On June 30, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said that they’re no longer a square photo-sharing app, and that they’ll be concentrating much more on video from now on.
This change only reinforces the fact that video is the biggest contender in the content consumption space. If you don’t get started with video today, your brand will fall behind — it’s that simple!
To help you get started, we’ve put together this comprehensive guide on how to make a video. In this step-by-step article, you’ll learn all about:
Ready to make your video? Let’s jump right in.
If you want to skip the tutorial, you can create a video in Visme right away. Make animated videos, explainer videos, video ads and more. It’s fast, easy and works in your browser!
The first step of any creative project is to figure out what you want to make. Since, in this case, we’re talking about videos, you’ll need to figure out what type of video you want to create.
To choose the right video type, you’ll have to identify the purpose of your video. Why are you creating this video in the first place? What do you hope to achieve with this video?
Some possible goals for making a video can be:
Let’s consider a few examples to help you understand this better:
Let’s look at some of the most common types of videos and some examples for inspiration.
An explainer video is a type of video that aims to explain something to the viewer. How-to and tutorial videos also explain something, but the difference lies in the details.
Explainer videos tell a story to explain a concept, or visually demonstrate an idea or analysis. Tutorials and how-tos, on the other hand, give instructions on how to do a specific thing.
Here’s an example of an explainer video from Asana:
Explainer videos are great for explaining a brand concept or showing how a company’s offerings solve specific problems. These are high, top-of-the-funnel content types that help increase brand awareness and form initial visual contact with the consumer.
You can create an explainer video in different styles; live-action, animated or a mix of both. The animated video style, however, has been particularly trendy the past few years, especially among small businesses and SaaS companies.
The best place to use a video is a landing page that showcases your brand or product. Landing pages are where new customers and audiences find products or services they’d like to try.
An explainer video on a landing page is the best way to let them know what the brand is about while telling a story they can relate to.
You can also share your explainer video on YouTube, Facebook and other social media platforms, with accompanying copy that speaks to the people at the top of your funnel.
Below is an explainer video template from Visme you can use for your own business.
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and DownloadPro-tip: Browse our template library for more explainer video templates. You can edit any video template you like in Visme’s drag-and-drop editor.
There’s no better way to explain how to do a specific task or activity than with an educational video. In 2020, 82% of global viewers used YouTube to learn a new skill or hobby. How? With tutorial videos, of course.
Here’s an example of a how-to video from B&Q — a company that sells DIY home improvement products.
The best how-to or tutorial videos are easy to understand and follow along with. If it leaves the viewer confused, your how-to video will be a bust. Take your time with the planning phase of these videos; they have the opportunity of getting you lots of subscribers and potential clients.
Tutorial videos are great for both new and returning clients. Here are some examples of how brands, companies or individuals can create tutorial videos.
If there’s anything you offer that could warrant a tutorial video, you should consider making one. When the same “how-to” question is asked frequently to your customer success specialists, make a video answering the question and showing how to do whatever they need help with.
Here’s a product tutorial video template you can use:
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and DownloadBrand awareness videos are similar to explainer videos, but go one step further. Like an explainer video, a brand awareness video tells a story. But unlike the explainer, it delves more into emotional territory instead of showing how the brand solves a problem.
Here’s an example of a brand awareness video from Dove:
Unlike an explainer video, this video focuses on the concept of self-love and perception. While this video doesn’t talk directly about Dove and its products, it helps build and strengthen Dove’s image of a caring brand that values authenticity and promotes self-esteem.
The story a brand awareness video tells is more about how the brand makes the user feel than what the brand does. This can be done with emotional storytelling that shows how the brand can change a life, a perception or an idea.
Think of it this way — brand awareness videos break barriers between advertisement and storytelling.
Brand awareness videos are sometimes used as advertisements, where the brand name only shows up at the very end. Or, it can be a social media video of how a brand is helping change something that is systematically wrong. It can also be an emotional documentary of a conducted study or a fictionalized situation that makes you think twice.
Use brand awareness videos once your brand is established and is easy to recognize just from the logo. These types of videos are better suited for customers who are already aware of your brand, and have the potential to become loyal and emotionally connected to your brand.
These people are more likely to share your brand awareness videos with their friends. If done well, your video might even go viral, and maybe an online publication will pick it up and share it in an article.
Since brand awareness videos can help build, enhance or even break down your brand image, they should not be created lightly; they must be timeless, essential and relevant.
The sole purpose of an advertisement video (or video ad) is to convert. The visuals, the copy, the story and the sounds must all be selected with one thing in mind — selling.
Regardless of what you’re promoting on the ad; a free webinar, a new product or a sale, the idea is that people will see it and click on the link, or scan a QR code.
Here’s an example of a video ad from Apple:
The action Apple wants you to take after watching this video ad is obvious — click on the link in the description, learn more about the product and possibly buy it.
Depending on the platform you’ll share it on, an ad video can be as short as 15 seconds or as long as a couple of minutes. A TV commercial is usually around 60 seconds, a social media ad around 15 seconds, a YouTube ad is about 20 to 30 seconds.
Video ads are essential for sales and promotions. Online ads already cost money to publish, so why not make them truly eye-catching? That’s where videos come in. According to DataBox, 60% of marketers have found that video ads do better than static ads on Facebook.
Video ads are perfect for YouTube ad placements and TV commercial spots. These might cost a bit more than a Facebook ad with a small target audience, but they will get you more exposure.
Simply put, if you have something that needs promoting, create an advertisement video for it.
Below is a bite-sized video ad template you can use for your own brand. Customize it, download it and share it on social media.
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and DownloadPro-tip: Looking for more video ad templates? Head over to our template library and browse options for Facebook video ads, Twitter video ads, Instagram video ads, bite-sized video ads and more.
Testimonial videos are an excellent way of using customer feedback and going beyond the ordinary. A video with actual footage of the person talking will have more impact than a graphic with a quote in it.
Here’s an example of a testimonial video from HubSpot:
There are a few ways to grab content for testimonial videos:
Even if you can’t get your hands on actual footage or audio of your customer talking, you can always turn their written reviews into testimonial videos.
How? By using animated testimonial video templates like the one below:
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and DownloadYou can use testimonial videos at any point in the customer journey or funnel. At the top of the funnel, you can include them in landing pages.
Further down, they can be inside emails. And even further down, customer success specialists can send the testimonials to prospects about to sign a huge deal with you.
Training and onboarding videos do just that — train and onboard new employees. These are not videos you create for marketing or brand awareness; they’re for your staff and new hires. Training and onboarding videos highly resemble tutorial videos with a more human element.
Here’s an example of an onboarding video from Grubhub:
The video above was created to onboard new drivers. It’s a great example of how you can help new employees familiarize themselves with the SOPs in a non-boring, personalized sort of way.
These videos will help your company thrive from the inside out. You’ll need onboarding videos for new hires and training videos for both new and existing employees, depending on their skill level.
You can show these videos during onboarding sessions, training sessions, seminars and workshops. You can also distribute them digitally via email, or embed them on your website or portal for new employees.
All the videos above have some sort of purpose, such as marketing, brand awareness or internal communications. But let’s not forget the videos that are purely for entertainment.
These include vlogs, behind-the-scenes clips, animated quotes and even TikTok dance videos!
San Diego Zoo, for example, posts entertaining videos of animals on TikTok that people love to watch and share with their friends:
If done well, entertainment videos can also help you generate brand awareness by getting more eyeballs on your brand and social media profile — especially if your funny or entertaining videos go viral.
Use entertainment videos when what you need to do is entertain — it’s that simple.
These videos are also great for beginners just getting started with video production and want to practice creating a great-looking video. Brands usually publish entertaining videos on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram stories.
A video presentation is essentially a slide deck turned into a video. Turning your presentations into videos is a great way to make them more shareable and engaging.
For example, Visme creates video presentations by combining slides with a live-action speaker that walks the audience through design tips and tricks.
People would rather watch a 3-minute video than flip manually through an embedded slideshow, especially if there are animated elements, cool transitions, GIFs and other elements on the slides.
Video presentations are ideal when you want to share a presentation with someone but want to make it easy to see. With a video presentation, you avoid the hassle of having to go slide to slide.
Brands can also make video presentations as educational content that’s more engaging than a normal PowerPoint presentation or a boring lecture.
Here’s a video presentation template you can use:
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and DownloadNot exactly a full video type, but something to consider are intros and outros. These are the clips that open and close your videos. They carry your branding, message and personality.
Here’s an example of a video intro template in Visme:
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and DownloadYou can make all your videos have the same intro and outro template and only change the title of each video. If you already have finished videos but want to revitalize them, add new intros and outros.
When creating videos for YouTube, you’ll need intros and outros. Most specifically, outros with YouTube format for adding related videos and subscribe buttons.
Here’s an example of a video outro template in Visme:
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and DownloadGreat, now you know what the purpose of your video is and what type of video you’ll make. The next step is to start looking at the details, most specifically the topic.
Let’s use the same examples as above:
Make sure you pick a topic that your audience actually wants to watch a video about.
You can dig deeper into your audiences’ needs by listening to social media conversations, checking out competitor content and identifying gaps, conducting surveys, and analyzing your own sales and previous marketing campaigns.
The topic you choose for your video will be the basis for all the content that will need to be laid out as preparation, like the script and the visuals.
But there’s one more step before we get to that — choosing the video style.
After deciding on the video type and topic, it’s time to choose the best style for your video. Does it have people talking or acting out scenarios? Or is it animated characters playing out a story? Maybe it’s a claymation video like Wallace and Gromit.
The video style you choose must be relevant to your story, visual brand voice, and audience. Many videos in most of the types mentioned above use a mix of different styles.
Most commonly, live-action is mixed with animation or motion graphics. Screengrab scenes need live-action support scenes, and the list of combinations goes on endlessly.
There are no rules to what level of video style mix your video needs, just make sure it follows a storyline from beginning to end, makes sense, and the transitions are smooth.
Let’s take a look at each video style and some examples.
Live-action videos are those that have people in them — for example, re-enactments of events, interviews or footage of a person doing something while they explain it.
Here’s an example of a live-action video:
Some types of videos are best with live-action instead of animation. These include cooking videos, exercise and workout videos, personal interviews and tutorials.
Animated videos can be made in any of the various animation styles, but the two major types of animation styles include 2D and 3D animation.
2D animation is technically flat but can have a feeling of depth with textures and shading. Here’s an example of a 2D animation video.
3D animation is more like motion picture animation in that it mimics reality but is animated. Below is an example of a 3D animation video.
When it comes to selecting with animation style to use, it usually comes down to cost. 2D is less expensive than 3D and also takes a lot less time to achieve.
Stop motion is a style of animation that’s done with physical objects that move around in a scene. The trick to stop motion animation is to take a photo per minimal movement of the object; then, when you put them together, it seems to be moving.
Here’s an example of a video that uses the stop motion animation style:
Stop motion styles are done with regular items that seem to move on their own. The smoothness of the motion will depend on how many photos or scenes you take before putting it all together.
Using this technique, animators can also create characters with clay and make them move and interact with each other to tell a story.
Use stop motion or clay motion only if your brand style has a fun and easygoing angle. Corporate videos might not be the right opportunity for stop-motion.
Another animation type worth mentioning is motion graphics. These are animated elements on a scene that support the audio context, but don’t tell the story themselves.
Here’s an example of a video that uses 3D motion graphics:
You can do quite a lot with motion graphics and turn a seemingly boring presentation into a visually engaging experience for your audience.
Video screen recordings are common in tutorial videos for tasks done on a computer. The same applies for gaming videos. When the viewer needs to see your screen to understand what you’re talking about, you’ll need to take screen recordings, or screengrabs.
Here’s an example of a screen recording video from Elegant Themes:
Once you’ve recorded your screen, you can upload the screengrab footage and edit it with other scenes like you introducing the video or an animation opener. Up to you!
Screen recordings are mostly used for tutorials and walkthrough videos as they help the viewers understand and replicate the exact steps or actions needed to solve a problem or complete a task.
Not every video is made up of only animation or only live-action — sometimes, they are mixed.
Here’s an example of a video from Dollar Shave Club that uses mixed media — live-action, text, images and motion graphics.
There are different ways to mix media in a video, such as:
Using mixed media is a great way to improve the effectiveness of your video, change the pace and keep things engaging throughout.
The next step is to write the script for your video. This will be the master document that includes everything that will go into the final project. The depth and complexity of your script will depend on what type and style of video you’ll be making.
Here are some tips on creating an effective video script:
Scripts are not just a story put on paper so that it can then be turned into video. It’s also about how you want to tell that story. This means you need to have directions for the animator, videographer, actors and anyone else involved.
Include explanations about how you want the scene to look or how the people should be dressed. If you’re making the video on your own, you’ll still need some direction to help you while creating it.
For example, let’s say you’ll be making an animated ad for Facebook. What do you need to have ready before you start?
All these details need to be in the script.
Let’s take another example; this time for an interview-style video. What are the things that need to be in your script?
Remember to include as much relevant information as possible in your script. This will give you direction on how to shoot and edit your video later on.
Your video should tell a story with a beginning and an end — the script is what outlines that story in a scene-by-scene format. Use storytelling tactics to help you format the content in a way that will flow and be easy to understand.
Check out our video above on presentation format styles. It's all about using storytelling techniques in presentations, and the same concepts apply to videos.
A script is no place to get over wordy or fluffy. The idea is that your story is told succinctly and to the point. If there are people that have to act things out in the video, write what they need to say or do in detail.
Inject an entertainment factor into your script. If you don’t grab the attention of your audience in the first two seconds, you’ve lost them.
The story in your video needs to show off your brand personality. This applies to everything in your video, from the copy to the background music.
As you’ve seen above, the script is made of both the story and the instructions. That’s why it’s best to format it as an outline, with every section being a scene.
For example, this is what a script may look like for a cooking tutorial video:
You get the idea.
With the script in hand, it’s time to start visualizing a storyboard. A storyboard helps to start visualizing what your video will look like when it’s finished. Think of it as the first rough draft.
You’re probably making a video on your own or with your team, and Visme has storyboard templates to help you out.
