Video content is a popular — and effective — way to reach your audience. Members of Young Entrepreneur Council answered the following:

What is one important thing companies producing video content for the first time need to remember? Why is it so important?

1. Create a Shot List

Making video content can be chaotic and take a lot of time. Before I start filming, I always put together a shot list. It helps me stay organized on set. Shot lists plan out the filming day and help you remember everything. Think of them as a checklist for your scenes. Needing an extra day of filming because you forgot a shot can get pricey fast. – Jordan Conrad, Writing Explained

2. Add Emotion

Your audience encounters a huge amount of content every day. It’s important to include emotion in your videos to make them stand out. Feelings like surprise, awe, and excitement can boost engagement and raise brand awareness. Avoid too much self-promotion and concentrate on delivering emotional and informative content to leave a lasting impact. – Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

3. Create the Content Your Audience Wants

The most important thing to remember is that you’re creating video content because your audience is asking for it. Creating video content can be intimidating, to say the least. But if you deliver authentic content in video format, then it should be no different than text or images. It’s all about the value you are providing and not the graphics or editing. The best thing to do now is to start. – Maria Thimothy, OneIMS

4. Keep It Conversational

When you’re creating videos for business, you’ll be tempted to be too professional or stiff. Instead, remember to be yourself. Inject your brand’s identity into it to add some originality. Next, use conversational language instead of jargon. Regular people will be watching them, so speak to them normally. – Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster

5. Add Subtitles

Subtitles help enhance the overall value of your video content by making it accessible to more users. The more ways people can enjoy your content, the better chance you have of spreading brand awareness. Additionally, you can improve your search engine position by using keywords in your video and including those same words in your transcript. – Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights

6. Have a Clear Strategy in Place

Your video content needs to reflect the needs of your audience and should be relevant to them. Even though making video content is important, creating them without a clear strategy in place will not add any value. It’s important to carry out research and understand the type of content that will be useful to your customers. Let their needs drive your video marketing and you’ll get good results. – Blair Williams, MemberPress

7. Don’t Use Click Bait Titles

I know it is vital to grab the attention of the viewers, but it has a negative impact these days. Though you have content related to the title, it still sends some wrong signals to the viewer about your content. These days people have so much exposure to data and they know how content marketers trick them for views. – Kelly Richardson, Infobrandz

8. Invest in Great Sound

When making videos it is easy to focus on the quality of the image, but there is nothing more off-putting than poor sound quality. People watch videos to gain information and if the sound is bad, they will move on. Always test the quality of your audio and if you cannot figure out how to improve it, bring in someone who can. – Zach Binder, Bell + Ivy

9. Aim for Quality Over Quantity

There’s a trend that some creators are trying to capitalize on across social media. Instead of producing new, high-quality pieces of content every week, they produce several videos every day. However, the videos are just compilations of other videos they made in the past with a couple of tweaks. Your audience will grow bored with this style and will always value quality over quantity. – John Turner, SeedProd LLC

10. Be Natural

When making your first pieces of content, it’s easy to get carried away with writing a script because you’re afraid of forgetting what you’ll say. Scripted videos will feel unnatural and more like an advertisement rather than valuable content. Decide on your key message and speak conversationally. Even if it means having several takes, the outcome will be much more relatable. – Karl Kangur, Above House

11. Have a Goal Before You Start

Decide what you want to achieve with your video content. It could be to highlight a new product, inform customers of a sales event, or just a creative way to deliver traditional content to your audience. But if you don’t know what you want to get out of the endeavor before you start, planning and executing the actual video might not go so well. – Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

12. Temper Your Expectations

Companies producing video content for the first time tend to have unrealistically high expectations about the impact that video will have. The success of Dollar Shave Club created a generation of entrepreneurs a little too optimistic about the power of video in accelerating a company’s growth. Video is an important tool that businesses must utilize, but with realistic expectations. – Adam Mendler, The Veloz Group