By Dave Thomas

Our Creative Producer Jess has been nagging me to write one of these blogs, so here we are. I hope you’re ready to get your mind blown (or at least be mildly interested) with all you need to know about video editing – whatever your level. 

I’m not one to waffle so, let’s crack on shall we…

Quick-Fire Tips

First things first, the aim of your video is to stop the scroll. Find a hook that you can use at the beginning of the video so it snaps them out of mindless scrolling. The key is to be original, create something they’ve never seen before. Once you have their attention that’s half the job done. 

Okay, that wasn’t as quick-fire as I was expecting but let’s ignore that and move on… actually related tip – video editing means being adaptable. You need to change your style, content and even your mindset when creating videos for different target audiences. Bosh. I’m good at this.

Introduce the product or service within 3 seconds. Make sure your audience knows what they’re watching and why. Simple as that

Always include a call to action (CTA). Tell the viewer to do something – download, sign up, buy now. End cards are perfect for this. The audience needs to know the next steps if they are interested. 

Keep it short: sometimes even 6-15 seconds will do the job. Gen Z especially has a short attention span. This can be tricky as it’s tough to tell a whole story, but stick to it as you can’t risk them getting bored. A way to do it is to pick out 3 USPs and then do 3 versions of the video. A/B test and see which USP works. You may be surprised what performs the best! 

Always consider the target audience. Let’s be real, investment bankers don’t want to see pop art. So hello common sense my old friend, it’s great to have you onboard.

Must-Have Video Editing Tools

Adobe After Effects (not sponsored, unfortunately) is my go-to tool for all motion graphics. Trust me, it’s good.  There are also so many plugins that you can explore for free. Yes, I said FREEEEEEEEEE. C’mon why would you not? I’m loving Saber by Video Copilot at the moment, you should check it out. Video Copilot – hit me up if you wanna pay me for this shout out!

Let’s Chat Platforms

I’m going to say this for all you guys who have never read Marketing for Dummies; different platforms have different requirements (i.e. aspect ratio, length). Please, for me, remember this when editing your videos. You’re going to be very disappointed when, after hours of work, you can’t post your video because it’s not to spec. 

Overlays are handy. So for Insta Stories I have an overlay of the “swipe up”/”learn more” button so I know not to put an element under it. I know, I know, genius.

This Is A No-No

One of the most common mistakes in video editing is the pacing. But I have a solution… yeah this is a good one. Whenever you’ve got text in your video, if you can read it out loud while it’s on-screen then it’s on there for the right amount of time. Mind. Blown.

Also, mate if your files are a mess you’re f**king screwed. Always keep project files tidy. I’m going to give away my genius here but you should make a base project to keep everything organised, and then just copy it into a new project. Oh yeah… for the love of everything in existence please name your layers!! Amends are impossible when you can’t find anything, trust me.

Over And Out

That that wasn’t too painful… well it might be when Jess reads it. Anyways you are now qualified in video editing at the University of Dave. Go and create some wicked content. Need more help? Tough. Nah only kidding! We love to get our hands on new projects and get creative. It would be great to chat with you to see how we can help you out. Let’s catch up.