The Finer Points of Creating a Video
An interesting theme recently on the SIPA Marketing Listserv focused on turning PowerPoint presentations into Web videos. The idea is to add varied animation/visual effects, transitions between slides, other attractive visual items (drawing and/or photos), narration and/or music. Camtasia Studio came up as one solution. Daniel Park’s new digital book, Camtasia Studio 7, The Definitive Guide, can provide a jump start on making the presentations more powerful than other ones you might see.
Sony Vegas was brought up as a good option for video editing with slides, etc. The user said that “it is intuitive and much simpler and cheaper than Camtasia for simple video projects.” (Though Camtasia was still recommended for screen capture, however.) Another publisher was looking at Brainshark because it (theoretically) is easily portable into a mobile app.
A member recommended exporting your presentation as photos and putting it in Final Cut Pro, then adding sound and voiceovers—you can also add bits of video and photos. “Has a really professional output. Could also use iMovie. The new 2011 Windows Version of PPT allows voiceovers and export to QuickTime .mov format—but this is not available in Mac.”
On the Entrepreneur website a couple weeks ago, Starr Hall, a well-known speaker, offered tips on shaping the content of your videos to get the maximum marketing impact. (The article is adapted from her book, The Social Wave: Why Your Business Is Wiping Out with Social Media and How to Fix It (Entrepreneur Press, 2011). Much of her video tips is common sense and follows the rules of most content vehicles—such as including a call to action and keeping them short and to the point. “Remember, the less people know about you, the shorter their attention span will be when watching your video,” she writes. “Prospective customers often know little or nothing about you; they simply want to know who you are, what you do, and most importantly, what’s in it for them. So give them the message in less than two minutes.”
Offer value, she writes—be it “a tip, resource or just a laugh for the day.” You don’t want to do a video just for the sake of doing a video. Answer questions that are frequently asked by your subscribers. Provide a new buying tip every week. Hall notes that you should answer questions that your subscribers/customers should be asking. She also emphasizes the importance of tagging your video. “Use relevant keywords in the video titles and descriptions when you upload them to sites like YouTube. Search engines will find it much easier to index your video file. Make sure you include your URL within the actual video at the end of your video–use a clearly visible font at the bottom middle for better viewing and exposure. Finally, give your video file a relevant name so it will show up better in search-engine results. The file name should be understandable and relevant to what your customer is looking for.” (Basically, keep it simple.)
Interestingly, Hall believes videos should be used to address objections that have come up about your products or services—that seeing you or someone high up in your company take on an issue personally and head on is the best way to connect. The last two tips she offers are to pick a focus—“Do not try to cover 15 things in a 60-second video. But be creative…”—and upload the videos to your site. “Make sure your video’s visible on the home page of your website.”
The main takeaway here is don’t be intimidated, give video a try—and get on the SIPA Listserv.
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The next SIPA TwitterChat takes place
Wednesday, Nov. 9, 12–1 p.m. Eastern time
These can be really beneficial for you, especially
given that it only takes an hour of your time.
Log onto your preferred Twitter client and search for
the hashtag #NicheInfo. You then can join the conversation
from there (just make sure you include the hashtag in
your tweets as well so others can see their conversation)!
Look for us Wednesday!
