Karan has been a teacher for the last 20 years. His students were fond of him for his teaching. But since the last few years, he has seen his students referring to online materials that they have come across. His students have shown him videos of online classes.
Though the things were new to him, he loved the new approach of teaching. He thought of trying it once for himself. But he was apprehensive how to begin. He started recording videos of teaching.
He took one lesson and explained it as if he was doing for a class. He started a channel and uploaded it online. He was excited to check his views.
Initially, he asked his students to see those. He uploaded few more videos in a couple of months. But he found nothing much happening on his channel.
He started looking at other videos of similar category. He understood that his videos were not as appealing as others. But he couldn’t find a way out.
Karan was surely a dedicated teacher. But being a good teacher does not make him a great video creator.
Karan understood that videos are a strong medium of communication in the world of the internet. YouTube, smartphones and social media have all made videos incredibly cheap and easy to access or create.
More than 180 million internet users watch online video content every month and that number is growing rapidly every year. Karan thought of creating videos to reach a lot of people and help more students.
But what lacked in Karan’s videos was the approach of marketing.
It is necessary to start discovering the right direction for video marketing. By direction, we are talking about everything from budget to format. There are steps like preproduction planning, filming, editing, publishing, optimizing for search engines and strategies that will enable the growth of the audience.
Pre Productionrn1. Why are you making the video?rnYou must set your success parameter before you start creating a video. The content of the video will depend on this as well. For Karan, his motive was to reach more students. To do that he must know what students are searching for. Once that is known it will be easier to draft a plan of the video.
2. Call to Action is the next steprnWhen you know what to put in the content of the video, the next part is the action that you want your viewers to perform. If Karan wanted comments of students for his videos, he should have asked the students to share in their queries.
The call to action in video has three benefits: firstly the video will have greater engagement; secondly, you will get the topic of discussion for your next video. Thirdly, when the student's interests will be met, the channel will gather dedicated followers who would come again and again to follow the videos.
3. Knowing the viewersrnIf we take the case of Karan, he is an experienced teacher. He knows the psyche of students. In his videos, he should have kept something that will interest the students. Students change with time. So, the teaching style must also change.
By style, in videos we are referring to the tone of voice, personality portrayed and targeting the personal goals of viewers. Solving the probable problems and simply not just imparting knowledge.
Karan in his videos cannot just put theories but needs to give ways to improve concentration. Going through the journey of the viewer is important.
4. Bring in varietyrnFor a teacher like Karan, if you are putting free videos on the internet you must realize the fact that you are not the only one here. Unlike your tuition, no one is paying particularly to attend your video lessons. The chances of drifting to the next video in the playlist are high, so make sure you are doing the following in your videos.
Thank your viewers for watching or for a high response in an earlier videornCreate short support videornGive a sneak peek of the topics that you are going to discuss on the videornShare Tips, tricks, and hacksrnAdd some fun elementrn5. Choose the formatrnYour video can be of three types. A) Live Video B) Short Video C) Long Video
Live VideornThis can be your choice when you have a set of audience. For Karan, he can have a gathering of his existing students and thereby start his live video where he will give an instant solution for problems. Last minutes suggestions or exam tips can be the topic of his videos. These can be conducted on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.
Pros and Cons of Live VideornPros: Real-Time Engagement is possiblernCons: You will make mistakes but still you need to keep rolling without being awkward.rnPros: Cost is low for setting up these videosrnCons: No fancy editing is available
Short videosrnDivide your topics into short videos. Too much content is boring. While making the videos, take a note on the first 10 seconds of the video. If you can hook your audience within that time then there are higher chances of your video getting viewed till the end.
In short videos, highlight a topic, give visual content, share infographic and give a solution in your video.
Pros and Cons of short VideornPros: Requires less time and resourcesrnCons: Less time means less informationrnPros: Higher chances of engagement and sharesrnCons: Creative effort and planning requires more effort to execute a broad concept within lesser time
Long-form videornTo discuss broader topics or while making explainer videos, you can start having long videos. While making long videos, one needs to have enough graphical representations along with video voice over. There can illustrations, gif, infographics, etc to give a better insight of the discussed topic.
Pros and Cons of Long videosrnPros: Scope of creativityrnCons: High budgetrnPros: More informationrnCons: Difficult to hold the attention of viewers
How to create a video scriptrnEven if you are a pro, you must have a script. You might not follow word to word of the script. But having one will give you an idea of what you are talking in the video.
rnPractice your script to know the run time of the video.rnTake pauses and give pans, zooms and visual specifics wherever necessaryrnGive spell checked subtitles, opening, and closing creditsrnAdd musicrnInclude a relevant call to action designating the next step a viewer should take.
rnIf you are someone like Karan, these tips of video making will surely help you in creating your video content. Do let us know if you find this helpful and need some post-production tips from experts.