Interested in learning how to make a promo video for your business but don’t know how to go about it?
From your research, you have come to realize that video marketing is one of the effective ways for engaging audiences.
After all, 88% of consumers say they have been convinced to buy a product after watching a brand’s video.
Businesses like yours are increasingly using video marketing to attract and convert new clients with great success. In fact, 94% of marketers have increased user understanding with the help of videos.
Image via Wyzowl
A further 86% of marketers say video content has helped them generate more leads for their businesses.
Image via Wyzowl
From these statistics, it is evident how video enhances your digital marketing efforts.
Similarly, you can use videos to grab the attention of your users and educate them about your products. You can also use them to spark emotions and encourage buyers to take action.
While there are many types of videos you can use to grow your business, the focus of this article is promotional videos.
We are going to teach you how to make a promo video, its benefits, and where to use the promotional video you have created.
Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
What’s a Promo Video?
A promo video is a special type of marketing video that is used to promote a specific marketing event, sale, or initiative. Businesses use promo videos to grab their audience’s attention and draw them to their most important offerings.
For example, you can use a promo video to promote your business’s latest offering. Alternatively, you can use it to promote an upcoming sale where customers receive great discounts when they buy from your store.
Apple’s launch of the iPhone 14 is a great example of how to use a promo video to meet your marketing objectives.
Image via YouTube
The video was short and captures the phone's most impressive features such as its large screen display, impressive dual camera, and crash detection ability.
Apple also showcased the product in action, giving users a preview of what they can expect from the new iPhone.
From watching the video, you can see that it does a great job of capturing user attention. In fact, the promo video leaves you with a burning desire to get the iPhone 14.
This is a great example of how to use a promo video to get customers to buy your product.
However, you should note that promo videos are not just for promoting offers that target paying customers. You can also use them to promote free offers like trials, demos, and giveaways that will help you generate sales later on.
In the example below, Autodesk created a promo video for one of its design software, Alias. The product is available at a premium, but users can access it for free for 30 days.
Image via Autodesk
The purpose of the promo video is to get users excited about the product and encourage them to download the free trial. The video focuses on the product’s outstanding features and how engineers can use it to design structures.
Now that you know what promo videos are, you are probably wondering how different they are from other brand videos.
Well, other brand videos are educational in nature and focus on helping customers understand your products and how they help them solve their problems. These videos include:
- How-to videos
- Social media live streams
- Product demonstrations
- Explainer videos
- Webinars
On the other hand, promotional videos are driven by your company’s bottom line. The videos focus on your brand’s offering and how to convince customers to pay for them.
When designed properly, promo videos will help you:
- Engage prospective buyers
- Explain how your product or services solve customer problems
- Improve your brand awareness
- Convert leads to paying customers
Features of a Good Promo Video
Before sharing the steps of how to make a promo video, let’s first examine the things you need to consider to make your promo video great.
Lazy marketers collect old footage of their products and add some voiceover and graphics to make a promo video.
While these are vital components of a promo video, the effectiveness of a promo video lies in its ability to make an emotional connection with viewers.
How do customers feel after watching your promo video? Are they motivated to act and buy your product? Do they feel closer to your brand after watching the video?
It's only when you’ve met this requirement that you can confidently say you know how to make a promo video.
Below are key points to keep in mind if you want to make a promo video that leaves a lasting impact on customers.
Keep It Short
Don’t ever assume people have a lot of time to spare. If anything, it’s always better to assume your viewers are pressed for time, hence the need to appeal to them in the shortest time possible.
Google does an admirable job at keeping its promo videos short and to the point. The promo video for Google Duo is just 41 seconds short.
Image via YouTube
The video packs all the information users need to know about the video calling app in 41 short seconds. As a best practice, keep the video length below 2 minutes so as not to bore your users.
If for some reason the entire video has to be longer than 2 minutes, ensure it is engaging and quite informative. Otherwise, viewers will quit before finishing the video.
Use Compelling Visuals
When designing a promo video you want to give viewers every reason to watch to the end instead of looking away when your video is playing.
That’s why it’s important to use compelling visuals that hook viewers to keep watching. Examples of compelling visuals to use for your promo video include:
- A demonstration of how to use your product
- A creative and engaging animation
- Live action videos of customers using your product
- An on-screen demo of your software in action
Make an Irresistible Offer
Besides promising to solve a specific problem that your customers have, your promo video should also deliver an irresistible offer to the viewers.
For instance, new visitors may need a little push before using your product. However, when they see you have an offer for your product, they may be more willing to give it a try.
Some of the offers you may use to entice prospective customers include:
- Free trials for a specific period
- Discounts
- Buy one get one free type of offers
- Free delivery
- Student discounts
- Loyalty points
How to Make a Promo Video (Step by Step Guide)
We’ll now take you through the steps of creating a promotional video for your business. Let's get started.
Step #1: Define Your Goal
The first thing you need to do before creating a promo video is to define your goal. What do you want to achieve with the video?
Do you want more sales? Are you hoping to increase subscriptions for your software?
With a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, it’ll be easier for you to craft an effective message for your promo video.
You will know what to say to appeal to your target users and this will make your promo video much more effective.
Calm, a wellness company created a promo video that was published on its YouTube page. The goal of the video was to boost downloads of its meditation and sleep app.
Image via YouTube
To achieve this goal, the company opted to share customer testimonials in the video. This is a nice move since testimonials from real-life users serve as motivation for other consumers to follow.
By defining their goal early enough, the company was able to come up with a plan on how to make a promo video that would deliver the most impact.
Step #2: Determine Your Video Direction
Next up in this post on how to make a promo video is to set the direction of your promo video.
Will you be showcasing user testimonials as Calm did with the promo video for their app?
Or will you be demonstrating your product in real life to help users understand how it works?
Which scenes will you emphasize to ensure your promo video makes the most impact on your customers? The answers to these questions will help you set the direction for your promo video.
Step #3: Write a Script
The script for your promotional video should satisfy three key requirements, namely:
- Capture the viewers' attention
- Help users understand your business and its products
- Keep viewers engaged and motivate them to act
Fulfilling these requirements seems like a tall order, especially for a one-minute video. However, there’s an outline you can follow to create the perfect promo video script.
- Problem (What) – What pain point do your customers face that you are trying to solve?
- Solution (How) – How does your product solve the problems your customer faces in an easy-to-understand way?
- Unique benefits (Why) – Why should new customers choose you over your competition? Highlight the benefits of your product and the values you stand for as a company.
- Call-to-action – Tell the viewers what to do at the end of the video.
Ahrefs’ promo video is an excellent example of what a great script should look like. The video starts by highlighting the problem of low ranking on search engine results pages.
Image via YouTube
It goes further to explain the challenges that arise as a result of a low ranking. This includes low sales as a result of minimal traffic to one’s website.
Next, Ahrefs introduces the solution to this problem, a platform that shows users why their websites are performing poorly and how to get on the first page of Google.
It then shares the unique benefits of the platform to gain user trust. Lastly, it gives a call-to-action, asking users to start their free trial.
Step #4: Storyboard Your Vision
The next step after writing the script is creating a storyboard. With a storyboard, you can create a visual outline for your marketing video.
Create frames of the scenes that will appear in the video. Make sure to add notes for each scene to make it easy to create the video later on.
You can use a pen and paper to create the storyboard or a design software to simplify the process.
When creating your storyboard ensure each major scene in your video gets its own thumbnail. Avoid mixing scenes because this can cause confusion and affect the quality of the video.
Step #5: Create the Video
After scripting and storyboarding your vision, it’s now time to produce your promo video. The script and storyboard will guide you on which video clips and elements to source to create the video.
Depending on the nature of the video, you may find yourself using any of the following video elements:
- Product videos – These are videos of the product you are promoting. It’s advisable to capture the product from different angles to help viewers understand what they are about to buy.
You can easily create product videos with your smartphone and tripod stand.
- Screen demo videos – If you are promoting a software or want to show users how to book your services, a quick on-screen demo is the way to go.
There are many tools you can use to record your screen to show viewers how your software works. Many of these tools are free, but you may have to pay to access premium features.
- Stock videos – If you are not in a position to create your own custom videos, you can choose to use stock footage for your promo video. Sites like Shutterstock and Pexels have lots of loyalty-free videos you can use to make your promo video.
For example, if you are a travel agency, you don't need to travel across the world to get videos of a certain location. Simply log into these sites that provide stock footage and find videos of the location you want.
- Voiceover – Record the voiceover for your promo video. You can do this yourself or hire a voice actor.
Step #6: Edit and Enrich Your Video
Next on how to make a promo video is to edit and enrich your video components. This is where the best online video makers come into play.
These tools allow you to trim unwanted portions of your videos, add background music, and styling effects.
The good thing about these video editing tools is that you don’t need tech skills to create the perfect video. With a simple drag-and-drop mechanism, these tools allow you to add characters like text, emojis, and shapes to enhance your video.
As you style your video, always adhere to your brand colors and formatting guidelines. This allows you to give your viewers a rich visual experience while showcasing your distinct visual style.
Some things to consider when editing your video include:
- Cut any unnecessary footage to keep the video short
- Add transitions to make the video flow smoothly
- Use animated characters to bring your video to life
- Add a call to action at end of the video
Step #7: Promote the Video
After mastering how to make a promo video and creating one for your business, you need to start promoting it.
The purpose of creating engaging videos is to get the word out about your product, event, initiative, or sale. Use the following channels to get your video seen:
- Social – Publish the promo video on your official social channels.
- Email – Use email marketing tools to send your promo video to your subscribers.
- Paid Ads – Put some spend on your promo video to get it seen by many people online.
- Website – Publish the promo video on your website and blog.
FAQs
Q1. What is a promo video?
A. This is a video that has been designed specifically to promote a product, offer, upcoming events, initiative, or limited-time discount.
Q2. What’s the ideal length for my promo video?
A. Promo videos should be brief and to the point. Ideally, the video length should be between 30 seconds and 2 minutes.
Q3. What should I do with the promo video after creating it?
A. After learning how to make a promo video and creating one, publish it on your website and social media channels for your target audience to see. Also, use paid ads to get as many people as possible to see the video.
Q4. Which tools should I use to make my promo video?
A. You can use an online video maker to create your promo video. These tools are easy to use and you don’t need any technical skills to use them effectively.
Q5. What should I consider when writing a script for my promo video?
A. When writing your video script, ensure the script is engaging to grab viewer attention. It should also help the viewers understand the product/event and your company.
Wrapping Up!
Promo videos look straightforward, but getting them right is difficult. There’s a lot you need to do to ensure your video has a great impact on potential customers.
The right video promo will bring in lots of revenue for your business, so take time to learn how to make a promo video.
While promo videos serve a specific purpose, they also elevate your voice and brand identity.
We hope this article has taught you how to create a promo video that will appeal to your target user.
Let us know in the comment section the impact your promo video has had after publishing it on your website and social channels.
Leave a Comment