Video Marketing Guide
Video Marketing is now on the to-do list of an ever-increasing number of companies.
The reason for this great interest is that it is what customers are asking for: 54% of them actually want to receive more video content from their brands.
It is well proven that videos are effective tools not only for awareness but also for sales, capable of quadrupling sales opportunities (see the article HOW TO USE VIDEO MARKETING FOR SALES)
There is no doubt: they are an unmissable opportunity for business. But for many companies that are not yet experienced, the questions at this point are: where and how to start?
How to Get Started with Video Marketing
It must be said right away that videos are an extremely flexible format. They can be longer or shorter, animated or live, spoken, with music, or silent. Creativity reigns supreme, but it is not enough on its own.
Like any other form of marketing communication, in addition to creativity, strategic planning, programming, and analysis are required.
The first thing you need to do is understand what goal you want to achieve through the video and at which stage of the customer journey you need to integrate it.
For example, you might want to create a presentation video for a new product. Your goal is awareness, making the new product known to the customer. And the channel to choose could be social media.
Next, you will need to define your target audience, available resources, and so on, all the way to the actual production phase and subsequent performance analysis.
How to Get Started with Video Marketing
It’s never just about creating one or more videos and publishing them. To succeed, you need to be able to plan and work programmatically.
Without a strategic and integrated vision, the videos you create will remain fragmented and isolated content. You won’t achieve the desired results, and (given the amount of work they require) you will soon abandon the initiative.
Like any other strategic Marketing lever, both before and after the actual production, you need to plan and design activities, taking care of other essential steps.
In general, the management of the entire process is divided into 3 phases:
- Pre-production (and script writing)
- Production;
- Post-production.
Pre-production
You should think of pre-production as the strategic planning phase of the video content you intend to create and publish.
In this phase, you define the strategic aspects of your Video Marketing activities, and it is essential to dedicate as much time and effort as possible to it.
The main questions you need to answer in this phase are:
1. What goal do I want to achieve through the video? Educate, sell, make myself known...?
2. What resources do I have available to create and publish it? Budget, personnel, tools...?
It is, therefore, a matter of defining what you want to accomplish in terms of goals and results and what you can/how you can achieve it in terms of available resources.
The answers you provide to these questions essentially represent the tracks within which you will need to move in the subsequent development and production phases of the activities.
Prepare your video script
Every great Video starts with a great Script. The lights, settings, characters will give life to the message, but everything starts from the message you wrote.
It is essentially about defining the skeleton of the contents, the tone-of-voice, the dialogues. And then reread, cut out everything unnecessary, optimize.
The secret to becoming excellent video Script writers is practice. Don't despair initially if the quality is not excellent, it will improve over time!
The production
You have defined what you want to create and how you intend to do it, and now we are ready; it’s time to start filming.
To create your video, you might need: equipment, tools, and actors. But you don't necessarily need all of them.
This will depend on the type of video format you have chosen to create.
Suppose you intend to produce an animated video with avatar characters. In that case, you won’t need live actors but rather an advanced editing program.
If, on the other hand, you have chosen a live video format, then you will need to set up both the set and the cast.
At the level of basic equipment, we find:
- camera and supports (tripod);
-microphones and audio equipment;
- lights;
- green screen.
The equipment can vary in price, but on marketplaces like Amazon, there are many good-quality low-cost alternatives available.
Remember that your smartphone, if it has a good camera, can become your filming device. Amazon is also full of kits for YouTubers at very affordable prices, designed specifically for smartphone filming.
Once you have gathered all the necessary equipment, you just need to set up the set for filming.
Stabilize the camera on the tripod at the right spot in the room; position the lights to ensure optimal illumination of the scene, and make sure to isolate the set as much as possible, minimizing external noises and sounds.
You have the script (your Script), you have the set, and only the actors are missing.
If you have colleagues who are somewhat familiar with presentations, conferences, and generally have prior experience as speakers at events, bring them into your cast.
Speaking in front of a camera is not for everyone, and if you can rely on someone who already has experience doing it, choose them without hesitation!
Post-production
After planning, setting up, and shooting, you are ready to start the real work! Yes, of course, it’s not over yet; the actual editing is still pending.
This is the moment when the video truly becomes spectacular as you imagined, with effects, soundtracks, and animations.
The good news is that your work here will mostly involve imagination and creativity: the rest of the work will be done by the editing software.
Choose your editing program carefully
It is essential to choose the right one, which has the features you need to create the video you envisioned.
There are many available on the market, some with truly Hollywood-like performance and features. But they also come with prices that are astronomical.
The good news is that there are now valid video editing programs available even in free versions. Among these, we recommend:
- Lightworks: the best overall among free video editing software;
- HitFilm Express: the best for creating Hollywood-like effects;
- Magisto: the best for ease of use and functionality.
Choose an external Hosting for your Video
Your video is ready and optimized, but before sharing and publishing it on the channels you have chosen (site, social media, etc.) remember to choose an external hosting to store your Video.
We strongly advise against hosting the video on your website. There are valid and numerous reasons that push you to choose a web server external to our site.
The reasons are all linked to frequent viewing problems that users could encounter if you instead opted to host the Video "in-house".
Your website may have limited storage space (e.g. if you use WordPress) and Videos may take up too much space on your site.
This can lead to interruptions in viewing, slow loading. In general a compromised user experience that would make all the work you have done to produce the Video in vain!
Your site visitors browse using different web browsers (some use Google, some Explorer, some Firefox, etc.), but video formats are not supported equally on every browser.
To make sure that everyone will see the video correctly, you should then convert it to multiple formats. Very tedious work.
The issue of HD videos, in high quality, is connected to storage problems.
These videos are even “heavier” and take up much more storage space. External hosting will allow you to produce HD videos and integrate them into your website without weighing it down, through embedding.
To maximize the user experience and optimize the loading speed of the content, video hosting platforms are an indispensable tool.
Moreover, they are completely free services! Why give them up?
Let’s take a look at the two best platforms for video hosting that you should consider for your choice.
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