In the age of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, it’s usually less about the text and more about the visuals. Naturally, you would need to have a short, impactful description when creating a post for just about anything, but videos and photos have more weight. Whether you’re updating your status in your social networking account, enticing customers to try out your products or organizing an event, having a custom made video is the best way to go.
What are Custom Made Videos?
First, let’s have a quick look at what custom made videos are all about. Videos are meant to entertain or deliver a message, and these used to be created only by professional videographers. Over the years, gadgets were released in the market which were used to shoot home videos. Now that almost any mobile phone can be used to shoot pretty decent quality videos, practically anybody can make their own mini-movie.
Now, the difference between casually made videos and custom made videos is the quality. Let’s say that you’re a family with three kids and you have videos of the first step of your eldest – only you cannot watch it anymore because it’s in VHS format. With a professional custom made video, these can be transferred to the format that we know of today, and can even be uploaded to YouTube. If you have videos which have an older format, a video expert will be able to transfer that for you and turn it into a custom made video. Some of the older video formats which you can have transferred to DVD or YouTube-upload-read format are:
- Clips from video tapes.
- Home movies.
- Photos and slideshows.
- 8mm, Super8 or 16 mm home movie films.
When Would I Need to Have Custom Videos Made?
Next, when would you need to have custom videos made? Take a look at the following list:
For special occasions
Weddings are the most popular occasions where custom videos are made. In the wedding photography industry, video and photo experts offer SDEs or Same Day Edits. This means that the day’s events – starting from dressing up the bride and groom to the uttering of the vows – will be shown in a video clip for the guests to enjoy during the reception. A few years ago, these SDEs would not have been possible but with digital technology, you can already view the day’s events in a matter of minutes. Other special occasions where custom videos are made include anniversaries and birthdays.
For posterity’s sake
If you have a bunch of black-and-white photos, a custom made video can include the restored versions of these old snapshots. These old photos have such a history and character to them, that it does pay to have them organized into a video for posterity’s sake.
For product launches
If you’re a business owner, custom made videos can be used to launch a product. They don’t necessarily have to be made with a million-dollar budget, but the quality needs to be professional-looking for you to project a good image and represent your brand well.
For creating videos that will get traffic to your site
You can also use custom made videos to drive traffic to your site. How-to videos, funny clips which will hopefully go viral, educational and entertaining videos can all be embedded to your site to drive traffic to it.
To Go Viral
You might ask “Why viral videos matter?”. Imagine your custom-made video goes viral and receives 1 million views within 1 week. That alone can raise a great amount of awareness about your product and business which if you wanted to achieve by running a marketing campaign would cost you tens of thousands of dollars.
There are many brands who leveraged the viral video concept and simply turn from a start-up to a multi million famous company. For example, “Dollar Shave Club” (26 million views), “Old Spice” (57 million views) and “PooPourri” (43 million views) created some humorous videos that people loved to watch and share.
In my opinion, the best thing a proper custom video can get you is going viral.
Benefits of Custom Made Videos
If you’re a business owner, you can use the custom made videos as a way to represent your brand. Not only can you generate awareness about the product that you’re offering to your customers, but you can also use the video to spread the word about your brand.
Another benefit of custom made videos for business owners is that they can be used to dive traffic to a website. The more hits, likes or comments a video generates, the more traffic it will lead to your site. This further results to more revenues for your overall business.
If you’re introducing a new business process, custom made videos can be used for training purposes. Instead of hiring a trainer, you can have the video produced at a fraction of the cost and still have an effective way for employees learn about new business processes.
If you would like to leave a lasting impression to your clients, you can use custom made videos with 2D, 3D or motion graphic effects. Other things that you can add are whiteboard or cut-out animation – use one based on the image that you’d like to project. Finally, if there’s a special occasion to be celebrated in your family, custom made videos will give it a personal touch yet still have it turn out with professional results.