Easy Ways to Create Videos for Marketing

Video marketing has steadily become more and more popular. Did you know that YouTube is the second most used search engine after Google? A report recently published by The Telegraph showed that YouTube had overtaken Google.com usage of desktop computers!
 
2016 saw lots of progress in the video marketing space, with online streaming through Facebook Live and 360 degree videos being used more and more for marketing businesses.
 
If you are the owner of a small business then you might not have your own PR/Marketing team to take on the responsibility of creating great video content to drive generation leads. If this is the case, then don’t worry because there are lots of alternatives.
 
The easiest way of course is to outsource the work to a professional marketing company. You may already use one for other marketing tasks such as email campaign management or website management. Why not get some quotes to see how much a professional video will cost? Costs can vary depending on the type of video you are looking for but you could expect to pay around £2000-£3000 for a good quality, professional video.
 
Small businesses don’t necessarily have that type of marketing budget, so there are cheaper ways of creating a video. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
 
Shoot your own video
 
Depending on the type of content that you are creating, you can use a webcam or any type of good quality video camera to shoot some clips. If you are doing a ‘Talking Head’ type of video then make sure you take into account the background, sound, lighting, steadiness of the camera etc. as getting any of these wrong will result in a poor quality video that could be worse for your marketing strategy than having no video at all.
 
Whilst video production experts will no doubt tell you that shooting your own video is a bad move, it hasn’t worked out badly for some of the YouTube stars that have made their fortune through home shot videos. It really does depend on the nature of your business and the content that you have to share. If you’re an estate agent, recording a 360 degree video for a property viewing can look fairly professional using only a smartphone. Or if you’re a fitness trainer showcasing your fitness classes, this can equally work really well.
 
Editing Videos
 
YouTube has editing tools to allow you to clip the videos and add effects, so it might be worth getting familiar with how to edit videos this way.
 
There are also lots of free or relatively cheap software available. iMovie for Mac is a popular choice for professional looking effects that are fairly easy to apply.
 
If you would rather look at motion graphics and typography, then there are a number of easy ways to do this. Did you know that Microsoft Powerpoint allows you to save a presentation as a video? Get the design of the powerpoint looking good, add some animations and slide transitions, save as video and there you have it - a very easy to make video.
 
One thing is guaranteed this year; video marketing is going to be big. If you’re not using this channel then your business is going to suffer, so start thinking about video.
 
Who knows, you could become the next YouTube sensation!