How to Create an Effective Online Video

Online videos are rapidly becoming an indispensable part of a successful marketing plan. But with every passing minute, 24 hours of new video is posted to YouTube alone. With so much content out there, how can you make a video that will gain attention?

At its heart, every effective online video has two qualities: useful, interesting content and quality production values. When the proper elements are in place, these videos can serve to establish corporate branding, show industry leadership and promote specific products.

The first step in creating your video is to determine a clear objective. If, for example, you want to show the benefits of one of your products, a customer case study would be ideal. The primary objective in the video would be to show customer satisfaction with the product.

With the objective identified, create the script for the video. The case study video would include writing an outline for the client interview and conducting the interview. The story should be divided into three sections or “acts,” much like a film. The first section should introduce the client, in no more than one minute. The second section should describe the problem they needed to solve, and the third section should discuss the solution and how it benefited the company. All this needs to be accomplished in less than 5 minutes, with 3:30 being the ideal video time.

Once the content of the video has been determined, ensure the quality of the production. The same basic rules apply to an Internet video that apply to a feature film. Lighting and audio are especially important — their effect on the final product is difficult to overstate. Combined with proper editing, these techniques will ensure the production value of the finished product.

Another element that most successful videos have is a call to action. This should direct the viewer’s next step, such as a referral to a website. Without a call to action, the video is useless.

Quality content and production values are vital for an online video to succeed, but there is one more thing that a video needs in order to gain views — attention.

Connectsm staff analyzed 2,200 business videos on YouTube and compared the quality of messaging and production with the number of views. In some cases, the least compelling videos received the most views, simply because of the way they were promoted. In order for your video to gain a large number of views, you need to add the right tags and descriptors, and make it an integral part of your marketing campaign. In addition, you will need to pitch it to media and blogs, put it on your website, and comment on social networking sites as appropriate. If your video is well done, properly promoted and includes a call to action, you have the elements in place to succeed.