Robert Weiss
Regardless if you are new to online business video production or a pro, if you use a professional video production services company or create video content in-house, the most important part of business video production is everything that happens offline, before the actual production.
Companies of all sizes are realizing that video production for their business is an important part of their marketing communication and sales mix because business decision makers would rather watch video than read text. These companies also realize that a well thought out business sales or marketing video can communicate more in a shorter amount of time than text.
So if you fall into the camp of executing on a video content marketing strategy, then pre-production planning is something you should get good at really quick. Here are 3 steps to help you plan and prepare for a constant flow of business video production content.
Step 1 – Make sure that your business video production follows your core business goals
Just like your business has different types of communications at different times over the sales process, that same kind of approach should be taken when looking at video. Deciding on what business videos to produce should mimic what is important to your product/service releases, industries you want to go after, or bottlenecks in the sales process. Once these decisions are made, write 2 or 3 of these ideas down as some may be beyond your budget or capabilities to execute.
Step 2 – What is the marketing objective, and therefore distribution, of your business video production project?
Many companies think that one video is a video content marketing strategy, and try to shove everything into a 3-5 minute video. Just like different marketing programs have distinct goals, one video is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Video production content is a piece of the puzzle in your marketing/sales plans. So depending on the type of goals you have at any given time (branding, thought leadership, lead conversion, nurturing, or in your sales process) combined with the type of distribution channel you will use for that goal (advertising, SEO, PPC, trade shows, emails, sales teams) will dictate the type of content you will prepare for your business video content marketing project.
Watch the video below for how to make the best use of a budget in order to build a solid video content marketing strategy.
Step 3 – Coordinate and plan your business video production content toward your key messaging
Once you have decided the business focus and marketing objective of your video, you can start to think about whether one or many videos will achieve your objective. Then begin to outline the key topics with 2–3 subtopics that you would typically discuss if you were in person.
If you have a specific product or service that fits well into multiple industries, you may want to do a video that targets each industry. Furthermore, many of these sales need to get buy-in from multiple decision makers… so you can make videos that talk to a CFO differently than to a CIO or a CMO.
This is an important part of planning. If you write down what you would typically say or questions that you would answer with prospective customers in a meeting, phone call, or other personal interactions, your business video production will include meaningful information that future buyers need to know.
Once you have your videos planned out on paper, you can set up the day of your video production shoot with a professional video production services company or your own in-house resources. This ensures that each video will be specific to your business goals, your marketing objectives, and the information your customers need to know in order to buy from you.
While this article focuses on the pre-production process of video production, a solid and professional team of video production resources should not be overlooked. There are too many articles and people out there suggesting that a professional services company can make good video content with their mobile device… this article is not one of them.
A professional video production services company can help you with your pre-production planning and help you make decisions that best fit your budget and save you a great deal of time. They will take your ideas and make sure you have the best shots planned, that people are prepared, and that editing gets you the best ROI for your video production.
They call it video “production” for a reason.
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