Seeing static ads on social media is getting rarer and rarer, and videos have taken over the world. If you’re a cool entrepreneur or marketer, try using video to promote your company. The main thing is to decide on the format, draw up a clear implementation plan and start moving forward, even in small steps. Do not miss the opportunity to promote your business using video content.
Why do businesses need promotional videos?
- A dynamic commercial is a powerful tool that draws attention to a product, project, or service;
- Vivid stories will help to establish contact with the audience and turn them into your customers;
- Demonstration of the benefits of a product or service;
- Drive traffic and increase conversions.
Steps to making a promotional video
Stage 1. Preparation work
Even if you create a promotional video yourself, this stage cannot be neglected. Define the target audience. This is important, as the overall look of the advertisement must match it. Bright funny videos are unlikely to attract the attention of lovers of antiques and vice versa: dark low-dynamic videos will not catch the eye of buyers of kinetic sand for children.
Specify whether it will be a commodity advertisement. There will be an advertisement for a product or service or an image advertisement. That is, you will remind the audience of yourself and be remembered for the future. Determine the purpose of the promotional video:
- informative;
- convincing;
- reminiscent;
- comparative.
Stage 2. Idea development
It’s time to brainstorm and develop an idea for a video for an advertising campaign. Even if these are pictures and inscriptions successively replacing each other, it is important to prescribe what will be shown to the viewer behind what. What colors will be in the video, voice, or music?
If the promotional video involves filming models, a product, or the process of providing a service, make an estimate and calculate the estimated costs. After all, the advertising budget depends on whether you shoot yourself or a professional, at home / in the office, or in a photo studio. Often, advertising videos are recorded on the street or at the client’s if the service is provided. It is important to consider the nuances: the weather, the location of the shooting – whether you need to pay for it, the fee for the client if the shooting is with his participation.
The price of a short promotional video also depends on the placement. When you shoot a promotional video for Instagram and post it in the feed, it’s one thing. When you promote it with targeted ads or ads through bloggers, it’s another thing.
Stage 3. Post-production
When all the materials are filmed and the little things are thought out, the time comes for editing into a single whole. You can entrust the production of an advertising video to a professional or mount it yourself.
It is quite possible to mount a video for a social network on your own. The choice of application depends on many factors. Take advantage of online design platforms if your commercial involves 2D animation using photographic footage.
You can contact video editors if your video involves:
- Editing the captured video fragments.
- Cropping.
- Stitching into a single clip.
- Other editing delights.
For simple advertising in Instagram Stories, use applications on your phone. For more serious work on producing promotional videos, use PC programs. For quick and easy editing, pick a free online video editor.
Types of promotional videos
Reviews
For example, a review of a service or service. The purpose of reviews is to show the potential user why you are better than others. It is important here not to focus on specific settings but to show how the product solves the client’s problem in general terms. This is a good promotional video format for a business of Internet services and services, but not products. A product review is usually classified as direct advertising and is no longer helpful.
Instructions
These include all instructional videos, tutorials, and usage tips. Suitable for demonstrating the product in action. It’s like a text instruction, but more visual, concise, and understandable the first time.
When you clearly show how easy it is to interact with a product, you further attract those who want to use it. And at the same time, you keep those who have already started but have not yet understood the benefits.
To implement such a video, you need a story plan, as in a live performance, and a person with competent, clear speech. If you are shooting something tangible, you need a well-lit room, a smartphone or camera that shoots no worse than FullHD, and a tripod or holder for a smartphone.
Memes
All videos will show that you are not snobs but lively and flexible. On the Internet, they like this: if you’re lucky, they will discuss you. Ideally, thanks to such a video, many people will know about you for the first time.
It is important to choose the right topic for a joke when shooting. Well, if it is relevant right now. It is essential to understand that, unlike instructions and reviews, memes are not “evergreen” but one-time content, but they can immediately give results.
Broadcasts
Frequently asked questions can also be included here. It is unnecessary to talk only about your product if you bring value to your subscribers. Broadcasts allow you to discuss what is not possible with other formats.
To organize such a video, the most important thing is the speaker who will broadcast, and they should be a trained person who understands the topic. If you think that this is not an advertising format, then in vain – this is the same ad, only native.
TV series
The idea is to tell a story and natively embed your brand here. And it is better to team up with several brands and make a common mini-series. The presence of the brand must be but without an accent. Implementing this is difficult and long but interesting. For this reason, the format is popular not with small brands but with large companies.
Behind-the-scenes videos
Suitable for those who have something to boast about and something to show. Such videos will help to achieve a loyal customer relationship. You can do interviews with employees, as long as it does not look feigned and stupid. Do not forget that the video will be watched not only by the potential but also by existing customers, as well as competitors. So tell the truth.
Side interview
When a company representative answers questions, it attracts. It achieves the same goals as the video from the previous example but works differently. By the way, your organization can act as an organizer. For example, if you work in the B2B field, you can do interviews with clients. Again, you don’t have to put your ad everywhere.
Let’s summarize
How to choose the format you need? Try to go with the elimination method and weed out formats that definitely won’t fit. At first, it may seem that making a promotional video is too complicated a process. But if you start to dive into the topic, you will understand that it is not the gods who burn the pots.
