Making marketing videos - a zero cost recipe

So you want to make an advertisement video or teaser for your product-idea. Whatever the reason for the video might be, you are probably thinking of using Fiver, or equivalent platforms and pay someone $5 and voila! Sorry to break you the news but you are likely going to waste your money and get disappointed. If you want a professional video $5 is not good enough and if you are unsure of what you want to achieve with the video you are on the way to a mini-disaster, and wasting hundreds of dollars.

Worry no more! Just follow these simple 3 steps if you want a video for free.

 

Step 1 - Who is making the video!

Find the video maker. Ideally, it should be yourself but if you just hate videos and cameras ask yourself which one of your friends is always talking about videos? This person is a good candidate.

 

Step 2 - Time to answer a few questions!

Are to trying to sell something? Then you need to explain what your product does. Have a look at this personal average attempt to explain. Use it at "the measure" and try to make it better than this!

Are you trying to get people's attention and sing ups, pre-orders? Then you need to create emotions and trigger curiosity! This video was so good that sold out tickets for a failed festival!

Do you want it funny or serious?

Is it scientific or everyday life?

Who is your viewer?

Age range? Adults only? Region? Which countries? Which language? Will there be a voice or just music?

Check out how Apple advertises their products without saying a single word.

 

How is the video going to be used? TV, social media, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok? All of the above?

Each platform has its own requirements for advertisement videos or just uploading simple videos. Do some research first on the video format, duration, otherwise, you might need to edit your video and keep a different version for different platforms. For example, on Facebook, an ad video is advised to be less than 15 sec.

 

Okay, let's assume that you still want to make this bloody video. I will cut to chase with the tools available and most important the free options, to begin with.

 

Step 3 - Pick your weapons

  • If you are a Mac and iPhone user, the no brainer is iMovie. It comes free on your Mac and Phone, it offers a smooth learning curve. More details here.
  • If you want to learn a tool that offers much more than iMovie and you might see yourself creating professional videos, I recommend Davinci resolve. I fell in love with the wealth of information, the features and the fact you can start for free. Here is an example video I made with Davinci Resolve after I watched just one how-to video.
  •  If you just want an Ad video quick, easy and without much effort, there are loads of web solutions to achieve this.I have used https://promo.com/ to create this teaser video. You can get one or more free videos with their watermark, and paid videos as well if you want more features or no watermark.

 

That's all! I hope you find these tips helpful and give it a shot ;)