Why does your company need a web video? According to Adam Hayes
@wyzowl in 2020 “85% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. What’s more, 92% of marketers who use video say it's an important part of their marketing strategy.” One more statistic, “88% of video marketers reported that video gives them a positive ROI.”
Now that we’ve established that you should use video, let’s talk about how to make that all important web video.
Who is your audience?
You must start with this question. Knowing your audience is vital to whether a video works or its just filler on your page. We are not necessarily talking demographics, but that does play into it. You need to know what brought your audience to your website, why they are interested in your product and how they will use it. You need to target your audience. The shotgun approach won’t work. I video for all people is a video for no people. Know your audience.
What is your message?
Just like with an audience, web videos with one message work better than videos with multiple messages. The way to decide your message is to ask yourself, “at the end of this video, what do I want my audience to do?” Videos are great communication tools. Videos can use visuals and sounds to accomplish many outcomes. Do you want your audience to pull out their wallets? Do you want them to understand how to use your product? Do you want them to change their lifestyles? Video is the best medium for pulling heartstrings. When you get a person’s emotions involved they are more likely to do what you want them to do. Know your message.
How do you convey your message to your audience?
After you know your audience and your message, you need to start thinking about how you will communicate that message. You need to think about the script. Whether you hire a professional video production company or you do it in-house the first thing you do is start working on a script. No one ever goes out to make a video without first putting pen to paper (fingers to keyboard). Sit down at your desk and think about what is visually interesting about your company. Do some brainstorming and put some ideas down. Once you have your ideas, work them around and see if they fit into the message you want to convey. Pretty soon you will have the backbone of an outline for your script. Once you have an outline then you can work on the words. You don’t need fancy script-writing software, any word processor will do. Like any speech, report or fairytale, a web video has a beginning, a middle and an end. The old adage, “tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them” works every time. Start strong, give them good information in the middle, then finish strong.
You know your audience, you know your message and you’ve put the words together that gets that message to that audience. Go and make a web video.
