Vertical vs. Horizontal Video: Which is Better?
When determining whether your video should be shot horizontally (landscape) or vertically (portrait), there are two factors to consider: where the video is going and what its goal is.
Let’s get into it:
Website
If the video is going on your website, we recommend that you have a horizontal video. When you embed it from a platform like Vimeo or YouTube, it will look better than a vertical video.
Also, if the goal is for the video to have a long shelf, you should have it on YouTube and those look best shot horizontally.
Social Media
Here is where it gets a little tricky. Both styles of video, horizontal and vertical, can look great on social media, depending on the content/type of post.
What we recommend for vertical video:
- Reels (Facebook and Instagram)
- Short Form Video (YouTube shorts, TikTok, LinkedIn)
- Stories (Facebook and Instagram)
- If the content does not need a long shelf
What we recommend for horizontal video:
- Promotional Video (Facebook and LinkedIn)
- Testimonial Video: (Facebook and LinkedIn)
- If the content needs a long shelf life
Since most of our clients need a variety of videos for their marketing strategy, we can provide both horizontal and vertical video assets so they are covered for their website (long-form content) and social media (short-form content).
What type of content does your company use most of the time?
3 Symptoms of Bad Branding
Some businesses are missing out on thousands of dollars in revenue each month without even knowing it.
Here are 3 symptoms to look for to see if it’s time to update your company’s branding.
Potential customers say you’re too expensive:
When you step into a Mercedes car dealership, you have a general idea of the pricing. You also know it won’t be cheap.
Due to their branding, Mercedes and other luxury brands do a great job attracting high-end buyers.
If people consistently are shocked by your pricing or can’t afford your services, your branding may be off. They should be able to look at your videos, website, and social media and KNOW that you’re more expensive than your competitor (if you are providing a high-touch service).
Be sure you’re showing off the quality of your work through videos and pictures to attract the correct audience for your business.
Confusion:
If potential customers routinely ask you what you do, even after visiting your website, your branding isn’t clear enough.
When someone hits your website or your social media accounts, they should know exactly what your company does within seconds. If not, this leads to confusion, and like Donald Miller (author of Business Made Simple) says, “When you confuse you lose”.
Make sure your messaging is crystal clear through your company’s branding.
Low Retention:
Have you ever had a client use your services and then find out they went with another company when they needed the same service down the road? Not a great feeling. They may have had a great experience with you but simply forgot about you. Ouch!
If this happens often, your ongoing branding may be off. Be sure to stay in sight, and in mind through email campaigns and social media content. The key is to make sure you’re helpful and not “salesy” every time you show up.
This will help your clients remember who you are the next time they need you and will result in more referrals as well.
What other symptoms would you add?
3 Trust Signals For Your Website
We’ve all heard that most people do business with those they know, like, and trust. This is not just true for people; we also like to use businesses we trust.
Believe it or not, even if your company is B2B, potential clients will check your website before considering you.
Here are 3 of our favorite ways that companies can build trust through their website:
Pictures of Team Members
Having professional headshots of your key employees (or at least pictures of actual team members) gives potential clients an idea of who they’ll be working with. We recommend replacing any stock photo on your website with a picture of an actual team member. It’s a great way to build trust for your brand.
Promotional/Brand Video
You probably knew this was coming since we’re a video production company, but we’re confident this is a great way to build trust for a company. We know this because, during discovery calls, this is the main reason why businesses tell us they need a video.
If one of your potential clients watches your website’s brand video, they get a sense of who you are. They can also see your team and the quality of your work.
A one-time investment for a professional video can pay off for years if you add it to the homepage of your website.
Case Studies/Portfolio
Proof that you’ve delivered the services that you offer is the ultimate trust signal in my opinion. When you can show prospective clients what you’ve done instead of telling them, it gives them confidence you can do the same for them.
When companies contact us for a professional video, they’ve usually watched a couple of our videos on the “Our Work” page of our website. If our style is what they are looking for, they know we can do it for them too.
Be sure to have some examples of your work, a client testimonial, or add the logos of the companies you’ve helped somewhere on your website.
I hope these tips help build trust for your brand.
What are some trust signals you have on your website?
How Long Does a Video Shoot Take?
This is a common question we get on discovery calls for a professional video shoot.
Most of our shoots last between 1 and 2 hours.
We know your time is valuable so here are 3 factors that determine how long your shoot will last.
How Many Speakers?
Sometimes we have multiple people that have speaking roles in a video. This will take longer than a single interviewee on camera. We have a video shoot coming up where we are interviewing the owner of the company and one of their customers (giving a testimonial).
We should be able to get all of the footage, including the b roll, we need in 2 hours or less.
How Many Locations?
We’ve shot videos in the past, especially with home service contractors, where we are getting footage at multiple locations. These could take 4 or more hours, depending on how far apart each location is.
We try to fit everything in one day, but there are cases (especially if we’re filming a project that has multiple stages like a landscaping project) where we need multiple days to get all of the footage for the video.
How Many Takes?
This one is on you, but don’t worry. Our production assistants are amazing at helping you deliver your message. We’ll do as many takes as you need to make sure the video is incredible.
We do recommend that you rehearse what you’re going to say before the day of the shoot.
We have a pre-production call with our clients about a week before your video shoot to cover all of these details, including helping with a script/outline.
This ensures that everything runs smoothly and efficiently on the day of recording to ensure we’re in and out in an hour or 2.
Ready to discuss your video project? Click here to get started: Get a Quote
How to Sound Better on Camera
Audio is 50% of a video, so paying attention to how you sound in your company’s professional video makes sense.
Here are 3 tips that you can use to sound better on camera:
Slow Down
Slowing down your speech will help you sound more trustworthy. No one trusts a “fast talker”. This also ensures the person watching your video can understand every word you are saying so the video has an impact.
Speak clearly and slowly and your message will be received.
Let the Mic Do the Work
Similar to lighting, ensuring your video has great audio is our job. We do this by always providing the correct mic setup. Sometimes we use a Lavalier mic that we secure to your shirt or we can use a shotgun mic.
Regardless of the mic setup, we ask that you let the mic do the work so we can control the volume on our end. You’d be surprised but there’s no reason to shout into the microphone. This will cause the audio to spike and turn the viewer off immediately.
Use your normal, smooth voice and we will handle the rest.
Take a Deep Breath
Before you start talking, take a deep breath. This does a couple of things: it will relax your nerves so you come across as calm. It also helps you to think about what you’re going to say so you sound confident.
Whenever we stop breathing when we get tense, it’s harder to think.
This is why after you’re in an argument you start thinking all of the things you WANTED to say. When you’re in a disagreement, you tense up instead of breathing and you can’t think clearly.
So take a deep breath and the words will flow naturally.
Your Next Step
Are you ready to take your marketing to the next level by adding video to the mix?
Click here to get started: Get a Quote
When To Shoot a New Brand Video
One of the first questions we ask potential clients on a discovery call is “Why are you interested in a professional video?”. A common answer lately has been, “We are updating our website and our web developer asked us if we had any video content for the home page?”.
This huge event typically triggers the need for a new video. Here are the other main events that may mean it’s time to shoot a new brand video:
New Website/Rebrand
We just mentioned this above. When your company updates its website or goes through a rebrand, you may need a new video.
If your old video is outdated, it won’t look consistent with a new website. Also, if you change your logo, your old video may include old logos, etc.
Web developers that we work with highly recommend shooting a new video to add to a new website or rebrand package.
New Office
We’re scheduling a shoot for a financial services firm in Frisco that just moved to a new office. They want a new professional video to show off their company’s culture and its new digs.
Their location is a selling point to attract advisors to their firm, so it’s important to them that we highlight their office interior and the surrounding areas.
If your company moves offices, especially if it’s an upgrade, it may be time to shoot a new brand video.
New Key Team Members
Recently, we talked to a company that needed new professional videos because their CEO is stepping down and he was in most of the videos on their website.
They wanted to reshoot the videos with their new key team members so there was an accurate representation of their company. If you’ve experienced turnover with key team members, and the old ones are in your brand video, it’s time to shoot a new one.
If any of these events happen at your company, we’d love to get you a quote for an updated brand video.
Click here to schedule a call with us: Book Discovery Call
How to Look Better on Camera
Most people we talk to aren’t naturally excited about being on camera, but they understand the impact that a brand video can make for their company. Here are 3 tips on how to look better on camera in your next video.
Talk Slowly
You may be thinking, “How does talking slowly help me LOOK better?”. When you talk slower, you’re more in control of your words and you will appear more confident and trustworthy.
Think about the opposite: have you ever come across someone who talks fast and looks “shifty”? These people tend to have us put our guard up. Slow down your speech and you will look like you’re in command of every word you say.
Also, use your hands when you talk. This makes you look confident as well.
Wear Clothes That Make You Feel Great
We’ve touched on this in a previous article called, What to Wear For a Video Shoot.
You want to pick out an outfit that you know makes you look and feel great. The feel is just as important as the look because you’ll appear more confident when you’re comfortable. I probably look better in a suit, but I feel better in a nice t-shirt or henley so that’s typically what I wear in our videos.
Be prepared
Preparation=confidence. When you’ve rehearsed what you will say before we shoot the video, you’ll be more confident and look better on camera.
It’s similar to giving a presentation: When you know your material, you look more natural and the words just flow.
We ensure you’re prepared by having a pre-production call with your company about a week before the video shoot. We cover all of the details of the shoot, including an outline of what you’ll be saying in the video. Our production assistant will be there on shot day to help guide you, but going over the content beforehand will help you look amazing.
We hope these tips help you look your best on your next video shoot.
What would you add?
Click here for a quote for your next video project: Get a Quote
What Should We Talk About in Our Brand Video?
This is a common question on discovery calls with professional service businesses.
Here are 3 questions that we ask to determine the best content to include in your company’s brand video.
What is Important to You That You Want Your Ideal Client To Know?
When producing a video for your company, it’s our job to guide you, but ultimately you will know your business far better than us. You know what makes you different from your competitors and the services your companies offer.
During our pre-production call, we will ask you what is important for your ideal customer to know about your company, based on your years of experience. This will help us create an outline for you to go over to ensure your content aligns with your brand.
What Questions Do Your Ideal Clients Always Ask You?
Chances are if one of your clients has a question, several potential clients have the same question. Start thinking of questions that you answer day in and day out. Answering these in your brand video is a great way to build trust.
That’s exactly what we’ve done in the articles that we write. We simply address questions we get on sales calls or production meetings and build content around them.
What Are The Main Problems Your Company Solves?
The last question I ask clients is what pain points and problems their clients have that their company solves. If you work for an IT company, you may solve cybersecurity issues.
Law firms solve legal issues, but it’s best to be specific. For example, business attorneys will solve different problems than a family law attorney.
Put yourself in the place of your ideal client. What pain points do they have? What problems do they consistently come to your company to solve? This is the content you should discuss in your brand video.
Your Next Step
Are you ready to take your company’s branding to the next level? Click here to schedule a call to discuss your brand video project: book a call
Preparing Your Office For a Video Shoot
One of the events that triggers the need for a new professional video is when your company moves to a new office. We are working with a financial services firm that recently relocated and they asked us for a quote to produce a new video and to update their company’s employee headshots.
Before we move forward and shoot the video, we recommended that they have their decor set up first as their office and walls are bare. We want the video to look as great as possible. Here are a few things to consider when preparing your office for a video shoot:
Location:
Where within your office are we going to film the speaking parts of the video? The CEO’s office, the conference room, or various offices? These are some of the details that we cover during our pre-production call.
Ultimately, it’s our job to put our creative eyes on your space to guide you, but it’s good to have a plan so the areas are ready (we’ll get into that shortly). Also, we will be getting b roll (shots that support the speaking parts of the video) in various locations of your office.
We also want to select a space in your office with good lighting, although we always bring our professional lighting setup with us to ensure your team looks fantastic.
Clean and Declutter:
It’s not necessary to buy new decor for your professional video shoot. We do ask that the space(s) we will be filming in is clean and tidy. This will help keep the video free of distractions and give your company a great first impression. Details matter.
Let your Employees Know:
Our production assistants do a great job of managing the shoot and it’s much easier if everyone in the office knows that video production is happening. This will ensure that employees who are not supposed to be in the video don’t make an unexpected cameo. This will also keep noise (talking and phones) at a minimum during the recording.
We hope these tips help your video shoot go as smoothly as possible.
If your company needs to refresh its brand video due to an office move, you can contact us here to get started: Get a Quote
What to Wear For a Video Shoot
I was recently asked by a marketing director, “What should we wear” during our initial meeting as we discussed the details of a video and photography shoot. This is a complex answer that has a few variables.
Here are 3 questions we ask to guide you through your wardrobe selection:
What Represents Your Brand?
Suits look amazing, especially if they’re tailored, but if a plumbing company shot a video with all the techs wearing one it wouldn’t quite represent their brand. The same is true for being too “dressed down”. Think about what outfit most represents your brand and what types of clients you’re trying to attract.
A law firm whose target market is executives would opt for a traditional suit, whereas a high-end landscaping company may want to wear branded polo shirts in their video. The key is for you and your team to be consistent in what you wear in the video.
What Are You Comfortable Wearing?
We recently shot a video for a managed IT company and they work with some rather large, professional companies. This doesn’t mean they need to wear a suit and tie. Their reps were much more comfortable wearing a branded polo. If they were forced to wear a suit, they would have come off as stuffy, squirmy, and inauthentic on camera. Instead, they appeared confident and trustworthy, simply by being comfortable in their clothing. Note: I’m not suggesting to wear sweats during your video shoot. 🙂
What Makes You Feel Confident?
The last question to consider is what makes you feel confident? Most of us have that one outfit that we feel amazing, comfortable, and confident in. For me, it’s typically an all-black outfit of some sort. The reason why it’s important to pick out something that makes you feel confident is it’s one less thing to be concerned about when on camera. This allows you to focus on delivering your content instead of worrying about how you look.
If you still need help in the wardrobe selection, don’t worry…we cover all of this in our pre-production call to ensure your team is ready to roll on video shoot day!
To schedule a discovery call for your next video project, click here: Get a Quote
