Have you ever wondered if there’s a marketing equivalent of the best picture award at the Oscars?
There are lots, actually. But that’s not why we’re here. If you’ve ever wondered how you can create great business videos that get results, you’re in the right place.
Creating an engaging and worthwhile marketing video isn’t easy. It takes a creative mind, an eye for camera work and editing, and a good amount of technical prowess.
Many companies outsource this kind of work to digital marketing companies. That can definitely be the way to go, but it does cost a lot for an uncertain return.
Here, we’ll look at 8 ways to make business videos that are fun, engaging, and results-driven at the same time.
1) Create Stimulating Business Videos
If your business videos are going to succeed, you’ll need to engage your audience effectively. What’s at the heart of any good film or video? A good story.
Ingrain the story of your company in every video you make. When someone tunes into one of your videos, they should know who you are and why you do what you do.
This allows you to make a deeper connection with the consumer rather than showing them a purely informational visual. It’s important to show them how passionate you are as you give them the info they need.
If the video is well-written, then everything you want to come across, will. If Joe from IT writes the video, it might not stimulate as it otherwise would.
Make sure that your video has a catchy title and intro. If you hook them in with a witty title followed by a well-designed intro, they’ll be more likely to stick around and watch the whole thing.
If your video engages your customer, they’re 64% more likely to purchase your product.
2) Equip Yourself
Of course, you need good equipment to make high-quality promotional videos for your business. You can get by using your smartphone and decent editing software, but your business deserves more effort than that.
Think about what’s important for creating a good video. You need it to look good and sound good. Buy a decent digital camera; most YouTube stars use DSLR or mirrorless cameras to achieve good visuals.
Sound quality matters; there’s nothing worse than trying to make out what someone in a large echo-chamber of a room is trying to say in a video. Buy a lapel microphone with a long cord so that your audience doesn’t have to strain to hear you.
Lastly, you should consider buying lights. While natural lighting can be nice, you don’t exactly want to rely on mother nature to give you what you need. You can get 3-light kits with softboxes for pretty cheap. Once you have them, watch a tutorial online to learn how to set them up properly.
3) Music
Surely you’ve seen marketing videos that don’t have any music in them whatsoever. It’s just a person talking and it’s awkward.
Don’t make this mistake. Even lightly placed music playing in the background while you talk will help your video with mood and emotional reach.
Obviously, don’t put “Hey Jude” in your video, as you’ll promptly get a cease and desist. Instead, hire a local producer or production company to create an original “score” for your videos. It’s okay if multiple videos have the same music, it’ll act as your theme.
4) Location
Where you film will deduce how your business videos come off. If you decide to be outdoors, there are more logistical issues with residual noise and the aforementioned lighting. It’s definitely easier and will probably look better to shoot inside.
Your video should represent the company’s vibe, so consider what’s in the background and foreground. If you’re talking about the function of a product, show the product in action. If you’ve got someone talking in front of the screen, the background could contain something of symbolic meaning.
5) Writing
While it’s important to get the look of the video right, you should pay special attention to what you’re trying to get across.
Have a team of creative people work on the script. If the person in the video is natural in front of the camera, give them some bullet points and let them deviate naturally. You can always edit out the unnecessary parts later, but it should come off professional and informative.
If the video seems too serious or too casual, viewers will disengage. Inject some humor into the script, but stay focused on the matter at hand. Find tips for writing for your business video on this page.
6) Invest in Editing
Editing is one of the most tedious and difficult parts of the business video-making process. There’s a reason editors get paid well; it’s because they have to sift through all of the footage and piece the whole video together like a puzzle.
The editing of your video should be seamless. If there are multiple cuts of one person talking, then the editing process should iron them out. Poorly edited videos are funny for all the wrong reasons. There are lots of tutorials online for how to use final cut and you can even find free editing software that will suffice.
7) SEO
Once the video is created and ready to roll out, you should be prepared to get your SEO on point to draw in viewers. Optimize your video using the right keywords and have someone pour over the analytics to figure out when to roll out the video and what to say about it to get clicks.
If the video is selling a specific product, you might even consider pay per click advertising. A few dollars for a click could result in big money if you find yourself a new customer.
8) Promote
Leading up to the posting of your video, you should alert people in by letting them know that you’ve got a new video coming.
Use all of your social media accounts to notify your customers of a new video to watch. If you don’t let them know there’s something to watch, then they won’t watch it. It’s as simple as that.
Get Shooting
If you’re going to become the next Coppola of business videos, you’ll need to employ all of these tips, as well as a few others.
If you know what you’re doing and have a clear vision, you should be able to create engaging, smart, and entertaining videos for your business. The only way to get good at making them is by practice. You don’t have to put out the first one you make, but the process of making it will be your best teacher.
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