Your definitive guide to a successful promo video

We hate to break it to you, but if you haven’t already begun thinking to make a promo video to promote your business, then you’re missing out.

We know what you’re thinking though: producing professional promotional videos can be very expensive if you hire an agency, and you're not wrong. It's estimated that a 1-2 minute promotional video can cost up to a staggering $50,000 when produced by a premium agency.

By the end of this guide, you'll have a clear understanding of what actually is a promotional video, and we'll answer some important questions such as why should you make one? And how can you make a good promo video on a budget?

Ready? Let's dive in..

What is a promotional and how to make your own

What is a promotional video?

A promo video (or promotional video) is a video aimed to promote a specific aspect of a business such as a product, service, event, campaign, brand makeover, or new initiative. Promotional videos often feature a combination of graphics, video clips, designs, transitions, music, and text that are artistically combined to accomplish the marketing goal. Similar to a trailer for an upcoming movie that gives an overview of what the movie is about, shows the highlights, and includes a hook, promo videos give your business's target audience a preview of something on the horizon. 

By using a promo video, your business can capture the attention of your target audience, connect on an emotional level, and entertain, all while relaying information you need to share. The best promo videos are eye-catching and tell a story that engages, inspires, and delights. In the end, viewers shouldn't feel like they've been sold something but should remember the key information. 

When businesses need or want to generate interest in an upcoming event of some sort, whether a product release or something else, one of the most engaging and impactful ways to communicate it today is through the use of a promo video that's professionally designed to engage and drive action. Once created, the content can be shared across numerous media channels from television and live events to social media platforms.

What makes a successful promo video?

Not all videos are created equally. There are 5 key elements that make a promo video great, allowing it to stand out among the vast sea of video content. These include:

Length

One of the easiest and most effective ways to increase your promo video’s impact is to keep it within just 1-2 minutes in length. According to a study by Wistia, as video length increases past two minutes, you begin to see huge drops in engagement levels. This can be attributed to our declining attention spans, particularly when consuming online content.

Size, placement, and dimensions

Firstly, it’s important to place your promo video above the fold or just before your page starts to get too long. According to a recent study, this “removes barriers to pressing play for visitors who are ready to watch a video.” Secondly, it was found that videos with a width between 401 pixels and 600 pixels and a height measuring between 301 and 450 pixels have the highest average play rate.

Type

The type of promo video you create for your business will play a role in its success as well, as you will need to produce a video format that makes sense for your goal and target audience. Some examples of different types of promo videos and their related uses include:

• Product launch or instructional video: To inform your audience about your latest product and increase sales, by demonstrating its use, explaining its features, and establishing its necessity to your customers. 

• Explainer video: An expainer video provide a brief overview of your product or service, introduce a problem the target audience is looking to overcome, and then re-iterate the solution your product or service offers. Think of it as a quick and easy explanation aiming to engage viewers, convince them of the product or service's value, and turn them into customers.

• Problem-solving video: These focus on a more specific problem the target audience is interested in overcoming and provides the process or a step-by-step example of how they can do this using the business' products or services. DIY home improvement videos offered by hardware companies are a great example of this.

• Creative video: These take the form of animation, motion graphics, or any other creative style and can also be used as instructional, explainer, or problem-solving videos. Creative video types are ideal for discussing more difficult concepts and often include graphics such as diagrams, charts, or maps to appeal to an audience's preference for visual learning.

Style

If you’re worried you’ll be limited to just one or two styles for a promotional video, you’re in for a treat. There are so many video styles to choose from, including:

• Live-action videos

• 2D or 3D animation

• Live streaming

• Photomontage

• Screencast

• Typography

You’ll want to consider a variety of important factors when choosing the style for your video. These include your video’s topic, target audience, and type.

Tone

When a viewer watches your video, how do you want them to feel? This is how you can describe the tone of your video, which is an important aspect for not only helping your audience to connect with your content but also for bringing your message to life. Popular tones include:

• Conversational

• Urgent

• Playful

• Humorous

• Youthful

• Luxurious

3. Why businesses should have a promotional video?

The four most common reasons for businesses to create a promotional video include:

Brand awareness and education

Statistics show that video is a great medium for making consumers more aware of your brand. A staggering 85% of people say they’d like to see more video from brands, while 72% of people would rather use video to learn about a product or service when both video and text are available on the same page. 

When you think of brand awareness, you might think about aspects such as logo recognition, but it goes far beyond that. Brand recognition is about creating a long-lasting and meaningful relationship with your target audience and encouraging them to feel certain positive emotions when your brand comes to mind.

Because video is such a visual content method, it’s the perfect medium to educate your audience about your business, products, and services. This is because viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when reading it in text. 

Think about why your audience should care about what you have to offer and how it can help them in their lives. Keep your target audience’s needs at the center of everything you do, and you’ll dramatically increase your chances of success.

To drive sales

Another popular reason for creating a promo video is to attract customers, drive sales, and therefore, increase revenue. Studies show 81% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service after watching a brand’s video, while 76% of businesses say video has helped them to increase their sales. 

This is because videos are an accessible and entertaining way for viewers to see products up-close and in action, even if it is via a screen. Furthermore, videos reassure the customer by helping them make an informed purchase decision, especially for online shopping when they can’t physically hold the product in their hands.

Don’t just take our word for it though. A study of online fashion retailers showed that those using video on product pages saw a 134% boost in conversions while an A/B test of a fitness product sales page saw a 46% uplift in click-throughs to the purchase page when the sales page included a video.

To drive traffic

Websites with videos attract 2-3 times as many visitors as those that don’t. Not only is video an effective tool for increasing traffic to your website, but it also successfully keeps people there for longer, therefore reducing your bounce rate. According to MistMedia, 88% of visitors will stay longer on a website that has a prominent video displayed. 

The even better news? Those that stay longer are 64% more likely to purchase a product. Again, this links back to the fact that humans are highly visual, so videos allow your site to reach the perfect balance between written and visual content.

Additionally, both search engines and social media (particularly LinkedIn) prioritize multimedia content on a page, as they know videos have a high engagement rate. This is extremely beneficial for SEO, as it increases the time spent on the page (also known as dwell time), which is one of Google's ranking factors. It’s also a great way to drive additional traffic over to your content.

To increase customer engagement and entertainment

When we think of the customer experience, we often think of the sales journey, but it’s so much more than that. Your customers want to feel as though they’re being heard, their questions are being answered, their problems are being fixed, and they’re therefore forming a strong connection to the brand. 

Remember, it’s all about encouraging your target audience to interact with and gain positive effects from the experiences you create for them as a business. All these elements contribute to customer retention and engagement, which when executed well, fosters brand growth and loyalty.

Customer entertainment goes hand-in-hand with engagement. When your audience is entertained, customer engagement levels are high. Videos, of course, play a huge role in entertaining and engaging your audience, as 1 in 4 consumers tend to lose interest in a company if it doesn’t feature any videos on its site.

This all comes down to human psychology. We're wired to pay attention to four key elements: faces, voices, body language, and movement. By engaging viewers so successfully, video is able to leave a memorable impression, with 80% of customers being able to remember a video they viewed in the past month.

Keep in mind that it’s better to stick to a single “why,” rather than trying to achieve multiple goals with your video. After all, you don’t want your viewer feeling confused or overwhelmed. If you want to address many goals, it is better to complete each one as a separate video project.

Types of promo videos

We’ve listed here below some of the most effective types of video you can use to promote your business and brand.

Product launch videos

A great way to generate buzz prior to a product launch is through a live launch promo video. When done correctly, you can effectively communicate to an audience the value of your product and help to increase demand. Additionally, appearing live on social media or having an influencer introducing the product on your behalf can assist with building brand credibility and trust.

Explainer videos

If you want an effective way to communicate to your target audience what your product/service does, as well as its unique features, and how it can benefit them, then an explainer video is the best way to go. Don’t forget to think outside of the box here and provide a video that isn’t just a list of facts, but is entertaining too. This is a great way to increase customer engagement, as viewers love sharing entertaining videos with their networks.

Problem-solving videos

With a story that intrigues and inspires, you can tell your ideal customers about the problems your product can solve, all while maintaining their interest to the very end. When creating a video of this type and style, it’s vital you focus first and foremost on your target market’s pain points, as well as why your product (as opposed to your competitors) is the solution they’ve been looking for. You may consider using a real-life example of how your product has helped a customer solve a problem.

Brand informational videos

An informational video serves as an effective way to demonstrate your expertise in the field and set your business apart from others within the industry. Think about what you are most knowledgeable about and how this information can help your target market. 

To boost your authority, you might wish to interview professionals within your company, discuss industry trends, or make recommendations for solving problems your audience faces. It’s also an engaging way to convey your brand’s style, energy, and personality.

Creative videos

By getting creative with your video style, you can create a new and innovative approach to understanding your products and services. The whiteboard animation style tells a creative story with pictures drawn on a background resembling a whiteboard and is perfect for explaining more complex ideas or processes.

How to make a promo video on a budget

There are 12 key production steps you’ll need to focus on before launching your promo video into the world. Several of these steps refer to hiring freelance professionals for your project, as this is how you achieve a promo video on a budget, as opposed to paying top dollar just to outsource your video work to an agency. We’ve outlined each step in detail below.

1. Step 1. define your goal

2. Step 2. Define your target market

3. Step 3. Define your target tone and mood

4. Step 4. Hire a scriptwriter

5. Step 5. Complete the storyboard

6. Step 6. Hire a designer

7. Step 7. Complete the shot list

8. Step 8. Hire a video animator

9. Step 9. Hire a voice actor or a sound effects specialist

10. Step 10. Hire a video editor

11. Step 11. Publish

12. Step 12. Cross-publish your video

Step 1. define your goal

At the beginning of the guide, we talked about the various reasons why you would want to create a promo video, but now it’s time to get specific about your own goal. Not only does this give you specific outcomes to work towards when producing a promo video for your business, but it also helps you establish which KPIs (key performance indicators) you must track to determine if the outcome of your video was successful or not.

A good trick when establishing your goals is that they should be SMART: 

• Specific (simple, sensible, significant)

• Measurable (meaningful, motivating)

• Achievable (agreed, attainable)

• Relevant (realistic, resourced, results-based)

• Time-bound (time-based, time/cost limited, timely)

We’ve listed three main reasons for making a promo video below, as well as how you can look to related KPIs to turn these into SMART goals.

To attract more visitors. When using a promo video to attract more visitors to your website in the hopes of encouraging them to explore your product or service offering, you’ll want to use the following traffic-related KPIs. These not only measure your campaign’s success but also help you be more specific about what areas you’re looking to improve:

• Unique Website Visitors

• New and Returning Visitors

• Impressions

• Profile visits

• Top Landing Pages

To engage more followers. If your end goal is to engage more followers to build trust and loyalty among your brand, then the following KPIs should be considered to give you greater clarity:

• Reach

• Shares

• Comments

• Likes

• Social referral traffic

To nurture more potential prospects. Is the ultimate aim of your promo video to nurture more potential prospects in the hopes of transitioning them from leads to customers? The following KPIs should be considered to determine which specific areas you will be focusing on to achieve this:

• Conversion rate

• Revenue generated

• Return on investment (ROI)

• Time on page

• Cost per acquisition (CPA)

Step 2. Define your target market

You should have a very clear idea about who your target market is, as this will give you the greatest understanding of how and where to reach them. Remember, your target market is the group of people most likely to benefit from, and therefore buy your products or services.

Your target market will be a very specific group of people sharing several demographics (statistical data) and psychographics (personal characteristics).

When considering the demographics of your target market, write down your answers to the following factors:

• Age

• Location

• Gender

• Income level

• Education level

• Marital or family status

• Occupation

• Ethnic background

When considering the psychographics of your target market, write down your answers to the following factors:

• Personality

• Attitudes

• Values

• Interests/hobbies

• Lifestyles

• Behavior

The final step is to gain even greater clarity about your target market by brainstorming the following questions:

• What are their pain points?

• How does your product or service fit into their lifestyle?

• How and when will they use your product or service?

• What can they learn from your video?

• What type of content do they want to see?

• Where do they most often watch videos? (i.e. through which platforms or social media channels?)

Once you know what motivates your target audience, it’s easier to formulate video content that will help them achieve their goals, thus helping your business achieve its own goals.

Step 3. Define your target tone and mood

It’s one thing to have a video that looks good, but unless you’re having an emotional effect on your viewer, it’s unlikely they’ll feel motivated to act. According to Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman, 95% of our purchase decision-making takes place in the subconscious mind based on how we feel. When it comes to your promotional video, the most effective way to appeal to your viewer’s emotions is through the tone and mood communicated.

To inspire you, we’ve listed the most popular video tones and moods below:

• Confident

• Inspirational

• Educational

• Informative

• Relaxed/fun

• Luxurious/prestigious

• Urgent

• Warm/caring

When brainstorming what tone and mood would work best for your promo video, ask yourself the following questions:

• What tone will best represent your overarching goal and how you want your company to be perceived?

• Have you run any marketing campaigns in the past (whether video, email, blog content, etc.)? If so, which campaigns have been the most successful and what tone or mood did they portray?

• What words come to mind when you think of the product or service you’ll be promoting in your video?

• What words have customers used to describe your products or services in the past?

• What tone or mood would your target audience be most responsive to and why?

Step 4. Hire a scriptwriter

The first important step in creating your promo video is to hire a professional scriptwriter. While it can be tempting to try and write the script yourself (or outsource it to another member of your company who has some writing experience), it is vital that a scriptwriting professional completes this role.

This is because your script serves as the message you’ll be communicating in your promo video. The benefit of hiring a scriptwriter is that they know how to engage the right audience, how to run a proper script structure, and focus on the brand’s marketing objectives, all at the same time.

The scriptwriter has a very important role in your video, as they’re responsible for things such as creating characters, crafting dialogue, and writing an engaging plot, all while keeping in line with the desired tone and mood of the video. They must also include elements such as stage directions and further instructions relating to the camera, lighting, and shot instructions. These form what is known as a shooting script.

When working on a promo video of just 1-2 minutes in length, the script must be clear and concise in order to engage viewers, make them want to keep watching and learn more.

Step 5. Complete the storyboard 

Your storyboard is an arrangement of your video’s vision, ideas, script, and sequence. Its purpose is to bring your script and ideas to life visually, as this not only ensures what you’re proposing to shoot will look great but also that it makes sense in relation to elements such as dialogue, location, characters, etc. This is where the next step comes into play, as you’ll need a professional to execute your storyboard.

Step 6. Hire a designer 

As we touched on above, it’s the designer’s responsibility to build on your storyboard to a point where it’s ready to translate into a video. They will also address aspects such as colors, tones, style, motion, and more, to ensure every element of your video is ready to move forward. 

There is a lot of work involved in completing a video’s storyboard, so while it may be tempting to save some of your budget and do it yourself, you’ll actually be costing yourself more time and money (and disappointment) in the long run.

Step 7. Complete the shot list 

Your shot list maps out what needs to happen in each shot, including what elements will be required for each scene or setup. Shot lists are part of the scriptwriting process and form the basis of a shooting schedule. They also help to provide a sense of direction and allow those involved to organize what’s needed before filming.

Step 8. Hire a video animator

If your video will be animated, you’ll need to hire a video animator to bring it to life. Animation has the ability to bring any concept, no matter how complex or unrealistic, to fruition with ease. Professional video animators can help your video to stand out by creating an end product that’s custom and original. They’re also not constrained by elements such as weather, recording equipment, travel between locations, or anything else that applies to a live-action video.

Step 9. Hire a voice actor or a sound effects specialist

When it comes to the audio components of your video, you’ll need to hire a voice actor or sound effects specialist to get the job done. For voice actors, this will involve a casting to find the perfect-sounding voice that matches the tone you had in mind. A sound effects specialist, on the other hand, ensures the most perfect, high-quality sound effects are heard at exactly the right moment in the video.

Step 10. Hire a video editor

Video editors are responsible for editing and assembling the required material into a finished product that’s not only ready for publishing but meets the project brief too. This material may include camera footage, dialogue, sound effects, graphics, and special effects. They also manage and oversee the technical aspects of video recording and editing.

Step 11. Publish

Once you have your finished promo video and it meets your desired vision, it’s time to publish it and share it with your target audience. Remember to focus on the video-sharing platforms we mentioned earlier in this article, as well as those your target audience is most active on.

Step 12. Cross-publish your video

Once your video has been published on your website, it may be tempting to sit back, relax, and forget about it. This is where the most crucial post-publication task comes into play, however: cross-publishing your video for maximum exposure.

Ensure your video can be uploaded to other key video-sharing platforms (such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and more) by preparing it in the following ways:

• Optimize the titles, descriptions, and other components for SEO purposes

• Add captions to your social media videos so viewers don’t have to rely on sound to understand your video

• Optimize the video’s size for each social platform you want to share it on, as each platform has different optimal size requirements

• Save the video’s embed code (which you can obtain from platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo) to embed it in a blog post or email.

Conclusion: a successful promo video doesn't have to be expensive

Videos are more engaging, more memorable, and more popular than any other type of content out there, with statistics showing it can improve conversions by 86% and generate a whopping 1200% more shares than text and image content combined.

While the process of creating a promo video may seem daunting, it can be achieved on a tight budget within just a few simple steps, including working with freelance professionals to develop a video script, create a storyboard, complete the required animations, record the necessary scenes and audio, and bring it all to life.

Remember, premium video agencies can charge as high as $50,000 just to create a 1-2 minute promo video for your business, but with the help of experienced freelancers, you're able to produce a high-quality promo video that doesn't just meet your goals, but your budget too. 

What separates a highly successful promo video apart from the mediocre ones is understanding key elements, such as why you want to create the video, who your target market is, which video type and style works best for your goals, and what tone and mood will resonate best with your viewers. Understanding these components also helps you focus your video production efforts so you can save time and money. 

By following these important steps in our guide, you’ll be well on your way to achieving your business goals, whether that’s attracting more visitors, engaging more followers, or nurturing more potential prospects.