How To Create Great Video


How To Create Great Video

by Scott Mckeagan

So now that we have the fundamentals down for creating a great intro and outro, it’s time to look at how to create the great video.  There is a misconception that you have to have expensive video camera equipment and lighting to produce good video. In fact, you don’t even need a video camera to produce video. Allow me to explain. The majority of videos that I have recorded have been created using a screen capture software called Camtasia. I simply record my screen and talk at the same time explaining what it is I’m doing.  I’ve done this type of video for some time but I am practicing being more comfortable in front of the camera. :-)

For now, I would not worry too much about getting professional lighting. I do recommend you record indoors and away from direct sunlight. You can play around with a few table lamps without shades to try to create a nice effect. Placing two in front of you (a few feet away) and one behind usually works the best.

Now if you are courageous enough to put yourself on video, you don’t need to break the bank to get a good quality video camera. There are many on the market today for as low as $150. As long as the camera takes HD video 1080p and has an output for an audio jack, you should be all set. Obviously you can spend a little more money and purchase a higher end video camera but please don’t feel like you have to.

In the beginning, your video will probably be pretty raw and that’s ok. It takes a lot of practice in front of the camera to feel confident so I recommend to try and keep the video no more than five minutes in length. Doing so will should keep the viewer’s attention and not wander off.

Try to determine what your goals are for creating the video. Are you looking to increase viewers to your website, capture a lead or maybe trying to increase your brand awareness?

If you’re not sure what to topics to discuss, try going to YouTube and search for some of your topics. If there are a lot videos on the subject, chances are that people have an appetite for the topic. See what others are doing and go through their comments to see what they could have improved upon.

Recipe For Success:

  1. Tell the viewer what they are going to see and how it will help them.
  2. Add your intro
  3. Deliver your content
  4. Recap with a conclusion
  5. Offer a call to action based on your previous video goals
  6. Finish with your outro

Quick Tips:

  • Use a tripod to avoid shaking
  • Try not to be a talking head. Add in other media to take the focus off of you
  • Use a microphone if possible to offer the best sound
  • Tell a story to create engagement and differentiation

 

So now it’s time to move onto our next post in our Video Marketing series, How To Edit Your Video.

In case you missed my previous articles in video marketing, you can find them here:

 

Scott

 

 

 

 

 

How To Create a Video Intro and Outro

by Scott Mckeagan

I’ve had many people ask me how I created my intro on my YouTube videos so I thought it might make for a good post. But rather than just explain how to create an intro, I thought, why not take it a step further and create a series of posts on how to create stunning video for your YouTube channel. My goal is to give you great information so that you will be more than capable to create professional looking videos that get found in the search engines.  In this series of posts, I’m going to explain:

  • How to create an intro and outro
  • How to create great video
  • How to edit your video
  • How to optimize your video for the search engines
  • Tips and Tricks to get more conversions

 

So here we go.

How To Create an Intro and Outro For Your YouTube Video

 

 

Step 1: I would like you to go to Videohive.net.  Videohive is a fantastic resource for finding professional looking video graphics for both intros and outros.  Once there, you will be able to browse through their library for the perfect video that compliments your brand. I recommend clicking on the After Effects Project Files in the navigation/header of the site and click on “Openers” from the drop down.  There are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind here. One is we want the intro to be short, preferably no more than 5-8 seconds. Any longer than that and you run the risk of losing the interest of your viewer.  The second thing to keep in mind is that these video clips can be changed and altered to a certain degree when it comes to the audio, text, length and the logo. We are going to discuss how to do that in a moment.

Ok, do you have your video picked out? Perfect! If not, take some time to find one and come back. Save the link of the page in your bookmarks for later or go ahead and purchase it. If you bought it, download the files to your computer for now. Let’s move on to step number 2.

 

Step 2: At the top of the Videohive website, you should be able to see their logo. Beside the logo is a little drop down icon. I would like you to click on the icon and then look for audiojungle from the menu. Go ahead and click on it. Audiojungle.net is a related site where we can go to find the perfect music for our intro. Thought it took a long time to find the perfect intro video? You might be here for awhile too.  The audio will depend on the style of video you will be creating as well as your brand. Think about your customer’s demographic first before purchasing the high beat rock song.  Once you have your music picked out, you can go ahead and save the page to your bookmarks or feel free to purchase it and download to your computer.

Step 3: On to the outro. The outro can be simply using an image with a strong call to action. As you become more familiar with video editing, you’ll be able to show multiple video links inside your current video (you can get pretty creative here). The other option is to go back to videohive and either try to use the current template or search for another one that works for you.

Step 4: Now comes the fun part. We have to put it all together. My recommendation is to outsource the project to someone qualified. There are a number of websites you can go to get this done but I recommend fiverr.com. Fiverr is a great outsourcing website where people are willing to do projects for you for $5.  Once you’re on fiverr, do a search for “After Effects”.  You should be able to find someone who can put your intro together for you. A few tips here: Try to find someone who has good reviews. You’re going to need to be very specific when requesting the order. For example, what text do you want in the video? How long should it be? Also remember to give them your logo in a png format if possible or if required.

The turn around time for the project to be completed varies however my projects usually took 46 to 48 hours.

 

 

Now in case this seems like a lot of work, I have an easier solution but does cost a little more money. You can go to splasheo.com. At Splasheo, you can download one of their free video intros and outros or have them create a custom “video booster” on your behalf. They have some great examples complete with audio files that you can choose from. Simply send them your logo and text and they do the rest.

In the continuing series of Video Marketing, we are going to next examine how to create great video.

 

Scott

 

How To Edit Images Without Using Photoshop?

by Scott Mckeagan

Every once in awhile you come across a tip or a tool that is designed to make your life easier.  Yesterday was one of those days. You see I was listening to the Social Media Examiner podcast on my way to work and Michael Stelzner made mention of a tool that he uses to create those amazing photos you see on Facebook, Pinterest and blogs. The great thing about this tool is that it can do basically everything I need out of Photoshop without all the bells and whistles and hefty price tag.

Picmonkey.com

When you go to picmonkey.com, you can simply drag a photo directly to their homepage to get started. Once your image is there, you are ready to begin editing. You can do all your basic editing right from here:

Once you have cropped, resized or sharpened your image, you can move on to the fun stuff like adding text with different fonts, changing the effects of the image, touch ups and adding graphics.

You can have a lot of fun with this app and if you are really ambitious, they also offer a premium level of service.

 

All the best, Scott.

Should Car Dealers Blog?

by Scott Mckeagan

Before I dive into why I believe all car dealers should be blogging perhaps it might be easier to understand why they don’t:

  • Do not know how
  • Not enough time
  • Do not know what to blog about

Even though all of the above reasons are very common, it still does outweigh the benefits of blogging. Consider this, most dealers today have a Facebook page, a Twitter account and maybe even a YouTube channel and are focusing all their social media efforts using those tools. The major disconnect that dealer’s often overlook is the fact that not all of these social media websites might be around in the next few years. Simply look at MySpace as an example, albeit they are trying to make a comeback. Why would a dealer put so much effort into a web property that they don’t even own.

I’m not suggesting that dealers stop using the social networks that their customers are on but I am merely suggesting that they build up their best social media tool first – their blog and then syndicate the content to the appropriate social media sites. Why not build your own web property first which you control and will always own the content.

Now lets look at debunking the reasons why many dealers don’t blog.

Do not know how – Most web providers that dealers use can add a WordPress Blog to your website. If they cannot, you might want to consider using another provider. In the beginning I would not be too concerned about the look and feel other than I strongly recommend you add your website’s navigation header to the blog theme making it easy for customers to be able to get to your main website’s content. Getting started can be as easy as watching a five minute Youtube video tutorial or asking your web provider for assistance.

Not enough time – The reality is you have to make time by scheduling it into your daily routine or designate someone at your store to do it for you. Because using WordPress to blog as so many positive search engine optimization factors, it is just one of those marketing initiatives that can’t be overlooked. I have found that it is always easier to create a blog schedule and include ideas of what to post.

Do not know what to blog about -
Let’s begin by writing about what’s new with your manufacturer. Not sure what’s new with them? Visit their blog or Facebook page for inspiration.
You can write about products coming down the pipeline. Being the first to blog about a vehicle can typically get you a lot of eyes on your site.
You can post testimonials, commercials on YouTube, video walk arounds, and my favorite, what’s going on in the community this weekend, month or year.
You can post images of people you sold cars to. When I sold cars, we always had a board on the wall with pictures of satisfied customers.
You can talk about new employees, promotions within your dealership and of course current sales and incentives.

Now let’s take a look at the technical side of blogging. I promise not to bore you.
Consider this. Search engines love fresh new content on a website. Adding new content on a regular basis will send a message to the search engines to visit your site on a more regular basis making your site more crawlable. A question I get asked alot is “Can I copy an article off another website and post it on my blog” The answer is absolutely yes providing you keep the links intact and you indicate who the source of the article is. I like to encourage dealers to at least write a brief summary of the article in addition to the post to assist with seo. Consider this, people share content on Facebook and Twitter all day long. Your blog is no different.

When you create a post, you can take a screen capture, and use that as your image to upload to Facebook. We all know images will draw the user’s attention. Include a description of the post and a link to your blog and you now have more visitors to your site. Once they are there, you’re going to want to try and convert that customer into a lead, right? But what kind of lead? If they are not ready to buy, how can we get them to come back? The answer is creating an opt-in form which gives people the ability to sign up for your future posts and newsletters. You’ve probably heard marketers say that the money is in the “List”. It’s no different for the car business. We want to capture as many email addresses as possible to keep them engaged over time so when they are considering purchasing a vehicle or know of someone who is, we want them to think of you.

If you would like to receive more information on the benefits of blogging, feel free to subscribe and I’ll do my best to share as much knowledge as possible.

Scott

How To Use Pinterest For Business

by Scott Mckeagan

 

Pinterest has come a long way in a very short period of time to become a major player in the social media circles.  In fact, Pinterest has already received over 11 million unique visitors faster than any other independent website in history.

  • It is now driving more referral traffic to websites than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined.
  • It is driving more referral traffic than Twitter.
  • It offers more revenue per click than Facebook and Twitter.
Still not sure what Pinterest is? We created a video some time ago to explain how the site works.

However there was always a cloud over Pinterest in that you could only use the service as an individual and not as a company. Well as of yesterday, all that has changed with Pinterest rolling out business accounts. They have even gone so far as to show you how to move your personal account over to a business account.

 

Of course with popularity comes start-up companies looking to make things more efficient. In this case, it would be HelloInsights. Hello Insights is a tool for Pinterest that can show metrics never before seen through traditional methods like Google Analytics.  It can help you optimize your Pinterest presence by offering up to date statistics, a live feed of what your fans are sharing, top brand influencers, detailed traffic analysis and more. I am still just trying it out but it does half of what Hootsuite has done for Twitter and Facebook, it could be very useful.

 

Tips for Using Pinterest For Your Business

  1. Make sure you have the Pin It button on every page of your website.
  2. Link your website or blog in the profile section of Pinterest.
  3. Use your best images as they tend to get pinned more often.
  4. Add text to your image to describe the content behind the image.
  5. Pin your own original content (videos, infographics, blog posts) and link to your own site.
  6. Edit your Pins to change the link so people can find your website’s content (be specific)
  7. YES, you can use Pinterest if you are a service based business.
  8. Use video, tips, tutorials and advice for service based companies.
  9. Take any information and put it into an image based format. (You can use Fiverr for this).
  10. Use optimized keywords in your description for seo as Pinterest used do-follow links. Each pin and re-pin is a backlink!
  11. Add a link to your content in the caption description.

 

I hope this helps you with your Pinning and if you ever have some free time, why not follow me on Pinterest or my wife (her boards are way better :-) )

 

Thanks,

Scott

 

 

 

 

 

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