5 Tips for Creating Engaging Nonprofit Videos
We have all heard the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words”, but as a video professional in 2023, I would counter this phrase to say that a video is worth a million. As someone working for a nonprofit or a small business owner, you communicate values, impact, and stories through various means, but the number one method of communication in 2023 is video. In our experience, many non-profits and small businesses ignore this communication channel of video due to many reason (time, effort, funding, etc.), but inadvertently have severely limited the language that they have to use in their toolkit.
In an insightful study conducted in 2023, it was revealed just how highly valued engaging videos are to marketing professionals. This study reported that 96% of these professionals saw that video would be considered an “important part” of their marketing strategy. Your small business or non-profit might just be one engaging video away from reaching those donors, customers, or people you need. For many, video is a complete box of mystery, and maybe a little intimidating as well. What makes a video engaging? In this article are included five pertinent aspects for every creator to consider when filming for a non-profit or small business.
“The play button is the most compelling call-to-action on the web.”
1. Be Specific
When creating a video, it is easy to want to talk to any individual who could end up viewing it. But, in order to make an effective video that engages the viewer, it needs to specifically speak to the audience which you would like to connect. For example, a non-profit which helps young single mothers in St. Louis has a couple target audiences. First is the audience subset of “young single mothers in St. Louis”, but this isn’t where it stops. They most likely also have audiences comprised of donors in different life situations, previous mother’s who have gone through their programs, and other audience subsets. Creating a video that is donor specific, will look different in goals and specifics from a video that is focused on reaching more single mothers.
Through approaching a video you plan to create with goals & audience in mind, you will be able to better speak the language of your audience, and move them towards the goal your desire. Are you looking for donations for a new initiative, or do you need to reach more individuals to engage and serve through your non-profit? Engage this audience specifically.
When speaking to the audience which you have chosen for your video, also be keen to the specific message your are telling them. If the overall message of the video your are communicating is that there is a great need to expand work with young single mothers in St. Louis, stick to that message and don’t waste your time or the audiences with facts or statistics that aren’t directly related.
2. Tell Stories
In general, a person can choose to disagree with ideologies, statistics, and many other aspects, but the one thing that can’t be disagreed with is a person’s story. Story is the most power means of effectively communicating a message in an engaging manner. Calling back to our previous example, when creating a donor focused video, one could craft a video about how big of a donation goal is, or even the general path that on’e non-profit is looking to take in order to use extra funds that could come from said donations. But that will NOT engage the viewer nearly as well as a story of an individual who was impacted my last year’s initiative and who has had their family’s life transformed.
“Inside each of us is a natural-born storyteller, waiting to be released.”
In any content that is produced, story is king. This is one of the primary ways to add value to someone who is watching your video, because people engage, are inspired by, and grow from well-told stories. In general, people want to hear stories, especial meaningful ones, your audience however will not be so eager to engage with videos that could be seen as cold or just fact focused, unless they are providing a specific upfront value to the viewer. This value could be through education, opportunity, or a couple other routes. All together though, story is THE BEST WAY to add value and engage your audience.
3. Respect Time
In today’s world of social media, people have been trained to make decision quickly on wether they will engage or even watch content they come in contact with. In general, when scrolling through instagram Reels and Tik Tok (both video based platforms), a viewer will choose in the first 2-5 seconds wether they will skip to the next content or stay to gain the value that the video provides through story, education, or other means.
When you are putting together a video, create a time limit that you know your audience will want to watch and stick to it. If you are creating a highlight video, telling the story of an event that your organization put on, most likely, your audience does not want to watch something that is five minutes long, especially if it is distributed through social media. While it may seem that you could fill up a 1o minute video easily with good content, in 2023, it is a requirement (at least for social media) to shorten this content down, and be quick to the point of the message that you are saying. Your audience’s attention is limited, so keep them engaged and cut the fluff out.
4. Quality & Consistency
When it comes to building a follower base, it is pertinent that your make quality content consistently. What is quality content? You may think that this means the highest end and expensive production, but this isn’t always the case, quality needs to come across first in story, the value the video provides to the viewer, and then the production quality such as audio, lighting, cameras, editing, and graphics. One key way of creating quality videos is to simply plan the video you will create before creating it. Don’t just pull out your phone and shoot something, take some time to think about who you are speaking to, what story or value you are communicating, your video structure, and how long the video should be.
Along with the mindset of creating quality content, is to consistently provide quality content to your audience to create a follower base. Through consistently delivering content on a schedule, people who connect with this content will also come back to it consistently to see what new stories or value you are providing.
5. Be You
In the world of video, you may have a lot of ideas of what a good person on camera looks like, and to some extent, some of these might be somewhat correct. Yes, when on camera, you want to be able to speak coherently, and communicate passion for what you are speaking about. But on the flip side of that coin you also want to come across as a person still, the person that people know. The closes form of media to an actual, physical conversation is video. This means that just like if you are acting to be someone else in person it will also come across on video. When filming your latest social media reel, or even high end produced videos, remember that unless you are a professional actor, you should also try to be yourself on camera, be you, be authentic, and be relatable to others.
“Authenticity, honesty, and personal voice underlie much of what’s successful on the web.”
In the next video that you create for your small business or non-profit, take a minute to work each of the above tips into your script or outline. Doing so will pay off not only with video engagement, but also in reaching your goals that you have set with the video itself. Will these goals usually be attained overnight? Not usually at least, but the beautiful thing about video is that there is always room to grow and learn how to make them better and better.
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