Are you a small business owner wondering how to take the lead in your local market?
Maybe you’ve tried email and social media marketing already and had some success. Have you considered increasing your sales with video marketing?
Video advertising drives action like no other medium. Amazingly, 70% of consumers reported purchasing from a brand they’d become aware of on YouTube. Increasingly, video ads are proving themselves as an effective storefront and a full sales funnel solution.
If you want to reach a massive audience, entertain them, and convert them into customers, you need to consider video marketing. Your competitors certainly know this already.
We’re going to explain how to plan, shoot, edit, and share your video content. Read on!
Planning Stage
The first of our video marketing tips is this: When you’re formulating a video creation plan, it’s a good idea to take a look at the video topics tackled by your competitors. After this, do some search engine optimization (SEO) keyword research for additional video topic ideas.
You’ll need to consider the type of video that you want to create:
- Commercial ad or promo for discount sales and launch trailers
- Short-form and shareable social media content
- How-to explainer or product sales video
- Social-proof testimonial
- Lifestyle video for brand resonance
- Mini-documentary to assert core business values
- Animated or narrative-driven video
The more valuable your content is to your target audience, the increased likelihood that you will maximize its organic reach in social shares. Consider whether you’re goal is top-funnel awareness, mid-funnel consideration, or bottom-funnel decisive action.
Set out a clear schedule for the project with a detailed breakdown of the budget. Next, brainstorm ideas, with a strong call-to-action (CTA) as the focus. Sketch out a storyboard to direct the action, and number the shots to help keep things organized.
If you only plan to use a single camera, the storyboard will need to mix up close and distance shots for visual interest. A second camera can maintain some flexibility for the editing stage.
When writing a script, bear in mind that the average speech rate is 150 words per minute. Consider turning a valuable blog post into your script, or vice versa.
Try to have all company staff involved and agree in advance before proceeding to shoot your video. This is to avoid clashes and delays down-the-line.
Think about hiring a video marketing and creation service for a competitive edge. This will save you the headache of booking a film crew, equipment, stylist, designer, editor, composer, etc.
Shooting Video
When you come to the shoot, if you’re doing an interview-style video, you should consider a two or three-camera setup to avoid interrupting the flow of the shoot. This has the bonus of having back up footage in case of disaster. Editing is easier when you can cut to another angle to disguise a jump cut.
For the main camera, a digital SLR can record good results due to the larger lens and image sensor. For a one-camera setup, you can film in 4k and benefit from editing options later. This is achieved by re-cropping and panning within the frame when the final output resolution is 1080p.
For a two-camera setup, a good smartphone camera might suffice for brief close up side shots. Use tripods for all cameras if there is no experienced crew. A shotgun mic is a good addition to the main camera.
Clip-on mics can be used with the second camera or an audio recorder for backup close recorded audio. Remember to clap action and announce the shot number.
Don’t film at a frame-rate over 30fps because the footage won’t look natural. Lock the focus, as auto-focus is distracting. Use standard three-point lighting, with a key light, fill light, and backlight.
Rehearse the shoot and try to avoid using a teleprompter. Viewers can often tell, especially with the reader’s eyes tracking words.
Related Article: Getting more Followers: Understanding the Importance of Social Media Marketing
Editing Phase
You’ll probably want to produce several edits of various lengths, to accommodate social media and commercial spot time restrictions. Number your shot files according to the storyboard and organize them ready for editing.
There are some good intermediate editing options, like Adobe Premiere Elements. These will likely be more intuitive than full professional software solutions like Final Cut. Alternatively, video marketing software can eliminate much of the strain of creating your video.
You could bring on a composer or sound designer to add final polish or license music to score your production. Don’t put any commercial music in the background that you are not authorized to use. A visual effects artist or a graphic designer will also be a worthy investment to add more gloss to the production.
Sharing Strategy
Now your video project is complete, it’s time to think about digital distribution. Since audiences on YouTube account for billions of views every day, you’ll certainly want to upload it here. Vimeo is another long-form video sharing platform popular with professional film-makers.
Good video marketing strategies focus on organic and paid media traffic. You’ll likely want to put your video on all your owned properties, such as your brand website.
Earned traffic comes from having your content shared on social media platforms. You can use smaller video edits as teasers to increase shares and compete on platforms where shorter attention-spans are more common. Screenshots with links to long-form video content can be shared on non-video based social platforms.
When investing in paid media such as Google and Facebook ads, make sure to hone your advanced targeting analytics. Use A/B testing before you up your ad spend budget to maximize your ROI.
Analyze your metrics, including view count, play rate, and completion rate. Your click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate are vital to understanding if your campaign is working effectively.
Lastly, be active in the comment sections of all the social sharing platforms that you leverage. This interactivity boosts further sharing and increases brand confidence and loyalty.
Related Articles: 5 Proven Social Media Marketing Tips
Video Marketing
We’ve shown that a well-planned video marketing production is a powerful brand-building tool. Don’t let a lack of in-house resources prevent your company from launching a successful video project.
If you need a team to help create and market your video campaign, we can help. We are a digital marketing agency, and we offer video marketing services. We offer everything you need to grow your business, including video creation, digital advertising, and social media marketing.
Contact us today to request a free marketing audit.
