How to make memorable product marketing videos

Whether you’re selling a product or service, the ubiquitous product video can be the make-or-break moment for your potential customers.

A staggering 89% of surveyed consumers recently claimed that watching a video convinced them to buy a product or service. Product advertisement videos not only provide great opportunities for your business to make a sale, but they also let you show off what you have to offer.

To make product videos that resonate with your audience, you’ll want to combine quality content with a video platform that can scale with your needs.

If you’re ready to reach the 96% of people who watch product marketing videos to learn about goods or services, consider investing in a video marketing strategy. Check out our tips for creating ecommerce videos, and discover product video examples from brands that we think are getting it right.

9 tips for creating memorable product marketing videos

A truly great product video both informs and inspires viewers to give you their attention (and to open their wallets). You don’t have to be a seasoned film director to create compelling product videos and teasers. Follow our nine tips, and you’ll be on track to create great product marketing videos that sell.

1. Remember, context is king

Don’t just display your product. Show how it fits in the bigger picture of your customers’ lives. Aim to answer these questions with your product video ad: 

• What problem is your product solving? 
• How does it enrich your customers’ lives? 
• Is it inspiring a customer to do more? 
• Will this product increase customers’ overall happiness?

2. Show and tell

A high-concept promotional video may be artistic and fancy, but if viewers don’t know what you’re selling at the end of it, they probably won’t be inspired to become customers. 

Pretend you’re back in first grade doing “Show and Tell” — show off your product, and tell your customers about it. Creating great product promo videos can be that simple.

Your content and script will largely depend on your brand and its offerings, but there are a few product video concepts that seem to work: 

• Demo. Simply put, a demo shows off the product in action while someone is using it!
• Explainer. Using a combination of audio and text, explainer videos tell customers exactly how a product works and shares the story behind your brand. Often, explainer videos are what convince shoppers to purchase.
• Tutorial. Tutorials instruct users with step-by-step guides. They also might be tailored and targeted to consumers who already made a purchase.

3. Share your story — or let your customers do it for you

When people look at a product ad video, they don’t just want to know the technical specs of the product. They also want to meet the people behind the product, and the people who use it.

Of course specs are helpful, but they’re not everything. Today’s consumers are savvy, preferring companies with a mission rather than those merely pushing a glossy product. In fact, 71% of customers trust companies that speak honestly about the social initiatives they’re involved in.

Gone are the days of consumerism for consumerism’s sake, so use your product videography to explain your company’s reason for existing. Answer the big questions. For example, does your business: 

• Partner with social justice initiatives? 
• Donate part of your proceeds to community organizations?
• Use your social media platforms to educate your followers about social issues? 
• Have a meaningful sustainability practice, whether that’s eliminating single-use plastics or going carbon neutral?

In other words, caring is cool. 

When it comes to testimonials, use a current customer as your hype person. These testimonials can be rave reviews taking up a single frame of your product video or a talking head interview explaining how your product or service changed the game.

4. Customize, customize, customize

When you create a product video, your goal is to use it as a video advertisement — and a first impression — for your product or service, so appearances matter. This means blurry footage or unclear photography can (and likely will) lead to a nose-dive in product sales.

Your online marketing video might live on as a Facebook video or embedded on Amazon, so you want to be proud of the final cut. With Vimeo’s Video Creator, you can customize your product video entirely to your tastes, whether that’s uploading your brand’s logo and fonts or using our limitless library of *not-cheesy* stock footage to jazz up your product demo. 

Take the team at City Beauty as a powerful example. While it used to take more than 15 minutes to make a customized video, City Beauty upped their product video production by 150% with Vimeo Create’s product video maker, shortening their production time to a mere two to three minutes from start to finish.

Hosting your video in the Vimeo player has its advantages, too. Treat your viewers to zero pre-roll — because the last thing a potential customer wants to watch is an ad before your ad.

5. Cater to your target audience

Often when bands go on tour, they’ll shout out the name of the city in which they’re playing. We recommend doing the same in your product video, figuratively (or even literally).

Whether it’s a certain demographic or geographic audience you’re targeting, you should customize your product marketing strategy and video to be highly relevant to your potential customer.

Take a look at how Spoak Decor immediately calls out to its target audience in its explainer video for its new product, Spoak Play. “Calling all interior design lovers,” reads the first frame, establishing their niche quickly and effectively. Then, they go into what, exactly, users can do with Spoak Play.

6. Don’t foster FOMO

Nothing screams obsolete marketing practices like attempting to scare people into purchasing your product. By fear, we mean FOMO, or fear of missing out.

When businesses try to sell the risks of not buying their product, they’re using fear to get people to buy. But modern businesses should be focusing their product videos on the benefits of their products and services, rather than leaning on scare tactics.

If you’re having trouble identifying your product’s unique selling points (USPs), grab a blank piece of paper (or Word or Google Doc) and ask these questions: 

• Who are your competitors, and what do you love about your competitors’ products? (It’s totally okay to admit when your competitors are doing something right! Inspiration is important.) 
• Of the folks who have previously bought your product or service, what are the common threads in their reviews, comments, or feedback? Write it all down, make a Venn diagram, or organize the information in whatever way unlocks your mind.
• What’s the most positive thing about your product or service? Lean into that.

7. Inject some personality

Don’t be afraid to make a product marketing video that showcases your brand’s identity. Showcasing your personality is a great way to differentiate your product’s online and mobile marketing from the millions of similar product campaigns out there.

One way to show your brand personality is through storytelling. Present a problem up front, and use the remaining video to share how your product or solution (or company) can and will solve it. Another way to showcase your company’s identity is through the use of archetypes. Determine your brand archetype — Hero, Outlaw, Magician, etc. — and share your product from the perspective of that persona. For example, if you want to appeal to the “Everyperson” archetype, keep your language relatable, simple, and to the point.

8. Include a call-to-action so people know how (and where) to buy

When you make a marketing video, make sure it’s easy for potential customers to purchase your product or service once the video comes to an end. How? Include a call-to-action or a next step for the viewer to take.

If a person makes it all the way to the end of your three-minute blender demonstration, they’re probably at least somewhat interested in buying that blender. If your product video is more of a proof-of-concept, try including an email capture or link to preorder in your video.

Look at how Hello HUM shows off how to use their product with a cheeky headline — “Getting to know your HUM” — and an easy-to-follow CTA pointing to their website.

9. Create human connections

It’s all too easy to talk at your audience in a product video instead of to them. Because your goal is to start a conversation with a potential customer, do your best to connect with the human on the other side of the screen.

You can help create genuine connections by sharing the “human” side of your own organization. Try creating product videos that showcase the real people behind the business, or success stories from real customers.

How to shoot product videos

You don’t need a video agency to make a stunning explainer video. While we love the glossy elegance of a majorly produced product vid, in today’s lightning-paced marketing world where many companies sell products online, enterprise businesses need to be able to make video content faster, more efficiently, and at scale.

There’s no shortage of marketing channels to push content out on, and we’d venture to guess that you could probably use more videos. This is where agility and scalability come in.

Shooting product videos, explainers, and demos can be intimidating, so here are a few pointers:

• When in doubt, use a flat lay or a white background. The simpler the background, the better — after all, you’re not selling the background. Your product should be the thing to grab attention.
• Aim for consistent lighting. Even though golden hour is beautiful, it’s finicky and unreliable. You know what’s reliable? Good old studio lighting. Even a simple ring light can be enough to create some of the best videos.
• Leverage AI to optimize your creative workflow. Video production and editing can take time. With AI tools like one-take video creation, marketers can generate product scripts and quickly edit videos to minimize the time from shoot ideation to final production.
• You don’t need a DLSR. Use your iPhone or Android’s portrait mode against your simplistic background to get high-quality product shots in minutes. 
• Lean on user-generated content. Are people using your products in social media posts and tagging you in their videos? Ask them if you can use their UGC as part of your promo!

Product videos we love

▶️ Samsung Notebook 

The product video from Samsung is simple, clean, and creative. It highlights the product in a unique way with close-ups of the device paired with colorful, geometric 3-D shapes. It feels futuristic, but straightforward.

Takeaway: If you’re promoting a technical product, consider creative ways to show off your hardware.

▶️ Small Improvements

The video from B2B brand Small Improvements immediately states what the product does up front and uses on-screen text to highlight key aspects of the tool. The text helps to outline the rest of the video and organizes the information for the viewer. Shots of use-cases “show and tell” how the product works.

Takeaway: Lead with benefits that solve user problems.

▶️ Vidico

Viewers can tell this video is for a specific audience. And the more specifically you can speak to your target consumers directly, the better.

Takeaway: If your product supports it, don’t be afraid to lean into a niche interest or audience.

▶️ ROBE Lighting

This video creatively matches the product offering to the messaging. It’s promoting a lighting rig, and the video pulls this theme into the editing. With tons of beautifully lit product shots and explainers, the video really lets the use cases for the product shine.

Takeaway: Matching the tone of your video with the tone of your product adds another dimension of visual storytelling.

Product video FAQs

How long should a product advertisement video be?

The short answer is: It depends! You want to tailor your online video marketing efforts to the type of content you’re creating. Here are a few loose guidelines:

• Quick demo: Anywhere from 15 seconds to one minute
• Explainer: Anywhere from 30 to 90 seconds, depending on how complex your offerings are
• Quick tutorial: if you’re sharing on short form-friendly social sites like Instagram, shorter is better. Shoot for around one minute.
• In-depth tutorial: For channels like Vimeo and YouTube, long-form content (anything up to 15 minutes) is fair game. Although you do want to keep editing tight and keep “fluff” to a minimum.

When you’re selling a product online, you want to make sure your online ads and video executions match the nature of the product or service you’re offering.

What should be included in a product video?

1. Plenty of product photography, ideally a 360° glance at your goods
2. Dimensions, so viewers know how large, heavy, or feather-light your product is
3. A call-to-action to your website, follow your biz on social, etc.
4. Social proof, like testimonials and reviews to show why your product or service is better than the competition
5. Your unique personality and spin on things

How do I create a product video in Vimeo?

Making a product video doesn’t have to be an expensive, outsourced to-do. Open up Vimeo Create on mobile or desktop and use an AI-powered guided template to make a product vid in minutes.

Answer a few easy questions, upload smartphone photos or videos of your product, tinker with text, and add a call to action. Save, publish, and share to any (or all, we won’t judge) your social channels.

What should I include in my video product marketing strategy?

Your strategy will depend on your specific product and target audience, but there are a handful of considerations that should be made when creating any product marketing strategy:

• As mentioned, first, determine your target audience.
• Connect with your team and internal stakeholders to determine your video plan (type of video, creation, and execution).
• Determine a budget and timeline for your campaign.
• Choose a video platform that works for your goals (we suggest Vimeo!).
• Create your video messaging, script, and on-screen personalities (pro tip: Use Vimeo’s AI script generator and get completed video scripts based on brief descriptions and input. Then use our teleprompter tool to make voiceover easy on your talent!)
• Decide the video metrics you want to track and determine KPIs to measure success.

Create product videos at scale

If you want to be able to compete in today’s modern marketplace, you need a video partner that can help you take your customized, targeted, human-centered product spots to the next level and create marketing videos at scale.

Your video ad maker should allow you to host and brand your content and track analytics, all in one place. Get started with Vimeo today, and help your audience discover exactly why you’re the product or service solution they’ve been looking for.

Make a stellar product video in minutes