When it comes to engaging users and getting conversions, videos have the most potential. They’ve got to be good, and here are ten ways to help you produce amazing videos.

Nowadays, creating videos doesn’t require a film degree. Now, more than ever, it’s easy for people to make trending videos with just the use of their smartphones.

In today’s Social Media, it’s easier for people to watch rather than read. This is a double-edged sword, of course. Impressive videos can grab eyeballs like no other form of content, but they’re often too short and don’t tell an engaging story.

These types of videos become what Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg describes as “passive content”. It doesn’t engage the user, and it will no longer be prioritized by Facebook news algorithms. And, what Facebook does other platforms will also do.

Read More: How to Adapt Your Marketing Strategy to Facebook’s News Feed Changes

In short, your videos have to be engaging. Don’t think that the reality of selling your product or service is disinteresting to people. There is an audience interested in how your business does what it does.

For example, Social Media Examiner’s show The Journey. This is a documentary series that focuses on the day-to-day of Michael Stelzner’s marketing team. You might think a show about a marketing team would be boring, but it is extremely engaging.

Check out Social Media Marketing with Michael Stelzner’s latest podcast “Storytelling with Video: The Journey“. It focuses on the creation of their documentary series, and it can help you understand what kind of videos are most useful for marketing today.

Video Content is King

YouTube alone has more than 1 billion users watching millions of hours of videos every day while Snapchat and Facebook have both already surpassed 8 billion daily video views. According to Cisco, 80% of all web traffic will come from videos by 2019, which goes to show how compelling videos can be.

Many marketers and companies have seen the growing power of videos and, in 2016 alone, a total of 61 percent of businesses used videos as a marketing tool.

To continue this trend, businesses and marketers alike will need to keep ahead of the competitors in their content marketing and include more engaging videos.

To help you, we have outlined ten excellent ways to create engaging videos:

1. Tell a story

As we mentioned, storytelling is going to be a huge part of the next wave of social engagement. It is at the heart of all the best videos and all of your content will benefit from a truly compelling story structure.

Starting with the setup, ensure you have an idea that is already interesting to you and your staff. Start getting comfortable being recorded immediately. Film everything.

Pay attention to recurring story archs. In subsequent videos, return to interesting characters, ideas, and dilemmas. Revisiting these aspects of your content will keep viewers coming back.

The focus of this method is to capture your customer’s hearts instead of their wallets with your video. Research published by the Harvard Business Review indicates that the brain releases a neurochemical called oxytocin when a person watches a character-driven story that they connect with emotionally.

When oxytocin is produced, a person’s sense of empathy is enhanced which leads to the personing becoming more generous, compassionate, charitable, and trustworthy.

By creating a compelling and emotional story, this empathy will connect customers to your products and services. In other words, stories will engage your audience.

2. Use Humor

One of the easiest ways to grab a person’s attention is to make them laugh. Funny videos are some of the most shared content on social media.

Take Pewdiepie, for example, who just passed 60 million subscribers and typically gets 5 million views on each video before they are even 24 hours old.

Despite this, always remember that when you use humor to create videos, make sure that it will lead to customer action. If it doesn’t inspire people to act then it’s useless.

3. Make Sure the Camera is Steady

A video taken by a shaky hand can be hard on the eyes and dizzying to watch. Invest in a quality tripod for better video quality. Otherwise, people will stop watching.

There are many tripods made for either cameras or mobile phones. If you’re on a budget, most smartphones these days can film in 4K HD and there are quality tripods for smartphones.

4. Have a Good Audio

Bad audio kills good videos. A video with excellent sound gives a better watching experience for your viewers.

There are three things to consider when making a video.

First, record in a quiet room and avoid any external noise that can ruin the video. Next, invest in an excellent microphone that can record quality audio.

We’ve tried and like the Zoom line of products. A nice, cheap, versatile example would be the H4N.

Lastly, choose the right music. Experiment with sound effects, recurring intro and outro tunes, and even theme songs.

5. Use the Right Colors

Depending on your video’s setting and story, make sure that its colors help set the mood.

For example, if your story is set during spring, make sure you include bright and vivid colors. Pastels are always a good spring choice. However, if you’re creating some sort of Game of Thrones parody, you’ll probably want lots of neutral tones like black and brown.

6. Keep your videos moving

Change your video’s scenery and camera angle at least every few seconds (except for when pauses are appropriate). Your viewers will get bored if they’re looking at the same thing so change your landscapes, backgrounds, and close-ups to keep your videos interesting.

In pre-civilization times, humans had to focus on movements in order to survive. This has translated to modern times in our desire for movement and action in videos and other media.

7. Use Effective Captions

As many people don’t listen to videos on social media, it is important to have the best captions possible. This makes your videos easy to absorb by reinforcing visuals and also making it more convenient for the viewer.

This is also an opportunity for humor!

Don’t just rely on the automatic generation of captions offered by Facebook, YouTube or any other application and instead create your own to make sure they’re as accurate as possible. However, if you do choose to use automated tools, then double check the texts and see if it matches the video.

8. Include a Call to Action

Know what you want out of your video and try to plan the result of your viewer’s reaction. Going back to the Facebook changes, make sure your calls to action are not too explicit. Find crafty ways to encourage engagement.

For example, end your video with a provocative statement or question.

This should tie into your compelling story and make it interesting enough to convince your viewers to do something after they watch your video.

9. Film a lot, Edit out Most of it

Less is more. When dealing with social media, succinct videos are ideal as they have a far higher retention rate compared to longer ones. People rarely ever finish videos that are more than 5 minutes long. Unless, of course, they’re very engaging or a part of series.

Whatever you’re planning on filming, film a ton of content. Make sure you have 3 to 4 times what you’ll actually need for the finished product. This way, you can continually cut out redundant information. This will ensure that the final product only conveys the exact point you’re trying to make.

10. Catch Audience Attention Right Away

Make a video that presents the critical points during the first 30 seconds. During this time, it is vital to catch your viewers’ attention and keep them engaged to view the remaining parts of your video. Make it exciting, relatable, and interesting.

All in all, these ten ways are just some of the many techniques you can use to create a quality and exciting video. While also making sure to use all of the techniques we’ve mentioned, you should also check the current trending videos and see what methods they use.

Do you have any tips or tricks for creating great video content?

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