Video production for a marketing video that truly works involves strategically including certain key points and attributes. To make sure that your marketing video is conversion-capable and able to capture viewer attention readily, while keeping it lastingly, read the following marketing video production must-haves compiled by our Dallas video production experts.

What Should a Marketing Video Include?

• Clear Message Up-front: Define the purpose of your video “above the fold”. In web designer lingo, this means placing something as high up on a web page as possible, so that it is seen before needing to scroll down the page.

  

• If the video’s purpose is to promote a product, explain a service, or build brand awareness, it’s imperative to have that be immediately known to all who view it. Clearly articulate the primary message you want to convey to your audience and do it in a concise manner, at the very beginning.

• Indication of Targeted Audience: Use a digital marketing expert or video marketing company to research the audience attributes with the most qualified elements. Then, combine those findings with your own industry expertise, market research and goals in your brand’s ideal buyer personas.

  Communicate to your videographer that your intentions are to tailor your message in a way that resonates with their pain points, preferences, and needs.
  A marketing video should speak directly to the intended viewers, as explicitly as possible (without unintentionally excluding potential buyers/clients) and express the unique and noteworthy ways in which your product or service solves for each of those.

• Early Hook: It’s been proven that the first 3 to 8 seconds are the most important for audience retention, before they move on to something more endearing (usually in video marketing, this would mean a user continuing to scroll down the page).

  Facebook’s recent video and content marketing study revealed that once that time passes, the odds of keeping your viewers viewing decrease drastically, down to as much as only 35% remaining attentive after the first few seconds. They further decrease from the 65% range at three seconds to 45% remaining at just ten. A great hook can be a show-stopping cinematic scene, an emotional, thought-provoking, or paint-point identifying question, or reflect specificities that resonate with your target audience.

• Professional Video Quality: Use high-quality video production services and express the importance of using cinematography vs videography as a promotional tool for your brand to your video production company/videographer. Make sure that your video production company uses cinema cameras regularly and has both skilled videographers and video editors, as it takes them both to hit a video production home-run.
  

  Ensure that the video is appealing to the audio/visual senses by refusing to settle for less-than-great audio, ensuring it has thought-out and professionally staged lighting, and that there are no distractions taking away from its persuasive purpose. Video production services for advertising and marketing should bring to life a personification of the brand’s message, and when this isn’t done in a professional manner, businesses or organizations suffer the consequences of a base that’s turned-off and hesitant to entrust their transactions.

• Product or Service Showcase: Showcase your product or service in action. Highlight key selling points, differentiators, best-sellers, features and benefits. Service and product video production services should demonstrate how the product solves for a want or need and not merely one of the item itself, but how it contributes to the lifestyle for which its buyer personas seek to adopt.
  

  Consider a software that enhances remote monitoring of hospital patients. In this example, the marketing video would show the viewer how their work environment as a healthcare professional will be efficient, peaceful, and devoid of high patient fall rates. Establish on-screen what it will look like to be free of the anxious, chaotic air of a short-staffed hospital unit.

  The same can be said about a professional service or corporate video production piece. An attorney’s marketing video production would aim to assure that its firm meets the needs of its prospective clients. For a personal injury lawyer, she may want to show that her office is welcoming and private, with a representative at-the-ready to assist and answer questions. While also conveying that she is ready and willing to fight for justice and compensation with aggression, if necessary.
  

• Call-to-Action (CTA): Clearly state what specific action you want the viewer to take after watching the video. Give them easily digestible information for how to do it, and if possible, make sure it’s concise enough to be remembered without needing to write it down. Whether it’s visiting a website, making a purchase, or subscribing, include a call-to-action that’s enticing, brief, and easily accomplished.
  
  
• Establish Roles: Establish the roles and responsibilities between all involved in the video production process and outline who will be responsible for each part. For example, the person writing the video script will need to integrate the pain-point resolutions, while the video editor will ensure the video purpose is at the very beginning of the timeline, and the CTA is displayed prominently.
  
  
• Social Proof and Statistics: If relevant, include statistics or data that support your claims. Social proof, such as the number of satisfied customers or successful outcomes, can strengthen your message drastically. Ask your videographer to schedule a client testimonial video shoot. Share that video across your channels and platforms, and then have your marketing video or video ad include clips from it to instill confidence in viewers.
  
  
• Video Optimization: Tailor the video to be optimal for the platform(s) where it will be published and shared. Use video optimization services for SEO and communicate with your videographer or video production company to consider these platforms’ ideal or necessary aspect ratios, video dimensions, and any platform-specific features to maximize visibility and engagement.
  
  Social media marketing video production should aim to ensure the video takes up the most real estate on the screen, by producing videos vertically and creating edits specific for each social media platform. This is especially true for platforms including Facebook, Google, and YouTube video ad production services, as campaigns on those sites must have very specific video ad asset specifications.
  
  
• Branding Consistency: Ensure that your marketing video aligns with your overall brand identity, graphic elements, and core mission. Maintain consistency in messaging, visuals, and branding across all marketing channels, and pull in any team member required when you do this, so that all are aware and give their go-ahead.
  
  
• Reporting and Analytics: Set up reporting tools and track metrics that will reveal how the video performs. This may include call tracking, Google Analytics, or other mechanisms to measure the video’s performance. Many social media platforms have analytics data available to view within the account from which the video was published.

  Use multiple reporting tools in order to understand at an umbrella level how the users interacting with your marketing channels relate to your videos.

  Do they originate from the video link? Did they originally find you on Google, but returned after viewing the video? How long did they watch the video before continuing to scroll past it? Which video topics seem to bring subsequent spikes in website clicks? Analyze metrics such as views, engagement, total watch-time average, bounce rate, monthly subscribers, and conversions in order to find answers to these types of questions and to refine and maximize the potential in future video marketing strategies.

By carefully incorporating these strategies into your video marketing, video production and video advertising efforts, you can use marketing videos to successfully increase awareness of your business and brand, capture attention of potential buyers still in the process of making a decision, effectively communicate your message and persuade viewers to take the action that you call for. 

The video production process is a multifaceted, organized and concerted undertaking that comprises three very distinct, yet interconnected, phases. Each phase demands attention to detail and creative capability, with harmonious action taken by all videographers and teams involved.

What are the 3 Stages of Video Production?

The three stages of the video production process are pre-production, production and post-production. Explained below are what each of these phases entails, and which roles of the overall video production process are played during each one.

1. Pre-Production: The Blueprinting Phase

The inception of any video production project is initiated in the pre-production phase, where the intricate planning and organizational groundwork are meticulously laid by the visionary(s). We’ve found that this phase is the heartbeat of the entire production process. Imagine a team gearing up for a corporate promotional video production service. The pre-production phase would commence with one or more brainstorming sessions, during which the videographers, video editors, and corporate brand team will be ideating concepts that align with the brand’s identity.

Once all are in agreement, and the concept is crystallized, a script will then be meticulously crafted, outlining the narrative, dialogue, and graphic elements. Video production entails much foresight and forward-thinking, and planning is the life-source of professional quality in a final video product.

The team of videographers/video production company would next collaborate with the client-side corporate team and delve into creating a comprehensive shot list and storyboard.

 Take, for example, an advertising video production service for a new tech gadget.

In this example, meticulous planning is involved due to the laborious visualizing of each frame through storyboards. This is the only way that the production crew can be confident that they’ll be providing a seamless introduction of the product and its features.

No video pre-production phase is complete (or, successfully complete) without also addressing the logistics of the upcoming video shoot. Ideally, this includes location-scouting by a videographer to find the perfect backdrop and atmosphere, scheduling shoots to optimize time-spent, natural light, noise-level, lighting and gaffing equipment needed, finding ways to increase efficiency, and even securing necessary permits if applicable. Another example is a documentary production on wildlife. During which, the pre-production phase of addressing logistical items may involve coordinating with environmental authorities to access protected areas.

2. Production: The Filming Phase

With the pre-production blueprint in hand, the production phase launches, during which concepts are cemented into stories told using the creativity and techniques of a video production crew or videographer. In this phase, the videography team carefully and skillfully brings to life the scenes previously planned out during pre-production.

Imagine a cinematic, short film video production service: each scene will be shot meticulously to convey true and relatable emotion, with convincing and natural narrative. The video production company or videographer captures footage according to the script and storyboard, transitioning those blueprints into footage that aligns with the envisioned cinematic account of the story.

The director orchestrates the actions of the video production crew, actors, and equipment much like a symphony. Be it a dramatic, emotion-evoking scene in a film being produced or a product demo video production for a commercial, competent coordination is necessary. Powerful, productive and clear direction are vital attributes for a video director to possess when working to evolve the storyboard to the screen.

Attention to detail is also indispensable, as a keen eye must be kept on the quality of both the audio and visual elements during shooting, or else distractions in the final production product will undoubtedly discredit the film’s professionalism and cheapen the narrative. In a live or stage event video production, this might involve adjusting lighting and framing to mesh well with the atmosphere.

Harmony needs to be created in the video via rhythm and mood of music if the event’s purpose is for musicians or entertainment. While a conference video production or speaking event video production service involves creating congruency between branding, keynotes topics and industries. This assists the production team in ensuring the viewers of the event recap video will be drawn in, primed to digest the message, and ultimately, dedicated to the screen throughout their viewership.

3. Post-Production: The Refinement Phase

In the final, post-production or video editing stage, the raw canvas of footage is developed into a polished piece of art, where editing skills takes center-stage and post-production specialists are up to bat, playing their part in the video production process.

Editing is an art form that shapes the experience and narration in a video. In a documentary on historical events, the editor carefully weaves archival footage, b-roll, interviews, and voiceovers to create a coherent storyline. Smooth videography transitions and precise cuts help to back the persuasiveness in the overall storytelling. Sound is a silent hero in the industry of video production service. Adding a carefully chosen soundtrack or sound effects can evoke real emotions and reel the viewer deeper into the story.

Picture a waterfront-property luxury real estate video production for marketing, or a destination wedding video production where drone videographers take shots that act in complementary unison with the sound of waves crashing or birds chirping, balanced with serene or romantic scoring, creating a scene that draws the audience in by it’s richness in sensory stimulation.

For commercial or corporate video production, business-related video, or any videos that need additional video editing, this phase introduces graphics and effects, motion graphics, branding, curation for use as a marketing video, social media video, or to be used as a video ad asset production.

In an educational video production, graphics might be employed to illustrate complex concepts, solidifying viewers’ understanding. Additionally, the integration of motion graphics, animations and/or visual effects only serves to drive the impact and production quality higher.

Before the video is deemed ready for its audience, it will undergo rigorous review and feedback chains, likely necessitating revisions and re-reviews before all is said and done. This part of the post-production process guarantees that the final product is a high-quality reflection of the initial vision and objectives established in phase one. For a corporate training video production, this step might involve requesting input from subject-matter experts for accuracy and effectiveness.

The Video Production Process

The video production process is a journey from pre-production to post-production and when done adequately, is a streamlined and well-oiled operation, with each phase playing its own instrument in the symphony to glean the reaction desired in the final cinematic composure. By way of intensive pre-production planning, practiced and tedious videography service execution, and refinement by post-production fire, video production blossoms a simple idea into an art piece. When done by an experienced video production company or team, that storytelling will be genuinely relatable, distinctively eye-catching, and memorably impactful, thus achieving the goal to elicit the reactions intended from its audience.