Get a head start with a great headline

17.3.22

So, you’ve written your article. It’s thrilling. Maybe even ground-breaking. But without a great title to represent it, people are far less likely to read it.

So, how can you write a great headline that engages readers right from the start?

Leave headlines until last

Generally speaking, ignoring the fact you have to do something is a pretty strange way of getting it done. But instead of stressing about your catchy title from the beginning, start by simply noting a short topic sentence (sometimes called a ‘working title’) at the top of your piece. This is designed to help you, not engage your readers. Then, use it as a reminder of what you’re trying to achieve through the piece you’re writing.

For example, for this blog, my working title was ‘how to create a title that will grab their attention’. It’s a simple reminder of what this blog needs to say, which you can then focus on improving once you’ve finished the main body of the piece.

Grab some friends

It’s time to call in the reinforcements and have a collective thought shower. A useful way to go about it is to discuss the piece and have a think about key words; then throw about ideas, create a mind-map, doodle on your notepad, write a list, whatever works for you.

The aim of the game is to get as many catchy phrases and great words jotted down as possible. Best case scenario, you come out of the meeting with a catchy title. But more often than not, you’ve got plenty of material to work with to create one.

Keep it real

There are some practical considerations to consider before writing your headline. The first is to be accurate and keep it realistic. Respect your readers. If you lie to them or mislead them in the title, you’ll lose their trust.

Keep it short

• Concise and clear is important. Generally, six and eight words generates the best click-through.
• Use strong language.
• Include numbers and lists where possible.
• Try interesting adjectives.
• If you can, use a good pun.
• Try a little hyperbole (but remember not to stray from the truth).
• Use your title to solve a problem – i.e. ‘How to manage business accounts’.

Know your audience

You need to know what is likely to be compelling to your readers.

If you don’t intuitively know your audience, there are ways to get an insight. Google Analytics can reveal your best-performing pages and outline what your readers like. You can also track onsite queries and use Google AdWords Keywords to find out what terms are popular.

Whatever audience you’re trying to capture, find out what matters to them, and shape your title (and your writing) around that. It makes you part of their group, and many of us can’t resist an in-joke, so it’s a great way to get people clicking.

But be careful. You can easily get into a black hole of trying to make a bunch of keywords work as a title, and this can end up distracting from the flow of your writing. If you’ve got a catchy title, that follows the tips I’ve outlined above, don’t worry too much about trying to wrap it around a keyword generator.

Here at asabell, we specialise in creating content for our clients that captivates audiences and generates conversions. If you’d like to find out how we could you with your next B2B marketing campaign, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Marketing will redefine retail in 2022

Retail, logistics and consumer goods have had to throw out the rulebook over the past few years. As the business landscape shifts yet again, let’s take a look at the pressures shaping the industry – and why it’s time to talk about successes.

A new marketplace for the 20s

Emerging from the worst of the pandemic, retail, logistics and consumer goods had high hopes for 2021. But although a successful vaccine rollout allowed high streets to reopen, shoppers failed to flock back to traditional bricks and mortar retail. Instead, the boom in online ordering continued, and 36.3% of total UK retail sales in 2021 were digital – up from 21.8% in 2020.

This change in consumer behaviour was magnified in October 2021 when UK stock levels reached their lowest since records began. Widespread concern around product availability and fulfilment meant many Black Friday campaigns were as much about offering fast and reliable shipping as deals and discounts. And consumer behaviour continues to evolve, increasingly moving towards more sustainable choices, with environmental interests at an all-time high.

These pressures continue to shape the industry in 2022, so, if you work in retail or logistics, how can you turn them into opportunities?

What’s your new year’s resolution?

With the marketplace changed forever, organisations are exploring new approaches – reviewing their operations and looking for ways to safeguard supply chains, create more sustainable operations and meet changing customer expectations head on.

Maybe you’re looking at:

• Reducing your carbon footprint, increasing transparency across your supply chain, and being more economical with raw materials.
• Refining your logistics operation to support a robust supply chain and keep customers happy by delivering on time, every time.
• Accelerating your digital transformation, by adopting new innovations and establishing your reputation at the forefront of the industry.

Redefining your brand

Whatever your strategies for 2022, it’s vital to share your breakthroughs and successes. More than ever, your organisation needs to demonstrate to clients that you’re innovative, sustainable, robust and reliable. And working with the right B2B marketing agency can help you achieve that.

Keep an eye out for our whitepaper ‘It’s time to redefine’, to find out more about the challenges retail, logistics and consumer goods are facing. And don’t hesitate to get in touch to find out more about how we can help your organisation put its best foot forward into 2022.

What’s going to power your B2B marketing in 2022

As another year draws to a close, we’ve taken a hard look at the direction B2B marketing is taking and have chosen our big bets for 2022.

So what tools, strategies and behaviours are we likely to see more of in the coming year?

Make way for virtual events

The pandemic closed many physical spaces and brought professional networking and conference events to a halt. But organisations who were innovative enough to pivot to virtual platforms and host webinars were able to keep scheduled events up and running to reach even greater audiences than before. As a result, the global webinar market is now estimated to reach 800 million by 2023, up 253 million from 2015. The benefits are undeniable – virtual events are cost effective, more accessible to a wider audience and much of the content from discussions or presentations can be easily repurposed to maximise your ROI.

In case you missed it, take a look at our guide from this year on how to get the most out of your webinar strategy.

Step up your marketing automation

As automation steadily infiltrates every aspect of our lives, it’s no surprise it’s becoming more commonplace in B2B marketing. Not only can it reduce time spent on repetitive tasks and allow more focus on strategy, but tightly scheduling interactions and output across your email, social media and webpage will significantly boost lead nurturing, while unlocking powerful insights to analyse impact. Right now, there’s a whole range of automation tools available on the market to assist with scheduling, lead management, segmentation, multi-channel campaigns and even page visitor tracking.

Move into neuromarketing

95% of buyer decisions are made by the sub-conscious mind, so how can we tap into it?

Long applied in B2C, neuromarketing is the application of neuroscience to marketing strategies to study how human brains respond to promotional materials and branded content. In 2022, we expect more B2B organisations to apply cognitive research and psychology to refine their targeting, content strategy and even granular details like page layouts and optimal image sizing. In time, growing understanding around key decision-makers’ desires, intentions and needs will support B2B organisations to generate more meaningful conversions.

Boost your video content

It’s certainly nothing new, but year-on-year video marketing content has been consistently on the rise. We now watch an average of 16 hours of online video per week, which is a 52% increase from just two years ago. So, whether it’s incorporating video into blog posts, articles and landing pages or sending out video promotion as part of your email campaigns – experimenting with visual storytelling is more likely to yield results. And now more than ever, as 91% of marketers feel video is more important for brands in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Add a personal touch

These days, most customers expect personalised experiences to some degree. So, to meet growing demands, organisations will need to increase the sophistication of their personalisation to show they understand each customer and specific industry at every possible opportunity. Most importantly, in an omnichannel world, this recognition of individual identity and preference should remain consistent across every platform a customer uses to interact with your brand. It’s worth it – as a recent study showed 80% of organisations see increased sales once they implement more personalisation into their brand experience.

Stand out with interactive content

Distinguishing your content amongst the sea of campaigns out there today isn’t easy. But one sure-fire way to differentiate yourself from the rest is creating standout interactive experiences that engage audiences directly. Compared to static content, 93% of organisations agree that interactive content is more engaging. So whether it’s including questionnaires, surveys, eBooks or guides with links and videos, or interactive infographics – we expect to see a continued rise in organisations incorporating these strategies into their campaigns.

Be human in an increasingly digital world

As B2B marketeers continue to innovate and experiment into 2022, our most important prediction for success is that organisations who get the edge over their competitors will be the ones that retain their human touch. Embracing changing customer behaviours, new trends and technologies is critical for survival, but technology will never be able to compensate for human intuition and hard-earned longstanding experience.

Creating meaningful touchpoints and personal connections, and conveying a clear sense of personality to your customers is the best way to create standout experiences that will propel your organisation into a successful future.

If you’d like to find out how we can help with your campaign strategy in 2022, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

How to repurpose your content

Repurposing is a resourceful and cost-effective way to generate more value and return from B2B content. It can also help maximise potential reach, improve quality and refine audience targeting. And, even diversify your output to capture new audiences.

But, while it can be tempting to try and squeeze the maximum value out of every single piece of content, it’s also vital to know when you’re stretching something too far. Overuse of materials and unnecessary repetition will undermine your credibility or make it seem like you’re short of original ideas.

Here are four key considerations for knowing when it’s right to repurpose:

1. To resurrect or not to resurrect?

It’s often said some things are best left to rest. But certain content can be given a whole new lease of life with a simple reshare or a light refresh. Don’t be afraid to repost or share old material if it’s theme or topic has resurfaced or is just as relevant now. If done right, it will only reinforce your position as forward thinking or ahead of the curve. However, make sure you remove any outdated or time specific references wherever possible.

2. Will it transform into other formats?

Some content has valuable potential to be transformed into other formats. An engaging webinar should offer plenty of quotable material for snippets or short clips. And, if you can get hold of the transcript, it can also provide the basis for a new blog post. Strong whitepapers should have enough content in them to craft multiple blog posts. Similarly, old blog posts can even be turned into short guides.

Plus, it’s always worthwhile to think about what would translate well visually. For a start, eye-opening stats and astounding data can be extracted for infographics. These are just a few starting points, but there’s a whole range of possibilities to explore and experiment with.

3. Will it repurpose for social media?

Social media is a great tool for repurposing marketing materials, as almost everything has potential on social media if the content is of good quality. For example, intriguing stats and thought provoking quotes from whitepapers can be used as social posts that capture people’s attention. Great phrases from articles or blog posts will draw people in and, if they’re paired well with powerful imagery, they can be used in slideshows, animations, or videos. The same applies if poignant questions or sound bites stand out during webinars, simply posting them on social media can drive engagement and interaction with your followers and stimulate fresh discussion.

4. Most importantly, is it evergreen?

The final and most important point is to recognise how some content is ‘evergreen’ and has greater repurposing potential. While there’ll always be a place for repurposed content in your campaigns, you’ll get far more value in the longer term if you plan your strategies with future opportunities in mind and create content to stand the test of time.

We all know how current trends and terminology can quickly go out of fashion, so try to gauge whether you think something will last. If you always work with a longer term view in mind, then you’ll always have something that’s relevant or valuable, and can easily be repurposed in a short space of time.

Get repurposing

On the whole, repurposing isn’t a shameful secret, almost all marketeers are at it. But the key is to understand when it’s the right time and when it’s definitely not.

Here at asabell we have extensive experience in helping clients shape their marketing strategy, feel free to get in touch if you’d like to find out how we can help you.

Understanding thought leadership

B2B stands for ‘business-to-business’ and B2C stands for ‘business-to-consumer’. While these two acronyms might seem fairly self-explanatory, it’s surprising how often people fail to recognise some of the main distinctions.

So, what are the key differences that set these two indispensable forms of marketing apart?

Audience

B2C is directed solely at the end user, therefore it speaks directly to an individual. B2B usually speaks to buyers, decision makers or C-level executives on behalf of their entire business, team, or department. In this way, the buying process for B2C is generally a lot faster, impulsive and requires less factors for consideration. In comparison, the B2B audience will often be thinking about the longer term benefit to their organisation and will have a wider range of practical considerations before conversion.

Level of detail

Quick purchasing decisions, fast transactions and a close focus on individual user experience is much more suited to the realm of B2C. Whereas, B2B audiences will often expect something more thorough, detailed and in depth, as they’ll need to undertake extensive research to build a business case for purchases. Consumer focussed content is often simple and short to convey key messages quickly. In comparison, a business orientated audience like to have evidence of credibility and expertise to convince them you know what you’re talking about and that you can provide authentic insight and evidence. This might mean referencing more stats and data, consulting subject matter experts, and using the relevant specialist terminology.

Fact: 90% of B2B customers visit 2-7 sites before they make any purchases.

Relationship

There’s a distinct difference between the type of relationship B2B and B2C will have with their content. On one hand, B2B is far more concerned with building a longer term relationship, on the other B2C is far more persuasive and aims to create a faster acting impression. In B2B, building a trusted and reliable reputation can be done through thought leadership strategies and content which highlights dedication to your industry. Your B2B audience will want to feel you understand their work and professional needs by offering valuable solutions. B2C buyers might be more inclined to feel an emotional connection or feel that you’re speaking to their sense of personal identity.

Types of content

As with many things, the content you might wish to deploy can vary considerably between these two marketing strategies.

B2B often relies on more informative and information driven resources:

• Whitepapers
• eGuides
• Expert blog posts
• Case studies
• Infographics
• Newsletters
• Webinars
• More B2B focused social media platforms such as LinkedIn/Twitter

Comparatively, for B2C you may want to use:

• Short videos or animations
• Rich media such as pictures/images/videos
• Brochures
• Anecdotal articles or light-hearted blog posts
• User-generated content
• More B2B focused social media platforms such as Facebook/Instagram/Twitter

Fact: In a small study of 1,000 adults in the UK, it was found that consumers are more likely to share an online video than they are a text article.

Tone of voice

When it comes to tone of voice, there’s some notable differences between B2B and B2C. As a general rule, individual consumers are certainly more emotionally driven, therefore you can be far more emotive, persuasive, and rhetorical with your approach to them. B2B audiences will largely interact with content as part of, or as an extension of their work, so it’s critical to retain some level of professionalism and formality. While both will benefit from a conversational and approachable tone, B2C certainly has more opportunity to push the boundaries of informality, with generally more room for humour and hyperbole.

Refine your strategy…

While there may be some crossover between the two, it’s undeniable that understanding the differences is essential if you’re going to win over your audience and deliver successful returns.

Interested in how you can cultivate your own B2B marketing strategy?

Here at asabell, we specialise in B2B and have helped a long list of clients establish themselves as a unique voice in their industry. So, with our longstanding experience and expertise in this area, we’re more than equipped to help you on your way.

If you’d like to find out about some of the solutions we’re able to offer, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Understanding thought leadership

Thought leadership establishes your brand or organisation’s reputation at the forefront of its field, as an experienced leader and unique thinker with plenty to offer. It shows your committed to progression in your industry and solving the emerging challenges of your peers and customers. Right on the pulse, you always keep up to date with the most relevant information and are always on top of exactly what’s happening around you.

58% of respondents read one or more hours of thought leadership per week. But, cementing your influence as a trustworthy source of ideas and solutions isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes time, plenty of experience, and the ability to convincingly convert your audience over to your point of view, plus a carefully executed and well considered content strategy.

So, what are the key considerations when creating effective and convincing thought leadership?

1. It’s not about sales
   It’s key to understand that thought leadership is not directly about sales. Instead, it’s about establishing a pioneering reputation in your field, because if you’re successful in achieving that, then you’ll naturally be able to generate a wealthy stream of new customer conversations. While any company worth its salt is always looking to find new leads and customers, it’s vital any content that’s part of your thought leadership strategy avoids a directly ‘salesy’ or self-promotional tone.
   
   First and foremost, thought leaders should always be committed to the growth of their specific industry and exploring emerging trends. Any content lacking depth or revealing an ulterior motive will undermine your credibility and reputation. Remember you’re promoting new ideas here, not sales.

2. It’s built on experience and expertise
   As a reliable oracle of information, your content needs to be consistently up to date with the current challenges of the industry you’re in. If your readers are going to believe what you’re saying, they’ll need to be able to relate. Wherever possible, talk about real life pain points, situations and examples from your personal experience, as the more you can ground in reality, the more convincing and trusted your voice will be.
   
   One sure fire way to establish expertise is to bring your subject matter experts onboard and mine their impressive and extensive well of knowledge but remember to keep it engaging.

3. It’s authentic and unique
   Illustrating your leadership status is also about offering powerful and original ideas, changing the way your audience thinks about a subject and inspiring them to follow. In this way, thought leadership isn’t about joining the background noise, it’s about adding something meaningful and worthwhile to the wider conversation of your industry. You need to stand out as a distinctive voice.
   
4. It must be insightful or worthy of your readers’ time
   Ultimately, you need to offer valuable insight to make it worthy of your readers’ time. Try to think carefully about the challenges you’re facing in your line of work. If you’re experiencing it, then it’s very likely that others are also struggling with the same or similar challenges.
   
   Do you have an idea or solution to resolve some of their problems? Or a unique and thought provoking experience to contribute? Remember, if you’re repeating the sentiment of something else you’ve read, then you need to ask yourself, am I a leader or a follower?

Become a leader

We have plenty of experience with helping our clients to build their reputation as thought leaders in their industry. If you’d like to find out how we could help you with your unique thought leadership strategy, please get in contact.

How to create ‘user-focused’ content in 5 steps

Ensuring that your content is relevant and useful for your user is fundamental in content marketing and the mantra of most experienced content creators. And it’s become more important than ever. We now live in a hyper-connected digital age where almost anyone can become a writer and publisher. Content is created and consumed faster than ever before and your audience is likely jaded from all the spam, adverts and irrelevant or badly produced content that they encounter on a daily basis. Users are becoming increasingly picky about what content grabs and holds their attention, so it’s crucial that you cut through the noise when it comes to your own channels.

We’ve outlined 5 steps to help you ensure your content is relevant to your audience:

1. Establish a clear purpose

You’d be surprised how often this simple but important point is ignored. If you can’t justify the point of what you’re doing, or if the reasoning behind creating a piece of content is just because ‘that’s what we should do’, then that’s not good enough. Does your audience need it? Will they use it? Do they want it? Is it relevant? Always consider why you are creating this content and how it benefits your audience.

2. Identify your target audience

Understanding your audience is critical to getting the returns you deserve, so drill down into the granular detail about who they might be. What are their characteristics? Interests? Profession? Which channels do they use? All these criteria will help build an idea of who you should be aiming your content at and how to tailor it for them.

3. Determine your tone of voice (TOV)

When it comes to copy, clarity is always key – but don’t forget to infuse a sense of identity and individuality into your TOV and keep it consistent. Injecting character into your content is a powerful way to be memorable and drive connection, trust and, ultimately, conversions. Consider the type of person you’re targeting and use appropriate language – for example, being overly informal or humorous isn’t going to resonate with a largely professional audience.

4. Find your user needs and map your user journey

Your users have needs. Otherwise, why would they want to access your content? Perhaps it’s to solve a problem, maybe they’re seeking advice, they may want to learn, keep updated with current trends in their industry, or they may just want some enjoyment. Make sure to map out your user journey, starting with their need, how your content fills that purpose and, finally, the action you want them to take.

5. Decide on your call to action (CTA)

Don’t miss this valuable, and often final, opportunity for conversion success. Make sure your CTA is clear, visible and concise. And, for readers with shorter attention spans, consider having mini-CTAs placed at different points of your article or content – don’t always leave them to the end.

At asabell we have a team of highly skilled copywriters who can help with your projects, big and small. If you’d like to find out more about how we could help you, please get in touch.

Top tips for self-filming: part three

When it comes to what makes the cut, small details can make all the difference. There’s often a fine line between what separates amateur video footage from the work of a professional.

If you’ve been following our self-filming top tips so far then you should have some of the fundamentals in place, but now it’s time to start thinking about adding in the game-changing final touches:

7. Sound check, 1, 2, 3
   It doesn’t matter how great your footage looks if your sound quality is terrible. It’s worth taking a moment to listen carefully to the sound in the space around you. Take into consideration any potential interruptions in the immediate surroundings, whether that’s traffic, air conditioning or passers-by. Unless you’re looking for a bustling atmosphere and background noise, generally the quieter, the better. Selecting the acoustics of your chosen space is important because sound can bounce around in flat and open plan spaces and make your recordings unpleasant or difficult to hear. Think about what you can do to absorb the sound, if necessary, and use soft materials like curtains and carpets to deaden the noise.
   
   Adding a decent microphone is a great way to immediately improve your sound quality, especially when you want to move the camera further away. For those on a budget, it’s fortunate there’s now a wide range of affordable, fairly high-quality microphones that can be plugged into smartphones. These come with functions that can reduce wind noise, record better bass tones, and make your sound fuller.

8. Lighten things up a bit
   Lighting is an incredibly complex and skillful art. But there are some basic principles you can apply straight away. The first is making the most of the free-to-use, readily available natural light. Natural light is your friend when filming, so think about where it’s coming from to illuminate your shot. If you’re sat with a window behind you, your face will be dark, so a quick fix would be to adjust your positioning so that the light is shining on you at a 45° angle. This will not only fill your face with light, but give some interesting shapes and shadows to your other side.
   
   As a general rule, the softer the light, the more flattering it will be. It’s good practice to let nature fill the ambient space with natural light, and then you can add an artificial light or two to enhance your face and figure and make it stand out on film. LED lights are lightweight, use very little power, and are often cheap. Female vloggers often favour a ring or ‘beauty light’ for an even fill of light around the camera. Try experimenting to get a good balance.

9. Three-point lighting
   Three-point lighting is the basis of all professional photo and video shoots, so it’s good to have it in the back of your mind while shooting.

• Having your main lighting source at 45° to the camera is called a ‘Key Light’ (Point 1), and it should always be the brightest.
• After this, if you don’t want to have moody shadows or shapes, you’ll need to balance it with a ‘Fill Light’ (Point 2). This could be another diffused light source at half the intensity of the Key or even just a reflective surface, softening the shadows and bouncing light back onto the subject.
• Finally, the most effective lighting tool is your ‘Back Light’, which outlines the back of a person. By highlighting their shoulders and hair, you can really make them stand out against the background.

We hope our tips for self-filming have been useful and you start to notice the difference in your videos.

If you’ve found this series useful but would like extra help in devising, shooting, and editing your videos, then get in touch to find out about the services we offer with our partner Fine Young Films.

Top tips for self-filming: part two

So, you’ve followed the basics and know how to line up your shots, what kind of background you want to use, and how to avoid entry level pitfalls. But what about starting to incorporate some more advanced techniques and variation into your video recordings?

Part two of our blog post series explores some handy ‘next-steps’ to take your filming to the next level:

4. Keep your composure
   With the amount of Zoom meetings happening these days, you’ve probably noticed a lot of poorly composed, badly framed shots. But there are a couple of really easy ways you can instantly improve the quality of your framing:

• In general, avoid low angles. It might take a bit more effort to raise your camera but it’s worth doing. The camera should aim to meet your eye level, or just slightly above if you want a more flattering angle. Try not to have more than a few inches of space above your head, as tilting the camera up too far can look clumsy and careless.
• Stick to the ‘rule of thirds’. Split the frame up into three sections horizontally and vertically, so that there are nine squares in total. Use the bottom line of the top section as a resting point for your eyes and place any objects of interest where the lines intersect. This golden rule has been a valuable, trusted tool for filmmakers and photographers for many years, so never underestimate how valuable it can be for creating the most visually engaging shots.

5. Up close and personal
   Close-ups can add considerable character to your footage. Subliminally, it tells the audience the information in the current sequence is more important, so they literally have to come in for a closer listen. If you watch carefully, many film scenes start wide and move closer as the drama increases. So, try starting your first shot from head to waist (a mid-shot) and then move in closely, so it’s just head and shoulders (a headshot). Make sure the camera is raised up to your eye level so that you don’t zoom into your chest. In the final edit, you’ll then have far more choices for shots which will bring your finished film to life.
   
6. Making the final cutaway
   There’s an age-old phrase in filmmaking that goes as follows, ‘don’t just say it – show it’. No matter what your video is about, if it’s just footage of you talking, it will eventually become boring. Show the audience what you’re talking about by using cutaway shots to breathe life into your film. Literally, ‘cutting away’ from the person talking to another shot illustrates what they’re saying, plus makes a video visually interesting. They’re also a helpful way of moving between different dialogue takes, as the overlaid image will distract from any audio editing. Most importantly, make sure you match any cutaways with the rest of your video. For example, if your talking shot is static, make sure your cutaways are nicely composed and still too to contribute to the overall feel.

Start testing these out

Getting some of these techniques right can take a bit of practice but overtime you’ll find they add new layers of quality to your films. Look out for the next part of our blog post series for more advanced production tips to help you improve your footage even further.

Top tips for self-filming: part one

In this day and age, everything is mobile, on the move, and instantaneous, and making videos is no exception. Even some of the most professional videographers are now reliant on their smart phones, for easy access to filming, editing, and publishing in minutes. And, while many will argue that you can never replace the real thing, the footage and quality that can be achieved these days on a mobile phone is not only impressive, it’s also becoming harder and harder to tell the difference.

The past 18 months have forced more people than ever to start figuring things out for themselves, as lockdown inevitably made it impossible to pull together a crew and a professional set-up. No doubt, many will have noticed the quality they’re capable of capturing on their own, and it’s more than likely that self-shot footage will continue post-pandemic.

So, it’s really quite simple… the better the footage, the better the film and, when you’re shooting your own footage on your own device, the quality of your output is solely your responsibility.

Along with our partner, Fine Young Films, our three-part blog post series will provide you with our top tips to getting the most out of recording yourself on your own camera, starting with the basics of camera support:

1. Supporting yourself
   Your friends and family’s handheld vlogs can be fun to watch, funny and even endearing but in a professional context, the level of quality won’t be up to scratch. First of all, get rid of that handheld look. Get your phone mounted onto a tripod, for a straight, solid and more professional shot. Tripods don’t have to be big or expensive, you can even improvise with a pile of books – but always make sure your camera stays secure.
   
   Next, start to think about keeping your shot level. Look out for straight lines and verticals in your shot which will help indicate whether you’re off-balance, such as door frames or shelves. If necessary, take a step back from the tripod and get a better sense of the perspective, wide frame, and scene. And, for the final touch, adjust your camera so that it sits just above eye level, ever so slightly looking down to capture a nice, flattering angle.

2. Choosing the right background
   Your background can reveal a lot about you so it’s critical to get it right. Where you choose to film is your ‘set’, so choose wisely. Your background could be bold and colourful, or muted and stylish, but wherever you pick the focus still needs to be on you. So, keep it plain, light yourself up to stand out, and don’t get too close to your backdrop. If you decide to use a real environment, make sure it’s tidy and create depth by standing into the space and not up against a wall.
   
   Adding interesting elements in the background can be a powerful tool, for example a light or a plant can break up the space, or objects that do some of the storytelling or that can reflect your personality. Keep an eye on your framing as well, last thing you want to notice once you’ve posted your video is a plant growing out of your ear.

3. Before you hit ‘record’
   Here are a couple of tips and tricks to use before you hit the big red button:

• to avoid frustrating interruptions, make sure to turn flight mode on
• film in landscape instead of portrait to instantly make your footage look more professional
• check for last minute adjustments by using the front camera on your phone to check your framing
• make sure you’re filming in video mode, not photo mode, as this will crop your footage and affect your overall framing
• test the record function, play it back, and make sure everything’s looking and sounding OK, before you get going properly.

Get filming

No matter how simple, these tips and tricks will help you capture the best possible footage from your makeshift set-up. Keep an eye out for the next part of our self-filming blog post series and, if you’d like help editing your self-filmed videos, then get in touch.