How Do I Make a Video For My Shop, Location or Venue?

There’s no hiding from the fact that everything connected to the travel, tourism, hospitality and retail industries has been decimated by the COVID pandemic. But that light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter, and whatever industry you’re in, how can you use video to help bring people back?

At a time when personal interaction is hugely reduced, video is a way you can add personality to – and trust in – your business.

Here are our tips on some of the key elements to think about if you’re making a video for your business in these mentioned industries:

• Be positive! There has been so much doom, gloom and negativity over the past 12 months but people want positivity and optimism. Be the optimists!
• Be reassuring. The ‘new normal’ will mean everywhere has to take precautionary measures to protect against the spreading of germs and viruses. Whether you’re a hotel, a business improvement district, a shop, a conference centre – or anything in between – tell people about the steps you’ve taken to make your visitors safer.
• Who are  you talking to. What questions or concerns will they have? Why might they go to your competitor instead of you? There are clever ways of addressing these points without necessarily talking too much about how great your competitors are!
• Where will your video be viewed? And what will people on those platforms be looking for? A video that goes on your own website, might be different to something that’s used for sponsored posts on social platforms.  Just think about how that influences the content of your videos.
• Do less, and do it better. Now more than ever there is video everywhere. Make sure the quality of yours is of a standard that your business can be proud of. If your budget means your videos need to be shorter, or there needs to be less of them, don’t worry.  Just make sure those videos are good!
• If you’re a shop or an organisation with only a few staff, one of your key USPs is YOU! Don’t be afraid to appear in your videos, or add a personal angle if using something like animation.
• Can you make evergreen content? Naturally a lot of what people will be looking for at the moment relates to COVID and the associated impact for businesses and their customers, but is there any way you can make content which may still be relevant in the future? The answer may well be ‘no’ – and that’s fine – but if there are ways you can make some of your content relevant in the future, it will increase your ROI.
• Do you have any existing video content you can re-purpose to communicate the current messages needed? This will obviously save a fair amount of money.
• Can you collaborate with others? If you’re a store on a high street, are there other shops you can work with to make your budgets go further. If you’re a Business Improvement District, can you pool budgets from your businesses? A small contribution from all of them can give them a video asset of far greater cost that they can ALL use!

At a time when you can’t get out there, meet people, or get them to come and see how amazing your shop, venue or other business is, video is a great way to not just tell them who you are, but show them!

Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash