What is the most consumed type of content in the 21st century?
You can make an argument for audio (music, podcasts) or text (articles, social media, books, blogs), but almost all of us agree that video has become the most consumed form of content in today’s world.
As a marketer, you should be familiar with and use promo videos to your advantage. Promo videos are one of the most effective ways to promote a product or service, and we recommend our clients produce a new video every week.
Producing this much content can feel like a daunting task; how can you stay organized and diligent week-over-week and deliver high-quality content consistently? At Aqua Vida, we have found seven essential steps to produce video content quickly without sacrificing conversion rate!
1. Create a Mood Board for Your Brand
Having a mood board allows you to come back every time you need new ideas or stories for your brand, and helps each promo video carry the brand’s voice.
In essence, a mood board is a map of association for your brand. By combining Images, Text, and Graphics, it gives you a unique perspective of what your brand represents and what it doesn’t. Knowing this is essential for coming up with new ideas for your promo videos.
A good mood board will showcase the brand’s voice and style time and time again, so you can look back at it regularly to get inspiration, ideas, or clarity to create new promotional content
2. Generate New Ideas for New Promo Videos – Make a Video per Idea
You want to get new ideas every week and distill each one of these ideas into a dedicated video.
Why?
By separating each idea into a video, you 1) get more content, 2) to engage new and existing users, 3) driving your product/ service’s benefits across to the consumer, instead of confusing them with a long list of features.
When coming up with ideas, refer back to the mood board; use your knowledge or research on the brand and its products.
For example, you can remind people about any specific discounts you offer: If your fashion brand specializes in clothing, but has a limited 50% discount on watches, create a video to promote this!
3. Make Scripts For All Promo Videos
Once you have the idea for the video, script it before starting to work it.
Going through the script in the first stages helps you ensure the video’s narrative will make sense and enables you to spot any flaws before having to fix them on the final production. Ironing out the script from the beginning will save you a great deal of time and headaches.
There are many ways to create a script. Whatever way you decide to use, make sure that it has these components:
- Scene number
- Timeframe
- Caption or Narration
- Scene description
- Image
Take a look at a Sample Script we made to showcase how to add each script component.
The script tells the story of a teenager–Logan–and a hypothetical brand: Ac-No-More–and how Ac-No-More helps him with his acne problem and his high-school crush.
With the Script Ready, move on to creating or sourcing content
4. Get Content. A Lot of it
You always want to have more content than you will end up using. Not every take is a winner, so you will want to have options to pick from for each scene. This way, each scene will have the right video.
A way of ensuring this happens is by sourcing (or shooting) 2+ takes for each scene. It’s about 10x more time consuming to edit a video in post-production than to retake another video during the shoot.
There are three ways to approach content creation:
- Record or source original content
- Use stock footage
- Combine the original content with stock footage
Original content is necessary to make the video representative of the product you are trying to promote. Still, stock footage can be a practical component for the scenes that don’t show the product. Plus, you can source it in a couple of clicks.
Before you start making the video, make sure you have all (or most) of the content you need.
5. Organize Your Content Before Making the Video
Each one of the promo videos you create will contain video, music, and graphic assets. So, start by creating a dedicated project folder for each promo video.
Move or copy-paste the videos that match the script into the folder (i.e. “5_Logan Holding Ac-no-more.mp4”), and make sure to have 2+ takes for some scenes, to have options when compiling the video together.
How do you know which videos to use? Read the script while browsing through your available content.
You will probably need even more assets than you already saved on the project folder, but what you already have saved will make compiling and producing the video 90% quicker and simpler. You will have done most of the work already.
6. Pick the Right Song. Then Compile the Video Following the Script
When picking a song for the video, make sure that you are paying to license it or that it is license-free. Then, make sure that the music matches the mood of the brand and the script.
Once you have the song, place it before placing video assets, and start compiling each component.
When compiling each video, make sure to change each scene on the bass of the song (or on a new sentence if you are using a voice over/ narration). This is how the professionals do it on TV, and it will make your video look very polished
Once the video looks ready, move to color corrections, to effects, and then, when you finish all these, you can move on to captions or graphics (and their effects).
You want to focus on the captions and graphics last. You will save a lot of time and stress because these depend on the video being finished to work.
7. Finish the Video Off AND Ensure to Publish it on the Due Date.
Make a habit of publishing each of the promo videos by the due date you set. Some videos might be better than others, and some might have felt easier to do, but you want to ensure you build a cadence.
This cadence will allow you to see what type of content works best over time; it will help engage potential customers and build online authority for your brand.
If you have a low amount of organic visitors or followers, and you have an available advertising budget, then promote these videos.
If you are on a tight budget or rely on your organic audiences, then publish the video, and give it a week or a couple of days to build a track record before promoting it.
Recap
Now that you have followed these seven steps, you are miles ahead of most brands trying to promote their products and services.
Following these seven steps and converting them into a methodology will help you make more engaging and higher converting videos for your brand or your clients.
What’s more, you will make these promo videos faster, with much more confidence that each video will work, and you will let you learn to make even better videos each time.
If you would like to read about any of these steps in more detail, please let us know, and we will produce another blog that goes deeper into the subject you request.