What is a promo video?
The time has come to promote your business, product, or big event. This means you need a promo video!
Promotional videos—known more commonly as promo videos or “promos”—are a useful tool in video marketing. Promos are typically short videos that build excitement for a specific product, launch, release, or event.
While promo videos can come in a variety of forms, when Indigo refers to promos we’re mainly talking about shorter videos such as teasers, sizzle videos, or sales videos.
In this article, we’ll share our expertise on how to create an effective promo video for your next product, event, and more. We know that creating a promo video can seem daunting, but with the right approach, it can turn your next product or launch into a huge success.
And if you’re looking for a professional team to help make your promo video happen, Indigo Productions is here to help!
Defining Your Goals and Audience
The first step to creating an effective promo video is to define your goals. You need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your video, whether it’s to increase sales, build brand awareness, or advertise an event.
Your goals will inform every aspect of your video, from the messaging to the format and style. It’s worth taking the time to do them right.
When defining your goals, it’s important to be specific and measurable.
For example, “increase sales” is an okay goal. A better goal might be “increase sales by 20% within the next quarter.” This will give you a clear target to aim for and a way to measure the success of your video.
It’s also important to consider your target audience when defining your goals. Ask yourself these questions as you develop your concept and script:
- Who are you trying to reach with your video?
- What do they already know about your product?
- What are their pain points, and how can your product or event solve them?
By understanding your audience, you can create messaging that resonates with them and motivates them to take action.
Once you’ve defined your goals and audience, you can start crafting a message that speaks directly to them. In the next section, we’ll discuss how to create a compelling story that connects with your audience emotionally.
Creating a Compelling Concept and Story
You’ve heard this stat before: the average person is exposed to up to 10,000 ads per day.
This means that even with the best lighting, greatest special effects, and funniest presenter, it is quite difficult for your promo video to stand out. Here’s the secret: your concept and story should speak directly to your target audience.
One effective way to create a concept and story is to think about the “hook” or the main message of your video. What is the one thing you want your audience to remember after watching your video? This should be something that resonates with your audience emotionally and ties back to your goals. A few ideas for strong opening hooks:
- Talk about the problem that keeps your audience up at night, then deliver the solution
- Tease a vision of how the future might look with your new product
- Prove the benefits with an arresting demonstration
- Create a sense of urgency and scarcity that makes them want to know more
Your story and script follows the hook. Your story should be engaging, memorable, and should showcase the unique features and benefits of your product or event.
You want to hook your audience in the first few seconds and then keep them engaged throughout the rest of the video. This requires a great structure and story that keeps up the right energy and brings the audience along on the journey.
Promo videos should not be too long—so focus on nailing that brief message. Here’s a sample outline for a product promo video:
- Problem hook
- Tease the solution
- Elevator pitch introduction
- Feature 1
- Feature 2
- Feature 3
- Call to action or next steps
Seems simple enough! But it all comes down to the execution.
Ready to get started now?
Defining Your Brand and Style
Promo videos adapt their style to their distribution medium—ex. TikTok vs. Instagram—and the audience. But your video should still be true to you and your brand, communicating your values and personality.
If you already have a brand identity, great! This includes your brand’s logo, colors, typography, and overall tone. Are you playful and fun, or more serious and professional? If you don’t have all this figured out, that’s something Indigo Productions can help you develop.
You also need to consider the style of your video and creative execution. Do you want your video to be live-action, animated, or a combination of both? Should it be humorous, dramatic, or informative? All important questions to answer!
Promo Video Creative Development - Our Approach
With your audience, concept, and brand identity worked out, we’ll start the creative development process. We cannot understate the importance of figuring out the vision, script, and budget in advance. Here’s how it works…
Creative Development
Whether you have a solid concept or are looking for ideas, Indigo Productions will guide you through the creative development process. We’ll solidify your objectives and help you develop an effective concept and script for your budget. And if you’re still working on your brand, we’ll help you create a unique voice and style that’s all your own.
Script and Visuals
In the earliest planning stages, Indigo Productions’ team of experts will work with you to create the overall look and feel of your brand video so it strikes a chord with your intended audience. We’ll also help with the script, making sure the content is compelling and effective.
Budgets and Approvals
With the concept, script, and visual design in place, we’ll get final approvals, and get ready to move into production.
It’s a lot of work, but it will all be worth it when you see the finished product.
The Three Phases of Promo Video Production
When you work with a production company like Indigo, we handle every step in the process of creating your promotional video. There are three major stages in every project: Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production.
Pre-Production
The secret to a successful production is a successful pre-production.
Before a single frame is shot, line is spoken, or any director calls “action”, we meet with you to plan every part of the project and logistics.
We discuss any assets you may already have—existing footage, photos, locations, artwork—and your distribution strategy.
All serve in determining the project’s budget, and any logistical considerations. Among the many steps which follow are assigning the director and writers, creative development, research, scheduling, and location scouting. Our company and clients are also covered by comprehensive production insurance.
Production
This is why we got into this business! Production is a ton of work, but a ton of fun. Depending on your project, this will feel like being on set of a major Hollywood movie or a more low key setup. The Indigo Productions crew and equipment arrive on location; actors go into makeup; the director yells, “Action!” and filming begins.
We make sure your shoot day will be smooth and professional. Production pros always expect the unexpected, and have a plan to manage bad weather, last minute script changes, or demos that don’t go as intended.
Post-Production
This is where your footage is transformed into an amazing finished product. After reviewing every second of footage, and selecting and ordering the best takes, we add:
- Motion graphics and titles
- Music and sound effects
- Voiceover
- Audio mixing
- Color correction
When you see your perfect promotional video for the first time, there’s nothing quite like it. Now it’s time to get it out there and start selling.
It’s a complex process, but we make it easy!
Take that first step and get a FREE quote.
What comes next?
Creating the video is only the beginning. You’ll have to figure out where to post and distribute your video, a testing strategy, and how to revise and improve it.
But no matter what you need, Indigo Productions is here to help. Our experienced team can handle everything from start to finish:
- Creative development
- Brand workshops
- Art direction
- Visual design
- Scripting
- Casting
- Location scouting
- Pre-production
- Camera and lighting
- Direction
- Edit
- Color correction
- Distribution
- And everything else!
Contact Indigo Productions
Indigo Productions is a global, full-service production company based in New York City. We’ve created hundreds of promotional videos for clients from Fortune 500 companies and exciting new startups.
Let’s talk about your promo video! Contact us today. Visit our website, www.indigoprod.com, or call us at (212) 765-5224.