The starting point for any video is to begin by writing a brief for your video project. Our guide provides you with the questions that you should be asking yourself in order to help map out your video. This will help combine your thoughts into one central place and ensure that everything that is important is documented and included. Whether you are creating a brief for a video production company or for your internal team, this brief will be vital to making sure that everyone is on the same page.
Below are the 5 questions you should ask yourself when creating a video production brief that will lead to a smooth process and great results.
To get started it is good to be clear about why you need a video and what the purpose of the content is. Some examples of the purpose of your video could be to build brand awareness, launch a product, grow sales or drive more traffic to your website. Whatever your purpose is, be as specific as you can as this will determine key factors for the whole production and help you focus and allow you to track metrics and progress more efficiently.
We always advise having clear objectives and KPIs for your video and campaign in order to measure the success of the project. This will give the video production company a clear set of objectives that they will try and meet with their production. This could be specific figures such as page views, video views and leads.
Next, you need to consider your target audience and who you expect to be watching your video, who you are trying to communicate with and what resonates with them. Jot down what you know about your demographic, things like age group, location, interests, sectors and job titles.
It is also important to consider how you want your audience to feel and think when watching the video and what you want them to do after watching the video. This will help craft the message to target these people directly.
Taking everything into consideration, it is important to craft your core message, keep it simple and try to stick to one or 2 core messages to avoid cramming in too much and confusing your audience. This will help you build the narrative around this message and keep the focus on what needs to be covered.
How you plan to distribute your content will be key to make sure your video is optimised for the platform. Think about your strongest channels and your video production agency should be able to provide different versions that will be optimised for web, TV and social.
Based on where the video will be used, you can tailor the call-to-action and include closed captions to ensure your video gets the highest possible engagement and the viewer knows what to do next.
Our last piece of advice is to have an idea about how much you can invest in making your video. This will be very helpful for your video production company or internal team. The more guidance you can give about your budget and timeline, the smoother the production process should be, ensuring it’s well-planned and the level of production is aligned.
Once you’ve filled out your brief, the next step is to get the ball rolling, reach out to a video production agency or your team to start the creative process. A good agency will be on-hand every step of the way and should be able to get a headstart thanks to your well-crafted video brief.
Our newsletter keeps you up to date with industry trends and insights to stay ahead of the game