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How Promotional Videos Can Help Grow Your Business
In this article, we are going to talk about the benefits of creating a promotional video for your business, the different types you can go for, and tips for planning and producing one.
Raphael Freitas
March 26, 2024 • Reading Time: 12 minutes
Table of Contents
We are all familiar with promotional videos. They have been around for ages. Back in the day, they were very costly to produce and only had one main distribution channel: TV. Yes, TV commercials are old-school promotional videos. In this day and age, however, we are lucky enough to have a wide variety of distribution channels to promote our brand with video content. As well as having easy access to quality audiovisual equipment at a price point that doesn’t break your bank.
Even though we know the power of a promo video and have proof that it does work, many businesses these days, especially SMEs, sometimes overlook its potential and don’t implement them in their marketing strategy.
In this article, we are going to talk about the benefits of creating a promotional video for your business, the different types you can go for, and tips for planning and producing one.
Benefits
First, let’s start with the advantages of promotional videos and how it can make your brand more noticeable.
Brand Awareness
TV commercials are a very nice example of how a promotional video can increase your Brand Awareness. We all have that one Ad that we can’t forget and sometimes even remember every single bit of it. They worked in the past, and still work today. One of the attractions that the Super Bowl brings to the table is the commercial spots. Every year brands fight for a chance to show up in it.
Photo by Christopher Alvarenga
A well-produced promo video can stick to people’s minds and place your brand on top of their mind. Moreover, people will be also talking about your video, leveraging the arguably best type of promotion a business can hope for, word-of-mouth.
Specific audience
One characteristic that sets today’s promotional videos apart from the good old TV commercials is the audience watching it. In the TV era, your video would be shown to whoever was in front of the TV at that given time. While this can be good for raw numbers, many of the viewers would be far from your target audience.
One of the benefits of Online Advertisement is that you can have a laser-focused audience that will be consuming your videos. It is now easier and cheaper than ever for your ad to be viewed by your potential customers, which can drastically improve conversions and sales.
Build identity and trust
Video content is a great way to give your brand more personality. While you can set a certain tone on the way you write, it is way easier done in a video. Moreover, having a human face associated with your brand makes it more relatable.
Educating your customers through video is another great way to build trust and trust usually translates into sales. In fact, 84% of people get convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.
Easily convey your message
Sometimes it’s way easier to show people what you mean than trying to put it into words. Imagine you have to teach someone how to fry an egg. It is a pretty simple thing to do, right? But when you try to put it into words it can be either vague or very hard.
How hard do you have to hit the egg to just crack it and not completely break it? How should you throw in the frying pan to preserve that beautiful yolk? Even though you might be able to write down the instructions, the person reading them could likely misunderstand and still do it the wrong way.
Now imagine this is the context of a product or service. Showing how your product can solve the customer’s pain point and make their life easier could be more easily shown than explained with words and images. Not even considering that a video would also be more engaging to the viewer.
When was the last time you received a viral video from a friend? With the rise of social media, sharing was made easier than ever. With 1 click (or tap), people can send a video that they found interesting or funny to several friends in a matter of seconds.
A great example of viral promotional videos is the “Will it blend?” series from Blendtec. In the series of videos, the host simply tries to blend different objects like iPad, Gold Balls, Justin Bieber CDs, and many other curious things in a Blendtec blender. The video campaign was so successful that the videos collected over 300M views in total.
Promotional video examples
There is no one size fits all when it comes to promotional videos. The type of your promo video will be directly related to your business goals. In this section, we are going to explore a few different types of videos you could produce and what are their advantages with examples for inspiration.
Launch Video
Launch videos are a great way to present your brand to potential new customers. It is a perfect opportunity to show the audience who you are as a brand, and how you can help them.
Take for example the Dollar Shave Club launch video. Besides the fact that it went viral and has over 27 million views on YouTube, it clearly presents the customer pain point, the solution it brings and its unique sales proposition in a very funny way perfectly tailored to their target audience.
Explainer Video
Explainer videos are short, animated videos that tell the viewer the problem your product or service is trying to solve and the benefits it brings to their lives or business.
An important part of an explainer video is keeping the information concise and to the point. Don’t try to explain how your product works in too much detail. It will get boring and you will lose your viewer’s attention.
A great example of an explainer video is the one below from CrazyEgg. Even though the product itself is very complex it is explained in a very easy and engaging way with a touch of humor.
Product Video
With a different approach to the other types of promotional videos we talked about so far, product videos are focused on one thing only: the product.
These types of videos are mainly used for physical products. The goal here is to showcase the characteristics of the product and sometimes show it in use by the target audience. Product videos are very commonly used for new releases of product lines, for example.
A great example of a product video is the Superbowl commercial from Fitbit in which it showcases people using the watch both while doing sports or performing daily tasks. It highlights that even though the product is a sports watch, it also looks good for everyday use.
Customer testimonials
Customer testimonials videos are arguably one of the most impactful types of promotional videos. Every brand will tell you why their product is the best for your needs.
Having real customers highlighting how your solution improved their businesses or lives builds trust in your brand for new potential customers. This could be a deal maker for a customer making a purchase decision.
See how Amazon leverages its customer testimonials about the Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) program to showcase how satisfied they are and highlight all the benefits of the service.
Stunt videos
Stunt videos are promotional videos that use the audience as an integral part of the storytelling of the video. It usually also highlights a specific characteristic of the product/service with the help of real people.
Imagine, for example, that your product is an unbreakable case for iPhones. What better way to showcase the efficiency of your product than asking random people in the streets to try to break it in different ways, right? This would be a perfect example of a stunt promotional video.
Another great (and funny) example of a stunt video is the one below from TNT adding a bit of drama to a boring street.
The last promotional video type on our shortlist is the social responsibility video. These videos are becoming more and more common lately. As society evolves new social issues arise.
Current topics in the spotlight are, for example, gender equality, female empowerment, sustainable consumption, and production, among many other issues that daunt society in this day and age.
Social responsibility videos show the customers what you stand for, what your company values and mission are, and what social issues your brand supports. With a wide variety of products solving the same problem, connecting with the customer in a deeper personal way could be the reason they choose to consume your product instead of a competitor’s. People want to support a brand whose values are aligned with what they believe in.
A great example of a social responsibility promotional video is Always’ #LikeAGirl video. It shows the values it stands for, female empowerment, putting in question an expression used by many in our daily lives, which embodies a negative meaning about gender equality.
Planning the promo video
Now you have a better idea of the benefits promotional videos can bring to your business and the many different ways you can approach it. The next thing to do is to plan your own promo video. This is arguably the most important part of the whole process. Coming up with the story you want to tell and what message you want to convey is vital for a successful outcome.
We could (and probably will) have an entire article just about this topic. But for now, we will give you a few bullet points to always keep in mind when coming up with the idea of your next promotional video.
Know your audience and talk to them in a relatable manner.
Focus on entertainment, not facts.
Keep it simple and straight to the point.
Know the goal of your video.
Make sure it is high quality, not necessarily high budget.
Include a CTA, if it fits the video type you chose.
Creating your promotional video
The last part of the creative process when it comes to promotional videos is bringing your idea to life. This means shooting and editing your video. Although it might not sound that hard at first, if you want a high-quality video, you will be better off leaving it in the hands of a video production professional.
Many video production companies are specialized in promotional videos. A big name, especially for explainer videos in the tech industry, is Sandwich. Their videos are top-notch and many companies even trade shares for a chance to have videos produced by them, since their price tag can get quite high.
If you are looking for a cheaper way to do it, the best approach is to try to find local filmmakers/videographers who can also deliver great quality videos for a fraction of the price.
This is your lucky day, with Beazy our goal is to make content production easy and take away all the boring stuff. If you made it through the planning phase, you can come to us with your idea and we will help both find and book all the gear, locations, and talents you will need to bring your idea to life. This way you can focus on the business side of things and we take care of the content production.
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