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Professionally produced video is an investment. There is no doubt about it. So if you're going to put video into the budget of your company or organization, ask yourself a few questions first:

1. What is the goal?

"To stay relevant," or "to match my competition" are not valid answers to that question. If that's your starting point, then you need to ask a few more questions, like: why are other companies and organizations using video? What seems to be the purpose? How can I use video to set myself apart from the competition, not just catch up with them?

If you're beyond those sorts of questions, then what is your goal with video? Are you trying to increase sales? Do you want to improve your image? Are you trying to get your message out there? There are all sorts of ways video can help you. But in order to be as effective as possible, everyone involved needs to fully understand why the investment in video is being made.

2. Who is my audience? Specifically, who is your typical customer? What is his/her gender, age range, race, personality, etc.? Are we targeting the typical customer in this video, or are we aiming in a different direction? Your target audience will (or should) affect the video's subject, style, music, pace, and talent selection. Know your customers, know who you're addressing, and make sure your producer knows as well.

3. What is the call-to-action?

By the end of the video, you should be asking your viewers to take some sort of action. If that's not something you're doing with your company's videos, then you're not getting your money's worth. If your video is effective enough, you can practically guarantee a captive audience. Take advantage of that fact and make sure you drive your audience to take action. Should viewers go to a website? Download software? Give you a call? Purchase your product? Attend an event? Whatever the call-to-action is, make it attractive. Make it clear. Make it simple.

4. Where will the video be seen?

Be specific. If you're going to put the video on your website, where exactly will you place it? Will it be on the top of your homepage, or will it be buried in the depths of your website's navigation? Where on the page will the video be seen? Will it be near the top of the page, or will viewers need to scroll to find it? How long will the video be there? For a week? A month? Indefinitely? Is this video specifically for a blog? Social media? Television? Will it be shown at a trade show? Answers to these questions will not only help your team prepare for the next steps, but they'll also help your video producer understand the context. The answers will also help you take a hard look at whether you need a different or more thoughtful plan for the placement of your video to be more effective.

5. How will I promote the video?

You can't expect your view count to magically rise if you just upload your video to YouTube and don't tell anyone about it. Are you going to promote the video in email blasts or newsletters? On social media? On blogs? Are you going to tweet it? Have you planned to have some of your colleagues retweet the video once you post it? Are there other online communities with members who will find your video helpful or interesting? Don't base the success or failure of a video on view count if you're not placing your video in prominent places and sharing your video everywhere you can.

If you have clear answers to all of the questions above and a solid plan for placement and promotion of the video after it's produced, then you're ready to get started. If not, no worries. Studio Roho can help you find those answers before you approach your boss/colleagues, and certainly before you begin the video production process. And consider this: if video is a new thing for your company, don't expect everyone to be on board with the idea. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, video is an investment. You need to sell your team on the purpose for this investment and use your answers to the above questions to help put together a convincing plan. We can help you with that as well! With a solid plan, a team behind you, a budget to support you and the right videographer(s) to pull it off, you will discover that video is an incredibly powerful and effective tool to get your message out to the masses.

Let us help you get started. Give Studio Roho a call today!