How to Make a Video: A Step-by-Step Guide for Businesses

Creating a video (actually, lots of videos) is one of the best ways to market your brand — but it can be daunting when you’re not sure where to start.  This guide will break down the process so you can quickly begin to harness the awareness-building, audience-engaging, conversation-boosting powers of video. (Still on the fence whether it’s worthwhile for your brand? Check out our short article on video marketing to read all about why it’s a necessity in today’s eCommerce landscape.)

Back to Basics: How Do You Make an Engaging Video?

The internet is full of content, meaning it’s more important than ever to stand out with engaging video.  Video is your best bet since stats show that 72% of e-commerce customers would rather learn about a product or service by way of video. Here are some tips for creating a video that provides value and captures your audience’s attention.

Who Is My Target Audience?

You need to truly know your target audience and what they need so that you can tailor your content to them and provide something of value. Consider your customer profile and ask yourself: What would they stop to look at? In an era where people scroll through social media regularly and are inundated by content, you’ll need to grab their attention in seconds.

You can discover basic facts about your existing audience profile in the analytics section of most social media platforms as well as via Google analytics. You should also have a solid ‘profile’ or your ideal customer as part of your marketing plan (including age, income, lifestyle, purchasing habits, etc.)

As an example, this video below shows how you can utilize Google Analytics reports to understand your customers.

Find a Topic That’s Different From What’s Already Out There

Now that you have your target audience, you can begin to pick topics that are engaging and different from what is already available. Think about what your audience is looking for, the questions they have, and what you might be able to provide valuable information on.

Tip: Go through your brand’s reviews as well as the comments on existing content to get acquainted with your audience and find out what is missing from your content collection (or maybe even from your product offering).

What kind of video content will provide value to your audience?

  • For a cosmetics brand, the answer might be an unboxing showcasing your product’s beautiful packaging, a real-person testimonial, or an application tutorial.
  • For an apparel company, viewers would want to know immediately what makes your clothing different from the sea of competitors. Let them know in just a few seconds.
  • For a university, it might be student testimonials about how they’ve benefitted from their education and the success they’ve achieved because of it.
  • For a software company, that could be quick demos or FAQ videos that answer the most frequently searched questions related to your product or service.

What is the Value That You Bring to the Table?

Think about all the points that make your business special. Why are you different and why should a consumer choose your brand over a competitor’s? Are you the most effective, the most user-friendly, the highest-reviewed, the most affordable, customizable, patented, science-backed? This is your USP (unique selling proposition). When you firmly establish what is unique about your brand, you can pinpoint your value to your consumers. Whatever the answer is, it should be conveyed quickly and powerfully in your video.

When you finally establish what is unique about your brand, you can pinpoint your value to your customers. Whatever the answer is, it should be conveyed quickly and powerfully in your video.

This video below by clean beauty brand Kari Gran is a good example of showcasing your unique selling point quickly.

Do Your Keyword Research

Make time for keyword research (popular tools include SEMRush or Answer The Public) to find the words and questions that people are searching for that relate to your product or service. For instance, if you have a nutritional products company, you might want to find out which specific vitamins and supplements are being Googled the most and what kind of questions people have about them. This can help shape your video content, and when you do produce a video, it will draw more traffic and views through SEO

Take the Stress Out of Video With StoryTap

StoryTap is the patented video engagement platform that enables you to easily create and share authentic experiences from real customers and employees at scale. Using our platform, you can create compelling and highly searchable video content — without the high production costs. And by doing so, you can improve brand awareness, connect with more customers and prospects, and boost bottom-line results. Plus, all videos include SEO metadata and are fully brand-controlled and free to share across multiple channels (including social media), and easily embed on your site. Book a free demo today to find out more.

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