Creating Recipe Videos for Youtube'
I have been making recipe videos since 2009, actually I should say, I first attempted it in 2009, and then later realized it was completely necessary for me to go this route, and I picked it up about three years ago in earnest. You may wonder why I had a gap. To tell you the truth, I thought that making videos was difficult and quite honestly intimidating. I am not thin, I am over 40, and not exactly the person you would typically see on TV.
I personally feel that creating video for recipes is really necessary, why? A picture conveys so much more than a written recipe. I can show you how long to stir something, I can show you what I mean by browning roast before you put it into the oven. It works much better when I can physically demonstrate a technique rather than typing it out. For me, it also means that I can augment my content that I have already done for my website. So my current and existing content gets more life to it. Please note, this is just a highlight of my video making process and is not the subject in great detail, to cover this well you much go more in depth, here are the highlights.
Videos do wonders for SEO
Videos help your SEO tremendously. You are creating customized content that fits you and your message. You are giving your audience a reason to stay on your blog. They will linger and watch your video more. You are creating trust, and each video is your own commercial. Youtube typically ranks number 2 or number 3 for web searches. Google also adds videos to SERP. So you can potentially rank for 2 spots in the top 10 rankings. Who wouldn't want to try to do that?
Read More about the benefits of using video
Video as marketing – find new and different audiences
For me, I thought that all of my video views would be done from my own web page. This turned out to be really false thinking, really false thinking. Now days view from my website only represent about 40% of my video views. The rest come from Youtube, and others that might embed my videos. You will find your videos will take on a life all their own once you launch them into cyberspace.
My Youtube audience is radically different than my blog audience. My blog audience is people like me, middle-aged women. My Youtube audience is 40-% men, 60-% women and the age range is all over the place. I get comments like I wished you were my Mom, proposals for marriage, and how much people like my kitchen. I have some folks that as soon as I put up a video they are writing comments. I find an audience is more passionate, and much more diverse.
Is a solid Youtube presence going to get you a lot of traffic to your blog? Not directly. This was also false thinking for me. Lot's of folks love watching videos, they aren't rushing into the kitchen. That's ok. They see you, your message, and they want to keep up with what you are doing.
With this being said, these are just some of the reasons that I am pro-video, and will tell people you should definitely create videos. It is important to augment your content, and to be where you can find new and fresh audience continually.
Planning your video
Should you plan them out?
I think it is important before you sitdown and do your first video that you spend a few moments thinking about what you are going to say, and to plan it out. Really good video requires some forethought. This is your map or your guide for the video, this will help you audit out bad ideas. While I think creating a storyboard is a great idea, that may seem daunting right at first. Think of it as having a recipe for your video. So I would urge you to think about the video in shorter segments. This is how I think about my videos.
Introduction – 30 – 45 seconds I talk about the recipe, what's unique
Special Ingredients – If a recipe contains any, I talk about those
Fundamental Cooking steps – a scene is done for each one
Show Finish Dish – I show the dish finished
Exit – Talk about the dish, thank people for watching, and any other Call to Action goes here
So the way this would look if I were making a fruit salad would be:
Introduction: Introduce the fruit salad, say its great to serve for a brunch
Special ingredients: I might say how to select a ripe pineapple, or say where you can find star fruit
Fundamental Cooking Steps: Cutting up the fruit, making sauce for it, and then stirring it together. So for me, this would be 3 scenes. This could be done in one take, but I need to get these three steps in there, or the recipe would fail.
Show the finished dish: I would hold the dish up and say this is what it looks like
Exit: Talk about the recipe again, and thank folks for watching, and give my social media links
I am going to give an example of a great intro, and this would be one of my favorite recipe videos. This is for Bacon Pancakes, within 18 seconds you see whose channel it is, their branding, the a finished shot, and they tease you and grip you with what they are making. One warning, this musical recipe is infectious. You will remember this song.
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