Yesterday I spoke about branding at the Step Online Event organised by Maria Albertsen and Julia Harris. Julia spoke about relationship marketing and Paul Wakefield covered telling your story, sales funnels and Facebook advertising. It was a jam packed day full of information.
During Paul’s talk he mentioned using video to show people who you are, create content quickly, for SEO and because video increases conversions. My main reason for not doing video – before I started doing them – was fear. Reasons people gave in the room were time and not knowing what to say – also great reasons, but something you can definitely overcome with a bit of planning!
At the end he asked for some video testimonials and a few people were brave enough to oblige.
I started doing videos after doing a video testimonial. At home. After the event. I wouldn’t do it there I was too nervous!
After my first video – not that one – another one – I threw up. There was no one else in the house. Isn’t that crazy? Just me and my iPhone and I was so nervous!
The thing is “people buy from people” and since I started doing the videos I’ve definitely seen this to be true. I have clients I didn’t have before because they’ve watched my videos and felt they knew me enough to want to work with me. I am as much a part of my brand as my logo, my little bird, my typefaces – everything that goes into it. Doing video is definitely worth the effort. YOU are a huge part of your brand – in fact, being you is probably the thing people most like about working with you.
So today I thought I’d give you some tips for creating a video to show you how easy it is.
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1. The camera. I just use my iPhone and it works great – make sure that you’re happy with what you’re using – there are so many options.
2. Get a tripod. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy, you can get them really cheaply and it’s great to know your camera isn’t going to fall over! Once it’s in position, make sure your video is in focus.
3. If you don’t want to use a camera then you can create some slides to talk over and use something like screen-cast-o-matic, camtasia or screenflow to capture your screen while you talk.
4. Get a microphone. This doesn’t have to be expensive. I got some headphones with a microphone attached and they do the job!
5. Think about lighting. You want to make sure you have plenty of it – maybe record near a window, or get some lighting.
6. Plan what you’re going to say before you ramble … I write a blog post every week and then use that to make a video so I’ve already decided what I’m going to say.
7. Use bullet points to make sure you don’t miss anything. Or, you can use something like cueprompter.com to have your words on screen so you can just read them. (If you do this, think carefully about where you put your camera so that it doesn’t look too obvious)
8. Look in the mirror before you start. This will help you feel confident that you don’t look dreadful before you start! One less thing to worry about!
9. Make sure your background isn’t messy.
10. Don’t worry about it. If it doesn’t go well you can just do it again! Practice makes perfect.
11. Don’t forget to smile 🙂 (unless you’re meant to look sad!)
12. When you’ve recorded your video there’s various options. I just upload mine to YouTube and trim the ends. You might want to edit it in iMovie or another programme. Experiment to see what works best for you.
So that’s it – my 12 tips for making videos. Do you have anymore? Also if you have a YouTube channel or a video somewhere, pop the link below so we can all take a look.
