The cost of creating videos has dropped dramatically in recent years, leading to an explosion in the footage being shot and uploaded across the web. From webcams and smartphones to RED cinematic cameras for motion pictures, the possibilities have never been more open. And the launch of Vine for videos via Twitter, and Instagram Video, means that short 6 or 15 second video clips have become viable tools for sharing ideas, content and marketing.
We’ve worked with talented video producers and helped with creating and sharing videos online for many years, and have achieved success with a number of brand channels. We also have plenty of experience in planning video production and distribution to get the most mileage from what can be expensive, and is often a time-consuming way to generate content.
Creating great videos:
The most important aspects of great video content are simple to prioritise:
- Great content
- Production and Editing
- Marketing and Distribution
1. Great Video Content:
The definition of great video content is not an epic Hollywood script and production. Sometimes huge audiences are simply the result of being in the right place at the right time, but often it’s the result of creating content which is interesting, informative, entertaining, shocking or funny.
The key is to have your objective at the front of your mind. If you’re looking to sell a service or product, your aims and content will be different to someone launching themselves as the next great comedian on Youtube.
With each video, you should have a clear aim – is it primarily to build awareness, encourage people to click to visit your site, or help them to better understand and use your product?
The legendary Charlie Bit My Finger grew into a business after becoming immensely popular, simply by being entertaining.
Keep the viewer in mind at all times. Unless there’s a dramatic reason, you want them to see and understand the reason for watching your videos as quickly as possible – if you need to include company branding etc, there are better ways to do it than a huge introduction clip, which is a slight fail for the famous ‘Will It Blend’ series – but the hook is enough in this case to suffer through it:
Do your research – check out what is popular and successful for your immediate competitors. How would you improve upon what already exists and offer something better?
Enthusiasm is vital. Who hasn’t watched a screencast or software tutorial delivered with all the flair of a tax audit?
2. Production and Editing:
While you don’t need high production values to achieve success, they’ll definitely improve your odds. Beyond an adequate camera or webcam, the two biggest problems with most videos are lighting and audio.
Audio can often be solved by investing in equipment such as a decent cabled lapel mic or a Bluetooth remote version for presenters. Or a decent microphone for recording to your computer for screencasts, webinars and more.
Meanwhile lighting can be solved by thinking carefully about location, and potentially using some cost-effective solutions to add some illumination to the subject.
Consider this example, in which audio is a key part (note the microphone in shot), the lighting is serviceable, but by combining shots together it achieves a great result without adding anything unnecessary:
When it comes to editing software, the choices range from free open source programs to professional video editing suites. But it’s not what you use, it’s how you use it:
- Brevity and clarity is key
- Make sure intros or overlays are as short as possible, and consider using clear, readable text to convey information to shorten the length of videos.
- Use overlays to also cover links for more information.
- Film in sections for longer videos, which allows you more editing freedom, and to change location etc to keep an audience interested.
- Hide cuts with transitions such as full screen graphics, jump cuts etc, but don’t overdo it.
- Editing will always take much longer than you first imagine, so leave plenty of time in your schedule.
- Try to pay attention to the techniques being used in your favourite and the most popular, videos.
3. Digital Video Distribution:
Although Youtube is the most popular video channel on the web, there are several other locations which can also attract an audience. If you plan to cut and share content across these channels from the start, you can deliver far more mileage for your investment.
Video sharing sites:
- Youtube
- Dailymotion
- Vimeo
- Metacafe
- Vine (6 second clips via Twitter)
- Instragram Video (15 second clips)
Uploading each individual to multiple locations can be time-consuming, but you can also utilise services such as OneLoad from TuebMogul, which lets you upload once and then automates delivery to multiple platforms.
For each site, ensure you have set up your channel with the correct avatar and profile images (We have a guide for social network images)
Think carefully about how you title your video. Ensure it is clear and contains the relevant keywords for search.
Optimise your description to build on the information in the video – include relevant links and supporting info which doesn’t need to clutter the video itself.
Add relevant keywords, including your brand name. By including your brand name as a keyword, it encourages video sites to include any other videos from your channel as related content.
Finally, make sure you’re sharing your own content across the various channels you have access to. Blog about it, and make sure you use it when it’s relevant to answer customer questions to lower your customer service time and costs, for example.
More video tips and advice to come:
As video has become an integral part of what we do for clients and our own sites, we’re planning a full series of more in-depth articles in the future, including more details guides to production, editing and more. To keep up with our content, feel free to follow us on your choice of social network or via RSS etc.
