Video Marketing - What Equipment Do I Need

This is the KLT Authority podcast, a podcast dedicated to helping you grow your business by leveraging the power of the internet. Today, we're going to be talking about the recommended video equipment you need to create videos for your business. In the last episode, we talked about how, or not how, but we talked about why you should create video. We talked about the types of videos you should be creating, and we got into a little bit about the equipment that is required for creating videos for your business. Now, I will say that it does not take a ton of equipment, and it's not huge investments that you need to make in terms of how you can start making videos.

In reality, you can start making videos right now, today, with the phone that you have in your pocket. And to be completely honest with you, I do not recommend that you go and buy another video recording device for your videos. I think using just your camera phone is enough. Plus, on top of that, you can actually go out and have a reason to upgrade your phone. Not only, I want the new phone, you can say, I'm using it for my business in terms of creating videos. So, you know, it gives you a little bit of an excuse to upgrade, to do something nice for yourself. There's nothing wrong with that. So, this is what I recommend for creating a video for your business.

You need a video camera, you need audio equipment, and you need a way to edit that video. All of this stuff, I'm going to go through, and what you need, and what I recommend. So first, the video camera, like I said, all you need is the camera that's on your phone. So, the phone that's in your pocket, that's good enough. Upgrade it if you can, that would be great, because if you upgrade it, you're going to get a better camera. Next, you're going to need a microphone. And I preach this all the time, and it's something I will continue to preach, and that is that people can forgive bad video. People cannot forgive bad audio. It is hard to listen to bad audio.

Therefore, the first piece of equipment that you need to invest in when it comes to making videos for your business is a better microphone. Now, depending on how you're going to be creating your videos, that's going to alter my recommendation on what I think you should use. Now, if you're just going to be creating videos where you hold the phone in your hand, you stick your arm out, and you click record and make a video, I think all you need is a shotgun microphone. Honestly, you could get away with no microphone at all. However, a shotgun microphone is going to make it a little bit better. Therefore, I think it's worth the investment. It's less than $100.

The microphone that I suggest is a Rode VideoMic Me-L for the iPhone, or the Rode VideoMic Me-C for USB-C phones. If you don't have either of those, then the Rode VideoMic Me, which is a universal, is just fine. Now, the difference between those, the L, the VideoMic Me-L, is for the iPhone. It has a lightning connector. The Rode VideoMic Me-C is for USB-C phones, so it has a USB-C connector. The Rode VideoMic Me universal has a 3.5mm cable jack that you can connect into a 3.5mm audio jack. So, that's the difference between the three. Me, personally, I use the VideoMic Me-L because I have an iPhone.

So, if I didn't, I would use the VideoMic Me-C because I would have some type of Android phone. So, those will work fine if you're just going to hold the camera in your hand, stick out your arm, and click record. That would be perfect for you. Now, if you're going to get away from the camera, if you're going to have someone holding it, or if you're going to set it up on a tripod, you're going to be moving around, things of that nature, I think you should get a wireless setup. And what wireless setup do I recommend? So, there's three different recommendations that I have, and all three have different reasons why I would recommend them.

So, the first two are the Rode Wireless Go and the Deity Pocket Wireless Mobile Kit. So, those two options are if you just want to put a transmitter on yourself, connect a receiver to the phone, and talk to the camera, and it will record internally right to the phone, make your video sound great, all of that good stuff. Those two options are perfect if that's all you're looking to do. The Rode Wireless Go is a little more expensive, and you're going to have to buy more stuff. So, the Rode Wireless Go is a transmitter and receiver. They're two little boxes. They're about an inch and a half by an inch and a half square, and you do not need a lavalier.

So, all you need is a little transmitter box. You clip it to your shirt, and you can talk. It makes it very easy. What I do is I get a lanyard, clip it on the lanyard, and talk away. If I'm going to record a testimonial, I clip it on the lanyard, have the person put the lanyard over their head, and they have it. It's set up. It's ready to go. It makes it very easy. Now, if you want a more inconspicuous look, if you want a cleaner look, you need to attach a lavalier microphone. A lavalier microphone, if you look at, like, newscasters and, you know, night show hosts that have that little microphone clipped on their lapel, that's a lavalier microphone.

So, if you want to use that with the Rode Wireless Go, you have to also buy a lavalier mic that connects to the transmitter, and that's like an extra $50 or $100 depending on which one you go with. The Deity Pocket Wireless Mobile Kit, it comes with it all. So, it has the transmitter, the receiver, the lavalier microphone. However, you have to use a lavalier microphone. You can't use the transmitter just by itself. But it's all included. Therefore, you don't have any extra expense. It also comes with a little tabletop tripod and all of that stuff. So, the Rode Wireless Go is $199.

If you add a lavalier mic, you're looking at $250, where the Deity Pocket Wireless Kit comes with it all, and it's $199. So, it's a little bit cheaper, both of them great options. Personally, I use the Rode Wireless Go because I'm a brand loyalist, and all of my microphones and microphone equipment are pretty much Rode except for my podcasting mic, which is a Shure SM7B, but I'm podcasting into the Rode Procaster, or the Rode Rodecaster Pro. So, I'm a brand loyalist. That's why I go with the Rode Wireless Go. However, if you want more options, if you want to do more things, the next recommendation is the way I would go.

And if you're considering going this route and being very serious about creating videos for your business, this next recommendation is actually the one I would recommend over both of these. And that's the Rode Wireless Go 2. Now, the Rode Wireless Go 2 is great because it has a ton more options, and I'm going to tell you about those options now. So, first, you can have more people talking. So, it comes with a transmitter, or it comes with a receiver and two transmitters. So, you can have two people talking into one receiver, and that's great. So, now you go from only being able to talk to yourself. Now, you can interview someone.

Now, you can talk to a client and have them give a testimonial while you're talking to them. You can do a back and forth question and answer style video, all of these things. It becomes, you have a lot more options, so it's worth it. Now, on top of that, it also has a standalone recorder. And what do I mean by a standalone recorder? Now, that transmitter, as soon as you turn it on, you can have it set up so it starts recording the audio. So, you don't need to record it into your phone. You can just turn it on and record audio into it, and you have an audio file by itself that is on that transmitter. So, it becomes a standalone audio recorder, which is great. So, now it has multiple purposes.

Number one, more people. Number two, standalone audio recorder. Now, number three, this is looking forward into the future. You can also connect it to the Rode Connect, which is a free software program that Rode offers to allow you to connect multiple microphones to a setup so that you can create podcasts and things of that nature. On top of that, it also has a bunch of settings so you can finally control the way the audio sounds. So, it allows a lot more flexibility in how it's used and the way it's used. So, in my opinion, it's a better investment for your business. Now, you know, I sound like a Rode evangelist, and that's because I just love their stuff.

I have tons of their microphones, and they work. And they work well, and I haven't been disappointed yet. So, that's the way I would go if I was you. Rode Wireless Go 2, it is a little bit more expensive. It's $400. $400, but the amount of things that come with this wireless setup kit, it's just great, and the audio sounds fantastic. If you wanted to get lavalier mics to go with it, you're looking at at least another $150 each, maybe $200, depending on the lavalier you go. So, Because it's flexible, I can set it up, I can connect it to things. It's easy and small, it fits in my bag. So, you know, it's something that I want, not necessary. You can go onto Amazon and buy any tabletop tripod.

If you're going to be using it where you need a regular tripod, go to Best Buy, Amazon, buy any tripod that has a phone adapter to it. A phone adapter just means you can connect a phone. It stretches out, you put the phone in, clips down on it, and sits on the tripod. That's all you need. So it's very simple, you can spend $20. Or you can do what I did, get the ManisPod, spend $150, but that is not necessary. If I think something's necessary, I'll tell you it's necessary. However, I'll also give you an option that I use as well, and usually that's going to be the more expensive option because I happen to do this for a living, so it makes sense for me to do that kind of stuff.

Now, when it comes to editing that video, there's a couple options. You can do it right on your phone as well, even if you have an Android phone. So for iPhone, it's LumaFusion or iMovie. iMovie is the free option, LumaFusion is the paid option. LumaFusion just gives you more options. That's going to be an editor that allows you to do more things. And then on Android, I don't know what the default editor is that comes on an Android. However, KineMaster, I don't know how you say it, is comparable to LumaFusion in terms of editing. Not as good from what I hear, but I've never used it, so I can't really tell you. But those are what you can use to edit it. And why would I say you need to edit?

Because we don't need to be perfect. Recording a video is hard, especially when you're not used to doing it. So editing things out is necessary. That way you don't have to go from start to finish in the video without messing up. You can stop, you can take a break, and you can cut all that stuff out. And editing a video in that way, where you're just editing out the mistakes, is very easy. You just say a sentence, you pause, you find that pause in the editor, and you cut it out. Now, with all that being said, I know it's hard to imagine this in video. So we have notes set up at kltauthority.com. So what you want to do is go to kltauthority.com slash 08. kltauthority.com slash 08.

That's going to give you all of our notes. On top of that, we will also have videos where we go through the setup, how to set up the camera, how to record, and we also go through how to edit it on LumaFusion on an iPhone. So it goes from start to finish, all the way through, so you can visually see how to do it. This podcast is just so I can give you a general recommendation. And now you can go to the site, check out the notes, watch the video, and see exactly how you do that. On top of that, we're going to have links to all of these products we've talked about in the show notes. And like I said, kltauthority.com slash 08 is how you get there.

It's going to redirect you to the podcasting notes, and you can get all of that. Now, this is a series. We're going to be going through lots of aspects of video and video creation. We're going to be talking about other aspects of creating content for your business as well. All of this is going to be laid out not only in podcasts, but it's also going to be laid out in videos and articles and PDFs, all that stuff. Our focus moving forward as a company is to give out as much free content as we possibly can so that we can help as many businesses as we possibly can be successful. Right now, in my opinion, is the best time to start your own business.

With what's going on politically, with what's going on economically, with the shutdowns and everything else, right now is a time where you're going to need to start relying on your own abilities and your own skills to start creating revenue for yourself. And we want to help people that are looking to do that, and that's why our focus is solely on creating content right now. And through that content, hopefully we'll get customers and our business will grow as well, and it will. But in that process, we want to help as many people as we can and do that with free content. So you're going to see a ton of content from us between the podcasts, the videos, and the articles.

It's just going to be flooding your stream, and it's going to be valuable content, content that most people pay for. So it's worth going to kltauthority.com, kltauthority.com. Get subscribed to the podcast, follow the podcast, whatever it says on your podcasting player. Also, you can sign up for our alert list, get on the email list. That'll give you access to a lot of different behind-the-scenes specials and content that we only share with our list. So go ahead and do that. Listen, I look forward to moving forward with you guys. I look forward to teaching you everything I've learned over the last 20 years when it comes to building a business leveraging the internet.

Not only doing that, but building a business that affords you the type of lifestyle that most people only dream of. I've been blessed, I've been fortunate, but I've put in a ton of work, and I've learned a lot over the years. And now, I'm going to pay that forward and just give you everything I know. And I'm going to show you what I'm doing as I'm doing it as well. So that's all we have for you today. Like I said, make sure you follow the podcast, rate and subscribe the podcast, or rate the podcast on wherever you listen to podcasts. So subscribe, follow, whatever that is, then rate us. Rate us fairly how you think this is, because that really helps us get in front of new people.

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