Every business wants to know how to make a good promo video. A business promo video is key to your marketing strategy because, according to the Visual Teaching Alliance, 90% of information sent to the brain is visual, and visuals can be processed 60,000 times quicker than text. This makes company promotional videos one of the best business promotion ideas.
If your company knows how to make a promotional video, you are already one step ahead of your competitors. But, if you are just starting out, you probably have basic questions, like “What is a promotional video?,” “How long should a promotional video be?,” or “How much does it cost to make a promotional video?” But don’t worry. If you are wondering how to make promo videos, read on to learn some essential promotional video production tips and be inspired with a few great promo video ideas.
What Is a Promo Video?
The title is pretty self-explanatory. A promotional video is a video you create to promote your business. You may want to focus on promoting a specific product you sell, service you provide, or your business as a whole. But, the trick to promo videos is making it about the audience, not necessarily your business. People will instinctively go to your company or follow your call to action if you do your part by offering an impressive video. Focus on creating a great video, not an obvious sales pitch.
Additionally, one of the most important characteristics of a promo video is creativity. If your video lists off monotonous facts or details about your business and follows a predictable pattern, no one will watch it until the end, let alone share it. You must infuse raging creativity into your promo video so your audience will be intrigued, entertained, and, most of all, convinced. Get creative, not complex.
How to Come Up With a Million Dollar Idea
The answer is simple: brainstorm. You might be surprised at the promotional video ideas your own mind–and the minds of your team–can come up with. You can always hire a creative staff to do this work for you, but, if you are on a budget, brainstorming your own ideas unassisted will yield authentic results, too. Set apart a time each day for your team to free write or free draw ideas for the perfect video for your brand.
Brainstorming is just part of the planning process. Another way to come up with an idea is to study various promotional video examples. Don’t copy them of course, but find inspiration. You can create anything from an app promo video to a mini-series explaining a new product. Coming up with the right idea is easily the most crucial component of learning how to make a promo video. Don’t neglect it!
Elements Your Promo Video Should Entail
What makes a good promotional video? Well, along with the elements on this helpful list, your video should…
- Be unique. Like I said before, a creative idea is the key to distinguishing your promo video. But there are also certain, more concrete elements you can add to make your video stand out. Some ideas include taking aerial shots with drones or featuring 360 degree video.
- Have focus. If you are going to make your own promotional video, you must be in control of it. Have clarity and direction when planning, filming, and editing your video. Try finding focus by asking these questions: What is the purpose of the video? What message do I want to send? What tone do I want to convey?
- Have a natural script. By natural, I mean a script that doesn’t sound like a robot trying to cram a video with as much large vocabulary or fragmented information as possible. If no one on your team knows exactly how to write a promotional video script, you can always hire a promotional video company to handle that for you.
Promo Video Tips
- Be as succinct as possible. Cut out what is irrelevant and make sure every sentence and scene you keep adds value to the video in someway. This may mean providing information about your business, adding to the mood, describing your brand, etc. Remember, succinct does not mean vague. It means brief and clear. Complex and drawn out promo videos always pale in comparison to short promo videos.
- Include a call to action. This can be tricky. You have to make sure the call to action does not come off as a sales pitch begging for recognition from the audience. Instead, your video should be helping them by showing them where to sign up for your newsletter, follow your Facebook page, buy your product, or sign up for a free trial.
- Make it personal. Connect with your audience on a personal level by making your promo video applicable. Choose a certain aspect of life that your target audience experiences and understands. This can be anything from their philosophy on life to what they eat for breakfast. Also, make sure your tone matches your audience. Does your audience have a goofy or sarcastic sense of humor? Do they like conveniency or quality? etc.
Equipment and Shooting
Corporate promotional videos are popping up everywhere, so you will definitely have some competition. Even though you don’t have millions of dollars to spend on equipment or staff, this is no excuse for not buying anything. There are tons of affordable promotional video services available online and locally if you need some extra help.
- Video camera. Unless your promo video is an animation you will need a high quality video camera. Do not settle for average quality–remember, you want your promo video to stand out. When filming a professional video, steer clear of digital cameras. Don’t even mention smartphones.
- Tripod. The last thing you want your video to be is shaky. A tripod may not seem that important, but, the fact is, they are so inexpensive (heck, even take a look at Craigslist or at local garage sales) and are so worth it. They make the filming process much less stressful!
- Lighting. Lighting is easily one of the most important parts of shooting. Videos are as visual a media as you can get. If you mess that part up with bad lighting, the whole video will be tainted. All you need is a simple, proven three point lighting set-up with a few modest studio lights.
- Sound. If you want to feature voice or other sounds in your video, you’ll want to invest in a separate microphone. Otherwise, your audio will be fuzzy and unprofessional. If you want music in your video, I recommend searching the web for royalty-free or inexpensive music for promotional videos.
If you are struggling in any area of the process, just do a quick Google search for “promo video maker.” You can find a ton of video promotion sites that can provide you with video aids such as a promotional video template or creative ideas for promotional videos.
Editing
No promo video is complete without proper editing. Unlike learning how to write a script or brainstorm ideas, learning the ropes of video editing can be a tedious process for your business to undertake. Thus, you might want to consider hiring an affordable professional promo video editor. Valoso is an excellent option for promo video editing. You can hire a skilled editor to work on your video at your price, your deadline, and to your specifications.
Because promo videos are more accessible and inexpensive to make and distribute than ever, it’s time to get in on the action. Just remember to flaunt your brand’s creativity and, most importantly, take your time! Although it’s important to have deadlines, you cannot rush creativity. Take the effort to make sure your video is truly high quality and has an enthralling premise. It’s worth it.
