One of the biggest problems I see when schools, nonprofits, and brands create video content is trying to make one video do five different jobs.
It becomes the brand story video. It becomes the fundraising video. It becomes the recruitment video. It becomes the yield video. And the list goes on.
The thought process is usually: Let’s kill a few birds with one stone and maximize our budget and the time we’re putting into creating this video.
I totally understand that thinking.
But here’s the problem: when you try to create one video to do multiple jobs, you run into the same issue as trying to market to everyone. You end up marketing to no one.
The message gets lost, and the audience isn’t really sure what they’re supposed to take away from the video.
Let’s say, for example, you create a great brand story video and then try to use that same video to raise money.
There’s one problem: the video doesn’t talk about fundraising. Nor should it, because it’s a brand story video!
A fundraising video has a different job. It may even have a different audience. Those viewers want to know: Why should I donate? What does my donation actually support? What impact will my contribution have?
If the video doesn’t answer those questions, it’s probably going to have little impact on potential donors. Instead, you’ve got a pretty video telling a story many of those stakeholders may already know.
That’s why your marketing goals and fundraising goals may require different videos but you can still be efficient with that production process.
A while back, we were working with a local country day school and were contracted to create eight different videos. Seven were geared toward marketing, while one had a very different purpose: fundraising for the school’s annual fund.
That video needed to explain what the annual fund does, why it’s important, and how stakeholders could get involved.
Instead of trying to force that message into one of the marketing videos, we planned for it from the beginning.
We identified the right interviewees and spokespeople. We created a separate set of interview questions focused specifically on fundraising. If there was additional B-roll we needed to support that story, we made sure to capture it during the same production.
The fundraising video had its own job, its own message, and its own audience. But it didn’t require its own shoot.That’s where efficiency comes in.
And because we were intentional about planning them together, the school didn’t have to bring us back three months later for another full production just to create the fundraising video- that would get expensive and time consuming.
One production can create multiple videos. That doesn’t mean one video should serve multiple purposes.
That’s an important distinction.
As you’re planning your video strategy for the year, give every video a specific job. Who is this video for? What does that person need to hear? What do we want them to understand, feel, or do after watching it? And where in the marketing, enrollment, fundraising, or sales process will they see it?
If you can’t answer those questions—or you find yourself giving five different answers—you may be asking one video to do too much.
The more specific the job, the more focused the message can be.
Need help building a video strategy where every video has a clear job? Monzo Media Productions is based in the Greater Philadelphia area and works with independent schools, nonprofits, and brands across the country to create video content built around specific goals. Feel free to reach out to me at joe@monzomediapro.com
