Guidelines for Creating Video for Digital Marketing [Infographic]

September 5, 2019 | Article | by REQ Marketing | Design

What’s the Best Video for Your Business?

“I need a video” seems like an easy request but there are many things that go into creating and producing a video. Even if it’s a simple GIF, :15 sec promo video and obviously the 5-minute brand video there are going to be some planning, ideation, style, writing before you can start. Even after shooting or choosing stock footage there will be formatting, scheduling, pricing, voice over, music,…..deep breath…..editing and revisions before you have your final video ready to play…whew that’s a lot. We will give you tips and a guide for what types, formats, channel placements, and how to take one video and edit it for 18 uses. Get ready to press play on the best video for your business.

Why do You Need to Create a Video for Your Brand?

45% of people watch more than an hour of Facebook or YouTube videos a week
62% of people said they were more interested in a product after seeing it in a Facebook Story. (Marketing Land)
72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service by way of video. (HubSpot)
85% of the US internet audience watches videos online
81% of businesses prefer to use Facebook for their video marketing. (Buffer)
92 percent of mobile video viewers share videos with others
Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users

What Type(s) of Video Should You Produce?

You need a purpose for your video, is it going to educate, promote your sale, engage or tease? What are you trying to communicate with your customers should be your first question? Use this list of questions to determine what video would be best. Always establish goals and a reason for what you are doing and the video will grow from there.

example of creative brief questions for video

There are many types of video and also styles, we have narrowed down some options based on marketing goals that would be best for business promotion:

Branding Video – A video introducing your audience your mission statement or what you are as a company. This should be engaging, easy to understand and drives viewers to want to learn more.
Promo Video – A video to promote a discount, a promotion or a sale and it can even be a video that promotes an event or a special.
Teaser Video – A video to just give you a little taste of something that is new. This is to be highly engaging, dramatic and short.
Testimonial Video – A video that uses your best accolades and highlights them to reinforce your brand and company. This can also be an interview with owners, staff and/or customers that further back up your brand.
QA Video – A video to animate your FAQs and answer those questions of how to do or better understand your brand, company or product.

After you decide what type of video, create a marketing plan for promotion which will help you determine formats and length.

chart of types of video, video length and where to publish

How do I Write a Video Script?

Now you need to start creating some content for your video. What should you say? First, outline what content you need to put into it, just like writing your first paper you should have a beginning, middle, and end. Create the main idea with 3 supporting ideas and end with a summary and a call to action CTA with the action you want your customers to take.

From there you can take this nice little story and start condensing it like a short story, frame-by-frame, into concise chunks.

chart of video length vs word count for the script

Try reading with a stopwatch to see how long just reading it at a normal pace speed. Then cut down from there, if you are way over on time just start taking out extra fluffy thoughts, ideas that are already said in a different way, maybe that explain too much or just aren’t needed. “When in doubt, throw it out” I usually say in my head when doing this, it’s my motto. You don’t want to have your viewers think too hard to understand what it is you are trying to say.

Guide: One Video Edited for 18 Purposes

All videos should be planned for where you will be launching them. Some places you’ll want to put your video should be your Website, Email, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter. Thinking ahead of time before you start the process for creating your video will help you determine the correct sizes you need to make as well as the length of the video when you shoot and edit. Sprout Social has an always updated guide that is fabulous, which can be found here.

The guide below is something we do at IMI that helps streamline your video strategy in the most efficient way for your budget and time. Once you know the sizes and placement you’ll be better prepared for shooting the correct formats and gathering stock footage and assets needed. Will you need to shoot horizontal for a youtube or web banner video? Will you need a vertical for an Instagram Story? Or perhaps a square for Facebook and Instagram posts?

You may want to place the type of video in all places. If so, you’ll just want to make sure you are shooting for each format, vertical for Instagram and mobile and horizontal for the wider width video for web page home banners and YouTube videos. Our guide helps save some money with one video and 18 different ways to promote it.

Video Editing Guide: one video edited for 18 purposes [infographic]

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