Analyzing an Organization's Video Needs: Part 2, Getting To Know A Small Business

When a company contacts us about a small business video in Orlando, we think it's imperative to find out as much background information we can in order to thoughtfully put together a proposal.  While it's possible to crank some numbers out on a Excel document and send it off, that's not the approach we like to take.  

In Part 1, we looked at some of the questions we consider appropriate for a meeting with a nonprofit.  This post will concentrate on getting to know a small business.

28 million small businesses in america account for 54% of all U.S. sales. Source:  SBA.GOV

8 Key Questions That Help Us Get To Know A Small Business

1) What gets you out of bed in the morning?

We want to get to know what drives you.  Owning a small business is tireless work and the more information we have at our disposal the greater we can use that to your good in creating a video that will sell your passion.  

2) What do your love about this job?

Sometimes it's the little things that are overlooked.  But often those resonate the most with people watching a marketing video.

3) What problem do you solve?

Here's where we get to some of the meat and potatoes.  What problem do you solve and why is beneficial to your clients?

4) What are your goals as corporation?

We want to find out what your organization hopes to accomplish.  How they plan to affect change in your town, city or region.  What role do they have in the industry they serve?  Where are they now, where do they plan to be.  The more we can draw that out in a video, the more compelling that story will be.

5) Who is your target audience for this video?

The target audience will always be a key in any video we produce.  We have to address the viewer and make it appealing to that particular group.  It needs to speak to them.

6) What action do you want them to take?

This will naturally motivate the call to action we choose for the video.  Do we want the viewer to click on a link?  Sign up for a newsletter?  Buy a product?  Schedule an appointment?  Knowing the answer to that question will help us formulate the message.

7) What do you want your customer to feel?

Specific questions like this help us determine a shooting style, they help us choose the right music for an underscore and motivate a lot of our decisions early on in a video project.  

8) Who are your primary competitors?

Knowing the answer to this question enables us to review what your competitors are doing!  Have they produced a video before?  Have they developed their own video strategy?  It's just more information that we have at our disposal to benefit our clients.

In Part 3, we're going to look at what we feel is important in the discovery stage with a large corporation.