Avoid Wasting Time and Money: Five Questions to Answer Before Creating A Promotional Video
You’re excited. As a business owner you are preparing to produce a video to promote your business, event or product. You’ll finally be on the same level with your competition and it’s for sure to drive in more business, right? Yes and no, like everything else in business the more you understand and have thought through the more successful and impactful you can be. Promotional media content for your business is no different, but what are the most important questions to answer before producing this content? Let’s find out.
5) Where is the film being used?
This question is usually the first one overlooked, and when it is asked usually the first answer you hear is “on our website and social media.” While an answer like that does help and at least tells you whether this piece will be airing on T.V. or not the answer is still quite broad. If your plan is to use a piece for online marketing you really need to know where the video will be posted and who your audience is on the platform. If you are using the video on YouTube, the tags, video description and video title become super important in helping people find it. YouTube works a lot like Google which is why tutorials and movie trailers get so many more views than your about video for your company. However, if your audience is mainly on Instagram you have multiple options for video length. Do you go with 15 second videos for your Instagram Stories, 60 second videos for your news-feed or do you go for longer videos and upload them to your IGTV channel? Figuring out the right combination of where to post videos and of what length might take some time but will pay off in the end.
4) What is the timeline for the project?
This question is especially important to answer if you are working with an outside production company. Knowing when you want to release the content allows you to know what might be doable when it comes to developing a concept. If you’re needing the finished video done in two weeks you will find yourself more limited in how many moving pieces you can have in the project. Likewise, if you have six months to produce the piece you will find yourself able to achieve more because you have the time to plan things out, rehearse, find the best people for the job, etc. Knowing your project timeline can also help you narrow down which production company to go with. Some might just be too booked to complete your project on time, others might be able to get it done quicker because they are currently in a slow spell.
3) What is the film about?
This is an easy question, right? The film will be about your business. While that may be the broad answer, the more dialed in and specific you can be the better. Are you wanting to grow a particular service your business offers, then maybe a promo focusing on that service featuring thoughts from the employees and customers will help. Is it a product you are wanting to sell, then you might want to do a film about how that product can improve people’s business or everyday lives. Or maybe this film is for people who just found your company and know nothing about you so you want to share how you can help them. Narrowing in like this on what your film is about can help clarify who your audience is, what the goal of the video is and how you are going to measure the success of the video.
2) What is your goal and how will you measure its success?
These two questions go hand in hand. One of the worst things a business can say is that we are just making this video because everyone else is. “Our competition has one so I guess we should do one to”. If you create a video with this being the answer to your goal, your video is doomed to fail. So, take the time to figure out what your goal is. It could be to get more email subscribers, to see an increase in revenue as a whole or for a certain product or service or to see increased web traffic. Knowing the goal will allow you to better decide what the concept for the video should or shouldn’t be. However; the second part of this question is just as important; how are you measuring the success of the video? While I have worked with many clients who knew what the goal was, many didn’t have a plan for measuring the success of the video. Being able to see how successful your video is 6 months, 12 months or even 2 years down the road will help you now whether something is or isn’t working and how to proceed with future videos in promoting your company.
1) Who is your target audience?
This one might seem like a no-brainier, but knowing and understanding your audience will give your upcoming content the best chance of success. If you go in trying to reach everyone with your new video you won’t make an impact, you have to go in with a narrow field that will allow you to focus on specific customers. For example, you may own a jewelry store with your target audience being men and women between the ages of 20-55. But if your new commercial is all about engagement rings you won’t want to cast that wide of a net. You’re going to want to narrow it down to men between maybe 20-35. On some recent projects for a camp we did we made certain videos with the kids in mind, focusing on showing and saying things that would get them excited to come to the camp. Likewise, we also produced separate videos that would allow parents to understand the heart and value behind the camp, something kids aren’t going to be as interested in learning. It’s also important to understand where to find your target audience. If you’re target audience spends most of their time on social media but you’re running this video only on TV then you are missing your potential audience. Knowing your audience can help immensely when it comes to developing a concept as you look at what types of stories, genres or content will make the most impact with them.
If you reached this point of the article you might be breaking into a nervous sweat. Maybe you’re realizing you didn’t answer any of these questions when producing your last piece of promotional content. Maybe you realized you haven’t even answered these questions for your business as a whole. Not to worry, its never too late to answer these questions and watch as your business grows. When it comes to the realm of video production and promotional media, a good production company should be able to sit down and help you answer these questions for your next project if you haven’t already. In fact many of the good companies will make it a point to ask these questions early on in any discussion about a potential project.
So whether you’ve had these answered for years, are going back to the drawing board to figure it out or seeking help from someone to discover the answers know that the time will be rewarded with the value they will bring to you and your business