Written by Matthew Lemke.
If you try to make your web video all things to all people, it will end up nothing to anybody. In other words, your video should have a fairly specific purpose or goal.
- Do you want people to take a certain action in the moment, like click a link at the end of the video?
- Do you want them to spend more time on your website?
- Do you want your content to keep them coming back to your site?
- Do you want people to give you their email address for your email marketing efforts?
Yes, theoretically your video can have more than one objective, like conveying the personality of your business AND getting people to place an order for your product. For example, google the Dollar Shave Club’s video. Great job of showing their personality, but the goal is of course to get people to order.
Define the specific objective so you know how to measure success: I created this video for the Austin ad agency MindEcology as a nurse recruiting video for Hill Country Memorial Hospital in Fredericksburg, Texas. The video was embedded in an e-mail sent to a targeted list of nurses around the country. The objective was for the recipients to open the e-mail, watch the video, click to the hospitals recruiting web page where they would be encouraged to fill out an application. The goal of the video was NOT to get more nurses applying for the hospital, although clearly it would have influence. The goal of the video was to get them to click to the website, where further information would entice them to apply.
Most often, when I’m hired to create a video for a small business or even a corporate marketing department, my biggest job is to scale back the expectations of what the video will say. If the list of points to be covered is written on a scroll that unrolls across the floor, it’s a swiss army knife.
A narrowly defined goal will guide you in the process of focusing what the video will say and help you create a video with the highest impact possible.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Matt runs an Austin video production and commercial photography business in Texas. He’s been telling company’s unique stories through web videos and photography for over 16 years. He has clients in the high tech, healthcare, corporate, and legal fields, as well as various small businesses, with clients including Exxon Mobil’s General Counsels office, The Austin Bar Association, Central Health, and Hill Country Memorial Hospital. Matt has lived in Austin for nearly 30 years, having grown up in El Paso, Texas and South America.
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