Nowadays, video content is a great asset for brands to better present their product and reach their customers. On one hand, this format has great potential when it comes to describing your product in more detail as visual elements better convey a clear explanation. In fact, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when reading it in text.
Moreover, videos can have a great return on investment : you can develop them for a reduced cost and their use can go a long way as it is the case for explainer videos for example. 87% of video marketers are satisfied with the ROI of their video marketing efforts on social media whereas 93% of marketers who use video say that it’s an important part of their marketing strategy.
Finally, video content has plenty of potential uses and it is quite easy to find a method to fit video with your company’s marketing strategy. Besides publishing your videos on Youtube, most social media platforms enable you to post video content to quickly grasp your audience : consumers find that videos are eye-catching !
Today 72% of customers said they would rather learn about a product or service by way of video. In fact, 84% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video
With all of this being said, you might be considering including video content in your Sales Collateral array. What if we told you that you could easily create such content on Microsoft PowerPoint, a tool you are probably familiar with ?
Below our 4 steps process to create video content directly on PowerPoint.
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Step 1 : Create your slides
The very first step is to create your PowerPoint slides. You should proceed just like you do when you are designing a PowerPoint presentation, as it will help structure your video with title, body and summary slides.
When working with video content, less is more. There is no need to go all out with your slides and saturate them with details. Usually, a single image or couloured background with a bold text can go a long way. Here are three aspects you should consider when you start designing your slides :
- Add text : Use your brand’s font and add element such as a title, a subtitle or a key message
- Add images : Think about adding a background image to better frame your slide
- Add layer elements : You can play around with shapes and transparency to create a sense of depth in your slides.
Step 2 : Add animations
Once you have your slides, it is time to animate the elements that compose it. You are most likely already familiar with this type of feature and already know how to add animations to your slides. But; just in case you are not, here is how to animate your elements :
- Go to the Animation ribbon, you can add an entrance animation to the essential elements on your slides ( you can throw in a zoom effect for example !).
- Open the Animation Pane, here is where you can modify the transitions for your animation. Set your first animation to “Start with Previous” so your animation starts as soon as the slide is visible. For the rest of the elements, set the animation to “Start after previous”.
- Adjust the delay and duration of your animations to create the rhythm you prefer in your video.
- To review your animations and the final result you can either use the presenter view or the animation pane.
Step 3 : Insert video & audio
I know, this article is all about creating a video but do not be so quick to judge ! You can definitely videos that you already have (such as an animated logo for example or a screen record for example !) and insert them into your PowerPoint and therefore into your video.
To insert an existing video :
- Go the the “Insert” tab, click on Media and select Video on my PC;
- Once your video is in your presentation, you can edit it under playback. Here you can trim your video, fade in and out, insert captions or adjust volume for example.
- Finally under playback go to video options and change the start option to “Automatically”. This will play the video as soon as the slide is visible
In the same way, you can add audio files to your video. Whether it is a voice over or background music, audio will take your video to the next level.
To insert audio :
- Go to insert, click on Media and select Audio on my PC
- Navigate to Playback and adjust and trim the audio in the same way you did for the video
- In the Audio Options, change the start option to “Automatically” and select “Play Across Slides” to apply the music/voice over across all your slides.
Step 4 : Review & Export
Once your slides are up to your standards, it is time to review and export your video !
To review & export your video :
- Go to the File tab, select Export and navigate the Create video menu. Here, you can preview the timings and adjust the default time spent on each slide.
- Determine the video resolution, click on “Create video” and save as .wmv or .mp4.