How to Create a Promotional Video that Delivers Results

Videos are so eye-catching that it is anticipated that 80% of all online traffic will be from video by 2019. That’s less than a year away. Are you creating the kind of promotional video ads your business needs to succeed?

When you combine the targeting power of online advertising and video ads, what you get is a powerhouse of results. But how do you access all of that power and put it to work for you? In this article, we’re going to look at several different ways to create a promotional video that will build awareness and produce revenue for your business.

How to Create an Awesome Promotional Video

Just like all ad content, you need to make sure that your promotional video ads entertain and inform your target audience. Without the right “hook”, they are likely to pass it by on their infinitely long news feed or skip your ad on YouTube.

Creating a quality promotional is the key to getting the right kind of results from your target market, but quality ads doesn’t necessarily mean overproduced ads.

You can start creating promotional video ad content by filming on your phone. Most phones these days have high quality cameras that can rival the look of professional cameras that cost tens of thousands of dollars. You just have to have the right person behind the camera to get you that quality.

For example, check out this video (can you tell which footage was shot on a phone?):

Your videos should feel authentic to the source. Your audience wants to see real people having real experiences with your product. There are four basic styles that you can give that authentic experience through your promotional videos.

1) Highlight a Piece of Content

Find a problem that your target market is experiencing and educate them about your particular solution. Do this in a synopsis, or highlight reel sort of way. It should add value to the viewers experience without giving away everything that’s in your piece of content.

Take our blog summary videos for example, or this highlight video for a course on headshot photography.

The best way to know that you will leave your audience wanting more is to go by the mini skirt rule: your video should be short enough to capture their attention, but long enough that it covers the subject.

2) Consumer Testimonials or Case Studies

Your job in this kind of video is to let your consumers do the talking for you. All you have to do is introduce the topic briefly, let them do that talking and then give a call to action at the end, and you’re golden.

These kinds of videos perform very well because it directly shows the people that are having the experiences with your product or service. There’s very few other ways to show that kind of “real and authentic” experience of the consumer.

For example, check out this video review posted by LifeLock:

In filming testimonial videos you’ll need to outline the story that you want them to tell in bullet point format and then ask them questions that prompt them to answer with that outlined narrative. If you don’t often you’ll film for hours without any direction hoping that the consumer will give you one liner that you can use.

The other thing that you need to keep in mind when you are getting testimonials is that most people haven’t been on camera before. Non-actors get nervous on camera and a nervous spokesman doesn’t invoke confidence in a viewer. Put the time in to learn how to interview non-actors.

3) Product Demonstration

The best way to convince someone that you product will solve a problem in their life is to show them how it works. This is why infomercials are so effective, because they are visually heavy on showing how the product is used.

https://www.facebook.com/mashable/videos/10156003223609705/

Product demos do really well for physical products and software because of their nature. I have found that the promotional video for a Gaff Gun shown above does really well at showing how your life is easier by using it.

4) Behind-the-Scenes

BTS (behind-the-scenes) videos are extremely effective if you have a premium product or a large fan base for your already existing content. It gets the basic consumer to appreciate what you do so much more.

BTS videos do so well because of the visual storytelling that replaces the lame phrase “it’s high quality.” Everyone is skeptical when they hear that phrase. However, it’s hard for people not to make that opinion on their own if they see the detailed process that it takes to make your product.

When you are putting together the BTS promotional video, it’s important to try and piece together a story. It should revolve around why your product was made the way it was and show the details of why that made it better.

A Cautionary Tale

Here’s something that you need to keep in mind: A/B testing is your best friend! Testing is not something that many people like to do, but not every video that you create is going to be a winner.

Check out “How To Make Video Content For Your Marketing Strategy” to learn more about how to start up your video efforts and get comfortable with testing.

The other thing to take into account is that if you want to get better at making videos, it may be a good thing to do one of two things—either hire a professional, or study how to make good videos yourself.

Conclusion

With the amount of video being produced on a day to day basis, if you want to stay relevant online, then you need to be pumping out promotional video ads. Those ads need to be authentic to your users experience, and they need to be authentic in the video quality.

If you need help coming up with ideas, or if you need help filming a promotional video ad for your company, let us know here or reach out to us at (877) 956-7510. We’d be more than happy to help.

How do you feel about promotional video ads? Are you a fan? Any tips for producing a compelling promotional video that you would add to this article? Let me know in the comments!