A teaser video gives a chance for your brand to engage with your audience by building excitement around a new release of a product or service.
This blog explains how to make a professional teaser video for your brand, tips on creating an excellent teaser video, and how Animoto can help you build a professional teaser video in minutes.
TLDR: Teaser videos are powerful, concise clips (aim for 15-30 seconds) engineered to ignite anticipation and rapidly build brand awareness for new launches. They drive engagement for new products or services by creating immediate buzz, boosting social shares, and even enabling early audience feedback.
Crafting one involves selecting an ideal template, integrating your unique media, customizing with your brand's specific elements (fonts, colors, logos), incorporating crucial feedback loops, and strategically sharing. For maximum impact, leverage powerful music, direct voice-overs, and precise calls-to-action, amplified by targeted hashtags.
What is a teaser video?
A teaser video, sometimes called a sizzle reel, is a brief, engaging clip designed to create anticipation around an upcoming release. Its primary goal is to spark curiosity and generate brand awareness in 30 seconds or less, leaving viewers wanting more. These videos can be used as online commercials, social media posts, or even pre-launch announcements.
By strategically balancing anticipation and engagement, a great teaser video can quickly hook your audience. They effectively tap into your target audience's values and interests, fostering deeper connections with your brand.
Here's a great example that was made with Animoto:
Why are teaser videos important for businesses?
A fifteen-second video can share just as much as a blog that takes five minutes to read. The difference is that the video does it a lot faster. Video marketing isn't something new, but it's the best tool a brand can use to grab the attention of its target audience.
Create excitement
Teaser videos help generate excitement within your audience. Just like film teasers that show you what's to come, product teaser videos can do the same for your business!
Increase brand awareness
A professional teaser video only gives a sample taste of what's to come, and this is a great advantage for companies to help build brand awareness. Use consistent visuals and sounds in your teaser videos to build a strong and recognizable brand.
Repurposing material
Teaser videos are for the world of social media. Teaser video content has a lot of versatility, making it easily shareable across many different social media platforms. By repurposing the video material, brands have a much better chance of building hype around their new product or service and, eventually, an entire community of fans.
Target audience feedback
Teaser videos build anticipation for your audience, but it also acts as a form of engagement. Target audience members can share their critiques on releasing a new product or service, a vital tool for a brand. Using the feedback from viewers gives a brand the ability to adjust their product or service before release, making for a happy audience who will love the new product or service that much more.
How to make a teaser video with Animoto
1) Choose a teaser video template
Animoto's library is full of teaser video templates. Scroll down to preview announcement templates for podcast previews, promos, and product launches. Or, dive right into the template library.
Your audience will be hungry for more with any of our templates. With the power of Animoto's easy online video editor, your teaser videos are sure to stand out.
2) Add media to your teaser video
Upload your video clips into the video editor with Animoto's simple drag and drop process. In need of more media? Our stock media library is full of great content.
Types of content to include in your teaser video:
- Product photos or photos of the "ingredients" so you don't give too much away
- Clips of longer videos or full-length podcasts
- Positive reviews of the full product
3) Customize your teaser video
This is where your brand comes to life! Add text, adjust video styles, and incorporate tracks from Animoto's music library to elevate your teaser.
Animoto also lets you create a Saved Brand if you’re on a Professional or Professional Plus plan. By using your own fonts, colors, and logos, your teaser video will be instantly recognizable.
4) Preview and share your teaser video
Almost done! Click the play button in the bottom left-hand corner, and you'll be able to preview your teaser video. Once you feel that everything is ready, export the final version of your video.
From there, you can share your video right from Animoto. All of your videos will be saved securely in your account.
Tips for making a professional teaser video
Add music to your teaser video
The power of music for any marketing video can't be understated, and teaser videos are no different. Browse through Animoto’s music library by mood or genre to find the song that fits your video.
Include a voice-over
Adding Voice-over to your video is a great way to complement your on-screen visuals with vocal explanations and create a more personal connection with your audience.
Create brand awareness
Including your company’s brand is an essential way to ensure that your audience knows who is talking to them. But brand awareness doesn’t just come from your company name. Use colors, fonts, logos, sounds, and more to build your brand. A professional teaser video only gives you a few seconds to show off your brand, so make sure you're instantly recognizable.
Use a call-to-action
A teaser video should encourage the audience to take action. Depending on your business, this action could be signing up for your newsletter, following you on social media, or anything that allows you to continuously engage with your audience. Once the product or service that you’re teasing is finally available, your audience needs to know about it.
Use the right hashtags
The world of marketing loves its hashtags. The hashtag, when used correctly, can be a fantastic tool to generate relevant traffic to your teaser video. It’s likely that your video will be posted on social media, so a strong hashtag strategy can garner more engagement. Take a look at your competitors' hashtags as a starting point.
Teaser video FAQs
How long should a teaser video be?
Teaser videos are typically very short, usually 15-30 seconds. Their goal is to spark curiosity without giving everything away, so conciseness is key for maximum impact and shareability.
What's the best platform to share a teaser video?
Teaser videos are ideal for social media platforms like Instagram (especially Reels and Stories), TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube Shorts due to their short, engaging format. You can also embed them on landing pages or use them in email campaigns.
Do I need special equipment to make a professional teaser video?
Not necessarily. While professional cameras and lighting can enhance quality, many modern smartphones can capture excellent video footage. Focus on good lighting, clear audio, and a strong message, as these are often more important than expensive gear.
What's the key difference between a teaser and a full promotional video?
A teaser video is designed to create anticipation and curiosity, revealing just enough to intrigue. A full promotional video provides comprehensive details, demonstrates features, and gives a complete overview of your product, service, or event.
Captivating teaser video ideas (and templates) for your business
Product Teaser videos
Don’t wait until your latest product launches to start building anticipation! Use this luxe product teaser template to showcase the best features of your newest products.
Realtors can get in on the action too! Let buyers know when they should keep an eye out for a stunning new property that’s about to hit the market.
Sale teaser videos
Get shoppers excited for your biggest sales of the year! This Black Friday teaser template will have your audience ready to add to cart as soon as you launch.
Service Teaser videos
Planning to offer a new service? Hook your audience with a question in this short, simple video about your service.
Content Teaser videos
Boost the traffic to a new blog, webinar, or in-demand social post by setting it up with a teaser. Not only will this drive traffic to this particular post, but it will make your audience more likely to hit the post reminders button in the future.
Create teaser videos with Animoto
The marketing world is all about videos these days, especially teaser videos. A teaser video allows your brand to hear your target market's thoughts and feelings about your product or service.
