Driving Entrepreneurship by Leveraging Video Content

An entrepreneur is defined as an “individual who creates a new business, bearing most of the risks and enjoying most of the rewards.” Secondly, the entrepreneur is often viewed as an innovator or a “source of new ideas, goods, services, and business/or procedures.”

Therefore, by extension of this definition, entrepreneurship “is the creation or extraction of value.” Wikipedia.com goes on to refine this definition by stating that “entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values than simply economic ones.”

Now that we understand the dual concepts of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs, it is time to consider the role video content plays in accelerating the entrepreneur’s journey and successes.

In summary, digital marketing is the primary mechanism and method used to market the entrepreneur’s products or services to the brand’s target audience. And in the post-modern world that we live in, video producers like Spiel claim that “video content is playing an ever-increasing role in the overall digital marketing strategy.”

Why video content?

At the outset of this discussion, it is a good idea to consider several video content statistics. They provide the raison d’etre for using video as a primary driver of the entrepreneur’s digital marketing strategy.

• Global viewers watch more than 1 billion hours of YouTube videos each day.
• Viewers retain 95% of a marketing message when described in a video, compared to 10% of the marketing message when reading it as text.
• 81% of all businesses used video as a marketing tool in 2019 compared to 63% in 2018.
• 6 out of 10 people watch online videos rather than television.
• Mobile video consumption increases by 100% Year-on-Year.
• By 2022, online videos will make up over 82% of all consumer internet traffic. This number is 15 times higher than it was in 2017.

Lastly, it is reasonable to state that this statistical research conclusively proves that leveraging video content is now the best way to grow your business from a small startup into a mature, sustainable business.

Producing a video on a shoestring budget

It is well-known that entrepreneurs often have to bootstrap their business, certainly during the startup’s initial phases, before applying for funding. Nathan Rieff notes in his article titled, “Series A, B, C Funding: How It Works,” that the startup must first prove the worthiness of its business model and its products or services before it can raise capital through funding rounds like the Series A, B, and C funding rounds. As an aside, these funding rounds are merely the “process of growing a business through outside investment.”

However, while the startup proves its worth, the founder(s) will have to pay for any marketing videos created from their own pockets. Therefore, let’s look at ways to make a video on a shoestring budget.

Note: While it has never been easier to make a “homemade” video, it is a good idea to consider hiring a professional video production company for as much of the production process as possible. Anyone with a top-of-the-range smartphone such as an iPhone or a Samsung smartphone can shoot video content. However, the question is whether the result is professional or not. The reality is that the quality of the startup’s products or services will be linked to the quality of the published video. Thus, it is critical to ensure that the final video is of the highest quality. Otherwise, the video’s ROI metrics will show that making the video was actually a waste of money.

1. The pre-production phase

The two most important parts of the pre-production process are creating the script and putting together the storyboard. On the one hand, it may seem as though spending time on the script and the storyboard is a waste of time. The fact remains that any time spent perfecting the video script and creating a detailed storyboard will reduce the time spent during the production and post-production phases; thereby, reducing the video’s overall cost and increasing its ROI.

Therefore, it is imperative to make sure the script spells out the marketing message clearly and concisely. Secondly, a detailed storyboard, choreographing the video from start to finish will help the videographer and the post-production editing team. As an aside, if you are taking on the role of videographer and video editor, creating an in-depth storyboard and script is mandatory for the video’s success.

The final part of this process is to hire actors and actresses (or ask a friend or family member to take on this role), choose a location and procure the necessary permissions to shoot the video on your preferred location.

2. The production phase

The next step is to hire, purchase, or borrow the best quality video camera you can afford. Even though it is possible to use a smartphone to shoot the video scenes and the B-roll, it is preferable to use the best quality video camera available. Another point worth noting is that if you are filming yourself talking about your brand’s products or services in a static location, you could even use a MacBook Pro’s webcam and laptop to shoot and edit the video.

The salient point about this phase is that it is essential to shoot enough raw footage to give the editor enough material to work with. Otherwise, you might have to go out and reshoot some of the footage. This adds to the overall video production costs and increases the time taken to finalize the video.

3. The post-production phase

The post-production phase is the final part of the video production process. And it starts when the video editor joins together and edits the raw footage to create the final product. The editing phase is often the most time-consuming and takes the most time to complete. On the other hand, shooting enough high-quality raw footage and B-roll can reduce the time taken to edit this material and produce an extremely high-quality video. Any video editor aims to create a video that showcases your brand’s products or services, attracts the brand’s target audience, drives customer conversions, and increases sales figures.