Video marketing is on the rise, and for good reason: 76% of companies who have used video in the past 12 months report a direct business impact, and more than 60% plan to increase their investments in video next year, as reported by Adweek. But before whipping out your smartphone and creating a spontaneous video, take a moment to develop a game plan. 

Having worked as a television news reporter and producer for network affiliates such as ABC, CBS and NBC, I learned the power of video and the fundamentals of visual storytelling firsthand, and I have leveraged this knowledge to help high-growth companies incorporate video into their communications strategies. I’m excited to share my approach with you.

Step One: Identify Your Goals

Think about what you want to accomplish with your videos and what actions you want the viewer to take. A clear understanding of your goals will help inform the type of content you create and the best way to track its success. Here are a few common objectives for communications professionals:

1. Attract top talent
2. Position CEO as a thought leader
3. Build brand awareness

At this step, it’s important to determine how you will measure success. There are many online tools available to help track the impact of videos such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and Wistia. Selecting key performance indicators (KPIs) can be as basic as tracking video views and social shares, or as specific as following the customer journey and documenting conversions.  

For example, I worked with a Chicago tech company that was on a hiring spree for top-notch web developers. To measure the impact of our communication team’s efforts to help recruit talent, we monitored video views to see how often candidates were engaging with us, and we tracked the number of times people clicked the “apply now” button that accompanied the videos.

Step Two: Create With Intention

Next, develop visual story ideas that support your goals. This is where your creativity comes into play. Similar to what you may do with blog posts, you’ll want to brainstorm several topics and add them to your editorial calendar. Remember, this is video, so think about the visual components including graphics and supplemental footage that will help maintain the viewer’s attention.

Let’s use the first objective as an example: Attract top talent. When developing video ideas for this goal, think about what makes your company special and which positions you would like to promote. Are you hiring developers for a project that is turning the industry upside down? Would your office perks make Google employees jealous? Do you have an outstanding mentorship program that’s helping young talent reach their potential? You can amplify each of these using video.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Office tour: Let an employee take viewers “behind the scenes,” giving them a glimpse of various features such as the office snack supply, collaborative workspaces or your latest technology.
2. Featured opportunity: Create “day-in-the-life” videos to highlight specific job opportunities. This works especially well for positions with numerous openings, such as account executives or web developers.
3. Win of the week: Showcase accomplishments big and small, whether the company won an award or a team collaborated to complete a project ahead of schedule.