If you’ve been trying in vain to convince your boss now is the time to start producing video content within your marketing plan, consider bringing up that even psychologists say people are 39 percent more likely to share content distributed via video. Plus, videos make it easier for people to form emotional connections with content delivered via videos versus text, and the brain processes it 60,000 times faster.
But you don’t just need impressive stats to win over your superior. Tools are essential as well. Thanks to the list below, you can come armed with lots of ideas about not only why it’s crucial to create video-based content, but also which tools you should use to go about it.
Ideation Tools
1. ContentIdeator
This tool crawls the web to identify trending content so you can capitalize on the next big thing before competitors do. Although ContentIdeator is not specific to video alone, it allows you to filter a search, so it can look only at YouTube to see what’s most popular there.
2. Placeit
Placeit offers over 2,500 media templates—many of which are for videos—into which you can insert your logo or other image. The content is technology-themed, so if you’re thinking about making a YouTube clip about the world of tech, Placeit could help get your ideas flowing and confirm whether or not they are feasible.
Video Creation Tools
3. Wirecast
Wirecast is the go-to tool for making videos of live events such as concerts, panel discussions, and lectures as they happen. It could be a good resource if you want to charge people for access to seminars and let them tune in from afar. Send the live streams directly to platforms like Facebook Live and Twitter, using effects like transitions and animated titles to make them more engaging.
Often, great things may occur if you have a tool like Wirecast ready to capture something special. One notable example is when a vocal group sang “Hallelujah” spontaneously to honor Leonard Cohen when they learned of his passing. The video was a bit primitive because it was shot on a smartphone held in a vertical orientation, but the overall power of the footage was more noticeable than those small shortcomings.
In fewer than 12 hours after publication, people viewed the video approximately 30,000 times, and that number has grown to over eight million. Because the clip was very shareable and people related to the idea of wanting to pay tribute to Cohen, it’s not surprising the video became so popular. This case study proves making your video go viral doesn’t always require a huge production.
4. Videoshop
Maybe you want to rely on videos to show clients your products or services in action, like SpeedPro Imaging does here. Even if you don’t have a major marketing budget or lots of video-based know-how, Videoshop is a user-friendly app that helps you get great results.
Launch Videoshop and quickly make videos that feature subtitles, slow-motion effects, and more, all without going through unnecessary steps that could slow down the overall process. It’s also easy to share the finished products to social media feeds, increasing the likelihood your business will gain traction from the efforts. Videoshop also permits voiceovers. Using that feature could be helpful if you want to provide context beyond what subtitles offer.
Because it’s so easy to rely on Videoshop to make videos, you might even do as Samsung did and create two different versions of a video that were different lengths. Interestingly, Samsung got good results via video while promoting an audio-based product: a speaker. After running for two weeks, the ad boosted awareness among consumers who saw it by 25 percent. That goes to show how effectively video can show how products work, even if they don’t intuitively seem like a good fit for the video medium.
Editing Tools
5. Magisto
Although Magisto is a tool for both creating and editing, its real strength lies in editing. Powered by algorithms, it selects the best parts of your films and photos and blends them all into a new piece of video content enhanced by music, effects, and themes you’ve chosen.
Think about using Magisto if your company has held a special event, been strongly represented at a conference, or taken part in an awards ceremony, and you want to make a video that highlights the most exciting parts of that occasion. By editing videos and photos you’ve already gathered and turning them into something new, Magisto makes video creation a breeze.
6. YouTube’s Video Editor
Even if YouTube doesn’t heavily factor into your upcoming video campaign, you can still depend on YouTube’s integrated video editor to get your clip just the way you want it before going live. This Flash-based tool works directly in your browser and saves versions of your edited video on command. All the basic ways to make your video better are built into the tool, such as adding audio, still images, or titles.
Transitions can guide viewers through your video and denote the start and end of different sections. Creative Commons-licensed videos could beef up your content if the existing footage isn’t long enough or can’t delivered the desired effect.
Because the editor’s feature set is fairly limited, it’s not realistic to rely on it for a large-scale video campaign. However, consider YouTube’s tools a worthy introduction to some of the cool things that are possible with purposeful editing tools. Eventually, you might be able to use the YouTube-edited material as leverage when making the case for a more capable tool.
Promotion Tools
7. Promolta
Promolta is a self-service advertising platform for YouTube videos and Facebook campaigns. Reportedly used by more than 20,000 video marketers, it pushes your clip out to 10,000 blogs, websites, and other platforms, sometimes within an hour of creating your campaign, which must have a minimum budget of $100. For targeted results, filter your audience by characteristics like age and location, or use Promolta’s video seeding technology to figure out the countries where your creation gets the most traffic.
8. Stacker
By not promoting your video on social media, you’re missing out. Stacker makes it simple to publish posts on multiple social media accounts and receive all messages about the content via a universal inbox. There is also an automatic publishing feature that makes posts public at the best times throughout a day, improving the chances that the largest number of people possible see your video. Use the built-in report generator to study video trends and track when your video gets more engagement than usual.
9. JustReachOut
If you believe your video has something worthy to say to a broad audience, seeking press coverage is a necessary step. However, thanks to a tool called JustReachOut, doing so no longer involves hiring a publicist because you can rely on this resource to contact journalists and bloggers independently.
Plan pitches by searching for media professionals and narrowing results by keyword, niche, publication, and other parameters. An integrated tracking system lets you know if and when recipients open your pitch. Templates make it easier to speak favorably about your video, and you can even create a list of favorite journalists to contact later during an intensive campaign.
10. Circulate.it
Circulate.it taps into the power of your employees and other internal team members to share your video after you insert it into a blog post for handier sharing. The tool compiles the blog post containing the video, plus other newsworthy pieces of content spread throughout your company on a given day, and puts everything into a digest-style email.
After perusing what’s inside, recipients swiftly send their preferred pieces of content through email or post them on social media feeds. With a package that starts at $9 a month for 1,000 shares, Circulate.it is a reasonable addition to your video marketing budget.
You can’t afford to delay your video production plans any longer, and shouldn’t. These easily accessible tools get the job done and could amaze you with the kinds of results they offer. Marketers all over the world have tapped into the power of video-driven content marketing, and you can, too.
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