Knowing something about cooking is very informative when it comes to understanding the use of video as a form of blogging, once called, vlogging.   Here’s a few questions that cooks typically ask themselves before they begin to prepare the menu, and they’re very similar to questions the video producer asks before they begin video production.

Who’s coming to dinner OR Who’s the video for? 

There’s no point cooking a meal that no one wants to eat or producing a video that no one wants to watch.  The greatest compliment paid to the cook is that the diners arrive hungry and leave satisfied.  That same axiom applies to the market place when you produce a video.  The video will be satisfying if it… solves a problem.  Having said that, here’s what many years of video production has taught me:  most business owners do not know what type of video they need, however,they sometimes know what they want.  There’s a very simple reason for this:  they know all about their business and it’s very difficult for them to imagine what it’s like to know nothing about it.  It’s the same place as most of us fall when we speak in ‘shop talk’ or shorthand.

The menu & the order up:

When you type in a google search a menu of options is presented.  The more SEO savvy your writing content is, the more likely you’ll see your key words in these drop down menus.  Since the content that creates the internet is dynamic, that’s to say, the internet changes each time we add to it and the key words that are called up when we type in a search field, will modify according to the content searched. Ensuring a ROI (return on your investment) is more closely tied to this small fact than most small business owners know.

It’s all about a menu;  we usually only shop for what we need or want and we use text to conduct that search.  Unless you publish your video with a script, the bots, (those digital readers that your google searches send), who cannot see your videos will not appear in the search results.  Bots read words and these words are very specific to the products and services they go looking for.

What time of day will you be serving the meal?

Most diners don’t want breakfast foods served for dinner.  Same principle applies within the rules of google algorithms.  There are very effective times for ‘serving’ or publishing content, whether it be blogs, videos, or special offers.

The internet has rush hours too;  it also has certain days when content will pull more traffic to our sites than other days.  Many of these time slots are governed by shoppers preferences;  for example its only logical that there are more online shoppers looking for wine, theater tickets, and weekend getaways on Thursday than there will be on Monday.   Learning something about the time slots within a given day is to make use of basic savvy SEO.

What kind of ingredients am I using in this dish?

There’s a line in the script of this accompanying video that you will probably find amusing; it states this:  ‘You Can’t Make Chicken Valentino With A Pork Chop.’  This is true!  You just can’t and yet time and time again, I’m asked, as a video producer, to do just that, or as a more familiar saying goes: ‘make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear’.  One of the most important features to understand about video production is that there are so many types of them.  If you’re a small business owner and are looking for a video to support, or even spearhead your sales efforts, you’ll want to know what type of video will best explain your business to someone who does not know you.

What specific blend of ‘ingredients’ will bring you the type of client you can satisfy.

The public, or shopper of your goods or products will have unconscious expectations and its good to know as many of these as you can.  Knowing them assists you in creating the type of video that converts them from a shopper to a buyer.

Shopping for dinner or deciding what goes in the video:

Volumes goes on before the prospect becomes the the client.  They are about to spend their hard earned money and they want to know if this is the place to do this or should they look for another.  Are you the best company for them to purchase, ‘whatever it is’.  Who wants to buy a product and then feel foolish that they’ve bought the wrong one.  It’s like shopping for the ingredients for your cuisine and then mid way thru the cooking process you discover that you forgot to pick up one.

What kind of video is this?

As with cooking, you don’t start cooking Chinese and then right in the middle of it ,change your mind to a menu of meat and two veg.  You need to know what you’re cooking up before you begin and you’ll need to stick to script.  For example is the type of video a:

How to Product Demo Video;

Virtual Tour:

Talking Head, Interview, or Testimonial;

Sales Video;

Launch Series;

Webcast or Webinar;

Animated Video;

Photo Montage Video,

Video Journal or Company Diary,

Video Tips n’ Tricks, etc.

And, that’s a shortlist!   We’re here to help; if you need someone to walk you through the types of videos that will help you sell your products and services, give me a call – it won’t cost a penny and I’ll be happy to speak with you.

Now here, in my opinion, is the most important ingredient of all;

‘Entertain while you inform’.  Make sure your video is somewhat like that favorite teacher you can’t forget.  They made learning fun.  Maybe it was the stories they told, maybe it was the way they got you involved in the narrative of the lesson they were teaching you – whatever it was, you learned something that you can never forget and you’re still grateful for that teacher and all that you learned from them.

Make videos like that and even if someone is not shopping for what you’re selling, they usually will refer your video on to someone else who may be in the market for your products or services.