In our previous post in this series, we covered the value of video, and included a brief overview of the tasks we will discuss in detail. Now, it's time to discuss Research and Development.
Research and Development
Before you embark on video creation strategy, you need to know what content to create. What will speak to your audience? Who is your audience? What video content are they already consuming? What related searches already deliver video options in the SERP’s? Let’s consider carefully evaluating the video content you should create, and how to craft a fast-moving, high-impact video strategy.
Video Titles and Content
Overview
Strategy
- Identify video content, titles and optimization strategies before embarking on video creation. Tips to setting up and shooting effective video with a budget in mind.
Why It Works
- Knowing what video content will have the greatest impact as quickly as possible will mean the greatest exposure and the fastest results.
How To Do It
- Follow suggested research methods to identify video content and titles before shooting pointless video. Leverage Video Tips to shoot better video faster.
Effect
- Click Through Rate, Views, Conversions, SERP inclusion.
Strategy Details
Step one is to determine what videos are necessary, and in order to know that, we need to identify video titles and content gaps. Here are three suggested methods for crafting Video Titles that will be of most benefit to your company, answer common questions, and be featured in search results faster:
Method 1: Answering frequently asked questions is often a great place to start. Ask your team, especially those that are client facing as part of their regular job description, for a list of questions they regularly receive from current and potential clients.
A second method of identifying appropriate video titles, is to identify keywords that deliver videos in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s):
Method 2: Try searching competitor videos: “[insert competitor brand name or terms] video”, or: “site:www.competitorurl.com video” and identify pages that contain videos. In most cases the terms your competition are targeting will be right within the URL or page title. Alternatively, you can identify the terms search engines think they are targeting by placing the URL into the keyword planning tool in Adwords, or using some other paid tool such as Ranks.nl to identify the target keywords on these pages.
Gather a list of video titles and searches and evaluate which would be worth targeting for videos.
Method 3: If you are using Moz.org to track or evaluate keywords, then you will be able to identify keywords you are already targeting that contain videos in the SERP’s. These keywords are identified with a camera icon beside the keyword. Optimize video titles and content for these searches.
Tips For Shooting Cost Effective Video
One of the most common objections to shooting video content is the perceived cost associated. But forward thinking marketing departments realize this is a good thing, because:
- It prevents your competition from entering and competing in the same space. And;
- The public’s perception of video is often the same, lending credence and value to your brand, and positioning you as an authority because: “you must be successful to afford video”.
Creating Cost Effective Videos
With today’s technology, and cost of equipment, a fully functioning video studio is not as expensive as you may think. Here are a few of the things you’ll need:
- A full HD camera - $500 - $1,500
- Studio Lights - $350 - $1,000
- Studio Tripod - $150 - $350
- Back-Drop - $100
- Lapel Microphone - $650
- Total Setup Cost $1,750 - $4,600
In addition, you’ll need a rather hefty computer (for rendering) and video editing software. We recommend an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription that includes Adobe Premiere Pro.
A Few Things To Keep In Mind When Shooting Video.
If shooting an interview style video:
- Have your questions prepared ahead of time.
- Let your interview subject mentally prepare answers, but avoid rehearsing them word-for word, a more natural approach is always better.
- Determine ahead of time your posting schedule, and how regularly you want to publish videos. As most subjects are very busy, they’ll usually appreciate getting 3 – 6 months worth of videos “in the can” at one time.
- Have the subject answer questions one at a time speaking directly to the interviewer, not the camera. This helps the answers appear more natural, less rehearsed, and the interviewer can give silent direction (chin up, smile, etc.).
- Avoid the use of a tele-prompter if at all possible.
- Be sure to do sound, light, and other checks ahead of time using a test subject not the interviewee. Your interviewee will appreciate your preparedness, and can spend more time getting valuable video done, instead of troubleshooting unexpected issues.
- Keep videos between 1 and 4 minutes long.
- Consider purchasing “pre-packaged” introduction to your video, also known as a “logo sting” from VideoHive.
If shooting a product video:
- Avoid including any humans or faces in the shots (greatly slows down the editing process).
- If including a voice over, do so in postproduction.
- Script the voiceover, to ensure you have appropriate shots to match the voiceover.
- Product comparisons are common searches, comparing the features of products makes for great video content.
- Keep product videos between 1 and 4 minutes long.
- Close the video with a graphic of bullet pointed features / benefits of the product.
- Consider purchasing “pre-packaged” introduction to your video, also known as a “logo sting” from VideoHive.
In our next post in this series, we'll look at YouTube in depth. The benefits, limitations, channel options and how they differ.
