1.     What is your vision?

• When you think of your On-line Video Presence, what do you see?  Glitz, glamour and pizazz or practical and personable?  Corporate and professional or Entertaining and/or humorous?  Short and sweet or detailed and informative?  There are many different approaches and there is no “one size fits all” solution.  Perhaps there is something you’ve seen elsewhere that you hope to emulate or aspire to be like.  You don’t have to re-invent the wheel; tried, tested and true formats are far more cost effective and less risky.  On the other hand, being original or different will set you apart from the rest and has a greater potential of going viral, giving you much greater exposure.  The caveat is that it still needs to fall within the parameters of what your audience will accept and who and what you are.  If it is too far out there or ahead of its time the impact could be negative.

2.     Who is your audience?

• When posting videos On-line, the “world” is your potential audience, but the “world” is not necessarily your target market so the format and/or style of your video needs to reflect the expectations and wants of your target audience.  The better you understand your market, the better you will be at getting their attention and/or meeting their needs or solving their problems.

3.     What do you want them to know?

• What is the message that you want to deliver to your target audience?  Is it direct?  As an advertisement:  “we do this!”, “we have the lowest prices”, “best product”, “superior service” etc.   Or is it indirect?  As in developing a relationship with customers, establishing credibility and building trust, which is a little more complex and is more of a process rather than a message.   Often times it is a combination of both that needs to be achieved, but the underlying thought is to know what you want your audience to come away with.

4.     How will you measure the success of your video?

• What do you want to accomplish with your video?  Is your objective simply to get a million views on YouTube?  You need to ask yourself what problem or issue you are trying to solve within your own business and establish how you hope the video will help.  The problem is success is not always quantifiable.  Undoubtedly exposure and views are important and can be easily tracked, measured and plotted against business sales and/or inquiries but other benefits can be equally as important and yet are not easily measured in the short term such as how much it raises your profile within a community or industry, or improves your brand awareness.  The bottom line is that making an on-line video is an investment that should have some sort of marketing goals in mind that can be either objectively or subjectively evaluated, whether that be by tracking an increase in sales or simply by having profiled your business exactly as you want it to be seen on-line.

 

Greg Akeson

Executive Producer

Go4Pro Video Solutions