While the martial arts seem ideal for an exciting video you have to be careful with what you shoot, how you shoot it, and how to tie it into your school. Smart video marketing starts with a plan. If your goal is to bring more students in then you want to make sure every decision regarding the planning, production, and post-production moves you closer to your goal

Shooting some belt exam footage, a board break and some self-defense and throwing it on YouTube is easy but to be effective you must have a plan and avoid these common mistakes. 

Seven Tips to Improve Your School’s Video 

1. Make sure the strongest light is behind the camera and not behind the subject or you will be back lit and the subject will get really dark.

2. When possible use an external microphone to make the audio clear. Using the cameras mic pics up all sounds from around the camera which muddles the sound from the subject. 

3. Shoot only material that will attract people to your school. Your demos, sparring, self-defense, board breaking all may be exciting to you but to someone with zero experience that excitement may be a turn off.

4. Follow a similar format to your trial classes. What does a student experience in the trial class? Use the trial lesson script and break it down into 2-minute segments to be used as your video script. 

5. Keep the segments under two-minutes. People will not listen to long-winded speeches or presentations. Keep it short and sweet. 

6. Put your best stuff first. If you don’t grab them in 20-seconds they will click away. 

7. A fast moving montage is best. A montage is a series of clips or stills that quickly change with fast paced music. No one picture stays on the screen more than a view seconds. This keeps the viewers attention and also makes it easier for you to avoid showing something might scare a prospect off.