You can have as detailed a plan as you like though and it won’t be successful if you don’t have amazing videos to back it up. This is really what success on YouTube is (of course) all about – delivering quality entertainment or information in a way that people will find engaging and that looks high quality.

Making your videos look premium in terms of the production value is crucial right from the offset. Not only will this help to make your videos instantly much more successful and far more likely to get watched, shared and liked – but it will also help you to boost the reputation of your brand.

Think of these videos like ambassadors representing your business: are you proud to associate yourself with them? Do they do a good job of showing what your company is capable of at its best? If not, then look into ways that you can start improving the production values.

Creating a Professional Looking Video Without a Camera

If you want to make a highly professional looking vlog or documentary style video – even an advert – then chances are that you’re going to need a high quality HD camera, a good eye for composing your shots, great editing software etc. In other words, this is no mean feat and will likely involve a fair amount of skill and investment (we’ll get to this in a moment).

The good news though, is that if you’re making a video that you hope to use on a landing page, or that you just want to explain what your business is about, you actually don’t have to set foot in front of the camera. In fact, even if you want to make some types of vlog, you don’t necessarily need to step in front of the camera.

If you cast your mind back to the last time you were on a landing page that was trying to sell an e-book or a similar product, you may recall that it probably used a video that was essentially just a man or a woman reading out a script explaining how they learned the ‘one secret trick to great abs’.

Likewise, if you’ve visited a small company’s home page, you may have seen a video that used a whiteboard animation, or perhaps a cartoon with a voiceover. Some informational videos on YouTube talking you through how to use a computer only show what’s happening on the screen with no shot of the person narrating and some entertainment vlogs are a combination of images, animations and people talking.

A good example of the latter is Mr. Sunday Movies. Mr. Sunday Movies has an entertaining YouTube channel where he reviews films and talks about news, rumors, gossip and facts revolving around the industry. His videos are highly popular but you never actually see him – only still images that he’s found online that highlight the points he’s making, often to comic effect.

Likewise, another good example is the excellent ‘ASAP Science’. This channel explains everything from the effect drugs have on the brain, to the incredible communication abilities of plants. Throughout it all, you again never see any footage from a camera – only cartoons and sketches that back up and illustrate the points being made.

So in other words, if you’re unconfident about how you’re going to go about creating your video, you don’t have to make something so ambitious – just record the audio and then find something else you can use to hold your viewers’ attentions.

Your options then are:

Podcast Video

Some videos on YouTube are nothing more than podcasts with a single still image showing. This isn’t particularly effective and you’ll struggle to make such a video go viral but if you’re genuinely hilarious or fascinating and the title is gripping enough, you can still generate something of a following.

Slideshows

Better is to use a slideshow of images that you can use to illustrate your points either for additional explanation or for comic relief. Either way, this is actually one of the very easiest types of content to make because you likely already have all the necessary software on your computer. If you have PowerPoint, then all you need to do is save your slideshow as an MPG and record some audio over the top and you have a video ready-made!

Whiteboard Animations

Whiteboard animations feature people drawing on a whiteboard in an animated form while you narrate. A similar option is to have some kind of animation with simple illustrations. This is surprisingly easy to make, you just need the right software or the right outsourcing company. Look on Fiverr and you’ll find there are plenty of ‘gigs’ available from users willing to make whiteboard animations for simple scripts for just $5.

Screencap

Screen capture software like ‘Screen Recorder’ allows you to record whatever you’re seeing on your computer screen which is perfect if you want to make a video talking people through the process of installing X software, or making their own Android app. This is also very useful if you’re selling software or promoting your website and want to demo it on the screen.