You’re a new company. Or you’re launching a new product or service. You want to get your message out there. “Out there” means in front of the eager eyeballs of the whole wired world.

So you’re going to make a video. Video is a powerful tool for getting your brand and message to the world. There are a lot of options – do you want live action with digital effects, or animation? What music works best? How long should this be? But before you get to that point, there are many things you should consider. Here at AndNow Media, we’ve broken the process of answering these questions down into five steps.

First – and this is going to sound simple, but we’re starting with the basics – decide what you want. What is this video (or set of videos) meant to accomplish? You can use video to establish your brand, to boost website traffic, get people to sign up for email updates, make sales, or market yourself and/or your product. So, with your goal in mind, what are the key messages in your video? One to three is plenty, more than that can dilute the message and lessen the effect.

While we’re in the planning stages, now is the time to identify your target audience. Who would your customers be? Age range, gender, median income, all the demographic information you’ve gathered on who you want to reach should go into shaping your video. Authors sometimes write for just one specific person, and some marketers believe the same approach can be useful in targeting your audience. Instead of picturing your viewers as an anonymous group, find someone, one person, who you can identify as a member of your core demo, and make your video with that one person in mind.

Step two involves everyone’s favorite buzzword – “Branding.” Do a quick web search and you’ll come away convinced that the entire Internet wants you to know just how important it is for you to focus on branding. Branding goes beyond creating a cool logo. Branding is the shorthand for who you are, what you (and your company or product) are all about. Your video “speaks” the brand when the elements – style and design, fonts and colors, tone and content – align to form a unified impression on the viewer. You’ve succeeded when you create something that says “THIS is what we’re all about.” And that could be anything: professional, all-business, or more informal. Is your brand classical or rock? Renoir or Jackson Pollock? The choices are endless, but that magic mixture should add up to create the kind of impression you want to make.

Step three is the creative phase – where you’ll take what we’ve covered above and wrangle it all into a coherent plan for your video. This is the step where a creative production house like AndNow Media can offer their services in scripting, storyboarding and otherwise generating the assets that will comprise the video. The creative step is really where the client and the production company get together and sort through goals, concepts, options (live-action, animation, a stylized blend of the two). Talk through your ideas with your production company, and you’ll give them a chance to understand what you’re looking for so they can better deliver it. At the same time, listen to your production team. A producer’s experience can save you the trouble of re-inventing the wheel.



Step four – Execution. Now let’s talk about what is actually going to be in your video. The best videos make use of the visual medium. We already know that people sit at desks when they work – we don’t need to see that again. Find imagery and metaphors that communicate your concepts clearly but with a fresh take. Even a video intended to be informative can work much better when stock images of people at desks and dollar signs are not used. Clever delivery of your ideas better engages the viewer, increasing the possibility of succeeding in your video`s goals. If you want to show a company email being sent, show the email as a paper airplane flown to the recipient, for example. A fresh image can make your video stick with a viewer.

Keep your narration focused and you video length short. Studies show most online viewers tune out of a video by 90 seconds. Leave them wanting more, not less. Also, as you hone you script and you vision, keep in mind that video is an emotional medium, better to evoke an emotional connection to your brand or your product rather than explain complicated ideas.

Your video should augment the visual, adding information. Getting the right voice and the right read of a voiceover is as much art as science. Music has an enormous impact on the tone and the pace of a video. For a lot of corporate video, you’ll be licensing music, often from a stock library. Some production houses can also produce music for your video.

Step Five: Distribution and marketing your video. Now you’ve got your video. It delivers your message, on-brand, to your audience. It’s got a style and approach that really make it pop. So, just upload that baby to YouTube and watch the hits roll in, right? Because you’re familiar with rhetorical questions, you’ve guessed that the answer to that is “not quite.” There are as many channels and venues where you can promote your video as you have time to use. All of social media is a screen you can show your video on. Work that rolodex, email list, and LinkedIn profile. Believe in your message, and get it out to the world.

Finally, remember that whatever the kind of video you’re producing is – trailer, promotional, brand video, viral advertisement, commercial spot, corporate recruiting – what you’re doing is telling a story: the story of a new product, a new company, a new idea. Your story.

Good luck!