Learn storytelling technique for video marketing from Christopher Kelly

 ” I wanted to be able to access my video effects from any computer so I built a website and uploaded my small collection there” – Christopher Kelly Founder of Production Crate and Soundscrate

Christoper is a video content expert and in this article, he shares his expertise and learnings about effective explainer videos, storytelling techniques, and video marketing campaigns.

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Read on to know more about Christopher and ‘simple things about explainer videos that most businesses don’t get’. Read on!

1. Tell us about your life journey in brief, Chris?

My family loved movies. Some of my favorite childhood memories are browsing through Blockbuster with my family, yelling to each other from across the store, arguing which titles we should be renting and what snacks to bring home. I didn’t really think about it as a potential career direction. Watching films was something I would do for fun. I never understood why the other kids weren’t as enraptured as I was. I could be at a friend’s birthday party and someone would put on a movie, pretty quickly everyone else would get bored and wander off, but I would sit there and watch every minute. I still don’t get how anyone could walk away, leaving a story unfinished.

By college I had decided being a teacher was the closest thing to a career I could choose. Film still hadn’t entered my mind as a possibility. Teaching seemed to have some level of creativity and day to day excitement, all I knew for sure was that I hated monotony. My roommate was a film major, we bonded over that and I eagerly helped him out with any film class projects he had. It was awesome. I loved it, now instead of just watching movies I was making short films, silly videos and sketches. My roommate introduced me to some post-production software, including Adobe After Effects. He showed me how simple it was to add Visual Effects to our projects. I couldn’t believe it, video effects were always something I thought would be inaccessible for anyone outside of Hollywood. I was sucked in.

This was 2009, I was a Sophomore in college. I started creating my own video effects so I could re-use them in different projects. I wanted to be able to access them from any computer so I built a website and uploaded my small collection there. Youtube was still in its infancy but I had made a few like-minded creators there, so I shared my website with them. They started to download my video effects and use it in their videos. The community started requesting other visual effects, music and sound effects. I kept adding to it, eventually making a little money from ads, which let me expand the content faster.

Over the years that’s how things grew, creators and filmmakers would request content, and I would do my best to make it. ProductionCrate started adding new team members to help. We developed a great website to help navigate and download the content. Professional composers made tracks exclusively for our user-base. Visual Effects professionals generated content and taught tutorials.

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2. How to choose the best music to make effective Explainer Videos?

Most explainer videos are visually driven. They’re trying to get a message across, often a somewhat complex or an otherwise confusing concept that is filtered down into a digestible video. The music needs to compliment, not detract, from that goal. Distracting tracks will make it harder to follow the mission of the explainer video, choosing tracks that are instrumental, usually acoustic, is a tried and true way to go. Sound effects to accent any motion or action will help tie everything together.

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3. What is your favorite storytelling technique you like to recommend to marketers?

Think about who you’re trying to reach, and then tell the story from their perspective. If the story doesn’t relate to your viewers then they won’t connect with it, and you’ll lose their interest within a few seconds.

The 3 Act Structure is more than just a tried and true method, it’s the basis for the vast majority of modern stories. It works. Find your story, your Who, and what they want to accomplish. Figure what is stopping them from achieving that goal. Then finish it off with a satisfying resolution. This can be applied to anything. Any product, service or platform exists to improve upon some aspect of the target demographic’s life. Don’t over-complicate things.

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4. How small businesses/ startups can plan their video marketing campaign?

Make sure you have consistency with your branding. Have a good title or logo animation that is ideally no more than 3 seconds. Use the same type of transitions, lower-thirds, Call to Actions that you use in the other videos. Once you have these templated and easy to integrate your video making process will become much smoother.

Figure out where you are launching your videos, and make sure you cater to all those needs. Square format tends to do better on Instagram, 16:9 is better for Twitter and Youtube. Instagram people watch videos without audio, Youtube and Tik Tok viewers watch with audio. Can your video work without audio and still get the messaging across? Can you crop your 16:9 to be 1:1 without chopping essential content?

Get feedback early on and be willing to pivot, you may have planned a tightly sewn structure, but if the early results are poor don’t stay the course. You’ll likely be launching the videos online to some degree, pay close attention to any comments or suggestions from your campaign. If the same questions are being asked over and over, try to address them in your next video.

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5. What are the simple things about Explainer Videos which most businesses don’t get or fail to understand?

Once isn’t always enough. Filter down what you need your audience to know, pick the hardest to grasp or most important element, and make sure you repeat it. I’m not saying word for word, but to really make sure your message gets delivered, utilize the screen time to reiterate the important messaging, not the smaller stuff you can do without.

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About Vidsaga

Vidsaga is a global marketplace for Organisations to create Videos. Consider it as “Upwork/ Fiverr for videos” with Creative script writing and professional project management.