Video marketing is one of the most effective methods of promoting a company or its services. However, you should know that a successful video does have qualities to meet in order to capture an audience’s interest and attention. Coming up with ideas that rock requires a lot of creativity. Focusing on that, however, could cloud the real objective of your video marketing campaign. More often than not, creativity overpowers video creation and simply leads to unsolicited online noise. To avoid that, let three questions guide you in brainstorming and generating the right ideas for your video marketing campaign.

1. Is there a need for your video? (Content Gap Analysis)

This question is essential for the obvious reason that all work will be put to waste if there is really no need for the videos that you create. Answering this question may be easier if you identify your target audience first. Writing down the persona of your target customer can help a lot. To learn whether or not your audience needs that video you have in mind, you can ask them directly through your company’s social media accounts:

• Post questions on your social media accounts. Engage followers and ask the one thing they would love to learn from you.
• If you are a member of a forum, ask the same question there.
• Use the company blog to ask questions. You can even use online polling tools and embed a poll on your blog.
•  Maximize your email list. Ask readers what would they want to learn from you. Tell them that it would be for free.

Aside from asking questions, you can also generate ideas through the products and services your company offers. Does your product need instructions? If so, create a video manual. Would it be more convincing if you created a demonstration of your product? Then demonstrate how awesome your product is. This process is known to content marketers as “content gap analysis”.

2. What have your competitors done? (Competitor Analysis)

Video marketing is a competitive field. You are not only competing with your industry’s top players, but you are also competing for your audience’s attention. To stand out, you should always be in the know about your competitors’ video marketing campaigns. What are they producing? What are their videos’ strong points? Can you improve their ideas? Are their styles effective? Aside from the competitors in your industry, you can also check out other industries’ approaches and video marketing campaigns. You can learn a lot from your competition, but strive to showcase your unique approach and identity.

3. Is video the right medium for your idea? (Form Gap Analysis)

Deciding to film a video is easy, but is that the best forum for your idea? Filming could consume a lot of time and money, both of which could be used to create other types of content. Choosing the most effective format for your message is an essential. The year 2014 is when agile marketing will become the new normal for every marketer, according to Search Engine Watch. Investing resources wisely is another concern. You can’t expect people to watch a 30-minute video and buy your product after seeing nothing but promotions and sales talk, but some captivating sales copy could do the job.

Ask your video marketing team to consider these three questions. To borrow a quote from Socrates; “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Yes, and the unexamined video idea is a video not worth watching.

David Jenyns is the director of Melbourne Video Production. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. OnlineVideo.net accepts vendor-written articles based upon their usefulness to our readers.

Camera image via Shutterstock.