Steps to Implement a Business Video Production Strategy

Posted April 7, 2017

In a world where technology is constantly changing, it is very important to stay ahead of the curve. Whether you work in a business selling products or services, it is crucial that you market to your potential customers in a platform they are most likely to use to seek you out. Now more than ever, customers are turning to video marketing to evaluate which product or service provider they want to use. Therefore, the importance of business video production cannot be emphasized enough.

Here are some important statistics highlighting the importance of business video production for marketing, according to HubSpot.com:

Using video in an email leads to a 200-300% increase in the click through rate
Including video on a website’s landing page increases the conversion rate by 80%
After watching a video, 64% of users more likely to purchase a product or service
65% of executives visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video

As the above statistics illustrate, if you’re not already incorporating business video production into your marketing efforts, it’s certainly worth getting started. In addition to making marketing videos to educate your customers on your service or product offerings, taking advantage of video marketing will also help to increase your Google rankings. Remember, Google owns YouTube, so YouTube videos are a great way to drive more traffic to your website, thus improving your organic SEO on Google. Especially since the majority of businesses are not producing videos, doing so will both make your business stand out and greatly improve your search engine ranking with the unique, original content you are consistently producing for your business.

Producing marketing videos doesn’t have to be a difficult process; in fact, it’s quite easy to do once you know the steps to do so coupled with a little preparation. We’ve compiled a step by step guide of the process which will hopefully help you simplify the process.

Step 1: Decide the Purpose of the Video

Before you begin any new project, video marketing projects included, you need to clearly define the purpose of the project. Are you making the video as an “About Us” to showcase your business? Are you specifically highlighting a product or service? Are you making a “How To” video to educate your customer base? Who is your target audience? What is the goal of the video? How will this video illustrate your brand?

Addressing all of these questions up front will help clarify the purpose of the video, and make it easier to stay on task when producing it. Additionally, it will simplify completing the following steps. When deciding the purpose of your video marketing project, being as specific as possible in terms of the goals and end result will make the whole process go that much smoother.

If this is your first time in business video production, it never hurts to get some guidance from an expert in the field. Many times, they can show you the in’s and out’s of how to produce the best videos and cover all the bases. Then, once you learn from them, you can continue on your own incorporating what you learned.

Step 2: Outline the Topics and Frequency of Videos

Your videos should flow like a story. The topics should be closely related on the products or services you’re offering, and should all have a consistent theme and message. Just as TV shows have similar into’s, endings, and story lines, the marketing videos you produce for your business should all have similar themes.

Additionally, you should decide the frequency of your video marketing program. Whether you are producing videos once per week, once per month, or once per quarter, be consistent! As with blog posts, Google favors consistency. I.E. it is better to produce short videos consistently then to try to make “home runs” with every video but only producing them infrequently. Even if you only produce a video once every 3 months, make sure you’re sticking to that schedule both to keep customer interest and for Google’s search algorithm.

Step 3: Proper Equipment for Business Video Production or Better Yet, Hire a Pro!

If in doubt on what equipment to purchase, or to eliminate any uncertainties you may have, it doesn’t hurt to hire an expert in the field of video production. Often, in a very short amount of time, a professional videographer can help answer any questions you may have on the best equipment to purchase or otherwise. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel on something you’ve never done before when a quick call with a professional can answer all your questions and ensure you get started on the right foot!

This should go without saying, but before producing your video, think the process through and make sure you have the proper equipment you’ll need. For example, if it is a dark room or environment, you will need proper lighting. If the videos are solely for YouTube, there are video cameras that are “plug and play” and are specifically designed to format and post the video to YouTube as soon as the video is complete.

If you’re producing marketing videos on products, make sure you have the proper backgrounds so the product looks as good as it can. The point is, you don’t want to have to stop the video halfway through because you forgot to think of something and/or forgot to purchase all the equipment you needed. Video cards, batteries, lighting, and props are all things you may need to think of before shooting your business marketing video.

Step 4: Call to Action

When relevant and in general, your business video production should end with a call to action. Whether it’s a call to action to purchase your product or service, or a call to action to remember X, Y & Z in a How To video, there should almost always be a call to action at the end of your video. This helps with customer engagement, and reminds the viewer why they just viewed your video. Even if the call to action is a short one, like “don’t forget the following important points we just went over,” there should be a short conclusion at the end of your video that brings everything to a smooth ending.

Step 5: Keep It Short

In creating videos for marketing, always remember, less is more. For many people, their life is way too busy to spend a whole lot of time on one form of media. Even extremely interesting videos that go viral and get many clicks, many people will not finish the video if it is too long. Think of how busy you are… do you generally have more than a few minutes to spend watching a video? Although the length of your video will vary depending on the topic and purpose, in general, any video you produce should not be longer than two or three minutes.

https://vimeo.com/144424467

Step 6: Review Performance Metrics

After posting your marketing video to YouTube and your other social media platforms and/or your website, always remember to review the performance metrics of the video. How many people viewed the video? What was the average length of time people spent on the page containing the video?

After making several of these videos, the metrics will serve as an important guide on which videos did the best and why. They will help you as you brainstorm your topics for your next marketing videos, making sure that you are creating videos based on topics that have a high user interest level and are more likely to be viewed and generate interest. Creating videos based on your target market’s interest level is crucial, as people are not going to watch videos on topics they are not interested in.

Of course, after your hard work brainstorming and creating these videos you will have a tendency to think they are all interesting. However, the analytics and metrics will factually and unbiasedly tell you which ones your target market enjoyed the most, providing you with the trends and data you should base your future videos on.

Have you thought about what kind of video strategy would work well for your business? Have you implemented business video production? Let us know in the comments section below, we would love to hear from you!

For more information on video marketing and business video production, please contact Chicago Corporate Photo and Video at 312-623-3456 or at studio@chicagophotovideo.com.