Why Video?
Every Smartphone is a now a video production tool and whilst a magnificent still image can capture the moment, a 3 minute video can convey many messages about your business. You don’t need paid talent or a script writer, you can post an authentic video that showcases your business online. In this blog we’ll show you how!
Here are the steps I would take to produce a video for my business.
What is different about your business and what it offers your customers?
You need to establish why your business is special, so set aside yourself some time to sit down and write what is your unique selling proposition. 
Step One – Define the key points that differentiate your business from other businesses.
TIP – If you don’t want to star in your own video find someone locally, it could be a guest, who represents your target demographic, to communicate your key points
Then you can start the process to produce a short, 3-5 minute informative and entertaining, story-based video.
Step Two – Identify the content.
What should I put in my video?
In order to create a great promotional video you need to plan and write yourself a brief.
- What is the purpose of the video? identify one main goal.
- What is the single core message you are trying to convey?
- Who is my primary target audience? How old are they? What are their interests? Are they family groups etc?
- How do I plan to distribute this video, on my website, through Facebook etc
- What single action would I like them to take? Make a booking?
Identify what aspects of your business showcase your key messages
Now, take a walk around your business and note the highlights or if you are a tour operator, identify what is important to your customers, is it the mode of transport, where you visit etc.
Now, you have the who and what or the “bones” of your video production, we’ll call it your script. You now know, who the video is targeting, what content you want to showcase, how long the video should be, what the key message is and what you would like to achieve as a result of the customer watching the video (otherwise known as the “call to action”).
Write down the “dot points” of what you’d like to convey and use them as your check list.
Step Three – Establish when your business is at its best
Take a walk around your business
If you’re in the business of accommodation, tours, a restaurant, attraction or event take time to find out when your business is at its best. It could be early morning when the light is just right, or in the middle of a tour at your favourite place. Write down when your business is at its best, take note of the weather, the season, and make the most of the natural attributes. Add this to your script.
Step Four – consider these technical and not so technical tips
Hold it steady
- Nothing is more off putting than a shaky hand that produces shaky video footage, this will improve with practice. Try wandering around your business shooting footage and review what you shoot, it might show you some aspects you didn’t know existed. The other option is to mount your camera on something stable, especially for the “interview” component of your footage.
Use Good Light
- Your business will look very different at different times of the day and in different weather conditions, use this to your advantage to showcase your business at its best.
Focus on Sound
- If you live in the bush, dawn and dusk will be perfect to showcase the local sights and sounds, emotive sounds like a laughing Kookaburra will add depth to your video. Conversely, avoid shooting when the background noise is distracting.
Practice
- Next, get familiar with your smartphone, learn how to take a video. Have a few practice runs and see what you think, remember authenticity is important, it doesn’t need to be perfect just interesting, engaging and accurately reflecting the experience.
Step Five – Put it all together
You’ve now got and idea of what you want to showcase, when your business is at its best, where you should be shooting and what message you are trying to convey. So its time to give it a go, it may take a few times to get something you’re happy with, so go on give it a go!!!
Finally
Don’t forget to share across your platforms, Website, Facebook, YouTube etc. Create it once and publish it many times.
