Content is key to driving visitors to your site, building your brand and as a result increasing revenue. But this isn’t just about writing blog posts or articles, it includes social media content, podcasts and videos too! In particular, video content has become hugely influential in recent years and the best part is, it doesn’t take lots of fancy tech, big budgets and lighting studios; video can be cheap and easy to make if you know what you’re doing. Through video content you can build your brand, give advice, showcase your company culture and even share testimonials.
But if you’ve never created and shared videos before, it can feel a little daunting. That said, you need to move with the trends if you hope to stay competitive. And while you may be thinking ‘but my industry really isn’t very exciting, what would I even share?’, that’s OK too. No matter your industry or business there will always be engaging content you can share with your audience. So, if you’re not sure what to do, we have put together this guide to help.
Understand why you’re creating this content
There is no point aimlessly making videos, no matter how interesting, humorous or inspiring these may be. You need to create and share video content with your overall goals in mind. For example, is your key goal to boost your brand, attract new hires to your business or make sales? You need to think about what it is you’re actually trying to achieve before you do anything else. This will help you to shape your content and begin putting plans in place to see maximum results.
Consider your target audience
On a similar note, you need to make sure you’re planning and creating videos with your target audience in mind. If you’re targeting a specific demographic then put some thought into the kind of content they enjoy, this will also help you think about where best to share your videos. For example, younger generations favor social media platforms such as Instagram, so this could be the best place to target them. Whoever you are creating your content for, take some time to do your research on your target audience so you can reach as many people as possible.
Don’t just make it all about you
It sounds odd, but you don’t want your video just to be all about you and your business. For people to engage with content it needs to add value to them in some way, so sharing video after video about why your products are great probably won’t get you very far. That said, you can share the occasional business update or testimonial, just make sure this isn’t the whole basis of your video content.
Instead you should primarily offer advice or insight to your audience, these could be in the way of reviews, tutorials or other useful content. This is particularly important if you deem your business or industry to be on the more tedious side of things, think of interesting and helpful ways you can bring value to your target audience.
Plan what you’re going to do
You don’t want to take the ‘grab a camera and go’ approach, as this could lead to many failed videos and a lot of time wasted. Instead you want to carefully plan your content before you actually begin filming, this will make the process more efficient and ensure the best results. Organize a planning session where everyone can share their ideas. At this point it’s best to reiterate your goals, target audience and budget – this will help your team to come up with the best suggestions.
You’ll also need to choose a good location for filming your videos (this might even be in your office) and decide who are going to be the stars of your video content. You might be able to use staff for this, alternatively you might want to hire people in. This will all depend on your budget. Make sure you’ve got a strong plan in place, including a storyboard and script – even if these are very basic and change later on. This will ensure you’re prepared when the time comes to start filming.
Create authentic and valuable content
It’s time to start filming! But before you do, one really important thing to keep in mind at this point is the human factor. You might have produced a script and detailed plan for the video, but rigid, overly scripted content doesn’t tend to do to well with audiences, so aim to get a nice flow going and allow your stars to be off-the-cuff if the mood takes them. It’s best to create authentic content and edit it afterwards as this will feel more real and be more likely to engage your audience.
Add subtitles
Nowadays a huge amount of video content is consumed without even having the sound on. Whether this is because people are on the train, at their desk or in a busy restaurant, it is more common to keep the sound down and read the subtitles instead. So, it’s always a good idea to add these to your video, this way more people are likely to watch it, regardless of where they are.
Don’t get hooked on perfection
It seems an odd thing to say to not try and make your videos perfect, but the truth is as with anything, if you spend too long obsessing over small details, you’ll never get anything done. Sometimes a spontaneous video shot from a phone is better than an overproduced clip that you spent days making. Remember, this is not going on TV and while you want your content to be high-quality, the most important thing is to bring your audience what they want. So, don’t get hung up on your employee’s slightly crooked tie, or the fact that someone walked into the background. As long as your content is engaging and speaks for itself, that’s all that matters!
Author Bio
Stuart Cooke is the Director of Levity Digital, an SEO agency based in the UK helping businesses to create content that their audience wants to see. You can follow him on Twitter.