How Can I Plan Ahead and Develop a Roadmap of Video Content for 2025?

Amid social media's wild popularity, videos are some of the best ways to reach customers of nearly every demographic. A video content plan gives you an essential roadmap on your content creation journey so you avoid losing your audience or your place in the algorithm. 

You'll need to adopt multiple strategies and tools to learn how to plan video content. This guide will cover:

• Target audiences
• Content audits 
• Publishing channels 
• Content calendars
• Video production budgets
• SEO and keyword integration
• Paid media
• Storytelling techniques
• Analytics tools
• Measurable goals 
• Refining your content strategy

Identify Your Target Audience and Their Preferences

Your target audience defines the various demographics, groups, and platform users that your client or customer base belongs to. There are many factors to consider when planning video content, including buyers' motivations and online behavior. 

Developing detailed buyer personas is the best way to hone in on specific demographics, especially if you're targeting broad audiences. These personas are based on age, income, needs, interests, and other crucial factors. 

Distinct personas differentiate your most prominent customer bases, helping you learn more about each group's preferences. After all, customers in their 60s often buy products for entirely different reasons than customers in their early 20s. 

That said, there's no universal template for buyer personas, so you'll need to develop yours based on your business. To do this, track and research your business's most prominent demographics based on age, gender, location, app usage, and other factors. Use surveys, video analytics, and user experiences to differentiate each persona's behaviors, and record changes and successful strategies as you go. 

Conduct Content Audits to Discover Gaps

During a content audit, you or a marketing professional assesses the completeness of your online presence, such as your website, videos, blogs, and contact information. Audits highlight gaps in your content strategy, such as the types of videos you need to make more of for your business goals. With these assessments, brainstorm fresh ideas for video content. 

A content audit will analyze your online presence based on multiple factors, including:

• Basic understanding: How well do your videos and web pages communicate what your business is beyond your landing page?
• Search engine optimization (SEO): Keywords, headings, and internal links boost your website's ranking on Google and other search engines. Content audits assess how every video and web page is structured and how well your primary keywords are weaved in throughout. 
• Internal links: Most of your blog posts and web pages should link to other pages on your website. These internal links boost your SEO by connecting your page to other relevant, credible content. Internal links can also lead your site visitors to your store or contact page. 
• Video formats and styles: Different video formats, such as landscape and portrait styles, appeal to various viewers. Using specific video sizes and formats helps you appeal to different buyer personas, such as mobile and desktop users. 
• User intent: Review every web page on your site, including blogs, videos, and product listings, and sort them based on users' intent. For example, do your videos contain a mix of content, or does every title begin with "How To?" Diverse content makes your website more appealing to site visitors and search engines. 

Determine the Right Publishing Channels for Your Content

In today's age of social media, you have many ways to reach buyers, though no single platform will let you reach everyone. Instead, you'll need to target the best channels and social media platforms for your unique customer personas.

Most platforms have different requirements for video format, length, and content. For example, landscape videos still primarily dominate YouTube, while Instagram Reels need to be under 90 seconds. 

Consider the following platforms for your video content marketing plan:

• YouTube: As the most popular social media platform, YouTube reaches multiple audiences using a range of video formats. You can also embed your YouTube videos on your website and share them on other platforms. 
• LinkedIn: This professional-focused platform is perfect for business-to-business (B2B) marketing. 
• TikTok: This wildly popular video app is most popular with young adults.
• Instagram: Though it started as a photo app, Instagram's Reels make it a great platform for video marketing. 
• Facebook: Like Instagram, Facebook's Reels are among the app's most popular content. Just behind YouTube in popularity, Facebook can reach several buyer personas at once. 

Establish a Content Calendar for Consistent Release

Frequent uploads help you maintain your online audience and boost your ranking on YouTube and other platforms. Fortunately, you don't need an extensive production timeline for every single post. For example, you can clip short segments from your longer videos to stay within different platforms' algorithms. That way, when you have another high-quality video to upload, you can avoid it being immediately buried by other, more active accounts. 

Setting up a content calendar for each platform maximizes your different marketing strategies. Make sure you post on each page at least a few times per week. Even if you complete several videos at once, post them over the span of a few weeks to avoid creating a content gap later on. As you go, use each app's analytics to identify the best times and days of the week to reach your audience. 

Planning a Budget for Video Production

When planning your video project's budget, first consider whether you'll be outsourcing video production. Partnering with a professional production company gives you access to a wide range of equipment and strategies, including high-end cameras and visual effects (VFX). 

Depending on your content strategy, working with a professional team can be more cost-effective than do-it-yourself (DIY) solutions. A video company saves you the cost of renting or buying your equipment yourself or partnering with individual audio or VFX professionals. Additionally, by letting them handle most of the pre-production and post-production work, hiring video professionals lets you focus your work hours on your business's other important aspects. 

Plan for SEO and Keyword Integration in Your Videos

Keywords are specific words or phrases that tell search algorithms exactly what your content is about. Keywords and other SEO tools can boost your ranking in search engines and on social media platforms. 

Insert your primary keyword in your video's title and your secondary keywords in its caption and description. Additionally, consider giving your video subtitles to further fine-tune your keyword integration. 

Paid Media in Video Content

Paid promotions and other ads are a great way to get your videos seen without constantly "playing" the algorithm. Most social media apps offer advertisement options, with many ads appearing as "sponsored" videos on users' feeds. 

With multiple promotion options to choose from, you must consider multiple factors for your business goals and budget. For instance, some paid promotions charge you based solely on viewership. Others may charge less if viewers don't engage with your video or click on your link. 

Alternatively, influencer partnerships introduce your brand to niche audiences that may be more likely to listen. 

Utilize Storytelling Techniques To Engage Viewers

Audiences tend to respond well to characters, stories, and trends. Consider the stories you can tell with your brand or even within specific video ads, such as how you've addressed customer feedback. 

Follow what's popular on each social media app to leverage the latest video marketing trends. For example, many TikTok memes and gags are easy to weave into your video marketing, which can make your brand feel more approachable. 

Integrating interactive elements, such as subtle calls to action, also boosts a post's engagement, which is great for every app's algorithm. These calls to action could invite viewers to share the post or ask them to reply with answers to specific questions, such as their favorite workout music. 

Monitor Performance Using Analytics Tools

Most social media apps let you track your analytics for each post and your entire page. Third-party tools, such as Hootsuite and Sprout Social, track your engagement across multiple platforms at once to make the information more manageable. By understanding your most engaging pieces of content, you can accurately adjust your strategy based on data-driven insights. 

Beyond social media, use Google Analytics to manage your SEO success. These tools gauge the most frequently searched content in your industry, providing a strategic roadmap for your next videos.

Set Measurable Goals for Your Video Content Strategy

Long-term business goals, such as a positive brand reputation, are often challenging to track. Setting measurable goals along the way can help you manage your content plan for videos and other promotions. For example, you can track how much your sales or product page views increase in relation to your video views to estimate your conversion rate. Then use this metric to set new sales goals for each video. 

Measurable goals for your video content plan could include:

• Total views
• Likes or reactions
• Comments
• Shares and reposts
• Percentage of viewers who watched your full video
• Product sales
• Page clicks

Regularly Review and Refine Your Content Strategy

Your video content plan should constantly shift to keep up with your audience's behaviors, your market's changes, and your past posts' successes. Utilize analytics, your conversion rate, and other tools to refine your marketing workspace as you go. 

Using professional video production for your business marketing can improve your video capabilities and your creative potential. The right marketing experts also help you address engagement dips, content gaps, and other concerns as you go. 

Ready To Get Your Video Content Produced? Contact Us Today!

At Charter & Co, our production experts are eager to help you devise the best video content plan for your strategic goals, audience, and budget. We'll take you through every stage of production, from the creative treatment to the final edit, to give your viewers the best video content possible. Get in touch and start your video production project today.