Techblog
How you can easily create marketing videos with a smartphone
Video has been touted as one of the most powerful marketing tools especially with its popularity on social media. It has become a tool where businesses can easily connect with consumers - given their shorter attention spans.
While professionally produced videos can be costly, businesses can create effective video content at a lower cost - with the help of their smartphones. With the help of advance apps and powerful smartphones, small businesses can also create video content that is interactive and visual, and use it to engage with your consumers, regardless of your budget.
Getting the basics right
With a smartphone, small businesses can also easily create an engaging piece of video content. How? The trick is to plan ahead. Businesses should ask themselves: “What is the goal of this video?” before starting on creating the video.
You should aim to answer this question: “What do you want to happen when people finish watching your video?” Once you have defined the goal of your marketing video, the process gets easier.
Next step is to craft a storyline to create a simple outline for the video content.
Creating great story content
There are three elements that video production teams work with when when creating an engaging piece of content: Hook, build and payoff. These 3 parts help you to structure the content of your marketing video
Hook: A hook is an arresting lead into the video, usually at the beginning, that compels the viewers to continue watching. This is especially important as audiences these days often have short time spans and it is important to grab their attention quickly. A good hook tries to capture the attention of the audience in the first five seconds.
One way to hook viewers in is to interest them in something that they've never or seldom encounter. For example, if your company can produce a “How-to” video that's related to your unique product or service, you can interest the viewer by enticing them with the promise of seeing something produced behind the scenes.
Build: What happens after the first five seconds? Now you have to build up the rest of the video to sustain the audience's interest. The build tries to further establish the story by bringing the viewer on a journey that supports the hook. How do you do that?
There are several methods to do so. You can use something that is visually interesting. For example, laying out your products in a flatlay method can be aesthetically pleasing and has proven to be very popular. Music can also be a tool to sustain the interest of the audience.
Payoff: The payoff usually highlights and reinforces the key message of the video. If your video is about showcasing the craftsmanship of your product, the payoff can be to highlight the quality and attractiveness of your product, and it may interest the viewer to find out more about purchasing one.
Shooting videos with your smartphone
In terms of shooting videos with smartphones, there are many ways to shoot content that is engaging as well as visually appealing without breaking the bank. Over the years, there are many apps that have helped to improve the quality as well as cater to various formats of mobile videos.
For example, you can use Instagram’s Hyperlapse app that lets you shoot a video first before speeding it up later to form a timelapse video. On top of that, the app also very seamlessly removes the shakiness of the shots leaving you with a very smooth and satisfying timelapse. A timelapse video can be used to showcase time intensive processes such as food preparation, condensing a long process into a mere minute. That way, you can sustain your viewer's attention much more easily.
If your smartphone can shoot slow motion videos, that could make your content look more visually appealing. It can be used to show the craft-making process. This can be engaging as many customers may not necessarily know or understand the process of a particular trade. For example, jewellery makers can show the craft of how metal is molded into intricate shapes.
FilmoraGo is a mobile app available on both Android and iPhone that enables you to easily edit videos. FilmoraGo is especially useful as it has great visual effects that you can easily utilise. It also allows you to easily trim videos, add filter effects and even add animated text. FilmoraGo also has its own music library that is licensed and free to use.
Finally, having a shot list describing the different types of shots you'd like in the video to focus on certain aspects can help you plan your video shoot and help keep track of shots you need. Things you can include in your shot list could be
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Featuring your store front in the opening scene to set the stage for the video;
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a close up shot of a manual process, like shaping jewellery or kneading dough, etc;
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talking into the camera to explain your product or service;
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and a timelapse to shorten a time-intensive process.
Experimenting with different platforms to share your video
These days, with the proliferation of social media, there are many platforms that you can use your video on. Each platform comes with its own set of guidelines. For example, on Facebook, as videos are automatically played without sound, it is best to caption your video with subtitles. Videos for Facebook shouldn't be more than two minutes or audiences will lose interest. Longer videos (less than four minutes) can be uploaded on YouTube.
If you are experimenting with live video or snapchat, simplicity is key. Know your objectives. If the purpose of using live video or snapchat is to promote upcoming products, then make sure that your product is the star of the video. You don't need anything too fancy.
Additionally, you can even turn clips of your videos into GIFs, where are very popular and shareable. Gifs are great for e-mail marketing as they make the e-mail more shareable and engaging.
To produce GIFs, you can either create your own sequence of images using apps like Momento or you can search for GIFs that other people has made on places like Giphy. There are even apps like Picplaypost that lets you mix both photos, videos and GIFs into one collage.
Essentially, cost shouldn't be a barrier for businesses to create an engaging piece of video content - especially in the age of well-equipped smartphones like the iPhone 7.
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Businesses should take note of the basic elements needed to create a good video for your audience: Hook, build and payoff.
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Use apps to vary your video shots with smooth timelapses or slow motion to keep your viewers engaged visually.
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Keep experimenting with new platforms like Facebook and live video.