To produce a great marketing video you need to be well organized. Start by writing a script, the better the script then the happier will be your viewers. For this article we will assume that we are producing a video to promote sales of a digital camera from Amazon. Go to the product features page at Amazon and write down all the features using the FAB technique as explained below.
F = Feature, A = Advantage and B = Benefit. Write down the advantages and benefits of each feature. For instance:
Feature = 'The Kodak Zi8 lets you take full 1080p videos where ever you go.
Advantage = 'Full 1080p is the highest resolution of HD video available.
Benefit = Your videos will capture every important detail, from your kids smile to that race you won at the parents sports day and funny moments you will cherish forever.
You will have 8-15 secs to grab the viewers attention but it should be enough time to make a statement about the product. Start of with something like this. 'In this video I am going to show you why the Kodak Zi8 is going to revolutionize the way you make videos, why it might be the only video camera you will ever need and saving you money at the same time.' This is a proven formula, start your video with 'In this video I am going to show you why'
You don't want your viewers to concentrate on the product but concentrate on what is being said in the video about its benefits. Next, The key outcome, what the viewer will get, 'The Kodak Zi8 is going to revolutionize the way you make videos'. Next, why the product will help the viewer. Why it might be 'the only video camera you'll ever need and saving you money at the same time,' making it simple to make video and save time and money learning to use another video.
Write the script, turn it into a visual presentation using Powerpoint or Keynote. You will never be short of PowerPoint resources on the internet, cheap and free. Just use Google to find suitable templates and start writing the FAB slides. A slide per feature, feature = quantity or type. Full HD 1080p is a quantity of resolution so spell out features in the slides. Advantages and benefits = Quality or condition. Qualities and conditions have emotional value. Hearing benefits causes emotion in people including your viewers.
After all the benefits have been added to the slide it is time to add graphics, pictures of the KodakXi8. If a feature is its compact size then show picture of the camera alongside a pro video camera. Then go through slides and add emotional images to emphasize the feature. An emotional image for example, could be a clipart figure weighed down with a dollar sign to emphasize the cost of a comparable product. But hey, the KodakXi8 is nothing like the cost of that one. There is a powerful relationship between what's said and what's seen, add emotional images that illustrate advantages and benefits. Clip art images are found on the internet for free and for purchase at sites like clipart.com or animationfactory.com.
Now give your slides energy, make things move. Every time something flies in or moves in a slide it resets the viewers attention. Set up transitions in PowerPoint. You can add animation to every element on a slide, the text, the clipart and the pics. Practice and practice again to perfect you skill to produce quality videos. Pretend you are telling a story to your best friend, having a natural conversation and not forcing a sales pitch.
Click through your slides and edit as necessary to amend mistakes or improve what is already there. Once you are happy with the result plugin the microphone and start reading the text in your slides. If you feel that you cannot do this then you might have to have a voice over produced, but let's assume that you have the voice and confidence to read through the slides. Use the Export function to make a movie file in Keynote. In PowerPoint you will need a screen recorder application such as Camtasia or Camstudio to record your slide show to a movie file. Camstudio is freely available and Camtasia, which has more functions, can be downloaded for a one month trial.
Following these steps will get you making great videos or at least you now have a great introduction to what is involved in making quality marketing videos without a video camera and with some basic software that can be improved and added to as you produce more videos. It is easier and cheaper than you might think.
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