There is nothing more powerful than a story to help connect the audience to your video marketing content.

It’s super simple and a great way to also identify what your audience wants so look for a clear narrative (story) that speaks to their needs, desires or solves a problem for them.

You can tell them about your own story. Or share a story about how your business got started and about one of your satisfied customers. Include any testimonials you have to strengthen your story.

Stick to a clear beginning, middle and end narrative structure that takes the viewer on an engaging journey and leads them to a compelling call to action.

Test stories you have with friends, family, work colleagues and on social media.

Video storytelling is a marketing tactic that uses the naturally engaging video format to tell a story about a brand, company or product.

It guides viewers through relatable narrative-based content that gets to the heart of their pain points, creates an emotional connection, and presents a satisfying solution.

Ideally, your audience gets pulled into what’s happening based on the content of the video, how it is shot, the characters fiction or real, the use of sound and music and the emotion of the story itself.

Video storytelling is more than a sales pitch, as it focuses on a story rather than a service or product. It can be immersive and powerful, and very effective at engagement

The following are essential elements of any good story structure:

• Plot: What story do you want to tell? What is its structure? (the best stories consist of a compelling intro, conflict set up or problem, and resolution)
• Purpose: Why do you want to convey this story to viewers, and what do you want them to do afterward?
• People: Who are the main characters in your video story? How do they relate to your audience?
• Place: What’s the main location for the video, and how does that place shape the video narrative?
• Audience: Who will see your video? Will they be new customers, potential clients, employees or another group?
• Delivery method: How will you share the video story with others, and where will it be hosted (i.e. Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, your website, etc.)?

Figure out the answers to these questions and you will have a solid story structure.

Always be thinking about how you can connect to your audience, what techniques would make the video especially memorable to viewers, and what could make it shareable.

A top tip is to see what story videos really get your attention is to spend a whole day creating a folder for reference with links to ones that really stand out for you and your audience.

When working with a professional video creator like myself for example you can share these examples to give me an idea of what you want.

Check out an example of a TV commercial I produced for Disney’s UP that sets up the story of the main characters straight away then leads them on an adventure using every narrative technique in the book.

Remember to work on your story until you’re totally satisfied it works and test it before production rolls.

First and foremost work out a budget you are comfortable to spend on video marketing and a good way to do this is to work out what the lifetime value of a customer or client is to your business.

Lifetime value = what is your customer or client worth to you over the full period of time they will be buying your products or using your services.

When you’re able to work out an approximate lifetime value then you can decide how many new clients or customers you want the video marketing content to create for you.

Clearly factors such as extra advertising costs to generate traffic need to be factored into the equation as well.

And, this is a very simple way of working out a video content budget versus your potential ROI (return on investment) to make the marketing worthwhile.

Let’s say for example, that if one customer spends £500 a year on a vegan online supermarket store, then the lifetime value of that customer is £500 a year or £2500 over 5 years, etc.

If the video marketing content is used effectively over time and generates that’s say conservatively 10 new customers in one month, then this = £10,000 customer’s lifetime value in a year or £833 a month.

So from this simple equation if you had a video budget of £500 a month this would effectively be more than covered by generating only 10 new customers and producing £333 in profit.

Clearly, the goal would be to generate more over time and a video can be used over and over again and this is to give you a basic and easy guide only.

Factor in if you’re going to use organic or paid advertising and the time it will take you or a marketing manager to the optimise the campaign and you will start to work out an approx budget.

A key suggestion is not to spend money you don’t have available to allocate to a marketing budget.

There is no guarantee you will always get a ROI so be strategic with your budget and be aware there are always some calculated risks involved.

Do see a marketing budget as a necessity to invest and grow your brand and it is best to try to avoid trying to do it all yourself. Your time would be better spent managing your actual business and acquiring and liaising with clients.

How the Video is shot, edited and delivered dictates the budget

There are numerous ways to create a video and as stressed earlier it will come down to the script and idea.

Clearly writing a script within a sensible budget is key and to give you guide on this a video can be broken down into these different styles:

• A bespoke shoot, edit and delivery: This is the most expensive as it involves a crew to shoot original footage on location or in a studio with the client, actors, director. Budget range – £2,000 – £25,000+ (depending on complexity)
• Edit supplied or stock footage and delivery: No shoot required substantially reduces cost. Budget range – £500 – £5,000+ (depending on complexity)
• Caption or animated only, edit and delivery: Again no shoot required substantially reduces cost but complex 3D animation can be costly if required. Budget range – £1000 – £10,000+ (depending on complexity)
• Self shooting, editing and upload: If you have the skills and confidence to self shoot on your mobile phone or DSLR, edit and upload your final video then you can save on the cost but always remember to factor in your own time spent doing the work. Budget range – £100 – £1000 (depending on complexity)

Note all the above factored in basic costs for voice over usage and music clearance and it is an approx guide.

Again, it is advisable to work with a marketing videographer professional who has proven results and understands all of the above.

Professional videographers and producers will request what your budget is before proceeding with a production schedule, especially if you’re choosing A bespoke shoot, edit and delivery.
If the budget is deemed sufficient then from your script they will work out what’s required for every scene to produce the production schedule.

The production schedule provides an itemised plan of what will be shot, where, when and for how many days with the implications for production costs.

The supplied production schedule will be the blueprint for you to lock your actual budget.

In video content production, you pay for skill and experience and when required I will hire the camera crews I trust and have worked with previously to deliver the best work.

I have directed, produced and edited my own feature film and when it comes to client work the script idea, video style and budget are the three key factors I review to determine the work involved.

I do edit the Edit supplied or stock footage and delivery video versions regularly and these have grown in popularity since COVID 19 struck because filming on location with crews has not been possible.

The client conversation is the key to all of the above in determining the budget.
Once agreed, any additional work or revisions will be factored in so the client is fully aware of the scope of the video production and work.

Check out an example of a shoot done with the client and founder of CrazyBean.com that required a location shoot in London, stock footage post production edit, music clearance and simple on screen captions.

Remember to work within an agreed budget you’re comfortable with that includes some excess for any extras in production if required.

A video project needs a plan, which you can use as a roadmap to deliver the project on time and on budget. Planning a video project requires specific project management skills and also knowledge of the intricacies of creating a video.
Check out Smartsheet for Free to help you plan like a professional.

https://www.smartsheet.com/content-center/best-practices/project-management/project-management-guide

The 4 main points to plan your Video shot, edit and delivery are as follows:

• Work out how long the shoot will take on location
• Work out how long you need cast and crew to shoot the footage
• Work out how long the post production edit will take with revisions
• Work out how long it will take you to upload the final video to relevant platforms

Remember to work on your production plan in detail with your video producer so the shoot and post production goes smoothly and the creativity will flow.

I love doing interviews with stars for promoting film campaigns. It is a real buzz and works great. Matt Damon was in London doing promotional duties on The Bourne Ultimatum Home Entertainment release for Universal Pictures and we had a chance to get some great footage with him.

I’m proud of the fact I got a soundbite of Jason Bourne saying. “F&@KING ACTION-PACKED” to describe the franchise. Shame we couldn’t use it in the marketing campaign though but you can see it here for the first time.

When people hear the word video content marketing they tend to think of fancy tech equipment and it costs a lot of money. This is not always the case. These days you can create amazing video content on your smartphone to get great results.

Follow these best practices to get consistent and professional results:

• Stabilize your camera. Using a tripod to maintain a steady, static shot or purchase a handheld stabilizer to meet the same need.
• Strategically place your lights. Wrap your subject in light or use window light to avoid shadows on their face.
• Minimize noise & ensure sound quality. Invest in a decent microphone. To create a shotgun mic setup in an office studio use Sennheiser ME66, a shotgun clip, light stand, XLR cable, and Zoom H4N recorder.

There are several free video editing solutions you can download. I recommend Machete Video Editor Lite (Windows), Avidemux (Windows/Mac/Linux), and WeVideo (cloud-based).

For the more advanced editor Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Final Cut Pro.

A voiceover is the separate narration in a video content piece that is not spoken by the shown speaker. Voiceovers can be a very effective tool that can help make your content more relatable, emotional, and gets your message across clearly.

Remember that video audio is just as important as video visuals. To record a high-quality voiceover on your own or with a professional check out this link below.

You have to love Aardman stop-motion animation and they don’t come any better than the awesome Wallace & Gromit films. This campaign was an absolute joy to work on from start to finish and was kicked off with this 40″ TV spot.

The best part of the creative process was recording Tom Baker for the voice over. I have worked with a lot of voice-over artists and well-known actors but Tom was the funniest and most professional out of them all. He had the whole studio in tears of laughter for 2 hours solid.

So you have shot, edited, mixed and finished your video now what video file format should you use to deliver it online?

Consider how you will be distributing and delivering your video. For most video creators, .MP4 and H.264 are the best choice. It’s the preferred format for YouTube and Facebook, giving a mix of small file size and high quality. It’s commonly available on video cameras. It’ll also be playable on most devices.

Deciding on the best file format is based on your specific needs. Keep in mind your audience and how they’ll be watching your videos.

Choose a video file format based on three things: it’s purpose, the hosting location, and your audience.

The following video formats are recommended.

• H.264
• MP4
• AVI
• MOV
• FLV
• WMV

H.264
One of the most common, particularly for HD, is H.264. It’s one of the more efficient codecs, allowing smaller file sizes while retaining high quality as well as offering options for either lossless or lossy compression. It can be played on many different players and streaming services.

MP4
The .MP4 is probably the closest thing to a universal standard that currently exists. It can use all versions of MPEG-4 and H.264 and is compatible with a huge range of players. Videos using the .MP4 container can have relatively small file sizes while retaining high quality. Many of the largest streaming services, including YouTube and Vimeo, prefer .MP4.

AVI
One of the oldest and most universally accepted video file formats is .AVI. It can use an enormous range of codecs, resulting in a large variety of different file settings. While AVI videos can be played on a wide range of players, file sizes tend to be large making it less ideal for streaming or downloading. It’s a great option for videos you plan to store on a computer.

MOV (Quicktime)
Apple developed the .MOV container to use with its Quicktime player. Videos using .MOV generally have very high quality but fairly large file sizes. Quicktime videos don’t have as much compatibility with non-Quicktime players, though there are third party players that will read them.

FLV (Flash)
Made for Adobe’s Flash player, .FLV videos were very common for a number of years thanks to their very small file size and a wide range of browser plugins and third party Flash video players. There has been a significant decline in Flash videos recently.

WMV (Windows Media)
Windows Media videos tend to have the smallest file size, which makes them a good option if you need to send through email or other methods with file size limits. However, they come with a significant drop in quality. A common use for .WMV is emailing video previews to clients.

If all these formats are making your head hurt ask a professional videographer for advice or check online for more advice. See this useful link below for more info.

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/video-formats-for-the-web/

Piracy of films is a big issue and we created this pitch cinema AD creative to show why supporting any pirated films is a bad idea from an illegal and quality perspective. The Tom Cruise Sci-fi epic Oblivion was a great way to use the sci-fi theme and story of the film to highlight these issues to the public.

So how do you determine where to host your video online? There are a variety of choices nowadays.
Now you’re ready to start sharing your video with the world. Before you do, it’s important to put some thought into where you plan on hosting your video content.

As well as uploading and sharing your video content on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin based on your target audience, here are some of the best video specific platform options:

YouTube
YouTube is the largest video hosting platform, the second largest search platform after Google, and the third most visited website in the world and it’s free

Vimeo
Monthly audience: 130,000,000 visitors
Account types: free, Plus ($59.95/yr), PRO ($199/yr)
https://vimeo.com/

Wistia
A great video platform built specifically for businesses with free and paid subscription
https://wistia.com/

DAILY MOTION
Monthly audience: 100,000,000 visitors
Account type: free
https://www.dailymotion.com/

LIVE LEAK
Monthly audience: 45,000,000 visitors
Account type: free
https://www.liveleak.com/

BREAK
Monthly audience: 14,000,000 visitors
Account type: free
https://break.com/

META CAFE

Monthly audience: 12,500,000 visitors
Account type: free

Once your video goes live, the data will start rolling in. It is essential to measure the success of your video. What you do with this data is entirely up to you, though.

The Very Creativegan strongly recommends that you get in the habit of evaluating your video content post-launch to get a sense of what’s resonating, what’s falling flat, and so on.

Better to hire a video campaign marketing manager who will optimise your content and ad spend if you can afford one in your budget.

In this recent Zoom presentation with Ambition Growth Network (see link below)

Ambition Growth Network

I presented 8 TOP TIPS on How To Make A Great Movie Trailer and Marketing Content which focuses on The Power of Content Marketing and Storytelling.

I focused on the marketing campaign I creatively directed for Disney’s WALL.E.
Check out the link below for more essential and easy tips which can be applied to creating engaging content for your business.

Video accounts for over 78% of all engagement online now and will be at 82% in 2021. If you’re not using video content in your marketing strategy then you’re missing out on some serious eyes and interest in your brand and business.

However, you choose to use video the time is NOW! Do keep in mind that a successful video marketing strategy takes time, creativity, focus, and some mistakes to get it working just right. Video, like most other types of marketing content, is intended to be an exploratory creative medium.

So whether you’ve been reading this as a video novice wanting to learn more about how it can benefit your business. Or you’re a seasoned pro who wanted to research some TOP TIPS to DIY. Or whether you’re a client looking for a marketing solution provided by an expert marketer; REMEMBER video forms only one essential part of the whole to grow your business and I hope you have found this information of value.

Now let’s work and get creative. Your audience awaits.