In today's social media landscape, video content has emerged as an effective way to share information and boost engagement. Over the last few months, Anthea has helped our clients create engaging and eye-catching videos; she shares her top tips in this blog post.
Introduction
Video content is a wonderful opportunity to allow your audience to take a peek at your business and learn more about you in an engaging, simple way.
It can feel overwhelming, but I’ve outlined a few tips that can help you level up your videos and make the process a bit more manageable. (This will not focus on video ideas, but there are a lot of trends to hop on, and we’ve got a great blog post about Generating Content Ideas that you can read.)
So without further ado, let’s get started!
Before You Hit Record
Although it may seem like people just pick up their phones and start filming, more preparation is involved than you think to avoid frustrations. Some things I would recommend are:
Rehearsing
Knowing what you’re going to say can save space on your device and time editing your videos. I know for some – including myself – the thought of memorizing a script is crushing, so I suggest reframing the process to “a conversation” and having notes of your major talking points.
Doing a Short Test
Start by recording yourself and say a sentence or two, or do a brief walk-through of your video to see how you will look and sound. When you look back you’ll want to check off these three prerequisites.
First, you need to be properly framed. What do I mean by that? Make sure your subject and potential graphics will be in clear view. We’re all familiar with horizontal content but with vertical content, buttons and captions are placed on top of your videos which can block important aspects of your content.
Second, you want to make sure you are well-lit. Your subject should not be under a harsh shadow or light.
And lastly, you want to make sure your subject is audible. This can be tricky since we can hear but a rule of thumb I follow is if you need to turn up the volume to the maximum to hear as you review the tape you’re probably speaking too quietly.
Refining Your Video
Once you have all of your footage it’s time to put it all together. It can be overwhelming, so start by taking the most important parts and putting these clips together.
To level up your final product, you can use stock footage to stress important words by placing it in your video when those words are said, or you can place it between clips to make cuts less apparent.
What Else Do I Need to Know?
Start gathering videos of your business to use as b-roll. This could be a video of your workspace from a customer’s point of view or packaging items.
Get to the point and answer the question/problem you posed in the video. Viewers get annoyed if they feel like their time is wasted, make sure you are not beating around the bush.
What Should I Use?
There are A LOT of tools out there but here are my personal favourites:
Canva - for stock footage
Capcut - for editing
YouTube Music Library - for royalty-free music
And of course, my phone for filming.
Lastly
You may feel uncomfortable looking back at yourself on video, but I promise you, you look great, so be the confident, knowledgeable person you are! Get out there and start filming!
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