If you are trying to figure out how best to approach a video production for your business or charity, it can seem overwhelming. But the first step in figuring out the right path is for you is to put yourself in the shoes of your customers.
Knowing your target audience can help you decide on the right tone, style and duration for your video. Look at your existing customer base or the customers of your competitors and ask yourself some questions about what your customer (or your ideal customer) are like and what they would want. How old are they? What interests do they have? What is it that makes them want your product or service? Are you serving a basic need, saving them time or energy, or simply making them look or feel beautiful/stylish/smart/cool?
Once you’ve built up a picture of your ideal customer, you can begin to imagine how they might respond to different video styles. Do you need the video to be easily understood and straightforward, or will your target audience respond better to something a bit more abstract? Do you need to come across as down to earth and personal or slick and stylish? Would your customers respond well to humour, or does the subject matter require a more serious approach? Are they social media obsessives or are they more likely to already be on your website seeking out more information?
With Fuzzfox and in my freelance career prior to that, I have made videos for more companies than you can shake a stick at and I learned that what works for one company doesn’t necessarily work for another. Here are some examples of how I approached videos for businesses in different sectors with their target audience in mind.
Nottinghamshire Hospice
Nottinghamshire Hospice are a brilliant charity who provide care to people with life limiting diseases, and their loved ones. They got in touch with Fuzzfox to create a video to help them secure donations for their cause at a charity dinner. They also wanted the video to be something they could use on social media to further raise awareness of, and funds for, their cause. The target audience was not only the attendees at their event, but also countless potential donors on social media who they hoped would see the video following the event.
We thought about how to best get the charity’s message out with this target audience in mind. We realised the video needed to be touching, relatable and have an optimistic message, so that viewers could see just how important their work was and be inspired to donate. We realised it was best to hear directly from people whose lives had been dramatically improved because of the charity’s work, and for this reason, we decided to use interviews with patients of the hospice and their carers. We met with two people who gave us incredibly honest and touching interviews and told us exactly how the Hospice had transformed their lives. These were edited together with shots around the hospice. The video was then screened at their event and went on to become their most popular Facebook post ever. We were told the video had achieved its aim of being touching – it made everyone in the office cry! Of course, we don’t always plan to make people cry with our videos, but certainly for this one, we achieved the aims we set out to.
PDF Vibro
PDJ Vibro were spending a lot of time answering emails and on the phone explaining to their existing customers how to solve a maintenance issue. They realised that by making a tutorial video they would not only save time, but they could reach more customers, much quicker. For this one, the target audience was their existing customers, people who use and maintain vibratory finishing machines. We knew this video had to get the information across to these customers in a clear and succinct way, whilst also reinforcing their brand and customer service. We decided that they should present the videos themselves, not only to add a personal touch, but to show them how easy these maintenance issues were to fix. We used a few shots around their premises to establish the brand and tone of the video and then went straight into the explanations of the problem and the demonstration of the solution. It needed to be simple and it was, and the result was a video that would be easy for their target audience to watch and understand.
APC Civils
APC Civils wanted a video to put on their website to tell their customers what they were all about. Their target audience was major construction firms, as well as national and regional traffic management contractors. The objective was, of course, to raise their profile and secure more work with these customers. It was important that their customers could be confident in their professionalism, expertise and ability to carry out large scale projects. We decided to film an installation of concrete barriers at night, along with some jib crane shots at a mock up of an installation where we were able to get some shots we wouldn’t have been able to on the side of a motorway. We made sure the shots showed off not just their technology, but their attention to detail and commitment to health and safety. As the majority of their customer base were male, we used a professional male voiceover with a down to earth tone to read the script for the voiceover. The result was a video which would show off the company to these major firms in the right light, demonstrating their ability to work on large scale projects and allowing them to see for themselves the team in action.
These are just some examples of videos that have been tailored to a particular audience. So have a think about who your customers are and what they might want, and you should have a much clearer idea of the tone and style that will be most suited to them. Of course, if you need some extra help and advice, we’re always happy to chat, get in touch!
