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InBusiness Magazine interviewed me recently about “Producing Your Own Videos.” Here are the important points about getting started with video marketing.

1. Do you need video? For any tactic, make sure you have a need before you try video as a solution. In other words, don’t jump into radio ads, Twitter, email marketing or video unless you have an actual reason to. Reasons may include humanizing your brand, establishing expertise or educating your audiences.

2. Write a script. This will help you ensure key messages are used and that you keep the video to an allotted time (e.g. 30 seconds). You can always spot unscripted videos because they either take too long to get to the point, have extraneous scenes and/or have some arbitrary length (e.g. 34 seconds). The columns should be Scene #, Audio, Video, Notes and Length of Scene. You also should “script” a live video to establish a flow.

3. Pick the right platform. For example, Snapchat is good for timely, not timeless, videos. If you only have the capacity for one platform, YouTube is the logical choice. It’s the No. 2 search engine after Google, it has live video capabilities and you can easily embed and share your YouTube videos across the web.

4. Audio is important, too. Good audio is almost as important as good video. Use a wireless or lavaliere mic; neither are that expensive. If you are buying a digital video camera, make sure it has an audio input jack, as most cameras do not.

5. Free video editing software can get the job done. Professional software like Avid have more features than a non-video production company would likely ever need. Windows provides Movie Maker, and Apple provides iMovie, and both are serviceable in terms of editing features.

6. Don’t just dip your toe in the water. In most circumstances, one video is not enough. Your audiences are always hungry for more and more content, so have a consistent schedule of videos.

7. Measure your efforts. Metrics such as views, length of views and shares can mean you’re heading toward your objectives, but otherwise they are only vanity stats. What’s going to matter to your business at the end of the day will be the actions (e.g. downloads, purchases, etc.) that your target audiences take.

InBusiness Magazine interviewed me recently about “Producing Your Own Videos.” Here are the important points about getting started with video marketing.

1. Do you need video? For any tactic, make sure you have a need before you try video as a solution. In other words, don’t jump into radio ads, Twitter, email marketing or video unless you have an actual reason to. Reasons may include humanizing your brand, establishing expertise or educating your audiences.

2. Write a script. This will help you ensure key messages are used and that you keep the video to an allotted time (e.g. 30 seconds). You can always spot unscripted videos because they either take too long to get to the point, have extraneous scenes and/or have some arbitrary length (e.g. 34 seconds). The columns should be Scene #, Audio, Video, Notes and Length of Scene. You also should “script” a live video to establish a flow.

3. Pick the right platform. For example, Snapchat is good for timely, not timeless, videos. If you only have the capacity for one platform, YouTube is the logical choice. It’s the No. 2 search engine after Google, it has live video capabilities and you can easily embed and share your YouTube videos across the web.

4. Audio is important, too. Good audio is almost as important as good video. Use a wireless or lavaliere mic; neither are that expensive. If you are buying a digital video camera, make sure it has an audio input jack, as most cameras do not.

5. Free video editing software can get the job done. Professional software like Avid have more features than a non-video production company would likely ever need. Windows provides Movie Maker, and Apple provides iMovie, and both are serviceable in terms of editing features.

6. Don’t just dip your toe in the water. In most circumstances, one video is not enough. Your audiences are always hungry for more and more content, so have a consistent schedule of videos.

7. Measure your efforts. Metrics such as views, length of views and shares can mean you’re heading toward your objectives, but otherwise they are only vanity stats. What’s going to matter to your business at the end of the day will be the actions (e.g. downloads, purchases, etc.) that your target audiences take.