8 Beginner Tips for Making Professional Looking Videos

Most, if not all consumable content is through - you guessed it - video. 

It’s the easiest and more preferred form of content people bother to pay any attention to nowadays due to the simple fact that not everyone wants to read a bunch of words but rather watch and listen to whatever it is you have to say about anything. 

So how do you go about creating a well-thought-out professional-looking video? Follow these 8 easy tips for beginners to start:

1. Plan it out

Regardless of the quality of your video, it’s the content that truly matters. So think:

• What are your goals? Do you want to raise engagement? Gain more followers? Make them laugh?

• Who is your audience? Children? Adults? Youth? People who like shoes? It could be anyone and anything so long as you know who you’re targeting.

• What do you want to make them feel? Joy? Laughter? Happiness? Sadness?

• Most importantly: what’s the message?

Ask yourself a few of those questions and write them down on a piece of paper so that you’ll remember what it is that you’re trying to achieve.

2. Background - Real vs. Fake

No one’s to say one’s better than the other, they’re just useful in different ways - depending on what it is that you want to achieve in your video’s overall look and get the message you want to be delivered. 

Real Backgrounds, where you’re physically in the actual location. Whether it’s an office setting, the woods or a mall. Remember framing matters, and to make sure that there’s nothing that shouldn’t be in the video showing. 

Fake Backgrounds typically consist of what you put over a green screen or curtain to give the illusion of reality. However, these can be tricky to set up and actually learn the technology for it, especially for beginners but who’s to say you can’t do it?

Regardless of which one you decide to use, make sure the colours match well with the foreground. 

3. Use Natural Lighting

Lighting is one of the most important aspects of filming a video and as a beginner, you won’t necessarily have the equipment for it but fear not - natural lighting is free and is actually one of the best types of lighting.

Here are some ways you can use natural lighting to get the best results:

• Outdoors on a cloudy day

• Golden hour

• A room with large/multiple windows

• Other light sources (lamps, ceiling lights)

Regardless of the weather or time, shooting with natural lighting will get your video looking like it was made by a professional.

4. Learn Composition

Composition rules in photography are just as important when it comes to videography as it helps you frame the subject in an effective and appealing way.

One of the easiest and most promising ways is the rule of thirds. You divide your frame into a three-by-three grid and where the lines intersect is where you would place your subject as the audience’s eyes are naturally drawn to it. 

Basically, don’t place your subject in the middle and make sure everything that’s supposed to be in the frame is in it!

5. No Need For Expensive Equipment

Not everyone has the budget to buy an expensive, top-of-the-line camera to film a quick video to promote their brand, and with technology nowadays you can easily film something in high quality with your everyday device: your phone. 

6. Don’t Use Your Camera Microphone

While the quality of the camera doesn’t need to be superb, the sound quality definitely does (no one’s really going to listen to a video where they can’t hear anything properly). 

The best way to get clear and crisp audio is through an external microphone.

7. Film In Segments

Now that it’s finally time for you to start filming, start by doing them in short intervals. This will save you time and energy when it comes to going through your footage, choosing whether or not to reshoot and editing it.

8. Promote Your Video

And finally, all that’s left to do is to get your video out there. You can easily promote it on Facebook, YouTube, or even Instagram as an ad, attract an audience, increase engagement, and gain a following. This way, your brand becomes more well-known.

If you’re looking to sell videos, it’s best to create your own website and launch an OTT (over-the-top) app, similar to Netflix where people pay and subscribe to view your video content.

Conclusion

The possibilities for creating videos are endless and are super easy to get started. You simply start by planning it out, choose what your background is, and remember to use natural lighting, and composition rules. Keep in mind that there’s no need for expensive equipment, but do look into purchasing an external microphone. And to make things easier, film your video in short segments and finally, share your work with others! Follow these steps to create professional-looking videos even though you’re a beginner. Let us know if you’re a beginner and started creating your videos! What did you make? What tips did you follow? We’d love to hear from you!

Written by Tina Phong

If you need further help creating your own marketing videos, we offer video production services that will help you elevate your brand!

We look forward to being a part of your success. Contact us here to get started.

Social Media and Video Marketing: What’s The Best Strategy?

As time passes, everything around us changes along with it and that includes video marketing and how we go about using it to further our brand. Being able to adapt to the times and making use of these changes allows for better and stronger marketing strategies, and for your social media engagement to increase.

What is Video Marketing?

The sole purpose behind video marketing is meant to create a video that is easily digestible content to a market audience as a means to appeal to them about what your product has to offer.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Plain and simple, Social Media Marketing is a way to create and increase engagement with your audience on social media platforms such as:

• Instagram

• Facebook

• Twitter

• TikTok

• Snapchat

• YouTube

Almost, if not every single day people are using social media whether it’s to get in touch with friends or to simply scroll and browse the web, so focusing your resources into video marketing to be posted on social media websites is the way to go.

Does It Really Matter?

To put it simply, yes. More and more people are leaning towards watching videos as opposed to any other form of media, such as TikTok where the giant has grown its audience by 75% since the beginning of the year 2021. This is the most ideal and best way to showcase what your brand and company have to offer while attracting an audience that’s here to stay.

Need-To-Know

Once you’ve got yourself a following, the best way to keep them engaged and to increase the number will be to do what’s trending: videos. What started on YouTube has now become widespread across all different types of social media websites, where people are branching off to watch their videos now. 

And just with any other marketing strategy, it begins with a well-thought-out plan:

• Set your goals

• Pick a target audience

• Choose what kind of video you want to make and set the tone for it

• Create the video

• Share them

• Track the statistics

Keep in mind, each social media platform has a certain limit to how long videos can be, most ranging to a maximum length of 60 seconds. That being said, some do allow for longer videos, however, many people want the quick and dirty version of what it is you have to offer, so remember to keep it simple and short. Each second is as crucial as the next, so use them wisely and in the most tactical and sensical way to capture your audience.

Monitor Your Success

Now that you’ve planned, created and shared your video, all that’s left is to monitor its success. Each platform has its own analytical reporting system and being that Facebook and Instagram are two of the biggest social media platforms for videos, those are the two you’ll want to be looking at most. 

Facebook Analytics

Facebook will show you ‘Highlights’ of your video by showing you several things all related to the progress such as watch times, and the number of views you’ve gotten whether these numbers increase or decrease.

Instagram Insights

On the other hand, Instagram users will be able to see through individual post analytics with engagement and actions are taken once seeing the post. You can also see follower information if it increased or decreased and their demographics (age, location, gender) and their most active times and days throughout the week.

TikTok Analytics

TikTok has been growing tremendously over the past couple of years and has become the social media platform most go to first. Their analytics also cover the number of views seen over several days, increase/decrease of followers as well as follower demographics.

Written by Tina Phong

Conclusion

Video Marketing on Social Media platforms is the best way to market your brand. Whether it’s through Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or TikTok, creating content-filled, short videos make consumers find your brand more appealing.

If you need further help creating your own marketing videos, we offer video production services that will help you elevate your brand!

We look forward to being a part of your success. Contact us here to get started.

14 Ways to Make Your Video Go Viral

1. Be Like A Magician 

Have you ever been to a magic show, or watched magicians on TV? It’s fascinating to see them captivate their audience and keep them engaged, writhing on the edge of their seat the whole time. When you’re trying to achieve a strong online presence, it’s important to engage your audience as well. But unlike a live performance, videos are often much shorter and you only really have a couple minutes to draw your viewers in.

So don’t waste your precious time on things that can be shown towards the end of your video. Really hook people in with something interesting, and stray away from things including logos if you can help it. 

2. Be Different

There’s an analogy that follows the story of a purple cow. When you look into a field of brown cows, none of them really stand out. But if you were to see a purple cow, well it would definitely stand out and probably be worth talking about later. 

An example of a brown cow would be an advertisement for a blender that showcases the speed and power of it. But an example of a purple cow would be if the advertisement asked viewers whether or not they thought it could blend something tougher or not. People would be more likely to stay if you peak their curiosity. 

3. Use High Quality Equipment

When starting out, high end equipment is often unaffordable. You can still make a viral video just using your phone’s camera. But people are more inclined to watch something when it looks professionally done. 9 out of 10 of the most viral videos on Youtube were made by legitimate producers according to The Wall Street Journal. 

However you can create a viral video just using your mobile phone and many people have! You can learn how to do so here. Don’t let gear stop you, a lot of the time, the idea and creativity is the most important factor in going viral.

4. Be Practical

Don’t shy away from practical videos that can help teach your audience. For example, there’s a video online from famous Youtuber Wendy Nguyen, a fashion blogger who posted a video on 25 ways to wear a scarf in only 4.5 minutes. 44 million people have watched the video, and it encouraged a lot of people to subscribe to her channel. 

5. Marketing Is Important

Oftentimes, people are nervous to promote themselves and their work. They worry whether or not they’ll waste time and money on marketing but then have their work flop. It can be embarrassing. But in fact, it’s crucial to promote yourself instead of leaving it up to chance, especially if you put a lot of hard work into it. You should be proud of yourself and show it off.

Using videos on landing pages can increase conversions by 86% (Joe Girard, 2015). 

6. Release On A Monday Or Tuesday

Weekends are unfortunately a bust, because everyone is busy on the weekends. Most people tend to watch videos on break at work. So post on a Monday or Tuesday so that it has the rest of the week to gain momentum. Be mindful of breaking news that may take attention away from you. Also, be careful around holiday times. Instead, choose a day without any major news and post during the times people are on their phones the most like in the morning or right before bed. 

7. Have A Strong Video

Promoting yourself can only get you so far. You can get your family and friends to share your videos, but what about beyond your social circle? You need to have some strong content there; content that will spread like wildfire. 

Consider striking an emotion in your viewer, because people share your videos when they feel something. Emotions that typically get you those shares include happiness, eagerness, enjoyment, frustration, etc. 

8. Keep It Short

When deciding on a video to watch, do you ever look to see how long it is before clicking on it? I know I have. When a video is longer, people usually don’t have the time to watch the entire thing. But if you can fit a lot of information in a 2 minute video, better yet 30 seconds, people are more inclined to watch it. Also, short videos get more shares and spread to different audiences better. 

9. Find Your Steak

If you’re trying to make a viral video, think about the people and companies you want to hire you. If you need any marketing, these companies can work with you on that. If you make a video, include links to potential sponsors. 

For example, if you are doing a clothing haul then you could link to a company like Nike. Ideally, Nike would hire you to rep their brand and in return they could reimburse you. You won’t win every company, but that doesn’t mean one wouldn’t hire you. Don’t be afraid to reach out. 

10. Okay, You’re Viral

Now what? There’s a good chance you will receive a lot of criticism. For example, someone once posted a video from a car accident that they where involved in, and it got over 10k views. It was not the person that was filming’s fault, nor where they charged. But from the angle they took the video from, it left people thinking that it was indeed their fault and they said horrible things. But don’t let it get to you! It’s good to create controversy, it keeps the attention on you. 

It’s important to remember that the media might try to get a hold of you, so be sure to answer. Make your email address and social media links easy to find. Understand where you want your traffic to go. If you have a website, be sure to include a sign-up page.

11. Write A Good Description

People often neglect the importance of a good video description. After waiting for your video to upload, writing a description may seem like a nuisance. But in fact, the description is the perfect area to include all your keyword searches. Also, post tagged URLs to companies that you want to sponsor you. 

Use the description box to your advantage, don’t just leave it blank!

12. Subtitles and Captions

People often don’t remember that when you neglect subtitles and closed captions for your videos, you’re cutting out a large demographic of people with hearing disabilities or language barriers from watching you. 

Youtube does a decent job at auto-generating captions for you, however they often offer up mistakes. So to ensure they are proper, you might need to invest your time into doing it yourself.

13. Mobile Devices

Did you know that half of all videos on Youtube were made using a smartphone? Not only that, but Youtube’s top priority is actually mobile phones. So definitely consider making mobile friendly videos for your viewers. Cater to the larger demographic, but continue pushing videos that could suit every device. 

14. Consider Overlays

Have you ever watched a Youtube video, and then suddenly a small text box popped up that had a link attached that you could click on? Overlays are an amazing tool in getting more subscribers. It provides more intractability with your viewers, and shows that you put more time and effort into your videos. 

When using all of these tools and by paying attention to keywords and phrases, you’ll definitely be on your way to becoming highly discoverable.

- By Jessika Molnar

Do you think you’re ready to make a viral video?

If you need further help creating your own marketing videos, we offer video production services that will help you elevate your brand!

We look forward to being a part of your success. Contact us here to get started.