There’s no denying that video is an essential aspect of content marketing in the 2020s. In this blog series, we are unpacking the 7 Essential Steps of Video Production, beginning here with step one: Strategy.
Perhaps you’ve heard something to the effect of the Five P’s before: Proper Planning Promotes Phenomenal Production.
It’s true: before any video ventures are taken onboard, having a solid strategy in place is the crucial first step of seven. Its importance doesn’t have to make stressful or complex rocket science. Strategy, as we’ve devised it, is founded on two straightforward key aspects, as follows:
1. Determine your goals
It is essential you know from the beginning why you are making the video. Why walk down that path at all? We already know how well video content performs, so it’s time to cater it to you. This should be answered by your goals – or the question: what do you want to achieve with this video?
- If your answer sounds like any of the following:
- “To generate leads”
- “To increase brand awareness”
- “To make more profit”
- “To increase engagement”
Then the path remains dark, without direction.
These goals lack drive, they are without strength. “Goals” like these are hardly goals at all; it’s money-out on wishful thinking, and likely to get you lost in a video-void black hole.
Fortunately, we have a roadmap for a successful video production strategy starting point, illustrating the SMART goal structure. A SMART goal structure sets up your goals to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Your video goals need to be Specific. They cannot be as vague as those listed above. Your true goals will answer the questions that arise from those broad ideas, detailing the ends you want and the means by which you will achieve them.
To see results, your goal needs to be Measurable. Considering those previous half-goals: How many leads, and to what end? Increase by how much? How much more profit, by what deadline? By how much do you want to increase engagement, who do you want to engage more, and in what way? By putting a specific number to your goal, your progress becomes measurable. Being able to see your progress removes the blindfold, so you can see the lights that lead you to the realistic end of the tunnel.
Example of a measurable goal: “We want to use video marketing to see a 20% increase in our brand awareness by 1 September this year.”
Speaking of realistic, the goal you set needs to be Attainable. Ambition is always admirable, but there’s no point setting your sights on world domination by the time our next blog post is out, when all it will do is crush your dreams and your drive with the blow of inevitable failure. Keep your feet on the ground and be pragmatic in what is possible, and what is plausible. Increase website traffic by 12% in 12 weeks, increase brand awareness by 40% across Australia, world domination by the end of the year, after a few more tunnels, bridges and highways…
On the note of pragmatism — if it isn’t related to you, your field, and/or doesn’t benefit you, then… What are you doing in this tunnel? Any goal you set out to achieve must be Relevant. Make sure the conversation is about you, and not just about the latest trends. Having a relevant goal will reward you with relevant results, and increase your ROI. Unless you want to give away free money to entertain people — if so, your tunnel just became an escape room.
Finally, put your goal to a Timeframe. Since you have set a measurable goal, you have an idea of when it could be attained. When do you need your video to be made by? How long will the campaign run for? By what date to you want to have those goals met? If having a measurable goal gives you progress lights to guide you, having that end-date in mind is a light at the end of the tunnel.
A SMART video production strategy is a strong strategy: and a strong strategy is understanding and defining (as accurately as possible) what your desired outcomes are. Being able to articulate in detail what pertinent outcomes you want and are able to achieve in a specific time frame is the key. Articulate this key, and you can unlock the halfway door to your video marketing goal.
- Explore your audience.
Now you’ve got your SMART goal organised, next you need to understand your customers, in all their different subsets. It is crucial you determine how they are different from everyone else, and how they are different from each other. Your target audience may be broad and share commonalities, or they may be as individual and niche as a multi-faceted diamond, requiring a bespoke, targeted approach.
Depending on how you need to reach your audience, your approach could look like one of the following:
- a 10-second vertical video campaign, specific for social media platforms on mobile to drive traffic to your website
- a series of TV commercials to increase brand awareness
- an engaging explainer video to showcase your product and services to call your audience to action, converting them to customers
- a combination of the above, specifically catered to your goals and audience subsets
Within this exploration of your audience, there is a key question you need to have answered:
What is a problem each subgroup of your customers face, for which you (your products/services) are the solution?
With the key of the SMART goals and your understanding of what it is your audience needs that you provide, a video concept is beginning to take shape. The better your understanding of your audience’s pain points, the more effective and engaging your video will become – and that points your path in the direction of the light at its end.
We explore this aspect more in the next blog post of this 7-part series, as we enter into chapter two of video production: Scripting.
Strategy is the just the beginning of a successful video production: the foundation of the path. For our team here at redbikini, we’re passionate about the strategic video production adventure. If you want to have a conversation over coffee about your strategic direction, to understand your audience in-depth, or to refine your business goal with a cutting-edge corporate video production company, give redbikini a call today.
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