If you look at your timeline today, regardless of social media network, you might notice that it is filled with different forms of visual content like pictures and countless videos. We keep sharing content like these because they are entertaining, creative, emotional, and relevant. But it has brought on a shift not just in lifestyle or entertainment pages, but also in the marketing industry.

According to Aberdeen, companies that use video content grow revenue 49% faster than those who do not. More and more, video marketing has become an important tool in everyone’s marketing strategies. And why not? On Facebook last year, there has been more than a billion video views each day, and if businesses can get even a fraction of those views, the amount of reach is enough for a significant conversion.

Of course, if you are already convinced of its effectivity, there is still the matter of actually creating the videos. Let us say you have already written the script, have shot it, and are already in the process of editing it. If you own personal computers, whether Microsoft Windows or a Macbook, chances are you already have a video editing software installed. For Windows it is the Windows Movie Maker, and the iMovie for the Macbook. But depending on the type of video you want to release, these software may either be too simple or too complicated use.

Here we list down video editing software you can choose from to make sure your video is top-notch.

Why is video editing important?

First, let us talk about why video editing is important and why choosing an appropriate software is necessary.

Creating a video is part of a process, and this is not to say that video editing is the most important part of this process, but without editing it properly and without the right tools to help you with it, your video might end up messy. Here are reasons why you should give importance to it.

Creates a flow in the narrative

When you are doing the concept for the video, writing the script, and eventually shooting, there is a certain flow of the story you have in mind. And for this narrative to flow to come into fruition is entirely dependent on the editing. With editing, not only are you making sure that the story flow is maintained all throughout the video, but that each scene is organized properly and moves forward smoothly. You would want to capture the reason why you wanted the story to flow like this in the first place in the way that each scene is cut, in the effects used, and the pacing of the video.

Splicing scenes properly

Expect to shoot certain scenes multiple times when you are in the production process of creating the video, and when you have a lot of material to work on, it means you can splice and stitch together scenes that work together. Cutting scenes is actually very easy if you think about it. But there is more to splicing than making sure there is a definite beginning and end. You must time splicing perfectly. Splice too soon and the viewer would be left with an abrupt end to a certain scene, splice too late and they would be left with a scene that seems to last forever.

Appropriate transition effects

Proper transitions are responsible for the smooth flow of change from one scene to another. There is a certain kind of elegance to a video when the transitioning is done right. The narrative is maintained, the pacing and the continuity of the video is controlled, and the viewer would not be left with a jumpy video.

Builds the perfect atmosphere, incites the right emotion

With all of these combined with the perfect sound editing, you can create a certain kind of atmosphere surrounding your video and incite the emotion you want viewers to feel. Perhaps you have created an advertisement and you want people to feel motivated, the right editing can do that for you. Or maybe you have created a tutorial video and do not want it to be boring.

To accomplish this, you need the aid of the right video editing software. These tools can help you create a video that seems like it was made by a Hollywood filmmaker. Even if that is not the goal, you will be able to create a video with a message that is easily understandable not just in the content, but also in how the narrative is moving forward.

9 free video editing software that you should consider using

Other than Windows Movie Maker and iMovie, here are some of the free video editing software that can help you create the best video you have ever made.

Machete Video Editor

An ideal software for beginners, you can easily make splices of videos with Machete Video Editor. You can cut scenes out, copy them, mix a few, or pick out a scene and focus on editing that. This basically means that Machete can function both as a video splitter and for joining media files with the same format. Machete does not require re-encoding which makes editing quick and easy without losing video quality; this puts Machete under the lossless video editor category. It can support AVI, FLV, WMV, MKV, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, MOV, WMA, MP3, and WAV formats.

Lightworks

Known as the professional editor for everyone, this video editing software lets you edit movie files and videos as if you were a professional movie maker. This software supports resolutions ranging from 4K, HD, and SD. Its feature includes multiple-cam editing, as well as primary and secondary colour correction with its inbuilt presets, a powerful background import, render and export engine, multi-channel audio mixer, and so much more. You can also create text effects, 3D text with 3D lighting, etc with the Boris Graffiti.

Avidemux

Avidemux is another free video editing tool designed specifically to make your tasks in non-linear video editing that much simpler. It’s capable of applying Filters for visual effects, and transcoding the video into any type of video format. It supports a variety types mainly AVI, MPG and MPEG, MP4, ASF, MKV, NUV, OGM, MOV, 3GP, and VOB. Cutting, filtering and encoding tasks is just as easy when you are using the Avidemux.

VSDC Free Video Editor

Got a little experience in video editing? Try the VSDC Free Video Editor. It has a professional feel to it, in fact, it resembles Final Cut Pro closely but with a little less effort needed in terms of video editing because it is very simple to use. It supports AVI, MP4, MKV, MPG, WMV, 3GP, FLV for video formats. MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, PCM, OGG, AAC, M4A, AMR for audio formats. BMP, JPG, PNG, PSD, ICO, TIFF for image formats.

DaVinci Resolve

If you want to have the Hollywood feel on your video, try DaVinci Resolve. It is a non-linear video editing software that is combined with the most advanced color corrector so that you can edit and color correct your video in one software. One of the great things about this software is you can practically use it on your makeshift studio or a big Hollywood like studio simply because it is completely scalable and is independent of resolution.

Wondershare Filmora

A very simple, no frills video editing software that still gives an elegant finish to your video, that is what Wondershare Filmora is. It may not have the functions of some of the other video editing software like DaVinci Resolve, but it has all the essential features you will need to edit a video. This is perfect for beginners as it is very easy to use.

Blender

Blender is an open source creation suite that allows you to create 3D videos that supports all of the processes involved in it like modelling, rigging, animating, simulating, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, video editing, and game creating. If you want to try something unique you think your audience will love, Blender is one of the software you can use to accomplish that.

WeVideo

If you are working on the video with a team then WeVideo might be the software for you. It is a cloud-based collaborative software that lets you upload everything that you need for the video so that you can edit it anytime, anywhere; your team can even access this cloud so that they can help with the editing. While it is very simple to use even if you do not have any experience editing the video, it still hold features some of the more advanced video editing software has. But you may opt not to use them if you are still trying to get hang of it.

Hitfilm 3 Express

Another video editing software that lets you have that big Hollywood finish is the Hitfilm 3 Express. With it you can incorporate special effects. It is the tool preferred by up and coming filmmakers not only because of its wide library of features, but also because its improvements are based on the filmmaking community that talks about what else the software can work on. You may be a marketer and not a filmmaker, but these concerns can affect you especially if your focus is video marketing and how best to reach the audience.

Final thoughts

Now that the trend is personalized content, what can be more personal than content that makes viewers feel emotionally connected to your video on some way, and editing can achieve that for you. Learn more about these video editing software and see which ones you think are appropriate.