So you’ve decided that you want to produce a video for your company in the Raleigh area – awesome! Videos are a great way to promote your company or product; customers who see a well-produced video are more likely to buy a service or product from you. Once you have your audience determined, you’re ready to follow our steps to creating a video that not only looks good, but will generate the results you want.

1. Hone in on your purpose.

This is a crucial first step to producing a video that will generate results for your small business. Ask yourself, “What am I trying to accomplish? What do I want the customer to do or think after seeing this video?” Once you have this purpose determined, find a story about your company that focuses on it. This could mean a testimonial video, which is relatable to the customer, a story about how you can solve a day to day problem that people encounter, or maybe the story you’re telling is totally different! The important thing is that the story you tell matches your purpose.

2. Draw up a plan for your video.

Before the cameras can roll, you need to make sure you have a plan for your video, both visually and in tone. There are so many types of visual styles you could use to produce your video. Do you want it to be animated, live action, whiteboard style, or something entirely different? Will your video be mostly for entertainment value, purely informational, or will it have a serious tone? What is the setting of your video? These are all things you need to consider early on so that the rest of the video production time runs smoothly. Another important thing to consider in this step is duration – your video should be under 6 minutes long or else you may not keep customer attention all the way to the end.

3. Write up a script.

You wouldn’t set out to drive somewhere new without at least glancing at the directions first, right? Maybe you would, but it’s risky and you could waste valuable time. The same concept goes for video production; having a script written out saves time in the long run and will help keep you and your team on track. If this is a live action video where you’ll be speaking into the camera, it is important to note that reading directly from the script could sound robotic – no need to follow what you’ve written word for word, but having the script as a guideline will save you time, which of course saves money.

4. Set the stage.

Your personal cell phone may take great pictures that are perfect for sharing on your company’s social media stream, but if you’re taking the time to produce and promote a video, the production value is important. Customers will notice the difference between a video shot on an IPhone versus one that was produced using proper lighting, mics, and a quality camera. If you don’t have any of these products, then you may want to either invest in some or look into hiring a local professional video company to produce the video for you.

5. Time to record!

At this point, you’re ready to let the cameras roll. If you’re the one being filmed, keep your shoulders back, relax, and be sure to look straight into the camera, not at the person shooting. Make sure everyone’s phones are silenced to prevent the perfect take from being ruined by a text message, and try to record somewhere that doesn’t have any background noise. No matter what style of video you’re producing, the end of it should definitely have a call to action. What this looks like of course will vary from company to company, but whatever the purpose of this video is, to give money, to subscribe, to buy your product, etc., you absolutely need to have an easy way for customers to do that at the end of the video. Additionally, there should be a way for the customer to take the next step wherever this video is posted. This could come in the form of a subscribe button to start receiving emails, or a link to order your product, but the most important thing is that it needs to be easy for the customers who just watched your video to take the next step.

6. Promote your video.

Congratulations! If you’ve followed these steps, you have a great video that will really help advertise your small business. Now, make sure people see it! Use all of the channels you have available, such as email blasts, social media, and even asking your employees to share it. Another option is to utilize pay per click ads, however, if you’re going to spend money doing this, you may want to look into hiring a pro to help you. Many professional Raleigh video production companies have packages available that make sure your video is promoted and seen by the right audience.

Blueforest Studios:  A leader in the Raleigh video production space, is prepared to help you complete and promote your next video production project.  If you’ve read these tips and are looking for a professionally done video for your local Raleigh business without the stress of trying to DIY it, check out Blueforest Studios – we look forward to hearing from you and chatting about how we can help you tell your brand story!