When was the last time you watched a video online?

FACTS:

1. Is your business/fundraising doubling each year?

Mobile video consumption is. Each year, the number of minutes of video watched per day doubles. Video has become one of the most effective methods of marketing; helping countless companies reach more prospective clients. With the right messaging, video can help you create a market and demand for your brand that wouldn’t be possible without it.

2. Facebook videos get more than 8 billion views each day.

According to the Social Shepherd, over 100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook every day. Facebook videos get more than 8 billion views daily. If your company isn’t using video in your marketing strategy, you need to rethink your marketing strategy.

3. And 250 million hours of video are watched on YouTube every day!

YouTube has over 2.6 billion active users. It’s the largest video-sharing platform on the world, and users watch more than 250 million hours of video daily. There are countless statistics like this; the numbers are staggering.

There are so many videos out there; your video needs to be creative and innovative to cut through the noise.

Why Does It Matter?

Video provides incredible opportunities for organizations to get creative with their messaging. It allows you to bring your story to life, and share it in a way that really connects with people. More and more, consumers are looking for authenticity, and video is one of the best ways to be genuine with people.

Below are some tips to help you create meaningful videos. For those of you that already have experience in producing high-quality videos, the next step might be deciding whether to outsource future video needs or hire an internal videographer. We’ll go into more details below.

Where to start: video on your homepage.

All videos have different purposes. One particularly important kind is the video that lives on your website’s homepage. This video will help to:

1. Drive traffic to your website.
2. Inform your audience of your brand.
3. Share your mission with the world.
4. Humanize your brand by giving the viewer a face to associate with your organization.
5. Show your philanthropic side. We’re all in business (hopefully) to create opportunity, change the world, and make a positive impact. Share your story.

Videos need to pull on the heartstrings of your viewers.

They need to:

1. Evoke emotion.
2. Tell the story of your mission and how the work of your organization is changing lives in the community.
3. Find ways to incorporate humor and personality.

Video should be educational, inspirational, and emotional. If it’s just informational (without being educational, inspirational, or emotional), it won’t connect with your audience.

Additionally, storytelling is a key part of any video, whether you’re filming with a RED 8K $60,000 cinema camera or a $500 iPhone (although we always recommend aiming for higher-end video production). Have you ever watched Animal Planet and been captivated by how surreal the imagery is? Those are the cameras we shoot on. The video below was shot on a RED 8k camera.

TIPS

DO NOT: just create Q&A video where the subject speaks into the camera. BORING!

DO: Instead of filming Q&A, think of ways to turn a narrative into a story. Storytelling is a much more effective way to connect your viewer to your cause. This opens their hearts and helps them understand your purpose.  

OUR FAVORITE STORIES

Below are a couple of our favorite recent videos. What do you think they have in common? (They tell a story!)

OUTSOURCING TO A PRO VS HIRING SOMEONE FULL-TIME:

Ok, so creating a video is an easy decision. Now let’s decide who should shoot your video. How to effectively communicate your messaging can be a challenging task, especially if you don’t have prior experience. Below are some helpful hints and a few key things to consider when looking for a videographer.

1. EXPERIENCE

Whether you bring someone in as a full-time employee or outsource an independent videographer, the goal is to find a professional with experience. For example, all of the videographers that work on our full-time staff have previously shot documentaries, commercials, wedding videos, brand videos, and music videos. It’s important to make sure that you’re hiring someone well-rounded. Find out what projects your videographer has worked on in the past. Have they worked for companies that are similar to yours? Have they worked on TV shows or movies? Do they have experience filming and editing short-form videos for social media?

If you’re outsourcing to a pro, your videographer probably already has experience in working on different projects for multiple clients. This experience provides the ability to think outside the box. You want someone that understands your vision for each video.

2. COST

Video is expensive. So is paying a full-time employee. Most importantly, technology is continually improving, and “current” video equipment can quickly becomes obsolete. If outsourcing, it’s essential to hire someone who’s always investing in their craft and keeping up with technology. When you bring in a full-time videographer, you aren’t just paying a salary; you’re paying benefits, matching a 401(k) and supplying your videographer with equipment to keep up with technology. We invest in new video equipment every two or three years, and we help our videographers subsidize that cost, as your company will too, if hiring full-time. Popular modern cinema cameras include the RED 5K / 8K bodies, which alone run upwards of $40,000, not including lenses and audio equipment.

3. DEMAND

Your video demand will determine if it makes more sense to hire a full-time employee or to outsource your video needs. If you need to create weekly social media videos, it might make sense to have someone internal. On the flip side, we’ve seen 15-45 second social media videos perform just as well when shot on an iPhone. It adds a sense of realness to your brand, and shooting an iPhone documentary as a “behind-the-scenes” look of your brand can be well-received. Remember, not every video you’re producing needs to be production quality (although your primary “mission” / “about us videos should never compromise quality).

You might consider having fun with your internal videos with an intern/freelance videographer and outsourcing your big mission and commercial projects.  

Regardless of who you hire for video, remember that you’re paying someone to deliver a service. A professional videographer will make sure that you’re happy with the final product. You have a lot of lives to change, and there are powerful tools at your fingertips, so get started now. Don’t be discouraged by companies that might be further along than you; never compare someone else’s 100th step to your 1st.

So get out there and start creating!

Need help? Ready to work with a professional video company that will help bring your story to a larger audience? Contact us!