What Makes for Great Promotional Videos?

While there’s no one secret formula for creating promo videos, there are certain trends we can pinpoint that the most successful and popular promo videos have in common:

- They’re short. Within 60 seconds or less these videos succinctly and properly demonstrate or promote the subject matter.

- They’re entertaining and/or informative.

- They’re located on relevant pages like the top of the home page, a dedicated landing page, or a specific product or service page.

- Whether they’re done in quirky whiteboard animated styles or using real people, the goal is to be transparent and honest about the subject they’re promoting.

- They aim to elicit a single emotion from the viewer.

- There’s always a call-to-action, even if it’s a subtle one (e.g. “trust us”).

- They’re high-quality. Even if it’s a DIY, the promo video looks professional, crisp, and there are no errors, misspellings, or rough cuts noticeable.

To that last point, it’s important to only use super-polished videos. You would never throw content on your site that’s half completed or riddled with errors. You also wouldn’t leave broken links scattered about or too-tiny images or text for visitors to squint at.

A promo video needs to just as seamlessly blend with the rest of the content on your site and a poorly made production could compromise all that.