Promotional clips or promo videos have been creating a buzz for quite some time, especially in light of online marketing. However, devising promotional clips as marketing techniques is not something new. Marketing professionals have been using this tactic for more than 80 years now. To your surprise, the first TV advertisement aired on July 1, 1941, in the US.
Promo videos are exceptional because they capture the attention of your audience effortlessly and almost immediately. Most importantly, you can use video content in numerous ways, including Instagram and Facebook stories, ads of Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, the newsfeed of LinkedIn and Facebook, YouTube videos, and Snapchat stories.
Do you know what the best part is? Promotional clips sell. And they sell in less than a minute by clicking the right emotions and encouraging people to buy.
Putting your ideas together to create a game-changing clip might feel like an easy chore using a Clipmaker. However, the challenge is to make sure that your video content is capable enough to grab attention. So, how can you do that?
Regardless of the size of your company, your budget, and the purpose behind making a video, there is a basic format that you need to follow when it comes to creating promotional clips.
Going further will help you learn about the tips and tricks for making promo videos. Let’s read on!
Focus on one idea at a time
The main intention to make promotional video content is to create brand awareness, educate your customers, and drive sales and traffic. Therefore, you might get tempted to say it all about your brand in one go. But, what you need to do is focus on only one thing.
And that is – how your products or services can solve the problems of your customers?
A direction is crucial
Setting your direction is utterly essential for making a promotional video. Would you like your clip to be introductory, explanatory, narrative, problem-solving, informative, entertaining, or a testimonial?
Once you set the direction, setting the tone (the next step) will become hassle-free.
The tonality speaks a lot
Until and unless you get the tone right, you are less likely to influence your customers. For example, do you want to inform your audience about something your brand does? Is storytelling what you want? Do you want humor to grab those eyeballs? Identifying the tone can work wonders for sure.
So choose if you need the attitude of your video to be dramatic, conversational, straightforward, playful, humorous, urgent, quirky, inspirational, or entertaining, and make your video communicate your brand message.
Decide the length of the video
There is no hard and fast rule when deciding the duration of your promo video. Some clips might take as little as 15 seconds to reach out to your audience with the message, while some might take around 2 to 3 minutes. Simply put, the factors that decide the length of your promotional clip include:
- Your objective (brand awareness, customer review)
- The platform on which it will come (social media, television, websites)
- Your budget
The video style you wish to have
By now, you probably have gotten your clip’s intention, direction, tonality, and length. Right? Now, let’s choose what or how your promo will appear to the audience. Some of the most popular video styles include the following:
- Illustrated or animated
- Involving real people
- Screencast
- B-roll footage
- Live-action
- Whiteboard, and so on
You may also think of combining two or multiple styles if the script demands so.
Get the outline ready!
Before you start working on the script, it is imperative to work on the outline and get it done. A standard design should include the following:
- The number of scenes and locations
- The characters, their types, avatar, and storyline
- The type of audio you want
- Fitting the product into the promo story
- The number of times the product or service will appear
- The props you need
- The Call to Action
It is time for the script!
Your script comprises everything that your audience will see and hear in your promo clip. Therefore, you need to focus on drawing the attention of your viewers. So, what you can do is –
- Start the video with the pain points or issues your audience is going through
- Now, tell them how your brand can help them with problem-solving
- Convince your audience and support your claims with relevant evidence, maybe customer testimonials and reviews
- End the video with a strong CTA or call to action.
Make sure to stay away from fluff or unnecessary drama. It might lead to distraction.
Storyboarding the script
Once your video script is ready, you need to jump into storyboarding. A storyboard comprises thumbnails of the scenes and frames you want to use in your video. It also has notes respective to each frame. The perks of storyboarding includes:
- It betters communication between the people working on creating the promotional video
- It helps plan the shooting and editing properly
- It links photos to audio
Footage collection can be hectic but fun!
Depending on your script and the storyboard, you should now source all the essential elements that your promo video demands. They may include the following:
- The videos (both self-recorded and screen-recorded)
- The audios (both sounds and voice-overs)
These final details are crucial.
Editing time!
When you have everything in your hand and one place, get started with the editing phase. Are you using an editing tool to create awe-inspiring video content? No matter what, make sure to have complete control over the materials available. Also, do keep your storyboard in mind while arranging the clips to maintain consistency. Do not forget to include the correct graphic elements and texts as and when needed.
And your promotional clip is ready!
After all the brainstorming and efforts, finally, your promo is ready to do the magic. So, use it the way you want to turn the heads of your customers like never before.
As you can see, creating promotional video content is not rocket science. All it needs is research, hard work, and an easy-to-use and intuitive platform.
