Step 1. Define the goal
Your goal should be clear and simple. If your goal can’t be expressed in a couple of sentences it’s a bad sign. It means you need to spend more time defining it. Also, it shows how good your idea is.
You must have a strong definition of your goal before you start to create a promo video. You need to do that because a clear goal is what makes your working process easier.
It’s not a secret that creating a video content isn’t a cheap process. So, if you have strong knowledge about the goal of your project, know all the advantages and disadvantages of your idea, dedicated to all nuances of a brand mission, then it’ll help you to save your time and money.
Usually, companies want to create a promo video to get brand awareness or to increase traffic to their website. All in all, the main point is not about the website and its traffic, not even about blogging but about increasing income. So, does promo video help with it? Of course, it is. But it takes time to do it in the best possible way with the best result you can desire.
Another reason to create a promo video is to educate your potential clients. You need to do it if your product is pretty specific or you simply want to tell customers why your product is better than a product of your competitors.
Just remember that the perfect way to create a promo video is to make one video for one goal. The more goals you try to show in one video the fewer chances to success you have.
What should you do in this case? The answer is pretty simple. If you have multiple goals, you need to get a few videos for each of these goals. This is the best way to go!
Step 2. Choose the direction
There are a lot of different directions but you need to choose one. Let’s look at them and try to decide what direction suits you better.
- Introductory
You should choose this direction if your target is to tell your potential customers who you are or explain to them your unique mission.
- Explanatory
Choose this direction if you wish to explain in what way your product has been made. Make it an instruction that helps people to use your product on a daily basis or something. Tell them how it works and what features it has with a purpose to make your product more attractive to potential buyers.
- Problem & Solution
Tell your target audience a story of how your product or services can easily solve their problem. If you inspire your potential buyers that you sell them the best solution from possible, you’ll extremely increase your income and get better conversion even without any marketing tips. Compare your way of solving this problem to the old way people get used to it. Show them what is the main advantages of your solution. It works better than you think.
- Narrative
Choose this direction if you want to create more than just a simple promo video. Make up a strong plot with a breathtaking conflict. Make your viewers want to get a resolution. Each product has its story, right?
- Drive action
The main goal of this type is to make your potential user do something. For example, to buy one of your goods just right now or order a discount card. Want it? Make it.
- Product-focused
You should choose this direction if your target is to tell your target audience about some specific stuff like new products and its features.
- Testimonial
Do you want to provide more information about your product? Show your audience more useful information through the interviews, quotes, etc. Make a new reason for your visitors to buy your product or services.
- Endorsement
One of the fastest ways to increase the income of your business through a video content is to attract celebrities for approving that he or she likes to use your product. If they say that they do it on a regular basis, your potential buyers’ circle became much bigger than it is. People like to copy their idols. Let them do it.
- Informative
This is the right direction for you if your target is to educate your potential clients.
- Entertainment
Don’t want to be too serious? Funny videos are always more popular than sad ones. Inspire your viewers. This is the right time and place to do that.
Step 3. Choose the tone
A lot depends on the choice of tone, but the most important thing is that it’s the tone that makes your audience feel. What and how your audience will feel depends on the tone you choose. Therefore, you need to be extremely focused on this matter in order to achieve the desired result.
It’s important for your viewers to laugh, watching your promo video? Or do you want to set them up to talk about something serious? Clearly formulate your purpose, and only then select a tone from this list. We have specially created this list so that you can easily navigate this topic.
- Dramatic ton
We bet on emotions. A lot depends on emotions. Many spontaneous purchases are made thanks to emotions. You can use this to achieve the desired result. As an example, you can watch an awesome P&G Olympics commercial.
- Informative ton
You’ll choose this ton them don’t forget these 2 words: clear and concise. Making your video content informative, don’t do it too boring. Information is still pretty valuable but you should know how to provide it in the best possible way.
- Urgent ton
Is your target to make your potential clients do something as quick as possible? This ton suits you perfectly. Use Macy’s holiday sale as an example.
- Humorous ton
This ton able to make your viewers laugh. Simple to understand. Even tired people like this ton. Use it to engage as wide audience as you can imagine. Example: Old Spice advertisements.
- Entertaining ton
Entertaining is not only about laughing. Entertaining ton also can be informative. It depends only on how you personally use it. As you know Super Bowl ads obviously met this category. As an example, you can also watch Nerd Skin Care.
- Fun ton
Uses fun creative devices. Do you remember Slack? It is a good example.
- Cutesy ton
This is a ton that makes your potential viewers go, “aww!”. As an example, you can watch Cheerios.
- Inspirational ton
The main purpose of this ton is to use inspiration to drive viewers’ actions. Manifestos are usually done in this style. So, just try to remember or google any manifesto and you’ll get a good example of this tone.
- Luxurious ton
Watch Vegas Hotel commercial to understand what luxurious ton is. Such epithets as shiny, fancy, flashy, sexy, rich help you to find your way to produce a promo video with a luxurious ton.
- Artsy ton
Do you remember Converse’s advertisements? This is the best example of an artsy ton because it feels youthful and stylish. Make your video content look fresh and trendy. You audience will definitely appreciate it.
Step 4. What about duration?
Time parameters are pretty important. You should know the duration of your promo video even before you get a video script and even before you begin to work upon a script. But why is that so important?
You should decide on the duration of your promotional video to stay focused on what you want to show your audience through that. If you don’t do it your video will turn out to be too short or too long.
But what can the duration of your video depend on?
Decide where your video content will be shown. The duration of advertisements for television or video content for social networks is very different. Maybe you need a video to show it on your landing page or your online store? Moreover, even videos for FB or Instagram will be different, because each social network has its own criteria that you must follow. The duration of the video depends on these criteria and your goals. Don’t neglect this, your task is an excellent result, which will bring brand recognition, regular customers and increase profits.
Of course, the length of the video also depends on your budget. It’s important to understand that the budget should include not only money for shooting a video content, but also money for its advertising after that.
After all, talking about promo advertising, often you have to pay also for the duration. Therefore, it’s extremely important to calculate as accurately as possible how much money you’re willing to spend on it.
Again, it all depends on your goals. If your goal is to shoot just beautiful video content about your new product, company or something, then 30 seconds is enough for you, but if you want to get emotion from a potential viewer, want to persuade him to buy something, then you may need 1 or even 1.5 minutes. It depends on many factors, and only you can personally consider and calculate them.
Step 5. Ask yourself, can you make it simpler?
How to outline an idea? It is very simple, because all you need is a little imagination and free time, an excellent team of like-minded people will be a plus, but still many ideas came to the mind of one person, and the teams worked on them.
In order to check how good your idea is, describe it in several sentences. If you succeed, then the idea has good chances to become a successful project. If your idea does not fit into a couple of sentences, then you need to work on it.
What should you think about when you think of an idea?
- Plan of scenes
You should define how many scenes will be in your promotional video? Count all locations you want to film, all the actors who will play the best roles in your video and props. It helps you to pass the creating process much easier if you would get such a scene plan.
- Characters
Just sit and write down the number of characters. Write their names, their storyline, some personal characteristics. These notes will be pretty useful on the set.
- Product
In this part you should decide when and where your product will pop up in this video. How many times? In what way it should happen? Answer these questions in advance.
- Call-to-action
This is a pretty important part of any video content. You should put in the end of your video a special message for your viewers. Do you want they to buy your product or services? Tell about it but do it in an unusual way.
Step 6. Make the storyboard
Everybody knows that to make amazing video content you should write a strong script. But what else should you do?
Making a good storyboard isn’t easier than to write a strong script. You need to draw what is written in the script. Think through every scene. See from what angle this frame should be shot, and from what angle another frame. You need to see the movie in your head before you start making it.
This is not an easy task, and you need support to make it happen. At this stage, many begin to collaborate with artists. But artists are different. Someone paints pictures, and someone illustrates books. You need to decide what kind of artist will help you in this matter. For example, if you want to create an animated video content, then you need to hire an illustrator.
This step is very important not only for you and your team. This step is also important for actors, director and other people invited to the project. This will help form a unified vision of the project. It will help to make the project better and better, because each participant will know for sure what he is currently working on and what result is expected from him. That’s why the storyboard is so valuable.
Before an action
Now you are ready to shoot. All that remains for you is to conduct a casting, to recalculate the budget, considering unplanned expenses, which have probably already appeared. You need to inspire every member of your team to work productively.
Professionals are not born, but become. Try, follow these tips, and you will be able to shoot a professional promo video. The more effort you make, the better the result. It is always visible. Try to overcome yourself.
Shooting video content is a creative process, and therefore no plan, tables and formulas can guarantee you absolute success. Rules are needed for professionals, genius needs inspiration. Choose yourself who you want to be and create a video content that will help you achieve your goal.
