By: RSS Ray
If you are not already using online video sites such as YouTube to promote your company you could be sacrificing a huge opportunity to get your products and services in front of millions of people online. In fact, it’s estimated that in 2008 154 million people will view an online video. What’s more, you can create, edit, and upload a video today using equipment you already own and have it making your company money as early as tomorrow.
Organizations such as Toyota, Doritos, Nike, and even the United Nations have spent millions upon of millions of dollars working with high cost agencies to create online or viral videos which they have posted on sites like YouTube, sometimes with big success. However, what is so cool about this medium is that many of the most popular videos on YouTube and other online video sites come from individuals or small companies with practically zero budget or video experience.
One such organization, BlendTec, budgeted just $100 dollars for creating a humorous video for YouTube. Their video, Will it Blend, ended up causing their sales to double, a huge boost in brand awareness, and tons of media coverage including a write up in a special segment of the Wall Street Journal.
Another great example of online videos delivering results beyond most people’s wildest dreams comes from a motivational speaker and comedian named Judson Laipply. In April of 2006, Jud released a video on YouTube called Evolution of Dance. Now, a little over two years later, his video has been seen over 100 million times! Needless to say, with that much free exposure, his motivational speaking business has skyrocketed.
Similar results have been seen by a number of other small companies, however, the uses of online video expands far beyond the often hyped viral video.
Some of the best alternative uses that we have found for online videos are:
- Product Demonstrations: Create a video that highlights the benefits of your product, website, or service.
- Direct Sales Pitch: Use your video as part of a sales page. Film yourself making a sales pitch and have prospects watch the video rather than read copy.
- Testimonials: Create a video of your current clients recommending your company. People are much more likely to believe real people then simple words on a website.
- Product Tutorials: Use videos to take your clients step by step through how to use your website or assemble your product.
- Build your Expertise: Create a video of you giving a lecture or seminar. This way people can see how knowledgeable you are and will be more likely to want to work with you.
These are just some of the creative ways that you might consider using videos online. Each one of these methods, if done correctly, will build your brand and your bottom line. Using a video instead of more traditional media, namely the written word, is an excellent way to differentiate yourself from your competitors and create a better user experience for your customers. Remember that a lot more people go to the movies and watch TV then pick up a book.
Now that we have gone over why creating a video is an excellent decision for your company, let’s look at the video creation process. Here you will find just how easily and inexpensively you can create a well made online video and start using it right now to promote your company.
Creating an Online Video
The first step when creating an online video is coming up with the video concept. We have already been over some of the different ways that you can use online videos to promote your business and, depending on the type of video you are creating, the rules of engagement tend to be quite different. However there are some general rules which you should follow, especially for first time filmmakers.
- Make your video entertaining. Even if your video has the best information in the world, if it is too slow or boring than nobody if going to watch it. Emotion is the name of the game; make people feel something and they will be inclined to stick around to watch your video. Humor is the most popular way to drum up popularity, with almost all of the most popular videos generating laughs as their major selling point.
- Consider the time limit. A lot of companies think they need to make a commercial and so they make it only 30 seconds in length. Since it’s free to post a video on YouTube, you can upload up to ten minutes of footage. The average video tends to be around 2-4 minutes. Some other video websites allow even longer videos of an hour or more. If you are going to make a longer video, make sure that you can keep the viewer interested for the entire length of the film.
- Avoid being too commercial. Most people don’t simply want to watch a commercial for your product. Add value by being funny or providing valuable information to viewers.
- Consider your audience. Just like with every other advertising method, make sure that the videos you create are aimed at your target market. Just because a majority of YouTube visitors are teenagers doesn’t mean you should target them if your market consists of business professionals.
Following these rules will help you when writing your first online video. I also recommend bouncing ideas off of friends, family, and your customers to get some feedback on the video you are planning to create. Also you might want to watch the videos that are already popular on YouTube and similar sites so that you can get a feel for what does well. If you are going for a more niche video, like a product tutorial or a sales video, you might want to look at your competitors’ websites or other companies in similar businesses to see what they have done with online videos.
To find the top videos on YouTube right now go to http://www.youtube.com/browse?s=mp or from the home page click the videos tab. On the left you will see a number of categories. Click on the category that corresponds to the type of video you want to make and you will see all of today’s most viewed videos. Above the videos you will see tabs for today, this week, this month, or all time. Click the all time tab to see the most viewed videos ever in your category.
Filming Your Video
Once you are done writing your script it’s time to move on to either the most difficult or the easiest part, filming your video.
I say it can be the most difficult or the easiest part of the process because depending on the type of script you wrote it will be just that. Many people have been successful just talking into a webcam in front of their computer. Using this approach, you can be done filming in the five minutes it takes you to actually deliver your lines into the camera. Others with higher budgets prefer a high quality digital video camera and multiple locations. This is obviously going to take a lot more time and expertise to prepare for and film.
Personally I think that a regular digital camera or a webcam is your best bet for starting to film videos for your company. If you really want to upgrade to something more advanced later on, be my guest, but for now it is probably not necessary.
Chances are you already have a digital camera or a webcam that is more than suitable for shooting your first film. If not, try seeing if you can borrow one from somebody else or buy a cheap one from a local electronics store. I have found that the Sony Cybershot Camera has excellent video quality and it only cost me a few hundred dollars.
Once you have chosen how you will capture the footage, it’s time to begin filming. Make sure you have all of the props, people, and locations available before you start shooting so you don’t have to keep stopping to go out and look for stuff.
When filming it is best to have little to no camera movement involved as it can make the film shaky and look pixilated on the small YouTube screen. Also you should aim to make the film with the most professional production values that you can manage with a limited budget. This means you should aim to cut out an unwanted cell phone call in the middle of your scene, a finger of the camera man interrupting the shot or any other disturbances. Remember, this video is meant to represent your company and so it should be something you can be proud of.
For some tips on filming your video check out YouTube’s Video Toolbox. Here you can find videos with a lot of great tricks for new filmmakers.
Editing Your Film
Now that you have created your masterpiece it is time to really make it shine. The first thing you will need to do if you did not use a webcam is to upload the video on to your computer. This is really easy and can be done by connecting your camera with a computer using the USB, USB2, or Firewire cable that came with your camera. You should then be able to put your video on to your computer and start editing.
Please note that it is not necessary to edit your video before you post it on to an online video site. If you would like to use your video as-is, upload it on to your hard drive and skip to the next section.
Editing a video is considered to be a bit of an art and can be a little tricky if you are trying to do anything fancy with it. There are a whole lot of different software programs available with prices ranging from free to really expensive professional stuff. You probably don’t need anything too fancy right away so here is some of the free software that I recommend for getting started.
Once you have selected the software you want to use, download it if it’s not already installed and then get started uploading and editing your video. Use the links I have provided above for the official guides on how to use each program effectively.
Just for your reference, here are some of the many features of video editing software that you might want to use on your video.
- Creating opening and closing titles. Use these to name your video, add credits, and most importantly list your company and your website so that viewers know where to go to learn more about you.
- Cutting and splicing. There is likely some footage you took that you do not want in your video. Using video editing software you can remove this footage, or if you would like, splice in new footage that you took separately.
- Add Special effects. Using special effects, you can change the colors in the video, make the film appear to be old fashioned, speed up the video, and a number of other cool options.
- Add a sound track. You should have already recorded your video with audio, but if you want music playing the background or special audio effects you can add them.
- Save in different formats. Some editing software allows you to save in a number of different formats including .MOV, .AVI, .MPG. These all work well with YouTube and other online video websites.
Once you are done with editing your video it is ready to be submitted to YouTube. However, before you submit it, you might want to compress your videos and optimize them for viewing. YouTube recommends the MPEG4 (Divx, Xvid) format at 640×480 resolution with MP3 audio for the best quality video. The reason for this compression is twofold, it allows you to format your video to the size that works best with YouTube’s video player, and it also saves space which is often useful for meeting YouTube’s 1 GB size limit. This step is not necessary to the success of your video but it will improve your video quality.
Use one of the below converters to convert your video to the ideal specifications. Both are about equal in what they can do and both will work about equally well.
Download the DivX Converter – The DivX Converter is a free trial only and lasts for 15 days. After that the software costs $19.99.
Download the Xvid Converter: AutoGK – Xvid is an open source program and is therefore less polished then DivX. However it is free and has all of the features you will need.
For the best quality of video, use either of those programs to convert your video into either DivX or Xvid and have the program format your video with a 640×480 resolution.
Uploading Your Videos
Congratulations, you now have a finished video and are ready to start submitting it online.
Do not make the beginners mistake of only uploading your video on YouTube. There a number of popular video sharing sites that can expand the audience for your video. Submitting to each site often only takes a few minutes per upload and can result in a lot more people viewing your video.
Here are some of the other video sites you might want to submit your film to.
You will need to have an account set up with each of these websites to submit your videos but sign up generally only takes a few minutes, and best of all, it’s free.
Another option you have is using a service like TubeMogul.com to submit your video to a number of video sites at once. The cool thing about this site is that it also provides analytics for all of your videos and it’s free.
The submission process you will follow for each website is generally very similar no matter where you go. Start by clicking the upload your video button or simply the upload button in YouTube’s case. You will then be asked to fill out some information about your video such as the videos title, video tags, and a description of the video.
Using these options, there are a number of things that you can do to optimize your video so that it will appear high in the search results for the keywords you choose. The most important optimization technique you can use is to place your most important keyword within the first few words of the title of your video. For instance, if the most important keyword for you is banana, then you should make your video title “Bananas Number One According to Monkey Poll” instead of “New Poll Finds that Monkeys Like Bananas Best.”
You will also want to make sure to place your website address in the description of your video as well as reusing your most important keywords for the video tags. Also make sure to select the category that your video fits in best.
Once you are done filling out information about your video, it’s time to actually upload it. Different sites have different requirements about how long or how big your video can be so if you have a bigger file it might be rejected by certain places. You can get around the size requirement by compressing your files using the methods mentioned earlier in this guide. If your video is too long you might be able to get around this by splitting your video up into several parts. Since YouTube only allows 10 minutes per video, many people with longer films use video editing software to make ten minute segments. If you choose to do this, make sure that you label each segment by part in the title.
Uploading your video may take awhile depending on the size of the video and your internet connection speed. When the video is uploaded you will be given the HTML code for imbedding your video into your blog or website. Make sure to use this so that visitors to your site can see your amazing work. Also be sure to pass on a link to the video to friends, family, and any mailing lists you have.
Conclusion
Congratulations, you’ve done it! Now that your video is on the web for everyone to see you can sit back and watch the view count rise. Entering the world of marketing with online videos will likely put you several steps ahead of your competitors but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep learning. This guide was meant to be a basic manual for creating your first online video. That means that there is still a whole lot more out there for you to learn.
Keep looking for more ways to keep your content interesting, your filming top notch, and your editing superb. Who knows, pretty soon you might create the next internet sensation.
Need help creating online videos that get tons of exposure and boost your bottom line? Contact RSS Ray today for a free 15 minute consultation.
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