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A New Way of Making Videos
Rethinking the video making process to create measurable results
Chapter 01
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AN INTRODUCTION TO VIDEO MARKETING
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If you’ve ever been down the video production road before then I’m sure you’ve already seen the statistics that I’m about to present to you. ​
Including a video in a post increases organic traffic from search results by 157%
Adding a video to a landing page can increase conversion rate by 80%. (Smart Insights)
90% of users say that videos help them make a purchase decision
83% of video marketers say video has helped them generate leads.
We’re well and truly in the golden age of video marketing and businesses across Australia are channeling their marketing budgets into creating content that helps connect with their audience.
However a fact that is rarely addressed continues to rear its ugly head across social media, YouTube and the landing pages of otherwise pristine websites: a significant amount of the videos produced don’t live up to the standard that their creators promise.
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It seems harder than ever to stand out amongst the ever growing noise, feeds are becoming swamped with substandard productions that rarely address the actual needs of the client.
Video production is often an afterthought in the marketing strategy of many companies, the campaign will be developed and once it’s greenlit then a production company who weren’t a part of the marketing journey will take a brief and do it’s best to react to it.
At Step Two Media we believe in integrating video content into the larger marketing strategy organically so that it enhances and sings in harmony with the greater game plan. To do this we have to ask what the actual role of video production is in marketing and how we can accurately measure its effect.
Chapter 1
Chapter 02
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THE POWER OF VIDEO
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Video is a medium onto itself, it has the power to reach audiences and connect with them like no other. It is low investment on the customers part and high impact at the same time.
Video has the power to elicit deep emotional responses, it can transport the viewer into another world and leave resonating new associations with a product or company.
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However, the majority of videos that you will come across don’t have you thinking about them a day after watching, or sharing to a friend so they can feel the same inspiration you did. Measuring the success of a video should be based upon how well it engages with it’s targeted audience, not how many views it gains.
Many production companies rely solely on viewing metrics and click through rates to determine whether their production was a success, these results can be deceiving. Think about how often you’ve come across a video on your Facebook timeline, watched it for 3 seconds then scrolled on.
Technically you’re counted as a view. Didn’t leave a strong impression did it? Probably didn’t leave a strong impression for the other 12 million who ‘watched it’ as well. Videos need to directly connect with, and affect their viewer, and to achieve that effectively then we need to base our production approach around the viewer.
Power of Video
Chapter 03
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IDENTIFYING YOUR AUDIENCE
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Though time consuming, knowing and deeply understanding the customers you serve is essential to increasing your ROI. When the right video reaches the right customer then a certain spark of magic happens, a need is met, a question is answered and a positive association is ingrained.
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So let’s figure out how to make this happen. To understand who we’re producing this video for then a good place to start is to find out some essential info on who you already serve:
What are your current customers demographics?
What do they love and hate about the product or service you offer?
What are their challenges, what are their pain points, what frustrates them?
What’s standing in the way of them purchasing or following your brand?
Knowing who your best current customer is will tell you a lot about what makes your brand so attractive and will also give you a great starting point when you come to the next step: figuring out who you could be serving.
Let’s take a non judgemental, entirely objective look at your competitors. What are they doing right, wrong or not doing at all. Knowing what market sectors they’re targeting and what your overlap is will help develop a pinpointed strategy for your content output.
Your Audience
Chapter 04
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DOING IT THE SMART WAY
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Here it is, we’ve done our due diligence, we know our customer; their loves, hates and favourite Netflix show. Now we know how to talk to them, what do we want to say?
Now’s the time to start setting some goals for our video, let’s decide what we actually want to achieve. Is there a problem that you want to solve? Video can provide a creative solution to a struggle you’ve been trying to resolve. Once you know the problem you want to tackle we’ll break it down into a solvable challenge using the SMART method.
Video has the power to elicit deep emotional responses, it can transport the viewer into another world and leave resonating new associations with a product or company.
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We’re going to be ​Specific​: We don’t just want a video produced, we want a video that will directly talk to ______ and help them better understand _______.
How do we ​Measure​ if it’s working?: What should we see after the video campaign to know it’s worked? Be specific here as well. Is it an increase in time spent on a certain page of your website? An increase in conversions?
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We’ve got great goals, but is it​ Achievable​? Video is a powerful means of storytelling that can produce results no other medium of marketing can, but let’s make sure what we’re aiming to achieve is within video's scope of possibility.
Don’t set yourself up to fail, I love the ambition but if your goal is to beat PewDiePie’s subscriber count then you’re in for a rough ride.
Keeping it ​Relevant​: If we’ve followed the process so far then it shouldn’t be difficult to make sure your video is relevant to the customer and to your business goals, keeping things focused and aligned will always produce a smoother process.
Time​ to get going: Setting a clear timeframe is important to plan and motivate the production process. We’ll work closely with you to figure out the specifics of delivery, but start thinking about when the most opportune time to release this content would be. Using the SMART technique to keep the video brief and production focused will ensure a clear and concise execution of the ideal while also keeping everyone informed and on the same page.
The Smart Way
Chapter 05
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HERO, HELP, HUB
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Different videos can achieve different goals and it’s important to understand what sort of video will best align with your marketing plan.
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Developed by YouTube, the Hero, Help, Hub approach allows us to easily categorise video types and helps us develop larger video marketing plans where each piece of content compliments the other. Let’s have a quick look at the different types of videos we can put our energy into.
HERO.
The hero video is flashy, well produced and leaves a strong emotional impact in the viewers mind.
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It attracts new clients and stands on its own feet. Memorable and shareable, these videos are high value and often set the tone for the larger marketing plan as a whole.
Knowing who your best current customer is will tell you a lot about what makes your brand so attractive and will also give you a great starting point when you come to the next step: figuring out who you could be serving.
Let’s take a non judgemental, entirely objective look at your competitors. What are they doing right, wrong or not doing at all. Knowing what market sectors they’re targeting and what your overlap is will help develop a pinpointed strategy for your content output.
Hero, Help, Hub
Chapter 06
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PUT IN PRACTICE
This strategy development path leads us to the actual production. Having undertaken these steps we’ve set ourselves up for success, this is the part where you can relax, we’ll take it from here.
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Step Two media’s production process is designed to create high quality, creative and entertaining videos. We invest in sourcing the most capable, creative artists to work on each
project.
We borrow many elements from traditional film and television production, taking their production workflow into account when writing our own, scaling it down and applying the most relevant parts. While every corporate video might not need a clapper loader, team of runners and bitter mid 60’s executive producer, it does require an attention to detail that more traditional production workflows afford.
See some of our favourite videos here:
By relying on a team working in specialised fields we allow ourselves the opportunity to focus on making every aspect of the production as polished as it can be. This stands in contrast to other video production methods on offer for similar prices. While an allrounder videographer may be able to capture great shots in a short time frame, she can’t rely on someone keeping track of the schedule for her and shots may be missed.
While a budget corporate production company can offer a consistent product, it relies on a cookie cutter process that can’t adapt when factors change on the day. Good filmmaking is problem solving, the destination shouldn’t change but the path getting there does. By relying on a team of capable creatives who aren’t afraid to beat a new path ensures a commitment to achieving the results you set out for.
Chapter 07
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FOND MEMORIES AND HOPEFUL ASPIRATIONS
Your video has been shot, edited and distributed, all following the initial strategy that we worked out together.
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It’s impossible to come away from a good production and not learn something new. Whether it’s a new shooting technique, a new way of looking at a customer or where to get the best coffee near the studio is.
It’s this commitment to learning that fuels all of us who have a deep burning curiosity inside them, so why stop now? Once your video has been distributed we’ll continue to monitor how it performs. What did we get right? What could we have done better?
If we don’t review our progress then we become stagnant, we grow complacent and others will take inspiration from our efforts and push ahead, so let’s take what we’ve learned and see how we can apply it to your next campaign, your next content release, your next marketing plan. We return to the M in SMART: Those goals we set early on in the process aren’t just a valuable ideation technique, they will be the metric for how we ​measure​ our success.
The lessons we learn and insights we gain will lead to bigger and better things. The power of video storytelling is undeniable, every production we undertake is simply us taking another step towards the most streamlined, engaging and well rounded content marketing plan for your
company utilising everything video has to offer. Let’s see what we can achieve together.
In Practice
Fond Memories
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