Want to dive into video marketing, master the video editing basics and create some killer content? Excellent!

Think of this post as your uber-brief but thorough guide to everything you need to know about video editing. We’ll talk about putting together a script, adding the right kind of audio, formatting your video like a pro, and so much more. Let’s dive in.

1. Craft a killer script

If you want to hold people’s attention, you gotta have a good script.

The best script depends on what type of video you want to make. Not sure what that is? Here are some ideas, plus some other resources on writing specific kinds of scripts.

An effective script should:

• Have clear, audience-specific goals. What do you want your video to do? Who’s going to watch it? Getting super clear about the video’s purpose will help you present your message in a more engaging way.

• Focus on a single idea at a time. Figure out what the key idea of your video is and focus on that. By sticking to one theme or problem at a time, you can create a tighter, more informative video.

• Speak to your audience. A video is a conversation. When writing your script, think about what questions, thoughts, and feelings are going through the viewer’s mind and address them.

2. Choose the right color combination for your video

Colors directly affect our perception and mood. Upbringing, preferences, cultural background and experience all influence how we perceive colors. That’s why it’s so important to keep your audience in mind when putting together the color scheme for your video.

How do you put an attractive palette together if your knowledge of color theory is vague at best? Don’t worry, there are tools for that! First, let’s take a super quick look at the two main color systems you’ll come across when making a video.

• RGB: This color system is used for all electronic displays — it’s how you see colors on your phone, tablet, and TV. The primary colors used here are red, green and blue.

• HEX: Hex codes are six-digit numbers used to represent RGB colors for screen displays. Hex codes are the default for the web. A hex code will be a hash followed by six numbers and/or letters, and looks something like this: #23f4a3.

3. Use high-quality images

Choosing the right images for your video can make or break it. High-res images are essential if you want your video to stand out.

We already mentioned RGB and HEX (they’re kind of the same thing), but CMYK is a color profile used for print, so if you see it, you’ll need to change it to RGB. Don’t worry, After Effects does this automatically. Just upload any picture you’ve got and it’ll be fine. If you’re not using After Effects, you can use a tool like Photoshop (or its free, open source twin GIMP) to change the color profile.

4. Get the sound right

Most of us would put up with a video with less than HD quality if the sound is top notch. Bottom line, if your audio doesn’t work, your video won’t be very effective.

When you’re putting together your own video you’ve got two main options — you can add great music or upload your own voice over. When picking the perfect soundtrack for your video, you can use high-quality royalty free music. Whatever you do though, don’t use music you don’t have rights to — the lawsuits are just not worth it. If you want to try something different, adding a voiceover can help you tell an effective story.

5. Format your video like a pro

Just like you get all kinds of text documents, videos come in a pretty large variety of formats. The most common ones for online streaming are MP4, FLV, and WMV.

All three of these are supported by the main social media platforms and work well online. We suggest to export your video as an MP4, a format supported by pretty much every platform today.

6. Marketing your video

Now that you’ve made your video, it’s time to get it in front of the right people.

You can use your video in a lot of different ways.

• Embed video in emails. Email is still one of the best ways to reach your audience and adding a video to it can increase engagement and click-through rates.

• Add video to your landing page. Doing this doesn’t just increase conversion rates by up to 80%. It helps you create a personal connection with the visitor right off the bat.

• Share your video on social media. Video content on social media gets more engagement, comments, and shares so don’t be afraid to use it! Not sure your followers are interested? HubSpot found that 83% of consumers would share a brand’s video if they find it useful or interesting.

• Run video ads. Most social media platforms now support video ads (even LinkedIn are on board!) and video ads tend to perform better.

Of course, to use a video in a marketing campaign you do have to house it somewhere. YouTube and Vimeo are both great places to start, however, there’s plenty of other options for video hosting if these two don’t make you wild.

Bringing it all together

Creating a fun to watch video doesn’t have to be hard. With a killer script, attractive images, and an appealing color scheme you can make people pay attention to what you’ve got to say.

According to the latest data from HubSpot, a stunning 81% of people have decided to buy a product or service after watching a brand’s video.

This article was originally posted by Biteable