As content thought leader at Charli Says and co-director of Contentworks Agency, a busy content and social media marketing agency, I’m a big fan of video marketing. Our agency has written numerous high-level video scripts for big brands such as NEC, Tradeio, SGame Pro and many more. But these kind of videos require a significant budget, script writers, videographers and post production editors. It’s necessary but what about everyday video marketing for social media?

Most clients don’t want to consistently spend big money on videos for social media, but we still need it to happen. So, you need a tool that produces high value, low cost videos suitable for professional brands. This is when I discovered PosterMyWall. PosterMyWall is an online portal that allows marketers and business owners to create their own 1080p Full HD Quality videos, images, prints and banners. Today, I’m going to walk you through its features and benefits and show you how non-designers like myself can create awesome videos.

But First- Why Do We Care About Video Marketing?

Video marketing falls under the content marketing umbrella because it invariably requires a great script. But for social media, short videos and gifs have grown rapidly in popularity with marketers thanks to their ability to reach their target audience.

300 million people use giphy every day to access gifs
Cisco projects that global internet traffic from videos will make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2021
Users watch more than 1 billion hours of video on YouTube every single day
59% of executives say they would rather watch a video than read text
Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when reading it in text
100 million hours of video are watched each day on Facebook
Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined

And the benefits don’t end there. Our experience is that using videos and gifs in our social media marketing yields greater engagement, higher responses and more click throughs.

What is PosterMyWall?

PosterMyWall has a large selection of video, image and print templates that users can customise to suit their purpose. The key word here is templates. Essentially, someone else has already done the hard work with the layout, shapes, images and video. So, all you need to do is customise it to make it on-brand. You can choose from thousands of templates to create awesome videos, business cards, flyers, posters, or ads. Templates are searchable by industry or type which makes it easier. There are several payment options with PosterMyWall:

“Pay as you go” where you only pay for the video templates you decide to customise. Prices are $14.95 for 1080p Full HD Quality
A free version however these include PosterMyWall watermarks which wouldn’t be suitable for our clients. That said, the free version does allow you to play with a design to see if you like it before paying for it so that’s a bonus.
A Premium subscription version which offers plenty of free credits and added bonuses. You should note though, that the premium is not an “all you can eat” deal.

PosterMyWall – 3 Working Examples

Alright enough talking, let’s see some videos, right? In true Blue Peter style, here’s 3 I made earlier without the help of our resident designer. (Note, our resident designer loves this tool because our social media team leaves him alone more often)

#1 Linkedin- We Get It

Linkedin just started supporting videos in posts and who are we to turn it down? That said, it’s essential to keep Linkedin videos on-brand for the channel which means keeping it professional.

We chose this video template because it illustrates the financial services element of our agency’s services. The video showing the upward line and dollar symbols was already there in the template, so all we had to do was customise the text and block colour. PosterMyWall allows you to download videos in a variety of sizes to suit your needs however the large square size usually displays best on social media channels. It is this size that I used for our Linkedin video post. You can also search for specific templates that match the sizes you need:

TIP– Know your colour hex codes and have them handy when you’re working with PosterMyWall. It’s easy to change the colours to match your own and ensures your videos stay on brand.

#2 We are hiring

What happens when one of your clients has an urgent update that needs to go out on social media? You know video will work best but you haven’t got the time or budget to get your designer on it. The answer… head over to PosterMyWall and create something in just 10 minutes. Tradesocio’s “We Are Hiring” video was created in just 10 minutes, so it could hit the social channels fast.

Before Customization

After Customization

By simply removing some of the template text, adding the client’s colours and changing the fonts, the video template seems custom made. Editing the templates is so easy, especially for those of you already familiar with Canva (another of my social media faves). Hovering your mouse over the template reveals all the editable fields which include text, images, backgrounds, filters, effects, colour gradients and fonts. When editing colours use the “Choose from design” feature to point and select any color on your design and use it for other elements. This allows you to replicate colours so, the red in your frame is the same red as in your headline for example. Don’t be too quick to remove elements from each template. Take a moment to think about what you want to say and the boxes or shapes you will need.

TIP – PosterMyWall allows you to upload your own videos or images, use the templates or choose from four image libraries—Getty Images, Pixaboy, Flickr or PosterMyWall’s own library. Getty images cost $2 extra but all the other images are free. It’s super easy to search for the exact image you want and insert it into your template.

#3 Twitter Fan Love

It doesn’t matter how big you get, you always need to take time out to thank your fans! A quick gif or video combined with some tagging of your top interactors makes for a great tweet on your Twitter channel. Check out this video I made for Contentworks in literally 4 minutes.

When you’re choosing a template, don’t be put off by imagery that doesn’t fit with your sector. Most of it can be removed or edited. This template, for example, was originally a sports theme but I simply removed that, added our own colours and logo and changed the text. Once you‘ve purchased a design, you can also resize it in numerous ways making it ideal for creating an entire set of marketing pieces, including posters, flyers, banners, and business cards from a single design. The pre-set sizes Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ and Etsy make it super easy to create a full set!

TIP- Once you’ve made your template, you will proceed to purchase so it’s super important that you check every detail. Check your spelling, make sure your messaging is correct and be sure that you have added all the features you want. The good thing is, PosterMyWall allows you to make a correction up to three times so if a mistake does slip by your eagle eye, it’s ok!

What else is good to know?

There are tons of features and benefits for PosterMyWall users so here are a few more I discovered:

If you’re an agency or team, you can share projects among team members. So, with one click you can get a team review or work collaboratively on a project.
It’s not just marketing agencies that will love PosterMyWall. The site is ideal for bloggers, artists, small businesses and even teachers! It offers great classroom support which you can read about
If you’re a local business, you can print flyers and then turn them into social media videos! This makes for a brilliantly coordinated campaign.
If you’re using PosterMyWall for social media videos, then avoid being overly promotional. Create plenty of “thank you” videos or even videos to promote your chosen charity as we did
Your finished PosterMyWall videos can easily be shared directly to social media or perhaps more excitingly, embedded to your blog! I’m a huge fan of embedding videos to easily summarise a lengthier piece of content.
Remember that 70%+ of social media users don’t turn on sound for videos. This makes PosterMyWall ideal for its instant visual messaging and onscreen text annotations.

PosterMyWall is super easy but if you’re new to online video creation- check out this cool tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWgFSVRUjQo

Overall, I’m a huge fan of PosterMyWall and as a busy agency director, I know that this tool is simple enough for any members of my team to use. Take the heat off your designer and videographer and start creating!