The Easy Way or the Better Way
The secret to making a good video for your practice.
So, you’re thinking about making a video for your practice. Well, good news. You’re on the right track. Video is one of the best ways to boost conversions and improve client engagement.
But all videos are not created equal. In fact, a poorly done video can leave a bad first impression that is really hard to overcome. But there’s one thing you can do to put yourself miles ahead of your competition and make a quality video that will stand out from the crowd.
How do I know? Well, I’m the guy that you would call when you’ve decided you want to make a video. I’m a director and filmmaker. As the director of your video, it’s my job to make sure the finished piece communicates your message in a concise, compelling, and creative way. In order to do that, I need to know the message that I’m communicating.
I’ll look at your website and I’ll ask you for brochures or any other marketing materials that you’ve produced. From these, I’ll get a good idea of what you do and your value proposition. But that’s just the beginning.
Video is a different animal than a website or your brochure. For video, your message will need to get distilled into soundbites that your clients can easily digest. Unless I know your business inside and out, I’m not going to know what those soundbites are. But you do. You may not think you do, but you do. It’s my job to get them out of you.
There are two ways I can do that: the easy way or the better way. The easy way is for us to schedule the shoot and sit you down for an interview. We’ll light you up, turn the cameras on and I’ll ask you questions for 45 minutes. From that, I’ll extract and—hopefully–piece together the 2 minutes of your talking head uttering the soundbites that I need to communicate your message.
If you’re wondering why you see so many “talking head” videos, that’s why. It’s easy for you. You just have to show up looking presentable and answer questions for 45 minutes about your business.
Now I’ll let you in on a little secret: it’s easy for me, too.
You see, if we do it the easy way, I get to book your shoot right away with very little time invested on my part. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get a couple minutes of mildly interesting content from our 45 minute session that will be “good enough” for a talking head corporate video that looks like 95% of other corporate videos out there.
If that’s what you want. Then, by all means, go for it. It’s cheap (relatively), quick, and you’ll get a video to put on your website.
Easy.
Boring, but easy.
So, what’s the better way?
Well, here it is. Here’s the secret to making a good video for your practice: writing a script.
It’s not sexy. But it works. Every time.
I can tell you from experience, the videos that hit their mark and fulfill, and even exceed, expectations are the ones where there was a robust editing process that took place before anyone even picked up a camera.
Now let me warn you. It’s the better way, but it’s hard. It’s not easy to distill your message. But here’s another secret: writing a script has a bonus benefit.
The process of writing the script will make you think about who you are, what you’re really offering, and what you have to say to the world about your service—you know, all those really difficult questions we avoid about why we’re doing the stuff we’re doing because we’re too busy doing all that stuff.
It’s hard, but if you do it, I think you’ll find your mission becomes sharper, clearer, and more refined. You may realize you’re spending too much time working on things that don’t really matter. Or you may find renewed conviction and energy about the things you are doing. Either way, it’s definitely not a waste of time. Just make sure you set aside enough time to reflect on your true value. Don’t try to cram your script-writing into a half-hour at the end of your day.
Now, I’ve just given you a good first step, but there’s still about a thousand ways your video can go really right or really wrong. So stay tuned to the Summit blog. Next month we’ll look at some details about what makes a good video and how to avoid the major mistakes your competitors are making.