5 Elements Of A Great Video
Is this blog post for me? If you’re new to video, or if you’re entertaining the idea of upgrading your marketing from still visuals to moving visuals — stick around.
If you’re even slightly skilled at motion media content creation you can probably move along as it’s likely I’m not going to be introducing any bleeding-edge cool new ideas here.
We’re only here for the basic fundamentals of creating good videos - we’re skipping all the technical stuff.
I’m not explaining how to set focus or monitor audio here, instead, these are some broad-stroke best practices for video creation…and for someone stuck trying to get their head around the concept of video-making (perhaps in a junior social marketing role) I’ll have some good tips. For everyone else, this is just 101.
How should I think about my video production process?
So the lead-in is: 5 elements of a “great” video, but the honest truth of the matter is that’s a bit of a crap description. “Great” doesn’t mean much anymore, it’s too subjective. You can have a poorly captured video with really important information — and it will still hit all your marketing metrics. You can have a really well-produced video with mediocre information and also potentially hit all your metrics.
it doesn’t mean quality and effort are meaningless, so much as understanding your audience is first and foremost. If you know your audience, and where you want to take them…everything else will fall into place pretty easily.
So let’s start with that specific assumption. Let’s assume you or your team have already invested in audience research, and you’re living with clear marketing objectives.
AUTHOR NOTE…really, if you don’t know your audience, if you don’t have clear marketing objectives, and if you’re uncertain even what your overall brand voice is trying to say; you’re probably not truly ready for video content to be added to the mix…but for the sake of positivity — let’s move forward as if we have these 3 foundational actions solved.
Your Five Elements Of Great Video:
You can mostly treat those 5 points as being in order of importance, but they aren’t laws so much as guiding principles. There can be plenty of unique circumstances that shift what you’re prioritizing at any given moment.
The Importance Of Good Writing
The foundation of any good video is strong writing. Whether you're creating a short film, a commercial, or a tutorial, well-written dialogue, narration, and text will engage your audience and keep them interested in your content. The quality of the writing informs the power of the information your audience is exposed to, and it keeps them connected to the content second over second.
Often, video scripts for marketing focus on one key idea per script. If your campaign is attempting to express multiple features & benefits, there’s a tricky trap here. One’s first instinct is often to try and get every idea in one piece. In reality - one video piece per feature/benefit.
So if my new car campaign is supposed to sell an audience on safety and affordability. We make one spot for safety, we make one sport for affordability. Not a single spot that tries to hit both.
“I don’t have time to write you a short letter, so I’m writing you a long one instead.”
And weirdly, it takes more time to get this distilled than if you were to create a “kitchen sink” video where you throw everything into one spot. Take the time to craft a clear and compelling script. And it’s also okay to hire a professional writer.
AUTHOR NOTE…We now live in a world with writing automation tools. AI services often claim they can deliver you a great script without any effort. Like all good things, it takes hard work to do it well. AI tools are a great launching point or brainstorming resource if you’re stuck, but synthetic content often falls short compared to organic human content. AI tools are fun and fine, but never consider their outputs as finished and ready for production. Revise those drafts.
Sound Is Often More Important Than Picture
Clear audio is borderline essential for effective video. The human brain processes auditory signals quicker than visual signals, therefore it’s been a longstanding rule of video production, that your sound quality comes first. Poor audio quality can be a major distraction for audiences, and can even make content difficult to understand.
You ensure good audio by ensuring quality microphones and recorders are used in filming locations with no ambient sounds (such as air conditioning systems, refrigerators, background conversations, weird hums, or street sounds). If you can hear it, the microphone can hear it.
Now…the general exception to this is when you’re creating a unique video piece that assumes the audience won’t use sound. A few years ago this would be considered a highly controversial point of view - but there is increasing evidence that more and more people simply do not listen to sound when watching videos.
If you know your audience well enough to have absolute faith that zero sound (perhaps you take advantage of subtitles?) will be just fine, go for it. For everyone else — capture that good-quality audio. Your viewer will thank you.
Make Sure The Camera Properly Focuses On The Subject Matter
Thankfully we live in an era where camera auto-focus can be pretty decent. Not all camera systems are created equal, and not all filming situations make finding focus easy, but as an important element of a great video, being in focus should be less challenging today than it has been in the past.
Now it’s important, when you’re setting your auto-focus to make sure the camera is capable of locking in on your subject and will not hunt around or change its auto-focus to a second subject (always read your equipment manuals), and if you can’t quite get auto-focus to behave you can go with manual focusing instead.
Thankfully we live in an era where camera auto-focus can be pretty decent. Not all camera systems are created equal, and not all filming situations make finding focus easy, but as an important element of a great video, being in focus should be less challenging today than it has been in the past.
Now it’s important, when you’re setting your auto-focus to make sure the camera is capable of locking in on your subject and will not hunt around or change its auto-focus to a second subject (always read your equipment manuals), and if you can’t quite get auto-focus to behave you can go with manual focusing instead.
That said, if working a camera doesn’t come quickly to you as a marketer; this is when you hire a professional for your shoot without much hesitation. Cameras are a deep dark rabbit hole of learning and challenges. Sometimes our equipment makes getting focus easy sure, but when it’s not easy, and that’s not your only priority — bring in an expert! This leads to the next two points…
Every Time You Record, Have Effective Shot Compositions
We talk about writing first because what you say and why you say it to an audience is supreme.
Then we talk about your technical obligations to creating a meaningful video… And that’s three bullet points right away.
So putting composition as number four (and second to last), might imply diminished status but in reality, your visual composition is perhaps nearly as important for compelling creative as your writing.
Shot composition is a visual expression of emotion. How much you show in your shot, what you leave out, how close/far from the subject you are, and all sorts of additional micro-details regarding camera placement and framing of the subject matter at hand leads you to create very very powerful visual constructs.
Often the make or break between a dull and interesting interview or promo boils down to how the camera is utilized to depict the information or story.
Don't Forget A Decent Dollop Dose Of Delicious Novelty
Yes, whimsy and novelty have a place in business marketing content. Why? Because no matter where our videos wind up being published, you’re in a perpetual competition for attention. Audiences have nearly infinite choices in how they spend their content consumption time.
Your marketing work needs to be worth it.
And what do people want when they’re scrolling content to consume? They want to be entertained as much as they want to be informed. If pure information worked universally, every video would look like a college lecture. But it doesn’t. People want to be surprised, they want to be delighted.
So include some elements of novelty. Maybe that’s a funny take on how you communicate, maybe your narrative has a clever twist, or you’re simply taking advantage of a trending visual aesthetic. Whatever form it takes, pick something, and use it in a way that grabs your audience’s attention and keeps them viewing your work second after every second.
Remember. People can always find a reason to swipe away. Your job is to create the reasons to stick around.
Neat Stuff; When Do I Need To Be Creating Great Video Marketing Content?
In my experience, brands and organizations do best to embrace video once some preconditions are met. For example, you want to be in a content marketing situation where you’re already successfully creating written content, and imagery (photo and/or graphics). Since motion-based content is a synthesis of the fundamentals, some of this other kind of work needs to be done first.
Also, the fundamentals should be strategic in clarifying what your audience responds to and needs. Video doesn’t do a great job of replacing what already works. Video does a great job of expanding, enhancing, and exploring more aspirational and ambitious functions of marketing.
For example, an audience might not need a software documentation wiki recreated as video tutorials, but they might need video summaries of app features, and what kind of individual would love these features.
A restaurant probably will find more advantage in beautiful photography of their menu items and establishment compared with video — but a video might provide much-needed context about the vibe and energy of a night out at the space, and what to expect.
Even as someone who has done quite a bit of professional video work — I often advise SMEs to do a lot of other marketing content first. But eventually, most growing organizations do hit that threshold of needing video. So don’t rule it out, just don’t rush to it either.
And when you do need to dig into video, keep this little article around. It’ll help you get the whole intention from the beginning.
