Just recently I was approached by a coworker. He told me he was given a budget for video marketing to produce a corporate video for his department. As the marketing director he came to me for help. “The video will be all about what’s it’s like to work at our company”, he told me.

So he asks me to go ahead and create that video for him. I asked a few simple questions.

Do you have a script or outline? “No”, he said. Do you have a list of key points to be made? Again he said no. Is there a general theme? And what about style? This time his answer was, “I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it. I though you were the expert in corporate video”. I continued, “Is it live action, animated explainer, animated infographic?”. Same response, “I don’t know. Can’t you handle all those little details”

I realize video production was not his area of expertise, but clearly he was not ready to make this video. Just as the old handyman saying goes, “ measure twice, cut once” so it is also true in video production that you need to go in with a plan that is carefully thought out before diving into production. I’ve seen this scenario before; a very intelligent client with extensive knowledge of his business who is long on enthusiasm but short on specifics.

So for those of you in my colleague’s situation or on the other side of the table, here are the essential stages of planning you must complete if your are hoping to produce a successful corporate video project, training video, or any type of business or marketing video.

Stage One: Define Your Purpose
Before producing a video you must first know why you are creating it. You must know how you will measure success and what the video needs to accomplish.

Stage Two: Narrow Your Message
You may be tempted to want to tell your audience everything about your company from your origin to every service offered. This is a recipe for disaster. The result will be an unfocused collection of information with no point that runs too long. You should be able to state the main point of the video in one sentence. That can be difficult and sometimes in might be two sentences but no more. If you struggle with this here is a way to approach it. State the point of your video in 10 sentences. Narrow it to eight, then six, and so on until you have it narrowed to one, maybe two sentences.

Stage Three: Define Your Audience
To whom are you talking? CEOs, engineers, owners of a competitor’s product, etc? Why are they interested in your message? Are you solving a problem or introducing a completely new idea. You will want to know this so your script is written in language and terminology they understand.

Stage Four: Style and Tone:
Will this video be funny or more serious? Will it be live action or animation? Will you use actors or employees?

Stage Five: Call To Action
What should your audience do after watching this video. Call your office for an appointment, log in and sign up for something, visit a landing page? You also need to be specific about what will happen once they take that action. Is it to buy a product or schedule a demo? It’s important to make this clear at the end of your business video. Resist the temptation to include multiple CTAs such as; “give us a call, or just visit our website for more information”. Make the call to action clear and definitive and let them know why they are taking that action and your response rate will be much higher.

Each of these steps must be completed before one word of your script is written. If you have ever had a brilliant idea that would make a great corporate video but struggled to put that into a clear concise video script let us know. We offer a free consultation that will help you focus your message and create a good, effective business, marketing, or training video.  Contact us at www.digitallagos.tv today.

Image credit: pixabay

 

 

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