72% of consumers prefer learning about a product or a service by watching a promotional video. –Hubspot
This is proof that using promotional videos is currently one of the most effective and engaging way to promote your brand, products, and services. If this metric didn’t make you wonder about what a promotional video is, how it can help your businesses, where and how you can use it to your advantage, I don’t know what will.
But if there’s part of you which agrees with the sentiment, then you have come to the right place. In this article, I will explore why almost all companies are turning to video in 2019 and how you can use this marketing tool to your advantage.
What is a Promotional Video?
A promotional video is a type of corporate video that is created to promote your services and products to your existing and prospective clients. In short, this is the type of video that you create intending to inform, promote, and sell your products and services to consumers.
Thanks to the ever-evolving marketing and advertisement industry that we have, there are plenty of promotional video categories or content types to choose from. These include the following:
- Product Videos
- Explainer Videos
- Testimonial Videos
- How to/ Instructional Videos
- Recruitment Videos
- Case Study Videos
- Event Videos
- Product Launch Videos
Why Businesses are Turning to Video in 2019
The marketing industry has evolved a lot in the past few years, so we are not talking about those hard selling TV commercials that we used to. Instead of delivering a blatant sales pitch, modern promotional videos are designed to initiate a more personal conversation with the consumers without sounding ‘too salesy’ and in-your-face.
Despite the tedious and labor-intensive process of creating videos, the majority of companies are now turning into videos in 2019 (and beyond!). Statistics show that 87% of companies now use video as one of their marketing tools, and this percentage continues to rise year after year (it was 63% in 2017, and 81% in 2018).
Without a doubt, the use of promotional videos will continue to soar until the upcoming years, and here are some of the reasons why:
- Videos give your brand a personality.
When produced right, a promotional video can put a face in your brand, giving you a chance to establish a deeper and more personal connection with your prospective customers.
Also, it gives your brand a personality (it can be a funny, serious, or any type of personality you wish to take on) and gives your brand a better recall in the memories of customers.
- Videos deliver better on-site engagement.
There is no denying the fact that Internet users are in love with video. Incorporating promotional videos on your website, especially on your homepage, provides a better user experience to your visitors.
- Promotional videos widen your audience reach by improving your search engine rankings.
There are two primary ways that the use of videos can boost your rankings in search engine pages. First, it can reduce your website’s bounce rates. Second, posting corporate videos in your social media accounts can increase backlinks to your site.
- Videos can help generate leads.
Because marketing videos are so engaging, they are an ideal way to help your audience transform into leads. Videos are even used in email marketing campaigns to convert completely cold audiences.
- Business videos convert viewers to consumers.
If you want to give your customers who are already at the final stage of the purchasing decision process the push that they need to try out your products and services, video is key. By incorporating a call to action or annotation links in your videos, you will increase the chances that your website visitors and ad viewers will be eventually converted to consumers.
Platforms Where You Can Use Your Promotional Videos (Distribution)
The most crucial step that you need to take is to establish your video distribution strategy to ensure that your videos and brand will have the level of exposure that you deserve. With that in mind, here are some of the video distribution channels where you can use your promotional videos:
Website or Landing Page
The most crucial video distribution channel you should post your video in is no other than your very own website. These days, the first place that people visit to know more about a product, service, or brand is the company’s website. That’s why it makes perfect sense for you to embed your promotional video on your website.
The best way to incorporate a promotional video on your website is to place it on your landing pages. It has been noted that doing so can increase conversion rates by 80%.
In addition to your landing pages, you can also place your videos on your product or home page. Doing so provides you an opportunity to tell your story in a fun and unique way, which is a great way to welcome your visitors to your site.
Another perfect place on your website for your business videos is your sales page. If you plan to incorporate videos in these pages, you should go for social proof videos, particularly customer testimonials.
On the other hand, your ‘About’ pages will undoubtedly benefit from an employee team video. In this way, you can provide your visitors with a clear overview of your company, your team, your mission, and the working environment.
When embedding business videos on your website, make sure to keep in mind the following practices:
- Place the video above the page’s fold.
- Use an engaging thumbnail, preferably a GIF.
- Keep it short yet informative.
- Place a call to action in the video.
Social Media
The second place that people visit when researching your brand is your social media pages, and that’s why it is a good idea to regularly post promotional videos there too. Also, people are 1200 times more likely to share videos, so taking this step also increases your audience reach.
Which social platform is best will ultimately depend on your target audience and business model, though more broadly, we’ll segment what channel we’ve found has worked best for B2B and B2C models.
Facebook (primarily B2C)
This social media platform has more than 2 billion users. Statistics also show that Facebook native videos offer 86% higher reach than other social media platforms.
When posting videos on Facebook, please keep these best practices in mind:
- Create videos using colors, themes, and imagery that coincides with your branding.
- Strategize for silent playback since a lot of people watch videos on Facebook without sounds.
- Create high-quality emotion-inducing and thought-provoking videos.
- The video must have an aspect ratio of 16:9, minimum resolution of 720px, a maximum file size of 2.3 GB, a maximum length of 120 minutes, and in either .MOV or .MP4 format.
- Post the video with a caption that has less than 2200 characters.
Instagram (primarily B2C)
It has been noted that millennials and generation Z consumers seek Instagram stories about products and services before buying and availing them, and that’s why incorporating videos in your Instagram page is recommended too.
For Instagram videos, here are some of the tips that you need to keep in mind:
- Create a video with dimensions and framing that are suitable on a smaller screen.
- Keep your descriptions as short and engaging as possible.
- The video must have a video length of 60 seconds or less, a maximum frame rate of 30 fps, maximum video size of 4 GB, an aspect ratio of 1:91:91, and come in either .MOV or .MP4 formats.
YouTube (primarily B2C)
Of course, we should not forget the home of videos, which is considered to be the second largest search engine and has 1.9 billion users. And given the fact that only 9% of small businesses are on this platform, you have a big chance of connecting to your ideal customers!
When posting business videos on YouTube, please take note of the following practices:
- Manually upload transcripts to your videos.
- YouTube advertising is pretty tricky, so try out different ad formats to determine which one best works for your content.
- Again, place a call to action in your video, preferably with interactive elements.
- Go for evergreen topics and optimize the video for search.
- The longer the video, the better, but do not go beyond 60 minutes.
Linkedin (primarily B2B)
We weren’t going to leave B2B companies without a social channel. Linkedin has made massive steps in 2019 to make video content look excellent in the feed. Whilst it isn’t essential to use sponsored content (actually pay for the video to get higher engagement) the ad inventory for B2B video content gets our thumbs up (especially for higher LTV products and services).
- Use at least three tags related to broad match keywords when you post.
- Get all your team to immediately like the post (share internally).
- We’ve found as much as 5 likes in the first hour of posting has allowed our content to receive 1500 to 2000 views on average.
Email (B2C and B2B)
As per Syndacast, emails with subject lines with the term “video” have open rates that are 19% higher and click-through rates that are 65% higher. Furthermore, including a video in the email body increases click-through rates by 96%.
When doing video email marketing, you should stick to these practices:
- To direct viewers to your website’s landing page, include in your email autoplay in the video embedded there.
- If you are targeting top of the funnel sales, use between 30 to 90 seconds videos; use videos that are more than one-minute videos for people down the sales funnel.
- Incorporate a call to action in your video.
In-app (B2C and B2B)
Phone users spend most of their time using apps. In fact, eMarketer statistics show that more than 25% of total media time and 89% of the total mobile time are spent in-app. Aside from driving global media consumption, in-app advertising also offers sophisticated user targeting and data monitoring, which gives marketers better campaign control.
If you plan to advertise in-app, you should remember these tips:
- Employ ad filters to make sure that your promotional videos will be shown to your target audience.
- Increase your app engagement by using rewarded video ads.
- Determine what kind of apps your target audience uses and identify which orientations most of these apps are in. Design video ads in that orientation.
Paid Ads
If you want you want to get a return of investment (ROI) from your video ads in a short period, try paid ads video advertising.
The beauty of using paid ads is it helps you to focus on your specific target audience, monitor the results of your ads, and adjust your efforts accordingly. With these benefits, you can be able to stretch your ad budgets a lot further.
You can try paid ads using different platforms. The most popular ones include search engine ads (like Adwords and Adsense), YouTube Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Twitter Ads.
When creating videos for paid ads, it is always best to apply the best practices of the platform that you are aiming for.
Extension to Television
Online video advertising is indeed growing rapidly, but that doesn’t mean that we should completely forget about TV advertising. According to the SVP of business operations at BrightRoll, the most effective digital video campaigns are those that can run across laptops, mobile phones, tablets, and smart TVs.
TV advertisement offers audience reach that is perfect for top-of-the-funnel awareness. On the other hand, online video advertisement is suitable for both mid- and lower-funnel campaigns as they provide more room for personalization and targeting.
Final Thoughts on Promotional Videos
Time and time again, statistics have proven that promotional videos work. Aside from identifying which type of promotional video to use, identifying the proper video distribution channels should be an integral part of your video marketing strategy.
If you are looking for the highest quality in promotional video production, trusted by top brands to tell their story and boost their sales, reach out to Vidico today and learn how we can help your business grow.
