Why and How to Use AI to Produce eCommerce Promo Videos

What are eCommerce promo videos

Ecommerce promotional videos or promo videos are carefully planned explainer videos that are designed to convey a product line, services, or offers. They have the potential to communicate key information quickly and encourage actions by leveraging visual stimulation to attract customers.

Promo videos are the perfect avenue to highlight features, benefits, and unique selling points, and bring the product’s vision to life. Brands can connect with the audience directly via videos. For example - show their products in action, tell a story, do funny skits, and so much more.

The DollarShaveClub.com’s promo video is the perfect example of an impactful video that perfectly engages the audience with humor and a direct approach, reflecting on the brand’s value proposition.

The impact of eCommerce promo videos on your brand

Great promo videos are the perfect blend of visual storytelling and impactful messaging. Here’s how they can become indispensable if done right:

1. Capture attention instantly

People’s attention span has been on the decline and it's becoming increasingly difficult to grab attention with competition as fierce as the eCommerce industry. Promo videos are the superpower brands need.

Forbes backs it up - video messages have a 95% retention rate, while text messages have only 10% rate.

2. Show off products in action

A report released by Animoto reveals that 73% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product after watching a video.

The video could be putting products into action, an unboxing video, or a features and benefits highlight. It is when you put your product's features and benefits in the spotlight through dynamic visuals that you will be able to help your customers make informed decisions.

3. Drive higher conversions

Explainer videos are created in an easy-to-digest manner that has the potential to ramp up decision-making or rather simplify it. The visual showcase has a stronger emotional connection that motivates viewers to take action.

A research by EyeView shows, including a video on a product page can boost conversions by up to 80%.

4. Build trust and credibility

Brands can leverage promo videos to show a transparent and authentic representation of their products or services. When brands showcase real-life applications, testimonials, or behind-the-scenes processes, it builds a sense of trust, reliability, and credibility.

Moreover, high-quality video, storyline, and creativity portray your brand’s customer-centric nature and further help uncertain customers make decisions by fostering confidence.

5. Keep viewers engaged

Humans process visual information faster compared to text or images. Visual processing of complex objects in the brain typically takes place within a range of 0-500 milliseconds.

6. Boost social sharing potential

Great videos are a feast for social media users. People appreciate a well-crafted stand-out promo video or ad and are more likely to share them helping brands reach a wider audience.

7. Improve search engine rankings

Websites with video are 53 times more likely to appear on Google’s first page. Video marketing comes with SEO benefits and when used strategically can help a website or webpage rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

8. Appeal to mobile audiences

With digitization, mobile video consumption has grown significantly. Adding promo videos optimized for mobile devices has the potential to reach and engage on-the-go users.

9. Showcase product value clearly

Detailed promo videos about the product’s use cases and the problems it solves clearly bring forth the product’s value. It can demonstrate how your product solves the problems or meets needs.

10. Support smart retargeting

These promo videos can be repurposed or used for multiple marketing efforts like a retargeting campaign that can bring back past visitors and motivate them to complete their purchases.

What are the key elements of a good Ecommerce promo video?

Here’s a detailed outlook of the essential components that make a promo video successful:

1. Attention-grabbing hook - The first few seconds can make or break your video’s success. Use engaging hooks like a bold statement, a provocative question, or an eye-catching visual.
2. Clear product focus - Do not deviate away from your product features, show your product’s capability, functionality, and benefits.
3. Compelling visuals - Use high-quality visuals, dynamic images, or animations to bring the best out of the promo video and clearly communicate what’s intended.
4. Strong value proposition - Video content must put a strong case of why your product is worth purchasing and adds value to the customers' lives.
5. Customer pain points addressed - Show what customer problems your product solves and how you do it.
6. Engaging script or storyline - An engaging script or storyline is a must to engage viewers and leave a lasting impression. Use humor, empathy, or storytelling techniques to create impactful narratives.
7. High-quality production - Good lighting, clear sound, and professional editing are equally critical, because video quality translates to brand quality. Also, your choice of background music and sound effects matter.
8. Call to Action (CTA) - End your video with a strong CTA and let your viewers know what to do next - “Buy Now,” “Learn More,” or “Sign Up Today” to maximize immediate actions.
9. Short and concise duration - Customers prefer short and highly engaging videos that deliver the message quickly and effectively. Keep the video at an ideal length of 60-90 seconds. Also, maintain a balance between visual and text overlays and voiceover.
10. Brand affinity - Ensure your promo video aligns with your brand’s identity, tone, and values to build brand affinity. Include social proof, such as customer testimonials or product reviews to build trust.

Challenges in making eCommerce promo videos

Creating promo videos, though beneficial, isn’t easy to do. Take note of these common challenges and find effective solutions:

1. High production costs

The average cost of video production per minute for advanced productions ranges upwards of $10,000. Hiring professional equipment, skilled videographers, editors, and sound designers is expensive.

Plan meticulously to strike the right balance between quality and staying within budget. Pindown your priorities and try to leverage AI and free tools.

2. Time-Consuming Process

The process of creating promo videos starts with scripting, shooting, editing, and reviewing, all of which are time-consuming. It can take days or weeks to shoot a few seconds of video. It is even tougher for small businesses that have no resources at their disposal.

3. Balancing engaging content with complex products

72% of consumers prefer video demos over text but the market is crowded with products and promo videos. It’s truly difficult to stand out and engage viewers, more so with a complex or technical product.

Also, the average attention span has come down to just 8 seconds, which makes it extremely difficult to capture and maintain attention. Nailing down value delivery with speed is the key.

4. Maintaining brand consistency

Consistency in brand voice, tone, aesthetics, and values is critical across all marketing materials. Maintaining the same across videos is tougher than it is for text-based communications. Work hard to maintain consistent messaging.

5. Lack of Technical Expertise

Companies lack the in-house technical expertise to create professional-grade videos, especially for small companies with lean teams. Other technical expertise includes mobile-friendliness, quick load time, and responsiveness across devices and screens.

Finding the right talent that can fulfill end-to-end promo video production needs can get expensive.

6. Measuring ROI and performance

To maximize the benefits and returns from one promo video production, brands strategize their distribution across multiple channels. While it is an effective strategy, tracking metrics across multiple platforms can be complex.

Set clear goals and KPIs and use appropriate analytics tools to track performance.

7. Optimizing for Multiple Platforms

An effective distribution includes an optimization plan. Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook have unique video format, length, and style requirements. Optimizing all of it needs time, so plan carefully.

8. Creative hurdles and blocks

Video marketing 5 years ago is not the same as today. Trends evolve rapidly and it is a challenge to stay on top of the latest formats, styles, and technologies.

Creative blocks are real, and daily content creation can drain creativity. Brands must try to adopt continuous brainstorming and adaptability to bring their A-game into video production.

How AI can help generate eCommerce promo videos

From gathering product and offer details, scripting, storyboarding, aligning visuals, production, and post-purchase updates, making eCommerce promo videos can be time-consuming.

AI can take a big chunk of the downsides away and make video production easy for you. One of the most impressive ways is converting URLs into fully-fledged videos with minimal effort.

Videomagic can turn your existing content from websites, documents, links to blogs, ebooks, whitepapers, PDFs, and presentations into professional promo videos in 4 simple steps:

1. Sign up/ log in to Videomagic

2. Input the URL you'd like AI to gather offer details from

3. Select the brand assets you'd like to include in the video

4. Generate the video in the required aspect ratio