There are three key types of engaging video content: informative, entertaining, and persuasive. But slotting your video idea into one of these three categories isn't enough to make it engaging, and there are hundreds of different additional steps, processes, and ideas your team needs to go through to create video content that really resonates with your audience and provides them with value.
Whether you have in-house corporate video production staff or you want to hire professional video production services, start refining your video creation process with these five key steps, and you'll be on your way to creating everything from informative tutorial videos to riveting social posts to unforgettable advertisements.
Understand Your Audience(s!)
Every good video starts and ends with an emphasis on the people who are watching it. So before you or your video production services provider create your next video, start researching your audience. For Miami-area local businesses, this might include understanding the audiences within each local neighborhood, understanding how tourism and seasonal trends impact your audience, and, above all else, understanding the pain points your audience is trying to resolve.
Throughout this research process, you'll create in-depth customer avatars: representations of your core target market that tell you their demographic information, preferences, interests, budget, and other key details. But remember: no business has only one audience. Break down your data, so you clearly understand each separate market. Ideally, you'll be able to create lots of videos that speak to each distinct audience. But if that's not in your budget, you can identify your most profitable audiences and make sure the video messaging doesn't get watered down.
Focus on Good Storytelling From Start to Finish
A good story is the backbone of any good video, especially when it comes to brand storytelling videos. Stories outperform statistics, lists of benefits, and even lavish testimonials that sing your company's praises. Through the fundamental principles of storytelling, audiences identify with a character and their struggles, experience the emotions of trying to overcome a challenge, and gain a memorable understanding of the role your brand, products, or services play in resolving pain points.
Mastering the art of storytelling takes time and practice. But when it comes to great video, these are the essential elements:
- Understanding your audience (which you have already done by this stage)
- Creating a relevant story focusing on a shared human experience
- Use emotion to make the story real
- Clearly demonstrate your brand identity and voice so the story isn't generic or attributable to a different brand
Another crucial element of storytelling is simplicity. The storyline and visuals must be easy to follow. You may not have your audience's full attention, the sound may be off on the video, or you may only have five seconds to hook your viewers into the story. Every story must be simple, but video stories rely on that clarity even more than traditional stories.
Make the Videos Visually Exciting
When you think of high-quality video production, this may be the element that comes to mind first—and for good reason. Imagine delving into the research around your core recurring customer base, creating a beautiful storyline that they can resonate with, and then watching all your viewers scroll past the video because the visuals don't hook them in after two seconds. It's a frustrating experience, but high-quality visuals can get their attention until the story sets in—and then some.
Here are some quick tactics for creating visually engaging videos:
- Use high-fidelity filming and professional-level equipment. Grainy, dark, or shaky footage looks unprofessional and can even make emotive stories "cringy" among younger audiences. But professional videography and high-quality video production keep interest (and brand reputation) higher.
- Add visual elements, like your logo in the corner, colorful text overlays, and special effects so every frame of your video is exciting and informative.
- Make good use of text. Whether you want the text to pop across the screen because most social feeds are muted or you want to have captions so no one is excluded from your content, text is a critical visual element. So make it clear and followable.
- Use jump cuts. Tightly edited video does best after every platform. Don't let moments linger or draw out when they don't serve a purpose.
- Film at recognizable locations. If you have local audiences, this tip is especially for you. Use Miami's iconic locations or local hotspots as the setting for different ads, and gain additional engagement points from your audience by making the stories familiar.
Consider the Needs and Trends of Each Social Media Video Content Platform
Engaging content must adapt to the medium it's working with, and within the broad category of "marketing video," there are a lot of different options. As you get started, one of the easiest—and most effective—ways to adapt your videos is by editing them for different platforms. Consider these factors for commercial video production for social media:
- Size: Every social platform has slightly different recommendations for the dimensions of your video, as well as the file size, for maximum engagement.
- Length: Your audiences will engage with the video differently based on where they are. For example, a ten-minute video will perform much better on YouTube, while a 20-second one is a much better choice for Instagram. You can analyze the engagement metrics of all of your videos over time to zero in on the best lengths for different platforms, audiences, and purposes.
- Type: Different styles of video are popular across every platform. Sometimes, audiences prefer very fast cuts, or music overlays, or special effects. These trends fade in and out over time. Playing around with the different styles can make your content much more engaging, especially if you keep up with the changes and don't let fads overtake core video production principles.
Analyze the Results to Strategically Create Your Next Videos
Finally, just like social media management in general and all of your other content marketing strategies, analytics are essential. Commercial video production includes hefty post-production aspects to get the results you want. Spend time measuring key metrics for each video, such as watch time duration, clickthrough rates, comments, and sales that you can at least partially attribute to the videos. These numbers will tell you which videos work best for different purposes. Over time, you'll also be able to refine the creation process and lock on to what your audiences crave.
Create More Engaging Video With Visual Angle Media, Miami's Local Video Production Agency
Creating high-quality, appealing, and profitable video projects is hard work. At Visual Angle Media, we're here to help with high-quality video production services. Our team of local marketing experts, video production specialists, and editors can help you create your video marketing strategies, work with you to create new videos, and launch them for maximum online engagement.
Contact us today to talk about what you want your video production strategy to look like and to learn more about our promotional video services.
Written by Fabrizio Colombi
With a lifelong passion for video that ignited at the young age of 10, Fabrizio has honed his skills in production and direction to mastery. His focus and love for visual storytelling now translate into empowering businesses with engaging videos. By creatively developing videos that resonate with audiences, Fabrizio facilitates growth and innovation for companies, turning his childhood fascination into a professional mission. His dedication to crafting compelling visuals is not merely a career; it's an extension of who he is.
