How to make a Teaser video for social media  

Teasers are video created to generate hype about a topic, before publishing the content itself. Sometimes, teasers are also released after the publication of the product, service, or video they are about in order to produce new buzz and make people look at something they previously missed. 

The secret when creating a teaser is to tempt people to discover more about the subject but, at the same time, without giving away too many details about it, or they will end up losing curiosity, creating the opposite effect of their intended goal. 

Why do you need a teaser video? 

The best way to make people interested in something is to generate interest about it. This is why every industry uses teaser; in fact, whether it’s about entertainment, such as films or music, classic manufactured products, and even those from the digital world, teasers are used everywhere to advertise the launch of a new product or content.  

In other words, a teaser is crucial for generating awareness: for example, if you launch a product without having previously informed your customers about it, this will probably end up getting ignored by the most of them. Instead, if you teased it, customers would already know what it’s going to happen on the launch day, and this may make them interested in it.  

How to make a teaser: first steps

The production of a teaser is very crucial, since a bad video will end up boring the viewers who, therefore, will not pay attention to the message.  

Here’s a guide to the main pre-production and production steps.  

First, keep the goal of your teaser in mind: generate buzz and hype about what you are going to launch (or what you already put on the market and want to advertise). 

Before starting the work using your favourite software, take some time to plan: collect all your ideas, put them in order, and create a script. This will allow you to have a general line to follow as you work on the video, avoiding chaos and staying on track. 

To begin the production of your teaser, focus on the first seconds of the video. For many viewers, they will determine whether your content deserves their attention or not. For this reason, it’s very important to make sure that this part grabs the awareness of the user, by inserting something that hits them deeply, but still reminding them of your brand by add some personalization. 

Don’t forget to include at least one call to action. The main point of all your work is to make people want to see and discover something, so, obviously, you have to link it, especially if the goal of the teaser is to advertise something already on the market. Moreover, you may add the subscription link for a newsletter that provides news about the product or service, also to gain some contacts for your business. 

As for other video types, you could use a template to make your job easier, even more if you have little experience with video editing and creation. Every professional software offers a lot of template categories, so choose the one you need and here you go. In case you don’t know what templates are or how to use them, check out this blog post. 

Tips to follow during production 

1. Don’t reveal too much: a crucial feature of every teaser is suspense, as it serves to generate interest for the subject of the teaser. In fact, when people don’t know a lot about something, their direct reaction is curiosity to discover more. If you have enough time, you could release more teasers revealing something new every time; this will create more and more hype among your viewers. 
2. Create some mystery: another way to create suspense is by creating some mystery behind the launch of your product or service. You might even release an easter egg about what the product will be. This is helpful because people will be intrigued by the mystery and, therefore, they will probably try to solve it generating buzz. For example, the British pop band Coldplay, in the weeks before the release of a new album, put up posters with easter eggs about its title and their faces all around the world. This technique is also used by many soccer teams to announce the acquisition of a famous player.  
3. Keep it short: a teaser must be impacting, so it should last less than one minute. It’s crucial to go straight to the point or risk losing viewers’ attention; make sure that the message is strong and clear. Think about Super Bowl commercials or product teasers: most of them doesn’t exceed thirty seconds of length (in this case, also because of the price-per-minute of the spot) and their focus is just to hit the viewer with some details that will remain on their mind.  
4. Feelings: people love to see their feelings depicted, so think about putting some sensational content inside your teaser. Most of the viewers will be more engaged and interested about what you are talking if they feel it. However, pay attention! It’s not that easy to provide a realistic and engaging representation of a feeling in a short timeframe, so remember that you are creating a teaser, not an ad or a trailer. 

Choosing the right marketing channel 

Now, it’s time to share your teaser video everywhere to make sure that the greatest number of people can see it. 

Firstly, use social. Social media is the most powerful tool available today to spread a message all over the world, even more so if used all together. For example, think about advertising a LinkedIn post with a YouTube video (or vice versa); by doing this, you will bring the audience of one platform to another one, increasing the audience of both channels. This technique can be very useful with teasers. You could tease the YouTube launch video of a certain product or service with a video on Instagram. Obviously, every platform has a certain target, so make sure to choose the right one for the type of product you want to tease. Social media platforms are the most important channels for your brand, so be sure to make the most of them. 

Secondly, you could embed the teaser in your company website, perhaps on the landing page, so that every customer interested in your brand can learn about it as they visit the platform. Furthermore, this will also help your website since search engines such as Google prefer web pages with videos, which gives them a higher SEO score. 

Finally, if you have a newsletter, you could use it to spread your teaser. Don’t you have one? Create it just to send the teaser video with your company’s email data collection form. You could even exploit this email to bring traffic to your website or social pages using the teaser. 

Conclusion 

So, teasers are a powerful tool to create hype about a topic before the launch of a certain product or to bring traffic to a piece of content that is already published. In this blog post, we helped you learn how they work and how to create one for your business. Now it’s your turn: start thinking about your products or services and begin creating your teaser for social media! 

Babelee

Copywriters, video creators, digital marketers and developers: this is who we are! Young, passionate, geeky and very keen on media and technology. Fancy to meet the team? Contact us or submit your cv, we love talented people.