Make Super Slick Video Marketing For Your Business
How Make Video Marketing Work for Your Business
Many online entrepreneurs ignore the power of video marketing and video SEO as a tool because they believe it’s either too expensive or too complicated. Maybe you believe that the skills required to make great video ads are genetic traits. The truth is you don’t have to be a Spielberg to make great videos. Best of all, you can make professional video ads for your business using tools that are 100% free.
HH-Michael via Compfight
The approach I’ll be covering today isn’t a low-budget, webcam infomercial. Those can work, but most of us would rather not step in front of the camera. If we did, we’d be actors not entrepreneurs. What I’m going to share with you is a method for making polished video presentations with a few powerful, free tools.
Prezi – Like PowerPoint… Just Better and Free
The best tool in my video arsenal is Prezi, an online software application that allows you to create presentations similar to PowerPoint. The difference with Prezi is that instead of working with slides, you build your presentation on an “art board.”
When creating a presentation in Prezi, you simply upload the images you want to use then add text and shapes. The images, text and shapes can then be “framed.” This creates a focal point for the Prezi camera. The frames are then connected using the path tool to emphasize text and images via pan and zoom and create transitions from one frame to the next.
This approach creates a greater sense of movement than what can be achieved with PowerPoint and creates a more cinematic experience for the viewer.
Prezi has an incredibly intuitive interface that’s easy to learn and use. Positioning, scaling and rotating images and text is all done with the click and drag of your mouse. There are a variety of built-in templates for creating presentations that are a great starting point but don’t be afraid to start with a blank canvas and let inspiration be your guide.
The basic edition of Prezi is free and should be all you’ll ever need to create stunning presentations for your business. There is a small Prezi brand watermark in the lower left hand corner of presentations made with the free edition of Prezi. If it’s a bother, you can remove it by purchasing the $59/year subscription but the logo is hardly noticeable.
Adding Narration and Music
A picture may worth a thousand words, but adding sound to your presentation is a must. Write a script to convey your marketing message and then find some suitable music to play in the background. You can find a large catalog of free music online at sites like SoundCloud.com. Be sure to pay attention to the creative commons licensing and be only use those tracks that are licensed for commercial use.
To edit the audio tracks together, you can use a free audio editing software tool called Audacity which can record your voice through your built-in PC microphone. Good quality audio is important, so if you don’t like the sound you’re getting from the built-in mic then consider buying a decent computer microphone.
Once you’ve recorded your narration, you can add the music track in Audacity and export the tracks to an .mp3 file format.
Converting Your Prezi to Video with Audio
Your Prezi can’t be uploaded to YouTube or other video sharing sites without being converted to an accepted video file format. In order to do this you will need to use screen capture software. There are a variety of free screen capture applications available that will output to .avi, .wmv or .mp4 file formats accepted by YouTube.
To convert the Prezi you will use the screen capture software to record the Prezi as it plays along with the audio file you recorded using Audacity. While there are plenty of free options out there for screen capture, I prefer an inexpensive tool from TechSmith called SnagIt. It’s $49.95, but you can use it free for 30 days. That’s plenty of time to make tons of video ads.
If your on a budget, check out CamStudio, an open-source video screen capture tool that works well.
The Process Step-by-Step
Here’s the steps one more time:
- Create a presentation using Prezi.
- Record your narration track and add background music using Audacity.
- Play the full screen Prezi presentation and narration mp3 at the same time and capture with SnagIt or CamStudio as an mp4 file.
- Upload to your YouTube channel and other video sharing sites.
The author of this article is an e-commerce store owner and big advocate of video advertising for free traffic and improved search engine rankings for your site. Check out Rob’s info-packed e-commerce book, E-Commerce Blueprint: The Step-by-Step Guide to Online Store Success, available at Amazon’s Kindle Store now.
Allow us to help you dominate online for your profitable keywords using the power of video marketing. Contact Blend Local Search Marketing today!
Blend Local Search Marketing PTE LTD
No 2, Havelock Road, #04-20, Havelock II, Singapore 059763
Tel: 6531384048
Video Marketing for Business
