October is a big month for the dreaded word – BUDGETS. Budgets are time-consuming but highly recommended, because if you don’t have a plan for your money, your money won’t do anything to help you.
Budgets challenge you to think through your goals for the next set period of time (often 12 months), develop a plan to reach those goals, and provide an executable plan using the funds you have set aside to accomplish those goals.
GOALS
The first step in building your video budget is to establish your goals for 2017. I encourage you to set aside a couple hours at a location with no distractions to really dream and strategize where you want to go in 2017. Leave the computer at home, bring a pencil and some paper and handwrite out your goals.
Think through these questions:
- Am I satisfied with where we are currently at as an organization?
- How can I improve the customer experience with my brand next year?
- How can I help my customers more in 2017?
- How can I love my team more in 2017?
- How much do I want to grow over the next 12 months?
A great video strategy can help you accomplish all of the above!
STRATEGY
Once you have written out your goals, the next important step is to establish your strategy for how you are going to reach those goals. Without a strategy or plan, your goals will be just goals. They will never come to fruition. Each goal to should have 3-5 actionable items written out to help you reach that goal.
As you create those action items, remember: your strategy needs to include video. Video will be one of the top five marketing avenues for growth in 2017 for all businesses. No matter who you are or what you do, video is necessary in marketing. Because of this, iIt is important to properly plan for how video will fit into your strategy.
Tweet ThisVideo production is the cost associated with planning, producing and editing your video. This is what will bring the video from an idea into reality. Each style of video has a different cost associated with it. Some styles require a lot more time than others. Below are some examples:
Customer/client testimonials
Company story
Product overview
Explainer videos
Training videos
Event highlights
Life change stories
and more!
We would love to quote out any projects for you to help give you financial numbers to plan for in 2017! Contact us at hello@sulastudios.com.
Video promotion is the next important key. Once you have your video, you must implement the proper promotion strategy to get the video in front of you current and prospective customers. This can be done via email marketing, social boosting, digital ads, and many other channels. If you need help thinking through video promotion, we would love to help here as well! Contact us at hello@sulastudios.com.
MARGIN
It is important to add some margin to your financial estimations for 2017. As the next 12 months begin to unravel, new ideas may come to mind or road blocks may appear that could cause strain on your video budget. In order to prevent this, build some margin into your budget so you have a safety net when these things happen. Control the stress, don’t let the stress control you. A starting point is to simply add 15% to your budget as a safety net.
EXECUTION
Once you have taken the time to thoughtfully analyze the above, now is the time to compile your video budget. Break your budget down by month, as this will help you plan more accurately throughout the year.
Sula Studios would love the opportunity to help you think through all of the above and build a full plan for your 2017 goals. Contact us today at hello@sulastudios.com to setup a time to discuss your 2017 plan!
– Justin Farrell