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How to convert more sales using video

How to Convert More Sales Using Video

A Comprehensive Guide

Does this look familiar?

The unseen cost of the Conversion Gap

The offer seems great, but when it comes to the actual purchase?

When the request for a sale feels more like a warning than a welcome?

I had this experience recently.

I was about to make a hefty B2B purchase for my business and the service in mind sent over a contract to sign. My minimal due diligence was to check companies house and go looking for social proof & reviews. 

I nearly didn’t sign up.

It took me some fishing around to find any social proof that felt independent from the gushing text quotes on the site (they’re good to have but they can’t be all you have). Finally I found some video testimonials on Facebook and their Trust Pilot page.

This is what your sales funnel looks like when trust is missing. You’ve attracted the right crowd, but without a solid bridge built on trust, they’ll never make it to the other side.

Trust is your bridge. Let me show you how to build it—plank by plank—so more of your prospects feel confident enough to take that final step toward conversion.

Spoiler Alert: It’s not just you. And it’s not about how hard you’re hustling.

The Cold, Hard Truth About Trust

Here’s a pill that’s tough to swallow: Only 3% of people trust sales or marketing professionals. Let that sink in.

In an age where consumers are bombarded with ads, pitches, and “limited-time offers,” trust has become the rarest commodity. Traditional sales tactics? They’re about as effective as a screen door on a submarine.

Why Your Best Efforts Might Not Be Enough

• Chatbots or live chat support? Nice touch, but not a game-changer.

• Quick lead follow-ups? Admirable, but still not tipping the scales.

• Free whitepapers and e-books? Generous, but often left unread.

• Active listening to customer needs? Essential, but expected.

Don’t get me wrong; these are all good practices. But they’re the baseline, not the differentiator.

The Emotional Underpinnings of Buying Decisions

Let’s cut to the chase: People buy on emotion and justify with logic later.

By the time a prospect talks to you, they’ve already emotionally decided whether they’re in or out. You’re either confirming their choice or fighting an uphill battle to change their mind.

The Harley-Davidson Phenomenon

Why does a middle-aged executive drop 50 to 100k on a Harley?

• Is it the engineering? Nope.

• The warranty? Hardly.

• Investment value? Try again.

They buy it because it symbolizes freedom and rebellion—a powerful emotional appeal. The logical reasons are just the wrapping paper on the real gift.

Enter Behavioral Science: Your Secret Weapon

Forget gimmicks and overused acronyms like EAST (Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely). Let’s dive into Robert Cialdini’s six principles from “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” This isn’t fluff; it’s the playbook for human behavior.

The Six Principles That Drive Trust and Action:

1. Reciprocity: We feel obliged to return favors.

2. Commitment and Consistency: We stick to what we’ve said we’ll do.

3. Social Proof: We look to others to decide how to behave.

4. Authority: We follow the lead of credible experts.

5. Liking: We are persuaded by people we like.

6. Scarcity: We want more of what we can have less of.

Warning: Use these ethically. Manipulation is a short road to a dead-end reputation. 

Learn to convert more using video

The Big Three: Your Focus for Maximum Impact

You don’t need to master all six principles to move the needle. Let’s zero in on the three heavy hitters that can transform your sales funnel:

1. Social Proof

2. Authority

3. Reciprocity

1. Social Proof: The Bandwagon with Room for More

Why It Works:

People are (present company excepted, of course) natural herd animals. In uncertainty, we look to others for cues on how to act.

How to Use Video to Amplify Social Proof:

• Customer Testimonials: Not the cheesy, scripted kind. Real people, real stories.

• Case Studies: Show tangible results, not just rosy anecdotes.

Here’s one of ours:

• User-Generated Content: Encourage customers to share their experiences.

Pro Tip: A testimonial video can boost your landing page conversions by up to 66% (Aberdeen Group). That’s not pocket change.

2. Authority: Be the Expert They Can’t Ignore

Why It Works:

We defer to experts because they offer a shortcut to decision-making.

How to Establish Authority Through Video:

• Thought Leadership Pieces: Share insights that only an industry insider would know.

• Expert Interviews: Borrow credibility by association.

• Webinars and Live Q&A Sessions: Engage directly and showcase your depth of knowledge.

Pro Tip: Quality matters. A well-produced video signals professionalism and, by extension, trustworthiness.

3. Reciprocity: Give to Get

Why It Works:

When someone gives us something, we feel a natural urge to reciprocate.

How to Leverage Video for Reciprocity:

• Free Training Videos: Solve a problem your audience faces.

• Exclusive Content: Offer insider tips or early access to new features.

• Personalized Video Messages: Go the extra mile to make a connection.

Pro Tip: Don’t gate everything behind an email capture. Sometimes, genuine generosity builds more goodwill.

The Viral Video Mirage

Hold up—aren’t viral videos the holy grail?

Sure, a viral hit can put you on the map, but it’s like buying a lottery ticket as a retirement plan. High risk, unpredictable reward.

The Workhorse vs. The Show Pony

• Show Pony (Viral Videos): Flashy, exciting, but unreliable.

• Workhorse (Strategic Videos): Steady, effective, and gets the job done.

Focus on the workhorse. Consistent, strategic content trumps one-hit wonders every time.

The Cost of Doing Nothing

Let’s talk numbers. If you don’t know your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), you’re flying blind.

Average CAC by Industry:

• SaaS: £200 – £500 per customer

• E-commerce: £10 – £30 per customer

• Retail: £10 – £50 per customer

• B2B Services: £1,000 – £5,000 per customer

Reality Check: Every unconverted lead isn’t just lost revenue; it’s money you’ve already spent that’s now wasted.

You might want to add some metrics to your thinking. Our conversion rate calculator takes less than a minute to complete. Maybe you’re doing great and don’t need to read the rest of this blog

Sales Conversion Calculator

Current Website

1%
6 Months

Current customers converted per month: 50 per calendar month

Current Conversion Rate Value: £0 per calendar month

Future Website

0%

Conversion rate total after optimisation: 1.00%

Customers converted per month after optimisation: 50 per calendar month

Monthly revenue increase after optimisation: £0 per calendar month

The Upside of a 1% Increase in Conversion

Imagine boosting your conversion rate by just 1%. The ripple effect on your bottom line is massive.

Your Action Plan: Turning Principles into Profit

Enough theory. Let’s get down to practicals (which I much prefer).

 

Implementing Social Proof Videos

Step 1: Identify your happiest customers—the ones who rave about you unprompted.

Step 2: Craft questions that elicit stories, not just praise (see the video for help on this):

Step 3: Produce high-quality testimonial videos (identify which ones need a production company like BFB)

Pro Tip: Authenticity over polish. A genuine story beats a slick production. Though it’s nice to have both!

Establishing Authority Through Thought Leadership

Step 1: Outline the topics where you can offer unique insights.

Step 2: Decide on formats—webinars, explainer videos, Q&As.

Step 3: Batch produce content to stay consistent without burnout.

Pro Tip: Repurpose content. A webinar can be sliced into blog posts, social snippets, and more.

Creating Reciprocity with Valuable Content

Step 1: Identify the pressing problems your audience faces.

Step 2: Create video content that offers solutions.

Step 3: Distribute widely and freely.

Pro Tip: High value is key. Fluffy content won’t cut it.

Breaking the Fourth Wall: Let’s Get Real

By now, BFB and me (Dave) writing this will likely appear more familiar to you than a generic video company. That’s expected.

Because: I’ve been using these exact principles on you throughout this guide.

• Social Proof? Check. (Remember the Unbounce stat?)

• Authority? You’re reading this because you believe I know my stuff.

• Reciprocity? I’ve given you actionable insights without asking for anything in return.

The Emotional Connection We’ve Built

Feeling that trust? That familiarity? That’s not an accident. It’s psychology in action.

And no, it’s not “gooey” or manipulative. It’s effective communication.

The Fork in the Road: Your Next Move

You have two choices:

1. Do Nothing: Keep getting the same results.

2. Take Action: Implement these strategies and watch your conversions climb.

If You’re Ready to Level Up

Pick the area that resonates most with your current needs:

• Social Proof Videos: Start collecting those testimonials.

• Authority Building: Plan out your thought leadership content.

• Reciprocity Content: Map out valuable resources you can offer for free.

Not sure where to start? Here’s a curated list of resources to kick things off.

Resources to Jumpstart Your Journey

Social Proof Mastery

• Guide: Crafting Questions for Powerful Testimonials

• Tool: Descript for Seamless Audio-to-Text Conversion

• Tips: Filming Branded Testimonials on a Budget

Authority Amplification

• Setup: DIY All-in-One Studio for Pro-Level Videos

• Performance: Presenting Like a Seasoned Pro

Reciprocity Done Right

• Simple Calculator: Help your prospects understand the numbers

• Engagement Strategies: Building a Community Around Your Content

Ready to transform your sales funnel and crush those conversion rates?

Here’s to your imminent success.

Sources:

• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

• The Conversion Code by Chris Smith

• Industry insights from Adobe, InVideo, Lumen5, Influencer Marketing Hub, and Unbounce

Disclaimer: Use these strategies responsibly. Building trust is about fostering genuine relationships, not tricking customers into a sale. Deliver on your promises, and the rest will follow.

Learn to convert more using video

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The best live streaming software for businesses

The best live streaming software for businesses

The Best Live Streaming Software for businesses

OBS vs Streamlabs Vs Streamyard Vsd ECamm

Going live is no longer harder than handing in homework you copied off of Encarta 96 at school and not getting caught. 

There are many options that allow you to put on live events to closed groups of people as well as broadcast to multiple platforms at the same time. 

To help you choose the best ones, we decided to list down some of the best live streaming software for businesses.  

Here’s our rundown of the platforms you should consider checking out for your next live event, video call or stream. 

1. OBS live streaming software

Key Features

• Free
• Stream from anywhere
• Connects to Skype
• Powerful customisation

OBS is a fantastic free live streaming software for businesses, which you can use for simple streams or super complex set ups to individual platforms. 

It lets you stream live to YouTube, Facebook, and a massive list of others too. 

You can connect it to video-calling platforms like Skype, and stream live interviews or even multi-guest webinars. 

Again, all of this can be done without spending a single penny!

OBS - The best live streaming software for businesses
The Layout of OBS:

OBS has a great layout.

Once inside, it allows you to build anything from a simple camera on-screen set up to multiple scenes with designs and overlays that boost your production to the next level.

Plus, once it’s all set up, running anything live becomes really easy. 

All you need to do is click on the scene you want to show, and you’re producing live video like a TV show.

OBS is the benchmark when it comes to live streaming software for businesses. 

Its almost unbelievable its free because there is pretty much nothing it can’t do on its own or combining it with other software when it comes to live streaming for businesses

 

Downsides of OBS:

• Set-Up: Although the software is simple, once inside, the initial set up is very confusing. 

There are multiple options, complex adjustments and customizations you can make, which if you’re a beginner, gets pretty hard to understand.

• Power: OBS is not for older computers as it eats up a lot of processing power.

• Requires other software: Another downside of OBS is that in order to stream on multiple platforms, you need to throw in more software. 

For instance, if you’re looking to live stream an interview on LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube, a the same time,  you’d need to hook up Skype to build the set and show in OBS. 

Then, you’d need to connect to other pieces of software like Restream which means more confusion than other options. 

2. Streamlabs OBS

Key Features:

  • Free version is ample
  • Simpler than OBS
  • Stream to multiple locations
  • Customization is powerful
  • On-screen animations built in
  • Dropshipping service for paid users.

For the more advanced streamers out there, Streamlabs might not be enough. But for an average business or creator who wants to start going live, this is a great entry point.

The Layout of Streamlabs: 
Streamlabs OBS - The best live streaming software for businesses
OBS vs Streamlabs: Layout similarities

Streamlabs has a layout similar to that of OBS. 

It assists you in branding your content through graphics and overlays, allows you to dial in guests from Skype, and you can stream to several platforms of your choice at once. 

OBS vs Streamlabs: Layout differences

Streamlabs is different from OBS in that it also allows you to receive tips, put an animated jar on the screen and add sponsored banners. 

You can also view counts, set up donation goals, and it lets you use a host of other animations that might increase engagement on your streams.

Paid Streamlabs Features: Is it worth upgrading?

Streamlabs enables you to stream to multiple platforms at once easily if you upgrade to the prime membership for 149 dollars a year. 

There are also more premium membership features you will gain access to. These will make your streams more look more interesting and professional. 

There’s also an app, and you get a website builder for your stream so you can promote it with a landing page. 

For me, the thing that makes it one of the most unique live streaming software options is the merchandise store the platform offers. 

If you get the prime membership you get access to a dropshipping store. You can then design T-shirts and merch, sell it to your viewers mid stream and they will make it and ship it for you. 

Pretty cool right?

The downside of Streamlabs OBS:
  • It is too basic for advanced streamers out there.
  • Some of its best features are not free

3. Ecamm

Key Features:

  • Easy to use.
  • Customizations
  • Overlays.
  • Pop-up chat boxes.
  • Stream Anywhere.
  • A 2 Week Free Trial.

The next streaming software you need to check out is Ecamm. 

To start off, Ecamm is only for Mac users (PC users may close their eyes now), and it has a two-week free trial you can enjoy before making the actual purchase. 

After the trial ends, it’ll cost you 20 dollars a month or 40 if you want to stream in 4k, and add virtual webcams, easy interviews and more. 

ECAMM - The best live streaming software for businesses

The Layout of Ecamm: Ecamm vs OBS: Similarities

Ecamm made our list of one of the best live streaming software options because of the ease with which you can set up live streams. 

You can dial in guests and share screens and videos, but the control process is more fluid than the other software mentioned on this list. 

You can also add up to 5 guests with Skype or interview mode, add overlays, play pre-recorded videos, and much, much more.

Ecamm vs OBS: What sets Ecamm apart?

Ecamm is easier to use than the other software in our list. 

Plus, you can add these very cool chat pop-up boxes to your videos. 

For instance, if someone messages you on Facebook, you can click on it, display it, and everyone will be able to see it. 

You can also use iGlasses to tweak your image set up and overall look.

Downsides of Ecamm:
  • It is a Mac-only tool.
  • Ecamm requires Restream in order to stream to multiple platforms, but then you can display comments from over 20 different platforms!
  • Ecamm has no free option after the 2-week trial is over.

4. Streamyard

Key Features:
  • Compatible with older PCs
  • Direct dial-ins for interviews
  • Overlays
  • Stream to 3 or 8 destinations

Streamyard is another handy live streaming software that comes with both a free and a paid version. 

The whole thing being browser-based means that you need very little power and don’t need to upgrade your computer before using it.

STREAMYARD- The best live streaming software for businesses

The Layout of Streamyard:

Streamyard has an easy user-interface, and with streamyard, you are saved from the hassle of dialling in to interviews via Skype like you are on OBS.  

Using Streamyard, you can send a direct link to join in a live, which people can follow to enter the system and appear in your stream. 

Plus, you can have up to 10 people on screen at once! 

This can then be streamed to all of the major platforms at once. 

However, you’re left with a watermark on the free version.

Streamyard vs OBS and other software: Paid features that set Streamyard apart

Step up to the paid version of Streamyard, and you can get 10 people on screen to interview at once. 

You can start adding overlays and streams to 3 different destinations for 20 dollars a month. 

But if you want to go nuts, you can stream to 8 destinations and 1080p for 39 dollars a month.

Similar to Ecamm, the paid version of Streamyard lets you display chat boxes from all of the destinations you’re streaming to. 

Downsides of Streamyard:
  • The free version has a watermark if you stream to multiple platforms.
  • Add-ons, overlays and a few excellent features come with the paid version.

5. The Best Live Streaming Software for businesses: Summary

 

OBS – Gives you tons of freedom with the set-up and allows you to do pretty much anything, from amazing set designs to adding videos, guests and customizations. 

But you might need multiple pieces of software and a lot of patience if you want to use it to its finest.

Streamlabs OBS – Streamlabs OBS has fun animations, but they work more for the creators than for the businesses. 

Saying that, paying to stream to multiple platforms makes it easy keeping everything under the same roof. 

Plus, the fact that it enables you to monetize your stream is awesome for individual streamers.

Ecamm- For businesses using Macs, Ecamm is an awesome tool, and the add on of comments is an excellent feature. 

You can do this with others too, but that requires third-party software.

Streamlabs- For those who want to make life super-easy when it comes to multiple platforms and multiple guests, Streamlabs is perfect!

Bonus Tool: Restream

It would be wrong to end without talking about Restream when we have already mentioned it a couple of times in the blog post.

Restream is a tool you’ll need for Ecamm and OBS to stream to multiple platforms at the same time, and with just the free versions, you can stream to 30 different platforms at once. 

It’s simple to use and quick to set up. You just need to add a stream key to your software, which their video tutorials will show you how to do. 

RESTREAM REVIEW

This marks the end of our handy list of the best live streaming software available for business. 

Just think about your needs and requirements, and you’ll be able to choose the one perfect for you.  Need more help? 

Check out this video about how to set up a professional live stream. 

Go read the rest of our blog for video marketing tips, video making tools and other helpful video-related information! 

And subscribe here to our YouTube channel where we post 3 videos a week to help you grow your own YouTube Channel.

 

For us it has to be ECamm, especially after their recent updates. It’s easy to use, powerful and the customisation and interview modes are outstanding. 

Streamyard is easy to use, browser based, gives you the ability to interview people all around the world easily and has all the customisation most will need

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How to make an interview video for your business

How to make an interview video

How to Make an Interview Video? - A Detailed Business Interview Video Guide

A business interview video adds a flair of individuality to your story, but many people struggle to make one that sounds real and spontaneous. 

Today, we plan to tell you how to make an interview video by taking you through these three steps one-by-one: pre-production, production, and post-production.

The Need for Business Interview Videos

Before we get started on how to make an interview video, here are a few ideas where you might need one for your company:

  • In a testimonial
  • For a case study
  • You may get a chance to interview an influencer or expert related to your niche

You may even have several possible interviewees from which you’re going to cut the best one or a montage. 

Whatever the situation, your business interview video should focus on making the interviewees look great. And at the same time, it should collect the sort of insights that will surprise and engage your audience.

How to Make an Interview Video to Impress your Audience

You can make such videos easily if you know what you’re doing. However, if you don’t know how to make a good interview video, you might end up producing something no one will want to watch. 

To save you from errors in pre-productions, production and post-production stages, we’ve laid out each section for you separately in detail. Let’s dive into the correct ways of making an interview video!

Pre-production Stage of your Business Interview Video

This stage is where you lay down the foundation of your video interview. If you don’t prep well, you might fail in the production stage completely. So, read carefully through all these things you need to do in the pre-production process of your business interview video:

 

  • Correctly Approaching the Desired Result

If you’re looking to make a good interview video, you need to have a clear picture of what you want to achieve. Keeping your goal in mind, and working out the steps to achieve it is called reverse engineering.

So, before the interview, you need to reverse engineer the results you’re trying to get. If the information you’re focusing on is all about how brilliant a new product or service is, you’re not going to get anything authentic or evn mildly interesting. Everything will be meaningless, sugar-coated sound bites obtained from asking, “Why is this (whatever it is) so amazing?”

Therefore, you must look for real insightful information. Let’s see how you can add information and a touch of realness to your business interview videos:

 

Avoid result directing your talent!

If you’re looking to make a good business interview video, you need to avoid this trap our directing mentor, Tony, warned us against plenty of times.

What do we mean by “result directing your talent?”

It means don’t expect someone to know or anticipate the end result you’re looking to have in the final cut.

 

Get rid of leading questions.

In situations like this with an interviewee, you need to avoid asking questions that have answers implied; “Can you tell me a bit about how brilliant I am?” is obviously a leading question, and there are no prizes for guessing how the interviewee will reply. And it isn’t going to be surprising or even vaguely genuine to an audience who is after some authenticity.

 

Plan your business interview video to sound like “Just another chat”.

Although interviews are contrived, the result is supposed to come across as “just a chat” that happened to provide some insights relevant to the viewer. The more your video appears spontaneous to the audience, the better they’ll like it.

 

 

  • Formulating Questions for a Business Interview Video

We’ve already talked about how it’s crucial that you don’t let the thought of your result make your video boring and useless. We’ve also mentioned how you need to stray far away from implied questions. So, that leaves us with the open-ended questions!

 

Why do we need to ask open-ended questions?

In order to add authenticity to your video, you’ve got to formulate questions that allow your talent a certain amount of freedom. There are two benefits of doing that:

  • Your interviewee will become less self-conscious.
  • They will give spontaneous answers better than the “result” you have in mind.

Just invite them to unload their version of the events, and get out of the way!

 

A list of video interview questions to help you out!

Here’s a list of questions we always ask in our business interview videos to give you an idea of what we mean:

  1. “Help me set the scene, what was happening before all this started?”
  2. “Is there a single thing you could put your finger on that made you choose this?”
  3. “Did anything really surprise you?”
  4. “How did that make you feel?”
  5. “What would you say to someone else who was in the same position as you to start with?”

 

Ask follow-up questions to keep your talent on track.

By making your questions open like the above examples, your interviewee will answer in surprising ways which will make your business interview video engaging. However, if you see them going off on a tangent, ask a follow-up question that repeats the query for the second time in a new way, for example, “Ok-so, is that how it made you feel?”

 

 

A word of warning: DO NOT SHARE QUESTIONS BEFOREHAND WITH YOUR SUBJECT. Even if your subject is nervous and begging you for the questions saying they need preparation, don’t give in.

If you don’t know how to reassure your clients, here are a few things that might come in handy:

  • Tell your subject you plan to ask everything straight out of their experience.
  • Reassure them that the interview will be like a chat and your only aim is to make them recall what they already know
  • Make sure they understand that there are no “gotcha’s” and you only plan to make them look good (don’t kid yourself; this isn’t journalism).

You don’t want your perfectly good business interview video ruined with canned answers manicured to within an inch of their lives. So, whatever you do; don’t give them the questions!

 

 

Keep your business interview video under 15 minute.

If your footage exceeds 15 minutes, you probably haven’t prepped those questions well. You should have 5 or 6 core questions at most for your interview video, and then you may allow for follow-up questions or questions to keep your subject on track. 

Don’t forget to mention how long it’ll take because everyone is busy, and need to go about their lives.

 

Selecting a Location for your Video Interview

The next thing to negotiate and prep for is the location. 

Wherever possible, arrange a space that reflects the subject matter, and the talent’s world to give your audience some vital but subtle context. For example, if you’re interviewing a teacher, you should have them in a classroom with desks, tables and a whiteboard out of focus behind them.

However, if you look at it more generally, here’s what an ideal location should have:

  • A good interview set ought to be quiet (ideally-but not always)
  • It ought to allow control of overhead lightning (which is usually awful), and crucially for it to not resemble an interrogation room.
  • It should have some depth behind the interviewee. Nothing says claustrophobia better than some poor sod rammed up against a breeze block wall.

Production Stage of your Business Interview Video

On the production day, you need to have your camera, audio, lights and interviewees ready to make it successful. We’ve noted a few recommendations for your benefit below:

 

  • The Best Lenses for your Video Interview

We’d highly recommend that you use either the Canon nifty 50mm or a similar sharp 35mm or 85mm prime lens for filming your business interview video. 

Even in natural window light, you can drop the background out of focus, and your subjects will pop!

Keep in mind the distance your camera needs to be from your talent before selecting your lens. If you want a mid-shot or a medium close-up from a 50mm, you’ll need to be 3-4 metres away. Suddenly, you need quite a big room!

 

  • Lights Adjustment for your Video Interview

If you’ve got natural lights streaming in through your windows, make a choice depending upon whether the light is likely to change much or not. 

You’ll need bright sunshine or really overcast, and nothing in between for the natural lighting to work well. 

And for the in-between option, go with closing down the curtains, and using your lights so that you won’t need to reset your camera or lights midway through the interview.

A few other light settings you can use for better results are:

  • Motivated lights. When you use a more power artificial light to strengthen where the light is coming from already, you call it a motivated light. So, if there’s a bit of natural light coming from one side of the room, you should ideally have your key-light on that side too.
  • Practical lights. You call it a “practical light” if it’s in the shot. This light, like a desk lamp three or four metres away, isn’t actually going to be putting any light on the side of your subject’s face, but if you add some lighting from that angle as if it were, you’ll make the space deeper and far more richer for your viewer. It’s a classy little touch that’s nice to have once you’ve got all the basics in place.
  • Make for the lack of ambient light. If there’s not enough ambient light bouncing around, one side of your subject’s face might be dark. You don’t want your subject looking dangerous, so add your fill on the darker side too!
  • Audio set up for your Business Interview Video.

For audio, our best advice is that you consider using a shotgun mic and an overhead boom pole instead of a lav. There are two reasons why we’re advising that:

  • There’s something intrusive about putting a lav mic on someone when they don’t really know you.
  • With a lav mic, there’s always a risk of sound interference if your subject’s clothing rubs up against it despite best efforts.
  • Dealing with your Subject on the Production Day

Soothe their nerves.

On the production day, assume you’ll be juggling the nerves of your subject. They probably won’t tell you that they’re nervous, but it’ll be on their mind nevertheless.

Giving them some information about your plan can calm them down a great deal. Tell your subject where you plan to set up and how long you’ll be.

Set up before they arrive.

If you don’t know how to make an interview video successful, let us make it clear that keeping your talent at ease will help a great deal in this regard.

Ideally, you should do all the set up without your subject present because it wastes their time. Plus, this process can make anyone feel really self-conscious, so it’s better to test your lighting set-up on a colleague or an assistant. If you’re by yourself, record some bits and watch them back to see how they’re looking.

Spell out the process for your subject.

Once you’ve invited your subject to sit down, let them know how the process works; we film our business interview videos down the barrel of a camera, but the traditional style is to film someone talking to the interviewer. So, decide the video style you want, and make sure your talent knows where to give their answers.

Take care of their needs before rolling.

Other than everything mentioned above, make sure they have water to drink. After a bit of small talk, let your subject know you’re going to start rolling and fire away with those questions!

Post-Production Stage of your Business Interview Video

Hopefully, you’ve gathered some good stuff up till now. However, we also have a few tips to make the editing process quick and effective.

  • Have Text in Timeline

In the timeline, give yourself some text chunks with the questions written down. These will help you in cataloguing all the answers correctly. Afterwards, you can listen through and cut out all the waffle and outtakes. As you’re going through them, look for a killer statement that can act as a pivot for the beginning. It’s usually clear when you hear it, but you may have a few options too.

  • Start with an Intriguing Statement.

To make a good interview video, you want your viewers to hear something compelling or even cryptic in the beginning, as long as the meaning becomes clear later. It makes them think it’s new information, and they’re more likely to keep watching.

  • Make the most of your Subject’s Network.

Your subject will likely be showcasing their narrative and brand among their people. So, when it comes to distribution, you can often use the network of your interviewee. They’ll put your work in front of a different audience for you.

Put your Knowledge of How to Make an Interview Video to Good Use!

If you’ve stuck with us till now, you now have all the tips to make your business interview video a hit. Sticking with us turned out to be useful, no? 

So, why not stay with us a little longer and check out this video on the best studio lens for beginners which will give an in-depth look at the 50mm we mentioned earlier, and of course, subscribe to our YouTube channel because we’ve got channel growth covered from production to strategy. 

Also read our blog after you’ve made that video of yours!

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How to make a marketing video for your business

how to make a marketing video

How to Make a Marketing Video for your Business or Product

Start with filming anything you want and then upload it. What could possibly go wrong?

If you’re not willing to go ahead with that “Russian roulette” version of creating a marketing video for your business or product, then you need to learn the proper way. 

And that’s the plan for this post. We will tell you how to make a marketing video that will not only bring in tons of prospects but buyers too.

 

What is a Marketing Video?

Let’s start with the basics.

“A Marketing Video is one you use for promotional purposes. When you’re using a video to spread the word about your business or product, that video is your marketing/promo video.”

Although there’s no formula or a spell that can teach you immediately how to make a marketing  video; there is a craft, a framework that you can put your ideas into to get great outcomes.

How to make a Marketing Video?

No matter how large or small your ambitions are, the best thing to do with any piece of video communication, including marketing video, is to break it down into three stages:

  • PRE-PRODUCTION
  • PRODUCTION
  • POST-PRODUCTION

Doing this means you have a higher chance of ending up with something you want, instead of something that resembles a dropped mince pie.

1. Select the Audience for Your Marketing Video - Pre production

So, where does this bit of comms sit within your marketing strategy? If you don’t have one or maybe that’s a bit above your pay grade, then think about it this way:

Whatever you’re communicating needs to sit somewhere in the sales and marketing funnel. 

We’re going to assume that your marketing video is going to be somewhere near the top of your funnel, either building awareness or helping with consideration.

Note: Any communication can inadvertently talk to audiences that are in different stages of the buying cycle, but you don’t want to be making anything that is trying to talk across these stages deliberately. 

Or it’ll be a big pile of mush that addresses no one in particular.

If we haven’t lost you till now, hang in there. Here’s an explanation of both of these categories in detail so you can decide your audience:

 

 

An awareness video sits right at the top of your funnel, connecting you directly to the world and is knowingly promotional. It’s for those potential prospects who don’t know you from a bar of soap (or chocolate, if you like that better). It’s clear that you need to give this audience a reason to care about your product or service. However, how you do it is very different from the later stages of the buying cycle.

 

 

These videos sit further down the funnel. There the prospects already know you, and maybe need your product or services already. It’s the consideration part of your funnel, and communication here should be less promotional, and more about overcoming objections, or answering questions. This space is about building more trust.

2. Structure your Marketing Video Properly for your Audience

Now that you’ve decided what level of familiarity your audience is at with your business, it’s time to help you through the structuring stage, so you know how to make a marketing video targeted at the right audience.

 

 

We structure this type of comms by the way of PROBLEM/SOLUTION. Define the problem for your target audience as clearly and uniquely as possible, and then present yourself as the solution. Make the definition stage fun, surprising, arresting, dangerous or whimsical; whatever you do, don’t play it safe.

Keep in mind that these prospects are not ready to buy, but they may need you in the future. Make your product or service already more familiar by making an awareness marketing video for your business. Now, if an event occurs that makes them ready to buy, they’ll come straight to you.

Here’s a fun explanation to clarify! Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes for a moment (literally). No one’s interested in a raft of superior features and benefits that are in a pair of Nikes if they’re not ready to buy a pair of running shoes yet. 

But running shoes do wear out. In the meantime, being reminded of Nike by way of inspirational ads – (and yes Colin Kaepernick) keeps them in mind for the time they do need a new pair. It may seem obvious now that we’ve broken it down, but that’s what’s going on at the big end of town.

The idea might sound manipulative, but it only is if you’ve got a product that can’t deliver. The same applies to every level of marketing.

 

A few ideas to help you define the problem:

Working out how to define the problem for your promo can take a lot of work, but it’s worth it. We’re listing down a few ideas, so you know how to make a marketing video that your audience finds relatable.

1 – Use a metaphor of some sort. “The problem is like slaying a dragon!”- Use something better than that. That’s just a metaphor to show you what we mean by “a metaphor.”

2 – Use a historic quote or reference.

3 – Use a statistic or scientific rationale as seen on every cleaning product ever, for good reason too.

4 – Use an absurd interruption. It relies on exceptional talent to pull it off, or just a decent voice artist with a well thought out script.

5 – Use an anecdote or a true story

However, you choose to define the problem, don’t forget to present your service or product as the perfect solution.

 

  • Structuring a trust-building video

Your prospects are already considering you among others, now what?

You don’t need to sell here anymore, but you do need to give answers. This video is for those features and benefits-more like a website video than a social media video. It’s the perfect place for your case studies and testimonials.

Another fun explanation: Put yourself back in the shoes of your prospect. You go to a store to buy a pair of shoes, and the assistant tries to inspire you by running in slow motion in front of a wind machine screaming, “Just do it!” It’s not going to “do it”, you need more information. 

You need to know the size and weatherproofing.

3. Select the Tone and Style of your Marketing Video

  • To make a brilliant video for marketing, you need to keep everything targeted at your selected audience. And that includes the style and tone as well.

    If you know your audience is fed-up to the back of the teeth with melancholy ads about planning their will, then take a risk! Talk about the death of a loved one through whimsical medium and nursery rhymes.

    Decide if it’s for internal comms or is it a public-facing?

    Internal comms messaging can be acceptable on a phone or a laptop. The audience is generally more forgiving of the low production. However, unless you’re making a feature of it somehow, the same trick will appear cheap to anyone at the top of your funnel.

    But we recently got a phone-shot welcome video, and although it wasn’t personally addressing us, it was just spontaneous enough to feel like it was. So, as always, there are exceptions that prove the rule.

4. Choose the Type of Marketing Video you Want

Some of your options for professionally shot videos are:

  • Talking Head Video: This video involves an interviewee or an expert talking to the camera, and this is where the main action lies.
  • Live-Action Video: For more ambitious projects, live-action videos cover everything from a phone-shot time-lapse to cinematic epics. Basically, anything that involves real people in real locations. Live-action videos also include cinematic testimonials and case study videos.
  • Kinetic Typography Videos: In this marketing video, you pair up your text and motion to present a particular idea.
  • Flat-Lay Video: When you’re capturing an array of objects from above, it’s called a flat-lay video. These videos are popular on Instagram.
  • Doodle or Animation Videos: These videos are especially handy if you are looking to explain something in detail with illustrations.

5. Begin from Where your Audience Is

In order to make sure your audience stays with you, you need to start from where they are. Otherwise, they’re going to feel out of place.

If you know your audience, you’ll know what they know already. Make a list of information you want your audience to take away from the video. 

This strategy will help you understand what sort of supporting material you might need-a next video, a sign-up or a booking form, perhaps the better laid out graph you mentioned in the video.

6. Choose a Distribution Platform for your Marketing Video

To make a marketing video that sells, you need to polish it for the right platform. Distributing your video over the right platform ensures that your message or product information reaches the audience you’re targeting. 

We believe YouTube offers the best way to get found by the right audience and has, by far the largest data-set and audience on the planet.

If your video led strategy has YouTube at its core, we believe that’s the best medium for the long-term placement of your content anyway. So, it’s always going to be a platform to consider.

7. Prepare a Script according to your concept.

Now that you have confidence in the concept, it’s time to tell you how to make a marketing video spontaneous and unexpected. All those videos that leave you surprised, they’re scripted that way.

If you’re using talent, they will need to work to a script and to have some direction on the sort of content you’re making-which you’ll know inside out if you’ve followed everything up to now. 

So, your talent will be expecting props, a list of shots, and a short description of the outcome you need.

If it’s down to you or your team, then the same thing applies but in that case-you’re the talent. No doubt, you’d want everything organized too.

And that is why the pre-production process of making a marketing video is so important, right from selecting a target audience level, to creating a perfect script to make your video seem natural.

Production: Put that planning to good use

Production should be the shortest part of the process if you’ve done all the pre-production well. We’ve got an entire channel dedicated to production basics if you’re ready to dive in and do it yourself. If not, all the pre-production planning will mean that the professionals you work with can get productive and creative because you’ll be able to provide all the ammo they need.

We told you the production stage is going to be short. Of course, there’s more to production than that, but covering every possible production type in this blog would make it too long, and we’re sure you’re too busy binge-watching your show to read all that.

Post production: Edit, repurpose and share

Once you’ve made your marketing video, get it ready for the prime time. That involves editing, repurposing, and sharing it on the right platforms.

Edit and Repurpose your Promo to fit different Platforms

If you’ve read the blog till now, you know how to make a marketing video. However, making a marketing video successful depends highly on the post-production process. And that starts with editing it for every platform.

Editing a promo is different from other kinds of editing, so if you’re not experienced; this isn’t the place to start. Have a look at outsourcing if you’ve done everything yourself up to now.

All that research of the pre-production process should now form part of supporting content:

  • For YouTube, put key-terms in your title, tags, and a description with the key-terms in the first three lines.
  • Instagram can take a 1-min version of your video.
  • Any platform can take a provocative, playful or intriguing 10-second grab.
  • If you’re feeling down “With the Youth” then maybe you should make a version for TikTok as well.

8. Share your Content Multiple Times

Make sure when the video goes live, you share it multiple times. 

The first 48 hours are always crucial to help any new content get the lift-off. Give it the best chance it can have by sharing it on your business page on any platform and then, with a different spin on your personal page.

If you’ve segmented your email lists, then include your promo video on the one that fits the audience best. 

Remember, promotional videos are background noise to most people when building awareness, but they’ll tolerate them if they’re in your buying set.

Note: Sending a promo to an email audience that already has your product is going to appear a bit obnoxious. So, be careful about who gets to see it.

And that’s a Wrap!

Now you know how to make a marketing video, right from the pre-production stage to the post-production stage. If you’re looking to grow your channel, check out this video about how to promote your videos on social media. Don’t forget to check the rest of our blog too!

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How to make the best talking head videos

how to make the best talking head videos

10 tips for creating the best talking head videos​

‘Urgh’ can often be a reaction when people watch talking head videos. There are a few reasons for this.

– The participant comes across nervous and too staged
– There are not enough visual queues and stories to hold viewers attention
– The content lacks energy and the structure kills engagement

We’ve taken some of the most important lessons learnt after creating over 5000 talking head videos for small businesses and have put them in the blog below.

Read on to find out how to overcome these common issues and make the best talking head videos.

1. Ditch the script – be a presenting head, not a reading head.

Firstly, you want to ditch the script. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t write one. You need to make sure you present instead of read.

Scripts can often cause people to become lazy as they feel they have done the hard work, but delivery is 50% of the battle when it comes to making the best talking head videos.

Presenting is a device you need to use to make sure your script sinks in and resonates with your viewer. That means you’ll need energy and confidence.

Getting this right will instantly give you more credibility, hook your viewer and make the whole experience more pleasurable for everyone.

What about an AutoQueue?

The danger of reading from an autocue is once again you rely too heavily on the script to do the hard work.

The good thing is you don’t have to try to remember what to say, but you do have to follow words on a screen which still requires a level of concentration. Without a tonne of practice, this will distract you from focusing on what counts, your energy and style.

What’s the solution?

Try presenting from bullet points. We often find that because people know the content already, once they are in the zone, they talk to the viewer in the same excited manner they would speak to a client or prospect. This can make all the difference.

The need to try and remember suddenly vanishes because deep down, you won’t need lines if you’re an expert in your subject.

That’s all well and good, but how do you present with energy? Read on to number 2.

2. Use Panto Mode – The secret to presenting like a pro

To come across as human, genuine and utterly spontaneous in your talking head video then you need to try Panto Mode.

Panto mode is a device which will banish the fear from your eyes and make you look like you’ve been presenting for years.

How to pull off Panto Mode

To get this right, you need to project at 120% of the level you usually would. More expression, more exaggerated body language, longer pauses, basically like you would if you were the lead in a pantomime.

To start with it’s going to feel very forced and unnatural. The key to getting this right is to film yourself presenting the same line, multiple times with different levels of energy.

When you watch the line back, you’ll notice just how hard it is to look ridiculous on video.

The camera sucks so much life out of us that we’ve got to put a lot back in.

3. Be prepared to fail

As adults, we are not used to doing things that are entirely out of our comfort zone. We tend to have worked out what we do and don’t like doing earlier in life and stick to that.

Presenting your talking head video tends to fall into the gap of things we don’t like doing because it means failing at something which again, as adults, is something we try to avoid.

The best way to approach doing a talking head video is to go into it thinking that you’re not going to get it right on the first take. And trust us, you won’t!

If you prepare to fail, you are already one step closer to making the best talking head videos. And you never know… you might even enjoy it.

4. Chunks

So, you’ve got to talk to the camera for 90 seconds, but you’ve taken our advice and have ditched reading a script. How on Earth do you remember everything? Well, you break it into chunks.

You present sentence by sentence. Every time there’s a new piece of information you cut, you move the camera further away or closer to you, and you start again.

Watch the videos on this page, we do it in all of them.

Why does chunking work so well?

It’s effective for a few reasons. Chunking like this wakes the viewer up. It keeps the energy high, and there’s a good chance your viewer will keep watching for longer.

It also enables you to spend time on the delivery of each line. You can put more emphasis on different words, speed it up and slow it down and make sure your delivery is nothing short of fantastic.

5. Talking head video length

Talking heads are a simplified form of digital communication. Basically, keep it short.

If you’re making a promo don’t go above 90 seconds. Ideally, 40 seconds.

For educational videos, you can go longer as long as don’t keep repeating yourself and waffle on.

It needs to be as short as you can make it while delivering the most concise information.

Unless, of course, you are selling quantum physics to toddlers. In which case, you can go on for longer…

6. Text and Imagery

Just standing there talking to a camera can be an uninspiring experience.

You need to add text and imagery to back up what’s being said.

The fantastic thing about putting text up on the screen is that it’s impossible not to read. When people see, listen and read they suck up all your information like a sponge.

Adding text and graphics to a video will also make it easier for your audience to understand your message and bring the whole project to life.

For us, it’s a great chance to use humour and tell more of a story.

7. Master your intro with a shoppers pivot

You’ve got to put the most effort into your introduction. People are browsing, and they’re so uninspired by most of what they are watching as they do this.

The trick is to slap them around the chops with something interesting to get them going.

We call this a shoppers’ pivot. It could be a metaphor, to sum up the whole message of the video up in a visual way or just something that makes the viewer go ‘Where’s this going?’ by intriguing them.

It could also be a story which is relevant to the point your entire video is making.

Stories help us engage with information and picture what is being said which helps us understand it better.

The intro is where we spend the majority of time helping our clients because if you don’t hook someone, they won’t get very far.

Here’s an example of a great shoppers pivot. 

8. Multi-Person Talking Head Video

We’ve found that the quickest way to raise the energy of your video is to use lots of team members and to cut between them during the conversation.

It becomes more of an experience for your viewer and also enables you to get more of the team involved which subtextually shows off your culture.

And a well-synced team looks like a well-run business.

9. Entertain

If you’re planning on being very matter-of-fact and just telling people precisely what it is that you do (in a particularly dull tone), then they’re not going to watch any further.

A talking head video is an opportunity to show off your brands personality. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling bins or software, spending the time to make something more entertaining will pay dividends.

Using the shopper’s pivot device from the previous point will create a feeling of entertainment straight away.

From there all you need to do is deliver the content with energy, avoid all waffle and deliver new information after new information.

Do this, and you’ll stand talking head and shoulders above your competition. (See what we did there)

10. Logo

Sorry to break this to you but your logo is not every viewer’s dream.

Yes, branding is important, but if your logo and corporate intro lasts more than 2 seconds, you have already lost your viewers attention.

Your video should have a thumbnail image which lets the viewer know when they hit play, this is the content they will receive straight away, we call it a promise. “I promise to you that this video is about x”

A Long animated logo flash is not part of that promise, or any viewers wish list.

If you do go this route, check the average viewer duration of your video and make sure you’re not losing 20% of people before you even get started.

11. The loop

The Loop is the ultimate ending to a talking head video. But what is it?

The loop is at the end of your video and it refers back to the shopper’s pivot you used at the start.

The result of a loop is closure. Think about the feeling you get at the end of a movie when it doesn’t end as expected but surprises you and somehow makes the whole film more enjoyable.

You can give people that same feeling with a talking head video.

How to use a loop?

Firstly you need to have a shopper’s pivot (Check out point 7 if you skipped it).

All you do is make an absurd reference back to that pivot at the end of the video.

This is the place to have a little fun and to make the viewer smile. Getting this right will make it clear you not only put the care and effort in to your content but that you care enough about providing your viewer with an experience. Your competition in comparison will seem stale.

How to make the best talking head video summary

If you jumped to the end or only read part of this vlog, then this summary will hopefully make it clear what the most critical components of a talking head video.

1. The content
2. The delivery
3. The Intro – Shopper Pivot
4. The outro – Loop

Spend time on these sections to make the best talking head videos.

You might have guessed it, we make talking head videos. Check out our video selection pathway to discover how other businesses have been using this style of video to get results right here.

Frequently Asked Questions 

 

The best camera for talking head videos is something that you find easy to use and that doesn’t stop you from making videos.  We would recommend a DSLR, Mirrorless or Cinema Camera for the best results and depth of field. Check out the Sony A7, Sony a6500, Sony a6400

To make more interesting talking head videos you should use B-roll, text, graphics, storytelling and all of the things listed in this blog. We’ve spent 6 years trying to make talking head videos more interesting and these are the ways in which we do it. 

A talking head video is simply someone talking to the camera. They are often looking at the camera as they talk but it could also be an interview format. Talking head videos are very common on YouTube and social media platforms. 

To shoot a talking head video you need a mic, lights and a camera for the best looking results. Just using your phone is ok but because talking head videos are often quite plain, making them more visually appealing will help keep the viewer interested. 

Editing talking head videos is all about working out how to make a simple piece to camera more interesting. Add text, images, graphics and cuts to make your videos more gripping. Most editing software can do all of these things. 

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How to make a personalised sales video using Soapbox

how to make personalised sales videos

How to Make Personalised Sales Videos: An Actionable Guide using Soapbox by Wistia

People prefer personalised offers unless it’s used gym socks, in which case they probably want to keep their weird habits to themselves and buy anonymously online. But for everything else, you’re golden.

That is why we’ve made this post to help you learn how to make personalised sales videos using a tried and tested tool “Soapbox by Wistia”. In this post, you will learn how to set up Wistia for the first time, how to record, add your video in your email and use its various perks to give life to your otherwise boring video sales pitch. So, what are you waiting for? Read this post!

What is Personalised Video?

A personalised video is one that is used for introductions and pitching; it looks like it’s authentic and made up on the spot. It can be, but often, it’s not. These videos, which are specifically for an individual viewer, are designed to make them feel special, and as far as our experience goes, that’s exactly what they do!

How important is Personalised Video Content?

Before telling you how to make a personalised video sales pitch that will attract clients like a bee towards a flower, let’s establish why personalised video content is so important.

In a sea of mass automation in the marketing space, it can be really tough to stand out as an individual salesperson. But the good news is, it’s not just a profitable offer people are after but a personalised one. 

According to a survey by the Aberdeen Group, 75% of people prefer personalised offers.

And what could be more personalised than a video made just for a single person!

The benefits don’t stop there. If you’re looking for how to make a video introduction, listen to us and make a personalised one. 

Because in one survey, Vidyard found that using this kind of video as a first touchpoint had a 216 per cent higher response rate. 

Also, that the personalised video gets watched by more than just the person they’re intended for –  they were sending them around to other people in the decision-making team.

Thus, personalised video sales pitches are not only a perfect first impression on your client but also make the decision-making process of your clients much more convenient.

How to Make a Personalised Sales Video Using Soapbox by Wistia

Many tools in the market can help you make a personalised video. But it’s time to introduce you to our special weapon in the arsenal: Soapbox by Wistia.

What sets Wistia Soapbox apart?

Unlike other tools, Soapbox has a free option that can do pretty much everything you need. It uses your webcam and built-in mic, and then once recorded, you can edit it all online without the need for fancy software.

Not only that, but it also has some fancy features for embedding in your email, and make a slick experience for your prospect or client.

Hopefully, you’re eager by now and thinking, “It sounds great, guys. Show us how to use it!”

And, you know, we’re going to. Just calm down.

Deep breath, and read on.

Requirements to use Soapbox by Wistia

Here a few things you need to set up before going to the actual process of making a killer personalised video sales pitch that is going to excite your prospects:

Setting up Soapbox for the First Time

Once you’ve gathered everything listed above, it’s time to set up soapbox.

Signing in: Sign-in via the Soapbox icon at the top of Chrome window. It should fire up and show a little box with your webcam view automatically. If it doesn’t, hit the tiny gear icon on the top left, and set up your audio and camera feed.

how to sign in to soapbox

Best footage settings: Before you start recording, we’re going to suggest some Wistia Soapbox settings for the best output footage. Here’s what you need to do:

  • Right-click on the Chrome icon.
  • Go to options.
How to access settings in soapbox

 

  • In there, hit advanced settings.
  • Change all the screen capture and webcam capture settings to the maximum (if there’s any problem, you can always dial it down later)
  • Also, check the box “enable streaming uploads” under” Extension Beta Features”.
  • Scroll up and check both “Applications” and “Tabs” boxes under “Desktop Media Options” to enable them both.
How to edit settings in Sopabox

  • Extra setup for Mac: If you’re on Mac and using Soapbox by Wistia, you might see the recording start, but then nothing will happen which will leave you confused. To fix this, you need to go in and change your privacy settings to allow Chrome to do screen recordings. This can default to off due to privacy settings in IOS for Catalina and above.

How to change advanced settings in Soapbox 2

Pre-Recording Set Up for your Personalised Sales Video

A couple of things to think about with your set up before hitting the record button:

  • Get yourself a quiet, de-cluttered space-ideally with some depth or one with a block of coloured paper or wall.
  • On-screen, it’s a good practice to just have the application or tab that is relevant.

It’s Time to Start Recording!

It’s a piece of cake to record on Wistia Soapbox.

Just hit “START RECORDING” and select the screen or application you want. Expand it to full screen to keep out any clutter, and you’ll hear the countdown.

Look at your Soapbox icon. If it’s red, it’s recording.

Present away!

When you have finished, hit the red dot again and Soapbox will automatically render your video.   

How to record in Soapbox

Edit Screen of Soapbox by Wistia

This is the first of the three screens you get after your video gets rendered. 

Here, you can edit your video, trim the ends to get rid of useless dead air from before you started, and use the icons to decide between being just you, you and the screen or just the screen. You have the option to change it throughout the video as you please

How to edit in Soapbox

Customize Screen of Soapbox by Wistia

Once you’ve edited your personalised sales video to your satisfaction, move on to the next screen named “customize”.

Here, you should change the title to something that will look good in your email-something along the lines of ‘Hi Barbara!’ or ‘Here’s the proposal we talked about’. Next, drop down to choose a frame and select the one you want to use from your video. This will preview in your email, so make sure it looks friendly.

How to add a call to action to Soapbox

You can brand your frame to your business or channel colour and then-and this is pretty nifty-you can click on “call to action” below it and make a text call to action like ‘click here to email me’. Then, put in your email address with “mailto:” in front of it in the box labelled “Link”.

Your task in this window is done

How to add a call to action to Soapbox 2

Share Screen of Soapbox by Wistia

After you’re done customizing your personalised video and email, it’s time to send them off to do their work. For that, move to “share” and hit the first option “Copy URL and thumbnail image”.

How to embed a soapbox video in an e-mail

Go over to your email and paste it in for Barbara. Voila-how good does that look

And now, when Barbara has finished being wowed by your video, she can click the link you embedded before and email you instantly!

How to embed a soapbox video in an e-mail 2

Now You Know How to Make a Personalised Sales Video!

We think that Soapbox by Wistia is a really simple and effective tool that saves time which you would spend otherwise learning how to make a personalised video for a successful sales pitch. Whenever we have used it, we’ve always gotten a response, because people enjoy that you created something just for them.

Go ahead and give it a try-in case the Chrome extension isn’t working and you’re on Mac, do remember to check your privacy settings. It’s usually that.

If you have found that helpful, why not check out our blog or our YouTube channel where we post three videos a week to help you grow your small creators’ channel and your business.

You might also want to watch a video on “how to make a marketing video for your service or product” .

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How to make a testimonial video

How to make a testimonial video
How to make a testimonial video

Testimonial Video Production: How to Make a Testimonial Video that Works!

Often times, people are looking to obtain a rewarding testimonial from a client but have no idea how to make a testimonial video that will be credible, authentic, engaging and will portray their services well. 

So, here we are with a detailed guide on testimonial video production which includes testimonial examples and our own experience to lead you a the process!

The importance of Testimonial Video Production

The Muller-Lyer illusion might not be something you’d expect to be reading about when searching for “how to make a testimonial video”. But if you stick with us, you’ll see why customer testimonial videos are even more critical for your business than you might have thought initially.

Let’s start with a little experiment.

Take a look at this image below. Which line is longer?

Like me, you probably thought, “the top line”.  Like me, you’d be wrong because both have the same length.

Let us draw a line down this image to prove it to you. You’ll be more inclined to believe us, then.

 

We did this little experiment to tell you why testimonial video production is so incredibly important for your business. 

You can have as many Google reviews, written testimonials or case studies on your website but let’s face it; anyone could have made them up.

There isn’t a better way to utilize a satisfied customer than asking him to testify for you on camera. 

Video testimonials give an identity to your otherwise blandly written testimonials. When people see a customer; with a name, a family and a background, talking about your services, it gives the proof of your credibility and deems you worthy in their sight like written appreciation never can, because seeing is not believing anymore, my friends. 

In this age, you have to show the proof!

How to Make a Testimonial Video: 13 Testimonial Video Production Tips

Now that you know why testimonial videos are so important, let’s move on to 13 amazingly helpful tips that will let you know how to make a testimonial video that outshines every other!

1. Define Your Customer Testimonial Video Production Goals

Is the thought of a testimonial video production overwhelming you?

You don’t need to worry because we have some good news!

Testimonial videos work best when they are kept simple and to-the-point! Staged scenes and planned answers ruin all authenticity. But we’ll get to that in detail later in the blog.

Right now, you need to understand that all you should be planning for before producing your video testimonial is your goal.

Here are the steps you should follow to define a beneficial video testimonial goal:

  • First of all, think about what you want your viewers to know about your company once they’ve finished watching the video.
  • Done with that? Now, try and come up with five bullet points and no more. In this way, you will only focus on what’s important. We’re after the bigger picture, not boring the poor viewer.
  • Use charts and planners to keep everything organized. Here’s a helpful PDF we’ve made to help you keep it all in one place.
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2. Stay Away from a Testimonial Video Script

When we say don’t write a testimonial script, we mean it.

Remember, we mentioned planning as little as possible in point one? We were actually hinting how a scripted testimonial video production is a big NO.

Writing a script of what you want your customer to say is a sure way of losing all that authentic rawness of an un-planned testimonial video. If everything comes across as stiff and staged, you’ll kill your credibility.

It also puts pressure on your clients. They’d be already uncomfortable in front of the camera and to make them squirm more, you hand them a video script!

Soon you’ll find out you want to make this as easy for them as possible to make sure they go through with the testimonial.

3. Find a Story for Your Testimonial Video

We are not giving you empty advice on finding a story; we have facts to prove its benefits too.

Why a “storytelling video testimonial” is more powerful?

One of the best examples of testimonials is a storytelling video testimonial because stories boost the levels of oxytocin in our brains. This hormone is responsible for love, trust and empathy.

It is also scientifically proven that when we listen to a story, our brains react as if we are experiencing it ourselves.

“Communication is a shared activity resulting in a transfer of information across brains. The findings shown here indicate that during successful communication, speakers’ and listeners’ brains exhibit joint, temporally coupled, response patterns.”

That is why finding a story is going to give you a testimonial video that trumps all other customer testimonial videos.

If you want to know more about the importance of telling stories, we’ve got a separate video for you here. 

How do you find a story for your testimonial?

You don’t need to look at other testimonial examples to find a good story in order to make your storytelling testimonial a hit. All you need to do is follow the steps below:

  • Think about the process you have been through with the client.
  • Begin with the problem they were having before they met you, the impact it had on their lives and how it made them feel.
  • Now move on to how you solved that problem, the results it gave and once again, how it made them feel. Really go for the emotion here.

If you follow these steps, your storytelling video testimonial is going to come out great!

4. Devise 5 Killer Testimonial Video Questions

The answer to the question “how to make a testimonial video that works” relates a great deal to making a killer questionnaire. 

You didn’t sign up to your accountant’s service because they are quick at inputting numbers, you signed up because they could help get your tax bill down or help cut back and increase profitability.

Coming up with killer questions that unpack a story means you have to keep the bigger picture in mind at all times.

The questions don’t have to be loaded; asking, “What surprised you most about using our service?” will get you an honest answer, and if you know your client well enough, it will probably tick off one of your goals from tip number 1 too.

Asking, “Tell me about our service”, will force them to ramble on about a whole host of things your audience will not find interesting. Remember, we are looking to attract customers, not boring them to death.

The best testimonial questions!

If you’re looking to ask testimonial video questions that are interesting and informative for your viewers, make them open enough to let your customer think deep and give a precise answer without sounding phoney.

 

Should you send your clients the questions before the shoot?

No matter how good it appears to you, you shouldn’t be sending the testimonial questions before the shoot. There are two sides to this argument, but the answer’s still no. Here’s a pros and cons list for both to help you decide:

 

Pros of sending testimonial video questions before the shoot:

1. Your clients might like their mind put at ease as to what you might ask them.

2. They can have the time to think about a great answer.

 

Cons of sending testimonial video questions before the shoot:

1. They might become too stiff and appear phoney.

2. They might end up writing a script from nerves, thinking it will help them on the shoot day when it’s going to have the opposite effect.

 

Pros of not sending testimonial video questions before the shoot:

1. This tactic will force your clients to think on the spot. Often this throws up raw comments that are better than you could have expected because they say what they mean. (Your customers are not actors, let them be themselves!)

2. Your participants will be super busy and will appreciate not having to spend as much time on your project

 

Cons of not sending testimonial video questions before the shoot:

  1. 1.They might panic a lot in the pre-shoot window and might back out, but you can alleviate this by telling them there are no wrong answers, and that there will only be easy questions based on their experience.

Testimonial video production is not an easy task but with killer questions to back you up, you can create compelling testimonial video questions. All you need to do is that you keep the questions to yourself.

5. Prep Your Customers for the Camera

After reading number 4, you’ll be thinking that we’re contradicting ourselves. But prepping your participants doesn’t mean holding out the questionnaire for them to see. You can easily hide the questions from them and still prepare them for filming.

Client filming prep for testimonial video production:

To make a good testimonial video, you need your client prepared but not too prepared that he seems to be reading his lines. For that, you can consider the following advice:

  • Decide how much information you want to give your client pre-shoot. (This will be controlled by how much details your clients demand. It’s better to keep the questions to yourself even if they ask and give a general overview of what you’re trying to achieve with the video instead.)
  • Let them know that the interview will be short, and won’t disrupt the office. (When you film testimonial videos, you don’t need much time from your clients. With all the production kit set up, you can pull them in for 10-20 minutes, and then they can get back on with their day.)
  • Ask them for a quiet room on their premises where the lights can be turned off and ideally, the windows have blinds.
  • If you’re capturing extra footage called B-roll (Do it!) to accompany your video, you’ll need to ask for permission to go around their premises beforehand.

The examples below took a whole day to film, but the client’s time was minimal. It’s the visuals that take time.

Appearance prep for testimonial video production:

Appearance prep is the easiest for testimonial videos. Just keep these two things in mind:

  • Your clients might have a dress down Friday so ask them about what they usually wear and go with their everyday look. (You can also ask them how they’d like to appear on the filming day.)
  • Advise ladies to wear matt makeup to help reduce any ‘glow’ from the lights.

6. Focus on the Results instead of Client Promotion

A customer testimonial video is not about the business that is getting filmed; it’s all about the result and experience you gave them. So, it’s essential you make your client understand that this video is not a chance to promote themselves.

When your viewers hit “play”, they only need to get an idea of who your clients are and what they do, and all of that you can achieve visually. You just need footage of the company branding, size of the office and the likes to set up your client’s identity.

The moment your participant starts talking about their own business without relating it to you, your viewers begin to get bored. So, whatever you do, please don’t sell this to them as a great idea to promote their business.

We have previously produced testimonial videos  that were so well-received that the clients shared them on their social channels. If you’re smart enough, you can make them look great without ever talking about it!

7. Get Creative with B-roll

To make a successful testimonial video, you need to keep your viewers engaged. Your viewers are impatient. 

They want information fast, and they want it in a way that doesn’t leave them wishing they hadn’t hit “play”.

Shooting the footage of the client’s environment, processes, and people will ensure that your video is visually engaging. And as we already mentioned in number 6, you can use this footage to fill in the gaps. 

B-roll will make your viewers use their brain to keep up, and that’s the key to keeping them engaged.

8. Keep testimonial video shoots simple

Testimonial video production is not an easy task because it relies heavily on your clients. To make the best testimonial videos, your clients have to be relaxed when the filming starts, which will give the authentic feel you need for success.

Moreover, go light on the production kit. Packing all your fancy gear into a small room for an interview is the perfect way to unsettle someone. If you’re going for that, good; if you’re not, listen to us.

Using huge bright lights, all the add-ons your camera can fit and a big production team might look fancy, but it’ll put a ton of pressure on your client.

A back up to settle the nerves:

You can ditch all lights and use the daylight from a window to settle the worst nerves. We’ve done that, and it works like a treat! Though, it’s not wise to rely on the idea.

9. Film Multiple Participants

The great thing about testimonial video production is that it doesn’t require a vast amount of planning to make it successful. 

Even if it did, there is one thing you can never plan for, and it’s how your client will react to being filmed.

We’ve seen CEOs crumble and ex SAS soldiers shake when it comes down to it.

Interviewing a few people means you’ll get more content you can later repurpose. Also, if the need arises, you can entirely exclude a participant from the video who struggled to relax, without impacting the content. 

This idea might sound harsh, but they won’t want to see themselves looking scared online just as much as your viewers won’t like to watch a person squirm while they talk.

10. Multi-Purpose your Testimonial Video Shoot

Are you the sort of person who pops in the supermarket every day for dinner or do you shop once a week?

There’s loads of content you can get from a client. An overall-experience testimonial video is just the tip of the iceberg. Get as much juicy content as you can while you’re there.

Think about your prospects’ purchase journey. They might have concerns because their last supplier provided a woeful ongoing service.

You can make an individual shorter testimonial that focuses on this area, or perhaps another on how you implemented your service and how easy it was to change suppliers.

By multi-purposing your testimonial video shoot, you can get the kind of content you can use on:

  • Social Media
  • Sales Pitch
  • E-mail Follow-ups

Such content is super-targeted and relevant too.

11. Edit your Customer Testimonial Video to Perfection!

No matter how awesome or ghastly your shoot went, a good editor can save any testimonial video or make it even better. So, here are a few ways you can successfully edit your testimonial video to make it more impactful!

Make the testimonial video sound confident.

An example of the best testimonial video is one that is confident. So, the first thing you should do is remove as many of the “ums” and “ahs” and other stutters as possible. This way, you can get rid of uncertainty from your content.

You can easily cover the cuts with the B-roll footage from the shoot.

The result of this (which sounds a little phoney, but it isn’t) is that your client will watch it back and be happy with how they come across on camera, but also you will keep your viewers from judging, and they’ll stay engaged.

Edit to open your testimonial video with a hook.

In order to make a testimonial video people will watch, you need to straightaway open it with the most impactful comment your participant made.

No long-winded logo flash or introduction needed. Just get straight in there and make your viewer’s ears prick up. This way, your viewer will know they are in the right place, and they should already be impressed.

Cut out everything that goes against your plan.

The hardest part about editing a video testimonial is to decide what to cut out. Follow your original goals sheet from number 1 in the blog and be brutal! Anything that doesn’t help unpack your story, eliminate it.

It’s a lot easier to edit a 5-minute testimonial video than a 90-second one, but your viewers will thank you for the effort.

12. Multi-Purpose your Customer Testimonial Video

If you’re like us, you’ll be using multiple social networks, e-mail marketing, SEO, notifications and a whole heap of channels.

Cutting your final video into many different forms will give your social media team a field day.

If you’re wondering how to make a testimonial video cheap, the answer is simple. Multi-purpose it! Short 10 second videos of the best comments, stories, stills with quotes and more will mean you’ve not only made the best video but the cheapest one too.

13. Ask for a Testimonial Right after the Job

After all these points, you’ve reached the hardest and most frustrating part of testimonial video production: getting your client to book in a date.

You never know how easy or hard it’s going to turn out. We’ve seen companies line up four different customers in the space of a week with a few emails before; we’ve also seen months of chasing.

Our best advice to get a customer to agree is to ask them just after you’ve completed a job and they are over the moon. Get a date or two from them straight away, take it to your production company and ask them to fit their schedule around it.

The sooner you shoot, the sooner you’ll capture that “honeymoon” moment.

Otherwise, if you have a great relationship with some clients, give them a call or an e-mail to ask for a testimonial. But don’t offer them anything, it sounds like bribery.

If you’ve read this entire blog, you’ll be well-armed to put your client’s mind at rest. Show them a few testimonial examples you have and get them excited about this project.

Concluding Customer Testimonial Video Production Tips

If you’ve reached this point, congratulations! It means you’ve gone through our detailed guide on “how to make a testimonial video” and you’re much wiser now. It also means you might be interested in having a customer testimonial video produced.

If you want to look further into producing a customer testimonial video, then check out more testimonial examples and related stuff here, or why not get in touch with us for a chat.

In case you hadn’t guessed it by now, it’s what we do! You can find out more about us here.

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How to Make an About Us Video

How to make an about us video
How to make an about us video

How to Make an About Us Video: A Step-by-Step Meet the Team Video Guide

If you don’t know how to make an About Us video that will come across as genuine and appealing, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we will lead you through detailed steps, myths, to-do’s and not-to-do’s of a Meet the Team video, so your clients and prospects can know who you guys are!

What is Meet the Team/ About Us Video?

Company “Meet the Team” or “About Us” videos are for people who are close to buying from you, and they want to look under the hood to see what sort of culture you have. 

These videos are one of those things where you can let go of some of the usual marketing habits because for once, it’s not all about your customer (it is really, but pretend it’s not for now).

Meet the Team videos are all “me, me, me” because that’s what people are looking for on those About Us website pages.

Things Which Will Ruin your About Us Video.

It’s time to let you in on a little secret: About Us pages are usually the second most visited page on your website.

People visit your About Us page when they’re making some critical decision about buying your product or hiring you for their work. 

In short, people visit your About Us page when they’re sold to what you’re selling them. 

But we’ve seen blunders in the About Us videos that can discourage any client. 

So, here are a couple of things you need to avoid to make your Meet the Team videos legitimate:

Don’t sell yourself:

If there’s nothing personal, and it’s actually angled as a low-level soft sell on buying from you or your company, it’s not going to sit well with your customer. 

“Most of my day is spent trying to find the best deal for our clients and that’s how we like it here at ACME brokers” isn’t sincere, and no one’s coming to the About Us page to be sold to anyway.

Don’t use corporate speak: 

People are coming to know you, not to hear you do the “business talk”. 

Give them some impersonal corporate-speak like everybody repeating a slightly different version of “the thing I love about ACME brokers is the people,” and you’ll blow a huge opportunity to be memorable. 

Especially if your marketing has a real character everywhere else, you’ll fail here miserably.

Instead, give your prospects something that feels like the fingerprints of your team, and you’re more likely to build trust and crucially, land clients that you’ll serve better because they’ll understand you.

An About Us Video Example for you!

This is where we make your journey of “how to make an About Us video” a little easier by introducing you to an About Us video example.

Here’s our About Us page . You’ll see we’ve got individual videos of each of us where we hope you’ll learn a little bit about us, but also learn something interesting to take away as well (We told you it was really about your customer in the end).

We also use these videos in our email signature like the image below. It’s nice to personalise that space too. 

Meet the team video in e-mail sig

We’ve found over time that our Meet Me videos have proved to be the most-watched on our site, beating all the really flipping brilliant case studies and testimonials that we’ve put so much more time and effort into.

How to Make a Meet the Team/About Us Video Sound Genuine?

So, how do you empower your team to make a genuine sounding Meet the Team video that feels like actually meeting the team?

In a nutshell: Take some risks in the shoot. You don’t have to use it all in the edit, but it’s too late in the editing phase if everything is a series of “hackneyed” sound bites.

But before we get to that, you need to decide if you want to make your About Us video a montage video, where you put everyone together in the cut, or you want to make individual videos for each person. It doesn’t matter too much; the approach is the same right up to the edit.

Either way, you’d want a video that helps viewers seamlessly become a part of your world.

In order to ensure that your Meet the Team video remains both professional and relevant, you need to look for things where personal overlaps with professional. That’s why hobbies or interests often come up. 

So do pets that have been brought in the office, inside-jokes, and fun routines that outside world wouldn’t know about-these are the sorts of things that pull an audience in and help them relate to you.

Approaching it that way will help you quickly find the material that can reveal character and a team ethos.

How to Make an About Us Video: Awful Bits of Advice!

To get the genuine footage we talked about, it will also require dispelling some myths. Because while looking around for advice on this, what you’ll quickly find are some really unhelpful observations. Here is some awful advice you need to steer clear of:

  • Make sure it has real emotion! (Yeah, like you can order emotions like you order pizza, with a side order of authenticity.) People can’t show emotion on cue for you. Trust us, this is terrible advice, and you should block your ears. Don’t talk about feelings, don’t talk about authenticity. You’ll have much less lofty problems to deal with, like how to get Barbara to even think about being on camera (we’ll get to that later). 
  • Make sure it builds trust! There’s no way to make your team build trust while talking about their personal lives. “Ok Barry, remember to build some trust…and action!” Again, this doesn’t help anyone. Forget it. Just go with the flow. 
  • Explain your “Why”. A Meet the Team video will certainly reveal the business mission if it’s something everyone feels a part of, naturally. If it’s not pouring out of your team already, it’s not there. You don’t need to invent a “why” that has otherwise existed only on paper. 

There’s no need to somehow shoe-horn it into their conversation on the camera. Don’t make them self-conscious in a process that already has plenty of that. It doesn’t matter what the mission statement of the company is, this is a place for their understanding of the company’s mission.

5 Steps of Making an About Us/Meet the Team Video

With some of the awful advice set aside, here is a step by step procedure that will tell you how to make a meet the team video that will make people love your team!

1. Getting People to Appear on Camera.

Getting people to appear on camera is hard, so it should be your first concern.

Why people say “no” most of the time:

Not everyone likes cameras but 99% of the time this is because they just have no idea how they’re going to appear on the screen, or perhaps, how it’s going to appear in your marketing overall. It’s possible they won’t even be able to tell you why they don’t want to be in it. 

But it’s usually because of the lack of control they’ll be feeling over how they’ll be portrayed or what the process of filming will be like.

How to get people to be on camera:

  • You can start off on the right foot by explaining exactly what you are trying to achieve. The more detailed the video explanation, the more likely that they’ll agree.
  • Include similar About Us video examples from other businesses in your explanation, so they know how they’ll look.
  • Listen to their concerns, whether or not it’s for them personally or for the outcome of the video generally.

Be prepared for those who are still going to refuse. In the end, you only want people who get it and want to be a part of it anyway.

If you have a large team and you’re making a montage video, you may get more “No’s”, but that’s okay because no one will know if the entire team is in it or not.

2. Preparing a Script for an About Us Video.

With this sort of portraiture, any overtly scripted bits are going to sound really unconvincing. So, we don’t want you to script exactly what people are supposed to say. Rather, script chapters that you can fill with impromptu answers from your team members.

Here are some of the sections you can make for the About Us video script:

Intro Section: The best short grabs from the interviews to help set the tone.

Mission-Based Bits: Any grabs that show the kind of business you are.

Fun Stuff: Anything that shows your lighter side.

Things We Care About: Individuality, pets, hobbies, things people love or loathe.

It really doesn’t have to be any more complex than that, but don’t let us stop you from complicating your life. Kidding aside, you might want a more stylised video, and it may need props, certain angles etc. You can layer all of that on top, but this is the basic structure you need to have.

3. What Questions to Ask?

Now that you have your script, it’s time to reverse engineer the questions that will get you there for each section.

Keep to open-ended questions. Something like “If a stranger asked you why this company even exists, what would you tell them?” And don’t worry about open-ended questions stopping people in their tracks; you’re not going to include that in the edit, you’re after the thought they lead to.

  • The Intro Section is for the edit, and it’s better to involve something spontaneous from the shoot (One less thing to do, phew!). Unless you’re really having people say exactly what you want them to (which is a bit controlling and won’t give the most engaging result), you don’t need questions for this section.
  • In the Mission-Based Bits section, you need something personalised but also something that will tell how each member sees the mission of the company. Ask questions that don’t have a fixed answer, so your team has to think before answering.
  • Sometimes, you can get some playful outtakes from people making a joke about serious questions, so the fun stuff can come from there.
  • For the Things We Care About section, you really don’t need to “develop” any questions. You can ask them “Tell us about yourself” or maybe more specific, “Tell us those Sunday endeavors you never invite the rest of the team to” and you’ll have this section covered.

If it doesn’t work out the first time, don’t worry. Just leave your team to answer open questions in their own time. 

Even if they squirm and need to think about it for a bit, let them. It means you’re more likely to get something honest and hopefully, positive. 

If your company truly sucks to work, there’s not much you can do about it here. But otherwise, it’ll be fine.

Get creative with the questions from all your sections. But remember to avoid those that have “Yes” or “No” answers or those that have implied answers like “Can you tell me why our widgets are the best?” 

4. In-House or Professional Production?

Decide if you have the capacity for this, or if you need to have a professional team brought in. If this is the first bit of in-house production, better leave it to the professionals. 

They are better knowledgeable about the subtle differences between playfulness and mawkishness, for example.

5. Editing the About Us Video.

Hopefully, we’ve been successful in answering the question “how to make an About Us video” up till now and you’ve gathered some good stuff.

If you’ve opted to do this in-house because you’ve already edited a few projects, we’ve got you covered. Here are a few things that can help in making the editing phase of your meet the team video quick and effective:

Have questions written down in the timeline.

In the timeline, it’s better to give yourself some text chunks with the questions written down so you can easily catalogue all the answers. Now you can listen through and cut out all the waffle and outtakes. As you go, you can also look for that killer statement that can act as a pivot for the beginning.  It’s usually obvious when you hear those statements, or you may have a few possible ones to choose from. 

Put the hook in the beginning.

The first thing you want your audience to hear is something compelling or even cryptic as long as the meaning becomes clear later. Keep that in mind while editing. This will trigger the listener with the idea that this is new information, and it’s more likely that they’ll continue to watch.

Reorder until it’s perfect!

Reorder anything that will make your About Us video better. You can now abandon the structure that was made to build questions for the production, or keep it as it was filmed. It really just depends on how much energy you need to create to fit with the rest of your comms.

Final About Us Video Thoughts:

We hope you were able to learn how to make an About Us video that doesn’t send your client and prospects running far away.

If you liked our content, you better read the rest of our blog. 

We also have a YouTube channel where we’re pursuing a sort of warts, and all “show and tell” kind of thing. There, we are showing people what we did that didn’t work and also a few things that really did. That’s our growth strategy, and it seems to be working.

Join us at this stage even if you’re hoping we’ll secretly fail so you’ll have another excuse not to grow your channel!

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How to hire a YouTube video editor

How to hire a video editor - the iceberg

How to hire a YouTube video editor - Freelance Vs Outsourced Vs Full Time

Working out if you should pay someone else to edit YouTube videos can show just how much editing is actually costing you already. 

So have a look at this link when you’re ready.

The unseen cost of video editing

Imagine the time you spend on your YouTube channel or business is an iceberg (bet you didn’t expect to start with an iceberg / time metaphor but go with it)

The thing about editing is that as far as time is concerned, it’s like the unseen part of the iceberg in your business.

No one sees it because it’s below the surface but it makes up the vast bulk of the iceberg and holds up the bit that everyone can see, above the surface.

How to hire a video editor - the iceberg

Let’s not make any Titanic references, this is a good news blog! You’re here because you’re considering the option of having someone edit your content for you. That usually means you’re growing your channel and business and this article is designed to help navigate the process and make the decision that is exactly right for you.

Types of video editors

Before we go any further though, let’s look at some terms here to make sure we’re both talking about the same thing when it comes to hiring a video editor for your YouTube videos.

DIY Video editors:

That’s you, or someone on your team, editing all your content, whilst trying to do loads of other none editing related things. 

Freelance video editor:

Usually (ok, hopefully) a former full time professional that has gone solo with a handful of cherished clients. You could be one of them if you play your cards right.  Freelancers of all levels can be found on platforms like Upwork or People per Hour.

Outsourced video editors:

Plenty of video editing companies offer access to a pool of dedicated editors but what they’re really selling isn’t so much a particular editor but a ‘job done’ service. If you need more help or less help over time, you just scale up or scale back.

Full time video editor:

You’re all in with one editor. As much as you have a dedicated editor that is working only on your projects five days a week, they rely on you alone for a pipeline of work and a salary. That means hiring a full time video editor means payroll paperwork, holiday and sickness pay, pension scheme and tax. But it also means building a team culture and robust capacity. 

We wouldn’t give up our editor, Greg, for all the tea in China. Here’s a video of Greg explaining the basics of editing to show you how brilliant he is. Aaaand… to help you understand a bit more about what goes into editing when you’re talking to editors.

What makes a good video editor?

So you might be at a stage right now where you’re editing your own videos for YouTube or for marketing and it’s taking up a lot of your time. 

You might also be thinking that you want to up your quality and suddenly your computer’s running slow so you’re going to need a new one. Perhaps you want to add some professional music and images, so you’ll need a few subscriptions. 

Also you may have discovered as many do, that even if your editing is great, it doesn’t excite you like all the other aspects of running a channel. 

Everyone has a unique set of skills that they can execute quickly and with real flair without getting exhausted by them. They actually love doing it well. At the same time we all know we have skills we can be good at but they take a lot of time.

Then there are some we’re merely competent at even if we can do them quickly and finally some there’s some that we’re frankly rubbish at.

What makes a good video editor

It’s more detailed than that of course but basically, if you want to maximise your results in business and life, (ie you want to be Batman rather than a dumb, nerdy jerk), you want to outsource as many things that you don’t find enjoyable and that you aren’t fast and excellent at also.

This will allow you to concentrate your valuable time on the things that only you do brilliantly. 

Ok just kidding. The proper Ikigai is here: 

What makes a good video editor 2

If editing fits into the centre of the above diagram then actually, you might want to consider outsourcing other things in your business!

But if it doesn’t, you really must outsource as soon as you can to save your sanity and to get you doing more of the things people value you for. 

So with all that in mind, you either stump up a big wad of cash to be able to boost your own work or you find someone else to do it for you.

But do you go for a freelancer, outsource it, or maybe even find someone full time?

Working out if you should pay someone to edit

Working out if you should pay someone else to help you can show just how much editing is actually costing you already. 

So have a look at this link when you’re ready.

We’ve built you an editing calculator which will show you just how much money it costs each year to edit everything yourself to a high standard.

How to use the editing cost calculator

how much does editing cost

Let’s say you’re editing 2 videos a week right now, so 8 videos a month over the course of a year.  

 1. Work out how long it takes you to edit a video

And each video is taking 3 hours to do well so set the bar to show this.  You’ll want to value your time. So you can look at this in two ways:

Option 1:  Put in how much you make an hour, or

Option 2: Put in how much you want to make an hour. 

If you’re growing a YouTube channel or business, you need to seriously consider how much you want to make an hour, because doing tasks that don’t help you make this amount of money are stopping you from achieving your goals. Anyway, let’s just say this is 50 an hour right now. 

2. How much does editing software cost you?

You might have always intended to stick to free editing software but you just want to up the quality you need to go pro, so select from one of the two most common editing options.  

3. How much does your tech cost you?

You might already have a beast that’s great for editing so you can leave this at zero but you tend to find when people want to take editing more seriously they upgrade, and man that gets expensive. 

We’re going to leave it at a very conservative 1500, we really wouldn’t recommend less than 3,000 though for a powerhouse that lasts a long time. 

4. How much do subscriptions cost you?

Shutterstock will give you images, we’ve said no thanks for now, but we do want access to Soundstripe music tracks and StoryBlocks stock video, so we need to click that to get the cost of a year. 

There’s other things like hard drives you’d want to add or dropbox etc But we didn’t want it to go on forever.

How much video editing actually costs

So this person is spending over 16,000 in their first year editing. Year two would be a bit less because they wouldn’t need a computer so 14,000.

If they chose Final Cut Pro X that wouldn’t be a cost the second year either, but Adobe would be.

Have a play about with the figures unless we’ve already convinced that the cost is real.

So now you know how much this costs you, it’s time to look at the options out there to see if using them will save you money. 

Let’s say you hire someone to edit 8 videos a month for you like the example. 

If it’s less than 16,000 a year you’re actually hiring a YouTube video editor for free, in some cases, you might even get it for half the price of doing it yourself. 

This is of course presuming you can more easily scale your business by getting more work with the freed up time to do the things people really value you for as discussed earlier. Of course you will – we believe in you!

So let’s started on who to hire:

hire a freelance video editor

Hiring a freelance YouTube video editor pros:

1. An amazing asset

A good freelancer is like nothing else. When you find one, you will not want to let them go, ever.  

The value they give you will make them feel cheap. You’ll literally fall in love with them… it can get weird, but it’s a special feeling. 

When you hire a great freelance YouTube video editor, they will go above and beyond the call of duty, will edit on time, quickly, to a very high quality, and advise you to improve your content.

They are right in the middle of the Ikigai Venn diagram from earlier, loving life and doing the thing they know they were made for. They are in the zone just like you will be with your freed up time to make the special sauce only you can make.

So that’s the pro number 1, an incredible asset to you. 

 

2. No contract

Although you must remember this is not just something you can bin off without any consequences.  This is a person who will rely in part on the income you provide so if you can give a heads up that the work is coming to an end then you really ought to.

There is no long term contract here, no HR, no holiday pay, so freelance editors give you more freedom than a full-time member of staff. 

 

3. Quality 

We’ve touched on this earlier but you’ll often find the best freelancers have been editing for years, have a tonne of experience and wanted to leave the limitations of a paid role to earn more and dictate their own lifestyle. 

This means you can afford an editor who would be miles outside of your budget otherwise. In other words it’s a bargain. 

Hiring a freelance YouTube video editor cons:

1. Finding a good freelance editor

All of the pros are based around the editor you work with being fantastic. Finding a freelancer who offers this is a totally different ball game. 

You can use sites like Upwork where you can put out a job request and people will send you a pitch but be ready to get 50 requests of various different skill sets from all around the world from editors who didn’t read your proposal.

Unfortunately, this makes finding the diamond editors harder. 

There are lots of sites you can do this on but prepare to add more hours on to your search process and to waste a lot of time with people who might not have told the whole unvarnished truth in their application. 

 

2. Testing & editing workflow

So you’ve hired your editor and then there’s the easing in process. Getting to know each other, building a workflow and then finding out they don’t pay for a dropbox subscription will mean that transferring files will be a nightmare. And exactly how will you communicate and leave feedback in a systematised way that isn’t an enormous email chain or message board?

A great editor will have this down and all of the systems in place which do cost money. Not having them is a sign that things might be a little tricky at the start, especially if they seem clueless as to how you might work together. That’s why the editing software question we suggested earlier is so important.

 

3. Availability 

A great freelancer will be in demand, and you won’t be their only client. So when you ask for a job to be finished by next week, and they can’t because they are servicing other clients, then you’ll have to wait, after all you do not want to lose your amazing freelancer. 

Also, because of their excellence they may just outgrow you, get head hunted by a major agency or studio for a months long project or just up their prices out of your league

 

4. Cost

The best freelancers are expensive. And rightly so, If you can find one that delivers quality, consistency, ease of use, advice, and more for less than 60 or 70 an hour, please let us know in the comments. 

They’ll work fast, so a video that takes you 4 hours only might take them 2 and they’ll do it to a much higher quality than you can so if we put that in the calculator then we can see 8 videos a month for a year will cost you about 13,000 a year. So you’re making almost 3k saving there. 

Providing you find an amazing one. 

How to hire a good freelance YouTube video editor on Upwork

Using Upwork as an example, here’s how you can separate the novices from the professionals and narrow it down, presuming your aim is to avoid cheap and cheerful, because – have we mentioned? – you will get a lot of applicants.

 

1 – Have your applicants list the editing software they work on. 

It should be Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro or Avid. I’m going to add Da Vinci Resolve in here even though it’s a free editing software because any editor using it will know a thing or two about colour grading which is a sure sign they care about the craft. Anything else is still possible but you’d need to be really impressed by their editing sample to proceed. 

Alarm bells should be ringing if an editor is working on iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Filmora or Shotcut (Shotcut is a brilliant free editor BTW but it doesn’t have the speed or range of a pro set up). Also this question can double as a chance to filter based on the system you work on. 

 

Sharing work

Sharing projects and files between the same editing software is much easier than otherwise so if, heaven forbid, there’s any gaps that you need to fill when your freelancer is away or busy, you can still pick up where she left off.  

If you didn’t already know, most systems can share XML shell files of projects even with other software but what they can’t share is specialised transitions and plugin effects that you don’t own. 

So a five minute re-edit for a scheduled post to change some overlaid text could easily become an expensive 2 hour epic if you’re needing to track down or replace all the plugins and media files that don’t sync with your system. 

 

2. Ask for portfolio

They will all have a portfolio but ask them for a sample that they think is their favourite and best. This will let you in on their world and the style and things that interest them. If that aligns with your channel’s tone then great – much better to have an editor who shares your view of the world and your style of storytelling than someone who is trying to wear your shoes for you. 

All professional editors will have personality in their best work so find out what it is. This shouldn’t be a deal breaker, plenty of editors can adopt various styles but with so many options, you may as well work with those that want to work on your content and with you.

 

3 – Make a job post that will help to attract the best in the first place. 

 

Step by step guide to posting a video editing job on Upwork

Step one: The video title
Hiring an editor on Upwork - Project title

On the first page you need to create the name of your job post.

You’ll notice that if you put in the key term (in this case ‘video editor’), Upwork’s intuitive database will populate job categories at the bottom for you to pick from. This should tell you how important it is to have the key term in the job post name! 

But once you’ve added the job category, go ahead and make the name of the job post more focused. 

A title like: ‘Video editor needed on Youtube channel for lifestyle themed talking head vlogs’ is more helpful than just ‘Video editor.’

Step two: Video description
Hiring an editor on Upwork - Description

On the next page, complete the description. Possibly the most important bit. 

Ok, no it IS the most important bit.

This isn’t just a place to state what you need. It also creates a first impression of your organisation. Is your organisation a serious and prestigious place? 

Then don’t write your description in the tone we have in this example! 

Let your potential editor inside on more than just the first project.  

Use the terminology you expect them to understand and then make sure you also offer clear and honest objectives and expectations as well as links to previous episodes or projects you want them to use as a guide.

Top freelancers are looking for details and clues as to who they’ll be working for and for any missing information that might suggest unforeseen problems. Show them who you are, give them any details you think need solving. 

They are suspicious of short descriptions the same as you would be if someone was paying you above the market rate to ‘just clean a single window’’.

Recommendations for your description
  • Explain your project and the deliverable(s)
  • Describe the type of skills the freelancer you’re looking for should have (i.e. skill level, type of experience)
  • Highlight anything that’s unique about the project or team
  • Examples that help illustrate what you’re looking for
  • A document with more detailed project/deliverable requirements
  • A style guide or similar reference documentation
  • Inspiration or ideas, such as a concept or mood board
Step three: The details
Hiring an editor on Upwork - Details

Unless you’re planning on hiding the fact you want an ongoing relationship with an editor, you should pick ‘Ongoing Project’.

The ‘Screening Questions’ is where you can enter the information we suggested earlier. You can either answer their tick box prepared questions or create your own. We recommend you create your own and ask what software they edit on and then make a separate one to ask what their favourite editing sample is from their portfolio and why.

When you’ve added your questions, you have a tick box appear as to whether or not your freelancer needs to write you a cover letter.

Leave the tick box on ‘Yes’ so that you do get one.



Step four: Expertise 
Hiring an editor on Upwork - Expertise

You may or may not need the video deliverables and because you’ve already asked what software they edit on (notice we’re not giving them the software we prefer because it’s a way of filtering and we want them to answer rather than brush over this easily ignored information).

Because of the key terms you’ve used up to now, Upwork will automatically populate the relevant skills and expertise. Word around town is that two or three skills is the sweet spot: Specific on the essentials without any distracting ‘nice to haves’. 

Then choose ‘expert’ and go to the next stage.

Step five: Location 
Hiring an editor on Upwork - Location

This should be an easy one and it will default to a choice between your location or worldwide. 

Our 5 cents is that video editing is a global skill so we’ve included worldwide in our search in the past with great success.

Also keep in mind that a successful applicant could be in a very different time zone to you. This doesn’t pose any problem that can’t be solved with an established workflow but something to be aware of. 

Would you need to filter to local for cultural reasons? Perhaps your content has a very local tone and vibe which might be hard to grasp for outsiders. 

Otherwise, as a filter to cut down the applicant number, this isn’t particularly useful. Talent from your nation only is about as useful as filtering YouTube video editors by the colour of their hair. 

Step six: Visibility
Hiring an editor on Upwork - Visibility

Two things to consider in this section, otherwise go with your own preferences:

1 – The invite only option could keep your search results to a handful of personally selected people. Although this requires some time on your part, you can go headhunting in Upwork and allow applicants by invitation only. This will likely give you a better chance of getting a response from the top talent if they feel they’re among a short list already. 

 

If this sounds like too much work, just use the ‘Only Upwork talent’ selection. There’s more than enough talent on Upwork and those finding your proposal publicly are even less likely to read and consider your job post detail before applying.

 

2 – In the ‘Talent Preferences’ section, choose 80% & up in the Job Success Score and include Rising Talent. Amount earned can be misleading as the top talent may just dip in and out of Upwork if they are in demand elsewhere.



Step seven: Budget 
Hiring an editor on Upwork - Budget

Since this is only your first contact with a potential YouTube video editor freelancer, we’d recommend you use the ‘Pay a fixed price’ and break some of your editing down to a manageable single project for now.

This will give clarity and set checkpoints for the freelancer as well as allow you to see how they work before going further. Presuming all goes well, you can then move to an hourly or weekly retainer. 

I would explain more but Upwork themselves have made a handy little infographic that tells you the differences:

 

Step eight: Review and post

You’re all set! Check through and then post. 

 

outsourced editing company

Hiring an outsourced editing company pros

The next step is outsourcing to a video editing company. 

These are businesses set up to edit at a scale where you send your footage and they edit. 

 

1. Efficient 

Editing companies are set up to do just that, edit. They have people editing, so that’s the same as a freelancer isn’t it? The difference is the editing companies will have people running the business so the editors can do just that: edit. Not get distracted by accounting. Which means they can get very efficient. 

You’ll also tend to find they have software and systems in place to make submitting and working with your footage very time effective and slick on your side. So you just follow their steps rather than spend days working out your own. 

 

2. Quality 

Editing companies will have a quality their editors must hit to be able to represent their brand. So when you reach out to them, you save a lot of time not having to interview stacks of people who might waste your time.

Some of them won’t take on editors who don’t have at least three years of experience in a professional environment either so you can be rest assured you’re in the right hands. 

You tend to find that when it comes to editing, quality and speed increase with experience because good editors can second guess potential issues or will know how to fix them without bothering a client. 

 

3. Guarantees

Companies can offer a money-back guarantee, so lets say if in your first month you’re not happy with the quality, you’ve lost nothing. Set up should be fast and efficient too so you shouldn’t have even lost that much time either.  

A good editing company will communicate a lot with you through your set up to ensure it is as easy as possible to manage.

 

4. Cover

You tend to find you’ll be given a dedicated editor to work with as this is beneficial for the client and the company in getting to know each other’s requirements and making them second nature. 

But people get ill and also they need holidays! Unlike a freelancer, when this happens, your editing doesn’t have to stop as a company will have someone else who can cover for the period. Through using project management tools, they’ll easily be able to pick up on the style and quality of your dedicated editor.

 

5. Other services

Due to the skills of the people on a team, editing companies can offer other services like design work too, often packaged up and included so you can have your video thumbnails or banner ads taken care of for one set cost.  

 

6. Savings

Let’s work out how much our person who edits 8 videos a month for themselves would lose or save using an example of an outsourced editing package. 

So as we can see they would save over 6,000 a year based on a monthly package of 795 a month. If you edit 12 videos a month, the calculator shows a saving of over 11,000 so its half the price of doing it yourself!! 

Hiring an outsourced editing company cons

1. Subscriptions

You might find that some editing companies only work to set subscriptions so if you want them to take care of an odd job here or there, it could get expensive. 

It’s like a factory, it costs more per unit to make one product compared to 1000 as factories are built on systems that speed up bulk production and make savings over time. 

 

2.Risk

You need to be careful you don’t hire a company who’s just shipping all of your work out to freelancers around the world or even in the same country. Because if their team isn’t full time and dedicated to that company, you’ll be having the same problems as hiring a freelancer with your work getting passed around behind the scenes due to disruptions.

If it’s imperative your content is never late, the option with the less risk should be one to look at. 

 

3. Too good to be true. 

Under promise and over deliver, something businesses should al strive to achieve. If you land on a website and they seem to be promising the world for a price that seems too good to be true, there’s a chance it is. You might have gotten lucky, but be sure to do your due diligence so you don’t end up with a product that over promises and under-delivers. 

hiring a full time video editor

Hiring a full time editor pros

1. Scope

You have a full-time editor, that’s amazing!! An editor can do so much for your business, and it’s all included in a set monthly cost. 

 You can also develop that editor over time, for smaller businesses and YouTube channels they might be able to help out with some other design work or content ideas too and a new team member is nearly always super valuable as they bring fresh eyes to a project. 

 

2.Timelines

Want to shoot a video and have it edited on the same day? Your full-time editor will be able to handle fast turn around times because you call the shots, they have nobody else to please. You might also find they like filming too so can help there as well. 

 

3.Quality

If you get a good editor, then your quality is going to increase a lot, straight away. They can see your content with fresh eyes and make suggestions for the edit, but often, ways to improve the shoot for the edit.

 

4. Time

An in-house editor will work way faster than you, so you can produce way more content than you could have done before and it won’t be an issue, meaning you can really boost your quantity while increasing quality at the same time.

Hiring a full time editor cons

1. Price

A good editor is going to set you back a lot. You can get a junior editor from around 19000 to 24000 pounds in the UK. These editors  will have some experience but looking at the cost calculator, it’s the only option that will technically cost you money. 

So really a full time editor pays off when you have a lot of content for them to edit. If you were going over 12 videos a month, then you might want to consider this or if you wanted the content made super fast and also to build an in house team for future growth.

 

2. HR

When you employ someone you take on all the issues of employing someone. You also need to potentially buy all the kit and subscriptions and pay employment taxes, pensions and more and look after their ongoing development. 

So a 24,000 spend will look more like 30 by the end of year one. 

You also need to stick to employment law and if they slack, you can’t just fire them. There’s rules and holidays and paid sickness. 

So it’s a big step which might be a step too far for your needs. 



Take your pick

What do you think? Did that help with choosing how to hire an editor?

This is the part where we mention we’ll edit videos for you with our outsourced editing service. We tried to remain un-biased because the other options are very good fits for different needs, so we hope this has helped you make your mind up. 

Have a look at the amount of content you need to produce, what your ultimate goals are, and either stick to it yourself or look further into one of these options. 

Come back to the calculator any time you’re looking to number crunch again.

If you want to learn more about editing, treating a YouTube channel like a business or video marketing, then be sure to head on over to our free video marketing course. It’ll help you make your own videos as well a promote them. 

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Why & how to add video to your email signature

add video to email sigs

How to put a video in your e-mail signature

Examples shown are for G-mail, theory is similar on other platforms.

1. How to put video in your e-mail signature (recommended)

Difficulty 3/5
Power 4/5

Step 1: Create your image that could be something like this, or you could go big.

(I found that going too big was a bit annoying if I’m honest though).

If you’ve not got mad Photoshop skills to make images like these, check out Canva. It’s really easy to use and the girl who created it is like a billionaire now, so it must be good.

The most important thing is that it looks like it’s a video so make sure you make a play button for it.

The size of the image we used in our example is 500×127 pixels.

Step 2: Go to your E-mail settings and scroll down to your signature.

Step 3: Add the image.

Step 4: Make sure the size works for you. Ideally, you want to upload an image that’s the right size to start off with and is as small a file as possible, so it doesn’t clog up your emails.

If you need to compress your image check out www.tinyjpg.com We’d recommend doing this for sure!

It will knock your image down about 80% in size for free.

Step 5: Once you hit OK you might get this annoying little blue box. If the image does not appear, don’t worry – it will eventually.

Get the link to where your video can be viewed.

It could be on its own special page on your website which is what we’d advise. If you send them to YouTube there are loads of distractions there so we’d wouldn’t recommend doing that.

Our clients could just send them to our Wistia host where their video will be, but a special, dedicated page will make it even more effective.

Step 6: Now you’ve got the link to the video, highlight the box or If you’re lucky enough to have the actual image displayed, highlight that.

This is the bit you have to be careful with. It’s not that easy to highlight and add the link, annoyingly.

You have to click the image and then drag slightly and it should highlight the image. If you do this wrong it won’t link the image, it will just put a text link under it which blows the whole thing. (Nice one Google.)

Step 7: Hit save.

Step 8: Test it by sending an e-mail to yourself. Then test the link.

2. How to put an animated GIF video to your e-mail signature (flashy but not as reliable)

Difficulty 4/5
Power 4/5

It’s time to really get funky on your Gmail e-mail signature!

Disclaimer: Not all email providers will display a gif when you send it in your e-mail signature. Outlook doesn’t, for example. (Not yet anyway.)

Disclaimer 2: If you put a gif in your e-mail you need to make sure the first frame is one that you’re super happy with because that’s what the boring providers like Outlook will show if anything.

Step 1: Get a video you want to put in the e-mail

You might need to compress your video if it’s massive. It also can’t be above 60 seconds and the final GIF can only be 7.8 seconds.

Step 2: Got to www.giphy.com

Step 3: Load your video to Giphy.

Step 4: Change the length and starting point to suit.

It’ll do its thing.

Step 4: Download the “social file option.”

Step 5: Go to your Gmail E-mail settings and scroll down to your signature.

Step 6: Add the Gif like you would an image.

Step 7: You might get a blue box with a question mark or the fully loaded GIF. Don’t panic if it’s blue.

Step 8: You might get a blue box with a question mark or the fully loaded GIF. Don’t panic if it’s blue.

Click on it and drag the mouse a little to highlight it and then link it to your video.

Step 9: Hit save.

As mentioned before you need to make sure the video’s first frame is suitable because some email providers will not show the animation. Outlook won’t because it’s super boring.  It will either display nothing or the first still.

3. How to put a YouTube video to your e-mail signature (for the time poor)

Difficulty 1/5
Power 2/5

By the way, this is not the most effective way to do this but it is the easiest way.

Step 1: Go to your YouTube video and find its link to share. Copy the link.

Step 2: Go to your E-mail settings and scroll down to your signature.

Step 3: Copy the link into your signature.

Step 4: Hit Save.

Step 5: Test it.

Pros: That was super quick and easy to do
Cons: It’s cool because it plays inside the actual e-mail on Gmail but it doesn’t stand out much.

Why & How to put a video in your e-mail signature

In the olden days, we signed cheques with our ‘signature’. The whole point of this was to have something totally unique to us that couldn’t be forged.

Is your e-mail signature belly button fluff?

So why is it that our e-mail signatures are about as unique as belly button fluff?!
It’s like we’ve been using them wrong this whole time. Yes, it’s important to have a link to your website and your contact details there, but what if we looked at it as a way to communicate differently?

What if, like those cheque book days of yore, it was something personal and something unique to you?
Your email signature is a giant personal billboard – and all you’re putting on it is… er… an address.

This is actually the place for a highly personalised video… and not one that’s a promo.

People e-mail a person not a brand

The most important thing to keep in mind is that people are e-mailing a person and not a brand. So, the video needs to be an ‘About You’ video. Just you and only you.
So, we’re going to talk you through the best type of video to use here (that’s 500x127pixels). Then, further down the blog post, you’ll find 3 ‘How to…’ videos to show exactly how to action them.

Make it a simple video to let people inside your world; to show them your interests, your goals and definitely a top tip, to show off your expertise in the industry.

Keep it short and sweet but produce something with the aim that when they e-mail you back, they’ll have your personality and your face in mind.

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