Video marketing has grown massively since the days of the dry “corporate video” where the video was more than likely delivered on a DVD to your prospects.

Today, you, as a business owner or marketer have to produce innumerable amounts of video to participate effectively in today’s online world.

There are three types of video that you will be investing in:

• Professional Video
• Social Video (pre-recorded and edited, both self-shot and professionally filmed)
• Social Live Video

Professional Video versus Social Video

While there is certainly a place for the day-to-day social video and the on-the-fly video content, there is still an important place for the asset building type of video which you can achieve better through professional video.

Professional Video

With professional video, you can really stand out from your competitors in showcasing who you are, what your values are and the value of your brand’s reputation through planned video story telling.

Our ethos at Harbour 32 with professional video shoots is to take your viewer through a journey – a story – that takes them from not knowing you, to wanting to work with you.

The value in having a video professional work with you, is that they have the eye, the equipment and more importantly the editing skill to take the footage and pull the story together.

Professional video is used for:

• Websites (embedding key messages and increasing the time people stay on your website)
• Social media (used in between and in support of your regular content marketing)
• Recruitment (build educational journeys to attract great quality recruitment prospects and can even be used to train and induct new recruits)
• Demonstrate systems and processes (create a video journey displaying how your service or product is created, why it’s different and how it is delivered)
• Clearly articulate a complicated topic (how-to’s, FAQ’s, behind the scenes, etc)
• Online advertising (if you have planned PPC or Social Ad campaigns, and you need to create video content that is higher quality in picture and audio)

The video will then be edited with lovely smooth transitions and branded up with animated logos, text, sub-titles (where needed) and key messaging / call to actions which you agree on.

Professional video is not only ‘professional’ in the sense that it is filmed by talented videographers, but equally in a way that it can instantly represent your business in a professional light. Whether you’re a larger organisation or a one-man band, the use of occasional professional video can really reflect well on your brand.

Format traditionally tends to be landscape (16:9), but equally can be reformatted to best fit the platforms it will be shared on.

Social Video

This is the type of video marketing you do to communicate frequently with your social media audiences and keep your content high in their newsfeeds. They will be more than likely captured by you or your team, and possibly on devices like Smart Phones, Tablets and DSLR cameras.

You will focus on creating the kind of content which is:

• Behind the scenes
• Tips, tricks and/or educational in nature
• FAQ’s
• Sneak peek into a new product or service launch
• “Take over” – get team members to take turns sharing what a day in their life is like in their role or share a project they are working on

And then you (or your agency support) will more than likely be editing the video in browser-based tools like Wave or Animoto, or even possibly desktop-based Screenflow or Adobe’s Premier Pro.

Format tends to be varied between portrait, square and landscape.

Strategic approach to capturing video

With a professional video shoot, there are some planning elements that go into maximising the time you have in getting everyone together. It’s the time when you get to really think about the content you want played out on screen and the feeling you want to portray.

I work with Shelley Rostlund on this. After she has completed a strategy session with a client and has identified the high-level objectives for a professional video shoot – we flesh-out the ideas of what we can do as end product videos, to best achieve those objectives.

Sometimes this means we have to storyboard, draft scripts, plan props, locations and role play situations to best demonstrate the story.

While we plan the physical shoot for on-camera work, we also plan for how extra content can be captured for the client to use in their social videos. (This includes photography and short pan videos of behind the scenes, team discussions, the shoot itself, etc). It’s about maximising the content from that day’s shoot, remembering that we can store footage for use at a later date.

Once we have the plan of what is going to be done, then we set out working out who is needed on which days (staff, directors, clients) and how we can best plan the shooting days.

Top tips for professional video shoots

Ladies:

• Make-up: make sure that you wear makeup and possibly more than you would normally put on. The cameras today are 4k, which means they pick up a lot more detail than older cameras or smartphones, so have a good coverage for your skin, to keep your colouring and tone nice and even.
• Clothes: ensure that you are comfortable standing and sitting. Avoid wearing tops with buttons on the front, if your shirts tend to gape between buttons (you will feel self-conscious and uncomfortable!) Avoid striped clothing (especially narrow stripes – they play havoc with video).
• Microphones: just know that you will have to wear a microphone, so ensure that whatever you wear – we will be able to clip a microphone to your top, and the wire generally will need to be hidden and fed underneath your clothing.
• Jewellery: try to not wear necklaces that jingle or are too big – they can interfere with the microphone (we normally just work with whatever you have on, but can adjust on the day)

Men:

• Make-up: if you are self-conscious about your skin or skin tone, then by all means use some powder or concealer. Remember the camera does pick up everything, so if you are self-conscious about dark circles under your eyes etc, then keep that in mind. Also – some powder does help with any shiny skin too.
• Clothes: ensure that you are comfortable standing and sitting – similar advice as ladies. Avoid striped clothing (especially narrow stripes – they play havoc with video). A simple buttoned shirt is always a safe bet!
• Microphones: just know that you will have to wear a microphone, so ensure that whatever you wear – we will be able to clip a microphone to your top / shirt (and the wiring may need to be fed underneath your clothing)

Styling for professional video shoots

Remember that what you wear is a reflection of you, and your brand. Some people like the casual look, others like to dress smart – it’s completely up to you. We have a stylist that works with our clients (should they choose to) and she is briefed on the strategy, key messages and (where applicable) the brief for the website or marketing collateral for which the shoot is being done for. She then works with you to plan your colours, outfits and makeup.

Have you considered undertaking a professional video shoot? Why not book a FREE conversation with Shelley Rostlund and find out what we could do for you?