Product videos—when done correctly—are a highly successful and motivational tool for driving sales. In fact, 89% of people say watching a video has convinced them to make a purchase.
Product videos are a staple in modern marketing. With more than 214 million online shoppers in the United States—about two-thirds of the population—video is key to showing exactly what customers can expect from a product.
With this in mind, we’re going to explain what a product video is, essential elements, best practices to create a video that sells, and tips to ensure success.
What are product videos?
Product videos are a type of marketing video that highlights a specific product. It might focus on a new product feature, showcase a launch, or demonstrate how the product works.
There are several different types of product videos, including:
- Introductory: Launch or introduce a new product into the market
- How-to: Demonstrate how a product works
- Explainer: Introduce what a product is and how it solves pain points
- Testimonial: Share customers’ experiences with your product or service
A product video is meant to explain and guide your audience through what your product is, how it can help them, and why they should buy it.
Understanding the importance of product videos
Product videos are known to increase conversions by helping people understand your product in a quick and digestible way. According to Wzyowl's video marketing report, 96% of consumers have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
Here’s why you should consider adding more video to your marketing strategy.
Search engines love video
Google displays search results that include video, image, news, maps, and other mediums, in addition to web pages. You can see below what this looks like:
Research shows Google favors and prioritizes sites with video, which means having product page videos (ideally hosted with YouTube) will grant you a greater chance of ranking in search engines. This is especially true if your competition isn’t using video in their stores.
Video is more shareable and clickable
Well-produced videos are shared organically across social media, which can boost your reach. According to Wyzowl’s survey, over half of social media users share videos more than any other type of content.With the likes of TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram continuing to grow as marketing platforms, video can be an effective way to extend your brand reach. Customers are more willing to click on a video thumbnail than content with no visual or multimedia element.
The optimal length of your video depends on your industry, but it’s worth experimenting with both short- and long-form video content to help find what resonates most with potential customers. One study shows that videos between two and 10 minutes in length tend to be the most successful.
Video captivates
The amount of time users spend watching video keeps going up—people watch 17 hours of online video each week, on average. With most users consuming media on mobile devices, video is especially appealing due to how accessible it is while browsing.
Short clips of your product or brand can catch your audience’s attention and increase its chances of being shared within their network.
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then...
Video has the ability to convey an incredible amount of information very quickly. Instead of having to read a 20-page report, or go through an entire email marketing campaign, users can instantly understand your products or services.With the rise of user-generated content in marketing, your target audience can hear from customers just like them on why they love your products.
Video is a powerful tool that can strike an emotional chord and subconsciously tell customers how they should feel about your brand or products.
5 elements of a compelling product video
What makes a product video captivating, shareable, and compelling, and what gets a viewer to take action?
Here are five essential elements every compelling product video has:
1. Hook
A product video needs to have an attention-grabbing introduction or hook to pull your viewer in and get them interested.
Think about who your target audience is and what would compel them to buy your product or sign up for your service. Then address that need directly.
Another strategy is to drive curiosity. Start your video with mystery and intrigue, motivating your viewer to keep watching to figure out what it is about. Just make sure you have a compelling reveal.
Playing card brand Theory11 created a video that grabs attention—and keeps it—throughout.
Consider how you can hook your audience. What draws them in and makes them keep watching? An engaging product video has this figured out.
2. Clear messaging
Your video needs to have clear and concise messaging that matches your brand’s voice.
Be succinct with your messaging while also staying true to your brand and its personality. You can do this in a number of ways: text on screen, actors, voiceovers, etc.
BarkBox—a dog toy subscription company—keeps its branding on point with visuals, while sharing their message with text on screen.
This messaging makes perfect sense for this brand’s friendly and joyful tone. It’s clear, direct, and easy to relate to.
3. Solution to a pain point
Your product or service is designed to solve a pain point for your customer. Impactful video shows how your product provides the solution. It can be as simple as showing a person struggling with a task, introducing your product, and demonstrating how their life gets better as a result.
It doesn’t have to be so straightforward. Your target audience might not realize the pain point they have until they see the solution your product offers.
BioLite does a great job of presenting its smokeless fire pit as a solution to a pain point—irritating campfire smoke. Its video seamlessly reminds its audience of the problem and demonstrates why its product is the solution they need.
Consider which portrayal would work best for your product or service and make sure you show your product as the solution within your video.
4. Valuable information
Your product video should include valuable information about your product or service. This means top features, how it works, what it’s used for, and other details best shown on camera.
Cooler company Igloo wraps a lot of valuable info about a brand new product into a single 30-second product video.
It’s a simple video, too, but showcases exactly why someone should buy a new Igloo tumbler, detailing the features and demonstrating the value.
5. Call-to-action
Your product video must include a clear call-to-action (CTA). This is going to remind your viewer of what they should do next.
This could be a clear request to “buy now,” “request a demo,” or “learn more.” It also could be a closing scene that includes the website where viewers can purchase the product.
10 best practices for creating a product video that sells
When learning how to make a product video, it’s important to understand what will drive your message home and make an impact on your audience. These 10 best practices can help you create a product video that improves your sales.
- Speak to your audience
- Create an airtight script
- Ensure you have the perfect video length
- Prioritize high-quality footage
- Get good audio
- Focus on the pace and tone of your video
- Use detail-rich descriptions, subtitles, and captions
- Include a call to action
- Incorporate customer testimonials where possible
- Look at examples of successful product videos
1. Speak to your audience
You need to speak and relate to your target audience in your product video.
Consider what is going on in their lives, what their priorities are, what they desire, what motivates them, and what type of language they use to describe their lives.
New parents may relate to having a messy home, feeling tired, and lacking time, but also spending quality time with their families. While young professionals may relate more to a late night out.
Sometimes it’s not quite so clear, though. There may be lots of ways to relate to your audience. You need to find the best avenue for your product—or consider A/B testing a few different options to see what resonates most.
2. Create an airtight script
A video script includes all of the dialogue and stage directions for your video. If you plan to have acting or voiceover within your video, your script will guide your team, ensuring you stay on message and create the video you’re envisioning.
To write a good script, there are a few things you’ll need to consider:
- How many characters you’ll have
- Who your characters will be
- Character demographics
- If you’ll have narration
- What story you want to tell
Start by writing an outline of how you want the final video to appear. Then add in dialogue, sound bites, and scene details.
Make sure to write out every word that will be spoken. Say the dialogue out loud as you write to make sure it sounds natural and conversational. Make sure actors and narrators stay on script and don’t improvise.
3. Ensure you have the perfect video length
A typical product video is between 15 seconds and two minutes in length—except for in-depth product overviews or tutorial videos that can extend to 10 minutes. The sweet spot is around 30 to 60 seconds long.
The length of your video depends on what kind of story you want to tell or how much information you want to include.
You might focus on one specific feature in a quick, 15-second video or share more details about your product in a minute-and-a-half-long video. Aim for a 60-second video when writing your script. Then adjust based on the amount of information or key features you need to share.
You can also record a longer video and cut it down into shorter videos to test which length performs best.
4. Prioritize high-quality footage
Your smartphone camera works great for social media video content, the quality might not be enough for a product video. Either purchase a video camera, rent equipment, or hire a team to produce your video for you.
High-quality footage shows your audience you take your brand and its products seriously. Low-quality, grainy, or blurry footage can look unprofessional and untrustworthy.
5. Get good audio
Just like quality footage is essential, so is good audio.
Using boom mics, lavaliers, or other microphones on your set will ensure you capture your actors' voices clearly.
This is important if you have a narrator. You need their voice to be clear and consistent throughout the video.
Your audio includes background music or sound effects. Many sites offer stock audio clips you can purchase for commercial use, giving you access to high-quality audio for an affordable price.
6. Focus on the pace and tone of your video
The pace of your video is how quickly the action happens. The tone refers to the mood or feeling your video gives off.
A quicker pace is more exciting or alarming, and can be used to convey urgency. A slower, smoother pace will convey a calmer, peaceful lifestyle.
Your tone is important. Make sure it matches your brand voice, through the settings, lighting, words used, and actions taken. The pace and tone of your video will directly impact how the viewer feels after watching your video and the next steps they take.
7. Use detail-rich descriptions, subtitles, and captions
If you’re uploading your product video to a site like YouTube, search engine optimization (SEO) best practices are important. Choose keywords for your product video to help people find it. This might be your product name, a feature you focus on, or a branded keyword.
Include the keyword in areas like:
- Video title
- Description
- Captions
- Hashtags
- Tags
This can ensure the video hosting site’s algorithm knows what your video is about. You’ll also want to write a detailed description letting viewers know what to expect when watching your video. You can include links to make it easy for viewers to head straight to a product page and make a purchase.
8. Include a call to action
We mentioned this as one of the essential elements of a good product video—you need a call to action (CTA). There are a few ways to include this within your video.
Home décor brand Ruggable keeps it simple, including an audio CTA that says, “Visit Ruggable.com today.”
Smart-mug brand Ember created an end screen for it video with its logo, tagline, website, and additional information to help its customers take action.
9. Incorporate customer testimonials where possible
Customer reviews and experiences are a great form of social proof and can motivate potential customers to purchase a product. These can be a talking head interview, case studies, text on screen or screenshots of reviews.
You can incorporate snippets of testimonials in a product video, or create a video focused on testimonials and happy customers. Both are effective at enticing viewers to take action and make a purchase.
10. Look at examples of successful product videos
Watch the videos your competitors or other brands are creating to get inspiration for your own product marketing videos. We’ve included several product video examples throughout this article—but you can also search for other brands’ YouTube channels and social profiles to find out what types of product videos they’re published.
Note which ones are getting the most engagement and views, and which best practices they’re using.
Tips for creating compelling product videos
Ready to create your own marketing videos? Keep these tips in mind to make sure you’re producing a video that’s going to resonate with your target customer:
- A/B test your videos
- Record longer videos and cut them down into different iterations to test
- Keep an eye on your analytics so you know which videos perform best
- Set goals and KPIs for your video content
- Measure those specific metrics to determine performance
- Make video marketing a big part of your strategy—it’s not going anywhere soon
Creating product videos is a great way to improve brand awareness, search rankability, and sales. Just make sure you’ve got a good hook and can relate to your target audience. Learn more about how to make a video that converts.
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