Video marketing is a tool as well as an art form. There are a lot of things to consider with video including aesthetic and technical considerations. You have to consider music, shape, motion, graphics, and voice, as well as other elements. In business videos, these elements all work as a tool to promote your business. Video marketing can be a very effective way to convey your message.

You need to think about where your finished video is going to be viewed, typically on a website either streamed or downloaded. Websites are interactive but with video the user has a little less control and a little less interaction. A video captures attention but the viewer doesn’t always stick around to the end of the video because they can easily click away from it if they are bored or distracted. Nearly half of a video’s viewers leave a video after the first 60 seconds. Thoughtful planning can help to keep a viewer’s attention longer.

Consider the following when planning your marketing video:

• Identify your audience and their demographics. Discover why your target audience reacts to certain things the way they do. Profile your audience by creating focus groups or simply asking your target audience questions so that you understand where they’re coming from and why. It will also give you an opportunity to test some of your initial video ideas on them.
• Identify the communication objectives of the video. Your video should deliver a single clear message so you don’t overwhelm the viewer with too many messages. Video is not the only communication tool so you don’t have to throw all of your information into it. Your video will be more powerful with just one message. What is the most important thing that you want to convey to your target audience? If you try to provide too much information your video will be less effective. Keep it simple. If you have a clear communication objective in mind then you will have a good blueprint for your video. As you are in the various production phases of your video keep referring back to your communication objectives to insure that you are still on target.
• Identify the call-to-action. Before beginning your video production consider what action you want the viewer to take. What do you want your targeted audience to know, do, see, feel, or understand after they have watched your video?
• What are your existing marketing efforts and how does the use of a video complement those efforts?
• Identify the tone. What is the tone of the video is it serious, funny, or dramatic? What emotion do you want your targeted audience to feel when watching your video, trust, excitement, concern?
• Determine the length. How long should your video be? Typically shorter videos are better. Make your video only as long as it needs to be to convey your message.
• Creativity should be a goal of your video if you want viewers to watch your entire video. Adding elements of surprise will help to keep suspense as well as the audience.
• Create a think tank. Brainstorm and generate ideas with a group of several people. Search for ideas online as well as in print media and on TV and in movies, this can help to inspire creativity.
• When you know your objective, understand your audience, and have several creative ideas then you are ready to create a storyboard and begin a script. When you move to the production step of the video creation there are 3 phases: pre-production, when you select the cast, scout locations, gather a crew and equipment, the production phase includes working with the cast and crew to shoot of the video, the post-production phase includes the editing of the video.

Throughout the whole process, your video will evolve more than likely your finished product will not be exactly the same as your initial ideas would suggest, but that’s okay. As long as you have kept your communication objective and targeted audience in mind then you will create a video that will encourage your audience to respond to your call-to-action.