Video production 101: creating effective promotional & product videos

Promotional Video

A distinctive and innovative promotional video is one of the best ways to target your audience with your key marketing message.

But what is a promotional video?

It’s the umbrella term for a lot of video styles: product videos, explainers, product launch videos, video ads, testimonial videos, recruitment videos. But the best way to define it is this: a promotional video is a marketing video that seeks to promote your products or services to potential customers.

Which promotional video is right for my brand?

Ask yourself this first: what are your video’s objectives? When you clearly define your video’s goals, you’ll need to work out how you’ll compel your audience to take action. If, for example, your goal is to get as many eyeballs on your products or services, you’ll need to make a video that raises brand awareness. This promotional video highlights the customers’ problem – and why your products or services exists to solve it.

If your goal is to drive leads or sales, an explainer or product demo video gives audiences more insight into what you do as opposed to why your business exists.

For those who’ve created multiple explainers but want to get prospects over the line – whether it’s to sign up to your service or purchase a product, testimonial videos or case studies provide you with a stamp of approval from happy customers.

How long should a promotional video be?

Less is more when it comes to creating promotional videos. As attention span wanes, try to keep video content to under two minutes – particularly if your video is for your website or a social channel. Avoid cramming in too much information and consider splitting what you need to say across multiple videos.

When planning a social ad campaign, splice up a long video into shorter iterations. The more creative campaigns are supported by spin-off videos that add a new dimension to a longer video. These can appear on Instagram Stories, Facebook ads or Tik Tok videos but serve the same purpose. They’re promotional video content and form part of a wider campaign.

Using motion graphics in product videos

You might need a promotional video to explain the service you offer. Motion graphics is an affordable and effective way to tell a visual story. And with 85% of Facebook videos watched without sound, adding graphics can drive home your message in a clear and succinct manner.

Making product videos for social media

Social videos are more effective in driving conversion than any other medium. After all, videos are shared 1200% more than text and links combined. Yet a well-crafted, compelling promotional video requires more skill than simply being able to point and shoot. Here’s some tips on how best to get the most out of your product video:

• Build brand loyalty in your promotional videos by featuring staff and happy customers. It builds brand trust and social proof – a currency that can be difficult to convey on social media.
• What kind of copy will accompany your product video on your social channel? It’ll need to sell your message and help convert views into clicks.
• How will you grab attention? The first 3 seconds of a social video matters so avoid opening with a fade up from black.
• What happens 15 seconds in? View rates often drop 15 seconds in, so make sure you include the main crux of your message within those precious seconds.
• Take the time to switch out your thumbnails depending on which social channels you’ll be using. A thumbnail with text is more likely to be viewed than a simple static image.
• Don’t forget a stong call to action.

Promotional and product video examples

GX Group, a design engineering and product development company, work with some of the biggest brands in the world – L’Oreal, Ford, BMW and Kraft to name a few. This promotional video introduces key personnel, thereby humanising the B2B business, whilst pulling off a slick montage of their work.

My Family Vets had an attractivevaccine deal on offer and opted for a branded content video to roll out across social. This funny series paid homage to household pets, tugging at the heartstrings of pet owners nationwide. It featured on YouTube pre-roll, Facebook and Instagram ads, generating over 1 million impressions.

Promotional video production agency

At Skylark, we are experts at putting ourselves in your customers’ shoes. And we know how to make you a polished production that will give your brand the edge over its competitors. The examples below provide a taste of the huge range of styles you could employ to move, impress and inspire your customers. Get in touch at [email protected]