Story
At 522 we place a lot of value on the story in each and every video we produce. The story is what connects with your audience and makes your video content standout in the crowd. But, what are some of the questions that need to considered when developing your story? Here are a few to get going:
- What are the primary items you want your audience to understand, connect with or be encouraged to do?
- Why does your audience care about your content?
- If you were to summarize your video in two sentences, what would they be?
- Other than video, what other types of material (i.e., photos, brochures, presentations) resonate with your audience?
Audience
Another one of the most important places to start is your audience. It is critical to define who your audience is and what they care about. Here are a series of questions you can use to jumpstart the process of confirming your audience:
- Who are your current customers?
- Who are your potential clients?
- Who is your “ideal” customer? Most profitable?
- The media?
- Employees?
- Potential recruits?
- What are their demographics?
- Do you need to do any additional research to find out the answers to these questions?
Purpose
Creating a video without a clear and defined purpose is a waste of time and money. Take some time to determine what impact the video should have on your audience. Here are some questions to consider:
- Why are you creating the video?
- What message are you trying to convey?
- Are you trying to sell something?
- Are you trying teach something?
- Are you promote something?
- What should the viewer do after watching the video? Is there a call to action?
Style
The style of the video enhances the overall presentation to your viewer – it is what makes the video convey your message in a way that will resonate with the audience. To get some direction on the style, consider these questions:
- What style of video inspires you?
- What tone do you want to deliver to your audience? Professional? Serious? Humorous? Light-hearted?
- What other types of videos do you like? Do you have samples?
- What elements of your brand standout? Are you viewed as being modern? Conservative?
- What is the voice that defines your brand, and how can you use that to get your message across?
Delivery
Before you execute the project, you need to consider how the video will be distributed. This can affect certain aspects of the video. For example – if you intend to host the video on social media, a shorter and more casual style might work best. However, if the video is for a fundraising event, a more in-depth approach may be better. Consider these questions during the pre-production phase of your project:
- How will you deliver your message? Is the video going to be used mostly on the web? In presentations?
- How will you distribute your video so that people will watch it? What types of formats do you need?
- How will your audience know you have a video to watch? What is your marketing strategy?
- How can you measure the success of your video distribution? Do you have analytics available once your video is live?
- Are you going to host your video on YouTube or on your own web server? Or, are you going to leverage a content delivery network?
Budget
Another item to consider is your budget. At 522 we’ve seen a wide range of budgets, and we can confidently tell you that it is possible to tell your story at different price points. Make sure that the firm you choose is transparent with their pricing and willing to work on what options will create the best quality video at the right price.
There are a lot of questions that need to be addressed before starting your video project, but don’t let it be overwhelming. Take each of these considerations one at a time. Asking yourself or your team these questions helps to focus your the vision for your video and prevents you from leaving any loose ends untied. If you’re interested in learning more about developing video content for your organization, check out our first timer’s guide to producing video.