The new year is officially underway, and as marketers and other businesspeople come back into the office, it’s a great time to sit down with a calendar and plan 2020’s video content.
One secret to great video content is getting started early. Too often, teams will have a great idea for timely content that just can’t be executed in time. Holidays seem to especially come out of nowhere, and by the time you register that a holiday is coming up, it can be too late to execute the video you have in mind.
To that end, we’ve put together some tips for planning 2020’s content now, with plenty of time to develop the perfect content and distribute it throughout the year. Let’s get started!
You’re probably sensing a theme here, but our number one tip for 2020 video content is to start early. It will feel great to know you have a plan in mind for several videos throughout the year, and you’ll also be freeing up last-minute time to put together any time-sensitive content that comes up in the moment. For example, if you already have a summer video prepared by March, you’ll have extra time in October to make a video that aligns with a popular meme or viral trend when summer rolls around. It’s a win-win in terms of video content, and it translates to significantly less stress for your team.
By starting early, you can also decide whether you want to work alone or with a video production company. This article goes over some of the benefits of partnering with an outside company, including expertise, top-notch equipment, and the ability to execute more videos than your internal teams probably would. By making this decision early, you can plan accordingly by setting aside time for internal video production, or by hiring the right company to outsource the production.
Finally, this is a great time to decide your goals for your video content. Are you trying to find new customers or engage old ones? Is it more important to reach your online audience or your offline audience? Taking the time to answer these questions now will provide important structure to your content for the year.
Remember that calendar we mentioned earlier? Now would be a great time to get it out and sit down with your team to go through it. Make sure you’re aware of a variety of events, like national holidays, internal deadlines, major industry events, and any other notable date that might lend itself to video content. Take the time to flesh out any video ideas that come to mind, too. If you know you want to create a video for a sale you’re having in July, what might that video look like? Going through the brainstorming process and having a few ideas on the table will make your life easier when you get to pre-production.
On the flip side, be mindful of times when you might not be able to create content. If your office will be closed for two weeks during the holidays in December, make sure you’ll be ready to have that content scheduled beforehand. It’s also common practice to avoid posting corporate videos on weekends or holidays like Memorial Day when most people are out of office. There are exceptions here, of course, so it’s in your best interest to think about your own audience and when they’re likely to interact with your content. The importance is to be aware of any internal or external limitations that might affect content creation or video engagement, and then plan around those times.
Now comes the fun part! Take the plans that you made for content throughout the year, and start taking steps to execute them. Because you have so much content planned, your videos may be even quicker and easier to produce than they would be otherwise because you can shoot multiple videos at once. Keep in mind that there are very few reasons to hold off on production until the last minute, and there’s usually no harm in having your whole year’s content edited and ready to go as early as February or March. You can always add to your content throughout the year, but this way you have your baseline content ready to go upfront.
Additionally, many CMS platforms make it possible to automate your content throughout the year. We often recommend taking advantage of these capabilities by scheduling the content to publish automatically at the date you had set in your planning, and then set a reminder to review it a few days before it will go live. This gives you a chance to review the content in the present digital landscape at the time, just to make sure current events or changes in public perception haven’t affected the way your content will be interpreted. Then, sit back and relax as your 2020 content takes care of itself.
We hope these tips will guide your teams in creating the perfect video content this year. Now, all that’s left is to grab your team and your calendar and get started! Happy planning!
If you need more guidance planning your 2020 videos,
let us help!
