A promotional video is a great way to promote your business as it is an effective medium that makes products and services come alive for clients, and means they can really experience what your business has to offer. Studies have been done in regards to education and have concluded that some people are auditory learners, wherey they learn by listening, and others are visual learners, where they need to see a concept being explained and prefer pictures or handouts. Audio Visual Production brings these two senses into play and in doing so captures a much wider audience, who will appreciate and respond to receiving information in this way.
Identify your Goals
Careful planning needs to go into your promotional video as it is a powerful marketing tool that you need to get exactly right. Whether your video will be aired via the Internet, put on your website or made into a DVD, you will be able to broadcast to your target audience. You need to identify what it is you want to bring across to your audience and how your promotional video can help you do this. Firstly you need to work out exactly who your target audience is as there will be a style of video that will appeal to them most. You must decide on the tone of your video; will it be professional or presented in a casual style? You also need to decide what it is you want your viewers to do once they have seen your video. Can they email it to a friend? Can they share it via a social media network or do you want them inspired to call your company for more information?
Set a Budget
Although a promotional video is less expensive than producing a television commercial, if you do not create a budget for yourself and stick to it, your product can end up bigger than you expected and costing a lot more than you can afford. If you have limited funds you may want to produce the video yourself. This will depend on your target audience and what you want to achieve. You may need to create a professional image for your business and your promotional video will need to reflect this. Consulting an Audio Visual Production company would be your first step and they will be able to discuss your options.
Shooting your Video
Your initial good planning will be reflected in the success of your video shoot. By knowing exactly what has to be done and what footage you need will save you time, and money, if you do not have to re-shoot large portions of it. Make sure you have everything on hand that you need. If you are filming at a different location, or multiple locations, it would be a waste of everyone's time if you had to rush back to the office for forgotten items.
Editing
A professional Audio Visual Production company will handle this part for you, and the edits will be shown to you for your approval. The editing process is where your video will come alive. Scenes may be cut to help the flow of the video, voice overs and music may be added as well as titles. If you are editing yourself things to keep in mind are to keep it short, getting your message across in a succinct manner is much better than spreading it out and potentially borrowing your customers, so get to the point. Also do not bombard your viewers will lots of jumping from scene to scene, loud music or 'in your face' techniques. You do not want to scare them off.
Sharing your Video
Once completed you will need to get your video out there. The Internet is a fantastic way of spreading information and can also be an inexpensive method. There are different websites available for sharing videos and email can be an effective way to target your video to a wide audience. Your promotional video is a great marketing tool, so make sure you work hard to expose it to as many people as possible.