EM Productions is a Video Production company in Vietnam, Singapore, Seoul, and China for more than 19 Years.
Many of our clients in the region are tired of making the same old boring videos and are ready to invest into their brand for that change. They come to us to help them step up their game and make great films that tell a story and separate them from the herd.
What is the best way to keep people engaged in your video? Let me tell you it is not with statistics or charts …… it is good storytelling. Even though numbers and statistics are important, we have to make your audiences connect to that information in a more meaningful way through a story to make it effective.
That is why we use storytelling in our videos. It brings your message to life and to make sure is heard and more important understood.
But fear not! With the right approach, you can create a video that’s engaging, entertaining, and most importantly, effective.
So, what’s the secret sauce to a killer corporate video? It all starts with pre-production. This is the planning stage where you figure out what you want your video to achieve, who your target audience is, and how you’re going to tell your story.
You are the expert in your company and we are experts in storytelling and filmmaking. Heck we have even won some prestigious awards for our approach, so what’s stopping you from making a great video that gets you noticed and connects with your audience? Well you have to help us understand the important things your company needs to tell. That is where a Video Brief comes in.
DECIDE ON YOUR VIDEO OBJECTIVE
Whenever you do anything in marketing, start by figuring out why you’re doing it. It’s no different with video.
Put together an objective for your video content before you do anything else. Why do you want video in the first place? What are you trying to accomplish? Is your company looking to raise awareness, sell something, or more?
You don’t want to create video for the wrong reasons.
Cramming your objectives into a video-shaped box is doing it all wrong. If you only want to create video for one of those goals, stop right now. If you are unsure about your objective, please feel free to get in touch with us! We’ll help you figure out what you want.
So let’s get ready to set you up for successful video project!
CONFUCIUS SAYS, “MASTER THE FORM, NOT CONTENT”
Say what??!!
Hear me out. Sometimes people get caught up in creating the perfect video. They’re like, “we gotta make a video, it’ll explain everything so all customer questions are asked!”
But hold on a minute my friend.
Let’s get something straight – the video itself isn’t the content, it’s just the fancy delivery system.
The video will not make the sale for your company, but it can drive the customer to talk your sales team or mention your company to a third party. The content is what counts and you need to craft it carefully.
Sure, videos can be super effective, but they’re not the be-all and end-all. And here’s the kicker – video is so flexible, it can work for pretty much anything.
So don’t start with “let’s make a video” – start with the message you want to convey!
Now, I know I might be a little biased as a video production company, but trust me on this one – it’s always better to start with the content than the form. It’s like making anything worthwhile, you gotta plan it out first.
So take some time to figure out your objectives and what you want to say before you even think about the video. It might sound crazy, but it has proven to work.
7 STEPS FOR MAKING A SUCCESSFUL VIDEO BRIEF
Here are seven simple questions you need to ask yourself before you get started. You’re going to get that awesome, results-driven video you’ve always dreamed of if you follow these tips. So, let’s get started!
1. WHY DO YOU NEED A VIDEO?
It is critical to have a clear knowledge of the objective of video content in order to ensure its success. This comprises outlining your goals, analyzing your company condition, and articulating the problem you wish to tackle via video.
While describing your objectives, it is critical to be detailed and exact. For example, do you want to improve website traffic, change employee behavior, or drive lead conversion? Furthermore, it is essential that you construct quantitative success measurements that will allow you to follow the progress of your video toward attaining its goals.
Your video production and planning process will be heavily influenced by your final aims, so you must be certain of what you want to achieve.
2. WHO IS OUR AUDIENCE?
Who will be watching your video? Will it be potential customers, existing clients, employees, or other stakeholders?
Without a clear understanding of your target audience, it will be difficult to customize your video content to engage and resonate with them. You should aim to gather as much information as possible about your typical viewer, including their demographics, occupation, and personality.
Our video production brief template can help you use this information to craft content that will captivate your target audience.
Additionally, you should determine the emotions, thoughts, and actions you want your audience to experience after watching your video content. The more insight you have into your target audience and the desired outcome of your video, the more effective your video will be at achieving your goals.
3. WHAT IS YOUR MESSAGE?
It is important to define the core message that your video content should convey.
Ideally, you should aim to focus on one main message, or at most two related messages. You don’t want your viewers to get overwhelmed by too much information in your video. So make it simple to communicate your core message by limiting it to just a few key points.
Use supporting sub-messages to elaborate on your core message to ensure effective communication. If you use this approach, dubbed a message map, you’ll be able to clear up your points and support them effectively. You’ll be able to make your video clear and concise if you create a message map before it’s made.
4. WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO SHOW THE VIDEO?
You must include how you intend to distribute your video material in your brief. Your video’s creation will differ drastically depending on whether it will be seen on your website, during a company or customer meeting or through a bunch of social media channels.
Your video must be ideally aligned to the channels through which it will be delivered. If you’re uploading it to YouTube, for example, you should consider including a Call to Action at the end of the video to bring people back to your website.
Always keep in mind that where you place your video should be determined by who your audience is and how best to reach them.
5. WHAT EXCITES YOU?
There are many functions that videos serve, such as Customer Success Stories, Employee Empowerment Films, Project Highlight Films, Corporate Social Responsibility Stories, Brand Videos, training films, and so on.
To come up with the creative approach for you (which you will have supplied above! ), your video production agency will need to think about your message and target audience. They will also require your brand standards in order to incorporate your colors, fonts, and tone of voice in order to fit with your other marketing materials.
It is really important to provide them with links to existing videos that you enjoy for other sources as well as what you have made already, along with remarks on what you enjoy about them and why.
6. HOW WILL SUCCESS BE DETERMINED?
What constitutes success for your video project? Do you have any specific KPIs in mind that you want to track?
Knowing how and why your video content performs across numerous platforms and channels is critical for advancing your campaign.
Frequent analysis and reporting across a variety of indicators and KPIs allows you to see how close you are to meeting your goals. As a result, you’ll be able to fine-tune your plan and develop even more effective, appealing content.
If you’re not sure what to track, here are some popular video content KPIs to consider:
CONTENT ITSELF:
- Play rate
- Views
- Average viewer engagement
- Likes, shares and comments
CONTENT ON A SPECIFIC WEBSITE/LANDING PAGE:
- Bounce rate
- Time on site
- Conversion rate
SALES KPIS:
- Number of Marketing Qualified Leads from a played video
- Number of Sales Qualified Leads from a played video
7. WHAT’S YOUR BUDGET AND TIMELINE?
Lets just get this out of the way so we can all save time. Not giving a budget range or guideline
Sharing your budget helps a video production company understand how to plan and create the content for your project. Also, your budget will dictate how much quality can go into production.
We have produced videos that were 6 figures USD and also videos that were 4 figures USD. There are so many factors that play into video production, but if you have gotten to this far into planning your video you should have a ballpark idea on what your company is looking to spend. I will say production companies regionally like ours average around $10,000 to $35,000 for professional corporate videos that have good storytelling. This is from creative concept to final delivery. If you already have a creative concept and need good crew to execute the video production then of course this reduces the budget as creative concepts take a lot of time.
The more direction you can provide in terms of money and schedule, the smoother the production process will be (especially if you’re dealing with an external video firm like us!). Even if your position evolves, update your brief as needed and maintain communication open.
TAKE THE NEXT STEP – SEND US YOUR VIDEO BRIEF!!!!
We’re known for delivering impressive content and results – so let’s chat to see if we’re a good match. You can see the work we came up with the creative concepts, shot, directed, and produced in Vietnam, Singapore, Seoul and China here: https://www.ehrinmacksey.com/Ho-Chi-Minh-City-Videographer-Hanoi-Videographer-Vietnam-Videographer-Vietnam-Video-Production.html
Want to know more about EM Productions and how we can help you for your video production? Email us today at ehrin@ehrinmacksey.com.
Feel free to contact us if you’d like to go over your brief in more detail, get some ideas, and get a rough estimate.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Remember that the more detail you can include in your brief before production begins, the more likely your video will be a success in terms of engaging your audience and meeting your objectives.
Using sample examples, our basic video brief template asks you all of these topics in greater depth. So now that you understand how to draft a video production brief (and why), grab our template and get started right now!