Unlocking the code to success on Elements starts with truly getting to know your customers.

As an Elements Author, it is crucial to immerse yourself in the world of the creative professional who licenses and downloads your content. This helps you to gain a profound understanding of their needs and workflow challenges. 

Today, we’re focusing exclusively on video creators. In short, a video creator is (as the name suggests) any creative professional whose main output is video. This could include social media, YouTube, or promotional content.

Our fabulous research team recently ran a survey to find out more about this diverse group of creators and how they used Elements for their different projects. We’re excited to share these valuable findings with you, our authors, to help you get to know our customers at a deeper level. 

By gaining more insight into the world of these creative professionals, you can:

• Ensure that your content aligns with their expectations and needs. This might mean creating assets that resonate with their specific project, from music for brand/product promos, social media shorts, to add-ons and transitions for brand work. 
• Optimize your asset’s discoverability. By using relevant metadata such as titles, tags, and descriptions, you can ensure that your content is easily discoverable by video creators searching for assets. 
• Anticipate trends and capitalize on emerging opportunities. By staying on top of their evolving needs, you’ll stay ahead of the curve and create content that aligns with the latest industry demands or trends giving you a competitive edge and enhancing your ability to provide timely and sought-after assets.

In short, putting yourself in their shoes and getting inside their heads will be a game-changer for your content creation process – helping you to effectively meet their needs and provide them with the valuable content they seek.

Who are our video creator customers?

This multitalented cohort includes marketers, content creators, videographers, video editors, filmmakers, and motion graphic designers, who all use Elements to help bring their creative projects to life. Often, video creators are ‘one-person bands’ who wear many hats.  

Video creators aren’t just limited to one type of project. They’re a dynamic bunch of creators with their hands in multiple pots of inspiration – working on various video projects that span different genres and purposes. 

On average, they work on 3.4 different types of video projects, with brand or product promos and social media shorts being the most common. In fact, nearly a third of our video creators tackle five or more different types of video projects, highlighting their incredible versatility.

Our customer base is teeming with talented video creators. Fortunately, our creative customers don’t need to venture too far to get the variety of assets they need – in fact, they don’t even need to leave Elements.

What do video creators want from a creative stock provider?

In a video creator’s world, quality reigns supreme. This includes both the technical and aesthetic aspects of the asset. From high-resolution specs to compressible file types, video creators strive for quality that comes from the top of the line tools, such as the latest and greatest footage from a RED camera, according to one participant. 

But it’s not just about the technical specs – aesthetics matter too. An authentic feel, a polished presentation, and an added element of creativity all help with storytelling and contribute to the quality of the asset. As for the elusive nature of quality, participants couldn’t always articulate what it meant, but they knew it when they saw it, much like a work of art. 

Quality is just the beginning. Video creators also seek an array of options in any particular category so a vast library of assets is a must. They seek a depth of assets within each project, and even sometimes depth of a particular asset – for example, multiple shots from a variety of angles of the same scene. And let’s not forget that video creators are looking to stand out by using assets that have a fresh and unique feel that sets them apart from the rest.

Why are breadth and depth so important?

When it comes to creating a captivating video, there is a whole ensemble of assets that come into play. On average, video creators use six different types of assets to bring their vision to life. A huge 43% of these creatives go the extra mile and incorporate seven or more types. While music is undoubtedly crucial, it is important to recognize the significance of a strong supporting cast of other assets at all stages of production.

Hitting the right notes with music

It comes as no surprise that an important way to hit all the notes of video creation is through the use of music! According to previous research we’ve done, a staggering 81% of video creator subscribers reveal that music is the key ingredient to most video projects. Their musical needs encompass a wide gamut of genres and moods and yes, even the most corporate and stock-styled tracks find their place in their productions. With such diverse and eclectic needs, it is essential that we offer a comprehensive range of music to cater to the wide-ranging preferences and requirements of video creators. 

When it comes to preferences around music with vocals versus instrumentals only, we were told that while vocals can add another layer of depth to a video, it is often harder to use. According to our respondents, instrumental music is preferred as background audio, as vocals can be too specific to fit seamlessly into various types of videos. But again, it depends on the use and context of use. One thing is for sure… our video creators want more music! More new tracks, more diverse tracks, and more unique tracks.

How do customers discover assets?

In terms of their music search behavior, most video creators prefer searching rather than browsing to find their perfect tune. While we’re working on streamlining the Elements search experience and enhancing its functionality, it’s more important than ever that our authors serve up relevant metadata to help surface the right content at the right time to help video creators find the right tracks efficiently. Too many tags, especially when not relevant, will make the search process tiresome and hinder the likelihood of download. So tune in, and let’s give our video creators the seamless and convenient music search experience they deserve!

In this exciting journey of video creation, understanding the needs and desires of our video creators is not just important, it’s the golden key that helps our authors find success. Armed with this knowledge, we hope we’ve helped to empower both you and our customers to embark on a quest for unparalleled visual content.

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To find out more Secrets of Elements Customers, head to our Envato Reveals article. To see what trends these customers will be following in 2024, take a look at the Motion Graphics trends predictions on the Elements Blog.