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7 Best Practices for Creating a Compelling Video Concept
These days, business video production is becoming a mainstay of any corporate marketing effort. Perhaps it’s because companies who utilize video in marketing campaigns grow 49% faster year-over-year, enjoy 34% higher web conversion rates, and experience 27% higher click-through rates than those who do not.
Maybe upper-level management has told your marketing team to start making videos So how do you go about determining what to put in them? Here are seven best practices for accomplishing this goal:
1. The creative brief
Before you can begin the process of creating a video concept, you must first figure out what you want the video to do. Some marketers refer to this phase as filling out a “creative brief,” which basically means answering a handful of questions about the purpose of the video. What’s the core message of the video? What action do you want viewers to take? Who is your intended audience?
2. The “problem” highlighted in the video
Since customers patronize your business because it offers something that can fulfill their needs, you’ll want to demonstrate that in your video. But which “problem” are you choosing that can be “solved” by the content of your video? Does your product make customers’ lives easier? Does it make them more money?
3. Brainstorm
Now comes the stage where you and your team can start brainstorming ideas—but each person should do this alone. That way, each team member’s ideas aren’t affected by the views or concerns of others. The goal is to come up with a lengthy list of ideas—anything from a customer being helped by a staff member to a parody video that showcases your brand’s creativity.
4. Compare ideas
Once the brainstorming is complete, all team members should gather to review the ideas, then gradually whittle down the list until you have a creative idea (or two or three) that you will embrace for your video. Make sure that the finalist(s) adheres to the notes that were fleshed out in the creative brief.
5. Brainstorm—again
Once you’ve come up with the creative idea, you aren’t done. You must now brainstorm the execution of the idea in the video, which addresses issues like the look, feel, and practicalities of your finished product. Should it be animated? Are you using an on-camera spokesperson or portraying a role-playing scenario? Will you embrace a particular theme? (Again, brainstorming should be done alone.)
6. Compare execution strategies
As with step four, team members should reconvene and discuss all of the approaches for executing the video’s creative idea. Feel free to use whiteboards, storyboards, or artistic software to convey a particular execution strategy. Pare the list down to one or two execution options before proceeding.
7. Pre-production
You’re just about ready to begin production! But first, you should document your idea and execution so that everyone who looks at it has a fairly solid grasp of what the video will be. This final stage also serves to illuminate (and eliminate) any facet of the video which is impossible, impractical, or too cost prohibitive. Examples include a specific visual effect that your software cannot reproduce or an aerial camera shot for which you don’t have the equipment.
There’s one more thing to do before you start making your business video: partner with an experienced video production crew. Unless the idea and execution strategy are straightforward, the expertise of professional camerapeople, directors, lighting people, set designers, and others will be necessary to guide your video from concept to end product successfully.
Once your video has been completed, you can start distributing it to your proper marketing channels. Then you can start the process of coming up with a new video to produce.
If you need to hire an experienced production crew, contact us for more information.
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