As a video writer and producer, I always use two words to define my objective — information and motivation. We need to think about the information we want to convey, and what the audience will do, what action they will take, after they see the video.

Seems obvious, right? Yet too often I find myself drowning in a swamp of content, focusing on what we want to say, rather than on why we want to say it.

An ephemeral medium

To decide what goes in, and what doesn’t, we should consider the nature of video. It’s an ephemeral medium, best for conveying feelings and general ideas. Unlike print, which invites you to cast your eyes back to earlier paragraphs and pages, video doesn’t allow the viewer to rewind and review (Interactive training videos excepted).

Therefore, your video should convey a few vital motivational ideas and, above all, avoid numbing and boring the audience with piles of facts and figures. A useful guideline is to ask what you hope people will remember ten weeks after they’ve seen the program. Not much, so let’s be selective.

Who can say it best?

Video gives you an opportunity to get interesting people to speak for themselves. The emotional power of a “talking head”, saying something that the audience cares about, is often underestimated. In addition to identifying the key points you want the video to convey, it may be productive to consider who can say them most effectively.

In my experience, the objectives and contents that clients list are often a grab-bag of ideas randomly expressed by members of a committee. While committee input is useful, the process lacks the discipline required to decide what content is vital. Also, in my experience, the committee will not be happy if the script and the final video exhibit the scattered focus of that preliminary discussion.

The last key question is the length of the video. Based on the objective, content and audience, producers will help you decide what length is best. Keep in mind that shorter is cheaper, and the audience will be less likely to drift away.

Michael Craig, president of Focus Productions, has worked on videos for a number of nonprofits.