100+ Experts Share Their #1 Tip for Creating Great Marketing Videos

My best tip for creating great marketing videos is to look at the data you already have. And pay attention to the content that already resonates with your audience using your own analytics like Google Analytics to look at past blog posts that have done well and past emails from your email marketing system.

You can use things like Google Trends, your SEO tools of choice, but look at what the audience wants from you, from vendors like you, from businesses like you. Look at what people are asking questions for and answer those questions.

There’s no easier way to create great marketing videos than to give people what they want, what they need to do their jobs better. That way, you’re much less self-promotional, you are much more helpful and people will enjoy inherently understand the value that you provide, as you demonstrated by being helpful. You can’t go wrong with being helpful as my friend Chris Brogan says: “any opportunity to be helpful is an opportunity to do business.”

So be helpful. Focus on the questions people are asking you, or companies like you in social media, SEO, email and your own analytics to create the best marketing videos you can.

Hands-down, the most important thing right off the bat when it comes to creating videos for marketing purposes or for your business, in general, is to know WHO you’re talking to.

It starts as a basic question of asking “who is this video created for? Who’s the target audience?” but then you have to get deeper than that.

You not only have to know WHO they are, but you have to know WHAT their problems are. Where are they struggling right now? What are their pain points? How do THEY describe their pain points? What solutions are they open to? What’s the budget they likely have?

The more you KNOW about your people, the more you can genuinely connect with them. And the more you connect with them, the more engagement you’ll get.

Because at the end of the day, humans buy from people that we know, like, and trust. So moving forward, even if your video is perfectly branded with awesome quality, but you’ve missed the mark on your target audience, your video isn’t going to be packing as much of a punch as it could have.

Here’s my 9 step ninja trick when sharing native video on LinkedIn (it also works for all other forms of updates!):

1. Make FULL use of the 1200 characters you have in the description section. Why? Because we’ve seen over and over again that the LinkedIn audience responds to longer description sections AND I think LinkedIn’s algorithm picks up on the keywords that might be embedded. (As well as #Hashtags and @Mentions)
2. Address who might be interested in the article (buyer persona)
3. Tell them what the content is about (maybe outline in bullet form)
4. Let them know how long it will take to review the article or video or document
5. Use a CTA to “leave a comment below” (or click through or read or whatever)
6. Use emojis to draw attention
7. @Mention anyone relevant to the post (companies or individuals)
8. Use 1 #Unique hashtag and two #popular hashtags (like #VengresoPics, #ContentMarketing, #LinkedInTips)
9. Share with your colleagues and influencers and ask them to share it too.

This will exponentially increase the views of your content on LinkedIn and drive visibility for your business.

My top tip is to do plenty of research to figure out the type of videos your audience wants to watch. Figure out if they prefer tutorials, interviews, case studies, screencasts, or another type of video.

Then create several videos on the most preferred choices for a month or two and then analyze the results to see which type of videos perform best.

After that you can use the data to scale your video production and only create videos (in formats) that drive the best results for your business.

Know your audience!

The more you know about your target audience (who they are, what they like and don’t like, what motivates them, what their needs are, etc.) the better you will be at creating a video that will capture their attention. And to do that, your video has to be relevant and relatable to your target audience within the first few seconds.

It’s all about crafting the right message to the right audience. That’s how you ensure your video is remarkable!

My number 1 Video tip would be to use knowledge-based content to get your audience to Know, Like and Trust you enough to buy from you.

Why should you do this? Because the right education equals sales. Here’s a formula that I created that I want you to remember:

YOUR BUSINESS < EDUCATIONAL MARKETING (SHOW THEM WHY, & HOW) > YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER = SALES

1. Your customer may not know that they need your products and services.
2. They may not be aware of the pain that they are currently experiencing
3. They also may not know that you are the person with a solution for that pain.

This is where I enjoy using exceptional visuals and information to attract, educate and entertain my ideal customer or client. This helps them to:

• Realize that they do have a prominent pain
• Learn more about how they are losing and what is possible
• Learn that there is a solution
• Get to know me/business as the expert and the person that is going to alleviate that pain

Look at your top-performing blog posts, articles, and ebooks as a great source of inspiration for marketing videos. Pulling out insights from that content and turning them into videos that have the text on-screen, accompanying images, and voiceover can be an inexpensive way to get more out of your top-performing content.

Plus recall increases with images! According to Dr. John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist, we only recall 10% of information on average three days later, when we are only told that information; add a relevant image and we can recall 65% of that information three days later.

Understanding the audience and the platform are very important for making any great marketing video.

As a video producer at InnerAction Media, I believe that knowing and understanding the subject (company or individual) is the best way to create a great marketing video because you will have the ability to express their story in the most impactful way.

For example, if you are in the healthcare field, producing videos that showcase your nurses, doctors or office staff builds rapport. From our own advertising experience, doctor videos generate the most engagement. Consumers LOVE being able to praise them and share their experiences. You’ll be amazed at how many shares, likes and loves a doctor video receives.

For other professions, letting consumers see who they’ll be working with gives the consumer a chance to see the business’ personality. For example, if you are a home builder, you can feature your sales person on screen. This will probably be the first person a potential customer meets. Seeing them talk about the home building process, what the journey is like and answering common questions may help push the potential customer to pick up the phone.

To get to know the subject, we always have our clients with us from start to finish of the video production process—starting with an intake meeting to get a feel for what they’re looking for to developing the script, the tone and the message and also at the very end when we release the video. This way, we can talk with our subject, get their thoughts and guide them on their marketing journey.

To make the consumers understand the subject, to help tell your subject’s story, as well as help them market their business or company—you must first understand the subject. If you don’t understand their message, the consumers won’t.

I think the most important thing for anyone to remember with any content, is to put themselves in the shoes of the viewers (or readers). What first attracts, then holds your attention? What makes you want to share that great video you just saw?

Works of groundbreaking genius or incisive thinking will certainly be watched if they are by someone who is already highly respected – such as Gary Vaynerchuk. But if you don’t have quite that name recognition or respect, the most brilliant video will fail to reach many eyes if it is long or presented in lecture form.

So the best strategy is to make your video short, so that people will not “come back to it when they have more time”. Few will ever do that! Stick to one topic. If that topic is broad-ranging, narrow the focus to one aspect of it.

Inform and make use of the most visual of mediums. Prepare! Uncertainty in your voice, if you are winging it, will lose viewers in a hurry. And don’t come off like a stern teacher! Be warm and engaging. Give people reasons to want to like you.

Don’t try to please everyone.

The best way to ensure that your video is impactful, relevant, and useful is to keep 1 core group of people in mind when making it. If that group is too large, you probably have to take another look at your buyer personas. If you feel like you need your video to hit multiple buyer personas, you probably need a second (or third, etc.) video.

Better to make 2 or 3 videos that really impact several buyer personas, than to make 1 video that “reaches” all of them, but has no bite.

Focus on the type of video ‘Bob’, your ideal client, will respond to.

Know your audience.

There are no definitive rules for social media content, what works for one business may not be effective for another. The key way to succeed is to research those within your niche, and the interests of the audience you’re seeking to connect with, then to formulate a strategy based on where you see an intersection between these insights and your message.

We conduct extensive research on the target market to identify emotional triggers and build the storyline to connect with the viewer.

Audience insight – if you spend the time to understand what makes your audience tick and identify a relevant human truth, you increase the chances of your story resonating dramatically. Get the story right and the production of the video as an output should be a fait accompli.

Think of the audience you are trying to reach. Don’t worry about going viral and getting tons of views. Don’t worry about pushing and selling your product. Put your target audience first. Focus on them and their needs as your priority.

What questions do they want to be answered? What issues do they want to be solved? How can you best help them improve their life and their situation? Creating value like this for real people is the best way to get engaged views and actually move the needle towards reaching your goals.

In order to make a great video, you need to know who will watch that video, where the viewers are located geographically/culturally, on what device, for what reason and when will the video be triggered and ready for viewing.

Also, video is more effective when you create it for an individual according to that specific person´s needs, likes and other gathered information. Once you have researched the previous information and put a plan in place, you should use all the contextualized information so that the video evokes the desired reaction in the viewer’s mind.

The more the message is adapted to who will actually see the video, the higher the conversion rate will be.

My favorite tip for making a great marketing video is this: decide goals for the campaign, choose metrics for the campaign and always stick to a storyboard.

The storyboard is essential because it gives a foundation to make a conversational, great marketing video. Think of it as a coffee or brunch meeting with a good friend – you’re comfortable enough to come off confident but at the same time ready to give the scoop without the fluff. You want to get to the point and make sure the video resonates with audiences. How does your brand marketing video resonate with people? Know the answer to this question: ‘How can I help you?’. If you can answer that question, you can script a great marketing video.

I prefer to follow storyboards rather than reading from lengthy guides or manuals because the storyboard serves as a check and balance on whether you are highlighting the right information about your product and services. The goal is to create an easy to follow script and make sure it helps your target audiences.

Have a strategic video plan and someone to help you execute that plan. Too many brands/business owners decide that they need a video because it’s the “hot” thing right now without thinking about how that ties back into the company’s overall goals.

What problem are we trying to solve and how can video provide a solution? What types of videos are we going to make? Who is our audience? Why does our audience care about this content? What is their customer journey? What is the distribution plan with these videos? Failing to answer these basic questions will lead to a subpar video marketing campaign.

Also without having someone, either inside the company or an agency, to lead this video marketing effort is also a sure-fire way for a campaign to fail. Someone has to monitor the strategy, production process, and campaign metrics to ensure success. Simply hiring a local videographer to make a pretty video and placing that video on social media will not ensure success.

It’s all in the script. Make sure you’ve poured enough care into the scripting stage because even though videos evolve over the life of the project, a sturdy foundation is essential.

I’m assuming most people will mention something along the lines of Tell a Story. This is also one of my beliefs however to offer something different I am going to suggest to plan the promotion of your video.

Most people make a video, pop it onto Youtube or Facebook and then just wait. Successful videos don’t just become successful by chance. They are part of a marketing plan and this plan should include how you will promote this to your target audience. This could be through blog posts, feature articles, promoted posts, newsletters, youtube channels, regular updates, joint ventures with other businesses etc.

It really is unlimited but if, like most people, you leave it up to only one promotion avenue or worse just upload to the internet and hope then you will end up disappointed no matter how good the video is. Plan, Create, Promote, Measure, Repeat.

The key to a great marketing video is to prepare, plan what you are going to say, and be concise and to the point. The average marketing video should be no longer than 30 seconds.

A well conceived script and premise that meets the needs of the target audience.

My best marketing tip is no matter what length your video is, tell a story through it and all stories have a beginning, middle, and end.

The beginning is where you have to grab the audience’s attention with something really interesting that they want to hear more about. The middle is where you give the meat of the story and in the end, you make sure you tell your audience what to do with this information.

Even if you’re creating a 10-second video, you need to be telling a story.

Find the villain. Every customer wants to be the hero of their own story, and every hero needs a great villain. State Farm Insurance has “Mayhem.” Mucinex has that phlegm guy. Recruiters have… every stereotype from “Office Space” to rail against. How would a customer personify their arch-nemesis?

Once you identify the villain, you can choose how much of a parody you want to make it or if you want to play it straight. But choose carefully. It can be easy to pick the wrong villain.

For example, we recently worked on a fundraising video for a nonprofit fund that brings state-of-the-art detection and treatment equipment for breast cancer to a certain community. It would have been easy to make cancer the villain but that would have been wrong for this project. Our villain was “treatment at a distance,” because the perception was that you had to go to the metro area almost 2 hours away to get quality care for breast cancer. By correctly making “treatment at a distance” the bad guy, we got the viewer to imagine having a surgical procedure or chemotherapy treatment and then having to put a seat belt on, sit in traffic and hope you are home in bed before the pain medication wore off. Seriously?!

This “treatment at a distance” villain made it very clear why a viewer should support this fund, and how it is different from supporting other cancer-related nonprofits. It is powerful, emotional and effective.

Find your villain, and your marketing video will have much more clarity and impact.

My best tip for making marketing videos is one word. Story.

When we say create highly engaging content, what does that actually mean? It means content that retains the attention of the viewer/reader/audience. By telling stories, as long as they are at least amusing, people will want to hang around to get to the end of the story.

It’s a simple premise. Whether you’re telling your story over the course of one video, or a series of videos only adds to the layers and level of interest in your story. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, so chunk down your content, tell stories and be consistent. That in itself, is a story.

A good marketing video tells a story. A GREAT marketing video not only tells a story, but transports the viewer into your brand’s narrative and makes them feel like the protagonist.

Your audience member needs to feel empowered, they must feel like the hero that slays their own dragons, no matter how big a supporting role your product/service plays to help them get there.

Videos should be real, original and tell a story with a purpose that will resonate with your target audience. There has to be a strong message and a strong narrative throughout and the first few seconds must grab the user’s attention to encourage them to continue.

In a world where attention spans are low and many digital platforms class three seconds as a view, we need to ensure those first few seconds count for something. Like any good story, there must be a beginning, a middle and an end with purpose and originality running through the heart of it.

By making sure you’re creating video content you know people want, you know people are searching for and what will ultimately aim to help, inform and educate, you can keep the viewer there for longer to hear what you have to say. We demonstrate this perfectly in our work for Unilever’s ‘All Things Hair’, the content hub for haircare, tips and tricks, each piece of content is carefully crafted, we know it’s what people want and the results speak for themselves.

Like any type of content, marketing videos must tell a story. Before writing the script and creating the storyboard, think about your goal for the video and what your audience needs and wants.

Capture your audience’s attention from the beginning with an idea that takes your viewer on a journey. Inform, educate or inspire them. Give them a behind the scenes look at your business for example, teach them something they would not otherwise have known or couldn’t learn from another type of content. Leave them feeling more positive and uplifted and walk away with an idea and a feeling they’ll never forget.

Breathtaking music, amazing graphics, even celebrities can’t make up for strong, compelling storytelling.

Be sure to tell a story in your video.

You want to showcase your own personality or even the “personality” behind the product or service. There is nothing more boring than to watch a talking head spewing information or someone trying to be a reporter. Just try to have fun and relax…while telling a story.

Tell a great story. Stories transport viewers emotionally, prompting them to share. They are memorable, compelling, and inspirational.

Start with a hook to grab your audience’s attention. Build the story arch to fit your narrative. Use visuals and music to evoke different emotional responses in your viewers. Finish with a clear call-to-action that fits your goals for the campaign.

Call-to-action created in Wave.video

You do not need a big budget to leverage storytelling for video marketing. Careful pre-planning will do much of the work for you in terms of delivering an effective end result. Consider your goals for the campaign at a high level, then develop your concept in detail through script-writing and storyboarding. If you are outsourcing any parts of the video production process, make sure your aims are clearly communicated to any 3rd parties, and stay heavily involved in the creative process.

For inspiration, this article contains examples of exceptional storytelling by B2B companies.

For specific pointers, this article will walk you through the 11 key ingredients for building a compelling story with video.

I’ve found the most important thing in video is creating a compelling message through storytelling. Video gives us the capability to show so much more than any other medium which is why users love it.

If you are creating a marketing video, get out of the office and talk to your customers, members, or community members and, if possible, incorporate their stories. At the very least you will learn about how they perceive you and help you shape your message.

Each video should be a perfect little story.

Storytelling is the oldest of all the arts, and there’s nothing as powerful or long-lasting as a well-told story. It connects information to emotions to influence, educate, and inspire – which is the goal of effective content marketing, after all.

To make a powerful, high-converting marketing video, make your customer the hero.

Why? It’s simple: before your customers can care about your brand, you need to show them that you care about their story. So tell it back to them — through your marketing videos! Take them along on their own “hero’s journey.” That way, your customers will see that you understand what they’re going through and what they want.

From there, it becomes easy to introduce your product or service as the solution to their problems and urge them to take action. Now that your customers know how your offer fits into their story, they will have every reason to pay attention and decide if they want to say yes.

There are lots of ways to make “customer-driven” marketing videos. Here are my 3 favorites:

1. Make a case study video about one of your best customers. Tell the story of how they changed their life with the help of your product or service. Make sure that you paint a vivid picture of the customer’s “before” and “after” and how exactly your offer has helped.
2. Create a character who will serve as a stand-in for your target customers. Someone with a similar background, someone who’s dealing with the same problems. You can also create a character who embodies everything they want to be — someone who’s already struggled and came out on top!
3. Make a video that talks directly to the customer instead of at them. Use the words and phrases they’d use to describe their situation, their fears, and their desired results. It will take some research and a few drafts to nail the tone and the content, but the results will be worth it!

Here’s an example of a marketing video (made by my agency, The Draw Shop) that uses this technique to tell a compelling story:

Storytelling is the key to making impactful and more memorable marketing videos. If you ask someone to name a marketing video or an advertisement they remember, they’ll immediately recall a video that tells a heart touching story like the #LikeAGirl commercials made by Always.

People remember stories and ones that arouse emotions like empathy and kindness tend to stick around in our minds for long periods of time.

Or, if you can’t come up with a good story, you can always take a much grandeur approach like hiring Jean Claude Van Damme to do an epic split between two moving Volvo trucks.

Personally, I prefer the storytelling approach to be much easier and less expensive.

Whether you’re a company or a personal brand, storytelling can do wonders when it comes to video marketing.

Put yourself out there, be honest, stay transparent and speak from the heart. If you’re struggling with something, don’t be afraid to let your audience know about it. If you’re excited about a new business opportunity, spill the beans.

Don’t just tell a story, tell YOUR story. That’s exactly what your customers and followers are looking for. They’re looking for people just like them; they’re looking for actual human beings behind companies or personal brands; they’re looking for stories and experiences to which they can relate.

Instead of being overtly salesy, an effective video tells a story. Businesses should utilize the emotive power of video by appealing to their customer’s needs and desires.

Know your story. This is so simple yet so complicated. The bottom line is every business has a story to share, so make sure that shines through in your video creation process.

Find the story first, then LISTEN to where the story leads you during the edit.

Start with the basics. If you selling services or a product, you’ll need to keep the length under two minutes. If you are making a video to inspire people to donate to your organization for a worthy cause, juxtapose the urgency of the cause with the success stories due to past support received. If you have a proven record of great customer service or 5-star reviews of your product, you’ll definitely want to employ powerful customer testimonials in your video. Once you identify the story, you will then be able to produce the footage and find the right resources that will best tell it.

Nothing is more compelling than a well-told story. There’s magic that happens during production. Stories are organic. They have a life and a personality. Pay close attention during production and make notes. People may say something unique, or events will unfold off-camera.

During the edit, following the pre-produced script may feel forced or unnatural. It’s ok to admit that the script may not be the best way to tell the story if you feel the story pulling you in a different creative direction. You need to be comfortable with it and give it a chance. It’s amazing what can happen.

Example:

SJ Periodontics & Dental Implants – Meet the Staff from SQ Productions on Vimeo.

The footage in the first half of the video normally stays on the virtual cutting room floor. It was creatively included in this video because it juxtaposes how nervous people can be before an on-camera interview with how eloquent they can sound when they believe in what they are saying, regardless of the nerves. Following this story resulted in the most powerfully honest and compelling testimonials we’ve ever shot.

I firmly believe that ‘the business is the people,’ so conveying the personality and professionalism of the organization is my number one goal when creating video marketing content. Not everyone loves to be in front of the camera, but with good direction I believe that anyone can represent their company in a compelling way that will resonate with viewers.

Technical skills, new camera gear, and editing style are all important aspects of a good creative video, however I believe the most important tip is to be a good director/interviewer and make sure that the narrative comes first, even if that means using a script. There is no substitute for compelling, engaging dialogue when it comes to making a great marketing video.

The old adage “stories sell” is especially true with great marketing videos! Make sure you pull your viewers in with a compelling story.

Your story should “hook” the viewer within the first 3-5 seconds so you want to make sure that you set the stage for the story immediately to keep viewers watching.

Here is a great example:

Social is awash with content, the 1st step is grabbing attention and engaging the audience.

Making your video grabbing from the thumbnail and the opening scene is key to draw the viewer in. Think of articles or videos you click on, its called “clickbait” for a reason. Then deliver interesting engaging visuals to keep the viewer watching.

Focus on crafting the best title and the intro in order to capture your audience’s attention. The rest of the video is important too but the title and intro are what gives you the best chance of getting viewed in an age where your content is probably competing with hundreds of other videos and other content formats.

I could say storytelling, but so often it requires creative concepting beyond the budget of many businesses. A school district tax campaign may just warrant a smartphone, a few clips from students and YouTube’s video editor to get the job done, for example. And some businesses may need salesforce-facing video versus consumer-facing, which also reduces the importance of storytelling.

So my number #1 tip for great marketing video is hooking your audience in the first five seconds, like here:

(which, by the way, is also a great example of product storytelling). Here’s another with a strong visual hook, for a tire company (disclosure: scripted by moi):

My favorite tip for video marketing is definitely doing something different/memorable within the first 3 seconds. We all know attention spans don’t last much longer than that so you need to catch viewers’ attention right away.

Capture the viewers’ attention in the first 3-10 seconds with an editing cut or an “easter egg” type of surprise moment for the consumer to enjoy.

Grab attention from the very beginning! Be funny, quirky or unexpected if at all possible. That’s what we specialize in.

Don’t bore the viewers and don’t make your video too long, with too many verbal/spoken details that can be easily highlighted in text and motion graphics, which shortens the video and makes it more visually appealing.

Focus on the value from the 1st second.

You have to grab the attention of your viewer from the start. Don’t start with 10 seconds of your logo spinning on the screen for “bränding.” Start with the following formula:

1. Ask them an intriguing question with a surprising fact or value that you are going to talk about. For example, “Did you know that *the interesting thing* happens? Do you want to know why?”
2. Next, tell them that you are going to tell them lots of interesting things. For example, “In this video I will help you understand everything about *the interesting thing*.”
3. Now you have to prove that you are going to fulfill that promise. Give them an example of what they are going to get when they watch your video. For example, “For example, *the interesting thing* has these weird properties that give you this value.”

Put it all together into a 10 to 20-second intro that will hook them to your video.

The best marketing videos entertain in some way. When you make the video itself an experience then the video gets watched and shared.

Also, don’t worry about making a mistake. The video doesn’t have to be perfect, just get it out there!

Stop worrying about algorithms and start creating something you’re excited about.

Your community will find you if you’re patient. If you show more than you tell, you will build a loyal following for life.

My advice is different from the norm. My best tip is to actually keep churning out videos.

I’m in different startups, so instead of just taking it slow, planning a content calendar with complex branding and whatever, I encourage the team to just keep making videos. Put it up, share with the newsletter, put it up on social for the week and promote a little bit with paid ads. We’ll get the data of how it’s working and converting into sign-ups or actual users. It’s how we can get better (because you’ll be practicing!) and know what your audience wants faster.

We shoot B-rolls, behind the scenes footages, demos, interviews, flights to meet clients, etc. We compile and document as much as possible just so we’d have footage when needed. You don’t have to use all the footage you have just for the next video you make.

My best tip for creating great marketing videos in 2020? Don’t be boring.

There needs to be some kind of value for the people watching your video: either it’s because it’s telling a gripping story, or because it’s funny or shares some really interesting insights – whatever it is, it needs to be interesting and catch people’s attention.

Not only does this help you get more views and shares but it will mean more people will watch until the end – and see your call to action.

Keep it a few notches more exciting than feels natural! If you don’t keep it moving, they’ll keep on scrolling.

Stop overthinking it. Your video doesn’t have to be perfect to convert. Don’t let technology stop you from making video.

Aside from ANYTHING else, just:

• Be yourself, while fine-tuning an ideal persona for your target audience
• Don’t be afraid of being different (experiment and find what works best)

Also:

• Brand videos needn’t be so serious! Inject some personality
• Add effects, music and slick cuts to seamlessly blend everything together
• Spend time perfecting your sound/picture quality (essential for first impressions)

The best way to ensure your business marketing videos will be great and to get the most desirable reaction you want from your audience; is to be sure you start recording while you are in the most positive mindset.

Get your energy level where it needs to be prior to recording. Your positive energy sets the tempo of your video marketing message, which will ensure you deliver the best first impression for your viewers.

Regular video content creates a familiarity with your audience that can’t always be measured easily in likes and view count.

Start making regular video content as soon as possible, and improve as you go. Don’t be a perfectionist about it otherwise you’ll never get started.

The sooner you start, the sooner you can start to build this familiarity with your audience that will pay off hugely in the long-term.

Rand Fishkin, Founder of Moz, once said that his famous Whiteboard Friday series would have been canceled early if they based the decision solely on the immediate results they could easily measure.

Have faith in your video content and be persistent, the results will come in time.

Don’t try to be perfect. Embrace the wrong and have some fun.

A great place to start is by broadcasting it as a live video. This way it can’t be perfect. It will be raw and much more authentic. If you can, use a tool such as Ecamm Live which saves the video as a high-quality video as well as broadcasting it live. If not, you can always download the video directly from Facebook or YouTube. Then it’s time to have some fun and edit it.

When mistakes happen, use that as a blooper real at the end or spliced up within the video. Use an online editing tool like Wave.video to where you can add your own royalty-free music and sound effects.

Always be happy! Overdo the energy levels, think like a children’s TV presenter, and you will come out well.

Nobody wants to watch videos of people who are not smiling, talking in monotones. They stick around if you are smiling, looking directly at the camera and get to the point fast!

Basically, when it comes to marketing videos you have two main challenges: describing why your product is the right one for the customer, and to do it in a way that catches their attention. That’s why my best advice for creating a great marketing video is to describe the benefits of your product in a funny way.

I’ve found that humor is by far the best way to captivate your audience long enough for them to learn more about what you’re offering. That’s why we at Brosix created a series of animated videos where we demonstrated the main benefits of our product in a humorous way. We did this by showing potential problem situations you can come upon if you don’t use a tool similar to ours for your communication, and we added jokes and funny parts to the videos to make them.

Lighting and microphones are key. If you can’t see it and hear it, it’ll fail for sure. But assuming you’ve got that covered, next pay special attention to the thumbnail. If the thumb is bad, no one will press the play button. That’s another way to fail.

A great thumbnail has a face and the shot is close enough that you can see the whites of their eyes. If they’re too small, it won’t convey emotion. Second, overlay some text to give the visitor an idea for what it’s all about. If there’s no headline on the thumbnail, how will they know what they’ll get if they click? Finally, a slash of color makes all the difference. The more vivid it is, the more likely it’ll be to catch their attention.

Source: Orbit Media

The best tip I have for marketing videos is to keep it mobile-friendly. Over half of all video is viewed on mobile platforms. Keep this in mind as you’re planning the creation and distribution of your video content. If you want your content seen, don’t make your audience come to you, find them where they’re at and optimize your videos for mobile viewing.

Square-shaped videos perform especially well on most mobile devices so do your research and keep factors like this in mind when putting forth your video marketing strategy.

I believe that many businesses get trapped in the belief that they can either produce cheap, but low-quality videos using smartphones and basic video equipment, or they need to pay a video production company to produce expensive, high quality videos for them. My number one tip for producing great video content quickly and inexpensively is to use templates.

Templates provide a great structure for video content and it is easy to customize the template to fit in with your branding by adding your own images and video clips or using the built-in library. Make sure that you add your logo and use your corporate colours to make the video feel like your own.

When I deliver social media marketing training, I introduce delegates to Wave.video and give them a quick 5-minute demonstration on how it works. I then give them about 15 to 20 minutes to produce their own video. I’m always amazed at the quality of videos they produce and how unique each one is even if they have used the same template.

If my delegates can produce interesting videos with minimum instruction and within a tight time constraint, so can you.

The focus is on you and your face when doing video and not the background. When creating videos it’s important to do away with as many distractions as possible and to keep everything on-brand.

When using smartphones for creating video content, always remember to place it in airplane mode before you record. It will cut out cellular background noise interference and avoid any annoying interruptions while you are recording.

Having worked in the film industry I can tell you that there is nothing more important than having really good audio in your marketing videos.

I know it sounds crazy that audio is the most important for video but as human beings, we automatically tune out if audio is bad. On the other hand, if you have great audio and terrible video people will still watch.

Invest in a good lavalier (wireless) microphone and a good microphone that connects to your computer. I personally use the Sennheiser EW 112P G4 lavalier microphone (there are cheaper options that will do the trick) and the Blue Yeti USB microphone. Having great audio will keep your audience engaged in your videos longer.

There are many aspects that go into creating an outstanding marketing video. Story, composition, music, color, and energy can all play vital roles in impacting your target audience. Personally I feel that where most marketing videos fall short is in technical precision. Study framing, lighting, and your camera! Know the limitations and strengths of your equipment and use those to create the most stunning visuals you can.

There are infinite resources available online to grow your technical skill set. Study and utilize them to give your client a strong, polished, and professional piece. If you are not the one doing the filming then be sure to properly vet your filmmaker and ensure that they are utilizing proper technique.

Put yourself in front of the camera.

People want to know who they’re buying from so put your face and voice out there even if you don’t think you have the prettiest face or voice.

My #1 tip for creating great marketing videos is to share information that is useful to your ideal clients, so they can get to know, like and trust you. The secret is to keep it simple and be yourself!

I like the simplicity of talking directly to the camera (usually my iPhone on a selfie stick), and then I speak like I’m talking 1-on-1 with a client. It keeps it authentic and casual, and allows viewers to connect with me and my message.

It doesn’t need to overly produced or scripted, but if you feel more confident with an autocue, by all means use one – there are plenty of free autocue apps you can use.

Don’t just create a video. Create an emotional experience with your video. Ask yourself these questions before you get started:

• What is the purpose of the video? Better said, What do we want our viewers to feel, know, experience and leave with from watching the video?
• Who am I envisioning will be watching the video? Knowing your ideal audience will help you select music, messaging, look, feel and purpose. It will also allow you to know if you add in little touches like captions and call to actions.
• Where will the video be hosted? Knowing your audience and purpose of the video will let you know the primary network to craft the video for so the layout is optimized for the platform.
• What images or video will best help you articulate your message for your ideal audience. Having your own video clips and images will help personalize the video and be more relatable.
• Bring the energy! If you’re speaking on video – bring all the energy and personality you’ve got!! The best thing about video is that it’s a humanizer – which means your audience will be able to feel the energy you’re putting off. What will make your audience want to listen, respond and keep them coming back for more?
• How can we make our video craveable? What is the unique aspect of you and your brand that you can add to make it memorable?
• What is your measurement of success and how will you track it? Knowing this ahead of time will help you plan, execute and continue to improve your videos.

Lastly – make sure you have fun! Videos are a great way to build relationships with your audience. If you’re having fun and can feature others in the process it’s a win-win!

Great marketing videos speak to your audience as if they were in the same room with you, having a conversation. The more crafted and slick they look, the more of an advertisement they might look like.

When you connect with someone in a human and authentic way, that content will better resonate with your community and you will be better remembered as well.

Videos have many different purposes but what matters most is making the viewer feel emotion. This not only makes your videos more memorable, but allows your brand to connect with them on a human level.

So when you’re making your next video, think to yourself… what emotion(s) will this make them feel?

My number one tip for creating a marketing video is to make it a conversation.

It’s easy to simply stare into the camera while concentrating on making no mistake in your cautiously pre-written speech but really it’s a lot more engaging if you treat it like a real conversation – imagining your ideal listener/watcher behind the camera and talking to her directly. It is her after all for whom you’re producing the video so be user-centric in every step you take.

Keep your videos short and concise.

Typically, shorter video clips are more likely to attract attention from viewers than longer ones, especially in social media. The highest-rated duration includes clips that fall from 60-90 seconds.

Make sure you’re able to capture your audience’s attention within that period using high-valued content.

It’s 2019 and we have short attention spans. Very short attention spans. (Are you even still reading this? OK, great.)

According to some reports, humans have shorter attention spans than even a goldfish. Now, I don’t know if that statistic is true but it serves as a good warning sign: where and when possible, we should keep our promotional video content short and sweet.

So, grab your video script and planned sequences, and try cutting it in half. OK, have you done it? Awesome. Now, try cutting out some more. Trust me, I know it’s not easy. To you, the creator, every message seems crucial and every scene adds to the impact of what you’re trying to achieve. I totally get it. But your audience won’t know that anything is missing. They only see what you show them.

So if you can make a shorter and snappier version that communicates your key messages, with impact, and in less time, then generally it makes it much easier and more enjoyable to digest in this crazy age of endless digital distractions. Plus, whatever you cut can be used to create a second promotional video. So you can repurpose and jazz up the ‘edited out’ content and end up with a two-for-one video content situation. #winning

Keeping in mind the short attention span of most customers, the #1 tip to create a great marketing video is to keep it short, simple, and visually engaging. A shorter video gets more clicks, and it increases the odds of a customer watching the video until the end.

When creating a video, follow the principle of ‘Show, don’t tell.’ This will help you get a better response. Also, to engage users, make sure that the video is informational and not solely promotional. A video should offer valuable information that resonates with your target audience. This will help increase shares and garner higher returns.

Read tons of questions received by your support team, so that when you make the video you’ll certainly address real problems. Your customers will love you for that. Plus, if your customers were thinking about those, it makes sense that your new prospects also need answers to those questions.

Being in touch with your customer service team when preparing your next marketing video is crucial to success.

Relevance. The NUMBER ONE wast of energy that I’ve seen from my consultations with small business owners is video.

Why?

I’ll tell you.

Video is expensive. That is, it’s expensive if you do it the traditional way. You can pay upwards of $3,000-$4,000 easily for a 60-120 second video.

It will look GREAT, because there are a lot of talented video people out there, but comparing apples to apples, video is the most expensive form of content, so a swing and a miss on video hurts a lot more than missing on a blog post or other content marketing.

Here’s where the problem comes in: The video is not relevant to the customer’s needs. It’s written from the POV of the business owner, and not the customer. Make a video that is relevant to the core problem you solve for your customer, and you’ll win.

Relevance. It’s king, and it’s always been king.

There are many, many great copywriting formulas that work for video scripts. I tend to follow the Ray Edwards one. Introduce the problem & agitate – make the viewer understand that you get what they’re aspiring towards or struggling with. Then, introduce your solution. Back it with proofs (awards, testimonials, stats, etc.). Finally, make an offer and ask for a response.

Every business should have one video with this classic pitch.

Remember the context in which your audience will be viewing your video. They’re not looking for a sales pitch or a self-promotional video. They want to consume native content on the channel they are browsing.

Make sure you tailor your video content appropriately for the channel you are marketing on. Deliver genuine value through your video first, before pushing your sales pitch.

To create great marketing videos, try to be authentic, yourself and provide value in your video. If you try to be too ‘salesy’, your viewers won’t be receptive.

For instance, take a video of yourself with a smartphone, dress casually and give tips/insights that help your target audience. By giving free value first, you’ll receive inbound leads and people will feel more confident to get in touch with you.

The key to making a great marketing video is to turn your elevator pitch into a video. To clarify, the elevator pitch for your business is a simple and clear message that identifies the problem you’re solving and how you’re uniquely solving that problem.

This should be the basis of your marketing video. During the planning and production phases, you should be continually ensuring that this is the message that is being presented to your audience. Although your video will be longer than the elevator pitch, all the supporting content should be focused around this central message.

If you stick to this, then when your viewers are finished watching the video, they’ll understand exactly what you do, how you do it and how it can help them and hopefully lead to a lot more business for you!

All good direct response marketing follows a set structure:

1. Call out to the pain of life before
2. Talk about the life they want after
3. Bridge the gap of how to get there
4. Share your story
5. Remove objections
6. Make your offer
7. Stack the benefits
8. Make the offer again

And that’s it – as simple as that!

Make product/service marketing videos that address your customer pain points (benefits not features) and make them short and sweet (15 seconds or less). Don’t forget to include a clear call to action at the end.

I follow Donald Miller’s “one-liner” marketing formula. It comes in three steps:

Step one: The Problem. Is starts by answering “What’s the pain point you help your customer resolve?” It needs to be clear, relatable and something the customer really cares about.

Step two: The Solution. “What’s your unique solution to that pain point?” This is where your product is described in a way that’s different, and/or better than alternatives.

And step three: The Result. “How does your customer’s life look after their pain is resolved?” This is the transformation of what your customer can achieve by doing business with you and the results they can expect.

When you’re creating video, brand voice and energy come through even more than in written copy. Which means it’s not something that you can ignore.

While I don’t script out videos word for word, I do outline not just the content, but how a brand voice will impact that content. I’ll make sure ahead of time that the brand personality is clear through things like on-brand jokes, language, and references.

The best tip on using video for promotional marketing in today’s social environment is to be sure you deliver your branding, message and call to action as soon as possible within the content. We have always been conditioned to draw the consumer into the experience with compelling imagery and visual storytelling, engage them with a memorable hook and then provide a branded call to action. The average time always ran between :30 and :60-seconds for a standard video spot.

In today’s digital environment, the majority of video consumption is happening within social media applications, on mobile devices and with the sound muted. The average attention span also continues to decrease. So, when developing your video promotions, you must begin with compelling imagery to draw in the consumer – or create a “thumb stopper”, immediately incorporate your branding component in the form of a graphics or content and then work into the engagement hook and final call to action. And, remember the new promotional times have also decreased greatly. It now starts with 6 to 7 seconds on YouTube pre-roll ads and moves up to about a maximum of one minute.

So, the earlier you can visually deliver your brand message and call to action in the video, the more successful your video promotions will be!

The best marketing video is one that’s authentic and true to the brand. Too often, I see marketers mimicking what they’ve seen rather than paving their own path.

To build a business online, you must inspire confidence and trust. You can only do this when who you are is accurately depicted in what people see on screen.

That means you have to stop trying to be your competition. Instead, take what you know and translate that into videos that solve a real problem. Have the courage to answer the questions no one else in your market will.

When you genuinely help others improve their lives, their businesses, and their outcome… you gain a loyal audience and potential customer for life.

Show, don’t tell.

Demonstrate your product or service, don’t just use a talking head to explain the benefits.

We, humans, watch a LOT (a lot!) of video. But it’s also becoming pretty well known that we watch a lot of that video with the sound turned off too! Being able to quickly and easily add video captions to your videos is super important, from Instagram Stories to YouTube videos (and everything in between).

Lucky for us, it has never been easier to add video captions to video. You can use a tool like Wave.video to add text to match your story or message. Or you can go face-to-camera and add captions afterwards by using a tool or service. Quicc is a great app for doing this via AI (in minutes!). Or if you prefer the popular letterbox style videos, try Splasheo. It’s a great service for getting letterboxed-captions added to videos, with a very quick turnaround.

Either way, add back the captions and give your videos the voice they deserve!

No matter what platform you are using, look for ways to include captions and call outs on your video. This means that the content of your video will be accessible and able to be understood by a larger audience, PLUS it has the benefit of providing the viewer an insight into what the video is about, even if they choose to watch the video with the turn off the sound. Mashable, for example, did a great job with adding neat captions to this video:

This also means that you can use the captions to reinforce your call to action, which can increase leads and sales for your product or service. This might seem complex but there are many resources available for us to use. Here are three ways to get you started in creating captions:

– use video creation software on desktop or mobile that have templates which enable you to add captions as you create the video;

– take advantage of the freely available automatic captioning tools on social video platforms such as Facebook and YouTube (remember to review the captions to correct any spelling errors);

– or if you prefer, you can outsource the production of subtitles to third party providers.

Good thumbnail and text overlay!

Honestly, this differs platform to platform, but we started putting captions, or a transcription of dialogue, on our Facebook videos and it really did make a world of difference in terms of our conversion rates.

This has always been a best practice but not something we prioritized, but I wish we had done this sooner!

Repurpose your Facebook Live videos using Wave.video in vertical 4:5 format for use in promotional campaigns.

Craft a strategic plan for your Facebook Live video broadcasts, deliver plenty of good value with great soundbites you can then excerpt. Using a tool like Ecamm Live for your broadcast, you’ll have the HD recording automatically on your hard drive. Select clips, load to Wave.video and create the ‘letterbox’ effect with text top and bottom, add fun emojis and a strong call-to-action.

Bonus tip: you can also do the very same process with vertical 9:16 format for your Stories and create a series of great marketing Story videos for your organic and paid campaigns.

For the sake of saving resources, I see a lot of businesses producing one video and pushing it out an absolutely every possible platform. My favorite video marketing tip is to step away from this non-strategy, and instead optimize video content for different platforms.

When you think about it, this really makes sense. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc., all appeal to different demographics. These audiences intuitively crave something different from the brands they interact with online. A one-size-fits-all video marketing strategy is going to fall short in optimizing audience reach.

And what about the segment of your audience that you’re reaching through multiple platforms? They’re going to grow tired of seeing the same video content repeatedly. Differentiating your video strategy based on the platform is a way to keep your brand image fresh and relevant as you increase engagement with your audience.

The key to a successful live broadcast is promoting the show beforehand.

Treat your live stream as an actual event especially if you’re broadcasting to Facebook. Even if fans of your Facebook Business Page receives a notification when you start streaming, you want to give your viewers enough lead time to block out time on their calendars to stop, look, and listen to your show.

One of the best ways to promote your show in advance is to get viewers buzzing before you actually go live. For Lights, Camera, Live, we typically promote a show a week in advance by creating short promo videos of our guests. We’ll update our Facebook Cover with a promo video and create 1-minute teasers to get viewers excited.

Another pro-tip for promoting a show is to create a Facebook Event. In the description, we highlight why viewers should tune in, what the topic is, how the show will impact viewers, and what will happen if they don’t tune.

In addition to creating a Facebook Event, set aside time to create a scheduled broadcast link. You can do this in most third-party live streaming apps like Ecamm and BeLive. When you schedule a live stream, you can promote the permalink to your email list, across your social channels, and share it to the Facebook Event so attendees know exactly where to go.

Remember, if your audience don’t know about your show, they won’t go. Therefore, set your show up for success by promoting at least a week in advance.

Consider some “2 Minute Teasers”.

Twitter allows for up to 140 seconds now and these can be a great way to feed people back to your longer YouTube or LinkedIn videos.

It really is a fantastic way to get additional views on your existing videos.

I am an SEO, so I tend to optimize everything, including marketing videos. I always try to get all of my content assets bring in organic visibility, both in Google search and inside a native video platform (e.g. Youtube search and video recommendations).

I described my process optimizing videos for organic visibility here: 3 Ways to Improve Your YouTube Watch Time.

In a nutshell:

• Research your keywords and use them in the video title
• Create unique text content to include into video descriptions using tools like Text Optimizer
• Use keywords and related terms you find in Text Optimizer to come up with both tags and hashtags to use
• Use Youtube Timestamps to put together a clickable table of contents to drive people deeper into the video

Obviously, these are not very exciting tasks to perform is but it needs to be done. After all, keyword research and content creation tasks are likely to be much easier than putting a good video together.

There are many elements involved in a good video (audio, strategy, etc.) but if you are going to invest time and money into making a video, be sure to create your own YouTube channel and optimize it.

A video is one of those leveraged activities meaning you make the video once and it continues to work for you, so be sure your YouTube channel is optimized for keywords, links to all of your important sites, and portrays the best image possible for your business.

At Delightful Communications, we encourage our clients to think about the potential ROI from their video work by leveraging different lengths and content slices for different platforms.

When story-boarding video, it’s not just about one version, it’s about ensuring your message will translate across different social channels. What might work on YouTube at a minute in length probably won’t work on Instagram where attention spans are shorter.

Bonus tip: Add closed captions for people watching with sound off and because all brands should be taking accessibility into account with their marketing.