Planning Your Video in digital marketing is a critical step in creating video content that is effective, engaging, and aligned with your marketing goals. A well-planned video can enhance brand awareness, increase engagement, and drive conversions. The planning process involves several key stages, from defining the video's purpose to choosing the right platform and measuring its success. Below is a detailed explanation of how to plan your video in digital marketing.
1. Define the Purpose of the Video
The first step in planning your video is to clearly define its purpose. This involves determining what you want the video to achieve within your overall marketing strategy.
How It Works:
Set Objectives:
Decide what you want the video to accomplish. Common objectives include increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, generating leads, promoting a product, or educating your audience.
For example, if the goal is to increase product sales, the video might focus on demonstrating the product's features and benefits.
Align with Marketing Goals:
Ensure the video’s purpose aligns with broader marketing goals. For instance, if a key marketing goal is to enter a new market, the video could introduce the brand to that new audience.
Determine the Call to Action (CTA):
Decide what action you want viewers to take after watching the video, such as visiting a website, subscribing to a newsletter, or making a purchase. The CTA should be clear and compelling.
2. Understand Your Audience
Understanding your target audience is crucial to creating content that resonates with them. This step involves identifying who the video is for and what content will engage them.
How It Works:
Research Audience Demographics:
Determine the demographic details of your audience, such as age, gender, location, and interests. This will help tailor the video's content, style, and tone.
For example, a younger audience might prefer shorter, more visually dynamic videos, while an older audience might appreciate detailed, informative content.
Identify Audience Needs and Preferences:
Understand what problems your audience is trying to solve or what information they seek. Your video should address these needs directly.
Consider what type of content your audience engages with on different platforms. For instance, do they prefer tutorials, testimonials, or entertainment?
3. Develop a Concept and Script
The concept is the overarching idea or theme of the video, while the script is the detailed dialogue and actions that will take place in the video.
How It Works:
Brainstorm Ideas:
Generate creative ideas for the video that align with the defined purpose and appeal to your target audience. Think about the message you want to convey and the best way to visually represent it.
Consider the style of the video, such as whether it will be an animation, live-action, interview, or a mix of formats.
Create a Script:
Write a script that outlines the narrative of the video, including dialogue, actions, and key points you want to highlight.
Ensure the script is concise, engaging, and communicates the message clearly. The pacing should keep the viewer's attention from start to finish.
Storyboard the Video:
A storyboard is a visual representation of the video’s scenes, helping to map out how the script will translate into visuals.
This step helps ensure the video flows logically and visually matches the tone and message you want to convey.
4. Plan the Production
This involves organizing all the logistical details needed to create the video, including setting a budget, choosing locations, and scheduling the shoot.
How It Works:
Set a Budget:
Determine how much you’re willing to spend on the video. This budget will guide decisions about production quality, location, talent, and equipment.
Costs to consider include hiring a production team, actors, equipment, and post-production editing.
Choose a Location:
Decide where the video will be filmed. This could be on-site, in a studio, or at an external location. The location should enhance the video's narrative and be logistically feasible.
If you’re creating an animated or digital video, the “location” might refer to the design of backgrounds and settings.
Select Talent and Crew:
Depending on the complexity of the video, you might need to hire actors, voice-over artists, or other on-screen talent.
Assemble a production crew, including a director, camera operators, and sound technicians if needed. For simpler videos, this might just be an in-house team.
Schedule the Shoot:
Create a production timeline that includes all phases of video creation, from shooting to editing to final delivery.
Plan for contingencies, such as weather issues for outdoor shoots or availability of key personnel.
5. Produce and Edit the Video
This is the stage where the video is actually filmed and edited to create the final product. It involves capturing the footage and then refining it through editing.
How It Works:
Filming:
Follow the storyboard and script closely during filming to ensure all planned shots are captured.
Pay attention to lighting, sound, and camera angles to ensure high production quality. Even if you're producing the video in-house, these details are important for a professional final product.
Editing:
After filming, the raw footage is edited to create a cohesive, polished video. This involves cutting unnecessary scenes, adding transitions, overlaying music, inserting graphics, and ensuring the video flows smoothly.
The editing phase is also where the CTA is incorporated, along with any branding elements like logos, slogans, or end screens.
Review and Revise:
Once the initial edit is complete, review the video to ensure it meets the objectives and resonates with the target audience.
Make any necessary revisions based on feedback from stakeholders or test groups. This might include adjusting the pacing, refining the audio, or reworking certain scenes.
6. Distribute and Promote the Video
This involves choosing the right platforms to publish the video and promoting it to reach the intended audience.
How It Works:
Choose the Right Platforms:
Based on where your audience spends their time online, select the platforms for distribution. This could include YouTube, social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or embedding the video on your website.
Consider the format and length requirements for each platform. For example, Instagram might require shorter, more visually engaging videos, while YouTube can host longer, more in-depth content.
Optimize for Each Platform:
Optimize the video for each platform by considering aspects like video resolution, aspect ratio, and length.
Craft platform-specific titles, descriptions, and tags to improve searchability and engagement. Include relevant keywords and hashtags to increase visibility.
Promote the Video:
Promote the video through paid advertising, social media posts, email marketing, and any other channels where your audience is active.
Consider running targeted ads on platforms like Facebook or YouTube to reach a wider audience or a specific demographic segment.
7. Measure and Analyze Performance
After the video is live, it’s important to track its performance to understand how well it’s achieving the defined objectives.
How It Works:
Track Key Metrics:
Monitor metrics such as views, watch time, engagement (likes, shares, comments), click-through rates (for CTAs), and conversions.
Each metric provides insight into how the video is performing and whether it’s resonating with the audience.
Analyze Audience Feedback:
Look at the comments, shares, and any direct feedback from viewers to gauge how well the video is being received.
This qualitative data can provide valuable insights into what worked well and what could be improved in future videos.
Optimize Future Campaigns:
Use the data gathered from the performance analysis to refine future video marketing strategies. Identify what resonated with the audience, which platforms were most effective, and how the video contributed to the overall marketing goals.
Make adjustments in your next video plan based on these insights, such as tweaking the content style, targeting a different audience segment, or experimenting with new platforms.
Conclusion
Planning your video in digital marketing involves a structured approach that starts with defining the video's purpose and understanding your audience, and continues through concept development, production, distribution, and performance analysis. By carefully planning each step, you can create video content that not only engages your audience but also drives meaningful results for your business.