Saturday, June 29, 2013

Do-it-yourself marketing videos


In The Advantages of Video Marketing, Sté Kerwer wrote:
The thing that puts people off video marketing has to be the fact that a video must be created in the first place – for those who aren’t perhaps "tech-savvy," it can be a daunting task.
From personal experience, it is a daunting task.  One that takes many doses of patience and persistence.  If you have a business, brand or organization to promote, and your marketing budget is tight, then it may be worth your while to give it a go à la DIY (do-it-yourself).


(image credit)
Here is an overview of fundamental steps and questions to consider:

Clarify your purpose

What do you need a marketing video for?  What are you trying to accomplish?  It may not be crystal clear to start with, but do take the time to clarify your purpose and set workable objectives.

Conceptualize your video

Filmmakers call this story-boarding.  They sketch in cartoon-like frames what they're going to shoot.  It is a similar process as outlining a paper, first, before jumping into writing it.  This way, you have a working plan for the video you're going to make.

Create video content

Most smartphones have decent video capabilities, so if you haven't yet, play around with it.  Give it a go.  Video cameras can reach in the thousands of dollars, in the blink of an eye, so weigh your budget first, if you want something more than a smartphone videocam.  Take informal videos of your friends and family, to start with.  

Remember, video is just one type of content.  You can also use photos, slides and text as the raw content for making a video.

Edit video content

This is the most tedious, time-consuming part.  Whenever we watch any film, from feature-length movies to commercial ads, there is a great deal of editing that goes on behind-the-scenes.  Just as a diamond in the rough must go through cutting, polishing and sizing, before any such gem makes it as a piece of jewelry, so must your video content go through something similar.

For me, Movie Maker as an editing tool serves my purpose very well.  Upload your video content to the editor, and examine what you have.  Movie Maker has quite a few features that help:  for example, viewing your content, adding voice or music tracks, and applying visual effects.

This is very much a roll-up-your-sleeves process.  But, if you're like me, the effort is well worthwhile, as the video literally takes shape and comes to life, before your very eyes.

As Kerwer added:
Make sure the video that you make is informative, entertaining, and maybe even a little bit edgy.
Upload finished video

You can upload it directly onto Google+ or Facebook, but I choose to upload it up to my YouTube channel.  Why?  Because it has additional features that help make sure I have the most compelling video possible.  

Promote your video

Once uploaded, it's easy enough to share your video from YouTube, to Google+, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.  You can also post the link to your video right on these sites.  Be sure, though, to include a descriptive, catchy comment along with you share or post.

Let me know what you think!  Please feel free to send me the link to your video:  DrRonontheInternet@gmail.com.    

No comments:

Post a Comment