Before You Make Another Video, Decide Where It Will Live.

"We need a video."

Maybe you do.

But before you scout a location, write a script or book a shoot day, answer one question:

Where is somebody actually going to see this thing?

Someone landing on your homepage is in a different place than someone scrolling past a social post. A buyer opening your proposal has different questions than someone who just found you.

Those differences should shape the shoot.

Start with the moment in the buyer's decision

A homepage video tells visitors who you are and whether they're in the right place.

A service-page video explains an offer.

A case study shows how you solved a problem.

A proposal video walks a buyer through the work you're recommending.

All marketing videos. Totally different jobs.

When the job is fuzzy, the script balloons. Everybody adds their message, and suddenly you're making a three-minute video that tries to explain the entire company. Nobody finishes it.

Give it one audience and one moment.

Write this sentence before the script

Fill in the blanks:

"This video is for ______, who needs to understand ______, and will see it ______."

Then add:

"After watching, the next step is ______."

For example:

"This video is for marketing directors choosing a production partner, who need to understand our process, and will see it on our video production page."

The next step might be watching related projects or reaching out.

Now you've got a brief that steers the script, the interview questions, the footage and the edit.

Let where it lives change how you shoot it

A website video and a vertical social video may need different framing.

A sales presentation might need the long explanation. A social intro has about two seconds to grab somebody.

If you need several versions, plan them before you roll. Think about:

• Horizontal and vertical framing.
• Room in the frame for captions or graphics.
• Different openings for different audiences.
• Clean footage of the process and the finished work.
• Stills for the page, the thumbnail and the promo.
• Interview answers that stand on their own.

A shoot day is worth a lot more when the crew knows where everything is going.

You can't fix missing coverage in the edit. I've tried. Everybody has.

Give the video a real home on your site

A video player sitting alone on a page doesn't explain much.

Build the page around the topic. A clear headline, a short explanation, the details that matter, and an obvious next step.

For a project film, explain the brief, your role and what people are watching. For a Video FAQ, put the written answer right next to it.

Google's video guidance says the same: put videos on pages people can reach, describe them well, and give a video its own watch page when the video is the main event. (Google's video SEO guidance)

Decide what kind of page you're building. A service page can use video to sell the offer without turning into a video library.

Plan for search, but don't believe the AI hype

If people search for the question your video answers, use that question, naturally, in the title and the text.

Explain the topic well enough that the page is useful even before anybody hits play.

That lines up with Google's advice for showing up in its AI features: reachable pages, internal links, the important stuff in text, and content people can trust. (Google's guidance on AI features in Search)

None of that guarantees a ranking or an AI recommendation. Anybody who promises you one is selling something.

The real goal: make your expertise easy to find and easy to judge.

Plan the second use, too

One shoot can feed a lot of content, if you plan it.

A single project story can give you a main film, a short teaser, a process clip, stills and a Journal post.

Each one has to work where it lands. Just chopping the same edit into shorter lengths usually cuts out the context people need.

Before the shoot, list every finished piece and where each one goes.

Five minutes of planning. A whole day of footage that actually gets used.

I help businesses decide which videos to make and where they'll work hardest. See consulting, then we bring the plan to life through The Blue Wave.