5 Video Hacks To Make Dynamic Killer Videos

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Everyone wants to create a successful video marketing strategy that yields results for your brand. But many marketers get caught up in creating a strategy. They forget that the strategy would be meaningless without great video content.

It doesn’t matter if the video is shown to your audience as a social media ad or on YouTube. 

Even the category of business (B2B/B2C) holds little relevance.

The train to the video marketing junction goes through the video content station!

This article is will help beginners with video content creation. It will answer the most basic questions including

• Ways to make a boring video interesting
• Shoot-day tips for creating a great video
• Strategies to create a professional video without a dedicated video team or on a low budget

Use these tips and tricks along with video marketing hacks.

How can you make your video better?

Although it is possible to create videos for business by using a simple smartphone,  opening the camera app and shooting instantly alone may not cut it.

Does that mean you need expensive equipment to make tricks happen?

You don’t!

To use videos for content marketing, you need to go beyond simple video hacks, if you want to create professional videos.

One of the first video marketing hacks you must learn is that you don’t need expensive equipment to create professional videos. 

Let’s explore what you actually need.

1. Professional video lighting tricks for amateur/first-time videographers

It’s all about the type of lighting effect you want to project on your subject in the frame.

If you want to use a dramatic effect, you could use shadows but that’s useful when you are telling a story in your video with a proper script involved. In a professional content marketing video, you need softer lighting.

Hard light (single, far away source) vs. Soft light (Closer, more focused source) 

If you want to use the sun’s natural light, select a shaded space to avoid the overhead sun creating shadows and ruining your frame. Or better yet, shoot in the morning, evening, or on a cloudy day.

If you plan to regularly shoot indoor videos with a single subject in focus with close-ups, consider investing in a ring-shaped light. It lights up the subject’s face evenly from all directions.

Such lights are especially popular with major YouTube stars as it allows them to shoot well-lit close-up videos.

Use home lamps to create this classic 3-point lighting for illuminating the scene uniformly 

2. How to create a great background for your marketing videos

Some of the most important DOs for a video background include:

• Prefer a plain/solid-colored background
• Create sufficient distance between the background and the subject to avoid shadows on the background
• If you are shooting marketing videos in your home office, keep your pets outside of your office. Sure, they look cute in the shot but shooting the same shot several times can become annoying over time. If your pets do end up in the shot somehow, use those shots for blooper reels at the end of your video.

Be careful of avoiding these DON’Ts on the shoot day:

• Avoid mirrors or windows or any reflective surfaces in the background as the shot might capture the camera itself
• Avoid strong light sources in the background as the subject may become dark during the shot

Learn more as to how marketing agencies are leveraging the use of videos for success

3. Use the rule-of-thirds

Imagine a 3-by-3 grid drawn over your video frame. Place the subject on the points where these lines intersect – these are strong focus points. This rule of thirds that video marketing beginners can use for subject placement.

*An exception to the Rule of Thirds in the modern world is the Rule of Selfie.

Especially in this era where videos are largely viewed on mobile when you want to make a video for social media; videos that are shareworthy and expected to be viewed on mobile, make square videos and not rectangle.

Make them clutter-free and ensure the subject fill in the frame without any distraction. This concept is explained in the book – Fast, Cheap and Viral by Aashish Chopra who says

“The ‘rule of the third’ says that you keep your subject in one-third of the frame, and the background in the rest. But in a fast-moving, mobile, square-content world, I propose a new rule — the ‘rule of the selfie’. Create content like it’s a selfie — front and center! In all the videos we’ve made, I’m very mindful that the subject of the shot must be front and center, clearly visible with enough margins.”

4. Use the smartphone camera smartly

Never use the front camera of your smartphone, unless it has a particularly powerful feature set on the camera app and takes remarkably better photos/videos than the phone’s back camera.

Also, always shoot in landscape mode to have a wider video frame that looks great on wider devices such as tablets and smart TVs.

5. Improve your camera presence

To project a confident camera presence, here are a few tricks:

• Stand upright, don’t slouch.
• Use deep breaths to stay calm and minimize the effect of shooting-day stress.
• Avoid crossing arms – that signals nervousness which you must avoid
• Use a whiteboard to explain your content if you don’t feel comfortable looking into the camera all the time
• Speak slowly and comfortably. Your audience might miss a few things if you speak too fast. Slow, deliberate speech also projects confidence and allows you to collect and process your thoughts simultaneously as you speak.
• Review the final edited footage yourself at a fixed time in your week and/or  seek feedback from your marketing team to improve your camera presence.

Click here to learn in detail about video best practices

Free video editing software to create great marketing videos

Great video marketing campaigns rely on great marketing videos. To make great marketing videos, you need a solid video editing software.

But smaller teams don’t have the budget for expensive editing software. So, here’s a list of free software for editing marketing videos easily.

1. OpenShot

It’s a free and open-source video editor with an easy-to-use interface. It’s award-winning features include:

• Multiple formats for audio, videos, and images.
• Powerful curve-based keyframe animations
• Drag-and-drop support
• Video transitions with real-time previews
• Over 40 customizable title templates (plus ability to create your own templates)
• Unlimited layers (difficult to find in free software)

They have a whole list of features on their website for you to peruse. This is a great software to start with for video marketing beginners.

2. Blender

This is a more advanced tool for professionals who are more experienced in video editing and expect a more richer library of features. Technically, it is a free, open-source 3D creation suite. Its interface may not be easy to use.

Some of Blender’s features are:

• A comprehensive set of modeling tools
• Stunning ultra-realistic rendering
• A fully-fledged built-in compositor for 3D operations
• Simulation of smoke, fire, fluids, hair, cloth, rigid bodies, and particles.
• Digital sculpting tools for use in several stages of the digital production pipeline

3. Lightworks

This powerful video-editing solution which includes several features such as

• Video trimming (high precision)
• Support for multiple cameras
• Export to 720p for YouTube
• A wide variety of video formats as well as audio editing options

Its paid version supports 4K videos but the free version is more than enough for non-professional, small-scale video marketing purposes.

Its video tutorials more than make up for its complex video editing interface.

4. Hippo Video

Hippo Video is the leading video engagement platform for B2B sales teams. Professional video editing experience that requires no technical skills.

• Trim, cut, crop videos
• Record and send video emails
• Integratable with many CRM platforms
• Personalizable elements to make interactive videos

It comes with a free 7-day trial post which there are different plans you can choose from.

You can make refined marketing videos with simple tools and techniques

The tools and techniques mentioned in this article are by no means the only ones you should follow. There’s still a lot to learn by self exploration. They are, however, a good start for beginners in video marketing. 

Videos are also greatly effective in increasing persuasiveness of your business proposition.

Additionally, learn more about how HippoVideo helps businesses scale their sales effort through personalized videos in emails with effective landing pages.