How to Make a Five-Star Promo Video

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a marketing video may be worth a million.

A promo video is a window into the service or product you offer and the passion behind the scenes that makes your company special. Like a warm handshake, it’s your opportunity to explain your product and, at the same time, make an emotional connection with the viewer.

Promo videos can focus on any marketing initiative, from an overview of your company to a specific sale or event. The typical goal is similar to a teaser for a film — capture the audience’s attention and encourage them to learn more. Marketing promo videos have the power to inform while entertaining and engaging your customer base.

Although creating a promo can seem complicated at first, there are tried and trusted methods to producing an outstanding video. Keep reading to learn more!

See Related: 6 Tips to Amp Up Your Video Promotion Strategy

8 steps to creating a high-conversion promo video

Marketers have been refining the process for creating an excellent promo video for decades. Eight main steps can help guide your video toward greater engagement and shareability on social media platforms:

1. Analyze your target market
2. Tell a short story
3. Create a storyboard
4. Film with platform aspect ratios in mind
5. Film B-roll
6. Record powerful voice-overs
7. Add music and sound effects
8. Publish your video

1. Analyze your target market

To kick off this guide on how to make a promo video, let’s talk about understanding your target audience. The target market is one of the most important aspects of any creative project, especially videos. For example, two companies might be making videos to sell educators a software as a service (SaaS) product.

The company selling user-friendly software to older principals and high-end private schools might adopt a serious, professional tone with dark browns. At the same time, a video targeting young educators who just graduated from college might have a spunky, informative tone with bright primary colors.

2. Tell a short story

Modern audiences want to look past the marketing message of your video to connect with your company’s people. They want to understand why your company created a product and how the passion behind the project can ultimately benefit them.

For example, Apple’s legendary Think Different commercial tells two different stories at once. On one hand, the commercial suggests that the innovators at Apple are the crazy ones who have the passion for changing the world. On the other hand, it also communicates the message that the audience watching can use Apple products to change the world.

This Apple advertisement is also about a minute long. Wistia performed a study where they analyzed billions of video views and determined that one to two minutes is the sweet spot for video length.

3. Create a storyboard

A storyboard serves as an organizer to plan a promotional video shot-by-shot. It’s a powerful way to plan every detail before walking onto the set of your video shoot. You can save time, stress and money by thinking ahead. It’s a common artistic method used by animation studios to plan every detail for drawing.

Many famous filmmakers draw storyboards by hand, while others use digital software like Adobe Illustrator. Your work can be as complex as concept art for a film or as simple as doodles that tell you the sequence of events. 

4. Film with platform aspect ratios in mind

It’s crucial to remember that social media platforms like Facebook use horizontal videos, while Instagram favors vertical videos. Film shots you thought were wide during the filming process can suddenly look cropped from a vertical perspective.

It’s important to plan around this issue in the storyboarding process and use frame line software to help ensure you create shots that can fit more than one platform. 

5. Film B-roll

If you want to know how to make a promo video successfully, consider this tip: Film B-roll. Always film more angles and perspectives than required by your storyboard shot list.

These takes allow you to make last-minute additions and capture the absolute best of your footage. B-roll is also an insurance policy in case a particular segment doesn’t turn out the way you planned. 

6. Record powerful voice-overs

The most powerful voice-over follows the principle that less is more. A correctly timed word or phrase can catch the viewer’s attention, while too much cheesy sales talk can put them off.

It’s also important to remember that some social media platforms play videos on mute until the user actually clicks. In these situations, you will need large, bold, and colorful subtitles. As an alternative, you can design the video so that no words are necessary for understanding. 

7. Add music and sound effects

It’s key to include music and sound effects that enhance the visual experience. Unfortunately, promo creators can’t use their favorite song or piece of orchestral music due to legal restrictions. You will need to find royalty-free stock music or hire a digital music composer.

If you purchase royalty-free music, make sure it offers the correct permissions for a monetized, corporate video. Most tracks available on the internet cost between $15-$30, while a digital composer has a significantly higher cost.

Sound effects are also available on stock websites and come in bulk packs as well as individual downloads. You’ll also need to check your sound effects for the correct permissions to avoid legal issues with content creators. 

8. Publish your video

The last step in how to make a promo video is to publish your video for the world to enjoy. The MPEG-4 file format is ideal for uploading to platforms like YouTube. Modern audiences expect high quality, so be sure to use high definition, or 1280 x 720 pixels or higher for crisp imaging.

It’s also crucial to consider several technical SEO principles for publishing your video. Platforms like YouTube are essentially search engines for videos, so there are tips and tricks to stay ahead of the competition.

The primary factors include:

• Title: Your title should include your brand name and focus on the key value proposition in a few words. You’ll also want to be sure your title fits within the platform’s character limit.
• Description: The description should focus on briefly explaining the content of your video. It should also contain keywords to help you rank.
• Tags: Tags are specific keywords designed for video hosting sites. Selecting the correct categories can help users find your video faster.

At this stage, you can monitor several key video marketing analytics like views, demographics and referrals to check the success of your video.

Want to explore custom video production services?

Producing a high-quality promo video that will engage your customers and impress your industry has many moving parts. The skills needed range from script writing and video editing all the way to SEO and advertising. That’s where the team at WebFX can help. Our digital marketing agency specializes in custom video production and end-to-end digital marketing solutions.

Ready to begin your journey toward a five-star promo video? Connect with the WebFX digital marketing team online now or reach out to our specialists by phone at 888-601-5359.