To help you get the ball rolling—so you can dive in and make a YouTube video already!—we’ve rounded up 21 good YouTube video ideas to get you started. We’ve separated them out into three sections:

• YouTube Video Ideas for Beginners: Think of these as prompts for your very first videos.
• YouTube Video Ideas for Driving Sales: Looking to boost your business on YouTube? These ideas are a good place to start.
• Video Ideas for Growing Your YouTube Audience: Want more subscribers and more engagement? These ideas are for you.

If you’re just starting out, you may be wondering “what YouTube videos should I make first?” We think it’s a good idea to start with videos in two buckets—videos that introduce yourself and videos that answer questions that people are searching for on a regular basis.

Intro Video Ideas

We’ll start with video ideas for introducing yourself. But first: why is this important? You can use an intro video as a YouTube channel trailer to provide viewers with context about who you are, what you do, and what they can expect from your channel.

Additionally, on YouTube, people subscribe to channels because they are invested in the ongoing stories of the creators or businesses, so sharing your story is a must.

1. Channel Trailer for Non-Subscribers

When people who aren’t subscribed to your channel come through, a video explaining who you are and what your channel is all about can help get them to take the plunge and click that “Subscribe” button.

Speaking directly to the audience, as in this example from What’s Up Moms, is a great way to draw viewers in on YouTube specifically. But if you’re nervous about getting in front of the camera, don’t worry. We’ll share some ideas that don’t require you to put yourself in the spotlight.

2. About Us Video

If you’ve got a YouTube channel for your business, an About Us or explainer video that showcases what you do is a good video to start with. Like the channel trailer example above, this can also serve as an introduction to your business for potential customers that make their way to your channel. Be sure to incorporate the ways in which potential viewers may benefit from your product or service.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

3. Behind the Scenes

Let viewers get to know you by showing what goes on behind the scenes. This example, from educator and photographer Sue Bryce, gives viewers the opportunity to imagine what experience of booking a shoot with Sue would be like.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

4. Personal Story

Sharing your personal story—challenges you’ve overcome or journeys you’ve been on—can be another awesome way to connect with viewers and make them want to subscribe to you to get to know you even better.

Here’s an example from YouTuber ThisIsJessicaTorres. Jessica shares the story of how she learned to love herself and become body positive. The story, while difficult to tell, is incredibly authentic, relatable, and inspiring. Going outside of your comfort zone and sharing your struggles and how you overcame them offers a unique opportunity to inspire and connect with your viewers.

5. Team Culture or Values

This idea is similar to the behind-the-scenes video, but really focuses on showcasing the culture at your company or, if you’ve got a personal account, your family culture or values. This is yet another way to give viewers a glimpse into your life or business, who you are, and what you stand for.

For businesses, this can also be helpful when it comes to recruiting. Show potential job candidates what it would be like to work with you. Here’s an example.

Video Ideas for Discovery in Search Results

Once you’ve got a video introducing yourself created and uploaded, it’s time to start creating content for your YouTube channel. And, as you likely know, YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google, so a good place to start is with videos that answer questions that people are searching for regularly.

Here are some ideas for types of videos to try, complete with templates that you can customize to make your own.

6. Explainer Video

Explain a trend within your industry that people are searching for. For example, this video explains a plant that’s trending in the floral industry. What trends can you think of to explain in your own industry?

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

7. How-To Video or Tutorial

On YouTube, people are searching for how to do all kinds of things! Being there to show them how is an easy way to showcase your expertise and get discovered by potential customers or new subscribers.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

8. Answer to an FAQ

Share the answer to a frequently asked question in your domain. For instance, here’s a video that answers the question “how should I price my house?” that might be posted by a real estate agent. Make a list of the questions you hear the most about your industry or yourself and answer them in video form.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

9. Top 5 List

Sometimes there’s not just one answer to a question—there’s a whole list! And a top 5 list, top 10 list, or top-however-many-things-you’ve-got list is a nice format for sharing information on YouTube.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

10. Best Of Video or Favorites

A Best Of video is basically a list that compiles all of the best information on a specific topic. Sharing a video where you share the “Best Of” can help you stand out when there’s a sea of videos on a particular topic. Sharing this type of video also gives you the opportunity to give shoutouts to other YouTubers, which we’ll get into more later on in this post.

11. Recipe Video

Tasty-style recipe videos are all the rage and can be a fun addition to your YouTube channel if you’ve got a food-related business or channel.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

If it’s sales your after, we’ve compiled some YouTube video ideas for you. The videos in the sections above are mostly focused on creating videos that’ll make it more likely for you to get discovered by people that haven’t already heard of you.

These ideas, on the other hand, are designed to provide more information for potential customers that are searching for information about you, your business, or your products or services.

12. Product Video

It’s not uncommon for consumers to head over to YouTube to search for more information or reviews when making purchase decisions. Sharing a video on your channel that dives into details about a product is a good way to provide these potential customers with more information and help them decide to buy with you.

PRO TIP: Be sure to include your brand name in the title and description, along with keywords related to the product itself so you can catch people that are searching for you specifically, or simply for products like the one featured in your video.

13. Portfolio or Product Collection

To give a broad overview of your offerings to potential customers looking for you on YouTube, create a video that showcases your full collection of products or a new collection. A portfolio video is also a nice option for artists or craftsmen to show off their work.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

14. Customer Testimonials

85% of consumers turn to online reviews to determine whether a local business is reputable. Video testimonials are a great way to bring positive online reviews directly to your potential customers. Highlighting customer stories is a fantastic tool for building trust. Plus, seeing that other people have been successful with your business in the past will make new customers more likely to decide to do business with you in the future.

15. YouTube Ads

While the other ideas in this section are for videos designed to show up in the results when potential customers are searching for you, this idea is for reaching potential customers that aren’t searching for you on YouTube yet.

You can reach millions of viewers across YouTube with ads based on actions they’ve taken on your website or topics they’re searching for on YouTube. Check out our blog post on getting started with YouTube ads to learn more and check out our templates for YouTube ad videos.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

We’ve shared some YouTube video ideas for beginners and YouTube video ideas for driving sales. Now, we’ll share some ideas for videos you can make to grow your YouTube audience.

16: YouTube Collab

A YouTube collab is a collaboration between two or more YouTubers. Teaming up with other YouTubers in your industry or with similar audiences to your own can help you gain exposure.

A YouTube collab can take on a variety of forms. You could do a tutorial together, simply swap and create some content for each other’s channels, or give each other shoutouts in videos you create. In this example, one YouTuber has a guest appearance on another YouTuber’s show.

17. Q&A or AMA

A question and answer or ask me anything session offers an opportunity to engage with your subscribers and drive new people to your YouTube channel. Send out a message on social media or on email, if you’ve got an email list. Let people know you’re going to be doing a Q&A and ask them to submit questions.

18. Audience Participation

Ask your audience to participate by sharing something with you—a quote, a video, a photo, the answer to a question… anything goes! Then, create a video featuring what your audience shares. The benefit of this is that your featured audience members will be more likely to share your video with their friends, getting you in front of more potential subscribers.

19. Go Live

Go live on YouTube and share the details of the event with your friends, fans, followers, and customers outside of YouTube to let them know and drive more people to your channel. Here at Animoto we go live pretty regularly and stream to both YouTube and Facebook.

20. Regular Posts on Trends

We should note that one of the best ways to grow your audience on YouTube is to share regular content. Be consistent and offer value on a regular basis and people will subscribe to that value. If you need ideas, try vlogging or posting regular videos about trends or current events.

21. Ask your audience!

Last—but certainly not least—ask your audience what they’d like to see! This includes your audience on YouTube as well as off YouTube so you can draw new subscribers to your channel.

Have another idea for a YouTube video? We’d love to hear it! Share it with us in the comments below. Happy video making!

Question #1: Where is your audience located?

First things first, where are your customers located? Being able to target people right in the vicinity of your place of business is incredibly powerful. After all, if you have a brick and mortar store or offer an in-person service, it’s really only people that are nearby that will be able to take advantage of your services.

Check out the video below for three examples of local businesses that used Facebook ads, created with Animoto, to target within their local areas. Photographer Nikki Closser was able to book 3 new clients, for $5500 in sales, with a $250 targeted ad; Nohohon Tea achieved their highest sales day on record, targeting tea lovers within a 10-15 mile radius of their store; and Like a Local Tours saw a 3X increase in revenue.

If you have an ecommerce business, local targeting can still be effective. But instead of targeting an audience where you live, think about the locations where people are likely to live that will buy your product. Look at past sales records. Do many of your sales come from the same cities? Where do the bulk of people that are following you on Facebook live?

Not sure where to find this information? Go to your Facebook Page Insights and select “People.” You can sort to see not only where all of your followers live, but where your most engaged followers live too. You’ll also find age and gender information, which will come in handy when we get to some of the other questions in this post!

Question #2: How old are they?

Figured out where your target audience is located (be sure to take notes!)? The next step is to think about how old they are. You likely already know the average age of your customer or potential customer. But, if you don’t, using Facebook Insights, as we did above, can also be helpful.

The Facebook Ads Manager lets you get really specific with age or go broader. Selling a product that targets a very specific age group—think t-shirts that say something like “Woohoo! I’m 35!!!”? Then you can target only 35-year olds. Selling a product with a broader age range? Do a little research. For instance, the average age for getting engaged in the United states is in the late-20s. If you sell engagement rings, then you may want to narrow down your target age to 26-29-year olds in relationships to make sure you’re hitting the most relevant audience.

For some businesses, age may not matter too much. For instance, people of all ages may enjoy cooking. For these types of businesses, it’s fine to leave a broader age bracket and focus on other methods of targeting.

Question #3: Are they male or female?

Are your customers mostly male? Mostly female? Mostly both? You can target people that have identified as either of these genders through the Ads Manager. This may seem like an obvious question, but your target may actually be the opposite of what you think, depending on the goal of your campaign. So be sure to think about who the buyer will be. Will it be the person that is using your product or might it be someone that’s buying your product as a gift? Whichever you choose, be sure your ad includes the right messaging for the audience you’re targeting.

Question #4: What language do they speak?

When you check your Facebook insights, you may be surprised to find that a large portion of the people that are engaging with your content speak a different language. If this is the case, think about whether you want to invest in ads in different languages.

If you are targeting people in different languages, just be sure that all of the text in whatever video or image you’re sharing matches the language you’re targeting. Also, note that it’s helpful if whatever website you might link to for additional information is also in that language. Otherwise it can make for a pretty confusing experience and your message can get lost in translation (pun intended!).

Question #5: Do your customers fall into a specific demographic?

Now it’s time to start thinking more deeply about your customers’ demographics. In Facebook Ads Manager, you’ll find “Demographics” under “Detailed Targeting,” and it refers to everything from education to financial factors like income and net worth, whether or not they own a home, when they were born, when they were married, whether they’re in a relationship, their family status, politics, where they work and what they do at their job.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I wasn’t kidding when I said Facebook allows marketers to get incredibly granular with their targeting! That being said, it is important to note that if you get too granular it will cut down on your reach, which will adjust as you set up your ad in Ads Manager, as you can see in the image above.

So as you adjust your target audience, just be sure to keep an eye on your Estimated Daily Results. Super-targeted ads are great, but not when your target is so specific that it only encompasses a handful of potential viewers.

Question #6: What are they interested in?

You’ll also find “Interests” under “Detailed Targeting.” This is where you can specify an audience that is specific to your brand or product. Looking to target gamers? Fashionistas? Technophiles? Sports fans? Facebook makes it easy to narrow down by all sorts of interests.

You can also target your audience according to “Behaviors,” including purchase behaviors and intents.

Question #7: Where are they hanging out online?

Did you know that you could target ads according to type of device and platform? In Facebook Ads Manager under “Placements” you can choose where your ads will show up. Are your potential customers likely to be on Facebook? Instagram? Do you think they’re browsing on their mobile devices or on their computers? If you’re selling something exclusive to iOS or to Android you can even specify “Specific Mobile Devices & Operating Systems.”

If you’re targeting people on mobile devices, it’s important to think about the way your ad is structured. If people are watching on a small screen, you need to make sure any text is large and legible, and note that a square video ad will take up 78% more space on their device than a landscape one.  Brian Peters from Buffer dives into this in his article on Square vs. Landscape Video – $1.5K Worth of Experiments: Here’s How They Compare.

Question #8: Are you looking to reach new or existing customers?

Last but not least, think about whether you are looking to reach your current customers or new customers with your ad. You’ll likely be doing some of each with your Facebook advertising efforts. It’s easy to indicate this under “Connections.” Select “Add a connection type” and, under “Facebook Pages” you can indicate whether you’d like to target “People who like your page” or to “Exclude people who like your Page.”

You can also define a “Custom Audience,” based on an email list, to target or exclude folks that you know have purchased from you, or you can use the Facebook Pixel to target or exclude people that have visited your website.

Again, it’s important to keep your audience in mind when putting together the creative and messaging for your ad. If you’re targeting an audience that doesn’t know who you are or what your business is, you may have to explain a little more than you would if you were targeting an audience of people that are already customers or fans.

Have you used targeted advertising on Facebook already? How has it worked out for you? What targets have you found the most success with? Share your experience with us in the comments or join the conversation in the Animoto Social Video Marketing Community on Facebook.

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

This article has been updated. It was originally posted in January 2018.

Ready to make a video for your business but not sure where to start? Check out our list of 8 ideas for videos that can use to drive sales.

Ideas for driving sales with video

1. Explainer video

An explainer video is “a short video that explains your business in a way that’s easy to understand.”

Including one on your website can help you boost sales in a few ways. In addition to simply providing a digestible way for potential customers to stick around and learn more about what you do, the average consumer will spend 88% more time on a website if there’s a video on it. And the more time a potential customer spends with you, the more likely they are to buy.

Our Company Values video template can serve as a good starting point for creating a video that quickly explains what your business does—and how it serves the needs of your potential customers.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

2. Product Video

Did you know that having a video on product pages has been shown to positively impact conversion, revenue, and average order value? Show the ins and outs of your products in video form to give added value to your product pages, or to share on social media.

This example from Click n Curl shows how video can offer so much more than product shots alone. The video shows the product in action, giving potential customers a sense of how it works and what they can expect.

3. Product Story

In addition to showcasing how a product works, a video that tells the story behind a product can make the product more enticing to potential buyers. You can share behind-the-scenes of how a product was created or explain the history of how a product came to be.

This example tells the shareworthy history of pepperoni rolls and actually resulted in so much interest that the West Virginia bakery behind the video started shipping.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

4. Seasonal promotion

Seasonal holidays or events are a great time to drive sales with a special promotion. Whether it’s a discount or a special offer like free shipping or gift wrap, video can help you get the word out. Looking for promo ideas? Check out our blog post on ideas for holiday promotions.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

5. New product or feature launch

Get the word out about something new by sharing a video. Our New Launch Promo video template emphasizes the benefits of a new offering.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

6. Promo Video

You can also make a promo video to promote pretty much anything, from a sale to a specific product, to a service, or your business as a whole. Here’s an example of an event promo video, designed to drive RSVPs.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

7. About Us video

Video can be an important tool for gaining the trust of your potential customers. This is especially relevant for online businesses. An About Us video can show potential buyers the faces and story behind your business, making them more comfortable doing business with you.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

8. Targeted social media ad

Targeting tools for ads on Facebook and Instagram are very powerful and you can use them to get in front of the right audience. Check out our 8 questions for targeting the right audience and read our post on how to reach customers with targeted ads for Facebook and Instagram to learn more. This ad, targeting men with beards, can be customized to target your own audience.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

9. YouTube ad

Last but not least, setting up an evergreen YouTube TrueView ad is a nice way to get your business in front of new potential customers that are searching for videos related to your business. Check out our beginner’s guide to YouTube ads to learn more. We also offer a collection of YouTube Trueview ad templates you can use to get started.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

Got an idea for using video to drive sales that we missed? We’d love to hear it! Drop a note in the comments below. Happy video making!

We see a lot of brands and businesses posting the same videos across all the platforms—Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. But our tests confirmed the hypothesis that plastering the same video everywhere doesn’t take advantage of each platform’s strengths.

In order to be more effective with your video marketing, the key is to take a tailored approach. Think about what your customers are doing, the mindset they’re in, and what they’re looking for when they visit different social platforms. Then, create your content with that in mind.

To make your life easier, here’s a little cheat sheet I put together about how audiences are watching videos across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube and what types of video content work best. Check it out and read on to learn more.

Facebook Videos

Let’s start by getting to know your audience on Facebook. On Facebook, your potential viewers are:

• On the go. 88% of Facebook users access the social network on a mobile device.
• Watching without audio. 85% of Facebook videos are viewed without sound.
• Short on time and scrolling to discover. Facebook audiences are heading to the app when they have a few spare moments and scrolling through the feed to discover what’s new.

What does this mean for your video content? I recommend sharing updates about what’s new with your company. Share your latest products, your fall fashion line, new services, new locations, new deals. The key word is new.

Get started with our New Collection template. It’s built to showcase a new collection of products and you can easily drag and drop your own product shots in and customize the look and feel for your brand. I also recommend using our Aspect Ratio feature to make this template square, as square videos stand out because they take up 78% more space in the News Feed.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

PRO TIP: When you sit down to make a video for Facebook, it’s important to keep in mind that your potential viewers are scrolling through their feeds rapidly. Start with your most compelling imagery up front to capture attention right away.

Instagram Videos

On Instagram, viewers are behaving in a similar way to those on Facebook. They’re on the go, scrolling on mobile when they’ve got a spare moment. In the feed, they too are often listening with the sound off, though they’re more likely to listen with the sound on when checking out Instagram Stories.

The main difference, though, is the type of content that’s resonating with Instagram viewers. We’ve found that inspirational content is what really does the trick on Instagram. Instagram began as a platform for sharing stunning photographs and, although it’s now a home for all kinds of content, it’s still the inspiring, visually stunning content that stands out.

When you approach video creation for Instagram, keep inspiration in mind. Start with compelling imagery, tell a story that inspires, share a quote, or show something interesting.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

PRO TIP: On Instagram, you can post a link in your bio but not in an individual post in the feed. For this reason, it’s important to tell a story in your videos that’s self-contained. Viewers should be able to consume your content, like it, and then scroll on. But the inspiration should stay with them.

Twitter Video

There are lots of benefits to using video on Twitter. Tweets with video get retweeted 6X more than photos and 3X more than GIFs. But if you’re looking to get the most out of your Twitter video efforts, you’ll need to cater your content for your audience’s behavior.

On Twitter, similar to Facebook and Instagram, your audience is on the go, on mobile, and scrolling to discover. But what they’re looking to discover is what’s happening right now. They’re interested in current news, current trends, and to be a part of the conversation around what’s happening in the moment.

For this reason, more ephemeral updates about what’s happening right now are the most effective. For instance, when I speak at a conference, I’ll share the place and time I’ll be speaking shortly before my talk begins.

You could share a flash sale, jump on a trending topic, or promote an event that’s about to occur, as in this example.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

PRO TIP: When sharing videos on Twitter, don’t forget to include relevant hashtags. This’ll help you get your videos in front of more people.

YouTube Video

YouTube audiences are quite different from audiences on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. This is primarily because, for the most part, they’re not just scrolling for random videos. They’ve come to YouTube specifically to search for content that they’re interested in.

For this reason, your audience on YouTube is more engaged, watching with the audio on, and prepared to watch longer form content than on other social platforms.

When creating content for YouTube, you’ll still want to make sure you capture the interest of your viewers quickly. But drawing attention with a eye-catching first image doesn’t hold as much weight as it does for feed-based scrolling. Instead, you’ll want to hold your audience by sharing valuable information at the jump, and all the way through your video.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

PRO TIP: On YouTube, your video’s title and description is just as important as the video itself. It’ll help you show up when potential viewers search and will also help them understand what your video is about before they opt in to watch. Make sure your title and description clearly match up with the value your video provides.

And there you have it! If you’re looking for a little extra inspiration or video ideas, we’re here for you! Head over to the Animoto Social Video Marketing Community on Facebook. We’re always available to answer questions about your video creation, provide feedback on your videos, and share in your successes. See you there!

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

Take a look at our list of 17 easy ways to celebrate with video:

1. Birthday letter: Tell the birthday boy or girl what they mean to you while sharing photos and video clips that’ll make them laugh or tear up. Get started quickly by adding your own photos, video clips, and text to our Happy Birthday video template, featured below. Then change the fonts, colors, and style in just a few clicks to fit your birthday video recipient

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

2. Birthday party invite: Reach all your friends and family on social media with a simple video invitation that includes the date, times, and location along with photos. To make it even easier, choose our Holiday Event Invitation template and adapt it to fit your party.

3. Birthday party recap: If you’ve got a camera roll full of photos after your latest birthday shindig, it’s time to do something with them! Relive the fun with a video album recapping the party or share your with loved ones who live too far away to attend.

4. Birthday quote: Can’t decide what to say in a birthday ecard? Pull out a clever quote, add a couple images, and you’re done in minutes. Take a look at our list of 20 silly and sweet birthday quotes for inspiration.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

5. Happy Birthday song: Even if you can’t be there for a loved one’s birthday, you can still make sure they hear you sing “Happy Birthday” in a sweet video message.

6. Gift for child: Start a new birthday tradition—give your little one a video slideshow showing how he or she has grown. The example below was designed for Valentine’s Day, but could easily work as a birthday gift, too.

7. Interview video: Do you want to create a video to show at a birthday party? Try interviewing friends and family of the person celebrating a birthday. Then put the footage together in a video you can watch on a TV or project onto a screen.

8. Blast from the past: Find your oldest, most “way back when” photos and video clips and put them together in a slideshow set to music. Your recipient will feel like they’re watching old home movies, but with a heartfelt birthday wish included.

9. Pet birthday: While a pet may not be able to appreciate the video themselves, a pet’s birthday video gives you a beautiful digital keepsake. You can also make a gift from a loved one’s pet to share with their owner.

10. Top 5 list: Have fun with your video’s format and create a top 5 list for your video birthday card. We started with the Top 5 template and made a more general greeting, but you can tailor your video to the birthday boy or girl’s specific interests.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

11. Year in review: Birthdays are a great time to take stock of where you are and where you’ve been. Though the video below is designed to celebrate a new calendar year, it could easily be re-worked to fit a new year in your life or the life of someone you love. Begin with our Year in Review template and add in all the big events you don’t want to forget.

12. Life story: Create a mini-biography that includes photos of the major events and important highlights your birthday recipient will want to remember.

13. Belated birthday: Miss out on an important birthday? A video can double as a birthday greeting and an apology. The extra effort will make your belated birthday wishes stand out even more.

14. Social media thank you: Don’t just dash off a written thank you on Facebook when you get a ton of good wishes this year. Instead, create a short video that acknowledges all the birthday love and maybe even shows how you spent your b-day.

15. Funny: Put together a video full of all your favorite corny puns or in-jokes to make a silly video that’ll make your recipient smile.

16. Business video: Whether you’re celebrating a company milestone, like the one in this video template, or helping your customers celebrate their own birthdays, video can help your brand stay on customers’ minds.

17. Gift video: Make your birthday gift a little more special with a video featuring your gift. Add instructions or background to introduce your gift—or get creative! Send your gift on an adventure that’ll make it seem even more thoughtful.

Tips for making an amazing birthday video

• Check social media: Don’t be limited by your camera roll. Search through your Facebook albums and Instagram images to find photos and video clips for your birthday video.
• Find the right song: Music can heighten the emotion you want to convey in your video. Check out some of our favorite birthday music to give yourself some ideas, or just choose songs that fit the taste of your recipient.
• Plan before you create: Jot down a few ideas for images and text before you get started. You can even create a folder on your computer to keep all your files where you can find them. It’ll help you organize your thoughts and create a better video.
• Choose the format that fits where you’re sharing: Go for square videos if you’re posting to your Facebook or Instagram feeds, think horizontal for presenting a video on a TV or sharing through email. If you’re making an Instagram Story featuring your b-day video, go vertical. Here’s a trick for creating vertical videos using Animoto’s square video format.
• Consider your video length: If you’re sharing on social, a shorter video will get more views. If you’re presenting it at a party or letting a birthday slideshow play in the background, you’ve got more room to create a longer, more detailed video.
• Remember your audience:Think about the colors, pictures, and jokes that’ll connect with the birthday boy or girl and try to incorporate those to make a truly special, personalized video.

Ready to create your own birthday video? Dive in and start making your one-of-a-kind gift. Happy video making!

MAKE A VIDEO

Read on and we’ll explain 4 ways that using video marketing on Twitter can help you stand out, plus we’ll share some tips for those ready to make a Twitter video right now.

3 ways Twitter video can help you stand out

1. Videos get more retweets

If this isn’t a compelling reason to start using video on Twitter, we don’t know what is! According to Twitter data, tweets with video get retweeted 6X more than photos and 3X more than GIFs.

2. Video stands out in the feed

The very nature of video makes it more likely to stand out in the Twitter feed. It takes up more space than a text Tweet and the motion draws attention as folks scroll past.

And Twitter video isn’t only useful for capturing the attention of your followers. You can use it to capture attention in trending conversations as well. Post a video along with a trending hashtag and you’ll stand out in the crowd of tweets.

Here’s an example. Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots and Shoots joined existing conversations with video, using hashtags like #InternationalPrimateDay. With Animoto videos, they saw 5X the engagement they saw with image posts.

Your 1 click can make a difference for chimpanzees. #InternationalPrimateDay @JaneGoodallInst @Animoto #StoptheShow https://t.co/1wNccpJWbO pic.twitter.com/0hELnOcZ3l

— Roots & Shoots (@RootsandShoots) September 1, 2017

3. Consumers prefer video

We surveyed consumers for our 2018 State of Social Video survey. And guess what? Consumers have spoken and they want video! Consumers named video as their #1 favorite type of content to see from brands on social media. Give ‘em what they want!

If you’re interested in more stats like these, check out our recent post on 30+ video marketing stats from 2018 to help you in 2019. It’s a comprehensive list of the most up-to-date video marketing stats we’ve got.

Tips for getting started with Twitter video

Ready to get started? We thought we’d end with a few Twitter video tips to set you up for success.

• Think mobile first. 93% of video views on Twitter happen on mobile devices. For this reason, it’s important to create videos with mobile viewing in mind. Use text so videos can be understood without sound and make sure text is big enough to be readable on small devices.
• Use hashtags. Hashtags are key for getting your tweets in front of people that aren’t actually following you that may be interested in the topic or topics you’re tweeting about.
• Focus on trends and breaking news. On Twitter, consumers are on the go and scrolling to discover what’s happening now. For this reason, think about creating content related to what’s happening now. Hop on those trends!

To learn more, check out our blog post on how to post videos on Twitter, including length and upload requirements. Happy video making!

MAKE A VIDEO FOR TWITTER

We’ll dive into three aspects of valentine video design in this article:

• Tips for choosing the right colors for Valentine’s Day videos
• Tips for selecting Valentine’s Day stock imagery from our Getty Images library
• Tips for selecting your own photos and video clips for Valentine’s Day

Click the links above to hop to a specific section, or dive in and read ‘em all!

One of the things that’s going to make your video feel like a Valentine’s Day video, rather than an ordinary video, is the colors. When you think of Valentine’s Day, the color red probably springs to mind. But rather than setting your titles to red and calling it a day, here are some tips to help you think outside of the red crayon box.

Find inspiration in Valentine’s Day goodies

Roses may be red, but they’re also pink, white, and yellow. Similarly, there’s a wide array of Valentine’s Day goodies with recognizable color palettes you can pull from for inspiration. For instance, here’s an example of how you could use candy conversation hearts as inspiration for your video titles.

Mix things up with multiple colors

Title colors don’t have to be a set it and forget it thing. Mixing up the colors throughout your video, when done properly, can look really nice. This is something we break down in an article of tips for using our Florist Trend Story template, which opens with a nice burst of different colors of text.

Our 7 Things for Valentine’s Day template also mixes up colors. Instead of keeping consistent text, text background, and subtitle text colors throughout the video, we’ve mixed things up for added visual appeal.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

Note that if you’re going to mix things up, it’s important not to go overboard on the number of colors. You’ll notice that in the 7 Things video example above we’ve only actually used three colors—pink, purple, and off white. We’ve just mixed up the ways in which the colors are applied to each of the titles.

Use complimentary colors

If you are planning to use a mix of colors, it’s important to make sure they compliment each other. Like wearing plaid and stripes in the same outfit can make some folks cringe, using a clashing mix of colors in your video may make the viewer cringe—and that’s the last thing you want to do to your valentine!

Most non-designers, including myself, are terrible at picking out complimentary color palettes. But lucky for us there are a bunch of tools out there that make it easy to come up with a group of colors that looks good together. Some of our favorites include Color Supply, Color Calculator, and Coolors.

Coolors, for example, has an “Explore” section where you can browse thousands of color schemes. Here’s one I thought could work well for Valentine’s Day.

Keep in mind that you’ll likely be pairing colors so one is in the background and one is in the foreground. For this reason, it’s important to choose colors with enough contrast that they’re legible. You want to make sure your viewer is able to read the text on your video.

Not sure if your colors have enough contrast? Not to worry. There’s a tool for that too! Plug your color values into the Contrast Checker and it’ll let you know whether they pass a contrast and accessibility check.

Now that you’re ready to rock your Valentine’s Day video color palette, let’s take a moment to talk about using stock imagery leading up to February 14th.

Stock imagery is a great alternative for businesses that don’t have photo or video assets available to them, but still want to join the conversation and celebrate Valentine’s Day on social media. And lucky for you, you’ve got a library of over 1 million Getty Images photos and video clips at your disposal in your Animoto account.

We’ve put together some tips to help you get the most out of our stock library when you dive in to create your Valentine’s Day videos.

Tip 1: Keep your brand in mind

When searching through photos and video clips, make sure to keep your brand in mind. Even though you may take a break from your brand colors to use festive Valentine’s Day colors, you should still choose images that match your brand, both from an aesthetic perspective and from a mood perspective. Go with images and video clips that would resonate with your target customer.

Tip 2: Start wide and narrow down

Instead of putting in a lot of keywords all at once, start with something broad like “valentine,” “flowers,” or “hearts.” See what you get and refine your search by adding more words based on what you like.

Tip 3: Use connecting words

As you refine your search, use connecting words. You can include the words AND, NOT, and OR to help you narrow down the results to find the images that are the most relevant to what you’re looking for.

For example, if you do a search for “Valentine’s Day” and see that a lot of the results contain flowers but you know you definitely don’t want images with flowers, you can refine your search to “Valentine’s Day NOT flowers.” As you can see, the results contain couples, candy, and other valentine imagery—minus the flowers.

Tip 4: Search for “negative space”

Negative space is the blank space surrounding, and in between, objects or subjects in a photo or video clip. Including in it your search will return images with extra room built in for text. You can learn more in our blog post on how to use negative space in your videos.

Tip 5: Save the best for first

Use the images that stand out the most to you in your search at the beginning of your video. Start with an eye-catching visual that creates a connection, provokes curiosity, or features bold colors. This’ll help you grab attention as potential viewers scroll past in their social feeds.

To learn more about selecting stock imagery for your video projects, check out our blog post on 6 tips for getting the most out of our stock library.

If you’re planning to use your own photos and video clips, instead of stock, for your Valentine’s Day videos, we’ve got some tips for you as well. We’ll start for tips for business videos and then provide a little advice for those of you creating a video valentine for your sweetheart as well.

Business valentine video imagery

If you’re creating a valentine video for your business, we’ve got good news. The color tips we shared above can help make your everyday assets feel Valentinesy, even if they weren’t created with Valentine’s Day in mind. As an example, check out our Valentine’s Day Gift video template. In fact, all of our Valentine’s Day templates were created using ordinary assets.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

What we will say, however, is that it’s important to choose photos and video clips that feature products that make sense for valentine’s day. For instance, in the example above, diamond earrings are probably a better bet for a jeweler on Valentine’s Day than a man’s wedding ring.

And if you are planning to shoot brand new photos or video clips specifically for your Valentine’s Day video, you could try using Valentine’s Day-related props or objects that match the color palette of your video. If you do go this route, we just recommend keeping it minimal to avoid going overboard and overpowering your viewers.

Personal valentine video imagery

Creating a video for your sweetheart? For a family member? A friend? There’s really just one rule when it comes to choosing the right photos and video clips: choose photos and video clips you’ll know the recipient will love.

Here are a few ideas:

• Choose photos and videos of the two of you together. You should both look like you’re having fun.
• Find assets that represent special memories you share together. These could be from the past year or from your entire time together.
• Make sure you pick pictures that make your recipient look good—no one wants to look at an unflattering picture of themselves.
• If you’re comfortable on camera, try shooting a selfie video sharing a special message to include in your video.

If you’re looking for more ideas for spreading the love with video this Valentine’s Day, check out our valentine video ideas for business, family, your sweetheart, or just for fun.

Ready to dive in? Learn more about how to create Valentine’s Day videos with Animoto and start your video today.

MAKE YOUR VALENTINE VIDEO

Whether you want to give a video as a gift, make a Valentine’s Day video to promote a sale, or just want to create something fun to share with family and friends, we’ve got you covered. We’ve put together a collection of Valentine video ideas for your sweetheart, your family, your business, or just for fun. Scroll down to see ‘em all and decide which valentine videos you’ll make this February 14th.

4 Cute Valentine Ideas for Your Sweetheart

We’ll start with a valentine for your sweetheart. The possibilities are really endless when it comes to creating a video for the one you love. But first, here’s a tip:

You know your partner better than anyone, and the most important “rule” for your Valentine’s Day video is to make something that you know they’ll love.

So, does your Valentine like to relive the past? Look toward the future? Would they prefer a funny video that makes them laugh or something romantic? Keep your Valentine in mind and pick out some photos and video clips they’ll love. Then, put them together with a customized personal message that celebrates your relationship in way your Valentine will appreciate. Here are some ideas for inspiration.

1. Share a simple “I love you”

Don’t overthink it. Sometimes a simple “I love you” is the perfect gift. This year, we’ve put together a template to make it easy for you to create your own personalized video valentine. Swap in your own photos and/or video clips and adjust the message, including colors and font, to something that feels right for your Valentine.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

This template is square, which is optimized for sharing to your social media feeds. But you can easily change the aspect ratio to landscape if you’d like. Learn more about aspect ratio switching right over here.

2. Tell the story of your relationship

Take a trip down memory lane and share the story of your relationship. Where, when, and how did you meet? What have you been through together? Relive your love story through video.

3. Showcase your favorite moments together

Whether you’ve been together for years or just a short time, you’re bound to share some precious memories with your partner. If you’ve got photos for video clips from those moments, use them to create a video that’ll give you the opportunity to reminisce together on Valentine’s Day.

4. Create a video scavenger hunt

Here’s a unique idea we came across on Vimeo and loved! It’s a video scavenger hunt! Vimeo user Thanh Long BACH writes, “I created this video for one of my best friends. She watched this video and then realized that the last few days, the panda was hidden in a box under her bed.” While Thanh created this for a birthday gift, we think it makes for a cute valentine idea too.

3 Valentine Video Ideas for Your Family

Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate the non-romantic loves of your life, too. Here are some ideas for Valentine’s Day videos for the whole family. We created all of the examples in this section using the personalized video valentine template we shared above.

1. Share a valentine with a parent

Want to make mom and dad feel good on Valentine’s Day? Show your love and appreciation with a video. Include pictures from when you were a baby to really tug at your parents’ heartstrings.

2. Share a valentine with a child

A personalized valentine video is a fun gift for children of all ages—everyone likes to be reminded that they’re loved! Youngsters will enjoy seeing pictures of themselves, and older children will enjoy reliving family memories through photos and video clips.

3. Make a valentine celebrating your pet

Now obviously your pet would prefer a tasty treat to a video, but for the pet lovers out there, Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to share your love for your pet with the world. Create a video with the cutest photos you’ve got of your dog, cat, hamster, fish—anything goes!—and share it with your friends on social media.

4 Valentine Video Ideas for Your Business

If you’re looking for ideas for marketing your business with video this Valentine’s Day, look no further than our Valentine’s Day video marketing guide. That article dives ideas and tips for your marketing leading up to February 14th, including how to use our Valentine’s Day marketing storyboards. If it’s just the video ideas you’re after, read on.

1. Promote a product as a gift idea

Your customers are looking for gift ideas for their sweethearts. Why not promote one of your products as an idea? We’ve got you covered with our Valentine’s Day Gift storyboard template. This video can be customized with a couple simple product shots.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

2. Share a special offer or promo

Running a special deal leading up to Valentine’s Day? Share it in a video. This can be posted organically to your followers on social media or run as an ad, targeting potential customers. Check out our Valentine’s Day Offer template below, or check out our Valentine’s Day Sale template.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

PRO TIP: When it comes to seasonal promotions, be sure to start a few weeks in advance. Valentine’s Day may be February 14th, but many consumers are shopping for gifts for their loved ones in the end of January or very beginning of February.

3. Show your customers some love

For the day of Valentine’s Day, why not show your customers some love with a video greeting posted organically to your social media accounts. A short and sweet video sharing your appreciation shows customers you care (and it’ll keep your brand top of mind as your followers see it in their feeds).

This type of video can take any form. Start from scratch and use a simple text block with some festive Valentine’s Day imagery from our stock library of Getty Images photos and video clips, create a list of reasons you love your customers using our Top 5 List storyboard template—the possibilities are really endless!

4. Hop on the Valentine’s trend with a fun social video

On Valentine’s Day your customers will be sharing Valentine’s Day content on social media. Give them something to share with a fun social video. Our 7 Things for Valentine’s Day template takes a unique spin on February 14th.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

PRO TIP: Use Valentine’s Day-related hashtags to get your video in front of more people, particularly on Instagram and Twitter.

2 Valentine Video Ideas Just for Fun

Speaking of fun social videos, we thought we’d end with a couple bonus ideas for Valentine’s Day videos you could make just for fun.

1. Share a quote video

Share a favorite love quote, or collection of love quotes. Start from scratch and add some Quote blocks to your project, or check out our Editorial Quote List template for inspiration. While it doesn’t come pre-filled with love quotes, you can easily swap out the placeholders for your faves, update the colors and font, add a few stock photos, and you’re good to go.

CUSTOMIZE THIS VIDEO

Looking for some quote inspiration? Check out our list of 30 love quotes to use in your Valentine’s Day videos.

2. Show some love for your friends

Last but not least, why not create a Valentine video to show some love for your friends? Similar to some of the other ideas in this post, you can share photos and video clips of your memories with friends over the last year, or over all the years you’ve known each other, along with a message of appreciate or funny quip. Share it for Galentine’s Day on February 13th, or any day of the year!

Ready to make your video? Just click the button below to get started. And if you’re comfortable sharing, we’d love to see your videos! Share a link in the comments. Happy video making!

MAKE A VALENTINE VIDEO

And what you might not realize is that video is becoming increasingly important on Instagram as well. Instagram Stories, IGTV, and video ads have led to a rise in video on Instagram.

Why your business needs video marketing on Instagram

Trying to decide whether to add video marketing to your Instagram strategy? The time is ripe for brands to tell their stories with video, and here are 5 reasons why Instagram is the place to do it.

1. Instagram Is the Place to Get Discovered

In January 2018, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg shared that two-thirds of visitors a business’s Instagram profile aren’t yet following the brand. Just a few months ago, Facebook shared that about 20% of the time spent on Instagram is in the Explore tab. It’s undeniable that Instagram is a place for brands to get discovered and the place that consumers are scoping out brands.

With a photo being worth a 1000 words, video can help convey even more. Video offers an opportunity to showcase your personality, team, and stories in a compelling manner. One example that comes to mind is this video from The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI).

View this post on Instagram

This is the story of a very special chimpanzee named George. Unfortunately, like thousands of other #chimpanzees, George was stolen from his forest home and family for the illegal pet trade. Luckily, he has found a new home with other rescued chimps at the Jane Goodall Institute's Tchimpounga sanctuary. Learn more about George and become a Chimp Guardian today to help care for chimps just like him. Link in bio. | #janegoodall #jane #drjanegoodall #drgoodall #chimps #animalrescue #animalsanctuary #animalwelfare #wildliferescue #chimprescue #chimpsanctuary #tchimpounga #tchimpoungasanctuary #savechimps #cuteanimals #babyanimals #chimpsofinstagram #cutechimps #endillegalpettrade

A post shared by Dr. Jane Goodall (@janegoodallinst) on Jan 18, 2018 at 9:35am PST

After testing square videos in the Facebook Feed and realizing they received more likes and shares than landscape videos, JGI took square videos to Instagram. Telling the story of a chimp named George, who was rescued thanks to JGI’s efforts, this Animoto video received over 800k views. This is an incredible feat, given JGI has about 550k Instagram followers. This video, honing in on one story in 60 seconds, helped JGI’s account get discovered by animal-loving Instagram users the world over.

2. Consumers Love Video On Instagram

Every year in our annual survey, we ask whether consumers have recently made a purchase due to a brand’s video on various social platforms. Our October 2018 study revealed that Instagram was the platform that saw the largest increase in purchases thanks to video., year over year.

To boot, in the same survey, consumers were clear about what their favorite form of content from brands is on social media. Video was the clear winner. If you’re looking to stand out, video marketing is a great tool to have in your Instagram toolbelt to win over the hearts and minds of consumers.

3. The Instagram Feed is Ripe for Video

In this same survey, we discovered that 73% of consumers state that they’re impacted by a brand’s social media presence when making a purchase decision, and 32% look at a brand’s social media accounts before their website.

Knowing that the majority of people discovering your business on Instagram aren’t following you yet, the feed is a great place to showcase who you are as a brand—and video offers you a wonderful opportunity to stand out from other types of content in the feed.

Plus, using hashtags within your captions, leveraging the geolocation features, and tagging people and profiles in your videos can help help get you in front of new customers in the feed, even if they aren’t visiting your Instagram profile specifically.

Video makes a lot of sense for visual brands that can demonstrate a before and after, or a multitude of products. Real estate, fashion and beauty, photography, and other industries that have strong visuals should look to video.

Stylist Jessica M Reese of Pynk Butterfly creates square videos with Animoto in order to showcase all the different looks they are able to achieve. Using hashtags, they are able to have their video show-up far beyond just their followers’ feeds.

View this post on Instagram

Oh how we love Short Saturdays. . #shorthairstyles #shorthairdontcare #thepynkboss #shortwave #cool #stylists #madewithanimoto

A post shared by Jessica M Reese (@thepynkboss) on Dec 29, 2018 at 6:06am PST

Brands that might not have a lot of visuals can take a more text-based approach to Instagram videos. Pair text with the collection of over 1 million Getty Images, included with an Animoto subscription, to educate and inspire.

4. Instagram Stories Provide Opportunities to Connect and Convert

1 in 3 self-reported daily active Instagrammers in the US, Brazil, Indonesia, and the UK indicated that they had become “more interested in a brand or product after seeing it on Instagram Stories.” It’s clear that Stories is a place where consumers are thinking about purchase decisions.

Our survey also showed that 47% of users on Instagram actually enjoy video ads in Stories.

It’s clear that Instagram is a key place for consumers to decide if a product or brand interests them. Your customers are heading to Instagram to decide what products or brands interest them. Being there with content that helps them get to know you will give you a leg up when it comes time for them to buy.

5. Video Drives The Most Engagement

Still not sure if video is right for your Instagram marketing? Check out this recent study.

Social media analytics tool Quinty did an exhaustive Instagram research. Analyzing over 9 million posts, they uncovered that video receives up to 21% more interactions than images on Instagram—yet photos are still the most popular post type.

There’s a unique opportunity for you and your business to stand out with video—a form of content that drives more interactions and that your competitors might not be leveraging.

Getting Started with Instagram Video Marketing

Instagram is going to continue to capture consumer’s attention throughout 2019, so there’s no time like the present to get started. Here are a few tips:

• Think mobile first. Since Instagram is a mobile platform, using square or vertical videos is key.
• Consider feed vs. Stories. Understand the nuanced differences between the Feed and Stories. For instance, about 65% of Instagram Stories are watched with sound-on, but the Feed is still primarily sound-off.
• Use hashtags. Including relevant hashtags, as well as locations and tagging of other relevant Instagram accounts, can help you get your content in front of more people.
• Use targeted advertising. Use ads to reach a targeted audience in Instagram Stories, as well as the Feed.

Ready to dive in? We’ve made it easy, with an array of customizable video templates designed for performance on social media. Try making your first video or join the Animoto Social Video Marketing Community on Facebook for more ideas and inspiration.

Check out our exclusive Valentine’s Day storyboard templates, learn how to create festive, love-themed videos your customers will respond to—and reap the benefits of engagement, brand awareness, and even sales that go along with seasonal video promos while you’re at it.

Valentine’s Day video ideas for your business

First things first, you’ll need to decide what your Valentine’s Day video will be about. Here are four ideas, with examples and video template suggestions, that we think work well as Valentine’s Day content or promotions. You can either jump right into the storyboard template we show you, or read on to learn how you can customize each template for your business.

Product videos

Valentine’s Day is big for gift-giving and, in the weeks leading up to the holiday, people are looking for unique gift ideas for their loved ones. Create a video that showcases a product or set of products you offer that would make a great gift. If you’re not sure where to begin, try our Valentine’s Day Gift storyboard, which uses just two images and a logo to make a square video designed to perform on Facebook and Instagram.

Customize this storyboard

Sales or promotions

If you’re going to run a Valentine’s Day sale or promotion around the holiday, including your offer in a video can help you expand your reach. Share your promo with your own audience, and target potential customers as well. To advertise your sale, all you need is a couple images and your logo. You can create a marketing video of your own design, or drag-and-drop your photos into our Valentine’s Day Sale storyboard, featured below.

Customize this storyboard

How-to or tutorial videos

As the holiday gets closer, tap into the market of people looking for DIY Valentine’s Day gift ideas with a how-to video or tutorial. For instance, here’s a content video that NYC-based florist City Girl Flowers created to share on Facebook and YouTube for Valentine’s Day. You can build your own using a storyboard, like our Step-based Tutorial, or start your marketing video from scratch.

Customize this storyboard

Editorial posts

Not every video needs to be promotional or educational. You can also make videos just to entertain and engage viewers. Create a list, as we did in our 7 Things for Valentine’s Day storyboard below, or find your own clever way to tell a story or make your audience smile on Valentine’s Day, and you may be rewarded with more followers and more reactions to your social media posts.

Customize this storyboard

Tips: Animoto Marketing videos for Valentine’s Day

Have a video idea in mind and ready to start creating? Check out our tutorial showing exactly how to get going.

The first thing you’ll need to do, when you click on Create to get started, is select “Animoto Marketing,” which has storyboards and styles designed to stand out on social media and offer more control, including collages, voice-over, and text customization.

Because our Animoto Marketing offers additional customization, we’ve put together some tips to help you make the best Valentine marketing video using Animoto.

Start with a storyboard

If you’re new to video marketing, you can take the pressure off by basing your video on one of our dozens of pre-built storyboards. These video templates are designed with best practices in mind to cut back on the time and know-how required to create video marketing, while still letting you customize your video however you like. We have multiple storyboards for Valentine’s Day, including several featured above, all of which you can find in our storyboard selector.

Get creative with color

For your regular marketing videos, it’s usually a good idea to select colors that match the colors of your brand. However, Valentine’s Day can be a fun time to think outside of the heart-shaped-box, and get creative with colors—think reds, pinks, and whites.

You can easily change your overall color scheme and font by clicking on the “Design” tab on the left-hand toolbar.

Or you can adjust text and background colors in your video one block at a time by hovering over a block and clicking “Edit” to enter Edit Mode. From there, click on the text “T” icon to see text options for that specific block. In the screenshot below, you can see the Clean Cut style, which lets you select not only text color, but text accent color, too.

To change a block’s overall background, select the picture icon to the right of the “T” icon and you’ll see “Accent” listed at the bottom of the Edit tray on the right-hand side of your screen.

Add images and video clips

If you’ve got your own content, you can upload it right from your computer. But if you don’t have many images of your own, check out our Getty Images stock library. Click on the “Media” tab on the left-hand toolbar, then click “Stock” to search. You’ll find plenty of romantic images and video clips that you can add to your project as part of your Animoto subscription.

Try a collage block

Collage blocks allow you to feature several images at once. This can be great if you’ve got several products you’d like to showcase for Valentine’s Day, or even if you want to shorten your video’s length by showing more than one image at once.

If your video doesn’t already have collage, you can add one in. Select the teal ADD A BLOCK button in the upper-right-hand corner, and you’ll see an option to add a collage. Once you do, you’ll see several different layouts you can try. After you select one, just drag and drop images in to customize your layout.

Use text for silent playback

On Facebook, more than 85 percent of videos are played on mute. That’s why text is so important. The text in your video should be big, bold, and easy to read, and it should tell a story that makes sense, even if the viewer never turns on the sound.

We recommend watching your video on mute before posting it, to ensure the message gets across. If your video does need audio to be understood, you can use text (in the video or in the description when you share the video) to indicate that viewers should make sure their sound is on.

Are you planning to use video to promote your business for Valentine’s Day? Join the Animoto Social Video Marketing Community on Facebook to bounce ideas off other Animoto customers and get feedback as you create your video.

JOIN THE ANIMOTO SOCIAL VIDEO MARKETING COMMUNITY