Understanding The Web Video Production Process: A Comprehensive Guide

Web video production has become a staple for businesses marketing to earn their spot in the limelight.

It has become crucial for every company to boost its online visibility.

In this case, a top-notch quality video production is the best way to go to reap the benefits you deserve.

You probably already know that online videos are incredibly powerful marketing tools— for a straightforward reason: it’s an easy-to-digest medium that gives our eyes a rest from the overabundance of the ol’ text.

There’s no doubt about it.

As per the latest statistics, online video consumption and usage have taken a giant leap throughout the world. There’s not yet a sign of slowing down.

You need to get to capture your customers’ attention quickly. But that’s not all you need to convince them to stay, and that’s why the web videos are essential.

It makes sense if we say that integrating a video to your website can be a smart way to thrive in today’s noisy marketing landscape.

By investing in a web video production, you can engage more visitors interactively and double your conversion.

If you’re a web developer, creating a web video production might be a piece-of-cake for you to do. But if you aren’t? Then this post is entirely for you.

This guide has everything you need to know to create your web video in no time without the slice help of a developer— and most importantly, budget-friendly.

Video Production – An Overview

Creating your own web video seems pretty daunting, especially if you haven’t done it before.

The good news is: it’s not as complicated as you thought it would be.

This step-by-step guide will help you feel empowered to create your own web video confidently.

In video production, you are going to convert an idea or story into a video. Since the phases are usually complicated, we try to simplify it into three essential phases: planning, pre-production, and post-production.

To help you start and more prepared with those three phases, we’ve also outlined some compelling reasons why you need to create a web video along with actionable tips and tricks to get laser-targeted eyeballs on them.

This web video production might seem like a complicated process, but the payoff is definitely worth it.

Now, roll up your sleeves because the fun finally begins!

Why Your Business Needs Video

According to statistics, the online video takes up 82% of all consumers’ internet traffic by 2020. Here’s why video production for the web become essential.

Not to mention that the online video consumption doubles every year. It’s obvious now that the trends are not going anywhere anytime soon.

Video gives you an edge in marketing. It’s an engaging, versatile, and super shareable medium that allows you to reach more customers and make them loyal.

To state the obvious, businesses that don’t make the transition and refine their strategy will get left behind with an underperforming website.

Internet users most likely have a short attention span while they browse the internet. This is where video comes to capture their attention from the get-go and make them stay.

To get more insights, here are some more details about the benefits you’ll reap in integrating video into your website:

Increases Website Traffic

There is a constant inclination for search engines to prefer videos due to a continuous rise in video usage and consumption.

Hosting your videos on your website increases the chances that you’ll rank higher in Google search results.

A website is 53 times more likely to be at the top of search engine results pages if it contains at least a video. It makes your audience a lot easier to find you.

As you might already know, video is an ally for SEO campaigns. It doesn’t just grab the audiences’ attention; they hold it.

Hence, the audience spends more time on a website that has a video. This is how video can naturally help to increase your website traffic.

Raises Awareness

Increasing brand awareness is the first crucial step toward increased sales. The key is on the story you want to deliver through your video.

The story you put on the video can communicate core messages in an emotionally impactful way.

This is what makes your video memorable and easy to recall. Not to mention that it also provides visuals that easily identify with and hold on to.

If you put a compelling story on your video, there’s a high chance for the audience to share it on social media and other platforms.

Since video is extremely share-able, and at least 92% of mobile users share videos every day, video is a valuable tool to build brand awareness.

The audience who share your video with others can increase the results of your marketing efforts, introduce you to new opportunities, and organically raise your brand awareness.

Increases Conversion Rates

As a marketer, one of the most common roadblocks you face is trying to improve the conversion rates. With a video on your website, it’s no longer your outgoing concern.

Thanks to the way our brains are wired, these dominant visual senses help us to processes a video ridiculously 60,000 times faster than text.

This is why audiences vastly prefer watching a video advertisement than reading a user manual.

In this case, videos make it immensely easier to grab your audiences’ attention and motivate them with a strong call-to-action— which they can convert.

According to the latest statistics, viewers most likely to retain 95% of the message when they watch it through video.

It makes a lot of sense if 46% of internet users take action after seeing a product video on a website or other platforms than those who watch no video.

No wonder that placing a video on your website increases your conversion by a whopping 80%.

Increases Product or Service Understanding

Video is the clear-cut winner when it comes to breaking down and explaining complex ideas. It helps you to explain the complex concepts into bite-sized chunks, making it easier for your audience to understand.

While delivering the information, a compelling video doesn’t make your brand intrusive; it also takes some stabs in entertainment to have fun with your audience.

No wonder that visualizing your product in action makes it way more exciting and understandable to watch.

A well-crafted video will shed some light on how your product is going to work, how it has the solution to your audience problem, and what they can expect in real life.

This is why video can be your valuable tool to gain your product understanding. The more your audience understands about your product, the more convinced they become to purchase it.

Planning Phase

Now, we get into the nitty-gritty. The first phase in web video production is to plan out your production.

Planning is of utmost importance in website videos production. This is the phase where you map out everything— the ideas, goals, budget, target audience, message, and strategy.

Those are the lifeblood of the production, so the more you spend time on this phase, the more handily the entire process will be.

The decisions you make in this phase will cascade throughout the production.

Therefore it’s better to take your time, collect some inspirations, and generate ideas.

Since your video needs to cut through the noise, try to come up with out-of-the-box ideas and bring them together into tasteful plans.

Different types of web videos require a slightly different planning phase.

For example, if you’re going to make a live-action web video, you also need to think of what props you will be required, how long the filming process is going to be, etc.

Overall, the planning phase mostly includes:

1. Set Your Video Content Goals

You don’t put extra effort into your video marketing without specific goals you want to achieve, do you?

Without any goals, your web video production undoubtedly will lack focus and direction.

To include video to your marketing mix just for the sake of doing it doesn’t yield precise results.

Ask yourself, “What do I want to accomplish with this web video production?”

Do you want to increase your web traffic? Engage more customers? Raise brand awareness?

The more specific goal you set, the higher chances you have to achieve them.

Once you narrow down your goals, you can measure the impact of the video and hand-pick the strategy until you find the best fit for your business.

One thing that most marketers often forget is that they set too many goals for a video.

Consequently, the message they put on it becomes vague and all over the place— making their audience confused.

2. Understand Your Target Audience

Understanding your target audience is essential in producing a successful web video, yet marketers are still unaware of it.

It’s nearly impossible to reach everyone on the internet and fit the requirement of each customer with your web video. That is why it’s crucial to narrow down the focus to a core audience.

Who are they?

Where are they?

What do they like?

What do they value?

Those four basic questions will give you insights to pinpoint and understand your target audience better. It also helps to make your production more cost-effective.

Rather than being concerned about what your product or service does, think about how it solves your target audience problem.

This is where you need to put yourself in your target audiences’ shoes and build your buyer persona.

The more you understand your target audience, the more you develop a strong emotional connection with them.

Do you know what will happen if you have a personal connection with your customers? They’ll stick around.

3. Determine Your Core Message

Now that you understand your target audience, the next step is to determine the core message you want to deliver to them.

In case you forget, I’d like to remind you that video is an incredibly powerful content medium for storytelling.

The challenge you have now is to brainstorm what story or message you’re going to put in the web video.

Determining your core message is all about connecting with your target customers so that they can seamlessly take your desired action.

Do you want them to visit your social media? Or do you want them to purchase your product?

For a web video to really hit home, you don’t have to talk about your product for the entire video.

Hence, it’s important to use characters and storyline that your target audience can relate to. It will evoke your target audiences’ emotions, making it easier for them to recall your brand.

That’s how you determine your core message.

Remember, make sure to keep it clear, short, and snackable— under three minutes.

You sure know that your audience doesn’t have all day just to absorb all of your messages, don’t you?

A longer-duration of video can make your message unclear and boring, and there they go…lost customers!

4. Build Your Video Strategy

Goal? Set.

Target audience? Spot-on.

Core message? Check.

Your video content for the website is almost ready, and what’s left is how you get the best impact out of it.

Now the task is to build a winning video content strategy.

With millions of hour videos uploaded to the internet every second, you need extra effort to make your brand stand out among the crowd.

It might seem a harsh and painful process, but don’t tremble.

With a winning, overarching strategy, it’s much easier for you to outsmart the competition.

First and foremost, start with knowing what your competitors are doing.

Observe their goods and no-goods strategies, turn their weaknesses into your power.

It’s a smart tactic to outsmart them.

It’d take us all day to talk about video strategies. Fortunately, our team has outlined video marketing checklist to help you map out your video strategy.

5. Create a Video Production Brief

Last but not least, you have to create a video production brief as the last step in the planning process.

From all of those steps in the planning phase, you put them together to create a video brief as a guide before the entire web video production.

Whenever there is a concern, lost focus, uncertainty, or question, you can simply refer to your video production brief to get the solution.

With a video production brief, you can seamlessly maintain the essence of your web video production in a clear working outline.

It helps you assess what you exactly want and need during and after the production.

Having a clear video production brief not only makes the production run smoothly but also ensures the outcome of your web video meets your marketing objectives.

Once you feel confident with your video production brief, you’re ready to move on to the next phase: the pre-production phase.

Pre-Production

The preparation is now complete.

You’re one step closer to having a compelling web video.

The next phase is the pre-production phase— some of you also call it the production phase.

This is the phase when you finally develop what’s on your video production brief into something more special.

You’re going to write and break down the script and design your storyboard before you roll the camera or create the animation.

6. Commence with the Creative Approach

Before we get into the script and storyboard, the first task is to establish a creative approach to meet all the requirements of your web video production.

Why does it matter?

It matters because it’s a crucial way to outsmart your competitors and to make your product stand out— with your creativity.

As you already know, the fun part about web video production is the use of your creativity.

This is it. This is the part that requires your creativity.

At its most basic level, the creative approach is how you draw insights from the production brief.

It includes what you need to include in the production, how you present it, and how to make it remarkable.

If you’ve set all those three things above, put them all together into the plan of your web video production.

And there you go. Now you have a creative approach as your powerful tool to create an impressive, remarkable web video.

7. Write a Compelling Script

The next step is writing a script.

The script is where you translate your core message into a riveting story.

Here’s a quick pro-tip: it’s not about what you want to say to your audience, it’s all about how you make them relate to the story you put in.

That is the smart way to win their hearts.

Thus, you can call it a compelling script if it relates to your audience and motivates them to take action.

A compelling script doesn’t have to be complicated., but it has to be short and snackable. Remember that you’re writing a script, not a novel.

All you need to do is to evoke their emotions by addressing your target audiences’ problem from the start and offer the end-to-end solution at the end.

8. Design Your Storyboard

Now, it’s time to put your drawing skills into practice in designing the storyboard.

Don’t worry; even if you think you’re still struggling to draw a straight line, you’d always be able to design it. Now there are many software tools you can use to create your storyboard digitally.

The storyboard is necessary to help you to visualize your script before you do a single shoot.

Not to mention that it also points out the inconsistencies in your script and finalizes it.

It looks like a comic strip. Each square shows who or what is going to be on the screen and what they’re going to say.

Try to imagine what the final result of your web video will be.

What is the lighting setup going to be like?

What angle fits best?

What text you’d put on the screen?

While you read your storyboard, you should be able to see the final results of your web video playing in your head.

To get more inspiration in designing a good storyboard, you can read our article 7 Steps to Creating a Storyboard.

Post-Production

You’ve made it to the post-production phase!

After all the time and energy you’ve spent on the planning and pre-production phase, this is where the real fun begins.

Now that all the content has been envisioned, it’s time to do some magic to bring all the pieces together.

9. Edit Video Content

The first step you need to do after you roll the camera or create the animation is to edit your video content.

This editing process helps you to rearrange, correct, and manipulate the video shots.

So you can get rid of the unwanted footage and sort excellent footage to put into your web video.

Make sure to follow what’s on the script and storyboard when you order the footage. It’s a critical step to ensure that your web video flows in a direction that achieves the goal.

With excellent editing, the final result of your web video will work just like what you want it to — or even beyond that.

10. Include Graphics and Special Effects

The next step is taking your editing result into the next level.

Do you remember the fact that you can manipulate the video footage in the editing process?

This is the part where you include graphics and special effects to add some illusion to your video editing result.

For example, you might need to use animated characters or graphics to illustrate critical figures. Or maybe you need 3D text to emphasize your principal point– making it easier for your audience to notice it.

Namely, these effects can spark our imagination in ways plain filming sometimes can’t.

11. Add Music or Soundtrack

Music and soundtrack are often overlooked in video production.

In fact, creating a video is not all about what your target audience sees; what they hear is matter too.

Adding music or soundtrack can bring your web video to life. They help you to stimulate your target audience’s emotions and evoke their mood.

Simply put, it gives your video a personality.

Do you want your target audience to feel emotional after they watch your web video?

Or do you want them to feel inspired?

Maybe you want them to feel joyful?

You can play around with music and sound effects to give a certain vibe for your web video.

Find out the essential types of music and sound effects you should use in your web video production in our article titled Why You Should Never Ever Overlook the Importance of Sound Effects in Your Video?

12. Record the Voice Over

If you create an animation video for your website, voice over is an essential element you should take into consideration.

The voice over is supposed to help you to deliver your core message in an easy-to-digest way.

The various types of style, tone, and accent of the voiceover artists make your web video more alluring than relying on the visuals and background music only.

Just like any other skill, you should be familiar with the know-how of voiceover recording. We’ve outlined the A-list skills to make it work in this article titled The Skills You Have to Learn Before Landing Your First Voice Acting Job.

After all, you can simply take a look at this infographic:

13. Format and Host your Video

Now that you have the final result of your web video, the next step is to format and host it.

Before you host your web video, make sure you deliver it in the format you require.

Next, you need to host your video by uploading and distributing it on the video hosting site. It is significant considering how much you prioritize the viewing experience.

The more you host your video in the different hosting sites, the higher the chances you have to reach more audiences.

Do you know that despite its massive popularity, YouTube isn’t the only video hosting site you can rely on, on the internet? Check out these 25 Best YouTube Alternatives to Host Your Videos to give you more references on where to host your video.

14. Promote Your Video on Social Media

After all the blood, sweat, and tears to create your web video, this final step is supposed to help you to get the limelight you deserve.

You might create an Oscar-standard web video, but if you just let it sit in your hosting site without doing anything else, then what’s the point?

You need to promote it. Let people know that you’ve just created an exquisite video and they better see it.

Social media can be your go-to platform to promote your web video.

Remember, it’s essential to know the demographics of each social media.

For example, if you want to appeal to an older crowd, Facebook and LinkedIn are the best places to go. If you’re going to target a younger group, there’s no place better than Twitter and Instagram.

Spread the link to your video by putting them on your bio or include it in your post with a captivating caption. You can also shamelessly ask others to share it.

Tips and Tricks

In this noisy world of video, a video without smart tips and tricks behind it isn’t going to cut through the noise.

That is why we’ve also summed up these three tips and tricks that can add the extra boost for the success of your web video production.

Setup Analytics to see results

Setting up analytics is crucial in measuring your video marketing impact.

It helps you to track the progress and make constant improvements to your strategies.

As you look at the analytics, you should know what’s working and what’s not.

It makes it easier for you to figure out where to double down, and you can focus on maximizing what’s already working for you.

Don’t dwell on endless revisions

If your first web video reaches beyond your marketing goals, then you must be some types of genius.

It’s completely normal to make mistakes on the first try.

Yet, many marketers spend too much time on the video revision just to make everything about it perfect, no blemishes.

As a matter of fact, you don’t need to dwell on endless revisions to make a compelling web video.

If you keep looking for some mistakes, there would be no end.

Instead, be confident, and take some notes on what’s lacking from your previous video and improve it in the next one.

Keep trying new things

The ruthless competition often makes marketing overwhelmed and stick their head in the sand.

As a wise marketer, you know that you have to keep refining your strategy to cut through the noise in this ever-changing market.

Stick to the same formula over and over again will only make your business get left behind.

That’s why being open to trying new things is an excellent way to innovate and potentially get to the edge over the competition.

The more you explore the new opportunities, the higher chances you get to outsmart your competitors and win the competition.

Making the Video Production Experience Effortless

Creating your own web video might seem like a full-time job.

To make it easier, you can hire someone to help you and make your small team.

But, if you think there’s still too much to take in, you can ask for a video production company to create the best web video for you.

Sit back and relax.

They know what to do and how to make it work.

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