Looking to launch a new product?
You probably already know that you’re gonna need a strong video marketing strategy. In this blog, I want to give you 9 principles to think about when creating the perfect product launch video strategy.
9 key principles for a successful product launch video strategy:
- Emotion – Use emotion to sell
- Pain – Highlight the problem you solve
- Results – Show off your evidence
- Call to action – Tell the audience what to do next
- Don’t be afraid to go long – Take your time, but stay engaging
- High frequency – Create an ecosystem of content
- Golden 5 – Captivate with the first 5 seconds of your video
- Objections – Tackle objections head on to remove the friction of buying
- Your name – Say your name for it to be remembered.
- Emotion
Whether it’s joy or pain, love or hate, fun or annoying, you’re going to need to identify the emotional drivers behind why someone needs your product AND how they feel after they use the product.
This is especially true for software. I mean, think about it. When you’re marketing a nice skin cream or a blender or a bike lock for instance, it’s easy to see the results. But when you’re marketing software, it’s much harder for potential customers to see the tangible results of what happens after they use the software. So this is where we have to lean into the emotion of the user.
Emotion is THE influencing factor. In ‘Ogilivy On Advertising’, the Ad King himself talks about providing a small piece of logic for the target audience to latch on, because that makes them feel better about ultimately making an emotional decision.
Video is THE way to communicate emotion. It can be done so quickly and without the need for a script. Through video we can see, hear and feel the emotion clearly, especially if that emotion is felt by someone we can relate to. Which leads us to point 2… - Pain
Your product solves a problem. We need to know what that problem is!
It sounds obvious, but you’d be shocked at how many times we’ve had to tell business owners, ‘Yeah, it does look great, but what problem does this actually solve?’.
No doubt, there are some products where you might struggle to actually pinpoint the problem. But that’s usually because it’s just not a huge problem…to you! A good example would be a fashionable sweater for a dog. The dog most likely doesn’t need a fashionable sweater, but the owner wants to show love, appreciation and uniqueness through this gift to their dog. So that’s the problem it solves. I get it, it’s not a solution to world hunger, but nevertheless, it’s a problem…
If you have an existing product already in circulation, my advice would be to do your research. Find out the exact problem that your product solves, so that you know which one to shout about. Something that might seem trivial to you might actually be the most important problem you solve, without you realising. Similarly, if you have a brand new product, do some testing and find out the problem that is the biggest pain in the neck for your target audience. Focus on that in your video!
By outlining the problem within the video, you’ll have your target audience relating to the story immediately. This will keep them engaged and will give you the best chance of getting them to take action. - Results
Your video needs to include lots of results. Show us what your product can do. You need to paint the vision for your target audience; show them the results they too could have, if only they buy your product! Results are powerful, so make sure these form the hero shots of your video.
The results need to be clear, and they need to be aligned to the priorities of your target audience. There’s no point showing results that are good for some, but don’t actually matter to your ideal client. - Call to action
What do you want your audience to do once they’ve watched the video? It might be ‘buy now’. But if you’re selling £100,000,000 yachts, maybe it’s just ‘book a tour’. Whatever your call to action is, make sure it’s defined.
My advice would be to go for a softer call to action if your product is a larger ticket item, and go for a stronger call to action if you’re product is a smaller ticket item.
If you are doing a softer call to action (e.g download this guide, book a call, request a quote), I’d suggest building a complete customer funnel, designed to nudge the lead along the funnel, from viewer to customer. You don’t need to use lots of fancy software for this – most of it is about just mapping out the process, capturing an email or phone number, and following up. - Don’t be afraid to go long
‘nO OnE wATcHeS ViDEo foR LoNGeR ThAN 3 SeCoNDs’. I’m sure you’ve heard that before.
Here’s the truth – people watch loads of videos, and if the video is relatable (i.e. they are the target demographic) AND the video is well made, then they will watch it. On social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, video ads perform best at sub 30 seconds. But on YouTube, landing pages, presentations and on websites, longer form videos perform extremely well.
The general consensus is that when you’re on Facebook, you’re not usually actively searching for a product or service, so if an ad comes up you won’t give it much time. But with other platforms such as YouTube, you are either interested in finding a solution, or you are forced to watch 5-15 seconds of an ad anyway.
Why is this important? Well, if you can capture your audience quickly and keep them entertained, then you can afford to produce a longer-form video advert.
Why is that beneficial? Well, now you have 2-3 minutes to convert your prospect. This allows you to reinforce messages, tackle objections (we’ll get to that later) and provide multiple opportunities to buy. My advice would be to have a long form video that has been tested. Spend good money getting it out there, and then create a high volume of shorter, more focused videos. Which leads me to point 6… - High frequency
When you’re launching a new product, you’re going to want to keep the buzz going. And with the digital landscape changing so quickly, you’re going to need a high frequency strategy.
Put simply, this is about producing a series of shorter videos that sit in the ‘awareness’ stage of the sales funnel. By producing a higher frequency of these shorter videos, you are more likely to increase brand awareness and product recall. Furthermore, there are clear benefits linked to familiarity.
The more familiar your brand is, the more likeable and trusted it becomes – even by those that don’t know much about it. Check out ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ by Daniel Kahneman for more examples of this principle in play (it’s pretty shocking!).
One important thing to note is that these videos still have to be relevant, impactful and useful in some way. There’s no point producing hundreds of videos if they are all boring, irrelevant, confusing or dull! - Golden 5
The ‘golden 5’ refers to the first five seconds of your video. These precious seconds of your video are what a headline is to an article. They typically dictate whether or not your video will be watched at all.
So make sure these 5 seconds have a hook – give people a reason to continue watching. Using a shocking statistic, a question, a fact, or something visually unusual are all great ways of utilising the golden 5.
This is the most important part of your video, and the part that the majority of people will watch. So make it count.
- Objections
Tackling objections is nothing new in the sales world, but it’s also very important when it comes to your product video. As the viewer watches the video, we can be certain they will have questions and misconceptions about your product, brand and even industry. Right now, you’ll have a number of perceptions regarding a product or brand – and the truth is, these tend to be biased and inaccurate.
Well, here’s your chance to change all of that (for your audience at least!).
Tackle the objections head on, to remove the friction and mystery embedded within the buying decision. By answering those questions, you leave the audience with no excuses to not buy from you. It’s a great way of building trust and increasing conversions. - Your name
In the wise words of Destiny’s Child, ‘Say my name, Say my name’. Those girls knew what was up.
Get your product name into your videos as much as possible, without sounding goofy. This is important because it’s highly likely that your market is saturated, as with most markets. So we need the product name to be repeated multiple times throughout the video to ensure it makes an impression, and to increase the likelihood of the name being recalled at a later stage.
This can be achieved both visually, and through audio. Just as ‘Keyword Stuffing’ is bad SEO, ‘Brand Name Stuffing’ is bad video marketing. BUT (and it’s a big but) it’s important to drop that name multiple times within the video. Getting the balance right is tricky, but it’s an important principle missed by marketers across the globe. Think about how many times you’ve watched a video ad and couldn’t recall the product they were actually advertising!?
Hopefully these 9 principles have been helpful to you. We’re sure you’re going to have a fantastic product launch, and video marketing will no doubt play a huge role in that.
If you want more info on creating a great product video, head to our Product Videos page, or sign up for our newsletter for more useful content just like this!
