Developing an effective and compelling corporate image or branding video is important, but there can be many pitfalls that negate the impact and messaging.
Key elements are messaging, style, length and goals. Messaging should focus on the audience and less about self-promotion. What is it that your audience should know and what is it about your service or products that bring a benefit to them? Should the video be narrated or driven by interviews and client testimonials? What are you trying to accomplish with the video? How will you use it and what should be the measurable impact of the video?
You know your business, the competition and your clients, what differentiates you and brings value to what you offer? Although this information is important do you know how to deliver this message while avoiding talking to your industry rather than your client and potential client base?
At LA Management Company we are an experienced team of marketers who understand the importance of messaging and how to talk to the appropriate audience. We have years of experience reviewing data and analytics for videos to help guide us to designing a program that will be watched and generate an expected response.
How do go about producing a video?
Whether you decide on a narrated video or a story telling video with key personnel and customers you need to first determine your talking points – years in business, areas of expertise, features and benefits, success stories, needs of your clients are all good starting points. Writing a script is difficult and you should first focus on developing a strong outline of bullet points that need to be included in the program. An experienced video production team can then help write a clean and concise script to deliver the messaging without overkill of detail that could possibly lose the audience. Brevity is critical to move the program along and keep interest and viewership.
Once you have your messaging down, support imagery, video footage, graphics, text and music can then be determined. In order to manage the budget a plan must be made for acquisition of video assets including a shoot agenda. With most video projects there are three areas that impact costs – pre-production: the planning of the project, including script writing and logistics planning; production: the physical aspect of sending a video production crew to acquire the footage and post production: the cost for editing, animation, graphics, professional narration and music.
The good news is that video production costs have come down considerably. Equipment including light weight led lights, digital cameras and aerial drones have downsized the need for large crews. The cameras are amazing and the quality of footage is near movie quality. Editing software and hardware are more affordable and more powerful than ever. With professional editing your company can shine and your video can have a sustained positive effect for your business.
About the author: Lou Amico has 40 years’ experience marketing and producing professional videos for large and small companies. He is President of LA Management Company and Videoproductioncharlotte.com based in Charlotte, NC.
