Are you trying to increase your business’ sales? Product videos can be the ticket you are looking for.
These videos let you showcase your products or services in ways that few other types of content can. Done right, they can consistently encourage ideal customers to commit to a purchase – Which is easier said than done!
For these videos to work, they have to be crafted in a customer-centric way. It’s not just about showing your product or how it works, but making their key selling points shine while tying them to the audience’s pain points.
As any savvy video marketing team would tell you, a well-crafted product video can have a dramatic impact on a person’s stance toward your product. They can increase brand trust, and nurture longer-lasting customer relationships… But not every piece works the same.
In this article, we will go over the basics of how to make an awesome product video that works, and give you insight that you can use for your next piece!
Most Effective Types of Product Videos
There are plenty of ways and formats in which you can approach a product video. So, the first thing you’ll want to do is figure out which one suits your situation best.
Testimonial Videos
When it comes to promoting your products, having a satisfied client share their experience can be a game-changer.
Before buying, potential clients want to be sure that they are making the right choice; testimonials and reviews are perfect to set their minds at ease – and put them that much closer to sealing the deal!
Comparison Videos
“Comparisons are odious”, says the phrase, but, used correctly, they can be a powerful tool in video marketing. Comparison videos present different options for similar products and show one as the best, focusing on its advantages.
With these pieces, you want to be clear and to the point. Highlight the advantages of choosing your product above others. One caveat: These videos are more “acceptable” in certain niches, like cosmetics, than in others, and are often tied to social or influencer marketing.
Tutorial videos
Also known as demo videos, they are meant to describe how a product or service operates, providing visual guidance of its functions. Does your product require technical know-how? Then a tutorial is probably in order.
Keep in mind that tutorials should be in-depth, play-by-play explanations. As such, make sure they are both detailed and relevant. Crafting tutorial videos on trivial matters can potentially backfire.
Explainer Videos
If you want your potential customers to get a clear sense of what your product is about, and how it can help them, you can’t do better than explainer videos.
Explainers are all about weaving your customer’s needs into an interesting narrative that presents your solution to their problem as the best alternative around. Their focus is to tell your audience, “We understand your problem, and here’s what you can do about it” in a compelling and entertaining way.
Some Essential Pre-production Tips
Regardless of the specific type of product video you end up going for, there are some useful pre-production tips that will fit any and all. Tips you should keep in mind if you want to make a piece that actually helps your sales!
Set Your Goal Early On
It might sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised by how many people fail to have a clear idea of their product video’s purpose from the get-go. Yes, you want to sell more, but how exactly are you going to go about it? Do you want to introduce a product and build awareness? Do you want to teach potential customers how your product works? Showcase the ways in which your product is better than the competition?
Determining your goals will help you choose the kind of video product you need to work on and lead to a much tighter, better-crafted piece.
Know Your Audience
Spend some time doing demographic research to find out what your potential clients are looking for in a product. Know which problems they wish to solve, or the needs they want to fulfill. You can also look for the opinions of happy clients to find out what they like the most about your products.
Customizing your product video’s angle to fit these aspects will help you get your potential customers’ attention much more easily, improve engagement, and boost your video’s effectiveness.
Create A Compelling Script
You need an engaging script to hook people’s attention – especially if you are competing with social media content!
The script is the soul of your piece and will end up affecting all aspects of it: Pacing, believability, and overall effectiveness. Your product’s benefits should be at the forefront and always under the lens of your potential customers’ pain points. Reinforcing the advantages that you want to convey.
Moreover, at the end of the product video, make sure to always include a clear and compelling call-to-action to persuade the audience to take action.
Design an Appealing Storyboard
Storyboards aren’t optional! They are an indispensable tool to help you guide the visual aspects of your piece.
A storyboard gives a detailed overview of the frame-by-frame action and progression of the scenes that will make up your piece. So, ask yourself what images would synergize best with the segment of the script they are paired to. Don’t be afraid to try a couple of things and move elements around, which often helps to make a tighter final product.
Properly Branding Your Product Video
Whichever type you end up going for, your product video has to showcase your brand’s identity.
You need to transmit your company’s personality in every single detail – color palette, fonts, music, logo inclusion… All the brand-representation elements should make an appearance in some form or another. However, be careful not to overdo it! When it comes to branding in video, subtlety is most often the best way to go.
Promoting and Distributing Your Product Video
Here’s a thing a lot of companies stumble upon when it comes to video marketing: finishing your video is not the same as being done! Once you have a great piece, you need to capitalize on it by putting it in front of your audience as effectively as possible.
Here are some tips that can help you in that regard.
Start with YouTube
Don’t you have a YouTube channel? It might be time to create one and start uploading your marketing video on to it.
Having your product video on YouTube allows it to rank independently from anywhere else you uploaded it to, and over time become a go-to spot for people to see your content. It’s also a reliable repository for your content – if you use your video’s YT link with anyone, you can rest assured it’ll be available 99.9 percent of the time.
Use your social media profiles to distribute your video as well! Facebook timelines, Instagram feeds, and Twitter feeds can be fantastic places to expand your reach and bring more eyes to your products.
When using social media, remember to keep your video mobile-friendly. It’s often a good idea to enable silent play mode and add captions or subtitles to make your video understandable, even in silent mode.
Place It On Your Website
If your potential customers want to find out how your product or service works or its main features and advantages, one of the first things they’d probably do is go to its related website.
Along with some images and text explaining what you are offering, make sure you put your product video front and center. Multimedia experiences are the closest that online customers can get to your actual product, so placing your piece in key pages of your conversion funnel can make a huge difference.
Include It In Your Email Marketing Campaign
Using product videos in combination with email marketing is just too good of a match to ignore. Sharing the right piece with an existing subscriber base can have a remarkable effect on your conversion ratios.
You can embed YouTube videos or add an engaging video thumbnail image with a play video button at the top. That way, recipients will be directed to your website or YouTube channel to continue watching the piece and hopefully take action after.
Wrapping up
Product videos are an excellent way to expand your brand’s reach and convince doubtful clients to try your products or services once and for all. But you need to use them the right way.
Choose the type of product video that better fits your campaign’s needs, and pay attention to the pre-production tips we discussed today. Spend time establishing the goals and the target audience and design a good script and storyboard.
Once that’s taken care of, don’t sleep on your laurels! Work hard to capitalize on your video and make it available as much as you can! After all, the best piece will be useless if it never gets seen.
Follow this advice to the best of your ability, and I guarantee you’ll be surprised by the impact and return a single product video can deliver!
