According to a 2020 survey, over 95% of users have increased the amount of video content they view online while about 90% of respondents said they’d like to see more videos from companies and enterprises. Moreover, as of 2022, the average user is estimated to dedicate nearly 100 minutes each day to online video viewing. The key here is to produce content of premium quality, which speaks volumes about the importance of video editing in PR campaign planning.
Videos that underwent high-quality editing can capture the attention of your clients for a long time while increasing engagement, brand recognition, and conversion rate. That said, it’s vital to remember that the content of the video is still the most important part since even professional editing won’t be able to save “empty” clips.
High video quality is directly tied to gaining your audience’s trust but it doesn’t make up for the lack of meaningful content. That’s why your approach to video editing in PR campaign planning should be based on the content, idea, direction, and type of the video you plan to publish.
Video Editing in Your PR Campaign: Main Aspects
You should move on to video editing only once you have a firm grasp on the idea of your PR video and have selected the main distribution channels since the editing you have to do for platforms like Facebook and YouTube can be very different. If you want to ensure video editing is done perfectly, there are a lot of factors for you to consider.
1. Choose the Editing Style
Alt: importance of video editing in pr campaign unique style
It’s important to ensure your clients instantly recognize your videos from the rest, which is why you have to develop your own unique style of video editing. This style should also become a part of your branding identity and be a natural fit for your overall marketing strategy.
Make videos a part of your branding by using your corporate colors, their combinations, and various recognizable elements. Select a set of visual effects that you will continuously use for editing all your videos. To do so, test different video editing services https://fixthephoto.com/video-editing-services DF and software that you’re going to resort to for all your video post-production needs.
During the post processing stage, pay special attention to the details. Think about what tricks you can use to ensure the viewer watches your video till the end and responds to your call to action. Keep in mind that a lot of people nowadays watch videos without sound on social media so be sure to add subtitles and check if they are displayed correctly. You can also use video editing tools to highlight some of the ideas in your video. For instance, you can add text or animated elements to reinforce the key phrases/thoughts expressed in your footage.
2. Make Sure the Video Editing Style Matches Your Brand Concept
The chosen video editing style should be appropriate for your brand and product. For instance, if your product or service is aimed at children, don’t use overly aggressive visual effects. The video should be coherent and appeal to your target audience.
Study how popular brands use video marketing to their advantage. For example, Coca-Cola ads stand out because of their dynamic nature and bright and vibrant colors. Meanwhile, Dove advertisement videos are calm and minimalistic.
3. Use Appropriate Effects
Alt: importance of video editing in pr campaign effects
The usage of various visual effects can help make your videos unique and more captivating. If you don’t have a defined editing style yet, try experimenting with multiple effects and transitions to determine which ones are the best fit for your brand.
Considering that the optimal length for advertising videos stands at up to 90 seconds, you can use multiple effects. However, try to limit yourself to 2-3 effects to avoid overloading the video and tiring your viewer. A lot of software offers free VFX and interesting transitions. Study the capabilities of Filmora, InShot, and VCDS that offer a broad range of easily customizable options.
Once you’re done checking everything out, settle down on a set of visual effects that you’re going to use for all your future videos. This will help the audience build persistent associations with your brand and ensure they instantly recognize your product from a million others.
4. Customize the Sound Track
The audio part of the video is almost as important as the visual one. The sound included in your commercial video should be clean, noise-free, and not suffer from abrupt decibel fluctuations. Dedicate time to editing the background music, dialogues, voiceovers, and various sound effects. You can also use silence to add a bit of drama, emphasize an important idea, or highlight a specific element.
Don’t forget about copyright when choosing music for your video since you’re producing video content for commercial purposes. If you don’t have a large budget that allows you to hire specialists for recording unique audio, take advantage of royalty-free music provided by platforms like Pond5, Musicbed, Artlist, Music Vine, and so on. If you want to produce professional-quality music and voiceovers, turn to free tools like Adobe Audition, Audacity, Ashampoo Music Studio, Acoustica, etc.
5. Optimize the Video for Particular Platforms
Alt: importance of video editing in pr campaign platforms requirements
There’s nothing worse than a professionally created and edited video that doesn’t load or isn’t being properly displayed on the website. That’s why it’s important to choose the platforms that your result will be published on during the editing stage so that you can carefully study the content requirements of each venue.
The key distinction between most platforms is the required aspect ratio. Other than that, all of your videos should be saved in 30fps, 1080p resolution, and MP4 format. Let’s compare the requirements of some of the most popular online platforms that allow you to upload videos: Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Facebook. The optimal video length here lies between 1 and 2 minutes, as such a duration allows the viewer to grasp the idea of the clip without becoming bored by it. The recommended aspect ratio is 16:9.
Instagram. You should differentiate the videos that will be uploaded as posts and stories. For the former, the desired aspect ratio is 1:1 while stories require 9:16 content. Additionally, the length of the video shouldn’t ordinarily exceed 1 minute for posts and 15 seconds for stories.
YouTube. The main parameter that allows you to evaluate the success of a video is its total watch time. YouTube prefers content that keeps users hooked and places such videos higher in the search rankings. The optimal way to boost your watch time is to produce longer videos that last about 9 minutes or more. The recommended aspect ratio for this platform is 16:9.
6. Don’t Go Overboard with Video Editing
The video you create should be creative, original, and filled with interesting elements. That said, using an overabundance of visual effects or overly creative techniques can make the audience lose interest in your content and negate your entire PR and marketing strategy.
If you decided to handle video editing yourself, take a deep dive into the world of commercial content. Study the current video processing trends, watch the content produced by popular brands and you’ll gradually begin to understand what is the optimal number of effects, how to combine them in a complementary way, what techniques are relevant for your videos, and what methods are outdated.
However, if you don’t have any experience in creating video content at all, consider turning to professionals for help. This will allow you to save a ton of time and money. The market is full of companies that offer video production and post processing services for commercial purposes with some famous examples being Casual Films, The DVI Group, Lemonlight, and Snowy Peak.
