A streamlined video production process for YouTubeHave you procrastinated about creating video content for YouTube?

Or….

…you have created video content but feel that it’s a really time-consuming process and it’s hard to deliver video content consistently?

You’re not the only one!

I had the same problem and I put off creating video content for a long time.

My excuse was not having enough equipment so I kept buying microphones, gadgets, lights and more.

But that didn’t solve anything. What I needed was a streamlined process for YouTube video production.

I’ve been publishing videos about online marketing tools and tactics over at my YouTube channel for a while now, and I’ve gotten some great feedback. More importantly, the videos served a greater purpose of attracting new followers, leads, and clients for my business.

Check out our video on Streamlined Video Production Process

I know how hard it can be to find a detailed video production process or a structure to follow, so I am going to share my process with you in its entirety – from setup to promotion of the finished material. I hope you can learn from it, modify to your liking, and use it for your own videos.

The process goes as follows:

The Setup

The first step in any video production process is the setup, and it typically takes about 15 minutes. This includes setting up a camera, audio recording device, microphone, lights, and screen recording (e.g. a tool such as ScreenFlow). I’d like to note that some people record the sound with a camera, but I recommend using a separate recorder to get high-quality audio for your videos.

Here’s what I do:

a). Set up the Canon EOS 750d camera on a tripod pointing at me at the desk and click the record button.

b). Switch on my Roland recorder. You can record sound from the camera but the quality is better if you use an external device.

c). Switch on Screenflow. A part of the video will be me speaking and another part will be a demo.

Now that everything is set up, I do a quick test to make sure it’s all working. I’ll record something small and then check that it all looks and sounds OK.

Now I’m ready to record a batch of videos.

Recording the Video

When everything is ready to start recording the video, I hit the clapper board so the editor can synchronize picture and sound during the editing process. This puts a spike in the audio recording which he can see when editing the video.

Video Production Process - clapperboard
Get your clapper board!

I usually record once or twice and then the editor uses editing tools to weed out or correct any mistakes made during the recording. It takes preparation to create a near perfect video, but don’t worry, people will rarely fish for mistakes if the content is valuable and engaging enough.

Once the recording is finished, I send all three files – video from the camera, audio recording, and screen capture to my editor to do his magic and transform a rough product into a polished video that’s ready to be shared with the world.

The most important thing is that I don’t do anything after this.

Time to setup: 10 minutes

Time to record a video: 10 minutes each.

Video Editing

If you want to start with YouTube video production, this will be a key part of your process. However, video editing is time consuming and requires both creative and technical skills. I don’t have the time or the skills to do this, so I work with a great video editor.

Imagine sending off 3 files that took you less than 10 minutes to create and then getting a wonderful, edited video back. It’s a nice feeling.

Creating a Video Thumbnail

After the recording is over, I send the request to the designer to create a custom video thumbnail. This may seem unnecessary to you, but here’s why I do it.

A rule of thumb is that videos that have a custom image attract more attention and get more clicks and views. A video thumbnail serves as a call to action enticing people to click the play button. This is why it’s incredibly important to pay attention to YouTube thumbnail design. If you leave it to chance, YouTube can pull a frame from your video and use it as a thumbnail and trust me, that’s not going to be an inviting picture.

Video Production Process

There are free tools that you can use to create a thumbnail from your video, but it’s always better to have a well-designed image.

Upload Video to YouTube

Once I get the edited video back from my editor the next step is uploading it to YouTube. When uploading videos, you can set up status modes. I use the “Private” video upload option so I can fill in the title, description, and tags, and upload the thumbnail.

I use a great tool called TubeBuddy to optimize the SEO on my videos. The tool provides a checklist of things you need for your video to achieve optimal results, e.g. suggestions for tags from similar videos. When I finish with optimization, I change the video mode to “Public.”

For video transcripts, captions, and translation I use rev.com transcription service. This is a very affordable service and it will cost you about $1/minute of transcription or caption. You only need to provide them with the link for your video and, if you like, they can even upload the transcription to your video when it’s done.

Video Promotion

The final step of my video production process is promoting the video so it reaches a wider audience. Firstly, I notify my fans and followers on social media that there’s a new video on my channel and send a dedicated newsletter to my subscriber base. These are the people who are already engaged and interested in the topics and content I publish on my channel.

Finally, I run YouTube video ads with AdWords and target them with keywords from the video to get the ads in front of the right audience.

There you have it, my complete YouTube video production process. I hope you find it helpful!

If there’s anything you think I could improve, I’d like to see your suggestions in the comments below.


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