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Choose Your Music Carefully

Not every video needs background music, but if you’ve decided that yours does, be careful about your choices. For example, you probably wouldn’t expect to hear Norwegian death metal in a promotional video for an animal shelter. Ensure your music is suitable for your project.


Also, pay close attention to the licensing requirements of the music you plan to use. Unless you use royalty-free music or compose your own, most music is subject to stringent copyright restrictions that could land you in some seriously hot legal water if you don’t play by the rules.

Remember – a record company won’t care if you’re “only” using copyrighted songs in a short marketing video. It’s copyright infringement, plain and simple, and it could result in a costly lawsuit, so tread carefully and err on the side of caution.

TIP: There are several sites that offer royalty-free background music and sound effects, including:

  • FreeStockMusic.com

  • Incompetech.com

  • AudioMicro.com

  • RoyaltyFreeMusic.com


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Don’t Overdo It with Transitions and Effects


Unless you’re making a Star Wars parody video (which would be kind of awesome in a marketing context), don’t use radial wipe transitions – or star wipes, or any of the other “zany” effect presets that come with your editing software. The more attention to draw to your transitions and editing, the cheaper and more amateurish your video will look (and yet we still forgive George Lucas for this).

If you have to, use simple cross-fades to transition from one shot to another. Let your content do the talking, not your editing software.

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Assemble the Rough Cut Before Working Out Any Timing Issues

Once you’ve got all the clips you need imported into your editing program, it’s time to start actually putting the rough cut of your marketing video together.


Editing a sequence can get complicated quickly, so tidy up your clips as you work.

However, before you begin the painstaking process of frame-by-frame editing, get your clips roughly into place. There’s no point agonizing over precise timing issues until your video has already begun to take shape. It won’t look pretty, but it’ll give you a solid idea of which parts of your marketing video need the most work.

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