Videos have become one of the most important parts of the digital medium. Be it based on food, makeup, hairstyle, humor or anything, people just can resist gulping these short entertaining shots.
The best part about videos is that they are not only versatile but shareable as well. So, they can be used for anything such as – product demos, advertisements, creating a brand image for your company.
Not just that, videos can add value to the relationship with your customer. High-quality tutorials that show people how to use a product or offer innovative life hacks give greater insights into what it means for them and the firm offering the services/product.
With videos crashing the digital marketing world, you better learn few tricks to create effective online videos:
The first step towards creating a decent video is to choose the subject of the video content. It could be anything that people can relate to. Always remember, being simple and genuine is the key to success. Having a strong subject can help you in grabbing the eyeballs and whipping up a storm on social media.
Gather yourself
Getting in front of the camera could make you have cold feet, but don’t be scared. You can choose different angles, rehearse and have as many retakes as you want, to get the best shot.
Talk to yourself and be confident. Seeing in the eye of the camera will help you in making a direct contact with the audience.
Script is the king
Having a good script ready is like half battle won. Developing a script beforehand will help you in streamlining the entire videomaking process. There is a lot of difference in the kind of scripts written for tutorials and the ones written for business videos.
To write a script, you first need to zero on on a specific idea. Gathering the information around the idea will help in writing the script. Once you have enough food for thought, you can start writing the script.
While writing the script stick to the main message that you want to convey and then start flowing other supporting details. Once all your ideas are on the paper, you can gather them to make some sense out of it. Something that your audience is also able to understand.
The script is written in a conversational format, so while writing the script read it aloud. Reading the script will help you in knowing, which part requires improvement.
Being camera friendly
The actual reason why people usually have cold feet about getting on camera is because they fear about what they look like or how they’re being percieved. The following tricks will ensure that you look absolutely perfect on camera, these tricks will also help to eliminate the anxiety.
Natural light: While shooting videos, one of the most important factors that should be kept in mind is the quality of the image. People new to video making usually overlook this factor. The most economical method to increase the light quality is to shoot your video using natural sunlight because nothing the beat the quality of natural light.
If natural light is not an option then create than bright light atmosphere around the area, where shooting is supposed to take place. The thing to keep in mind is that lamps should light up both sides of your face while being even.
Framing it right: The other important factor to keep in mind is the frame. People new to video making think that the frame is fine as long as their face is visible, but that’s not all. First of all, the camera should be kept at the eye level. In case you are using a webcam, you would have the raise the webcam to your eye level. This way you can get rid of double chin in the video.
Identifying the target audience
Once you have decided the subject and are ready to shoot. It is always advisable to identify your target audience. You can do a small research about the best people to target. You could have new users or the ones from existing customers. It is best to focus on one demographic.
Identifying the target audience helps in focusing on the most important segment of the video. It also helps in adding extra details based on the demographics. With smartphones adorning the hands of the young generation these days. Videos are quite popular among the 18 to 34 years of age group. This doesn’t mean that people from other age groups won’t watch your videos, so targeting the desired age group along with something for everyone will do the trick.
Along with the content, finding out the medium which will be the most preferred for watching a video is essential. You can produce your video accordingly, keeping the size and quality in tandem.
Crop or not
Editing videos are completely optional. It can make your video look clean and crisp while cutting out a long pause or redundant stuff. But at the same time, it also increases the production value.
However, the popularity of videos on Facebook Live, Snapchat and Instagram tells another story. Surfers are liking the natural, raw and unadulterated look of the videos. To get a hang of what these videos look like, check out Instagram, Facebook, and other social media websites.
Still, if you wish to edit your videos, you can lay your hands on iMovie (for Mac) or Windows Movie Maker on a regular Windows PC. These are the basic software that will do a lot more than you can think of. You can use two sets of footage on the edit timeline to bridge the gaps in the main footage. You can cut, add effects, text and a lot more with these software and finally render for the desirable size.
Lighten up a bit
Now that you know your target audience, it’s the time to create the content that is in line with what viewers want to see.
Tutorials, videos about any innovative products and how to use them. Life hacks, latest makeup styles, prank videos, ghost stories, latest hairstyles, food – these are some of the most popular categories. Nobody wants to get bored or feel sad. People want to laugh, feel enlightened and want to be pulled off their daily routine.
So humor works well for most, even for marketing campaigns. Refrain from creating a pure marketing content as it never works.
Make it snappy
Consumers have a lot of videos at their disposal with a range of content available across a number of social media platforms. So, you have to actually stand out in the crowd. Nobody has the time to go through a long boring video. To maintain viewers’ attention and that they return to your page. You need to keep the videos short, crisp and interesting.
Videos must have a strong beginning that keeps the viewers hooked to their screens.
Video upload and SEO friendliness
It’s the showtime! Now that your video is ready, it’s the time to upload it. Besides, uploading it on your website, you can upload it on Youtube as well. You can also upload the video only on YouTube and embed the link on your website. YouTube being run by Google gets the maximum milage as Google’s algorithm is biased towards YouTube videos, which means maximum viewership.
Uploading the video is just not enough, you also need to optimise it with right meta details (keywords, description, tags). You can think of keywords and key phrases that can be used while searching for your video. Using popular keywords and tags will make it easy for people to find your video. This data is used by YouTube to determine where your video should be ranked.
Distribution through right channels
If the videos are created for fun by an individual, then uploading them YouTube and social media websites would be enough. But, just in case the videos are created for a commercial use, then the distribution matters.
You need to think of rights channels to showcase the video. Other platforms other than just YouTube. Deciding on the distribution channels helps in capturing the widest possible audience.
Measuring success
Once the videos are uploaded and optimised. Putting the metrics and KPIs will help in measuring the success of the video. For the beginners, metrics help in analyzing the success of a particular video. Once the metrics are in place, you will be able to use them for future campaigns as well.
Measuring the success of a video will help in refining the content of the future videos. You will have a better idea of what is working and what is not. It will also give you a better idea of your audience, their preferences, age group and more.
While going through the analysis, there could be a possibility that you get a new idea for your next video!
Till then, happy video shooting!
