Video Production for Small Business

Any type of construction or production should start with a blueprint or a plan of what you’re building. Therefore, the same is true for video production for small business. Start with some basic foundations and your final video will be much more successful.

The length of your video matters, especially for video production for small business. You have only a few seconds to capture your audience’s attention at the start of your video. Then you have to keep that engagement.

The click away rate rapidly increases the longer the video. Make your video a short as possible, while still getting your message across.

More and more of your viewers will watch your video on their mobile device. So you have to consider the format for presenting your video.

The options for viewing video on mobile devices are:

• Horizontal
• Square
• Vertical
• A hybrid of horizontal or square formatted with text or graphics above and below the video

There is no one right answer. If you’re publishing one video for viewing on both desktop and mobile devices, then choose a format that will work well, if not ideally, on both. A horizontal format might be best for this.

If you have the capability of serving different videos to different types of devices, then format the video for each device. For example, you could format a horizontal video for use on a desktop, while formatting that same video with graphics above and below the video to serve on a mobile device. Remember, most views on a mobile device will be done with the smartphone or tablet being held vertically.

And finally, remember that many views on a mobile device, as well as on desktops, will be started with the sound off. They might be completely viewed with the sound off. So consider adding subtitles to your video.

The budget for your video does matter, but it’s not the only factor in producing a good video. If you have the budget for professional video production, then your video will most certainly have higher production values, and be more effective at producing the results you’re looking for.

However, if your budget is small, or even non-existent, you can start by producing the video on your own using your smartphone and some inexpensive accessories.

The most important thing is to have a story to tell and then to tell it well.

Great video is about the art of storytelling. Think about the story in almost any movie. There’s an arc to the story. Usually you’re first introduced to the main character. Then the character has a problem. Following that, most of the movie is about the character solving the problem. Then everything seems fine, but oops there’s one more problem. Then the character solves that and usually everyone lives happily ever after.

Videos for small business should also have an arc to their story. A small business video isn’t like a feature film, but it should lead the viewer on a journey through the arc of the video’s story.

Anyone producing video for small business can learn a lot by studying screenwriting. One of the best books for learning the craft of screenwriting is “The Screenwriter’s Bible” by David Trottier. In the book, Trottier helps filmmakers think in terms of “showing” instead of “telling”, and helps think in terms of a story’s arc. All of this can help create small business videos that are more compelling and that keep the viewer more engaged.

Finally to help ensure that your video production for small business is seen, you need to optimize the video for search engines.

Things you should optimize in your video include:

• Title
• Description
• Tags
• Custom Thumbnails
• Cards and Endscreens

All of these will help search engines understand what your video is about and help your video rank higher on search engine results pages.

Just as with any type of construction or production, video production for small business takes planning.

I’ve suggested five things to consider in your production. Again, the most important is to tell a story and tell it well.

The feature photo is by Seth Doyle at Unsplash