How Important is Promotional Video Today?
As a busy video marketing agency we’ve noticed that one of the by-products of the perceived power of content marketing and the language that accompanies is that the humble “promotional video” seems to have been left in the dust. Current marketing rhetoric constantly reminds us that “content is king” and that your online marketing video content should be original, and dare I say it, “quirky”. This has created a downward pressure on brands (both large and small) to create video content with the sole aim that it may potentially go “viral”. Unfortunately this pressure can sometimes actually restrict creativity and cloud the basic aim of video marketing.
The Truth About Viral
Let’s face it, we’d all like our video marketing to go “viral” but the truth is that the chances of your video reaching viral levels are pretty much non-existent (although you may not find another digital marketing agency prepared to admit this!). No matter how clever you think it is.
300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute and over the course of 12 months only a handful of the videos uploaded will go viral. But this should not deter you from producing video content as a way to market your business or service. You’re potential customers don’t care of your video has 10 or 10 million views, they simply need it to fulfil their own needs and answer some obvious questions.
The History of Promotional Video
That’s where our friend the good old fashioned “promotional video” comes into play. Over the years promotional video and corporate video had something of an image problem. Anyone who has in the past been tortured by having to sit through a company’s latest promotional VHS offering (usually featuring one of the least charismatic staff members they could possibly find) will know what I’m talking about here.
When VHS was at its height countless companies and organisations hired production companies to produce promotional, marketing and training films which were distributed on VHS to help them deliver there message. For the most part these films were terrible, over long, dull and offered with the choice, many viewers would rather set fire to their socks than sit through them.
So “corporate video” and “promotional video” were previously pretty dirty words to modern marketing experts. However 2 things happened that changed all this. Firstly as the web emerged and slowly increased its bandwidth capabilities we were able to watch video online at ever increasing quality levels. The rise of youtube is testament to how consumers grew their love of this medium and its delivery method and confirmed online video as one of their preferred methods to consume information and entertainment.
The second thing that impacted was the advances made in digital video production which put the power a skill base to produce, direct and edit great video content into the hands of an army of new professionals. This was essentially the birth of the video marketing agency, and produced a new breed of marketing experts who had innovative and creative ideas as to how it could be used to market businesses. We should also add to this that the explosion in social media usage provided additional advantages to businesses such as easy sharable content.
Promotional Video’s True Objective
But to return to my original point, it would be unrealistic to suggest that the power, budget and opportunity for every single business, large or small to produce potentially viral content is within grasp. It simply isn’t.
But once again the key here is that your customers don’t care if your video goes viral. Both the brand and the customer simply need it to perform one simple task, that is to introduce (or “promote”) the brand efficiently. Any video content that’s primary purpose is to raise awareness of your produce or service is essentially a promotional video. Yes, it’s much cooler to call it video marketing or content marketing but basically its video intended to promote. All that’s different is the language.
So you shouldn’t get too worried about whether to produce inbound marketing, digital marketing, viral marketing or whatever people are calling it this week. Just worry about getting the content right for your customers. You don’t even need to be super creative, incredibly cool or cleverly original with the video you produce. In fact we see many examples of brands trying too hard to produce “cool” video marketing where we’re left wondering exactly what the product–or the point–is?
At the end of the day here’s some cold hard facts.
You sell a product or service.
New customers search for that product or service online.
These customers will be looking for answers to questions
Ensure that whatever kind of promotional video you produce tells them that you supply what they are looking for and answers their questions and you’ve nailed it. And hopefully you’ll see your sales reflect this. Promotional video, video marketing, content marketing have simple aims and simple methods. So stop worrying about the hype and simply give your customers what they need.
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