Top video marketing tips from the best resources for learning video marketing.

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Video Marketing Tips

 

In this post, I’d like to cover some of the best video marketers in the world and let them share their top video marketing tips. Hopefully, you will learn a lot from this group interview.

I would like to give thanks to all the people who contributed to this post!

If you haven’t shared your video marketing tip, it’s not too late. Email me at davidmelbournevideoproduction [at] gmail [dot] com and I’ll make sure it’s added to the list.

 

1. What are the best resources for learning video marketing?

There’s a lot of great resources out there for people who are keen to learn more about video marketing. Karen Nelson-Field released Viral Marketing: The Science of Sharing in 2013 and it’s truly groundbreaking. It’s based on data from 1,000 videos and consists of more than 2 years’ worth of work. It reveals why videos get shared and busts some myths and common misconceptions about social video. Well worth a read!

We’re really passionate about keeping up with the most recent research at Unruly. Our co-founder and COO, Sarah Wood, teaches the Screen Media and Culture MPhil at the University of Cambridge and we have our own digital culture book club, where we gather together as a company to discuss the latest findings from the world of academia. We have a list of recommended reading here.

Best resources for learning video marketing and video production:

Our expertise in really only in the viral video end of things.  For that, our book The Viral Video Manifesto (McGraw-Hill Business) lays out in some detail our approach.  A easy way to get an overview is to watch our TEDx talk (http://eepybirdstudios.com/tedx/) which distills the key principals down into under 20 minutes.

Here are some resources that you might want to check out:

The best resources is the Internet. There are plenty of useful websites, blogs, tutorials (Tuts+, Video Copilot etc) where you can get tips and technical tricks about video marketing or video production on the Internet. And of course, practice makes perfect.

A degree in broadcast/audiovisual – experience in broadcast media.

The web is by far the best source. I follow ReelSEO – they write about all aspects of video marketing. For Internet marketing in general, I follow the HubSpot blogs – while not directly applicable to video marketing, it’s impossible to understand video marketing if you don’t understand Internet marketing.

There are hundreds of great tutorials online about video production and I use them regularly when I want to try something new or different. Most of them are on Youtube as well so it’s really easy to follow along. However these alone aren’t going to give you the skills to turn up at your first shoot and create a Hollywood blockbuster. You need to constantly keep filming, keep editing and keep iterating on your creative style. It can take a lot of trial and error for you to finally get to where you want to be but when you get there you’ll be thankful for the work you’ve put in.

Well, you can listen to my Web Video Marketing Show , a podcast for business owners and marketers to help them use video more effectively. Follow experts like David Jenyns or Gideon Shalwick. Youtube tutorials are a great source of knowledge. But the best way to learn is to get out there and make videos and share them with an audience. Each video you make you’ll notice your work improving. And each time you share a video you will get feedback, and an idea of how to improve your work in the future

neil davidson 100Neil Davidson   |   CEO at My Web Presenters

The best way to learn production is to pick up a camera, make a video and then start editing it. I run a video production company but I am not a good cameraman, I am not a great editor and my marketing plans have mixed success. Luckily I have a strong team behind me.

But what I have made sure is that I have tried every aspect of the production and marketing process myself so that I understand it and can recognize good ideas and work when I see them.

Aside from learning as you go there are many online courses that you can take.

Video production:

I have taken a few of the courses with NYVS, which are good – very simple step-by-step courses around your specific needs. It is a paid option though.

A good blog and community with a lot of information and a good (free) beginners guide is Video Maker.

Video Marketing:

I read a number of blogs about video marketing but feel that there is currently a lack of good information out there, hence the focus of our blog on this area.

I think that perhaps the best blog out there on video marketing is ReelSEO– they have a really knowledgeable and passionate team and seem to get onto new tactics quickly as well as having a good selection of guest posts from industry experts.

2. What are the tool(s) that you use to create videos for your clients?

Unruly has a 360 approach to video creation and distribution. Our proprietary technology helps brands see what’s worked for their competitors (Unruly Analytics), create contagious content (Unruly Labs) and activate the Open Web (Unruly Activate). We also have Social Video Labs in Hamburg, London and New York, which helps advertisers access proprietary data and formulate their campaign strategy.

Advertisers can use Unruly Analytics to benchmark their historical success and compare their content to the competition. The next step is to use Unruly ShareRank, a groundbreaking product, developed in collaboration with research institutions and leading academics to meet the seemingly impossible desire to “predict viral success”. It’s the flagship product in our suite of Lab solutions and helps brands build social video success repeatably. We then activate client’s campaigns using Unruly Activate, the most powerful and established social video distribution and tracking technology platform in the industry – built specifically for social video marketing

We’re best placed to help advertisers as we are a technology company, passionate about helping brands to harness the social marketing revolution.

A fifth of our employees work in R&D, using Agile XP practices to continuously test and develop highly robust and scalable products and we own and operate the largest historical data set of sharing behaviour on the social web, theUnruly Viral Video Chart, which has tracked 424 billion video views since 2006. It’s because of this technology and data that we’ve been privileged enough to activate award-winning campaigns that include T-Mobile’s Life’s for Sharing, Evian’s Roller Babies, Old Spice’s Man Your Man Could Smell Like, Heineken’s The Entrance and Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches.

As far as production goes, our view is that simpler is better.  Some of the most viral videos have been made with cell phone cameras and no editing at all.

As far as tools go, see the above.  We use a standard definition video camera and edit (as little as possible) in Final Cut or Premiere.  We may move up to HD soon, but that’s only because so many consumer cameras are HD now it’s the new standard.

Here are some tools that worked for me:

We use Adobe Creative Suite mainly; Illustrator and Photoshop for graphics and storyboard, After Effects, Nuke and Premiere for animating and post production.

Cameras, mics, light, greenscreen, Final Cut Pro X workstations, Motion 5, Photoshop, collaborative scripts, production planning software, CRM software, ..

We shoot with DSLR cameras for most of our work, and for conferences we’ll shoot with Sony EX-1s or EX-3s.  For editing, we use PremierePro and AfterEffects (we’re on Creative Cloud). We’re big fans of Red Giant Looks as a PremierePro plugin  for color grading.  Our demo reel (you can find it on our home page) shows a lot of work we’ve done recently.

The main tools I use are my ears. How can I shoot if I don’t know what my clients actually want? Obviously an element in them hiring me is that they trust my creative judgement, but you can’t go too far off the beaten path. As for physical tools, I shoot on a mixture of broadcast camcorders (Sony EX3, EX1) and DSLRs depending on the projects. I also have a selection of supports, such as dollies, sliders, jibs and steadicams that really bump up the production value of a project. Once a project is filmed I ingest and edit through Final Cut Pro X. Admittedly a controversial choice, but I really enjoy using it in my workflow.

At Dream Engine we shoot on Sony FS100 cameras. I love the FS100 because it is a hybrid of a DSL camera and a more traditional video camera. It gives you the advantages of DSLR (shallow depth of field and film look) and the advantages of a video camera (good audio recording, more video camera functions like zebra and peaking). We use Premiere Pro for editing, and after Effects for Motion Graphics

neil davidson 100Neil Davidson   |   CEO at My Web Presenters

We are results-oriented production house and therefore use whatever hardware and software is required to the deliver the correct result for the client’s needs.

For video we typically shoot in full HD – the Sony EX1 is our mainstay for green-screen shoots, but we might use a 35mm, higher quality camera on location shoots.  We have also shot in 4K and RAW formats as required to meet specific technical requirements for clients.

Regarding teleprompt we use a Flip-Q system.  But this can also be varied and scaled up for multi-camera shoots etc.

Sound is extremely variable.  A typical on-location shoot will have a boom, wind shield, rifle mic, 3-5 radio lapels and a dedicated sound recordist using a mixer.  This can be battery powered.  For simpler studio shoots, we just use a rifle mic on a boom stand, but it’s important to know the exact limitations of doing this so as not to get caught out with extra requirements.

In post-production we find using the Adobe Creative Suite is the best solution for most of our clients.  We can edit and do advanced compositing with minimal rendering and workflow disruptions due its dynamic linking capabilities.  We are also work with Da Vinci for colour grading, NUKE for compositing, AVID and Final Cut Pro for editing.

3. What do you think is the best way to promote videos? [Youtube, video sites, etc..]

It’s not just about YouTube now. Smart marketers and brands are engaging consumers in their own native environments across the Open Web. What does this mean?

Essentially, we distribute branded videos across the social web, placing content on premium sites, contextual blogs and apps etc across desktop, tablet and mobile devices. With our reach of 1.01 billion, we can help advertisers extend outside of their owned platforms and their Facebook and YouTube campaigns.

In doing so, we can help brands join the dots across the social web to kick-start a viral cascade and help advertisers reach their KPIs, whether that’s to drive action, advocacy, awareness or attention. With our distribution, brands are uniquely placed to reach their light buyers (as well as their existing ‘fans’) and therefore can growth their market share.

As far as promotion goes, we agree that it’s important and that part of your budget needs to be spent there, but we usually contract or subcontract that work out, so we’re not really in a position to give an opinion on best practices.

There are many ways to promote your video. The key is to just get it out there for as many eyes to see it as possible.

First of all, you’ll want to make sure that your video is placed prominently on your site (above the fold), so that anyone who visits your homepage will get the chance to see it. If you send out a weekly or monthly newsletter, link to it there. It’s also a great idea to add a link in your email signature. And make sure to send it out to your social media followers.

As far as hosting options, there are many. To determine which kind of hosting is best for you, you’ll want to know your goals and the route you take may also depend on who your customers are.

If you’re a B2B company that’s looking to rank higher in Google search and to boost your on-site SEO, using a professional hosting service to host your video on your site is a great idea. It brings visitors to your website, and doesn’t direct them elsewhere once your video ends. Many of these providers also offer analytics for you to track the results of your video as well.

If you’re company is B2C and you’re main goal is to gain exposure and put your brand out there, online networks like YouTube are great, just be sure you have a good call to action and content on the video page to direct people to your website rather than the next cat video in the queue.

It also doesn’t hurt to use more than one video host.

No matter what you try, use analytics to tell you how your video is performing.

One of the best ways to promote videos is to upload them on video sharing platforms, for example, Youtube (with almost 136 million unique viewers per month), Daily Motion, Vimeo etc.

Once you’ve uploaded your video on all these video sharing platforms, you can then share the video via social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ LinkedIn and so on, where all your fans and followers are.

You also need to pay attention to the keywords, tags, video file name, title and description of your video to ensure that your video is SEO friendly.

Another way is to send your videos to your business contacts, clients, friends and families via emails. You should never underestimate the power of sharing.

You can also send your videos to bloggers, create a press release, upload it on your website to maximize the promotion of your video.

Video SEO, LinkedIn, YouTube.

We’ve found that there isn’t one strategy that works for all videos. Instead, we tailor what we do with each video to what we’re trying to accomplish – either for ourselves or for clients. It’s critical to have a presence on YouTube, of course, because YouTube is the planet’s second-largest search engine. Beyond YouTube, we use blog posts,Twitter and our Vimeo page.

I find that picking a central destination for your content works best and then driving people to that destination from other places. E.g. hosting your video on Youtube and using your website, Twitter, Facebook, etc. to encourage people to go to the Youtube page.

The best way to promote your videos is to use a range of approaches: Youtube, email marketing, SEO and PPC, social media etc. This will help cast the widest net, and will not limit you to only one source of viewers. It can be dangerous to focus your efforts on only one channel.

neil davidson 100Neil Davidson   |   CEO at My Web Presenters

This is a very tricky question to answer succinctly. I think that the key is to understanding your target audience/market, determining where they are spending their online and offline time and then communicating with those people in an appropriate way.

To give a few specific ideas – most businesses do not have much of an audience for their videos at the moment so it is always good to get in front of other peoples audiences.

For example if you sell car parts and have a video to market then why not contact the YouTube channels dedicated to motoring that you think are most likely to have the type of audience that are also your customers.

Then work out a deal with the channel owner to get some visibility of your video with their audience.

Blogs are also a good place to get your video content promoted. Find blogs that are catering to your target market and work with them (often this requires a payment) to promote your video on their blogs. For example if you make children’s clothes then you could run a competition on a Mummy’s blog to win an outfit – entry requires the person to share your video with their friends on Facebook.

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