How to Prepare for your Video: with Heart Humor and Humanity

Today BingsWings Productions begins a series of blogs to help you get organized and finally bring your professional promo video to life. We begin at…the beginning!

 Where do you begin?

The more you organize, the happier you will be with the end result and the side bonus is that your website and marketing materials will probably end up being updated as well, not to mention your social media.

 First, determine the purpose of your video. Is it important that your client stories come to life? Would you like to drive sales? Should your potential customers get to know you and your staff while they’re deciding whether they want to employ your business? Or is it all of the above? I hope so. Read on…

 Once you have a clear purpose, the elements will be easier to assemble.

1)    Testimonials - If you want to have your customers sing your praise, personally call the ones that love your business and are willing to be on camera. Pose it as a fun experience and one that won’t take up too much of their time. Let them know they will see the interview questions ahead of time, and that everything will be edited down to a one or two-minute piece, so they don’t have to worry about being perfect! I don’t think I’ve ever not heard a testimonial-giver exclaim, “That was fun!!” And they will feel good helping you. SIDE NOTE: those 10-15 second testimonials on their own make great social media posts.

2)    Driving sales – Video tells the story of your business quickly and viscerally, more than other formats. It makes people feel like they know you and connects them to you before you even speak to them. It helps them make the decision to utilize your business over someone else’s. When preparing, think about the things we can show that make your business unique and bring people back. How do you keep your clients happy? Make sure you list everything so the crew can get plenty of b-roll (footage) to shape the video. Think of everything in story form. And remember, today the preferred way to get information is – you guessed it – video!

3)    Getting to know you – Think about the heart of your organization or business. What do you care about? How do you prepare for your day? What makes things tick? People love to see what goes on behind the scenes of, well, everything. And don’t shy away from your – and other staff’s - personal stories. The more personal you make your interviews, the more people can relate. I don’t know why, I only know it’s true!

 And remember, Bingswings Productions is here to put all the pieces together for you. I hope you found this helpful. Let me know, will ya? We would love to get comments, questions and ideas for our next blog. Stay tuned!