your business. You need to remember, video is just a tool to help you and your business get from where you are now, to where you want to go. It’s really easy to find yourself getting wrapped up and diverted by exciting, creative things in video world.
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3 – Keep your focus on the end goal – the ‘Why’
I get it. I love video. I love filming stuff. The creative process is brilliant. But we need to come back to the fact that video is a means to an end, not the end in itself. It’s all very well spending money and investing time in making pretty pictures, but that must be pictures with a purpose. If the video doesn’t achieve the goals you set out for them, what’s the point?
4 – Define your audience
So, you’ve defined the why of your video, what goals in your business you want the video to help you with. The next thing is to work out who you need to talk to. Your audience.
Who these people are will vary hugely, depending on your exact situation and the nature of your business. You may have a number of different sets of people who interact with your business or you may only deal with one group. The point is you need to know who they are, their characteristics, and most importantly their pain points, the issues that they have that your product or service will help alleviate or solve.
Now, I’m assuming that you have a clear idea of your client personas or customer avatars. They may even form part of your marketing strategy already, which would be fantastic. But if you haven’t, I would urge you to invest time in profiling these people and going through the process of creating customer avatars for your products or services as soon as you can – before you make any content.
But if you have yet to spend time really getting to understand who your clients are, then the danger is your communications with them may only have limited effectiveness, because it may not be focused or delivered in the right way. Knowing your audience would of course have a massive bearing on how you talk to them. Not only that, but the ‘who’ also influences the content and messaging of your video, which is why it’s so vital you identify who your video is aimed at.
5 – Include Call-to-Action
So, the final piece of this puzzle is the ‘what’. What action do we want the audience to take? Having watched the video, this links directly to the ‘why’ of the video. The goal. What do we need the audience to do so that we hit our goal? Do we want them to pick up the phone and have a consultation? Do you want to encourage them to book into a webinar or do you want to tip them into a buying decision of a product of yours?
Whatever the action is, it ideally should be clearly defined, so it’s measurable. In this way, you can accurately track the ROI of your video content, which is vital, if you want to keep a close eye on what is working for you, but equally what is not. The videos call to action could be overt too, just such as asking the audience to do something.
However, the key to this is to keep it simple. Don’t ask people to do too many things in one video, because they probably won’t. Complexity is never a good thing, especially if you’re trying to convert a sale. The expression has it right. A confused person never buys
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Conclusion
I hope this has helped you in planning your next video. We’ve delved into the ‘why’, the ‘who’ and the ‘what’, all critical elements to creating successful video content. Please do let me know what you think. Or if you have any questions, drop me a line below. If you have any ideas for what you’d like to see me cover in future, then please let me know in the comments.
