Promotional videos are an extremely impactful way for businesses to communicate with their audience.
Whether created to increase brand awareness, launch new products or simply to support existing marketing effects, promotional videos can be used to achieve a wide spectrum of commercial aims.
However, the key to achieving maximum success with video is to follow a winning framework. This considers aspects such as the quality of the video production, having a clear call to action and more.
As a leading UK video production agency here at MHF Creative, these are some of our top pieces of advice for maximising the ROI of your next promotional video campaign.
What Is A Promotional Video?
A promotional video can be defined as a short or long-form video which is designed to promote a business, service, product, event or idea. The aim of a promotional video is to engage audiences in a way that allows for the objectives of the campaign to best be reached. This outcome can be achieved through a consideration of the video content, production quality, distribution methods and the overall messaging.
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Their Role In Marketing
As an easy-to-digest format, video breaks any topic down in the most tangible and engaging of ways for audiences. This success formula of video has proven merit, with watch times and user numbers increasing year on year.
According to HubSpot, 92% of marketers report that video produces a positive ROI. Oberlo also found that a whopping one billion hours of video is watched every week. This breaks down to around 17 hours of video consumed per user per week.
In short, video plays an essential role in marketing, especially with so many ways to access video content from traditional computers and TVs to phones and tablets.
Defining Clear And Measurable Goals For Promotional Videos
What comes before lights, camera, action? Strategy!
Practically every form of marketing imaginable needs to be laser-focused in terms of having a clear target audience and actionable goals. Video marketing is no exception, and a strategy maps out how the overall aims can be achieved.
Identifying measures for success at an early stage is also crucial in determining and tracking the ROI of the campaign. For instance, monitoring metrics such as website visits, social media follows, inbound calls or conversion rates.
Any applicable metrics can be tracked during the campaign to compare if positive increases have been achieved.
Understanding Your Target Audience
As a business, you should have a good idea about your target audience already. However, the data provided by video marketing can create further insights on the audiences consuming your content. All of which can help you to create more informed campaigns which target the right people, with the right messaging in the right places.
The Importance Of High-Quality Video Production
The quality of your promotional video is a direct reflection of your brand, along with the products or services you want to highlight. The pre-production, production and post-production techniques encompass many elements. However, they should all work to deliver exceptional storytelling and messaging which is effective in resonating with the target audience.
Distribution Strategies
Even the best promotional videos ever made won’t achieve their maximum ROI if they are shown in the wrong places. Therefore, a distribution strategy should be drawn up in advance to highlight platforms which align with your target audience.
Platforms for video distribution can include social media, websites and email marketing channels. Distribution can also include organic or paid techniques.
Social Sharing And User-Generated Content
Every share, like or comment that a promotional video receives can be instrumental in that video gaining more views, engagements and clicks to generate sales.
Best of all, such user actions can continue to boost the ROI of that promotional campaign indefinitely, so long as the video remains live and accessible to find.
Achieving such a feat comes down to creating video content that connects with the audience. Specifically, content which addresses the needs of the audience in the most applicable ways depending on the campaign.
Video SEO And Optimisation
SEO (search engine optimisation) isn’t just for your website. In fact, YouTube is actually considered a search engine, due to the way users type in queries to find the content they are looking for.
Simply put, your promotional videos need to have SEO-friendly titles. The video descriptions should provide actionable links related to the content discussed in the video. These provide a place for users to complete actions such as purchasing a product or enquiring about your services.
It’s also a good idea to include links to your website and social media pages to boost overall conversions from the campaign. Links can also be tracked including those placed on your videos.
Engagement And Call To Action (CTA)
The rise of short-form video content (i.e. Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts) is yet more proof that when it comes to video, attention spans are on the shorter side. Specifically, audiences want quick, effective content that instantly gets to the point. The need for slick editing is yet another reason why promotional videos are best left to the experts.
But regardless of whether your promotional videos are in short or long form, not only must you respect the viewer’s time, but there also needs to be a clear call to action too.
Whatever actions you want users to take in response to the video, not only should these be communicated effectively, but the video itself should provide all the tools to do so.
Measuring ROI Metrics
Analytics tools on various video platforms can give an indication of your campaign performance. Some of the metrics to look out for include click-through rates, conversion rates and revenue generated.
With data now more interactive than ever, it is easy to build up a picture of the types of content which resonate with the audience. Likewise, you can also identify areas for improvement such as videos with lower watch times or overall views.
When all the data is used to its potential, the overall maximum gains can be made to current and future campaigns.
Budget Allocation And Efficiency
While video marketing is revered for its excellent ROI, a significant financial investment is often required to produce and distribute promotional campaigns.
As a video marketing agency, we work with various budgets and can help advise on ensuring an efficient campaign spend.
Cost-effective strategies work on the principle of identifying what resources are needed to meet the aims of the campaign, and exploring all available options based on cost. Selections can then be cherry-picked, ensuring the overall effectiveness of the campaign is still achievable.
Long-Term Impact And Brand Building
Another aspect of promotional video ROI is the long-term impact, particularly surrounding brand building and associations.
For businesses wanting to maximise ROI from video, content which is considered evergreen can be a strategy to consider. This involves removing any time sensitivity from the campaign so that it continues to prove useful for users searching for such content.
Likewise, if video campaigns offer valuable content, then users are more likely to continue to engage with the content. All of which promotes better brand loyalty and overall customer retention.
Challenges And Mitigation Strategies
Any challenges faced by businesses wanting to do video marketing will ultimately impact ROI.
For instance, a lack of understanding around how to tangibly explain your products or services within video format. Or, having limited expertise or resources to be able to shoot a quality video campaign.
Consulting with a fresh pair of (experienced!) eyes such as a video marketing agency can solve these quandaries and much more. We can also provide ideas on how to refresh your campaigns to keep engagement levels high.
Conclusion
Maximising the ROI of any promotional video comes down to having a clear focus on what you want to achieve, who you are speaking to along with the best ways to reach your audience.
While figuring out the finer details can seem like a challenge at first, all of the effort is really about putting your campaign budget to the best use. By spending your money in the right way, a healthy ROI from your promotional video is more likely to be achieved.
MHF Creative - Promotional Videos For Business UK
Whether your business is new to the concept of promotional videos, or if you are looking to shake up any previous efforts you’re in the right place.
With offices in London and Leeds, MHF Creative is a UK-based video production agency.
Head over to our promotional video production page to get a flavour of what we do.
Alternatively, if you have any questions please fill out our contact form.
We have clients based around the world including in the US, Asia, Australia, India and beyond. If you’re not based in the UK, we’d be happy to find a suitable time to have a Zoom call with you to discuss your project.
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