The Six Proven Steps to Creating Effective Videos

The following describes the process of creating and positioning videos on the Internet effectively. The process is broken down into six steps from video planning to results analysis, recording, editing, and uploading to the video presentation platform of the Internet.

Step 1: Planning

Planning is essential in any campaign to position videos that pretend to be successful. A great deal of time should be devoted to the planning phase since it has the purpose of specifying the set of ideas and the message before starting the recording.

Before starting with video marketing, it is important to define the strategic objectives that are intended to be achieved. Thanks to videos, you can achieve different goals. In the planning phase of the videos, it is important to mark these objectives and then analyze the results in the middle phase.

Goals and Types of Videos

The most successful companies have obtained positioning videos and have created a large number of videos to achieve notoriety and relevance in the network. Each of the companies that start with video marketing would have to set their goal to create at least 10 videos for YouTube and then continue with another 10 videos. These videos can be recorded relatively fast since it is about creating short videos.

In the case of small and medium-sized businesses, the option to create short videos is very important since these videos are the most active on YouTube because they generate more reproductions, and therefore, the more videos you have on the network, the better results you will get from The Company long-term. On the other hand, it is important to record videos in series; For example, if you interview clients, you should record three to five videos with clients to generate a series of videos on the same subject. This approach should be maintained in order to quickly complete and upload the first ten videos on the company’s YouTube channel. This saves a lot of time because the processes of recording and uploading to YouTube are unified.

Themes for Company Website Videos

Tell company stories

• Video about why the company was founded.
• Video about the values of the company.
• Video about which is the ideal client of the company.

Presentations or tutorials about the product

• Video about how products are used.
• Video about the main benefits of the products or services.
• Video about projects carried out by the company.

Facilitate the buying process

• Video with the necessary information for the customer before the purchase.
• Video about what happens after the purchase: how the customer will receive the product or service and what is the next step after the purchase of the product.
• Video on how to contact the company or its employees; If the company has a physical site to visit, how to get there, or if it is available online, how to call or contact the company.

Customer Interviews

• Customer video after purchase: what was your experience and why would you recommend the product or service?
• Video of the client about what were their doubts before making the purchase.
• Video in which customers present the product.

Videos with professional interviews

• Video in which professionals from the sector are interviewed. These videos increase the credibility and professionalism of the company, as they show their relevance within their market sector.
• Video interviews with collaborators; with any company or organization linked to the company.

Step 2: Recording

As we mentioned earlier, the best way for a business to start with video marketing is to focus on creating short videos instead of very long videos. On YouTube, the duration limit for the videos is ten minutes, and most SMBs that have successfully used YouTube have recorded videos lasting for one minute, a minute and a half, or even less.

Some of the reasons why short videos are appropriate:

• Consumers have a short period of attention and do not usually watch YouTube videos until the end, especially if they are long videos.
• From the point of view of the company, it is faster and easier to create a large number of videos when they are not of long duration.
• After having recorded short videos, the editing phase of videos is easier and simpler than that of long videos.

Once they’re on YouTube, short videos often play faster than extensive videos. Also, many consumers use their mobile phones to access videos and require short video viewing because they load faster and keep the attention longer.

The process of recording videos should be systematized. One of the things you can do is record multiple videos in the same session and be very clear about the content and purpose of each video. This is a very useful way to save time and resources, as well as to optimize video production.

One of the tips when assessing what tools to use to record the videos is to avoid the use of very sophisticated devices, such as video cameras of the latest generation, which are not known to use correctly and which are not removed Performance.

While it may seem obvious that a professional camera is perfectly suited for movie recording, it is best to create simple digital cameras or cameras created for video recording like Flip Cam to create YouTube material. Here is the list of latest generation video cameras that analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the different cameras in the present market.

Record Screen Shot Videos

There are several programs that offer the possibility of recording the computer screen. The best known is Camtasia, which has a version for both PC and Mac. With Camtasia, you can record everything that appears on the screen. So it offers a fantastic opportunity to create video tutorials or video guides. For example, How to choose the best vlogging camera.

We recommend using programs like Camtasia to:

• Present PowerPoint projects.
• Create different video tutorials; Such as a video on how the payment gateway works in an online store.
• Create instructional videos, where something of interest about the product or service is presented.
• Teamwork is where people cannot meet physically and have to submit a project or work plan.

Here are a few tips to record videos.

• Choose a suitable place for video recording: you can use beautiful natural backgrounds or picturesque places. This idea can make the difference between the videos of the company and those of the competition, in addition to offering an original and interesting expectation to the clients. For example, for companies in the tourism sector, the best funds will be landscape funds, scenes in which beaches, mountains, valleys, key monuments, and other relevant places in the area can be appreciated. This type of background often captures people’s attention.
• Record the videos with natural light: this point is closely related to the previous point. It will always be best to take advantage of natural light. Even if we want to record interviews with clients or with an employee, and we want to do it inside the establishment, the ideal would be to take them to the vicinity of a window, to obtain the maximum possible amount of natural light.
• Place the communicating subject in the central area of the image: when the video is viewed, the person speaking should be located in the central area of the image. On the other hand, the subject should not be located too far from the camera.

Preparation for speaking in the video:

• Be calm at the beginning: due to the lack of habit, most businessmen and executives show a certain nervousness when talking to the camera. Therefore, we should prepare before the video is recorded. It will be good to take a few deep breaths before you start talking to the camera and begin to communicate the message in a slow and harmonious way.
• Drinking water: It is advisable to drink some water to avoid a dry throat during video recording.

Step 3: Editing Videos

Editing programs serve to improve the quality or presentation of the videos. But sometimes they act as a trap. Because at the editing stage, you can spend a lot of time making special additions that are usually not necessary.

Video editing is a fundamental part of video marketing. But it should not be too complicated, since the goal of most companies is not to create very well-made videos.  But videos that are interesting and original.

When editing videos, it is advisable to focus on these three steps:

• Presentation of the website of the company during the video: in each of the videos made, it is recommended to add the link to the website of the company. This way, people who watch the video can go to that link to find more information. The fact of including the company website in the video is important. Because people who consider the video interesting can insert it in their own blog, and this way the company website will receive more visits.
• Insert a title or logo at the beginning of the video: Most YouTube users want to know what the video is about during the first three or four seconds of the video start. So, a good way is to write a title that communicates the content that people are going to see and what they can learn in the video.
• Insert a “call to action” at the end of the video. In each video, you can insert a call to action consisting in communicating what is the next step that people should take if they want to acquire more information about the content of the video. To do this, you can insert a slogan in the video and send them to the URL of the company website.

For PC users the most basic thing is to start with free programs like Windows Movie Maker or VideoSpin. For Mac computers, the best program for beginners is iMovie, which comes automatically installed on Mac computers. Other programs are Sony Vegas (mid-level, PC), Final Cut Express (Advanced, Mac), and Adobe Premier (Advanced PC).

Video editing program called VideoSpin

The fastest way to do video marketing is simply to record the video and, without editing it, upload it to YouTube. Once the video is on YouTube, you can add annotations, which indicate the website of the company or a telephone number through which customers can contact.

Most editing programs allow you to add music to your videos, but it is very important to make sure that you use music that is not protected by copyright laws. YouTube usually deletes videos that use copyrighted songs. A useful tool for creating photo montage videos is animoto.

The most suitable formats for uploading videos to YouTube or other websites are usually formats that use the H.264 codec, such as mp4. However, YouTube accepts multiple types of video formats.

As for formats to upload videos to YouTube the following recommendations can be given:

• Format: flv, MPEG-4, or mp4.
• Frame rate: Keep the same number of frames per second (25 or 30 usually) with which the video was originally recorded.
• Image size: Standard 640 x 360 for 16: 9 or 640 x 480 widescreen videos for a 4: 3 aspect ratio. For high-definition videos, use 1,280 x 720.
• Duration: less than 10 minutes.

Step 4: Upload to YouTube

Once the editing phase is over, it’s time to upload the video to the most popular video page in the world: YouTube. Thousands of videos are constantly uploaded on YouTube, but most of these uploads are done indiscriminately, just by having a video that can be viewed online. For a company to get the most out of videos on YouTube, you not only have to upload them, but also optimize them, in order to attract as much traffic as possible.

Here are a few criteria to follow for optimizing videos on YouTube:

Create a channel on YouTube: YouTube offers the ability to create a free account and customize it to make the visual image of a professional channel.

Upload video to the channel:

• Add relevant information about the video in the title, description, and tag sections.
• Title: The title is the most important part of positioning in YouTube search results. So we will have to use this space well. To do this, you’ll want to put some keywords, three or more, since this way you can give a more accurate description of what will be seen in the video.
• Description: The description of the video is on the right side of the screen and is where more information can be offered to people watching the video to encourage them to take action and visit the company website or other site where Can obtain more information about the product or service being offered.

The best way to elaborate on the description is:

• Insert the web page: always starting with https //: so that later, you can click on the link.
• Write a complete description of the subject matter in the video or tell the same things that will be seen in it. It is also worth mentioning in this text the keywords that we use in the title, but always trying to make it a text that makes sense and is not just a list of keywords.

Tags: The goal of the tags is to help YouTube categorize the video so that people who are interested in the topic can find and view it. It is recommended to put keywords that are related to the theme of the video, and use as many as possible.

Once title information, description, and tags are inserted, you can save the information and wait for the video to be ready to view. Afterward, you can go to the “my videos” section in the YouTube account and make the necessary changes in the information regarding the title, the description, and the tags.

Step 5: Upload to Other Popular Sites

Once the videos have been uploaded to YouTube they can be shared on other Web 2.0 pages. The best thing is to expose the videos on as many pages as we can to obtain the maximum presence on the Internet.

Share the video on the Facebook page

The Facebook pages are very suitable for uploading videos since the participants of this social network can comment or share them with their Facebook friends. Do not confuse the Facebook page, with the Facebook profile. Facebook is a key platform for SMB video marketing because it is constantly growing and its users spend a lot of time browsing. It is advisable to check what type of videos are liked by the company followers on Facebook and avoid videos containing advertising.

Share the link to the videos on Twitter

Twitter is one of the best sites to share videos. An effective way to do this is to share the video link so that Twitter followers can express their opinion and leave comments about it.

Share the video on a social network

If the company is active in some social thematic network, you can consider the idea of sharing the video there. Before doing this, you have to make sure that the video respects the rules of the community because, in several social networks, the fact of hanging videos in which a company is promoted is not well seen.

Upload video to multiple video pages

To upload videos to multiple pages there are two alternatives: He spread and TubeMogul:

Heyspread.com: with this service, you can upload video that is on YouTube to ten pages of additional videos. One of the advantages of using this service is that it is not necessary to upload the video to your servers since the program takes the video directly from the YouTube account, so it is a fairly easy and quick-to-use program. The only disadvantage of Heyspread.net is that you have to pay for the service, although it is relatively inexpensive. Hey, Spread payments are made through Paypal, which is a company specializing in payments through the Internet.

TubeMogul.com: This page allows you to post videos on multiple video pages in the same way as Heyspread, but you can use them for free. The only disadvantage is that it requires a little more time, since you have to upload the video to the TubeMogul server, and that will take a little longer than in the case of Heyspread. However, TubeMogul is an effective tool and also offers the possibility to upload videos to more than 20 pages.

In summary, both Heyspread and TubeMogul are key tools highly recommended for SMEs as this will avoid having to manually upload videos to all video pages.

Apart from broadcasting videos on different video and web 2.0 pages, it is recommended to have a section on the company website where customers can view all videos, and even download them, to be able to view them on their iPod or iPhone. For this, it is convenient to convert the videos to mp4 format, which is the format compatible with these two devices.

Step 6: Analysis of results

Measuring the results is part of the last phase of video marketing and, at the same time, is perhaps the most important phase. Every intervention carried out by the company on the Internet should be measured in order to adequately analyze the results obtained.

Statistics:

It is about analyzing YouTube statistics, called YouTube Insights or Insights statistics. To access them, you need to sign in to your YouTube account and click on “Account”, then “Insights”.

Statistics reveal interesting data, such as total views, country of origin, and demographics of people watching videos on YouTube.

Reproductions:

In the YouTube watch section, the most important thing is to analyze which videos are the most viewed and when they have been seen. In addition, there is also the possibility to see a map that represents the exact geographical location of the people who have viewed the videos of company.

How Can the Steps Help Ensure That a Video is Well-received by the Target Audience

1. Know the audience: research their demographics, interests, and preferences.
2. Define the message: clearly state what you want to communicate.
3. Plan the content: make sure the video is engaging, visually appealing, and easy to understand.
4. Test before release: get feedback from a test audience to make sure the video is effective.
5. Use proper distribution channels: use appropriate platforms to reach the target audience.
6. Engage the audience: encourage feedback and interact with them to build a relationship.

What Are Some Common Mistakes to Avoid in the Editing Stage of Video Creation

1. Neglecting Sound Quality: Poor audio can severely impact the overall quality of a video.
2. Inconsistent Lighting: Make sure lighting is consistent throughout the video.
3. Ignoring Color Correction: Correcting color balance and saturation can improve the look of a video.
4. Poor Transitions: Transitions should be smooth and not distract from the content.
5. Leaving Dead Space: Avoid leaving dead space in the video, either through pacing or trimming footage.
6. Overuse of Effects: Too many effects can detract from the content and make the video look amateurish.
7. Neglecting to Review Footage: Carefully review footage to catch any mistakes or unwanted elements.
8. Neglecting to Add Captions or Subtitles: Captions and subtitles make the video accessible to a wider audience.
9. Not Matching Shot and Audio: Make sure the audio and visual elements match and are synced properly.
10. Not Paying Attention to Detail: Small mistakes can add up and detract from the overall quality of the video.

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