Create an editorial video

Business Benefits

Educate, inform, or share updates with your target audience.


Identify your topic and make sure that your video content is licensed for editorial use.

Choose a topic that’s consistent with your brand and within your area of expertise. Remember that editorial content must be educational rather than commercial in nature. Unlike commercial videos, editorial videos can feature fair use footage. The editorial title encompasses several categories of video, such as:

  • Reviews and critiques.
  • News reports.
  • Opinion pieces.
  • Brand updates.

As long as you aren’t explicitly advertising or monetizing a product, you should be able to use editorial or fair use content in your video.

Create a roadmap that details your production timeline and budget by either constructing it manually or using an organizational platform like Notion.

Even if you have a flexible budget and timeline, a high-level overview will provide a useful guide as you move forward. Combine this with an editorial calendar to identify any conflicts like holidays or commemorations. This gives you an idea of when to set your publication date. Also, identify goalpost dates to check in on the status of your work. If the work for this video is split up between several people, these goalposts should be dates when the entire team reconvenes.

As for budget, some costs to consider are:

  • Staffing pay.
  • Recording equipment.
  • Editing software.

Research the topic. Read relevant materials, and reach out for expert insights.

Before assembling the video, gather the information necessary. If the content is more brand focused, such as a company update, collect information from all team members involved. For journalistic stories, read up on the topic beforehand. Take note of jargon and difficult concepts you may want to break down for the audience. Use secondary sources to add context to the main story.

Be sure to support your story with primary sources, as well. Contact experts or qualified spokespeople for an interview. If they respond, speak with them. Record the conversation, if permitted, and take detailed notes. Incorporate quotes or even clips from the interview into your video.

Write a script based on your research. Employ multiple rounds of editing to ensure a high-quality experience for your target audience.

Using the information gathered, write up the main talking points. Once you have a draft, pass it to your editor to ensure that it’s consistent with the rest of your brand. To check for factual accuracy, ask experts for feedback. If your interviewees are cooperative, you can pass them a draft and get their opinions.

Assemble footage and record the video.

Record multiple takes of the script. If your story concerns a specific event or location that’s accessible to you, try to get onsite or b-roll footage. This is also the stage in which you may benefit from your video’s editorial status. Search video libraries for editorial footage. Some sources to consider are Shutterstock or Pond5. Also, check other sources like library and museum archives.

Import the footage and audio into editing software. Trim your clips, color correct the footage, sync the audio, and add finishing touches, such as music and graphics.

Transfer your footage into editing software like Adobe Premier Pro or DaVinci Resolve. You’ll then be able to complete basic functions like cutting, color correcting, transitioning, and mixing. More complex functions, like compositing, may require another software, like After Effects.

Render and export your completed video as an MP4. Upload your video to a platform like YouTube or Vimeo. Include a description with SEO keywords by using tools like SEMrush.

More than 80% of consumers want to learn more about brands from video content. To optimize your video for platforms like YouTube:

  • Do keyword research by using tools that specifically target YouTube keywords, such as vidIQ.
  • Choose a thumbnail with dynamic images.
  • Provide a transcription or closed captioning for your videos so that viewers can consume your content in more than one way.
  • Send people to a landing page with a sign-up form in order to capture leads.

Last edited by @hesh_fekry 2023-11-14T11:08:02Z

Couple of things would make this much stronger. establishing a baseline of what an editorial video is and what the end result would be, would help a lot.

Regarding the step itself:

<b> editorial content must be educational rather than commercial in nature.</b> can be promoted to step level. Seems like key information.

<b>Identify educational rather than commercial topics and make sure that your video content is licensed for editorial use.</b>