You may have the ecommerce portion of your website down pat. You may even know and practice the latest of the best design trends as well as keeping up with all the recent SEO tactics. What have you done however when it comes to Producing Videos as an effective sales tool.
Online retailers who are now using videos to showcase their products has increased by 73% percent over the past two years, and placed them on their web pages or hosted them on a video site such as YouTube.
There are now 61% percent of offline “brick and mortar” retailers who now has some type of video presence on the Internet to promote their products, service or business, or to provide some type of information or tutorials.
Web videos are no longer considered a “wow” factor for marketers or businesses any longer. They have now become an essential proven and effective method of converting viewers to customers who’ll purchase what their featuring.
The majority of Internet users prefer watching videos because of their simplicity. Rather than having to read a long winded article review on a product, all they’re required to do is just view a quick one minute video, making it an effortless way to make product purchasing decisions.
How To Make Your Own Online Videos
So may be wondering what the steps are on making good relevant videos. To begin with, producing your own video isn’t really that difficult, provided you follow a few easy steps.
Keep Your Videos Simple And Short
We’re all aware that the majority of Web users have extremely short attention spans, and more so for those mobile users who seems to be always on the run when you’re attempting to introduce them to your product or service. So short videos are the way in.
The most effective online videos have proven to be brief, anywhere from two to five minutes maximum. If the video happens to cover an extremely complicated subject, then it’s better to break up the video in a series of shorter parts. This works best for instructional, tutorial or “how to” type of videos.
By keeping it simple, that means keeping the frame as uncluttered as possible as well. When shooting the video, use a plain solid background, such as a light pastel just featuring your brand or logo. Fancy flashing backgrounds are a thing of the past. The more simple and easy to view the stage, the better the video focuses on you or the product.
When you’re editing, stay as close to the same concept as possible, which is simplicity. So there’s no need to use any fancy wipes or dissolves. Just stay with the basic cuts and maybe a few quick fades, once in the beginning and then a fade-out at the end of the video. The only effects which is recommended is using subtitles, captions, or superimposed text, which reinforces the message or explains the product or brand.
If you’re wanting to do a series of videos, then it’s recommended that you produce a standard video introduction and title section for the subject to be featured. Keep it as short, precise and detailed as possible. By keeping it short means approximately 30 to 60 seconds. Anything else is too long.
It’s also recommended that you create a standard “outro,” which is a credits section, where you should be including your business contact info, such as your company’s email address or website url, so that potential customers are able to contact you or make a purchase.
Another good idea is superimposing your logo, brand or your website address on the bottom of the video throughout the entire video series. It not only reinforces your marketing message, but also makes it a lot more difficult for your competition to “borrow” your videos or use it as an co-opt.
Making The Audio And The Video As Clear As Possible
You don’t necessarily need the latest top of the line high-resolution video equipment or the highest quality bit-rate audio. All that the video needs is to do is transfer a clean and crisp video delivery while the audio being clear, void of any break-ups or background noise. This isn’t that difficult to do because of the excellent equipment which is available today. They are also now extremely affordable as well.
Almost any video camera or HD camcorder should do the trick. Just make sure that the equipment has a built in audio-in jack so that you’re able to add an external microphone. The microphones which accompany the built-in camcorders, especially if they are entry-level, are of usual poor quality.
This is because they’re usually just simple omnidirectional microphones which will capture sound from all directions. Instead, it’s recommended that you use an unidirectional microphone, which is able to capture sound just from the direction that it’s pointed towards.
The best ideal mike is what’s known as a “shotgun” mike which is mounted directly on the camcorder, or a boom mike which is held directly over the speakers head. Other options include a hand held microphone, or a lavaliere mike which is pinned on the speakers lapel. All of these will work better than the built in microphone which accompanies most camcorders.
Both wireless as well as wired microphones are relatively good to use. Wireless is generally slightly more expensive but also provides the speaker the freedom to move around if needed. Either way, ensure that the batteries in the microphone are fresh and if possible, have someone to actively monitor the audio quality via headphones while recording. It’s a lot easier to fix audio problems while recording than to later attempting to repair the sound noise while editing.
For The Best Possible Video Quality
• Use as much light as possible. Although the current newer camcorders are able to shoot in the dark, when adding additional light to the video however, the result of the captured image will be a lot more cleaner and sharper.
• Use a tripod to keep the camera still. This unless you’re creating a dance, music or sports based video where there’s constant movement. Otherwise, if there’s no reason to move the camcorder, then keep it as stable as possible. When using a tripod, the video will appear a lot more professional, while it will be much easier for the camcorder as well as the editing equipment to be able to compress the video for distribution on the Web.
Also, it’s not a good idea to continuously zoom in and out. Use a “cut” from a wide video shot to a close-up if you’re wanting to show detail, but never zoom in. Constant live zooming in and out is distracting and are signs of an amateur videographer.
The Finished Edited Video Product – Now What?
This depends of how much traffic you’re wanting or are expecting to get. It also depends on how professional you want the video player to appear. You can use a video player on your own site, or host the video on a video-hosting service such as YouTube and then placing the embedded code on your site.
The advantage of using a Web based video platform to market the video featuring your product or service is that it’s able to transform an otherwise boring looking stagnant product image into an engaging and effective sales tool.
When you’re in a retail store, there are sales associates who are able to demonstrate the product or service while answering questions. By creating, displaying or distributing online videos, you’re able to take on almost the same role by showing the online shoppers how a product works, or how a service can help them.
More importantly, you can also visually demonstrate the benefits of a product which are impossible to portray by using product images or content description.
Content has always been master, seems all of the black hat’s are getting destroyed from the white hat profit making machines.