I’m a big fan of batching and if I had to remember to film a blog video every single week, it just wouldn’t happen. I’m not that organized unfortunately.
So what I love to do is to be able to take one day in a year and film heaps and heaps of blog videos. I get them all edited up so that I can relax, knowing my marketing is done.
In this day and age, video is so powerful. It’s the most powerful way you can connect and grow your studio because people can get a sense of what you are like. They feel that they trust you and know you even before they walk through the doors of your studio.
If you have regular blog videos just the ones on Studio Expansion TV, it’s going to help to position you as someone with a lot of credibility. The way you talk, the way you share information is going to show, “Wow! They know their stuff. They really care about education. They sound like the place to go.”
Video blogs give you the opportunity to feature all kinds of different topics, like how to help your child practice at home. That’s a great topic for you to dive into.
You might also share about what to expect about recital or even what to do when your child is disappointed they’re not in the frontline. You can choose any topic that you think is going to be really valuable for your families or students to know and then just turn it into a blog video. Truly, it’s one of the best things you’re going to do.
So let me show you how I get organized to film a whole year’s worth of blog videos in just one day.
#1 – Brainstorm topics and bullet points
The first thing I do is brainstorm a whole list of topics. I tend to work in content categories. So I think of a few different big categories that would be interesting to my clients and then I just write a whole bunch of topics.
I usually end up with about 25 blog topics. I list the titles, and then I like to write out some big bullet points or talking points that I’m going to speak to in the video
I do all of this planning in advance so that when it comes to filming a video, I look at my notes, read the bullet points, and I’m off and running.
#2 – Don’t try this on your own
Next, I don’t do this on my own because that would be really hard. I get some help. My amazing cousin, Dara, is my videographer, and she helps me to film. She is there setting up the cameras and setting up the lights and encouraging me when I start talking too much or I start not making sense. She keeps me focused, which is really valuable.
And just one little note on this, it’s worth your while taking your time to think through if you want your partner to be that person. Sometimes it is easier to have someone who is a little removed from the relationship helping you with these. Just a little FYI tip.
#3 – Use great equipment
The next thing we do is that we often hire equipment. When filming, I wear a lapel mic. You can’t really see it because it’s on the underside of my dress, but it picks up a beautiful quality of audio.
We also have a secondary audio mic which is getting another layer. It’s kind of like a backup sound just in case the other battery dies or anything like that.
We also have two cameras set up. I have a main camera, and I always look to this camera. The second camera captures the side of my face. The benefit of this is that we can kind of edit them together so that it adds more variety to the video, as opposed to just me being in front of the camera for the whole time.
Having that kind of change up in the shots keeps a lot of depth and makes the look incredibly professional. So it’s worthwhile doing.
One thing we don’t do is rent out a big studio for the filming. I actually use my laundry room, believe it or not! Literally, we’ve just move all the furniture around, bring accessories in from other rooms, and style it up a bit. But we’re just at home, which is nice to be comfortable.
#4 – Lighting is essential
If I can tell you one thing, the lighting is essential. I use soft box lighting kits. You can buy them on eBay really affordably or you can rent them as well.
Using three-point lighting kits, we have a three-point lighting setup. Essentially, there’s one light of coming to each side of my face and then one light coming from behind me as well.
You want your lighting set up so that you’re being framed on both sides with light. If you have the light directly in front of your face, it makes you look like a pancake and really flat, which is why we want the three-point setup.
#5 – Stage your filming space
You will also want to some nice pretty things behind you in the background as well so that there’s a bit of depth of field. In my space, I have quite a big gap between me and the wall behind. That’s because we really want to show that sense of space that makes it really appealing.
#6 – Essentials for filming day
Let’s talk essentials here once we get to filming day. Tea is essential. I like to sip on kind of ginger, lemon, and honey teas because it helps me keep talking all day long.
You want to make your makeup a lot thicker than you would wear on an everyday basis. I mean I’m talking stage makeup. If you’ve ever done stage makeup before, you know you kind of put it on with a trowel. It is super thick, but you want to make yourself look really professional.
We have lots of snacks, chocolates, fruits…you name it. You have to eat through the day. And you have to drink a lot water.
My other thing that we love to do on filming day is we have a bit of a countdown going. We get a giant Post-it note, and at the end of each video, we write it down on our checklist. We keep up with what we’ve filmed, and we know we’re one step further towards completing our run sheet for the day.
The best thing about this is once I finished these videos, there’s not much more I do after that. This is my big work day.
So at the end of filming day, all of the video and audio content will go on to a hard drive. I then send this to an editor who is edits each of the lovely videos, adds the titles, puts a logo at the beginning, and inserts some calls-to-action on it. Then they export them all to Dropbox for me.
Once I get the videos back from the editor, Michelle, who is our wonderful General Manager here at Studio Expansion, she’ll use Rev.com to get them all transcribed.
Rev.com is a fantastic transcription service which costs just about a dollar a minute. And they’ll get back to you within like less than 24 hours. So that way, you have the transcript of the video to add into your blog post.
Once the videos are sent to you, all that’s left is to get them uploaded and up to the website or on to social media, wherever you like.
I want to really encourage you to start using video more in your studio. The way you can connect and position yourselves as that incredible prolific and knowledgeable educator is magnificent.
By the way, if you’re nervous about being on video, often it’s a great idea to interview some of your students. It might make you a bit more relaxed. You can sit down with one of your students and just ask them some questions about what they’re seeking to achieve and what they’re wanting to do. That’s a wonderful way for you again, bringing that human element to the studio to help give people more of a reason to choose your studio.
Getting more sophisticated in your marketing is so important in this day and age. Ten years ago, we wouldn’t have had this conversation. But now, video marketing is an essential part of any studio owner’s strategy when it comes to the studio marketing. And that’s what we’re passionate about sharing with you in Studio Evolution.
Studio Evolution is about helping to give you the most cutting-edge studio marketing strategies but making them easy and accessible. And one thing we really love to do is to help you automate and schedule and then batch out, a whole year worth of marketing in your studio so that you don’t have to do it at all.
Even in the last six months, we are so proud that so many of our clients got twelve months’ worth of marketing completely automated. Wouldn’t that be the most heavenly, heavenly thing for you?
I love my filming days. There’s nothing better than just getting it done and being able to share what you’re passionate about with your community. I want to encourage you to give video a try because truly, it’s so powerful to help you connect on another level that you’ve never been able to before.
ALL my best,
Chantelle
