In recent years, videos have been making inroads in digital marketing, emerging as a powerful promotional tool for businesses to promote their wares in an exciting and engaging way.
Though when it comes to video marketing, there’s some pretty definitive ‘rules’ businesses should stick to in order to get their videos right. Get them wrong and marketing videos can be more hindering to a company than profiting.
Fortunately, if you’re a business looking to embark on an effective video marketing strategy, you’re in the right place, as Small Business Trends explores 40 tips for creating marketing videos.
Tips for Creating Marketing Videos
- Tell a Story: Use video to appeal to customers’ needs and desires.
- Make Sure the Introduction Stands Out: Engage viewers within the first 10 seconds.
- Create a Stimulating Title: Craft a title that is both captivating and SEO-friendly.
- Focus on the Mission and Less on the Product: Prioritize the product’s mission over its features.
- Don’t Be Boring: Ensure your videos are exciting and engaging.
- Get a Little Bit Risqué!: A touch of edginess can increase page views if done right.
- Make it Mobile Friendly: Ensure videos are optimized for mobile viewing.
- Think About SEO: Use a well-written description and relevant keywords to boost video SEO.
- Include Your URL in the Video: Showcase your website address for added exposure.
- Educate Your Audience: Offer informative content, such as advice or tips.
- Make the Video More Atmospheric with Music: Choose music that complements the message and mood of the video.
- Use Video Content Generated by Customers: Showcase real customer experiences and testimonials.
- Include a Call to Action: Guide viewers on what to do after watching.
- Take Viewers Behind the Scenes: Offer a behind-the-scenes look into your brand or business.
- Include Tutorial Videos: Provide helpful tutorials relevant to your niche.
- Keep Them Short: Shorter videos often have a better engagement rate.
- Use a Professional Voice: Opt for clear and professional narration or dialogue.
- Use Micro-Video Apps: Consider using apps that create short, shareable videos for social platforms.
- Pose Questions: Encourage viewer engagement and conversation.
- Don’t Be Preoccupied with Perfection: Aim for authenticity over flawless execution.
- But Don’t Forget Production Quality: Ensure the video is produced to a high standard.
- Use Videos to Help You Create Your Own Effective Video Marketing Strategy: Learn from successful viral videos.
- Build Hype Around the Launch of the Video: Promote the video’s release across platforms.
- Provide Some Humor: A touch of humor can make your video more relatable and engaging.
- Embed a Video in Landing Pages: Strategically place your video to boost conversion rates.
- Tailor Content to Target Audience: Customize videos to appeal to your audience’s specific interests and needs.
- Incorporate User-Generated Content: Use customer-created videos to add authenticity and engagement.
- Leverage Social Proof: Include testimonials, reviews, or case studies to build credibility.
- Utilize Animated Explainers: Use animation for engaging and simplified explanations of complex topics.
- Feature Real People and Stories: Showcase actual customers or staff to create a personal connection.
- Offer Exclusive Content: Provide unique insights or behind-the-scenes footage for added interest.
- Align with Current Trends and Topics: Create content that resonates with contemporary issues and interests.
- Prioritize Video Quality: Ensure high production values for a professional and engaging presentation.
- Experiment with Video Formats: Try different video styles like live streams, how-to guides, or product demos.
- Monitor and Analyze Performance: Use analytics to assess and improve video effectiveness.
- Integrate Videos into Overall Marketing Strategy: Incorporate videos cohesively across various marketing channels.
- Be Consistent with Brand Messaging: Maintain a uniform brand voice and style across all video content.
- Optimize for Different Platforms: Adapt videos to suit the specific requirements of various social media platforms.
- Encourage Viewer Interaction: Include calls to action for likes, shares, and comments to boost engagement.
- Stay True to Your Brand’s Core Values: Reflect your brand’s principles and ethos in your video content.
Now that we’ve outlined these essential tips, let’s delve deeper into each one to better understand how you can effectively implement them in your video marketing strategy.
1. Tell a Story
Instead of being overtly salesy, an effective video tells a story. As the Digital Marketing Institute notes, businesses should utilize the emotive power of video by appealing to their customer’s needs and desires.
2. Make Sure the Introduction Stands Out
A little like how we are unlikely to click on an email if we’re not inspired by the subject line, an incredible one fifth of viewers click off a video within 10 seconds if they’re not interested in what they see.
With this in mind, the introduction of the video is vitally important and should be made inspiring, entertaining and informative, to hook the viewer and encourage them to view the whole of the video.
3. Create a Stimulating Title
Crafting a compelling title is paramount in the world of digital content. The title is, in essence, the gateway to your content.
If it isn’t captivating, chances are it might get overlooked. Your video’s title not only needs to grab a viewer’s fleeting attention but also convey the essence of what lies within.
A strategic choice of words, especially relevant keywords, can significantly enhance the discoverability of your video. When potential viewers search for content related to your video’s topic on search engines, a well-chosen title can ensure yours is what they click on.
4. Focus on the Mission and Less on the Product
Instead of being overtly focused on the product and all its benefits, channel the message of the video into the mission of the product. Dove, for example, are hailed are being experts in creating emotional viral videos that focus less on their product and more on their mission.
5. Don’t Be Boring
Who wants to watch a boring video? It goes without saying, if you want your business’s video marketing campaign to be successful, create exciting and inspiring videos that can never be considered boring.
6. Get a Little Bit Risqué!
In the world of online content, sometimes it’s necessary to break away from the conventional to get noticed. Although it’s essential to maintain the dignity and credibility of your brand, a dash of audacity, when executed thoughtfully, can make your content memorable.
As Inc. emphasizes, there’s a fine line between attention-grabbing and off-putting. The secret lies in finding the sweet spot, where you push boundaries just enough to pique interest without compromising your brand’s integrity.
7. Make it Mobile Friendly
With more and more people using mobile devices to get online, it’s imperative corporate videos are mobile friendly. In fact, according to YouTube, mobile video consumption increases 100% every year! Marketing videos therefore need to be able to be downloaded and enjoyed on mobile devices. 
8. Think About SEO
In today’s digital age, merely creating great video content isn’t enough; ensuring it’s discoverable is equally crucial. Google, the search engine giant, has an affinity for video content, especially when it’s optimized correctly.
When crafting a video marketing strategy, integrating Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques can elevate your content’s reach.
An SEO-driven approach involves more than just the video; it encompasses a well-articulated description, peppered with keywords pertinent to your content. This ensures that your video isn’t lost in the vast expanse of the internet and reaches those who would value it most.
9. Include Your URL in the Video
In the digital realm, visibility directly translates to more traffic and potential business. By integrating your website address or URL into your video content, you create a direct portal to your brand’s universe.
This simple inclusion acts as an invitation, beckoning viewers to delve deeper into what your company offers. When they see your URL, viewers know exactly where to head next if what they’re watching resonates with them, leading to enhanced web traffic and potential conversions.
10. Educate Your Audience
The Digital Marketing Institute has always stressed the immense power of education in marketing. People are naturally inclined to content that adds value to their lives, be it in the form of knowledge, insights, or skills.
While promotional content has its place, videos that are rich in information, advice, and actionable tips often fare better in terms of engagement and recall.
By adopting an educational approach, you position your brand as a thought leader in your industry, someone viewers can trust and turn to for genuine expertise.
11. Make the Video More Atmospheric with Music
Music is a powerful tool on video content, evoking a myriad of emotions. Don’t be afraid to use music in your video that fits the mood of the message and crafts a more exciting and emotive video.
12. Use Video Content Generated by Customers
There’s no testimonial more authentic than a genuine customer sharing their personal experience with your product or service. Such content comes with a raw, unscripted flavor that’s hard to replicate with staged promotional videos.
When prospective clients see real people, just like them, vouching for your product, it builds trust. It’s a testament to the fact that your offerings provide genuine value, meeting and possibly even exceeding expectations.
This strategy not only showcases your product but also highlights the community of satisfied customers that stand by it.
13. Include a Call to Action
Similar to how all blog posts and content should have a call to action at the end, which invites the reader to take further action, such as signing up to a newsletter, or visiting a website, so too should a marketing video.
Ask yourself, what do you want viewers to do when they’ve watched the video and then encourage them to do so without being overtly salesy.
14. Take Viewers Behind the Scenes
Consumers love to get up close to a brand and video marketing offers the perfect opportunity to take customers behind the scenes and into your business’s ‘natural surroundings.’
15. Include Tutorial Videos
Posting tutorials that are relevant to your niche is a great way to connect and engage with customers. Tutorials shouldn’t give away all your industry secrets, but should be enough to entice the viewer with informative and useful content, leaving them wanting to learn more.
16. Keep Them Short
Online viewers often don’t have much time to spare before they’re off looking on a new site and at a new video. In this sense, shorter marketing videos can tend to work better than long ones. As Helen Klein Ross told Kiss Metrics:
“The less you say, the more likely people are to remember.”
17. Use a Professional Voice
Words spoken with clarity and professionalism will always come out better in a corporate video than an amateur speaker, whose lack of experience speaking on the camera is obvious.
With this in mind, it might be a good idea to have an employee that is experienced on speaking in front of the camera record for the video, or even think about calling in a professional.
18. Use Micro-Video Apps
Along with all this talk of keeping videos short for the viewer, it’s also true shorter content is a better format for most social platforms. As Forbes notes, short, concise content triumphs over longer forms of content, particularly on social media channels.
Video marketers should consider using micro-video apps, which shorten videos to less than 10 seconds, so they’re ideal of sharing on the likes of Instagram and Twitter.
19. Pose Questions
Engaging with your audience is the key to building a loyal and active community around your content. One of the most effective ways to foster this engagement is by encouraging dialogue.
By incorporating questions into your video, you invite viewers to actively participate and share their thoughts. This interactive approach makes viewers feel valued, heard, and a part of a larger conversation.
Furthermore, when viewers take the time to answer in the comments, it not only provides you with valuable feedback but also boosts the video’s visibility in platform algorithms.
This strategy nurtures a two-way communication channel, transforming passive viewers into active participants and, potentially, brand advocates.
20. Don’t Be Preoccupied with Perfection
Videos for marketing purposes aren’t Hollywood movies and nobody expects perfection. Whilst you want the video to look professional, don’t become too obsessed with perfection that on the 50th take you still haven’t got in right.
21. But Don’t Forget Production Quality
That said, it’s important a marketing video is produced professionally. From the camera work to lighting, edited to voice overs, it might be a good idea to call upon the expertise of a professional video production company to ensure the video is produced in a high quality.
22. Use Videos to Help You Create Your Own Effective Video Marketing Strategy
Head to the likes of YouTube to see how businesses are already building videos that have managed to go viral.
Featuring the likes of Coca-Cola, these ‘10 Epic Viral Marketing Videos’ on YouTube will give you some pointers on how some of the biggest and well-known brands are producing a video designed to go viral.
23. Build Hype Around the Launch of the Video
Instead of just going ahead and launching your video, build hype around the video by promoting its launch date on your website, blog and social media channels.
24. Provide Some Humor
Not all corporate videos need to be serious. On the contrary, some humour can work well in generating more interest in your video. Vidyard gives an example of a humorous marketing video that proved hugely successful — a parody by cloud invoicing provider Taulia of the award-winning commercial series ‘Get Rid of Cable’ by Direct TV. As Vidyard writes:
“The video not only delivers a laugh, but this kind of humorous take on B2B solution can really get your customers feeling connected with your brand and help you stand out in what can be a stuffy market.”
25. Embed a Video in Landing Pages
Think strategically about where you are going to place your marketing video. Statistics show that embedding videos in landing pages can raise conversion rates by as much as 80 percent.
26. Tailor Content to Target Audience
Understand your audience’s interests, preferences, and pain points to create videos that resonate with them. Tailoring content to your target demographic ensures that your video marketing efforts are relevant, engaging, and more likely to convert viewers into customers.
27. Incorporate User-Generated Content
Encourage your customers to share their experiences with your products or services in their own videos. User-generated content not only provides authenticity but also builds community and trust around your brand.
28. Leverage Social Proof
Include customer testimonials, reviews, and case studies in your videos. Social proof helps validate your product or service, builds credibility, and can influence potential customers’ purchasing decisions.
29. Utilize Animated Explainers
Animated explainer videos can be a fun and creative way to convey complex concepts or introduce your product or service. Animation captures attention and can make your message more digestible and memorable.
30. Feature Real People and Stories
Featuring real people, such as your employees or customers, adds a personal touch to your videos. Real stories create emotional connections and help viewers relate to your brand on a human level.
31. Offer Exclusive Content
Create videos that offer something unique, such as behind-the-scenes looks, sneak peeks of new products, or exclusive interviews. Exclusive content can pique interest and keep your audience coming back for more.
32. Align with Current Trends and Topics
Stay up-to-date with current trends and topics relevant to your industry. Creating content that aligns with what’s current can increase the relevance and appeal of your videos.
33. Prioritize Video Quality
While authenticity is important, don’t compromise on video quality. Poor production can detract from your message. Invest in good lighting, clear audio, and high-quality editing to make your videos professional and engaging.
34. Experiment with Video Formats
Don’t limit yourself to one type of video. Experiment with different formats, such as live streams, Q&A sessions, how-to guides, and product demos, to find what resonates best with your audience.
35. Monitor and Analyze Performance
Use analytics to track the performance of your videos. Monitoring metrics like view count, watch time, engagement, and conversion rates can provide insights into what works and help you refine your video marketing strategy.
36. Integrate Videos into Overall Marketing Strategy
Your video marketing efforts should complement your overall marketing strategy. Integrate your videos into email campaigns, social media, blogs, and other marketing channels for a cohesive brand message.
37. Be Consistent with Brand Messaging
Ensure your videos are consistent with your brand voice, style, and messaging. Consistency helps reinforce your brand identity and fosters trust with your audience.
38. Optimize for Different Platforms
Each social media platform has its own best practices for video. Optimize your videos for the platform you’re posting on in terms of length, format, and style to maximize engagement.
39. Encourage Viewer Interaction
Include interactive elements in your videos, like asking viewers to comment, like, or share. Viewer interaction can increase engagement and help spread your message.
40. Stay True to Your Brand’s Core Values
Your videos should reflect your brand’s core values and mission. Authenticity in messaging helps build a loyal customer base and differentiates your brand from competitors.
Effective Video Marketing: Do’s and Don’ts
For those diving into video marketing, understanding the best practices and pitfalls is crucial. Here’s a quick comparison to keep you on track:
| Do's | Don'ts |
|---|---|
| Create an engaging introduction | Make a lengthy and uninteresting intro |
| Utilize music to enhance atmosphere | Use irrelevant or overly distracting music |
| Prioritize SEO | Ignore important keywords and SEO practices |
| Provide educational content for viewers | Offer content with no added value |
| Include a clear Call to Action | Leave viewers with no direction post-watching |
With video forecast to claim more than 80 percent of all web traffic by 2019 and 90 percent of customers reporting that product videos help them make purchasing decisions, it is imperative companies create videos that resonate with their audience and ultimately help sell their services and products.
Related reading: Small Business Guide to Video Marketing
Making Video Photo via Shutterstock
Videos can be useful at every step of the funnel. We commonly think of posting videos to Youtube to get traffic when with considering videos in marketing, but they can be a great way to communicate with customers too.
Video can warm up your onboarding process or make for a great newsletter. I’m sure customers would also appreciate that kind of personality and attentiveness. Too many businesses feel like they’re ignoring you once you’ve payed.
Video is really starting to become a mainstream medium online. But it can be difficult to record and edit them. Hiring someone can get pretty expensive too. So you really need to learn it yourself.
These are great tips, Gabrielle. Thanks for sharing them.
Video really is not only the here and now of marketing but also the future. We’re in place where we can see UCG turn into branded content and kill it on social and, maybe, the next step will be more brands creating marketing videos for VR, AR, and the likes. All this shows us is that mastering video is super important, especially for small businesses. So these tips are super helpful for all of us because the more videos we make the better our marketing results and the better our skills. Luckily, for small brands and companies with the smaller budgets, creating video isn’t out of reach. Between live platforms like Facebook Live and YouTube Live and online tools like wistia.com and slide.ly/promo, it’s getting so much easier to create really high quality videos at any budget size. Gone are the days of spending thousands on video campaigns and so are the days of the big brands getting and staying in the spotlight. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see what the smaller, indie brands start to do with their small budgets and all these new(ish) video tools–especially after they read articles with great tips like this one.
The skills and literacies for shooting and editing a simple video are available to anyone with a phone. The Filmic Pro and LumaFusion apps along with a microphone are pretty much all you need to make broadcastable films on your iPhone.
The single most common point of failure for video that fails is the story. This is amazing since story is possibly one of the oldest human cultural artefacts. I subscribe to the definition in Dramatica Theory that it is a mind’s argument for the solution to a problem. It’s one that I use in teaching video and audio production.
To make your argument in a 60-90sec story (or less) consider four questions: “What/Where is it?”, “How does it work?”, “What does it mean?”, and “Why is it important?”. The last two questions on impact/benefit and significance are the basis of why you’re great and why we should buy your stuff.
In short: “Making video on your phone using this technique allows you to harness the power of video within a budget that doesn’t break you!”
Great tips Gabrielle! The part about the mission caught my attention a lot, it’s something I guess I understood but hadn’t really put that much thought about. It makes total sense, you don’t wanna over saturate your customers with your product, it’s better to sell them on on the depth of it (even thinking of myself as a customer it’s actually easier for me to connect with that than whatever product), so thanks a lot.
The company I work for really wants to make some videos that we can play for commercials or at the office. We have never made a video before, and were wondering what we should do. That is a good idea to make sure we tell a story with our videos. It would be good to make sure we appeal to our customer’s needs through stories. Thank you for all the tips!
These are great inputs, Gabrielle! Every point well thought of. We could definitely use these tips for our video marketing. Can’t wait to share these to my clients.
Yet scared, I am determined to start my own business! I love these tips, especially the one of creating a business video! It’s true, all big companies have wonderful videos that describe who they are, and what they are doing. I will need to look more into how to create a profession video.
visual marketing like infographics and videos are becoming more and more useful and can easily help your brand’s growth. When creating videos to promote your business, consider videos like testimonials, success stories, service or product presentations, reviews, videos for email marketing, and many more. We provide video marketing services to promote your business. For more information visit our website.
It’s like check-list of video marketing. I am surely gonna bookmark this and follow for every video I will generate for my company. Thanks for sharing.
has worked hands-on with launching video strategies from the
ground up.
One of the most common challenges when implementing video marketing is figuring out how videos can bring more value to their audience, which is essential. Many businesses are making videos just for the reason of having videos, not to miss the bandwagon. Not only this practice won’t usually bring any results, but can disrupt your audience if you are not careful.
So, before you start your video marketing campaign, make sure to re-evaluate your understanding about your audience: can you deliver more value using videos? What are the types of videos they are searching for? Are there any specific queries/keywords you can optimize? From answering these questions (the more the merrier), you can develop a comprehensive video marketing plan.
Another important thing is that regarding videos, longer videos are always better, but maintaining quality and engagement will be harder. The key here is finding that delicate balance.
Your tips for a marketing video are great. But I find it difficult to combine humor and professionalism in one video. I also notice most successful marketing video have their clear and meaningful messages instead of only products. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your helpful list. I would say the single most important – and often underrated – point is the story! A good story keeps people listening around bonfires, reading a book cover to cover in one day, or creating an emotional connection to a company. Don’t tell people what you are doing; tell them why, and why YOU!
It’s interesting to know that a fifth of people won’t watch more than 10 seconds of the video before losing interest. My brother and I want to make a video to advertise our business. Maybe we’d benefit from finding someone to help us create one that will hold viewers’ attention long enough to learn about us.
Video is really starting to become a mainstream medium online. But it can be difficult to record and edit them. Hiring someone can get pretty expensive too. So you really need to learn it yourself.
-Michael Joseph
I also shifted to YouTube more as compared to Reading those boring articles over internet. Videos are the future.
This is awesome! Thank you so much for the thorough set of instructions. I was wondering from the number of post but i can’t get satisfaction information from there. But when I was reading your post my process is ending. I was being too much happy with your post information.
Using videos for marketing is gaining popularity option for most of the markers. Even customers are spending more time on video content. If the video has subtitles, it helps a lot for people who watch video muting audio. Your tips are great and easy to implement.
Thanks a lot for sharing Gabrielle.
I have try to read 25 tips because i was looking of video promotional tips which will be helpful to grow business services .
Actually I have a business promotional tips and also have 3D Animation, Logo Animations & Intros, Corporate Videos, Profile Videos, Educational Videos, Animated Videos, How It Works Videos, Stick Figure Videos, Stock & Cartoon Videos, Kinetic Typography, Video Editing & Motion Graphics etc.
That’s why I was looking some promotional video tips which i have gotten from this blog .
Thanks for sharing your informative tips
As someone who spends their waking hours convincing would-be clients to devote resources (time and money) to producing video content for their brand and their products and services, this is great information to help convert the unconvinced. And I love that your #1 action item is to tell a story. Videos without stories never yield as much engagement as those that include some sort of a narrative.
Thanks for the great content!
These tips are very useful for beginners who want to grow their business. thanks!
This is awesome! Thank you so much for the thorough set of instructions.
For years, I have been planning to start my business, and now that I’ve decided I am looking for advice on how to promote properly. I like that you recommend hiring a marketing video agency, and make sure that you tell a story, along with making sure that the introduction stands out. I will start looking for a video marketing production near me so that I can get the project going.
I like that you mentioned that humor can be a powerful tool into getting the attention of an audience. I’ve been thinking about starting my own clothing store business someday and I think having a nice video advertisement will be good for its grand opening day. If I’m lucky, maybe I could even make the local TV station air it as well.
I just want to say thank you!! I just found your blog and I am at the baby stages of my business. All of your tips have been super informative and have helped me a lot! I appreciate all that you do!
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Outstanding content and presentation. I’ll be implementing your suggestions immediately. Keep inspiring others as you have done here!
I really appreciate what you do. Thank you! I’ve been asked to come up with a content strategy for a video campaign for the company I currently work for. This video is a great help for brainstorming ideas!
I really appreciate you for publishing this blog here about tips for creating marketing videos; it’s really a helpful and very useful for us. This is really appreciated that you have presented this data over here, I love all the information shared. Great article!
Very good article & i picked up on the having the points made about having the right lighting for the camera to work right. This is such a big thing & if the lighting isn’t right your footage just wont work. This is very common when companies try & live stream an event or conference, without the right lighting equipment your event / shoot is floored. Either hire the expertise of a professional video production company or hire the right lighting for the job, most production companies can help with this sort of stuff. Ohh and for those that need content there are plenty of sites out there giving away free content or content that can be turned into better content if your ok with some simple video editing software.
amazing ! Content is very useful. You present really well!!
Thank you for all the content offered by the page through your comments and information, it was a great help for some work that I had pending for the university, thanks for everything
I’m finding your tips so helpful! Tips are so important for business owners to help them grow.
I just want to say thanks and I’ll be implementing your suggestions immediately.
that’s really cool and thanks for this amazing content looking forward for more also
Thank you!,you are so structured, clear, organized and informative. I love your style and I implement your strategies in my business.
creating video marketing is great for more conversions and more traffic
I just want to say thanks and I’ll be implementing your suggestions immediately