Customers are twice as likely to book trips on FishingBooker listings that have at least one video. But how do you make a video that gives them that “eureka” moment? What makes the difference between people booking your trips or browsing through the other listings?
Anyone can record a video, but there’s a real difference between one that makes people excited to fish with you and one that leaves people cold. Luckily, there are a few simple tips for making good fishing videos that work every time.
Here’s an example of the type of video that customers love:
What makes it so successful? And how can you make a video that will have the best chances of getting more visits? Here are five easy tips that will make your videos the best possible advertisement for your fishing charter.
1. Use quality equipment
Gone are the days when you had to have extremely specialized equipment in order to shoot a good video. Now, a lot of phones have extremely good cameras. We recommend:
- A modern phone (iPhone 5 or later is fine)
- A GoPro
- A DSLR camera
If you don’t have this type of gear, ask a friend who does. Budding videographers love the chance to get some practice!
Tip: If you’re taking videos with a phone, it’s better to use the back camera rather than the selfie camera.
2. Record wide videos
Have you ever wondered why we gravitate towards wide rectangles? From cinema screens, to billboards, to your computer screen, this shape is all around us. Our field of vision is wider than it is tall, so we find wide images visually pleasing and easy to relate to. That’s why photographers and videographers recommend that you hold your camera or your phone on its side, to give you that wide view that we see all around us.
As well as being easier to watch, videos that are this way around give you more room to capture what’s going on. Most fishing action involves a person, a rod, and a fish – and it’s hard to fit all of this into one upright column! Add to that the fact that wide videos look much better on computers, and you can see why our pro videographers will always shoot their videos horizontally rather than vertically.
3. Capture excitement
Videos are the closest that customers can get to meeting you before they get on a boat with you. So, they’re a unique opportunity for you to put across your personality and show them what a typical experience on your boat looks like.
For someone watching a video of a fishing trip, the most exciting part is the few seconds before the fish comes to the surface. It’s very hard to share the great feeling of fighting a fish across a screen.
So, try to focus your video on the moment when you’re pulling the fish out of the water and onto the boat. This keeps people’s attention and helps them visualize the results of their trip. But as with every rule, there are a few exceptions:
- Clips of fish such as Tarpon jumping out of the water are very effective, especially if you also capture the angler bending and fighting the fish.
- Capturing the excitement of seeing a very large fish in the water, close to the boat, is a sure-fire way to get people interested. Especially if you explain what the fish is!
4. Keep it steady
A lurching video is a sure-fire way to make people feel sea sick – and turn them off your charter before they even see your offer! But taking steady videos on a boat can be easier said than done.
If there’s one thing we all know, it’s that you can’t stop the waves in the ocean. But there are a few easy tricks that make fishing videos easier to watch, even if the boat is rocking. These are:
- Turning on a grid on your camera. Most phones have this option in camera settings, but you’d be surprised how few people make use of it. It helps you keep your subject in the same part of the video, whether that’s in the center or to the left or right third of the frame.
- Keep an eye on the horizon. If the horizon is at an angle, it will immediately make the picture look less professional and give the impression of a choppy ride. Align the horizon with the grid on your phone, and your image will immediately look steadier.
- Keep distractions to a minimum. The best shots show just one thing happening at a time. If you’re talking and introducing your trips, choose to do this in a relatively uncluttered area so viewers keep their attention on you.
- Stabilize your camera. Many pro videographers use tripods for their videos. This doesn’t help much on a boat! Instead, steadying your camera against your hip will keep the image stable, rocking naturally with the boat and avoiding shakes from your hands.
5. Light up the subject
There are loads of advantages to your “office” being the local waterways. One of them is that if you’re taking a video of your workplace, you’re doing so in natural light. This is generally considered the best setting for an attractive video.
But while natural light usually works in your favor, it can sometimes make your video harder to watch.
This usually happens on very bright, sunny days. In weather like this, there’s a big contrast between what’s lit up and what’s in shadow. In a video, it can even hide the thing you’re trying to film.
If you’re filming on a sunny day, make sure to keep the sun behind you. This way, whatever you’re taking a video of will be lit up by the sunshine instead of being hidden in shadow. It’s amazing how much of a difference this simple trick makes!
What next?
Once you’ve recorded your video, you need to make sure your potential customers can see it. There are three different places you can upload your creation on your profile, and all of them are good for different types of video. They are:
- Your listing’s gallery: they’ll appear right at the beginning, before the photos, making them the first thing customers see on your listing.
- Fishing reports: they show up on fishing report pages but not in your main gallery.
- Review replies: you’ll see them along with your reviews at the bottom of your listing.
We review videos that get uploaded so we know there’s a consistent standard across the website. We also want to make sure that your listing is working properly and is as likely as possible to bring you customers.
Because of this, sometimes the videos you upload may not stay up. If this happens, it will be for one of the following reasons.
We think good quality videos are going to make all the difference when it comes to attracting customers in 2020 – don’t miss out!
