Developing an Online Video Marketing Strategy, Part 2: Producing With Marketing in Mind

Producing for the Small Screen

In terms of production, as online video producers, it’s most important to remember that we're producing for the small screen. That means that with wide shots, we lose a lot of detail, particularly with viewing on mobile devices. According to a recent YouTube Insight, YouTube videos reach 47% of all 18- to 34-year-olds, and 98% of them watch video daily on their smartphone. So you've got to make sure that your videos are being optimized for mobile viewing.

In the example below, what image are you going to engage with more--the one on the left or this one on the right? The one on the left is a closeup where you can see the person's eyes and really hear the message that they're trying to deliver.

In addition to focal length and shot composition, all aspects of what you present on screen contribute to your brand identity, whether it's your lighting, your shooting style, or your set. Every aspect of your productions needs to be deliberate. All of those elements convey certain emotions that people are going to associate with your brand. Keep all those things during the production phase.

Post-Production

In terms of post-production, you want to think about the face of your brand in the style, graphics, music, and the tone that you're setting. You also want to think about the call-to-action. If you're going to be creating some type of an end card at the conclusion of your videos, like this example on the right in the figure below, is that something that's going to need to be done by your post-production team and built inside of the editing system? You want to think about those things during post-production. With this approach, you're holding engagement; you're keeping people on your YouTube channels or your website longer. Those are huge things for marketing your videos.

Know Your Platform

You also want to make sure that you know the specs of your platform. Wherever your video is going to live, you want to make sure that you're encoding properly for that channel. What you get when you're done with your videos can be beautiful on your own screen, but when it actually hits that channel online, it may look different than what you saw on your screen.

This may involve bringing in your IT team or your video team just to make sure that your video is being optimized and that you're creating a good user experience for people when they're watching your videos. The easiest thing for viewers to do if they don’t like what they see is to stop watching and click off your channel or off your website. And the last thing you want is for that to happen because your content wasn’t playing properly on your platform of choice.

Just to recap what we’ve covered on production: You want to make sure you know where your video is going to live. You want to make sure that you're always keeping your branding in mind throughout the entire process. You want to make sure that you design it for the back of the room. You want to create an active viewer experience, and you want to make sure that you're including some type of call-to-action to have your viewer and audience do something at the end of your videos so that your marketing goals take effect immediately.