Checklist Before You Even Think About Video

A video might look easy to create. You might think you only need a phone call, an email, or a text message to request a video production. In reality, it takes numerous steps from beginning to completion. These pre-production preparations are not only for the production team, but they also serve as a guide for the client. It shows what’s involved and what’s expected. And importantly, what the production team can offer.
Before taking that step to start a video marketing campaign for your brand, here’s a video checklist to guide you in making the decision.

Checklist:

1. Clear goal and objectives before investing on a video 

A video campaign without a goal is planning for failure. Ask these questions before you start:

• What is it going to be about?
• How will you measure ROI after the campaign?
• Who are the target audience?
• Are you aiming to get as much exposure?
• Would videos do better compared to photo and text ads?

Whatever the case may be, these are some vital questions that need answers before planning.

2. You should have buy-in from all decision-makers in your company 

Have you all sat down to deliberate on the video marketing campaign at hand? Is the decision unanimous? The consent of all the decision makers is relevant for saving time and money. You’ll achieve a smoother during and after-production workflow.

3. What type of video will support your business goal?

What type of video best suits your business marketing aim? A feasibility study can help. Carry out a study on the industry, its competitors, and the target audience. Know the weaknesses and capitalize on those weaknesses to draw some points in your own video marketing campaign. Use that to decide on the right type of video for your marketing campaign. Some types of videos include:

• promotional videos
• documentary videos
• entertainment videos
• how-to videos
• presentation videos
• advertising videos
• event videos
• explainer videos
• interview question
• answer videos
• music videos
• comedy shows

4. Well researched keywords and SEO Strategy 

Does your video content have top ranking keywords? Did you optimize your video for search engines? These practices play an important role in getting your videos to rank:

• Video transcription
• Optimization of video file metadata
• Implementation of schema markup
• Submission of a video sitemap
• Targeting keywords that appear on the first page of the search engine results page.

This means making your video marketing campaign optimized for search engines.

5. You have a distribution strategy on your digital platforms

Your video’s viability depends on what channels you picked to distribute it. If you spent as much resources into making it, it makes sense to distribute it to as many channels as possible. Plan for distribution on major distribution channels to get it to as many eyeballs. Your aim is to get  more views and audience. More engagement will help produce your customer’s behavior data. You’ll know how best to customize the video according to your preferred channels.

6. You have set aside budget to produce the video 

Your budget determines the type and quality of your videos. It does not speak well of you to want to create a video without a budget, as proper planning depends on stated budget. A high quality production would cost more. Take note that the quality of the video is a function of the budget allocated.

7. You should have a timeline and a deadline 

A video production timeline is divided into three parts:

• Pre-production

icon-check  Crew preparation
icon-check  Cast selection
icon-check  Concept
icon-check  Research
icon-check  Scripting
icon-check  Storyboarding
icon-check   Coordination

• Production
• Post-production

icon-check   First edit
icon-check   Second edit
icon-check   Picture lock
icon-check  Color correction and sound mix
icon-check   Delivery

It can span from 2 weeks to months. Delays are unavoidable. Many moving parts to a production of a video means timelines have to be adjusted. That doesn’t mean you can’t meet them. A deadline has to be weeks in advance of launch to allow some grace period for any unforeseen delays.

8. You have your key message figured out and a strong call to action 

Know your business inside out and the message you need to convey in your next video investment. You must have clear process of communicating your ideas to your creative team. Your language, terminology, the call to action must be in sync from drawing board to the finished video. A good way to do this is writing a creative brief for communication. The creative departments can use it to translate into a cohesive, clear and unified message.

9. You have thought how to go about repurposing your video 

These are great ideas on why you repurpose a video:

• Refreshing outdated content
• For a wider distribution
• Improved audience targeting
• To get more views
• Improved SEO

Do you know turning that video into shorter clips to share on major social channels can boost your image and publicity?

10. You have metric and analytics in place to track your success

What did you hope to achieve with the video marketing campaign? Be aware of the specific metrics to check and measure your campaign’s success. These can be the play rate, engagement, view count, conversion rate, social sharing, click-through rate, and feedback.
Whatever the case may be, it is advisable to take your time going through this checklist first to find out your campaign preparedness.

Whatever the case may be, it is advisable to take your time going through this checklist first to gauge  your preparedness for a video marketing campaign.

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