Tips on making your first promotional video
Making a video is great way to introduce your business or launch a new product or service into the market. If you consider the number of adverts in TV you will realise what a powerful marketing tool a short video can be.
Today many people shoot video with their phone and fire “instant content “all over social media but quality does not guarantee success. You want your video to be seen by the right people and to create in them a wish to engage you to solve their problems. There are millions of videos launched online every day. You need yours to be seen by the people you want to be customs.
At Vaadhoo we make video for many types of business and for lots of different reasons including marketing and training.?
Here are some of the things you need to consider in making a video for your business
What is the purpose of the video?
Start by working out what you want it to achieve?
Who will be your audience?
Different audiences react differently to certain styles of video?
Where will it be seen?
You tube, Facebook, Instagram, Ticktok. Check out what they allow and any format restrictions.
Think of your video as telling a short story.?
There are two things here. Short and Story.
Short means no more than 3 minutes. This is a long time! Most TV adverts are around 30 seconds MAX and Facebook love videos between 90 seconds and two minutes .
Story means a BEGINNING, A MIDDLE And an END that makes sense!
What do you want the viewer to do at the end of the video?
This is the “Call to Action” – Eg ?is it to call you or visit a website or come to your shop
If it is to a website, consider having a unique page for them to go to. You can direct them to more information or an enquiry form but this way you can use your web analytics to see how many are seeing the video and acting on it
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·What do you want to say??Think of the Beginning as the introduction, The end as the Call to Action and the middle as the reason a viewer would want to act
E.g., I am Mark Carr, and I am the Creative Director at Vaadhoo Media (Intro)
At vaadhoo Media we help sell your services by creating cost effective video content that will make your clients want to pick up the phone and speak to you (Middle)
So, call 0151 374 2925 today (Call to Action)
Ok the middle here is a bit to short but think of three benefits you can give your clients and describe them. You will not be far off! One word of warning. What ever you say must be true and don’t just slag off competitors either!
Now how will you say that story visually?
This for many is the hard bit. No one wants to see you just talking for 3 minutes or even 90 seconds. For inspiration look at adverts BUT remember they have Hollywood budgets so do not get carried away. It maybe you can show the product being used or people using your service or ln your restaurant eating. ?Keep it simple at first. Testimonials from clients are also great!
Do you need some graphics?
You probably already have a logo, and you will ant your website or telephone to be easily found too. Using graphics at the beginning and the end of a video helps introduce the business and drive home the call to action.
Now on to the recording.
You will need a venue and if it is not yours you may need permission to film there. Nothing is off limits, but it should be relevant to your story and purpose, so it makes visual sense. You also need to be able to control the lighting and the noise in the venue. Bad lighting will be a real disappointment for your viewer and worse still is if they cannot hear the story due to background noise or poor audio. Professionals will ensure they have additional lighting available and professional grade audio equipment to avoid exactly these issues. If you use people in your video, make sure the have agreed in writing to be filmed. This is important!
After filming comes the edit.
This is possibly the most important part. Editing can take a long time and will certainly take longer than the planning and the shooting. Unlike photography editing is more complex and involves not only editing each clip but also the order in which clips play out, making sure audio is clear and that the video has a flow and rhythm that helps the viewer understand what you are telling them. Often additional music tracks help and these need to be selected carefully and often require access to rights free music content to avoid any copyright issues which all the major video platforms will detect automatically. A breach here could see your video blocked or you are being banned form the platform!
Finally, after all your hard work comes publication.
People now need to see your video and hopefully comment and share it too. Placing videos on Facebook and You Tube is relatively easy and you can add it to your website too. Other social media platforms do have size and format issues and you need to be aware of these before you even shoot your story.
So, you have the basic knowledge why not start planning your first shoot? If you feel you need some professional help, we at Vaadhoo Media would love to help. We don’t charge for simple advice either so feel free to visit our website at www.vaadhoomedia.com