The invention of Internet video has changed everything, especially when considered in conjunction with other inventions such as YouTube, digital video recording, desktop video editing, broadband internet access, camcorders, camera-equipped web-enabled smartphones and video sharing (via social networking).
Most of these inventions barely existed 10 years ago, but they are now so much ingrained in our culture that no one ever stops to think how incredible it all is.
As technology evolved, we didn’t get flying cars but we did get ‘flying videos’; every laptop is a movie studio and every mobile phone is theatre. Back in the day, it was difficult to send someone a video, but fortunately those days are long gone.
If you do internet marketing in any way or form it is really in your best interest to learn how to incorporate video into it.
We all watch videos in our day to day lives for various reasons, especially in this digital age. Videos are created to entertain or to educate us about what’s happening all around us. However, not many of us have stopped to ask themselves what exactly makes up a video. In short, videos are simply a combination of moving images and sound.
A growing trend in digital marketing is the use of video to explain complicated subjects in a very easy to understand and simple fashion. This explains why so many people visit YouTube frequently and watch videos from a wide array of topics. To be precise, whiteboard animations have taken the video industry by storm and produced outstanding results.
Lee and Sachi LeFever, a married couple from Seattle, Washington, have had a lot of success with animated videos and are the owners of Common Craft. They create videos using very simple methods.
All their videos are created by dragging a series of paper cut-outs across a whiteboard. As you can see from the screen shot below, despite their simplicity,
they really turn heads on Youtube.
Furthermore, they have created videos for several big companies including Ford, Google and Dropbox.
You can find similar success stories with other video creators such as Andrew Park who works for the Royal Society of Arts (RSA animate). His videos have been viewed over 50 million times.
Another example is Sal Khan, who started his Youtube channel back in 2006 with the aim of tutoring his younger brother. However, his videos became so popular that he now runs the multi-million dollar education institute, The Khan Academy.
These are only three inspirational stories of successful video creators but what do they all have in common? What can we learn from them?
Don’t let the lack of a ‘studio’ prevent you from reaching out to your audience through internet videos. It can be intimidating at first, especially if you’ve never uploaded a YouTube video or recorded your PC screen. Their success stories only prove that you can achieve so much using very few resources.
For a lot of people, when they think about internet video, they think of famous YouTube celebrities with millions of fans or think that they have to be in front of a camera. But again, looking at our examples, their videos don’t have any people in them. They basically consist of white board objects. It has nothing to do with being a star.
If you watch Common Craft videos by Lee and Sachi, you will be shocked by their striking simplicity. What you will learn is that; as long as your audio and message is clear, then you don’t need any advanced special effects. Common craft videos are made using simple paper cut-outs and yet people still love their videos.
Having a great studio, being an actor or the inability to create complex videos should not prevent you from incorporating videos into your digital marketing efforts. Videos can explain topics in a way that your target audience can easily understand. The use and impact of video in every aspect of marketing cannot be underestimated, especially in this digital age.
