Many creatives are (rightfully) skeptical of AI’s ability to generate original, engaging ideas. But marketing videos don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Like a good pop song that plays too many times on the radio, marketing videos follow tried-and-true formulas — which AI can mimic. 

To produce humanlike content, AI script generators employ natural language processors, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. But how good can an AI scriptwriter really be? Let’s find out! 

We tested over 30 AI script generators; here are three options that produced the highest-quality results when writing a video script.

The goal wasn’t to create a small list, but we had high standards for the AI script-writing tools. These three tools delivered professional results. We’ve also included tips on how to write effective AI prompts and example results from each script-writing tool we’ve featured.  

How to Create Effective AI Scriptwriting Prompts

The results of AI-generated writing are limited to the information you provide in your prompt. 

Therefore, it’s important to over-explain the parameters of what you want the AI to generate, rather than leaving it to make its own assumptions about tone of voice, ideal audience, and other similar details. 

Your prompt should include all of the information you want to be reflected in the generated script. This might be creative, product, or brand information. 

We’ve created a template (below) for a general marketing video script. Replace the bolded text with information from your marketing video brief to utilize the template with an AI writing tool. 

Spending a few minutes creating a detailed prompt is essential to getting the most out of AI script writing tools. This prompt covers all of the most important information AI needs to create a marketing video script for your product and company. 

When writing your prompt, add or remove details as needed. To create varying results or use AI as a brainstorming tool, experiment with the amount of information you provide. 

Other information you might include:

• Product or Service Details 
• Video Setting or Location
• Live-action, Animated, Webcam, Studio, etc.
• Number of Actors or Voice Actors 

Note: AI output can be improved with follow-up prompts. You can specifically point out a desired change or even just ask AI to “try again.” 

3 Best AI Script Writers for High-Quality Videos 

Of the 30+ AI writing tools we tested, only three made the cut for generating high-quality scripts for marketing videos. 

Most AI writing tools use the same machine learning model: OpenAI’s ChatGPT. 

OpenAI has established several contracts with third-party companies, which allow them to utilize the network in specific, limited ways. We will note what AI model each respective tool uses as we discuss them.

We created the prompt below using the template provided. The goal of the prompt is to generate a 30-second explainer video script for an organic, minimalist makeup brand.

We used this same prompt when testing each AI script generator.

1. ChatGPT: Best Free Tool

You don’t need to pay for a script-writing tool to produce solid results with AI. This is perhaps the most surprising thing we learned while testing these AI writing tools. 

Since most AI writing tools use some version of ChatGPT, we figured it was worth starting with the free version of ChatGPT for comparison with the paid tools featured below. 

At the time of writing, ChatGPT-3.5 is OpenAI’s free tier. 

To test ChatGPT, we input the prompt four separate times. The AI produced slightly different scripts each time, even though we did not change the prompt. 

Each new iteration provided more detail and dynamism in the shot imagery and text. The following script was the fourth script generated using the prompt.

ChatGPT produced a solid script from the setting and visual elements to the copy and potential business taglines. There’s nothing fantastically original here, but it tells an emotional story well without becoming cliché or using overly-flowery language to convey luxurious femininity.

Pros

• Free Version with Unlimited Generations: There is no limit to the number of content generations you can produce with ChatGPT. It’s also easy to ask ChatGPT to rewrite or improve its output. 
• Industry Leader & Content Source: As stated, most AI writing tools have contracts with OpenAI to use its technology. It makes sense, then, that going straight to the source would produce results on (at least) the same level as paid tools using this model.

Cons

• No Prompts or Templates Provided: ChatGPT doesn’t provide templates like paid AI writing tools. These templates allow you to plug in information without formally writing a prompt. This isn’t an issue if you are accustomed to writing detailed prompts. 
• Potential Delays with Free Version: The server is sometimes too busy, causing delays. But these are uncommon hiccups in an otherwise seamless generative experience. ChatGPT-4, the paid version ($20/mo), removes the potential for delays.

Cost: Free

2. Jasper: Best Text Generation

Jasper integrates multiple AI models to produce some of the most dynamic results across tools. The AI models it utilizes include ChatGPT, PalM (Google), Anthropic, and Cohere.

It also allows you to upload brand and campaign information, saving you the trouble of constantly reiterating standard information about your company to the AI. Instead, the tool remembers this information and contextually incorporates it where relevant. 

We input the prompt several times when testing the tool. It’s important to produce multiple variations when using AI to create a high-quality script. This allows you to initiate a collaborative process with AI that creates better results overall. 

We also used both the “blank document,” which allows you to start from scratch, and the “Video Script Outline,” template offered as part of Jasper’s service. Both produced sufficient results, but the experience of using a blank document mimics tools like Microsoft Word and Google Docs. This created a more natural-feeling user experience and ease of conversing with the Jasper AI. 

Jasper excels in producing copy that genuinely mimics human language and captures the desired tone. Jasper isn’t built to write scripts, and that’s most apparent in the lack of visual direction included in the script above. 

However, Jasper took follow-up instructions extremely well. The second example script below was produced with two follow-up requests, “try again with more visual direction,” then “try again with a setting in a unique location.” 

Pros

• The Best AI Copy Writing for Marketing: Jasper was built to make creating copy for marketing campaigns efficient and easier. There are a lot of exciting features, like content repurposing, that we have yet to explore. 
• Employs Multiple AI Models: As mentioned, Jasper is the only AI writing tool that transparently integrates multiple machine learning models, including ChatGPT, PalM (Google), Anthropic, and Cohere. This allows Jasper to generate higher-quality copy. 

Cons

• Took the Structure Too Seriously: The prompt includes specific instructions on the desired structure of the video. This is meant to help the AI create an explainer video script. However, Jasper often prioritized the Video Structure Outline to a limiting degree. This made us want to remove that part of the prompt, resulting in a less focused script overall. 
• Mediocre Workflow: Jasper silos Documents and Templates in different sections of the tool. When writing within a document, you can ask Jasper to produce content, but you can’t easily trigger a template. Instead, you must start with the template and export the text into a document (by clicking a button). This creates a poor and, at times, frustrating workflow when trying to create content. 

Cost: Starts at $39/mo

3. Hoppy Copy: Best User Experience

Hoppy Copy sets itself apart with an easy-to-use platform and effective templates. Although advertised as the AI for marketing emails, Hoppy Copy has something for every aspect of a marketing campaign. In fact, it’s one of the few tools we tested that includes a dedicated Video Script Template. 

In many ways, Hoppy Copy excels where Jasper falls short and vice versa. Both tools offer the ability to save brand information that AI can automatically integrate. Hoppy Copy provides the best user experience by far but can’t quite keep up with the quality of writing Jasper generates. 

In fact, it’s unknown what AI models Hoppy Copy uses. When we reached out, this was the company response, “We can’t say exactly the models we use, but we do use OpenAI.” 

Despite this lack of transparency, Hoppy Copy feels like a tool built for longevity. As artificial intelligence continues to improve, the platform Hoppy Copy has created will only become more of an asset to users. 

This script illustrates one of the most powerful benefits of using AI to create video scripts: randomly great ideas. The script above outlines a scene in which, “a woman in a butterfly-filled garden [is] using the XYZ Makeup brushes to apply makeup.” This incredibly vivid image could become the setting for the entire commercial, lending to an engaging 30-second advertisement. 

In general, this ability to play around with the output from Hoppy Copy is one of its greatest assets. The tool splits your screen in half, allowing the left side to be AI Chat or a built-in template, while the right side is a live text document with your working copy. This allows a truly seamless workflow for marketers and copywriting professionals. 

Pros

• Includes a Video Script Template (& Many More): The most frustrating aspect of using templates when testing AI scriptwriting tools was how ineffective most of the templates actually were. The opposite is true of Hoppy Copy’s templates, with an impressive library of templates that are genuinely helpful and easy to use.
• Seamless User Experience: Hoppy Copy’s standout feature is the platform’s user experience. The most common flaw across AI tools (aside from poor writing generation) was clunky and confusing tool navigation. In this realm, Hoppy Copy is a step above the competition. 

Cons

• Unfavorable Pricing Model: At the time of writing, Hoppy Copy starts at $23/mo, but this plan includes only 20,000 generated words. While it’s nice to have a lower price option, the plan doesn’t include enough words for most use cases. The next plan up is $39/mo and includes 100,000 generated words. Compare that to Jasper, which starts at $39/mo for unlimited generated words. 
• Word Count Frustration: Hoppy Copy’s UI has one big flaw. There’s no record of your conversation with AI, which means you can accidentally hit your word count and have nothing to show for it. To save AI generations, you must “Insert” the text from the AI Chat or Template into the Document on the right side of the screen. The whole process is far from intuitive, leading to a potentially costly and frustrating learning curve.

Cost: Starting at $23/mo

Convert Your AI-Written Script into an AI-Generated Video

We thought it would be fun to grab one of the example scripts and test the end-to-end AI workflow, from writing the video script to generating and editing the video. 

There’s plenty of room for improvement, but it’s amazing to see the script come to life with music, voice-over, and stock video footage. This rough cut was produced in about 30 minutes.

Here are the steps we took to create this short video:

1. Generate Script: We input the written prompt (created from the video script template) into several script generators. We chose the Hoppy Copy output for this video. 
2. Input Script to Create Video: The Hoppy Copy script was pasted into Pictory, an AI video generator, where we began creating the video with its Script-to-Video tool.
3. Choose a Video Template: You can choose from Pictory’s library of templates or create your own. These templates provide a style and branding starting point for the video.  
4. Review Video & Customize: With Pictory, we swapped out stock images and videos, added background music, customized the branding, and more. Options will vary depending on the Script-to-Video tool you use. 
5. Add Voiceover: Our choice for the best AI voiceover tool is ElevenLabs. We used its VoiceLab to create a realistic-sounding voiceover and uploaded it to Pictory, which auto-synced the audio with the visuals.
6. Final Touches & Download: After previewing the video and making any final touches, we downloaded the MP4.
7. Upload to Video Host: Upload the AI-generated video to a video hosting provider, such as SproutVideo. Now your video can easily be shared, privately or publicly. 

Check out our complete list of the best AI tools for video editing and production, including Pictory, which was used to generate the video above. 

3 Ways to Write a Script with AI 

AI can produce seriously impressive scripts. But it’s often more helpful to employ AI as an assistant, rather than asking it to do all the work for you. Here are a few ways you can use AI to brainstorm fresh ideas and expedite scriptwriting. 

Conduct Dynamic Solo Brainstorms

Brainstorming in a group setting synthesizes more engaging, interesting perspectives. Artificial intelligence can quickly gather a large range of potential ideas. To get effective and customized output, you will need to ask specific questions or provide significant detail. 

Using our example from before, you might ask AI to, “provide 40 different potential settings for an explainer video about a luxury, organic makeup brand for affluent women in their 30s who value sustainable business practices and desire a minimal but stunning daily beauty routine.”

Alternatively, you might include those same product and brand details but ask AI to, “write 40 different taglines for this brand,” or, “write a story about a woman who uses this makeup.” 

AI output is hugely dependent on the input. Introduce various different prompts or ask for a significant number of responses to conduct a productive solo brainstorming session.

Get a Rewrite to Gain Perspective

AI learns from the content that already exists across the internet. Therefore it’s not always ideal to write the first draft using AI. The boundless originality of the human imagination is a huge asset that shouldn’t be quickly discarded for convenience. But whether you hit writer’s block or need some insight into your own writing, consider asking AI to rewrite your first draft. 

Be specific with your rewrite request. Instead of simply asking AI to, “rewrite the script,” be specific about what you want to be changed. For example, you can ask AI to expand the script, add uniqueness, or change the setting. Consider what you want to be changed in the script and use precise words to generate a useful rewrite. 

Which AI Writing Tool Is the Best at Rewriting Copy? 

Without additional instruction, how well do our favorite AI script generators rewrite scripts? That may depend on your preferences! 

• ChatGPT changed as little as possible by selecting synonyms while keeping the same general outline and sentence structure. 
• Jasper took significantly more liberties by condensing sections of dialogue and expanding sensory elements. 
• Hoppy Copy was the “Goldilocks” of the group, providing genuinely helpful rewrites of some sentences, rather than only changing individual words or rewriting the overall text.

We found this feature to be particularly helpful for rewriting clunky text or fixing sentence structure. At a minimum, AI rewriting can take pressure off of the first draft by allowing you to produce multiple, similar iterations. This makes it easier to identify weaker sections to improve the second version.

Mimic a Viral Video

It’s not easy to write a script that engages a wide audience. But there are a lot of viral videos that have done just that. Why not use AI to generate a similar tone (emotional, humorous, etc.)?

To test this out, we asked ChatGPT to mimic “1984“, a classic Apple commercial that first introduced the Macintosh personal computer. 

• Make sure to reference a video produced before September 2021, since ChatGPT doesn’t have information past that point.
• Ask AI to write a script inspired by the name of the commercial and brand. For example, we asked ChatGPT to generate, “Video Script for XYZ Makeup (Inspired by Apple’s “1984” ad)“

The results are shockingly accurate — even too similar at times to use. In this case, a parody of this classic commercial would likely be a big hit.

Provide minimal information for best results. Use follow-up requests to customize the output for your brand or products.

What Makes an AI Writing Tool Good?

Among the 30+ tools we tested, many were built specifically for scriptwriting. While some of these tools offered useful features for screenplay writers, none of them were built for marketing writing and failed to meet our standards. 

Additionally, the vast majority of AI writing tools relied too heavily on their contract with OpenAI, as well as a handful of mediocre templates. If the AI writing tool you’re considering only offers these basic features, the free version of ChatGPT is sufficient. 

Instead, the best AI script writers (and AI writing tools overall) are those that:

• Offer the ability to save information about your brand.
• Provide the ability to “chat” directly with AI.
• Include specific templates that the AI utilizes well. 
• Integrate AI with a solid writing user experience.
• Utilize multiple AI models (generally)

Many of the tools we tested were unintuitive, produced overly simplified copy, and failed to compete with the free version of ChatGPT. But the three AI writing tools we chose can be used to produce quality videos from draft one through the final script. 

Ready for more? Discover AI tools for video production or brainstorm corporate video ideas with tips for creating your own. Get inspired by the power of video for customer support or learn how to make a website for your videos in less than an hour. 

The post 3 Best AI Script Writers for Making High-Quality Videos appeared first on SproutVideo.

Technology and industry are rapidly changing, leaving creatives and marketers wondering how AI will reshape their workflows and careers. 

In the realm of video editing and production, AI-generated content leaves a lot to be desired. Text-to-video tools produce impressive results for internal training videos. However, AI-generated videos don’t currently meet business standards for corporate advertisements.

AI tools designed to improve the video editing and production process, on the other hand, allow companies and creators to expedite video creation — from improving video quality (AI upscaling) to mimicking your voice so well that it’ll give you goosebumps (AI voice cloning).

With all the hype around AI, we want to see what tools actually expedite the video creation process. We tested dozens of AI-generative tools to create this list of the 10 best AI tools for video editing and production. Whether you need to add subtitles to a video or replace yourself with an AI-generated avatar, there’s probably an AI tool for that. 

Take advantage of the free trials and free plans offered with many of these AI tools. If neither is available, watch or request a demo before investing to ensure it will suit your needs. 

How to Use AI in Video Production

Artificial intelligence is the newest trend in video production, with plenty of impressive and equally underwhelming platforms and tools to try out. After wading through a sea of options, we’ve compiled a list of the best AI tools across applications for creating videos. 

Some tools are built for AI, while others incorporate AI into existing platforms to offer new features or improve the user experience. We’ll discuss each tool in detail below, and how to use AI generation when producing professional videos. 

AI-Generated Videos

AI-generated video tools create a video from text, and they’re some of the most popular tools available right now. Most platforms allow you to input the script and the AI software outputs a video with stock footage, captions, and an AI narrator. 

However, the videos they generate leave significant room for improvement. These shortcomings make them most effective at creating faceless videos with voiceovers, such as for FAQs and blog post summaries.

Currently, all of these tools produce about the same quality of AI-generated video. But what differentiates the good from the bad (and the ugly) is how easy the platform allows you to edit the video, adding your footage, scenes, music, and more. 

The Best Tool for AI-Generated Videos

Pictory features customizable voice-overs, subtitles, stock video options, and more. Starting with a written script, Pictory allows creators to produce professional results with well-built templates and an easy-to-use interface. 

We created this video with Pictory in less than 10 minutes

Ideal for producing educational and informational videos, Pictory is especially useful for people who don’t have video editing experience. You can create an AI video summary from a webpage article or edit videos by editing the transcription. 

For producing faceless videos without editing software, Pictory is an easy-to-use option with genuinely helpful AI features.

Runner-Up

InVideo offers many of the same features as Pictory. But the initial video generated is less engaging, making it harder to manually edit and improve the video. The InVideo user experience is also less intuitive.

Script Writing

AI writing tools are only as good as your prompt. For this reason, many AI writing tools offer templates and the ability to enhance your prompts. 

The best way to get a workable script is to start with a vision for your video. Feed this vision into the AI and review the output. 

The first attempt probably won’t be good. But if you instruct the AI to rewrite the script with specific additional parameters, the output improves exponentially, producing a decent script to expand manually. 

Learn More: How to Easily Write a Video Script

Some AI writing tools are built for marketing, storytelling, or both. When choosing an AI tool, review which AI model the tool employs. Some tools use older versions of OpenAI’s ChatGPT or a proprietary AI model; this will affect the output significantly. 

The Best AI Tool for Script Writing

Jasper is a significant step above its competition, and not (only) because of its AI; Jasper allows you to save information about your company, brand, products, campaigns, and more. When generating copy, Jasper includes specific details based on the context of the prompt. 

Speaking of prompts, Jasper features a prompt enhancer that does the work of generating a more detailed prompt based on your input. Jasper also includes a template specifically for script writing. 

Jasper is a unique AI platform because it utilizes all available models, including OpenAI’s GPT, Anthropic, and Google. This allows the platform to generate the most accurate and dynamic content across subjects. Overall, Jasper provides the best overall AI writing tool. 

Perhaps its biggest flaw is the steep monthly price, which starts at $40 a month for the Creator plan. Jasper does offer a 7-day trial, but there is currently no free version. 

Runner-Up

WriteSonic is an affordable alternative to Jasper. It offers multiple script-writing AI generation tools, including TikTok scripts and video outlines. But it lacks Jasper’s branded customization and doesn’t employ AI models beyond ChatGPT.  

Video Editing

There are two categories of AI video editing platforms. The first comprises traditional editing software brands that have added AI features to keep up with the evolving industry (Adobe Premiere Pro and Filmora Wondershare, for example). 

The second is tools built around AI. These tools flip traditional editing on its head. If you already have a favorite video editing software, it probably has AI features that will expedite your editing process or provide entirely new functionality. 

Creators looking for a simplified way to edit videos will appreciate the new AI video platforms, but editing professionals will likely choose to stick to the classic tools of their trade. 

AI video editing tools also commonly remove moments of silence and filler words, such as “uhm.” While these functions can save time by cutting down on the amount of video you need to edit, none of the AI tools tested could seamlessly cut videos.

The Best AI Tool for Video Editing

Descript is an alternative to traditional video editing software. Instead of conventional timeline editing, Descript uses transcription editing. The user uploads their video, and a transcription is automatically produced.

Then, they edit the video by making changes to the transcription. The tool also allows you to create scenes and add extra features using keyboard shortcuts similar to markup for text documents.

Descript’s AI transcript editing tool with voice inflection correction

Descript employs AI features to make the editing process faster. It also allows creators to make editing changes that weren’t previously possible: Have you ever wanted to edit the narrator’s voice inflection for a more seamless transition? Descript’s Regenerate AI does exactly that.

Descript’s AI eyeball rotation

The company also recently introduced … eyeball rotation. Yep! If the video host isn’t looking directly into the camera, AI can change that. With reasonable pricing and genuinely useful AI features, Descript is a great option for those interested in a modern editing process that still includes a lot of traditional functionality. 

Runner-Up

Adobe Premiere Pro is quickly implementing AI features, and it’s a leading tool in the industry for good reason. It doesn’t offer less functionality than Descript but rather a more traditional approach to video editing. 

Transcriptions & Subtitles

Producing transcriptions and subtitles with AI is nothing new. Social media platforms have been using AI to automatically generate video subtitles for a couple of years. Therefore, many tools do this exceptionally well. Your current video (or audio) editing software may already include transcription, and you may not need an additional tool.

The Best AI Tool for Transcriptions & Subtitles

Subly is a transcription and subtitle tool with language translation for over 70 languages. It can produce a video or audio file transcription within minutes, then you can use the editor to add customized subtitles to an existing video file. 

The Subly editor provides additional options that allow you to differentiate between multiple speakers and add additional text to the video. When you’ve finished adding subtitles to your video, it can be downloaded to your device. 

Runner-Up

Auris is an exceedingly affordable option compared to Subly. Auris offers basic AI transcription and subtitle generation with language translation in 27 languages. While Subly is more fully-featured and faster, Auris provides 30 minutes of free transcription each month. 

AI Voices & Voice Cloning

There is a wide range of AI voices, from the “obviously AI” to the “spooky-good.” Machine learning has come a long way since the speech synthesizers Stephen Hawking used for decades. 

Now, dozens of platforms produce AI voices to various degrees of realism. Some platforms even make it possible to clone your voice. Imagine recording yourself reading a script without ever stepping into a studio — AI voices make it possible to reproduce the intonations and inflections you use when speaking. 

The Best AI Tool for Voiceovers and Voice Cloning

Eleven Labs Prime Voice AI is spooky-good. While many companies have created impressive AI voices, Eleven Labs’ is practically (and sometimes entirely) unnoticeable. The company is disrupting the voice-acting field as we know it, making the future for voice actors unknown.

Creators and businesses, however, stand to save a lot of time and money. Imagine a self-published author who wants to release an audiobook. Not only can they use this technology to create it, but they can also use AI to narrate it in their voice!

The tool can also be used to build custom voices. It’s worth testing the free version of the platform just to be impressed. 

Runner-Up

It’s tough to match the spooky vocal mimicry of Eleven Labs. But Murf holds its own with natural-sounding AI voices and an easy-to-use interface. It’s an ideal affordable alternative with an intuitive editor for adding text-to-voiceover to any video.

AI-Generated Avatars

AI-generated avatars offer the ability to produce engaging instructional videos without hiring an actor. These avatars can replace stand-in hosts for corporate informational videos.

Yet the majority of current AI-generated avatars fail to mimic the appearance and movement of a human host. Tools that combine images of real actors with AI generation work the best. 

Most tools offer a library of stock avatars to add to any video. 

AI avatars are ideal for internal training videos and FAQ videos for your knowledge library. They can also be used to create content for online courses or blog post summaries. 

The Best Tool for AI-Generated Avatars

Synthesia features the most dynamic AI-generated avatars currently available. Synthesia uses real actors (who are paid for their work) to produce its avatars. AI then generates a realistic video of that person speaking. 

You can even have a clone of yourself created to use as an AI avatar for only $1000 per year. One journalist tested whether or not her avatar could effectively replace her for the day.

Overall, Synthesia produces phenomenal results regarding the appearance and movement of its avatars. For onboarding and informational videos, Synthesia’s avatars help produce content at a fraction of the cost. 

Unfortunately, its AI voices are where Synthesia has room for improvement. While the avatar’s themselves pull off the illusion of a human host perfectly, the voices quickly give away that it’s AI. Combined with our winner in the voiceover category (Eleven Labs), Synthesia’s AI avatars could easily fool people.

Runner-Up

D-ID offers realistic avatars similar to Synthesia. D-ID, however, uses AI to create facial movements. This allows users to upload their image and create an avatar. But it also results in less realistic-looking speech.

Text-to-Video & Text-to-Image 

The potential for using AI to create realistic images and videos is quickly becoming a reality. Some platforms simply ask for text input to produce AI-generated images. These tools are able to create just about anything, and the results are constantly improving. 

To produce specific content, look for AI tools that require training input to capture the desired style and color palette. These tools can create on-brand blog header photos, vector images, and image slides for videos. 

The Best Tool for AI-Generated Images & Videos

Adobe Firefly is the company’s first rollout of AI features. This suite of editing tools provides an awesome range of ways to edit videos and create photos using AI. Beyond text-to-image, Firefly includes the ability to “Inpaint,” allowing you to AI-generate a specific part of an image and replace the original.

It also features Smart Portrait, making it possible to edit models’ faces and lighting within photos. But this was just the beginning for Adobe. 

Adobe recently debuted Project Gingerbread, which boasts impressive new AI advances in generating detailed and accurate videos and images.

This rollout of AI features truly attempts to provide the creator with an AI assistant for image creation and editing. The beginning of a new workflow for image editing begins to emerge.

Runner-Up

Midjourney offers some of the most impressive image generation currently available. It provides 25 free generations and affordable subscription tiers thereafter. It doesn’t, however, offer the extensive image and video editing capabilities you’ll find in Adobe products. 

Video Background Removal (Green Screen Alternative)

Many video editing and AI platforms (Runway, Adobe, etc.) include features to remove a video’s background with AI. Green screens aren’t a thing of the past (yet), but this technology provides impressive results with low effort and a small budget.

The main challenge with this feature is precision; therefore, look for a tool that allows you to fine-tune the results. It’s a red flag if no options are available for improving the final result. 

Inpainting is another aspect of background removal in videos. We’ve discussed using inpainting to add content to an image, but it can also be used to remove unwanted background objects. 

Several video editing tools can remove background elements to varying degrees of success. An effective background removal tool will allow you to manually fix any mistakes the software makes. 

The Best AI Tool for Background Removal

Runway uses AI to quickly remove the background of a video. You start by creating a mask for the object. Runway offers multiple features for customizing the mask, allowing you to make precise changes. 

The tool also allows you to add and edit a new background to match your “green screen” image. Runway also has an Inpainting tool for removing background elements. This is another AI feature often included in video editing software, so you may not need an additional tool. 

Runner-Up

Descript is a comparable AI background removal tool with one major caveat: you can’t fix AI’s mistakes with manual adjustments. The tool does a great job of removing stagnant backgrounds and includes some minimal options to manually the removal’s appearance. But it doesn’t offer nearly the same amount of customization as Runway. 

Social Media Shorts

Short videos have taken over the social media landscape. But taking a long-form video and creating multiple shorts (for Reels, TikTok, or YouTube) is tedious and time-consuming. 

AI can expedite this process, especially for interviews, podcasts, and other long-form content. 

Once again, the combination of AI and user customization determines how successfully a platform produces short-form content. Across platforms, AI can highlight a clip, add subtitles, and crop the video for social media. 

But our favorite tools make it easy to create your own clips, change the template or style of the video, and offer an easy-to-use interface. 

The Best AI Tool for Social Media Shorts

Vidyo.ai is the standout platform for creating Reels, TikToks, and YouTube Shorts from long-form video content with AI. Once you upload a video or insert a URL, the platform takes a few minutes to work magic. Once it’s complete, Vidyo.ai produces a handful of potential short video content with captions.

A strapped-for-time video creator could stop here and have good short-form content to promote their longer videos. There is potential for more functionality as the platform grows. But Vidyo has created an easy-to-use platform that can actually save creators and marketers time and money. 

Runner-Up

Munch is a comparable tool to Vidyo.ai, albeit with slightly less impressive results. However, some users may find the customization functionalities easier to use. Both tools offer similar features, but Munch includes a keyword tool and heftier price.

Upscale (Improve Video Quality)

Improving video quality is one of the most impressive uses of AI. Upscaling increases video resolution without sacrificing quality, allowing you to generate crisper videos. 

The effect is nothing short of dramatic. It’s especially jaw-dropping when applied to nature and landscape videos. This is another aspect of AI video production that is often included with video editing software.

The Best AI Tool for Improving Video Quality

Topaz Labs is setting the standard for AI upscaling. The software focuses on doing a few video enhancements really well: deinterlacing, upscaling, and motion interpolation. It’s designed to work with your existing workflow. Unlike most software these days, you can purchase the tool for a one-time fee and receive support forever. 

Runner-Up

AVC Labs offers a comparable product to Topaz Labs with a unique option – the ability to make a one-time purchase or choose a more flexible subscription plan.

When Not to Use AI in Video Production

AI can improve many aspects of video production … but not all of them. AI falls short when replicating any step in the video production process that requires creative decision-making. 

There’s also room for improvement when producing edits of video content. For example, it can remove filler words but doesn’t recognize multiple takes — and it certainly can’t determine which take is the best. 

Brainstorming

AI can produce a starting point. It can highlight common and popular content, build ideas from existing content, and create something new based on what has come before. 

But it cannot generate original ideas. The beauty of creativity is the ability to create something from nothing. Machine learning cannot replicate the leaps and bounds of the imagination. Even the same idea and script will result in entirely different outcomes based on who directs, produces, and edits the video. 

Therefore, don’t expect AI to generate a brilliant idea or winning concept. Instead, use it to discover engaging topics in your industry and avoid predictable storylines and settings.

Storyboarding

In video production, a storyboard is the visual — often sketched — shot-for-shot action plan for a video shoot. Creating a storyboard requires thinking through the process of filming and the final desired product. 

The storyboard helps organize the video ideas and plan an efficient day of filming. This visual sequence is essential to communicating a video’s vision to the people involved, from the actors to the editor. 

Current AI isn’t capable of producing this level of detailed creative decision-making. It can create sketches of a script and suggest a logical sequence of shots. It cannot do the detailed planning work necessary to ensure a film crew can get the shots needed for a video.

Stock Music

Platforms that offer AI-generated music are priced in the same range as stock music platforms (compare Mubert and Epidemic Sound, for example), which also pay artists for their work. Stock music platforms offer a wide range of genres, moods, and beats per minute. Furthermore, monthly subscription prices are reasonable, so there is no justification for choosing lower-quality music at a similar price. 

End-to-End Video Editing

AI can produce many impressive results in the editing process. But AI is not great at turning a video recording into a polished final cut.

While you might use AI to remove moments of silence or filler words like “uhm,” the cut will not be precise enough. This AI feature can save time, but video editors must review each cut to create a smooth transition. Furthermore, AI can’t make creative decisions, such as where to insert a B-roll over an interview. 

The Future of AI in Video Production

Today’s AI is akin to dial-up internet (for those old enough to remember). The possibilities are beginning to emerge in a field that will hugely grow and likely impact various creative industries and the workflows therein. Here are a few possibilities for the future of AI in video production.

Hyper-Realistic Video Generation

Imagine generating any video scene from an idea and text. That’s what Runway envisions: a world where anyone can actualize a video without… the production part. 

“No lights. No camera. All Action” is the company’s tagline for its second generation of Generative AI, which is coming soon. 

Beyond Runway, hyper-realistic AI generation is the goal for many competing companies. Midjourney V5, for example, was released earlier this year with stunning results. 

End-to-End Video Editing

Video editing requires creative decision-making and a contextual understanding of the edited content. As these two areas of artificial intelligence improve, video editing could become a much quicker process for creators and editors. 

As mentioned, current AI tools can remove silence, pauses, and filler words. But you wouldn’t trust it to insert B-roll over an interview or precisely overlay audio for a seamless transition. 

There are certain aspects of video editing that AI will likely never replace. Still, there are many technical aspects of editing that AI can reliably perform, saving editors huge amounts of time.

Ethical & Legal Landscape

The legal and ethical ramifications of AI are the biggest unknown for the technology moving forward. The work of artists and writers, for example, has already been consumed without copyright permission, and the consequences of this are yet to be decided.

AI is trained based on human production. Therefore, there are many questions about how human creators will benefit, if at all. To this end, Synthesia is highlighting a potential way forward by paying real actors to use their images for AI-generative avatars. 

With the right combination of tools, a company could reasonably use AI video generation for its internal and educational content. From knowledge-based videos for your customer support library to new employee training, there is significant potential to save time and money.

The post 10 Best AI Tools for Video Editing & Production appeared first on SproutVideo.

To this end, companies rely on video to increase sales more than any other format. In fact, 80% of marketers credit video for directly increasing sales. 

Video is effective because it builds emotional connections. Emotional connections generate a 306% higher lifetime value over satisfied customers. There is no easier way to break through the noise than with a sincere or humorous moment that lightens viewers’ hearts. 

This article covers how to use video at every stage of your sales process. So no matter where or how someone engages with your company, they receive the value your business offers. 

Benefits of Video in the Sales Process

Weaving video into your customer experience yields benefits for both the consumer and the company. Here are a few ways video helps move leads toward conversion and retention. 

Jump-Start Discovery & Consideration 

Videos are easy content to digest. If someone discovers your brand or product and likes what they find, a library of video content makes it easy for them to learn more and become invested in obtaining your product or service. 

Supplement Your Customer Journey

No sales process is one hundred percent linear. Planning the customer journey is essential for good marketing, but the goal is to meet people where they are. In this case, that might be social media, their email inbox, your website, or a Google search.

Foster Trust & Showcase Values

Video is a powerful storytelling medium. Tell the story of your company. Share its greater “why” with those you intend to serve. Or showcase how your products and services improve people’s lives. By uplifting your company’s mission, you create an opportunity for viewers to emotionally connect with your brand in a meaningful way. 

Save Time for Customer Support & Sales

Knowledge bases and support documents have become commonplace, especially with enterprises. But text-only resources can quickly become overwhelming for someone already frustrated with a roadblock. Video for customer service provides visual, step-by-step solutions to specific questions and common hurdles. 

Elevate Your Brand

It doesn’t take much to create a professional website with the plethora of online platforms available. Presenting a business that consumers can trust is often found in the details, like consistent branding, good grammar, and responsive support. But another way to quickly elevate a brand is with a high-quality sales video. The video acts as an introduction to your brand. And a well-made video can quickly establish a baseline level of trust with the consumer. 

How to Use Video to Increase Sales

A video that is valuable to consumers in the awareness phase usually doesn’t translate to retention. Instead, create sales videos that cater to various stages of the sales process. This strategic and valuable content will move your target audience closer to conversion. 

Showcase the Value of Your Products 

Introduce leads to the value of your company and its products or services. This might include product demos, explainer videos, and brand stories to be used as advertisements, on social media, and embedded on your website. 

Create Value in Your Niche 

Produce value for your ideal audience. The tried-and-true way to garner trust and build loyalty is by providing valuable information that makes customers’ lives easier. Create helpful information on topics relevant to your industry; this will naturally lend to strong customer relationships. 

Entice Leads with Inside Information

Provide an in-depth look into your products and services. Give leads a peak behind the curtain to stoke interest and promote continued engagement with the brand. This encourages super-fans to congregate around your products and services. If your business can ignite customer passion, your brand awareness will rapidly increase by word of mouth. 

Boost Email Open Rates

Email marketing remains one of the most cost-effective ways to convert leads into buyers and maintain contact with loyal ones. Encourage engagement by incorporating video in your email campaigns, then use video analytics to evaluate success. Just using the word “video” in email subject lines can increase open rates by 6%. 

Personalized Support Messages

Allow your support team to offer snippets of value, provide a moment of validation, or offer their opinion on best practices. Video provides the opportunity to provide personalized value in short video responses, without replacing text-based support. These should be supplemental, allowing the customer to choose whether to engage with the video or quickly solve their issue via text. 

Types of Sales Videos (with Examples)

The goal of any sales video is to move prospects further down your sales funnel. Any video created to improve the customer journey can be considered a sales video.

Product Demos

Product demos provide the experience of using or handling a product. They highlight standout features and the unique value propositions your product or service offers. Product demos are used throughout the sales process and can be valuable for generating awareness just as much as converting an interested consumer into a buyer. 

Sony Headphones

This combination of an explainer video and product demonstration excels at highlighting the headphone’s standout feature: noise cancellation. Within 15 seconds, the main value proposition for these Sony headphones is perfectly conveyed.

The rest of the video highlights the product’s many features while following two young people moving throughout the city, seamlessly engaging with others without ever taking the headphones off. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) videos expedite the time between discovery and purchase by allowing the consumer to get their questions answered immediately. Have you ever had the experience of discovering a product, watching video after video to learn more, and getting excited? 

FAQ videos allow consumers with some knowledge of your brand to dive deeper into the experience before deciding to purchase, making these videos highly effective as middle-of-the-funnel content. 

Nespresso

Nespresso is known for creating tantalizing product demos. But their information content is perhaps more impressive, albeit underrated. 

This is the ideal “consideration” stage video. The lead has heard of Nespresso, and maybe even tried the coffee. But they don’t understand the unique pods Nespresso machines use. This 5-minute video not only explains the range of coffees available for use with the machine but also provides backstory into how the company began and how to make the perfect cup of coffee. 

Explainer Video

Explainer videos are the ultimate top-of-the-funnel content. Consider this the elevator pitch for your product. Companies have made some truly clever explainer videos to garner public interest.

These videos highlight a common customer pain point and showcase how the product or service is a transformative solution. The result is emotional catharsis for the viewer and a clear understanding of why your business exists. 

Puls

Puls conveys its value to consumers in 30 seconds: the company will set up or fix your digital goods any day of the week. Not only does it give a wide array of potential reasons to hire Puls, the video shows you how easy it is to book the appointment online.

This is a great example of a video that centers its message. There’s nothing fancy about the production — and there doesn’t need to be. The value of Puls quickly becomes apparent.

Brand Story 

Professionalism and providing free value go a long way to building trust with consumers, which is important for making the sale. But it is easier to establish trust through shared values, personal stories, or the service-based mission that leads a company forward.

Brand story videos are usually on a company’s About page, shared across social media, and sent to media contacts for additional distribution via press request. 

Etsy

This brand video is a masterclass in visual storytelling. Etsy is an online marketplace where makers and crafters sell their goods. This short ad successfully showcases its value to the consumer and small business owner. We see a mother connect with her son by embracing his interests in the fantastical, while the small business owner can visualize the positive impacts their goods will have on buyers.

Case Study

A case study provides a real example of how your company has positively impacted one of your buyers or clients. It paints a “before” and “after” picture, then discusses how your product or service was able to produce those results.

This bottom-of-the-funnel content is highly effective at converting curious leads into customers. Case studies are ideal for B2B companies that want to present proof of past success to prospective clients.

HubSpot

Avison Young is a real estate service provider with worldwide branches that use different customer relationship management (CRM) systems. In the United States alone, Avison Young increased broker CRM adoption from 23% to 90% — just by switching to HubSpot.

The video centers the before and after transformation for Avison Young, allowing the viewer to imagine how HubSpot could improve their business as well.

Personalized Video

Customer support and direct sales are perhaps the most underrated uses of video. With the rise of short video content, consumers have welcomed casually-made vertical videos. Companies can use this to build stronger relationships with current leads and customers. 

Personalized videos allow the customer to receive specialized attention, making them feel seen, instead of just another customer. This generates loyalty and retention. Another approach to personalized videos that have become popular is the personal achievements video, which highlights your platform-specific wins based on that year’s data.  

Example: A customer support person is answering a complex support question. They share a short screen recording alongside text-based information on how to solve the issue. They include a voice-over that validates the customer’s experience while providing an easy solution.

Nike

Nike outdid itself with 100,000 personalized achievement videos. Designed to retain Nike+ users, the video uses 2D-styled 3D animation to bring French illustrator, Mcbess’ illustrations to life while showcasing the viewer’s specific running achievements in 2014. 

There are plenty of lower-cost ways to achieve a similar video that engages your audience and encourages them and celebrates their success. But this type of personalized video effectively builds an emotional connection between your platform and the user by encouraging them to appreciate the progress they’ve made and inspiring them to continue. 

Customer Stories

Customer stories are emotional powerhouses in marketing storytelling. Similar to testimonial videos, they generally have greater production value and cut-away scenes. By focusing on a specific customer and their unique journey, this middle-of-the-funnel content allows viewers to easily relate by imagining the customer’s transformation as their own. 

Peloton

This customer story features a mom who bought a Peloton after giving birth to her first child. She talks about the Peloton groups she belongs to that help her stay motivated. “We’re all on our own journey but we’re never alone,” the one-minute video concludes. 

People in the comments shared their own stories and how they can relate to her. Peloton created a series of videos like this, allowing people from various backgrounds to find themselves in the content and feel the potential transformation the product offers.  

Best Practices for Effective Sales Videos

Create Tension & Resolution

Remind viewers of frustrations and create a sense of conclusion by showcasing the transformation your solution provides. This can be applied to any type of sales video. A brand story, for example, highlights the personal struggle or business conflict that inspired the company. A case study highlights what wasn’t working and why a company was instrumental in creating the current success. 

Know Your Audience 

Center your ideal audience in everything your business creates. Even the way a brand story is told should consider the pain points and experiences of the audience. A sales video can exceed expectations by stepping into the customer’s shoes, understanding what they value, and showcasing how your company provides the next level of service in that industry.

Determine Your Hook

A sales video should “hook” the viewer within eight seconds. A hook is anything that convinces the viewer to watch the video. Some examples of hooks include humor, storytelling, pain points, and questions. 

Value The Audience’s Time

Video lengths vary greatly depending on the type of content you’re producing. Explainer videos typically run 90 seconds or less, while an FAQ might be up to 20 minutes long. Always consider your viewer’s time. Eliminate superfluous material and get right to providing value. 

Tell the Story With & Without Audio

It’s highly likely that your video will be watched without sound. Especially across social media, videos are often watched muted and/or with subtitles. Therefore it’s important to consider how much of the story your video conveys through visuals alone.

Even with the option to display subtitles, craft a video your audience can understand without sound. Another approach is to create a hook so compelling that it convinces the viewers to turn on the sound.

Include a Call to Action

What action do you want viewers to take after watching the sales video? This call to action might be as simple as “Shop Now” or “Get a Free Trial.”

You can also use a call to action to entice viewers further down your sales funnel by highlighting related videos, sharing freebies, or setting up a call with the sales team. 

The process of moving leads from discovery through retention can be messy. But driving sales with video cleans up the process, allowing you to reach potential customers wherever they are. 

Ready to start brainstorming script ideas? Or, learn how to effectively use emotion in video storytelling and get inspiration from this list of the best explainer videos. Our library of helpful content can also teach you how to produce high-quality animated videos or discover special effects that can help your content stand out. 

The post Strategic Guide to Increasing Sales with Video + Examples appeared first on SproutVideo.

These days, customers commonly seek out information to solve their issues, only contacting the company if those answers cannot be found. 

This has prompted businesses to create knowledge centers that support customers’ needs, and video is the ideal medium.

In fact, video can be used for support and retention throughout the customer’s journey. 93% of consumers appreciate it when companies include post-purchase video instructions.

In this article, we will discuss the many use cases of video for customer support and retention, and how to generate customer loyalty with high-quality video support. 

What is Video Customer Support?

Video customer support is when a business uses video to convey helpful or instructional information at any stage of the customer’s journey.

Video might replace or supplement text to create an engaging experience. It can expedite response times and increase communication clarity between the customer and support staff. 

Why You Should Use Video for Customer Support 

Customer service isn’t just about ensuring a smooth sale. Its goal is also to create a frustration-free experience at every point of interaction with your company. The following are five reasons why video is the optimal medium for customer service.

• Streamline Video Support: Video can provide your support team with the ability to quickly receive and share video demonstrations to easily solve customer issues. 
• Create Quality Control: Video can be used to teach new support hires how your company approaches support and what to do in difficult situations.
• Provide Immediate Answers: Customers can become overwhelmed by large text-based knowledge articles. Make it easy to absorb the information with video.
• Reduce Support Tickets: You can continuously improve the knowledge offered at each stage when video customer support is woven into the customer’s journey. In turn, you create a seamless customer experience, reducing the need for people to reach out. 
• Reward Customers: Reward buyers with in-depth and exclusive content. These bonus offerings encourage a community to form around your product or service.

7 Ways to Use Video for Customer Support & Retention

Video Knowledge Base

When using instructional materials, 83% of people prefer watching videos over reading text. Therefore, adding videos to your knowledge base can make it more effective as a whole.

Start by determining what questions your support team answers again and again. Then, create instructional videos that demonstrate how to complete the task or solve the issue. 

Finally, utilize video SEO to make it easy for users to find the answers they need. This will also boost your organic reach. Those searching for specific answers may stumble upon your company and decide to test your products or services against the competition.

This way, your video knowledge base can serve customers at the bottom of your marketing funnel and build awareness for those near the top. 

How to Use Video

• Boost Organic Reach: Improve SEO with a library of direct and helpful how-tos.
• Automate Support: Allow users to immediately find solutions to their problems. 
• Make FAQs Shareable: Create and easily send videos that answer common questions.

Customer Service Training Videos

Video is a highly effective medium for training. When attempting to create a consistently high-quality customer service experience, video training can be used to prepare new hires, infuse their job with purpose, and encourage them to share their insights and ideas. 

In our examples of customer service videos below, former CEO Vineet Nayar outlines his case for putting employees first. He discusses his strategy as a leader and argues that exceptional employee service starts with the company’s actions. This highlights the importance of customer service training materials that reflect modern working culture. 

How to Use Video

• Train New Hires: Create consistently high-quality service with your support model. 
• Lead with Purpose: Inspire employees with the purposeful mission of your business. 
• Create Dialogue: Encourage new hires to share their ideas for how to improve their job. 

Welcome & Onboarding

What does a customer need after making a purchase? Providing set-up instructions, sharing content for deeper learning, and building a community all contribute to your customer service experience. 

How a customer feels post-purchase will determine their likelihood of becoming a repeat buyer or long-term subscriber. Therefore, consider the ways you can continue to create a frustration-free experience as your customers begin to use your products or services. 

A video is an effective tool for onboarding customers because you can directly show them how to use your product or navigate your service. In under a minute, they can jump right in and go. 

How to Use Video

• Guide through Setup: Walk users through the initial steps of using your product.
• Provide Knowledge: Produce how-to videos to help users excel with your product.
• Create Community: Build brand loyalty by fostering community around your products.

Thank You Videos

A business doesn’t function without its customers. Thank you videos take time to acknowledge the community of people who drive the company’s mission forward. Thank you videos can also be used to showcase customer achievements or congratulate someone. 

Sincerity is key. Saying “thank you” conveys a sense of awareness and appreciation that goes beyond the company’s accomplishments. An especially fantastic “thank you,” like the Charity: Water video in our examples below, will go the extra mile.

How to Use Video

• Celebrate Achievements: Send personalized videos to celebrate customer milestones.
• Highlight Contributions: Thank customers for making charitable donations possible. 
• Show Appreciation: Create a general “thank you” for customers and the community.

Exclusive Video Library

Consumers love valuable (and free) bonus content. Have you ever seen someone post on social because a company sent them stickers, a handwritten note, candy, or some other small extra items? That’s all it took for the customer to feel special when the package arrived. 

An exclusive video library with valuable or entertaining content for your audience can create the same sense of excitement and loyalty.

In one example, fans of Warhammer miniatures can pay a minimal membership fee to receive exclusive miniatures, animations, and shows through their app. This is one digital example of giving special access to customers and building a community with video content. 

How to Use Video

• Offer Bonus Content: Offer customers video content that provides useful information.
• Secure How-to Content: Securely share in-depth knowledge of your product with users.
• Share Practical Uses: Teach the various functional applications of the product you sell.

Support Demonstration 

When it comes to the daily exchanges of information between customers and support staff, nothing is more frustrating for both parties than illustrating the issue and how to solve it. 

With video, support staff can quickly create a video demonstrating the solution. If the question comes up again, they will already have a video to share. This also makes it easier for customers, who can easily review the steps they need to take. 

Video for customer support is a more cost- and time-effective alternative to offering live video support. Instead, reserve live video support as an offering for high-tier customers. 

How to Use Video

• Review the Problem: Ask customers to include a video screen share of their problem.
• Use Video Demonstration: Quickly make and send password-protected how-to videos.
• Create Support Tiers: Offer live video support or expedited service with the time saved.

Optimize Support with Analytics

An added benefit of using video for customer support is the ability to evaluate the success of that support with data. Video analytics allow you to measure engagement and review the most popular or skipped-over sections of the video.

You can also compare the analytics of support staff videos. If you find that one agent is producing videos that significantly reduce support time while effectively solving problems, they can train other support staff on how to make demonstration videos. 

Additionally, analytics makes it easy to know what videos are continuously being played from your knowledge base. This is a good sign that users want more content about this subject.

Plus with SproutVideo’s individual tracking, you can ensure new hires have fully completed video training.   

How to Use Video

• Optimize with Heat-Mapping: Review what parts of videos are skipped or re-watched.
• Track Engagement: Ensure new hires have completed customer service training. 
• Improve Consistently: Make sure all videos are helping customers as intended. 

Examples of Customer Service Videos in Business

Education & Onboarding

Headspace

Headspace is a mediation app. This calming how-to video helps new users quickly get started. It covers the main offerings and how to navigate within the app.

Canva

Canva creates a lot of short, screen-share-style videos that quickly show users how to complete various tasks within the application. 

Moz

Moz’s Whiteboard Fridays skilfully tackle useful knowledge for people who use SEO tools in around ten minutes. The series is still going with over 400 videos for potential and existing customers. 

Retention & Thank You

John Hopkins University

Based in Baltimore, John Hopkins University shared this “Thank You” video that features members of the community who help make it strong. 

Mailchimp

Mailchimp shares in-depth tutorials to set users up for success and provide an understanding of the many available tools that can be used in business. The information is educational, but customer retention is the result of having a library of useful content.

Charity: Water

When Charity: Water turned five years old, it wanted supporters to feel appreciated. Not only did the staff write letters, send emails, and make calls thanking people — they made hundreds of personalized videos. 

Training & Inspiration

Ross Shafer

Ross Shafer is a TV host, comedian, and motivational speaker. He shares how he was affected by a moment of above-and-beyond customer service at a Marriott hotel. 

Zendesk

Zendesk is in the business of customer service. This video got the attention of customer service workers across industries who dubbed it, “highly relatable.” It’s a great ice-breaker for new support employees who will experience these types of scenarios daily. 

Bob Farrell

Bob Farrell trains people in customer service. But he began as a restaurant owner. In this video, he shares the experience with a customer that led to his motto, “Give ‘em the pickle.”

Vineet Nayar

“Millions of employees walk through our organizations every day not just to get paid but to be inspired by the vision we have for them,” Vineet Nayar is a bestselling author and former CEO of HCL Technologies who shares his “employees first, customers second,” philosophy. 

The ability to put a face to a company cannot be understated. This is perhaps the most underrated benefit of video for customer support and retention: customers get the chance to feel connected to the people within your organization. When these relationships are fostered through support, the natural result is satisfied and returning customers. 

Ready for more? Check out how to structure instructional videos for great pre-production advice. Learn the easy way to write a video script, or review the six components of a successful testimonial video. 

The post 7 Ways to Use Video for Customer Support & Retention appeared first on SproutVideo.

There are various ways to use corporate video for external and internal communication, from announcements and investor relations to advertising and onboarding.  

Corporate videos, ultimately, are assets that save time and money in your marketing, management, and human resources departments. 

We’ve compiled the 15 best examples of corporate videos to spark inspiration! Watch to see how corporate video can increase your company’s communication efficiency.

What is Corporate Video?

Any video representing your company is a corporate video, whether an advertisement, announcement, or training video. Corporate videos are made with a specific purpose for external or internal use.

The tone of corporate videos ranges widely. The examples in this article include videos that are casual and humorous, emotional and professional, as well as factual and direct. 

What Makes a Good Corporate Video? 

Below we cover tips for producing each specific type of corporate video, yet a few tips apply globally.

• Center the Viewer’s Experience. Corporate videos are created for a target audience. Make sure you capture their attention and keep them engaged.
• Showcase the Company’s Perspective. The best corporate video examples allow you to emotionally connect with the business, its purpose, or the people that work there. 
• Keep It Short & Simple. Most of our examples were about two minutes long and provided a clear message that was easy to absorb.

Regardless of the type of corporate video you create, determine a goal and know your audience. This information will be your “north star” when making creative decisions. 

Best Corporate Video Examples & Tips for Creating Your Own

Corporate Advertisements

Advertisements are the most common form of corporate videos. Some of the most successful ads pull on the heartstrings or make viewers genuinely laugh out loud. A good corporate ad video will resonate with target consumers and center the product’s value propositions. 

Thai Life Insurance

Restore your faith in humanity with this short story that follows a do-gooder who shares kindness for no apparent reward yet receives many. 

Spotify

This ad targets a specific segment of the Spotify user base. Yet those who find significant value in this feature would happily pay for Spotify Premium to use it. 

Tips for Creating Your Own

• Tell a Story or Get to the Point. Videos that tell a story capture the viewer’s attention emotionally. Those that get to the point demonstrate the product or service’s value within 30 seconds. 
• Showcase “Why.” Walk viewers through “why” your product or service exists, who it is for, and how it will transform their lives. What is the “before” and “after” in a customer’s life when your product or service is introduced?
• Value Your Target Audience. Businesses have a habit of creating advertising for a demographic without that demographic’s direct input. Avoid corporate mishaps by building a diverse team and employing inclusive video marketing. 

Product Demonstration or Explainer Video

This corporate video is the “elevator pitch” for your business or product. Often made with investors and consumers in mind, explainer videos convey the message in under two minutes and focus on the transformation a product offers. 

These videos are generally at the top of marketing funnels to build brand awareness and capture leads. All the tips (seen above) for corporate advertisements also apply here. However, unlike corporate advertisements, explainer videos tend to introduce a brand or product rather than highlight specific features or target niche audience segments.

Surf Lakes

This product brings surfing to still bodies of water. The video takes an idea for a niche audience (surfers) and showcases how it can be applied broadly in luxury or vacation destinations. 

Makers Making Change

This non-profit organization pairs volunteer makers with those who need affordable assistive technology. The animated explainer video perfectly showcases the problem people experience, and the solution it provides. 

Tips for Creating Your Own

• Include a Call to Action. After someone watches a video, what action do you want them to take? Consider how you will use your brand’s explainer video to create a customer journey. Get inspiration from our list of the best explainer videos.
• Consider Hiring a Production Company. Explainer videos can be used on your marketing website, landing pages, and social media. They are high-value content assets for a brand. While marketing budgets may require most videos to be made in-house or with the help of freelancers, explainers can be worth the greater investment. 
• Solve the Problem. Explainer videos often start by stirring up the emotional feeling of a problem. Your product or service solves that issue; therefore, the video provides emotional catharsis. This is often what makes explainer videos so effective. 

Employee Onboarding & Training

Businesses with new employee onboarding programs report higher retention rates (86%) than companies without (56%). These corporate videos provide the opportunity to set expectations, explain important new-hire information, and showcase the company’s culture. 

Additionally, corporate video training makes it easier for employees to retain information, even over extended periods of time. Training videos can be used to create consistency or share a strategy shift.

Metropolitan Airports Commission

The Metropolitan Airports Commission shares the experiences of current employees in this welcome video for new hires. The video conveys a desire for long-term happiness with the company and expresses its ability to support this in various ways. 

TrueCar

This video showcases the relaxed atmosphere of the company’s culture as the CEO delivers the welcome message in increasingly casual attire.

Coca-Cola

Released over a decade ago, this video accurately explains how modern marketing will (and did) shift. Most companies keep training content secure internally. But Coca-Cola hired an agency to help the company, giving us an inside look at how it approached the digital age. 

Tips for Creating Your Own

• Showcase Company Culture. Don’t be afraid to create light-hearted, casual videos that accurately convey your company’s culture. These corporate videos are a great opportunity to help new hires feel welcome and part of a community. 
• Secure Video Content. Create a private video library and secure content by combining multiple security measures, including login or password protection, IP address or location restriction, and signed embed codes or domain whitelisting.
• Measure Employee Engagement. Choose a video host with analytics that allows insight into individual video views. Tag a user and track completion rates. Use heat mapping to see what parts of the video are skipped or re-watched, then improve your onboarding experience with this information.

Origin Story or Mission Statement

An origin story or mission statement video is an opportunity to highlight your business and what makes it unique. Origin story videos share the history or inception of the company, while a mission statement video showcases its purpose beyond profit. The two examples below capture the wide spectrum of potential approaches. 

Risual

Risual takes a delightfully silly approach while providing a quick understanding of what the company does and who keeps it running.

Shopify

Shopify features real people who have changed their lives with the platform. This video is a great example of how a brand can bring its mission statement to life.

Tips for Creating Your Own

• Find the Hook. Like the text on the back of a book, what about your story (or the mission of your company) will make people care about your business? The structure of your narrative will depend on how you grab the viewer’s interest. 
• Provide Emotional Value. Whether serious or silly, create an emotional journey for the viewer. While many approaches are inspiring or empowering, Risual shows that humor and silliness can be persuasive too. 
• Build Trust. The more trust you have built with a target audience, the easier it is to persuade them of the value your business offers. Companies that lead with purpose often create a loyal user base. 

Recruiting & Behind-the-Scenes

Recruiting videos sell graduates and employees on the idea of working for your business. As exemplified below, modern recruiting videos are often less about the experience of working and more about the experience of life while working at the company.  

Google

When this Google recruiting video debuted nearly a decade ago, it accurately represented the company’s working culture. While elements of this video now feel outdated, the interviews with interns are timeless and drive the video’s narrative. 

Dropbox

Dropbox created an updated recruiting video that truly understands the current working culture: balance. This video features a company environment that prioritizes employee well-being.

Tips for Creating Your Own

• Showcase Values. Share the personality and attitudes of the company and those who work there. Some cultures are about growth and focus on the hustle, while others prefer to center balance and showcase fun events. 
• Rely on Authenticity. Recruiting videos have a tendency to oversell the company. This often presents as disingenuous. Consider what aspects of your company environment allow employees to thrive, both at work and in their personal lives. 
• Center Purpose. No one wants to work for a paycheck alone. The most engaged employees feel purposeful in their work. How does it feel to be part of your company? What are the broader goals that motivate everyone?

Testimonials & Case Studies

Share what your company does exceptionally well with customer feedback and examples of their success. Testimonials allow customers to talk about their direct experience with your product or service. Case studies are an opportunity to feature the customer’s “before” and “after” transformation that your product or service enables.

FreshBooks

Sarah is an interior designer who uses FreshBooks. Her story is highly relatable and her experience finding the right tools to run her business showcases the importance of software. 

Google

This case study showcases how Princess Polly scaled from a small business to international success with Google pay-per-click ads.

Tips for Creating Your Own

• Host Candid Interviews. Ditch scripted lines and reenacted scenarios. Choose interview questions that encourage the person to expound on their experience. Strive for authentic feedback when filming and use editing to create an engaging experience. 
• It’s Okay to Edit Quotes. If your video features written or voice-acted feedback from multiple sources (instead of live interviews), don’t be afraid to edit quotes for readability. While it is never okay to change the meaning of a quote, it’s okay to clarify. 
• Value Outweighs Production. This type of video doesn’t require the most impressive video production to convey its message and provide value. Save your budget for important marketing videos designed to expand brand awareness.

Announcements & Investor Relations 

The world is always changing. Businesses work hard to keep up and forge the future. In the past, a simple press release was enough to create buzz. But the video announcement has firmly taken its place. These types of corporate videos allow businesses to share their internal decisions externally, both with the public and investors. 

Apple

Apple’s corporate offices are already carbon neutral, but the company plans to bring sustainability to every stage of its manufacturing process. This video succinctly covers everything Apple plans to accomplish. 

Mailchimp

Mailchimp showcases the various non-profit organizations they support, the people who run them, and the importance of each. This values-based video also discusses Mailchimp’s vetting process and its focus on supporting well-managed charities.

Tips for Creating Your Own

• Go Above and Beyond. How does your company exceed expectations? Directly or indirectly, this type of video often features an update, change, or accomplishment that sets the company a step above its competition.
• Sincerity is Key. More than authentic, an announcement video should be sincere. While press release language is strictly factual, these videos need to contextualize the information. Once the viewer is equipped with that information, they should feel positive about the direction of the company and the leadership driving it forward. 
• Avoid Being a Salesperson. The biggest mistake an announcement video can make is to directly sell the company or its products. While this corporate video embellishes upon the traditional press release, it isn’t a marketing video and should center its message. 

Businesses use corporate videos to tell their stories. But you don’t need to follow a homogenized standard to standout. Showcase the values of your company, as well as the problems that you and your team are passionate about solving. Whatever you create, don’t be afraid to do it your way!

The post 15 Best Corporate Videos & Tips for Creating Your Own appeared first on SproutVideo.

You can share an explainer video across marketing channels; it is the most valuable content asset for the top of your sales funnel. 

Whether creating an explainer video in-house or writing a creative brief for a production company, brainstorming video ideas can be challenging. That’s why we put together a list of the 10 best explainer video examples — some of which you may even remember. 

This complete guide will also cover the types of explainer videos and how to make one (step-by-step). Here’s everything you need to create a stellar explainer video.

What Is an Explainer Video?

Explainer videos showcase a product or brand and the problem it solves, generally in less than 90 seconds. 

They build brand awareness, explain how the product works, and include a call to action.

Businesses use explainer videos for their homepage, landing pages, email campaigns, paid advertisements, sales outreach, and on social media. 

Think of the explainer video as your company’s elevator pitch. What experience does your product or service create for your customers? How are their lives transformed? 

An explainer video succinctly illustrates the value proposition of your product. It answers ‘why?’ — instead of focusing on features (the ‘how’ and ‘what’ of your product). 

For this reason, explainer videos more easily persuade consumers by presenting the ‘before’ and ‘after’ transformation they will experience with your product or service.

The Benefits of Explainer Videos

Video is one of the most powerful marketing strategies a company can use to build awareness and sell products or services. Explainer videos inherit and amplify these benefits.

• Landing pages with embedded video get 86% more conversions than text-only pages. 
• In a survey of nearly 600, 96% of people said they have watched an explainer video to learn about a product or service.
• 66% of people prefer to learn about a product or service by watching a short video. 
• Adding video to a campaign increases conversions by 34%.
• 52% of marketers cite that video produces the highest ROI for content.
• Viewers retain 95% of a message when conveyed by video, compared to 10% when read in text. 

Types of Explainer Videos

There are three major types of explainer videos: live-action, animation, and screencast. When choosing the type of video to create for your brand, consider which type will showcase your product best. 

Note: Alternatively, you can combine animation and live-action for the best of both worlds. We did this at SproutVideo to introduce our hosted video websites!

1. Live-Action Explainer Videos

Live-action videos use actual footage and are generally more expensive to create. Producing a live-action explainer video can require hiring actors and crew, choosing a location, shooting the footage, editing, and more. Some businesses choose to hire a video production company because of this complexity.

These types of videos tend to encourage more engagement than animated explainer videos. If brand awareness is a primary goal, producing a more significant return may be worth the added expense. Every company’s product or service is different, and live-action video may not be the most effective way to tell every story.

2. Screencast Explainer Videos

Screencast explainer videos highlight the user experience and how a product (like software) works. The screencast demonstration may incorporate animation or live-action footage to add versatility and personality to the video.

While this may be the most accessible type of explainer video to produce, it’s still important to focus on creating a high-quality result. 

3. Animated Explainer Videos

There are many types of animations an explainer video might utilize: motion graphics, 3D, 2D, and even whiteboard animation. Depending on the animation style, this can be a professional yet low-cost option for creating an explainer video. 

For some brands (like the Grammarly video featured below), combining live-action with on-screen animation helps tell the whole story. 

10 Best Explainer Video Examples

Writing a winning script and knowing your audience are the elements that matter most when creating a successful explainer video. To help spark inspiration for your brainstorm, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 best explainer video examples. 

10. Slack

Creating a wordless explainer video is a challenge. But wordless videos can produce a genuinely interesting and versatile result for the right product. This Slack video, for example, relies on animation and music to tell its story. 

From the moment our main character wakes up, the speed of modern communication overwhelms them, and the music reflects this frantic pace. Yet when they open the Slack app, everything changes. 

The video illustrates how it feels to use Slack for communication. Slack recognizes that overwhelming communication is a common pain point for its users. Without a word of dialogue, this video promises viewers an emotional transformation if they use Slack. 

9. Amazon Go

The first Amazon Go store opened in Seattle in 2018. But a year prior, the concept of a cashierless store was unheard-of. Amazon needed to explain the idea to future potential customers. And they did a great job with this video by showcasing what it would be like to shop in an Amazon Go store.

The video also generated a lot of conversation, both about the technology and societal implications. While the success of these stores is still to be determined, this explainer video perfectly illustrates the vision Amazon has for cashierless shopping. 

8. Crazy Egg

Now 10 years old, this Crazy Egg explainer video introduced a lot of businesses to the idea of heat maps for increased conversions. It’s rare for a B2B marketing video to go viral, but this one did because it solves a major pain point. Businesses of all sizes can quickly relate to the frustrations outlined, and the video thoroughly showcases its solution. 

7. Grammarly

This Grammarly explainer video targets a specific segment of its audience: students. The video combines on-screen software previews with real-life student situations to show how the program helps students present their ideas professionally. 

It also showcases that schools support students using Grammarly to help with their workload. In this way, the ad uniquely advertises Grammarly to both students and universities that might offer discounts on or free use of premium accounts for students. 

6. Dissolve

Another B2B example is Dissolve’s award-winning explainer video, which went viral in 2014. The ad features various stock footage examples with a tongue-in-cheek voice-over originally published as a poem by Kendra Eash on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. As the video concludes, we learn that all the footage is from Dissolve’s stock library. 

It’s arguably risky to poke fun at the people (i.e. marketers) who will buy your product, but Dissolve’s video pulls it off with flying colors. The video worked so well that the company launched a follow-up ‘Generic Millenial Ad’ a few years later, which also garnered significant success. 

5. Nest

Nest’s video showcases an understanding of its audience’s pain points and highlights the product’s features as a solution. The video is a 2D animation that includes real images of Nest’s products. The juxtaposition of these elements creates a viewing experience that is novel and more engaging than illustrations alone. The video is slightly longer than the average B2C explainer, but Nest uses that time to showcase the in-depth automation of a Nest-connected home. 

4. Ahrefs

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a confusing topic. Furthermore, it can be difficult to showcase the value of SEO in a way that business leaders will appreciate. The way Ahrefs’ explainer video tackles this challenge is exactly what makes it so impeccable. 

Within the first 15 seconds, the video showcases the power of SEO: increased traffic to your website equals more sales. The video continues by highlighting some of the specific aspects of SEO and how simple it is to improve the SEO of your company’s website with the software.

3. Dollar Shave Club

Personality is everything in this video. The production setup is minimal; filming occurs in the Dollar Shave Club offices and warehouse. Mike, the founder, moves through the building describing the product’s benefits while silliness ensues all around him. 

The video concludes with Mike, a bear (well, a person in a bear costume), and one of the warehouse employees having a dance party in front of the American flag. Ultimately, it’s a great example of combining entertainment (specifically, humor) and information to sell a product. Seven years after Dollar Shave Club released this video, it sold for $1 billion.

2. Lyft

Sometimes, the non-traditional approach wins. This video highlights the importance of explaining a product’s existence rather than showing off its features. Lyft ran its seven-minute short film of an explainer video as an advertisement, and thousands of people in the video’s comment section said it made them stop and watch instead of pressing ‘Skip Now’. 

1. Poo-Pourii

We’d be remiss not to include the best explainer video ever made. Poo-Pourii was already a successful product when this advertisement launched its brand awareness into the stratosphere. 

The video received tens of millions of views (currently 44 million). To capitalize on this success, the brand released multiple other ads with the same actor over the next few years. Poo-Pourii went from being a best-kept secret to one of the most popular air fresheners on the market. 

How to Make an Explainer Video (Step-by-Step)

Let’s walk through each step of making an explainer video. There is no correct way; remember who you’re communicating with and why your product or service is important. The best explainer video is sincere and effective at presenting your company’s solution to a problem. 

1. Determine Production Budget

Before you even brainstorm explainer video ideas, it’s essential to determine the budget. We broke down how we spent $4,000 creating our explainer video. But there are various options depending on what type of video you want to make and the money you can spend.

How Long Should an Explainer Video Be?

Video production costs are estimated per minute. The typical explainer video will be 60-90 seconds long, while B2B explainer videos tend to run a little longer at 2-3 minutes. Therefore, it’s essential to consider this aspect of creating your video when writing the script or getting quotes from production companies. 

How Much Do Explainer Videos Cost?

Companies with larger budgets may hire a production company to create the video. A production company works with you on the best way to highlight the most critical information about your product and make it stand out engagingly. 

The average cost per minute in the industry is $1,000-$10,000. However, this can significantly vary depending on the company, with the average quote hovering around $8,500 for a 60-second video.

Alternatively, a company may hire a professional animator or use its in-house video production team. While these alternatives present some lower-budget options, a company should expect to invest in its video to produce a return on that investment.

2. Write the Script (or Creative Brief)

The script sets the tone for the entire video. In the explainer video examples above, we saw many approaches. Some brands, like Match.com and Poo-Pourii, use shock value and humor to delight and surprise while selling their product or service. 

Lyft takes a different, emotional approach by catching viewers’ attention with music and good vibes, leading to a heart-warming and engaging story that keeps viewers watching for seven minutes. 

Other companies recognize the need to convey a pain point or problem directly. Ahrefs, for example, immediately starts the video with, “Here’s the problem…,” and quickly outlines its solution. On the opposite end, Dissolve showed off its product rather than discussing it. In this case, the product reveal at the end feels like another punchline within the funny video.

The script is a vital piece of the project to get right. Even if your company plans to produce the video in-house, consider hiring a professional copywriter to write the video script. 

What Should an Explainer Video Include?

Four main elements are needed to successfully convey your message when writing your explainer video script or outlining the creative brief. 

1. Illustrate the problem or pain point.
2. Showcase the solution: your product.
3. Explain further details and how it works.
4. Present a call to action.

Even if your video takes a non-traditional approach, like the 7-minute dialogue-free Lyft video, hit these four beats to create a compelling explainer video.

Combine a well-written script (even if it includes no words) with an insightful understanding of your customers’ pain points and your company’s inventive solution to create a successful video. 

3. Produce the Explainer Video

There are multiple options when producing an explainer video. Let’s consider the differences between a business that hires a production company versus one that creates its explainer video in-house.

Working with a Production Company

If you’re working with a production company, part of the pre-production process will include aligning on the creative vision and determining the steps to bring it to life. 

Once this process is complete, the production company may take 4-6 weeks to film or animate the video before producing a first draft. 

Once the project moves into the editing stage, it will be time to collaborate on music (unless already decided) and record a voice actor if needed. 

Live-Action In-House Videos

This stage will be more intensive for companies producing live-action in-house video. You must:

• Hire a director, actors, and film crew.
• Choose a location and ensure proper staging.
• Create a filming schedule and shoot the footage.
• Hire and record a voice actor (if needed).
• Edit the footage and add music.

There are many creative ways to stay on budget when producing your video. Check out our crash course on video production to learn more. 

Animated In-House Videos

Companies producing animated videos must choose the type of animation: 2D, 3D, motion graphics, whiteboard, etc. Whether working with an employee or hiring a freelancer, create a storyboard for the animated video before spending the money to have it animated. 

As with a live-action video, you may need to record a voice actor. You will also need to edit or hire a professional editor to add music to the video and ensure a quality final result. Read our guide on producing high-quality animation videos to learn more. 

4. Market Your Explainer Video

When your video is complete, it’s time to create and launch a marketing plan. Follow these three easy steps to launch your explainer video. 

1. Choose A Video Host

Where will you upload the video?

Many companies upload videos to YouTube for the general public and their video hosting platform. A video host allows a business to embed the video on its marketing website ad-free with customized branding, in-player calls-to-action, and post-play screens. Learn more about the marketing tools included with a SproutVideo account here.

2. Create Your Marketing Plan

Plan to share your new explainer video across marketing channels. Celebrate the launch of this video by debuting it to your audience on your: 

• Homepage or landing page
• Email newsletter
• Blog
• Social media 
• Community thread (i.e. Discord, Meta Group)
• Live stream event
• Paid advertisements 

Make a list of all the channels your business uses to communicate with both customers and your target audience. Choose a launch date and create marketing materials to celebrate the launch of this new explainer video. 

The most important part of this step is determining how you will direct traffic to this video. Using past and current data to estimate views and set conversion goals can be helpful. If your website is capable, consider performing an A/B test with and without the video. 

Note: When filming your video, consider whether you will crop the video for social media platforms. Read our article on optimizing videos for social sharing for helpful tips.

3. Launch Your Video Across Channels

When launch day arrives, it’s officially time to integrate the explainer video into your brand and website. Before launch, ensure your team has coordinated marketing materials and publishing times. Once published, it’s time to celebrate. 

It’s highly likely that many people worked hard and put a lot of effort and love into creating this video. Don’t be afraid to share that journey with your audience. Consider creating a behind-the-scenes (BTS) video or blog post to bring your audience into the experience. 

4. Measure Video Success 

An explainer video can provide value to your audience for years. For this reason, consider measuring the initial engagement boost you receive from launching your video across marketing channels. Compile this data within the first couple weeks of launch. 

Then, continue to periodically measure the success of the explainer video as part of your ongoing marketing plan. You might use a few different analytics tools to do this:

• Google Analytics: A tried-and-true way to review the success of your content, especially when embedding video on your website. 
• YouTube: This social media hosting platform provides basic analytic data for tracking general video engagement.
• Your video hosting platform: Detailed video analytics and data provide a lot of valuable information. Private video hosting platforms often include tools that make measuring the return on your investment easier. 

SproutVideo, for example, allows you to view the usual data (i.e. impressions, plays, watch time, engagement, and more). However, we also collect engagement data for every single video play. This data allows us to provide you with a heat map of video engagement to investigate what people watched, re-watched, or skipped.

Quick Tips for Explainer Videos

Looking for some quick advice? Here’s the TL;DR on how to make a great explainer video:

• Get to the point. Present your product’s main value proposition within the video’s first 30-45 seconds. 
• Focus on the value proposition. What is the ‘why’ behind your product or service? Showcase the benefits and transformation rather than features (in most cases).
• Invest in the explainer video. This video is the most valuable content asset at the top of your sales funnel. Produce a professional product to see a return on investment. 
• Launch across marketing channels. Include an explainer video on your homepage, sales pages, social media, newsletter, paid ads, and more. 
• Measure your ROI. A private video hosting platform, like SproutVideo, provides detailed information about video impressions, engagement, and much more.

The post The 10 Best Explainer Videos & How to Make One appeared first on SproutVideo.

And there’s good news—you don’t need to be a skilled web developer to optimize your videos for mobile users, just follow these simple tips for mobile optimization success!

Why Mobile Video Optimization is Important

So why is video optimization for mobile viewing so important? As a marketer or video creator, you’ll want to consider the following points: 

• Boosts engagement – Videos are inherently more engaging than static images and text, so they strengthen the relationship between your audience and brand more effectively. Today’s mobile viewers are now more likely to watch longer videos and absorb their content, including any calls to action. Higher viewer engagement on mobile devices can translate directly into higher clickthrough rates for calls to action in or around your videos.
• Improved SEO – Mobile-optimized video can improve SEO and boost your site’s position in search results. Search engines are designed to seek out the most relevant and user-friendly results for any search query, so higher priority has been placed on displaying mobile-optimized content as mobile traffic has taken over. Google uses mobile-first indexing, so failing to optimize your videos for mobile can actually negatively impact your search rankings across the board.
• Mobile video traffic is steadily increasing – Mobile traffic has overtaken desktop traffic, and this trend shows no sign of stopping. Around 50% of US mobile users report watching more video content this year than they did in the past. More and more people are also choosing a smartphone over a computer if their budget only allows for one device.  So, you may be missing out on a large portion of your potential audience if they rely heavily on their mobile device to consume content. 

8 Ways to Optimize Videos for Mobile Devices

The post How to Optimize Your Videos for Mobile Devices appeared first on SproutVideo.

During the height of the pandemic, we saw an astronomical rise in video marketing across the board. Brands produced more video than ever before, and consumers’ viewing habits were at an all-time high. However, as things begin to shift toward what was considered normal before the pandemic, some big questions remain about what will happen to the video boom.

How important is video going to be moving forward? Will platforms still prioritize video? Is short-form content going to stick around? In this post, we’ll address some of these questions and more as we take a look at what companies can expect from video for the rest of the year and beyond. 

Video is the Main Character

Video is one of the best mediums for conveying messages of all kinds. For companies, it is valuable because it keeps people engaged, helps deliver complex messages, and is an easy way to promote products and services. For consumers, video is helpful, quick, accessible, and simple to engage with. In fact, 72% of customers prefer to learn about a product or service by watching a video according to Hubspot.

During the pandemic, those of us staying home saw just how vital video could be as a means of connection. And as video connects families and friends, it also connects companies to consumers. That connection certainly isn’t going to vanish overnight. Companies that want to stay top of mind will have to create even more high-quality video than ever before, which sounds like a daunting task for many businesses. Luckily, there are so many ways to create video content, making it the best time to embrace this new shift. 

Emphasis on Video Everywhere

Back in the day, a lot of video production was for TV commercials or strictly for posting on YouTube. Top-tier companies paid lavish amounts to create these highly produced and very polished professional videos. While this still happens, and for good reason, there is an endless amount of new places to post content, a desire for different levels of quality, and an appetite from the consumer for a wider variety of content. 

You can now post videos virtually anywhere on an extremely wide variety of platforms. Whether that’s on social media platforms, or hosting on-demand or live videos on your company website (which we’ll cover below).  

More Hybrid Events

Many brands were forced to switch to virtual events last year. While many will be returning to in-person events, the skills those companies learned can still be useful in making future events more accessible. In other words, if you have the ability to add a virtual aspect to your events, you should continue doing so. 

This not only will allow you to create more content, but also let folks who can’t physically attend continue to participate in your events. If you need a place to start, explore our guide to paid virtual events here.  

Short-Form Content Is Here to Stay

At the beginning of 2020, TikTok made waves in the social media space as a video-only platform featuring content that is 15 – 60 seconds long. The pandemic fueled its growth, hitting milestones far faster than any other social platform. It attracted kids, adults, and businesses to the platform, and highlighted the benefits of short-form content. 

Fast forward to today, and many of the mainstream platforms have adopted features similar to TikTok. Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts were made to directly compete with TikTok’s rising popularity. Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, even went as far as to say Instagram is no longer a photo-sharing app and added an emphasis on video content and creators. Clearly, the impact of short-form media is going to be huge moving forward.

Good news for brands: this is just another opportunity to distribute information in a new fashion. If you have a large library of material you already have a comprehensive content bank you can pull from. You can recut videos to fit the parameters of short-form content, or create new short videos from some of your other pre-existing content. To make the most out of your content, explore our guide on producing multiple assets from a single video.

Hosting Your Video Content

With so many videos being created every day, video hosting is a major consideration for many companies as they continue to build out their own video marketing programs. Of course, social videos will live on your social platforms. But for bigger projects—non-public content, videos that need to be privately shared, and placing videos on your website—it is worthwhile to look into a professional solution.

Many folks turn to YouTube for all their video hosting needs, which is great in its own right. But for more control over your videos, you’ll likely need to host elsewhere. Customizable players, video marketing tools, security features, and much more can typically be found with many of the top professional hosting services.

The same process applies to live content. Social platforms are great for going live, but certain topics and events will need to be hosted in a more secure environment. For example, while a live stream Q&A could work great for your audience on Facebook, if you’re having a town hall event, you likely won’t want to host that so publicly. Pandemic or no pandemic, having a grasp on how you host your videos natively will be essential. 

There is a good chance these shifts in the video marketing world would have happened sooner rather than later; the pandemic just pushed those timeframes into overdrive. Furthermore, now is the best time to go full force into video creation to help elevate your business. For more tips and tricks for everything video, be sure to sign up for our newsletter with the form below.

The post 2021 Video Marketing Refresh appeared first on SproutVideo.

Still, a lot of that work looks pretty different compared to a year ago. Video production has been fundamentally changed by the pandemic in important ways. Here are the five changes that will shape the future of video production.

The Experience on the Ground

To better understand these trends, we spoke to Cara Yeates, current partner and Head of Production at Trigger Creative, a video production studio. She joined Nick LaClair, Creative Director at SproutVideo, for a round of mezcalitas in the second episode of our Cheers series, where we celebrate important people and topics in the video industry.

Cara has been working on video shoots as a producer during the pandemic, and is responsible for keeping her crew healthy and safe. Watch below to hear what she has to say about the important safety guidelines to follow on set, and what the future holds for video production.

Keep reading for the top five takeaways from Cara’s experiences on set.

1. Health and Safety First

Health and safety on set has been an ongoing issue in the film industry for a long time. From unending shoot days with heavy gear, to dangerous stunts, there are many risks for those behind and in front of the camera.

In some ways, the film industry was primed to adapt to this challenge, despite its reliance on large groups of people and events. Between union and guild guidelines, and the protocols for stars and high-powered subjects on set, many working in film are accustomed to highly regimented procedures. Granted, this is a whole other level of complexity, but prior experience carefully following important regulations certainly helps in times like these.

The pandemic pushed the health and wellbeing of cast and crew members to the forefront. New guidelines from different guilds and organizations have codified those practices and helped productions of all sizes to be safer for everyone involved.

Those new habits won’t necessarily go away as the pandemic ebbs. After all, a shoot can be derailed by illness, even if it’s not during a pandemic. And, some of the practices are helpful for more general well-being, like limiting a shoot day to ten hours.

There has been a problem in the film industry with overworking people… I think it’s really a safety issue. Properly scheduling your day for 10 hours of shooting is going to keep everyone safe and on track in the long term.

– Cara Yeates, Trigger Creative

Granted, we don’t expect most productions to maintain rigorous testing and on-set medics if they aren’t warranted. Still, if the past year has taught us anything, it’s that safety has to come first if you want to be able to do anything else.

2. Hybrid and Online Events

As work has picked up again for the video industry, much of the productions pertain to replacing or extending live events that would typically be held in person. While we’re eagerly anticipating a return to in-person events of all shapes and sizes, online-only or hybrid events are going to stick around for the long term.

Why? Because the pandemic has shown that they work for many types of events and gatherings. In some cases, they even offer distinct advantages. Just because in-person events will become possible again doesn’t mean they’ll obviate the need for an online component, or always be the best solution.

For example, large concerts, conferences, and festivals have been live streamed for years. After a crash course in how to do that over the past year, smaller events that would not have bothered before now have the capabilities and equipment to do so.

Importantly, consumer expectations have shifted. If you can’t attend in person, there’s the assumption that you’ll be able to attend virtually. In turn, that will drive how events are designed and marketed. This, more than anything, will keep the online and hybrid event model around for the foreseeable future.

3. Leaner Productions

Part of being able to produce video during the pandemic has meant doing more with less. After all, having fewer crew members on set reduces the risk of transmission and helps keep everyone safe.

There is every reason to think that we will happily bring back certain roles and team sizes when necessary. However, the reality is that after a year of doing without, many crew members and talent have learned new skills that reduce the need for additional team members.

For example, at SproutVideo, members of our marketing team learned how to set up our own DSLR camera kits and film ourselves so we could keep producing video while working remotely. Before, we would have relied on our in-house video team to handle the setup and filming in our office studio.

While we’re greatly looking forward to getting back to the studio, we can now be more nimble, and produce more video no matter where we’re located. If you’re setting up or expanding your own home studio, check out our guide to the video studio upgrades that are worth your while.

Many teams have made similar investments, and learned new skills that won’t go away when the pandemic does. We expect many will continue to produce more video with less, while welcoming back the extra helping hands when and where it makes sense.

4. Production Partners

Pre-pandemic, most production studios would typically handle all shoots for a project, even in far-flung locations. Today, with travel restrictions and quarantine requirements, shoots on location have only been possible with the help of local film crews on the ground.

In many cases, these partnerships have been so successful that studios expect to continue working in this manner going forward. After all, the partnerships offer several benefits. For instance, there’s the cost savings in terms of time and money on travel, and the local expertise for scouting, logistics, and regulations.

I was nervous at first because you’re really putting your baby in someone else’s arms, but I’ve found really amazing, passionate filmmakers all over the world to work with.

– Cara Yeates, Trigger Creative

With new connections, and the technology to make it possible, production partners expand the scope of what studios can achieve. Importantly, they also save time and money. For those reasons, we think production partnerships are here to stay.

5. Remote Crew Members

After a full year of being forced to be remote, well, we’ve gotten pretty good at it. Now, it’s second nature to loop people in via video to participate in any aspect of video production.

It’s not just the partnerships with studios and film crews in different locations. It’s also the clients needing to approve shots, or the director of photography, or the team broadcasting the stream live. All you need is a live video feed, and anyone, anywhere, can contribute to the shoot.

Of course, there is a certain energy and excitement that comes with being on set. Nothing can ever truly replicate that or replace it. However, the efficiencies gained by this technology will ensure remote crew members remain the norm going forward. It just might not be the entire crew.

What trends do you see emerging from the pandemic as video production resumes? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The post The New Normal for Video Production appeared first on SproutVideo.

1. Live Streaming Takes the Main Stage

This should come as no surprise. In 2020, we saw live streaming become a go-to form of video for so many businesses. Of course, live streaming isn’t new, but in the past year, live video became a weekly, if not daily, part of our professional lives. 

While many had already tried live streaming on occasion, more and more businesses made it a central part of their marketing and communications strategy as they sought alternatives to in-person events, and ways to drum up excitement while remote.

Live streaming allows you to create unique experiences that connect you directly with your audience in real-time. Businesses have a great opportunity to double down on this trend to boost their marketing and create more content. You could produce video interviews, launch products live, hold virtual events, and more. 

Now that live streaming is the norm, we don’t see it going away. This is not a flash-in-the-pan trend: it’s the new way to do business. Even when in-person events are possible, live streaming is an additive way to increase exposure and reach.

The opportunity for live video is vast, so don’t be afraid to get creative with it. For more inspiration, check out these ‘4 innovative ways brands are using live streaming.

2. The Show Will Go On

It was hard to see how video productions would be able to continue when everything started shutting down earlier this year. However, like many others, we as an industry found a way to persevere. If this year taught us anything to take with us into 2021, it’s how to adapt when traditional methods don’t work. While larger productions will likely snap back to tried and true methods as soon as they’re able, the skills and efficiencies gained by smaller productions out of necessity are not going to evaporate overnight.    

For instance, if you went from being filmed in a studio or in your offices, to having your own setup at home, you’ll probably keep using it. After all, it’s an effective and low-budget way to produce solid content, and that won’t change moving forward. 

If nothing else, this year has shown so many businesses that they can produce a high-quality video with whatever resources they have. We hope people keep this same energy in 2021 and beyond. Explore our posts on filming solo and check out our behind the scenes content of our most recent production to learn more. 

3. Remote Video Production 

Along the same lines, remote video production isn’t going away any time soon. This takes the best of both worlds from the section above, and pushes them together into a unique but effective way to produce a video with multiple people involved. Remote video production will put your communication skills to the test, but the outcome is a type of video that checks all the boxes while keeping budgets under control. 

For instance, this past summer we produced several videos with a fully remote team, and learned a lot about what we could accomplish while in separate locations. We had to make some gear purchases and do plenty of testing, but in the end, we were able to come up with a process that works for our business. Going forward, we feel this only adds to our strengths in terms of content development because we’ll be able to be more flexible in the future.

We’re surely not the only business feeling this way. We expect more businesses to continue with decentralized video productions, and to create more content as a result.

4. Simpler Productions 

One side effect of remote productions has been a shift in standards for what is acceptable for business video in the era of social media. When major networks started airing interviews and segments with people at home filmed on Skype or Zoom, it shifted expectations away from studio-quality backdrops and lighting. 

For most businesses, what you say is going to be more important than how you say it. Seeing people record from their homes, recording on phones, and going live whenever wherever just goes to show that if the content is good, people will watch it. Not to mention how fast and adaptable this type of video production can be. 

Fundamental changes in tastes and expectations are likely to prove persistent, even when higher production values become easier to maintain. After all, why spend more money and time than you have to on a production if you can get the message across just as effectively with less?

5. Movement Toward Widespread Diversity

While the movement to increase diversity in front of and behind the camera isn’t new by any means, the events of this past year have certainly placed a new emphasis on the importance of addressing this issue. 

Historically, the film and video industry has been dominated by white men. While this is problematic for a number of reasons, not making a sincere, conscious effort to be diverse will hinder you a lot more than you may think. 

One of the many notable benefits of having an inclusive and diverse video team is having people with different perspectives, which will result in even better content. In addition, having a diverse team will help squash any unfortunate missteps you may have made otherwise. If you think it can’t happen to you, we’ve seen problematic content from big brands like Pepsi and H&M. Building a diverse video team for on-camera and behind camera work, and fostering a supportive, inclusive work environment will dramatically improve your content. 

A lot of brands took a stand to do better in this regard, and we as consumers need to hold them accountable. Nevertheless, like producing video itself, we all have to start somewhere. This summer, we put together a step by step guide to authentically inclusive video marketing. We think it’s a great place to start for companies on their journey to becoming more inclusive.

6. Creating Accessible Videos

Inclusive video production spans far beyond just including a diverse workforce. Inclusive creation looks at all aspects of the video and does its best to keep in mind people that are often overlooked or can’t watch videos in a “traditional” way. Creating accessible videos is not only the right thing to do, but also ensures that a wider audience can enjoy your content. A few simple steps can make a huge difference.

A short list of changes you can make to improve accessibility includes the following:

• Choose colors with good contrast.
• Make sure your videos come equipped with subtitles.
• Avoid flashing content.
• Make a transcript available.

To learn more, check out this article from 3Play Media for an in-depth look at how you can make your videos more accessible for all. 

7. Formatting for Everything

As many of us are doing more with less, it’s even more important to get the most out of your content. And, since the number of platforms for sharing video continues to grow, formatting your videos to match these platforms remains a challenge. The standard 16:9 works well in many places, but taking it a step further to produce for different social platforms is going to help your videos stand out.

A few things to keep in mind to make your job easier include the following:

• Plan to crop
• Maximize your depth of field
• Be conscious of video length
• Create standalone teasers

For an in-depth analysis of these four points, explore our secrets optimizing for social sharing to learn more. 

8. Budgeting for Change

Unless you could see into the future, there was no way to account for all the curveballs we were thrown this year. This means your budget was probably pretty off for what you thought was going to happen versus what you could actually get accomplished. Given the broader state of the economy, careful planning is more paramount than ever.

A lot of the predictions above will play a big role when you’re drafting your budget for video production. Moving forward, the number and complexity of shoots, any equipment you’ll need to purchase to work solo or remote, and the cost of hiring extra talent all need to be accounted for.

We use a specific blueprint to accurately forecast our budget for video production. Hopefully, with these predictions in mind, and our guide to budgeting for video, you’ll be in a much better place to plan out 2021.

2020 was a big test for video production and marketing across the board. We think the lessons learned are going to be instrumental as we move toward a post-COVID world. What trend or lessons will you be taking with you into 2021? Let us know in the comments below. 

The post 8 Predictions for Video Production in 2021 appeared first on SproutVideo.