The Ultimate Guide To Video Marketing

If you’re looking for a video marketing guide, you’re not alone. Of all businesses, 90% use video marketing as part of their overall digital marketing strategy. And 68% of marketers who aren’t using video plan to build a video strategy in 2024.

There’s no strategy like video marketing for educating, generating leads, and converting customers. And video production is more cost-effective and easier to accomplish than ever. Today you can shoot in high-quality, 4K video — even with your smartphone. But between strategy, equipment, and editing software, video marketing is still pretty complicated.

Trust us, we’re on HubSpot's Content Strategy team. We create editorial videos day in and day out. That includes riding successes and working through challenges. Below, we share our tips for creating a video marketing strategy that actually works.

The Importance of Video Marketing

Video marketing started in earnest in 2005 with the launch of YouTube. Google bought YouTube in October 2006, and by 2009 there were seven different ad formats on the platform.

As the technology to create quality videos gets easier, it’s become more popular with marketers. But that’s not the only reason video is the dominant form of communication today.

First, there was the rise of smartphone technology that made watching videos easier and more convenient. Then the pandemic boosted online media consumption by 215% in the U.S.

Fast forward to 2024, and audiences are spending an average of 17 hours a week watching videos online. We’re a part of that statistic. Between the two of us, we watch dozens of hours of video a week. Ignoring video marketing is no longer an option for brands who want to excel. Here are some of video marketing's biggest benefits.

Video marketing encourages social shares.

Video is the second most popular content type on social media for increasing engagement. Platforms like YouTube and TikTok have always been about video. Meanwhile, platforms like Instagram and Face8 4book are focusing on video.

Even platforms that don’t offer native video uploads emphasize the value of video marketing.

• Tweets on X get 10x more engagement.
• 68% of video marketers plan to use LinkedIn video this year.
• Almost a billion videos are watched per day on Pinterest.

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Video marketing improves SEO and boosts conversions and sales.

Of marketers, 31% add video to improve SEO. Websites see a search engine boost when they add video because it increases page quality and the time visitors spend on the page.

More than 60% of marketers say their customer acquisition cost has gone up. At the same time, 83% of video marketers say that video helps them generate leads.

That’s because video hasn’t only transformed how businesses market and consumers shop. It’s also revolutionized how salespeople connect with and convert prospects and how service teams support and delight customers. In short, video is incredibly useful throughout the entire flywheel — not just to heighten brand awareness.

“In a previous role, our sales team would send out personal videos to potential subscribers,” says HubSpot’s Kaitlin Milliken of her previous role at a B2B magazine. “We were able to make personal connections with our prospects, which was especially helpful if we connected with them in-person at an event.”

Video can be a versatile tool for salespeople throughout the entire customer buying journey, and it can do much more than increase engagement. Backend analytics also help salespeople qualify and prioritize cold or unresponsive leads.

Video marketing appeals to mobile users.

Mobile users are a driving force for video consumption. According to a Statista study, 77% of those surveyed use a smartphone or tablet to watch online videos. And Facebook says it’s 1.5x more likely for people to watch video every day on a smartphone than on a computer.

We’ve done it too! Laying down in bed and scrolling through video is both easy and satisfying.

Video marketing is great for educating and building trust.

While 91.9% of users are content to watch any type of video at all, 31.3% want how-to videos and another 29.8% want educational videos.

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The options are also endless for service teams — onboarding videos, knowledge-based videos, meet the team videos, support video calls, and customer stories are just a few ways that video can create a more thorough, personalized customer support experience.

And users aren’t just learning from brands. Millennial and Gen Z users are different, but most of them want to learn from each other. According to HubSpot Research, consumers and customers prefer lower quality, “authentic” videos over high-quality videos that seem artificial and inauthentic.

This is part of the reason influencer marketing has grown from $9.7 billion in 2020 to an estimated $24 billion in 2024.

Video is within reach for businesses of virtually any size — team and budget alike. The data is clear. To succeed, your business needs a solid video marketing strategy.

1. Define your goals.

Before you set up, record, or edit anything, start with a video marketing goal. Why? Because every decision made during the video creation process will point back to your video’s purpose and what action you’d like your audience to complete after watching it.

Without a clear purpose agreed upon by your team, you’ll find yourself in a whirlwind of re-shooting, re-framing, and editing. That wastes a lot of precious time. So, begin the process with a clear strategy.

Our team spends time writing out our goals for a video campaign before we get started. That allows us to pinpoint exactly what we hope to achieve before cameras role. We can then align our creative vision to the goals.

2. Choose your target audience and find out where they spend their time.

The popularity of video and user-generated video content means that you need to target a specific audience with each video. If you don’t already have strong buyer personas, start creating them now. If you already have a set of buyer personas, make sure to update your personas to include the most recent video research.

For example, when TikTok gained popularity, we added short form video for the platform to our rotation at HubSpot. We could use the same videos on YouTube Shorts and Instagram. These platforms target different age groups and help us gain recognition with a larger audience.

Hopefully you’re already on the social platforms that your target audience is and all you need to do is incorporate video there. However, you should be aware that different platforms are more suited for short-form or long-form video.

Moreover, each video should target your audience at specific stages of the buyer journey. Consider whether you’re aiming to increase brand awareness for prospects or making a direct ad for leads. Or maybe you want to provide testimonials to those in the consideration stage or make how-to videos for existing customers.

3. Connect with stakeholders to align on a plan for the video.

There are typically a lot of players when making a video. How can you ensure they’re all aligned?

Create a questionnaire using Google Forms or SurveyMonkey and pass it along to the stakeholders of the project. This way, you can ask the same questions of everyone and keep their responses in one place.

At this stage, it’s important to agree on a clear set of goals. Is your video marketing to increase brand awareness? Sell more event tickets? Launch a new product? What do you want your audience to do after watching the video? What will your call-to-action (CTA) be?

While connecting with stakeholders is important for any campaign, we’ve found that getting buyin is especially important for higher-production, more expensive videos. If we want to test out an idea, a social video made in house will be more likely to garner support.

4. Set a timeline and budget for your video.

Think of video as a shorter, quicker, and less expensive version of your favorite film. While a video needs fewer resources to succeed, it can still be a time-consuming and expensive process. You can save time and money with planning and project management.

Create a clear timeline for every step of the process and plan for occasional delays. Even a small video production relies on the skills of many different people. So, you want to make sure that even with unexpected challenges and changes you can still deliver your video on time.

“I cut my teeth early in my career as a multimedia video producer,” says Kaitlin Milliken. “I spent hours perfecting our production plans. That attention to detail and adherence to deadlines still sticks with me in my current role as a program manager.”

5. Choose the best platform to distribute your video.

Before you start making your video, think about where you’re going to broadcast it. YouTube SEO is becoming as important as website SEO. Think about what people on that platform are looking for. You’ll also want to consider:

• Average view time.
• Size and sound limitations.
• Communities.
• Budget.
• Promotion.

While videos are often used for advertising, a video doesn’t just promote itself. Some platforms have built-in vehicles for promotion, while others will need you to put in some time and effort to get more eyes on your video content. We suggest thinking about the resources you have dedicated for marketing and picking your platform from here.

6. Develop messaging and choose the right types of video for your personas.

It’s important to communicate a message with your videos. If you’re not sure where to start, use one of these examples of marketing videos to inspire your video strategy. If you’re not sure what kind of message is best for customers at different stages in the buyer journey, align your video messages with the flywheel.

Kate Ross, a marketer at beauty company Irresistible Me, emphasizes the importance of understanding your audience before creating your videos.

“We make sure our videos speak directly to different customer groups,” says Ross. “Whether it’s a quick how-to video or an in-depth product review, customizing the content keeps viewers interested.”

With your budget, skills, and resources in mind, think about the creative roadblocks that might arise. Do you need a designer to create lower-third graphics? Are you going to create an animated video or a live-action video?

7. Decide which metrics you want to track and how you will measure success.

Before you dive into production, you need to define your video goals and find the best metrics to help you understand whether you've accomplished those goals.

You can default to using the metrics available in your platform of choice. But this can make it difficult to figure out if your video strategy is performing over time. It can also make it difficult to measure the effectiveness of multichannel video strategies.

Instead, we suggest choosing several key performance indicators (KPIs) that correspond with your video goals. This list of metrics is a good place to start if you’re not sure where to start with tracking your video marketing.

Your Video Marketing Guide Through the Flywheel

Too often, companies jump at the opportunity to create their first video without thinking. They spend the whole budget on an explainer video for their homepage, but as soon as the project is complete, all future video plans screech to a halt.

Other businesses churn out a slew of social videos. But they often just copy fads they've seen, so their videos don’t connect to their audience’s challenges or habits.

Video marketing can’t be an impulsive guessing game. Instead, we suggest that teams create a comprehensive video marketing strategy that applies to every part of your flywheel.

Start with the inbound methodology.

The inbound methodology is the marketing and sales approach focused on attracting customers through content and interactions that are relevant and helpful. Each video you create should address your audience’s challenges and provide a solution.

In the following sections, we’ll cover the types of videos we create for each stage in the flywheel. To start, we suggest that you create at least two videos for each section.

Don’t forget to include CTAs to help lead your audience through their purchase journey and into the role of “promoter.” Over time, you can improve based on conversion rates and the content gaps you discover.

Attract

In the attract stage, our goal is to turn strangers into visitors. Consumers at this stage are identifying their challenges and deciding whether they should seek out a solution. So, the videos we create empathize with their problems and introduce how HubSpot presents a possible solution.

In our experience, the goal of this kind of video is to expand reach and build trust. Because we are looking to garner video, we focus on entertaining and evoking emotion. It’s also important to provide enough information to establish authority on the topic.

Examples of videos in the “attract” stage include:

• Short videos that show off your brand’s personality.
• Thought leadership videos that show your leaders are a source for industry news and insights.
• Brand films that share your values and mission.
• Explainers and how-to videos that provide relevant tips for solving your audience’s pain point.

When we’re working with a new audience, our team avoids speaking too much about our product. Instead, we let the brand values and personality take center stage.

Pro tip: Because these videos can live on a variety of channels, keep the strategies of each platform in mind. This overview of video and social media platforms can help.

Convert

Once we’ve attracted video viewers and website visitors, it’s time to convert these visitors into leads. With most inbound marketing content, this means collecting contact information with a form.

Video can aid this process by offering a solution to the buyer’s problem. Our goal in the convert stage is to educate and excite.

“Convert” videos may include:

• A webinar filled with tactical advice.
• Product demos sent by email.
• Landing page promotional videos.
• Case studies.
• In-depth explainer and how-to videos.

For example, while an “attract” video might provide a quick tip for nailing a sales pitch, a “convert” video could be an animated explainer video that breaks down the inbound sales methodology.

Close

Once we’ve converted the right visitors into leads, it’s time to solidify those leads into customers. At this point, the consumer is weighing their options and deciding on the purchase. So the goal of these videos is to make our audience visualize themselves successfully using HubSpot.

There’s a reason that 88% of marketers report positive ROI with video. Videos can explain how a product works and trigger emotions in ways that a product description can’t.

Great “close” videos include:

• Testimonials of customers with relatable stories.
• In-depth product demos.
• Culture videos that sell viewers on your quality of service.
• Personalized videos that explain exactly how your product could help their business.

Delight

After a sale has closed, video can be a helpful tool. While we don’t make these videos on our team, our HubSpot colleagues use video in the post-conversion stage of your flywheel.

During the “delight” stage of the inbound methodology, your goal is to continue providing remarkable content to users that add value to their experience with your product or service.

You also want your customers to tell their connections about their experience or promote your brand themselves. So, the goal of this type of video is to encourage your customers to embrace your brand and become brand evangelists.

Your first opportunity to delight comes directly after the purchase. Consider sending a thank you video to welcome them into the community.

You can also send an onboarding video to get them rolling with their new purchase.

Then, build out a library of educational courses or product training videos to cater to consumers who prefer self-service or simply want to expand their abilities.

As you develop your video marketing strategy, there are other types of marketing videos you can create for every stage in the flywheel.

Video Marketing Strategy Tips

To find out what video marketing strategies are working well out in the real world, we asked a few experts for their top video marketing strategy tips.

1. Measure your performance.

A lot goes into making and distributing videos. To make sure your efforts aren’t wasted, it’s essential to analyze your video marketing results.

Lee Moscowitz, director of growth marketing at SmartPass, emphasizes the need to analyze metrics like video impressions, click-through rate, and conversions — and to pay special attention to video completion rates.

“I always recommend establishing certain milestones in videos,” says Moscowitz. “Did the person watch long enough until our CTA showed? Are people only watching 15 seconds of our two-minute video? View rates and milestones help you track if your video is telling your story or if people are dropping off too soon.”

Moscowitz adds, “This data will tell you if you need to shorten your video, revise the script to bring up the value proposition sooner, and any changes like that.”

2. Repurpose video content.

After spending valuable time and resources on creating marketing videos for your business, the last thing you want is for them to be a one-and-done piece of content. To get the most out of your video marketing efforts, David Ciccarelli, CEO of Lake, an online vacation rental company, suggests repurposing your video content.

“Creating long-form and short-form videos is labor intensive, so we focus on repurposing our video content in as many ways as possible to keep it fresh,” says Ciccarelli.

One way to repurpose your videos is by being creative about the different marketing channels you distribute them on.

“We recently started integrating video into newsletters and are seeing great results,” Ciccarelli. “People’s attention spans are short, but video provides a rich experience for people who want to hear regular updates from us but don’t necessarily want to read a long-form newsletter every few weeks.”

3. Experiment with several video types.

After creating your video marketing strategy, Haley Wells, social media team lead at seoplus+, recommends identifying which videos you believe will gain the most traction and working off of that.

“Start with three to five videos, and after a couple of weeks, see which videos your audience interacted with the most,” says Wells. “Look at which video gains the most comments, likes, or impressions from the top level. Knowing what kind of content your audience enjoys the most will help you refine your strategy in the future.”

4. Incorporate audience feedback.

Your team may have an idea of which video types will perform well, but your audience is the deciding factor. Pay attention to which videos they interact with most and adjust your strategy based on their feedback.

Wells’ team saw great success when they paid attention to audience comments.

“Our team noticed that one of our videos had a comment that had received significant attention,” says Wells. “With around a thousand likes, we took advantage of TikTok’s capability to respond directly with a video. This strategy re-engaged those who interacted with the original comment and amplified the conversation further.”

5. Refine and optimize.

Your video marketing strategy is only as good as its reach. If your target audience doesn’t see or interact with your content in the first place, then you know something needs to change. Make sure your videos are optimized for search, says Ross.

“When uploading videos to platforms like YouTube, we focus on making it easy to find what they need,” says Ross. “This includes choosing the right titles, writing clear descriptions, and tagging relevant keywords.”

12 Types of Marketing Videos

Before you begin filming, you need to decide what type of video you want to create. Check out this list to better understand your options.

1. Demo Videos

Demo videos showcase how your product works — whether that’s taking viewers on a tour of your software or unboxing and putting a physical product to the test.

Learn how to use video in each stage of the buyer’s journey.

2. Brand Videos

Brand videos are typically created as part of a larger advertising campaign, showcasing the company’s vision, mission, or products and services.

Brand videos aim to build awareness of your company and intrigue and attract your target audience.

3. Event Videos

Is your business hosting a conference, round table discussion, fundraiser, or another type of event? Produce a highlight reel or release interesting interviews and presentations from the gathering.

4. Expert Interviews

Capturing interviews with internal experts or thought leaders in your industry is a great way to build trust and authority with your target audience. Find the influencers in your industry and put these discussions in front of your audience.

The video above is more than just a surface-level interview, it’s a deep dive with HubSpot’s CEO offering concrete takeaways for viewers. Don’t be afraid to get tactical with your interviews — your audience will grow from your hard work.

5. Educational or How-To Videos

Instructional videos can teach your audience something new. These marketing videos can also build the foundational knowledge they’ll need to better understand your business and solutions. Your sales and service teams can use videos like this as they work with customers.

6. Explainer Videos

This type of video can help your audience better understand why they need your product or service. Many explainer videos focus on a fictional journey of the company’s core buyer persona who is struggling with a problem. This person overcomes the issue by adopting or buying the business’s solution.

7. Animated Videos

Apple created this animated video to share its carbon neutrality goal.

Animated videos can be a great format for hard-to-grasp concepts that need strong visuals or to explain an abstract service or product.

8. Case Study and Customer Testimonial Videos

Your prospects want to know that your product can solve their specific problem.

One of the best ways to prove this is by creating case study videos that feature your satisfied, loyal customers. These folks are your best advocates. Get them on camera describing their challenges and how your company helped solve them.

9. Live Videos

Live video gives your viewers a special, behind-the-scenes look at your company. It also draws longer streams and higher engagement rates as live-stream interviews, presentations, and events encourage viewers to comment with questions. Plus, according to Statista, live stream videos reach nearly 23% of the world’s population.

10. 360° & Virtual Reality Videos

With 360° videos, viewers “scroll” around to see content from every angle — as if they were physically standing within the content.

This spherical video style allows viewers to experience a location or event, like flying down a hill with Olympic skiers.

Virtual reality (VR) allows viewers to navigate and control their experience. These videos are usually viewed through devices like an Oculus Quest 2 or a Valve Index.

11. Augmented Reality (AR) Videos

AR videos add a digital layer to what you are watching.

For example, you can point your phone’s camera at your living room and AR would allow you to see how a couch would look in your space. The IKEA app is a great example of this.

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12. Personalized Messages

Video can be a creative way to continue a conversation or respond to someone through email or text.

Use HubSpot Video Hosting or Loom to record yourself recapping an important meeting or giving personalized recommendations. These videos create a delightful, unique moment for your prospects and can drive them deeper into the purchase journey.

Now that you’ve planned your video marketing strategy, it’s time to start making your first video.

There’s a lot that goes into making a video. This section will walk you through the detailed process of creating and publishing a video for your business.

1. Script your video.

While there’s a time and place for videos to be off-the-cuff, most video marketing needs a script. If you skip this step, you’ll find yourself editing more than you need to, releasing a video longer than it should be, and probably losing your audience along the way.

When we approach a script, we start it like any blog post — with an outline. Here we list out our key points and order them logically.

We often work in Google Docs to promote collaboration and real-time commenting. We use the “Insert > Table” function to create a two-column script. This allows us to write our audio script in the left column and insert matching visual ideas in the right column.

Two-column scripts are a common practice in television because they help you organize how the audio and visual parts of your script work together.

Don’t make the viewer wait until the end to understand the purpose of your video. They won’t stick around. Be sure to include a message near the beginning that states your video’s purpose, especially for educational and explainer videos.

As you begin creating videos, you’ll notice a key difference between video scripts and your typical business blog post — the language.

Video language should be clear, relaxed, and conversational. We suggest avoiding complex sentence structures and eloquent clauses. Instead, connect with your audience by writing in first person and using visual language. Keep the language concise, but avoid jargon and buzzwords.

Most video scripts are probably shorter than you think. Keep a script timer handy to check your script length as you write and edit. For example, we found that a 350-word script equates to a video that’s nearly 2 minutes long.

Words on paper sound different from when they’re read out loud. That’s why we organize a table read of our script before we start filming. The point of a table read is to smooth out the kinks of the script and nail down inflection points.

Have your writer and talent gather around a table with their laptops and read the script multiple times. This is a great time to make script changes so that the language sounds more natural.

2. Set up your studio.

When you begin creating your in-office studio, purchases can add up quickly. You might need a camera, tripods, lights, microphones, and more. But setting up your studio doesn’t have to be overwhelming. There are plenty of cost-effective ways to create professional videos in your space.

Basic Equipment

When it comes to video, we recommend shooting with a tripod that can help you maintain a steady shot. The type of tripod you choose should depend on the camera and lens you’re using.

If we’re recording with a phone, we use a table mount like the Arkon Tripod Mount or a full-size tripod like the Acuvar 50" Aluminum Tripod. For a DSLR, we switch gear. Manfrotto makes a variety of trustworthy tripods starting with the Manfrotto BeFree and increasing in quality and price from there.

We also recommend that you stock up on camera batteries and SD cards. Recording video will cause you to run through these quickly.

Audio Equipment

While many cameras have an internal microphone to record audio, you’ll want to invest in some quality sound equipment. Most internal microphones aren’t powerful enough to adequately record audio.

When we shoot with an iPhone, we opt for an easy-to-use and inexpensive microphone. For example, the Movo VXR-10 PRO microphone has been a helpful plug-and-play solution for capturing audio on the move.

There are even more options for recording audio with a DSLR. Lavaliers can be wired or wireless. You’ve likely seen many videos that use a lavalier microphone — the small piece that clips below the collar of the talent’s shirt.

However, lav mics aren’t our favorite. They can be uncomfortable and distracting for the talent (who has to have a wire threaded down their shirt) and for the viewer (who has to see a microphone for the whole video). Instead, we use a shotgun mic. They’re reliable, remain out of the shot, and record background noise in a natural-sounding way.

To set this up in your office studio, you’ll need a shotgun mic like the Rode VideoMic NTG. You’ll also need:

• Shotgun clips.
• A light stand.
• XLR cables.
• A Zoom H4N recorder.

The Zoom recorder will allow you to record audio separately on an SD card and adjust the gain for the space you’re shooting in. Plus, we found that this is an easy-to-use option that we can set up quickly.

These audio purchases may sound expensive. But a shotgun mic setup is a sound investment that will last for years. If you’re looking for a more cost-effective solution, the Rode VideoMic is a great alternative.

Lighting Equipment

You have a camera. You have audio. Now, let’s talk about lights. We always use the three-point lighting method. We’ll describe this set up below.

To outfit your studio without breaking the bank, head over to your local home improvement store. Pick up extension cords and a few clamp lights with bulbs. You’ll also need three light stands, which are available on Amazon.

Three-point lighting is a traditional setup for video lights. It involves three lights placed strategically around the subject. This approach creates a soft light that makes your subjects look their best on camera.

First, you’ll need a key light. Place this at a 45-degree angle to the left or right of the subject. Lift the light above their head and aim it downwards.

This light should be bright enough that it could be the only light in the scene.

Next, place the fill light at a 45-degree angle on the other side and lift it close to or just above eye level. The purpose of the fill is to soften the shadows created by the key, but without getting rid of them completely.

The fill should be dimmer than the key light. If you have to use the same type of light for both, scoot the fill back and diffuse it by clipping a clear shower curtain onto the clamp light with clothespins.

Finally, the backlight will add a third layer of dimension. Move your subject away from the background. Lift a light above the subject’s head and place it behind them and off to the side so it’s out of the frame.

Aim the light at the back of their head. This creates a line of light that separates them from the background.

Setting Up Your In-Office Studio

Once you have all your equipment, you’re ready to create your office studio.

We’ve found that studios save our team hours of prep time for each shoot. Plus, you don’t need to find a new space. You can turn any room into a great studio, just make sure it isn’t too empty. You can bring in a couch, chairs, or blankets to minimize the echoes in the room.

Try to find a room with minimal noise. Think about buying photography paper to create a background that’s a little more appealing than a white wall.

When it’s time to shoot, turn off the overhead lights. With your three-point lighting setup, there will be no need for harsh fluorescent lights.

Show your talent that you value their time, and don’t ask them to wait while you turn lights on and test your camera. When everything is in place, you’re ready to move to the next step.

3. Prepare your talent.

If you have experienced, confident actors in your company, you’re lucky. Video talent is a rare resource. But with a little bit of coaching, you can help your teammates thrive in front of the camera.

Don’t forget that getting in front of the camera can be scary. Give your talent the script early and let them know they don’t need to memorize it. Instead of memorizing, we have our actors use a teleprompter.

To make a teleprompter, we place a laptop below the eye-line of the camera. We then break the script into short paragraphs and record each section until we capture a great take. We can then have our talent read those lines directly off the laptop, like a voice over for those sections.

4. Plan your shot list and get used to your equipment.

Before and during your video shoot you’ll want to maintain a list of shots you want to get and an inventory list to make sure you cover every aspect of the plan.

For example, if our marketing team wants photo stills from our video shoot to use for the blog, we get those photos before breaking down the set. This helps our team get more value out of our time and resources.

You may not be familiar with everything it takes to get great shots for your video, so let’s go over some basics.

Composition Basics

Composition is one way to create a visually powerful video. The rule of thirds is a simple composition technique that can improve your videos. In this technique, you’ll place key elements at the intersection of two horizontal and two vertical lines, like in the example below.

In this example, the woman’s eye lines up with the top horizontal line on the right. This is a good screen composition for interviews.

For this “talking head” shot, you can also improve your composition by leaving some empty space between the person’s head and the top of the screen.

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Another way to improve the look of your video is to include b-roll. B-roll is the supplementary footage included as a cutaway.

This might include shots of:

• A customer service rep talking on a phone.
• A designer editing your website.
• Visuals of your office.
• Screenshots of your product.

The key with b-roll is to make sure every piece enhances the story. Create a shot list of more b-roll ideas than you think you’ll need and mark them off as you record them.

When you’re collecting b-roll, include a mix of shots from varying angles and distances. Try a mix of the following common video shots:

1. Establishing Shots

These are wide shots that allow the viewer to see the entire scene. These are great to use at the beginning of a video or scene.

2. Medium Shots

These are shots like the one in the interview example above.

3. Close-ups

Close-ups are tightly cropped shots zoomed in to show detail. These might feature someone’s hands typing on a keyboard or pouring a cup of coffee.

For practice, try telling a story with your b-roll and planning out a shot sequence.

For example, your subject might open a door from the hallway, walk into their office space, sit down at their desk, open their laptop, and begin typing.

A shot sequence showing this 10-second scenario could include six or more different b-roll clips.

4. Create Continuity

Continuity is the process of combining shots into a sequence so that they appear to have happened at the same time and place.

A key part of continuity is making sure any extra objects in the scene, like a cup of water on a desk, stay in the same place through every one of your shots.

Understand your camera.

Fear of new equipment can keep businesses from video marketing. But learning to shoot video doesn’t have to be overwhelming.

You probably have a great, easy-to-use camera right in your pocket: your iPhone.

Recording With Your iPhone

Before filming with your iPhone, make sure your device has enough storage. And don’t forget to enable your iPhone’s “Do Not Disturb” feature to avoid distracting notifications while filming.

Once you open the iPhone’s camera, flip your phone horizontally to create the best possible viewing experience. Then, move close enough to your subject so you don’t have to use the zoom feature — it often makes the final video look pixelated and blurry.

Your iPhone might do a great job of focusing on the subject when you take photos, but when it comes to video the camera will adjust as you move around the scene.

To solve this problem, lock the exposure before you press record. Hold your finger down on the subject of the video until a yellow box appears with the words “AE/AF Lock.”

Shooting With Prosumer and Professional Cameras

While iPhones are great for filming when you need to or getting used to video, you may want a more advanced tool. There are a ton of digital cameras to choose from. These are a few options we like.

If you’re interested in going the prosumer route, we suggest that you look at the Canon PowerShot ELPH 360. The GoPro HERO 10 is also fun for adventurous shoots with lots of movement.

Considering the expense of a DSLR camera, research your choices and read plenty of reviews. Top cameras (from most expensive to least) include the Sony Alpha 7 IV, Nikon D810, and Canon EOS R5. For a more cost-effective choice, check out some of these DSLRs.

If you’re not sure which type of video camera will work best for you, there are some key differences we recommend you consider.

Prosumer cameras are easy to use. They’re perfect for someone who wants the option to just press record. Most have a fixed lens because these make it easier to see what you’re recording.

Professional cameras, like DSLRs, give you fine control over the manual settings when you’re recording video. They allow you to create the shallow depth of field (background out of focus) that people rave about.

DSLRs are small, work great in low light situations, and pair with a wide range of lenses — making them perfect for video. But, DSLRs do require some training and you may need to buy more add-ons, like lenses.

Understanding Your Camera’s Manual Settings

If you choose a DSLR, there are a few settings you need to understand before your first shoot.

This is a high-level overview of each setting. There will be a different method for adjusting these settings based on your specific camera. If you want to learn more, refer to your camera’s instruction manual.

Frame Rate

Most videos have a frame rate of 24 frames per second (fps) or 30fps.

Video experts often credit 24fps with a more “cinematic” look, while 30fps is more common, especially for videos that need to be projected or broadcast on a larger screen. Ask the end-user of your video what they prefer. Then, be sure your resolution is at least 1920 x 1080 to maintain quality footage.

Once you’ve set your frame rate and resolution in your camera’s settings, it’s time to get to know your aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. These three variables work together.

Be sure to turn your camera to manual mode to control these settings.

Aperture

Aperture refers to the size of the opening in the lens. Like a human eye, a lens opens and closes to control the amount of light reaching the sensor. Aperture is measured by f-stop. The smaller the f-stop number, the more open the lens is. A larger f-stop number means the lens is more closed.

What does aperture mean for your video? When a lot of light comes into the camera, you get a brighter image and a shallow depth of field. This is great for when you want your subject to stand out against a background.

When less light comes into the camera you get a deep depth of field and can focus across a larger portion of your frame.

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is a term from still photography. When taking a photo, shutter speed is the length of time the camera’s sensor gets exposed to light. Think of it as how quickly or slowly the camera blinks.

If you want a perfectly timed photo of a hummingbird frozen in time, shoot with a fast shutter speed. If you want to shoot an image of blurred headlights at night use a slow shutter speed.

Shutter speed is measured in seconds, or in most cases, fractions of seconds. So, 1/1000 would be faster than 1/30.

But what does shutter speed mean for video? To pick the right setting, you’ll have to do a little math.

Here are some common shutter speeds and how to calculate them:

• At 24fps, 24 x 2 = 48, equalling a shutter speed of 1/50
• At 30fps, 30 x 2 = 60, equalling a shutter speed of 1/60
• At 60fps, 60 x 2 = 120, equalling a shutter speed of 1/20

Remember, this is just a guideline for choosing shutter speed. There’s always room to tweak shutter speed to achieve the desired effect.

ISO

In digital photography and videography, ISO measures the camera sensor’s sensitivity to light.

On your camera, you’ll see the settings referred to with numbers in the hundreds or thousands (e.g., 200, 400, 800, 1600).

The higher the number, the more sensitive your camera is to light. The lower the number, the less light-sensitive it is.

ISO also affects the graininess of the image. Low ISOs produce a crisp shot, while high ISOs create a more noisy, grainy shot.

When choosing an ISO, consider the lighting. If your subject is well-lit, like when you’re outside, you can get by with a lower ISO, around 100 or 200. If you’re indoors in a low-light situation, you’ll need to bump up the ISO — just be careful of how grainy it makes your shot.

This is how the three factors of the Exposure Triangle work together. When you have a low-lit situation, for example, you may choose a lens that can shoot with a low f-stop to let more light into the camera and avoid making the shot too noisy with a high ISO.

If you’re just starting out with manual video settings, don’t get overwhelmed. It takes time and a lot of practice. While understanding aperture, shutter speed, and ISO can help you shoot great videos, there is one more important factor: white balance.

White Balance

White balance tells your camera the color temperature of the environment you’re shooting in.

Different types of light have different colors. For example, incandescent bulbs (like what’s in most living room lamps) have a warm color. Fluorescent lights (like office lighting) are a little bit cooler. Daylight is cooler yet.

Before you begin recording, you have to adjust your camera’s white balance according to your setup.

Most cameras have an auto option, presets, and a custom setting for white balance. Try to avoid auto white balance and opt for a preset or custom setting instead.

To understand the importance of setting your white balance, take a look at these two photos. The space is lit with yellow fluorescent lights. You can see how the appropriate setting looks natural, while the daylight setting adds a blue tint to the scene.

Focus

Focus is also important to keep in mind. With a DSLR, you can shoot with autofocus or manual focus.

Manual focus is usually best. Use the (+) and (-) buttons to enlarge the viewfinder and move close to your subject’s face. Then, adjust the focus on the lens.

For shooting setups like interviews, make sure the subject’s eyelashes are in focus — that way, you can be certain your footage is clear and sharp.

5. Shoot your video.

Recording a video is tricky because you need to balance many different ways of thinking. A great video should have:

• An emotional draw.
• An interesting storyline.
• Strong visual cues.
• Compelling sound.
• A clear message and call-to-action.

To accomplish this, you need to be a coach. Balance critical feedback with support and encouragement after each take. This is why conducting a table read during the scripting process is so important: It’s easier to give feedback when there’s not a camera in the room.

Try to get a little silly during the shoot or your talent will be on edge and uncomfortable and it will show in the footage.

In the hectic rush of shooting a video, it can be easy to forget crucial details. Video marketing is more than the art of communication. Marketers creating video marketing also need to:

• Stick to a budget and schedule.
• Work with the cast and crew to follow a plan.
• Maintain clear communication.
• Factor in extras like props and special effects.

So, while you’re maintaining the fun level on set, pay attention to the little things. For example, make sure all your mics are on and watch for any lighting changes.

Record each section many times and have your talent experiment. When you think they’ve nailed the shot try to get one more.

If you can, try to circle back to the beginning of the script at the end of your recording. Chances are your subject got more comfortable throughout the shoot. Since the beginning is often the most crucial part of the video, record that section again when they’re feeling the most confident.

Shoot for the edit.

Some video marketers are better at recording while others are better at editing. It’s a good idea to understand the process and pain points of each.

For example, as the person behind the camera, you may believe you collected ample footage and asked all the right interview questions. But to the editor, you may have gotten too much of one type of shot and missed out on some that would make their job easier.

So, shoot for the edit. Remember that you’ll need to edit all the footage you record. This can help you make decisions that will save you countless hours in the editing room.

Here are a few different strategies for shooting with the edit in mind:

1. Leave a buffer at the beginning and the end of each clip.

This can keep you from cutting too close to an important shot.

2. Record extra footage for jump cuts.

As a producer, your job is to capture plenty of b-roll to make sure your editor never runs out. In the section on preparing talent, we talked about recording your script in short sections.

If the editor stitches these sections together, the subject’s face and hands might abruptly switch between clips. This is called a jump cut, and you can see an example below.

Extra b-roll can help mask these jump cuts so that your video looks and feels more natural to viewers. Another way to mask jump cuts is to shoot with two cameras. This strategy is helpful if you’re recording an interview without a script.

If you plan to shoot with two cameras, try this setup:

Make Camera A a traditional, straight-on shot. Then place Camera B at a 30- to 45-degree angle.

With this setup, the editor can flip between these two views to make the cut appear natural. You can see how to cut these two camera angles together in the example below.

A note about shooting with two cameras: Your editor will need to sync the footage between the different views. To help them do this, clap your hands loudly in the view of both cameras right before you ask the first interview question. Modern editing software has auto-sync features, but this loud clap will help you initially line up the clips.

3. Mark your good clips.

Even if you’re recording a scripted video, you might have to record a section 10 or more times. This can be a lot of footage for an editor to sort through.

So, when your subject nails a take, wave your hand in front of the lens like in the example below. Then your editor can look for this visual cue when they review your footage.

6. Edit your video.

This phase will sometimes overlap with your video shoot, but not always. During this stage, you’ll edit a rough cut of your video, and forward it on for stakeholder reviews.

Some videos go through several editing reviews before they get to the final product. This is also the phase where the team adds visual effects, music, and sound design.

Let’s walk through these important steps for editing your video.

Organize your footage.

File organization can be boring. But it’s essential for video marketing.

As you organize your video footage, we suggest you keep these things in mind.

First, video format files are incredibly large, so it’s unlikely you’ll want to store them on your internal hard drive. You’ll quickly run out of storage, and your computer’s processing speed will begin to lag.

Instead, I recommend investing in an external hard drive like one of the Lacie Rugged models and store your project files on this hard drive. This method also makes it easier to collaborate with teammates because you can easily share the drive.

Second, video editing programs are very particular about where you keep your files. If you don’t stick with the original file structure, you may get a lot of error messages.

On your external hard drive, think about creating a separate folder for each project.

Within this folder, there should be a prescribed set of “buckets” to store your video footage, audio, design assets, and more.