Is your smartphone good enough for video marketing?

As a photographer and marketer, people often ask me how to create the best visual content for their online presence. Whether it’s for their social media or their website. It seems that a lot more people are now concerned about their online presence and beginning to listen to the people who are saying that this is the way forward. There is much more competition online now and, understandably, people want to make sure their visual content is the best to stand out from the crowd.

One of the most used and most effective types of visual content is video and now most of us own smartphones, this video content can be produced in the palm of our hands.

But which is better, smartphone footage or professional footage?

Just recently I had the opportunity to not only answer that question, but also demonstrate it in the form of video. 

As many of you may know, the Seaside Creative offers their services to the Worthing and Adur Chamber of Commerce when we can. For my business partner, Kelly that means copywriting and editing the Chamber Connect Magazine. As well as helping with their marketing strategy and being an executive for the Chamber. For me, that means being the photographer for quite a few of their events and sitting on their events committee. 

The Better Business Show is coming up and the Chamber produced short videos last year of the exhibitors explaining their stand and this year I produced the short videos for them. At a networking breakfast I recorded several of the exhibitors with my smartphone. 

Later in the day I recorded Kelly talking about our stand, but this time with a ￡3,000+ Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR - Nikon D810) with a separate RODE microphone). This was a great opportunity to compare a video filmed on a smartphone to one recorded on a professional camera.   

The videos were later cropped square and cut at the appropriate places using professional editing software (Apple’s Final Cut Pro). Subtitles were also added to ensure that watchers who are hard of hearing can enjoy the video. As can sneaky office workers who watch the video on silent so their bosses are none the wiser! Subtitles help with video engagement too, did you know 85% of Facebook video is watched without sound? A huge number of people now choose to watch without sound and often will click off if the video doesn’t include subtitles. 

Here is the video shot on a smartphone:

And here is the video shot on a DSLR:

Notice a difference? Probably not! Both videos are shot in high definition (HD) and edited in the same software. The only slight difference may be in the audio as a better quality external microphone was used with the DSLR. 

The point I’m making is that professional cameras are not always necessary for short social media videos. Therefore; that extra money spent on using one is pretty much wasted. Which is where Seaside Creative can help. Although we have the equipment available to shoot professional videos, we can also take your smartphone footage and turn it into a corporate video. Much like what we’ve done here with the Better Business Show videos. 

5 Reasons You Need To Be Using Video Marketing For Your Business

1. Video allows the business to be concise and capture viewers' interest within the first few seconds. 
2. Social media success lies in your ability to condense information down into easily digestible snippets of content that is long enough to maintain viewers' attention but short enough to leave them wanting more. A short video is the perfect solution to this, any business can be eye-catching and engaging with a video.
3. Videos make great storytellers, have you got a great case study you want to shout about? Do it with video. Conveying information with video allows people to easily understand your message; which is why marketers are trying to use video as much as possible.
4. Videos get 1,200% more shares than text and images combined. 
5. Your brain can process visuals much quicker than it can text. About 90% of the total information transmitted to your brain is visual. On top of that, your brain can process these visuals 60,000 times faster than text.  

If you’re interested in using video in your 2020 marketing strategy; whether that be for your website or social media channels, get in touch with me! 

E: [email protected]

T: 01903 686858

I’m also running a training session on how to Shoot Edit and Upload to social media with your smartphone. I’ll be joined by my colleague Alison on this course and it is being run in conjunction with Adur and Worthing Chamber of Commerce. It would be great to see you there!