How to Get Started with Video Marketing
Video marketing has become an integral piece in marketing online nowadays, and can serve several functions for your business. Although many are aware of this, understanding what types of videos to make is a unnecessary hurdle that keeps many from utilizing this valuable and essential tool for online marketing.
Know what you would like to do with video first!
You want to know what you’d like to accomplish with video in order to better use the medium. Simply throwing up a video on YouTube isn’t a plan. Think about how you plan to use video in your marketing. It’s crucial to understand the reason you are making these videos to begin with, so as to enhance their odds of success as well as save you a boatload of time and effort! Here are some ways that businesses can make use of video in their marketing.
- Building your brand
- Video as a product
- Live and recorded Webinars and workshops
- Launching videos
- Sales or promotional videos
What types of videos should I make?
After you’ve determined how you would like to use video marketing in your business, you need to choose what types of videos to create. There are several different types of videos that may work for you.
Slideshow – This one is the simplest to make. You simply make slides in PowerPoint or Keynote (Mac) and record them in a video format. There are lots of programs that will do this, and you most likely already have them on your computer. You can narrate or add music or both.
Talking heads – This is where people are onscreen talking. These may be recorded in a number of ways, by using your smartphone, a video camera, a still camera with video or iPad, or… in any case, there are many ways to shoot a video.
Google Hangouts – Using Hangouts is an easy way to conduct a webinar, seminar, interviews or simple instructional or informational video. It’s super easy to use, and is uploaded straight into your YouTube account.
Screenshare videos – If you have a screen capture software like Camtasia, Jing or Snagit, (among others) you can record your voice live while you demonstrate whatever is on your computer screen. Very easy to accomplish.
Livestreaming video – There are several services available that can get your event live streaming on the Web.
Animation – Love animated videos? Think you can’t do them? Wrong! Products like Videoscribe and Powtoon make this possible.