Informative, interesting website videos usually don’t just happen. Careful thought is needed to develop a video that captures the viewer’s attention while communicating your organization’s message. If you want to create an effective video, follow these four steps.
Plan The Video
Although your video does not need to be tightly scripted, you should first spend time planning it out.
What is the purpose of your video? Are you a religious leader who wants to welcome people to your site and introduce them to your organization? Are you a small business owner who wants to inform prospective clients of your services or products? Do you want to demonstrate or teach a concept? Depending on your needs, this may be a one-person message, a montage of short interviews, a longer interview or an instructional demo.
Who is your audience? Being very clear on who will see your video helps you determine your style, including language, music and references used.
On paper, determine exactly what you want to have in your video: what key points you want to make, what camera shots you want to include, what call to action you want to have. While you’ll sound more natural if you don’t speak from a script word for word, you do want to have an outline of how your conversation will flow.
In Hubspot’s blog “6 Tips for Making a Business Marketing Video”, author Catie Foertsch adds to be sure to end your video with a call to action. What do you want your audience to do once they’ve seen this video? Tell them clearly, so that will be their lasting memory.
Plan Your Location
Deciding where to shoot your video means finding a place with a suitable background that isn’t too plain or too distracting. Many videos are shot in an office, perhaps with a bookcase or closed curtains as a backdrop.
Your location also needs to allow for adequate light. Natural sunlight provides a soft lighting, or you may use additional artificial lights to counteract shadowing.
Make sure your location lets you record without unintended outside noise (traffic, wind, etc.) or the echo of an empty room.
Picture your scene. Look at your scene through the eye of the camera. Is there anything in the background that is distracting? Be sure nothing in the background looks awkward. Floor lamps, for example, can stick out behind heads and look like painful appendages.
Get Your Equipment
Having necessary tools is essential in creating a successful video. Naturally, you’ll need a camera. In the white paper, “22 Mistakes Corporations Make with Online Media and How to Avoid Them,” MobileCast Media, a video production company, suggests recording in high definition. HD videos can be reused for other purposes, the white paper explains. But some media outlets reject content shot in standard definition. “Shooting in high definition not only ensures a great image online, but gives your footage more mileage when new needs arise,” the paper continues.
A tripod is also very helpful to make sure the camera stays still.
You may want to have a separate microphone from the one on the camera. Steve Mack, author of The Podcast Bible says in an article on video podcasting that viewers have little patience for listening to videos with bad audio. He suggests finding a quality microphone for around $100.
Edit Your Video
Now that you’ve got your video captured on camera, it’s time to put it on the computer. Video editing software can help you edit out unnecessary parts, as well as add music and pictures. From there, you can put it on your web, or format it for additional distribution as a video podcast.
By spending some time upfront preparation, you will save time and effort and minimize frustration and costs–all while developing a professional looking video.
