With the spread of broadband and the explosion of YouTube, video has become an integral part of the online experience. Going viral is the holy grail of online marketing, and businesses are desperate to join the quest.

But before blindly making your first leap into video, there are a few key questions you need to ask yourself first.

What are we trying to achieve?

Video is not something that should be done for the sake of it. Depending on what you’re attempting, it can be a very expensive and time consuming affair.

Going viral is unlikely. In truth, this usually happens by accident or off the back of an established name doing something interesting (Arcade Fire for example) so don’t do anything foolish chasing the viral grail.

Instead, consider how you want to present your brand, what you can offer in a video and who you want to see it. If you can’t provide content suited to video, stick to text and images.

What can we realistically do?

Budget is a massive consideration. Unless you’re just going to start a video blog where all you need is a £100 camera and YouTube’s video editing, you will have to spend a significant amount of time and money on it.

There is nothing worse than shooting above your weight. If you decide you want to make a mini-movie where your company swoops in as a superhero solving an entire town’s domestic cleaning needs in one swoop but you only have a £200 budget, it’s probably best to stop there (unless you’re happy to do it tongue-in-cheek and run the risk of lampooning your own business).

How often can we do this?

Or to put it another way – don’t start something you can’t finish. If you’re a makeup shop and you set out to upload regular make-up tutorials, stick with it. Be realistic about how often you can do it.

If you really don’t think you can do it more than twice a year, it’s probably not worth the effort – you’re unlikely to attract a large enough following that way.

How can we get it out there?

People aren’t going to watch something just because it’s on YouTube. They need to be pointed to it. You don’t just need resources to make the video in the first place, you need a plan (and the resources to carry it out) to draw attention to it.

If you have any online video questions or success stories, please share them in the comments below.

Image Credit: airgap

This entry was posted on Friday, October 21st, 2011 at 8:07 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.