Promotional videos are moving picture media that provide informational and motivational messages to encourage people to make purchases, increase consumption or take some form of action. A 12 page white paper should provide enough content for approximately 6 short videos.

Promotional videos are commonly produced by creating a sequence of scenes that are described in rough image form (storyboards). Videos about white papers may be produced by recording people, or recording and converting web seminars to video formats.

Storyboarding - A storyboard is a group of images or media segments that describe the key elements of a media ad, campaign or program. Storyboard images may contain rough sketches of proposed images along with some captions or descriptions. Storyboards can be created from white papers using heading sections.

Video Production - Promotional videos for web seminars can be created from interviews, web seminars captured in video form or combined stock video.

One or more subject matter experts (SMEs) may be interviewed to provide high value content. Interviews may be performed prior to the writing of the white paper, as the content derived may provide information that should be included in the white paper. Interviews may be performed remotely (such as by webcam) to reduce the time and cost of recording.

Web seminars can be recorded and converted into video content. The recorded web seminar video may be divided into 2 to 5 minute short video segments.

Stock video (media clips available for licensing) may be used to provide attention getting media. Stock video may contain high action content that relates to the subject matter. For example, if time to market is a key factor that relates to the white paper, short clips of racing cars may be included in the video.

Embedded Videos - Embedded videos are media segments that may be included within web pages. Short segments of videos (such as portions of a web seminar) may be embedded into the white paper listing (summary) page or into tutorial slides.

Video Titles - Video titles are labels that are used to identify video content to audiences. Video titles may also serve as motivational messages that include key words and issues that are likely to interest viewers.

Video Captions - Video captions are text descriptions of the content contained in the video. Video captions should contain keywords and issues related to the video. Search engines may use video captions to help identify and categorize videos.

Video Transcriptions - Video transcription is the process of converting the audio contained within a video into text format. Including a transcription of the video can allow search engines to identify and list the video content. If possible, the script for the promotional video should contain keywords and key topics.

Shared Video Networks - Posting videos to shared video networks can allow people and search engines to find videos. Videos posted on shared video networks may include links back to other sites (such as white paper listing pages). Videos posted to shared video networks may be embedded into other pages (such as white paper listing pages). Setting the embedding on automatic play can increase the popularity of the video, as the shared web site will record a video view each time someone opens that web page. Examples of shared video networks include www.howcast.com, www.youtube.com, and www.eHow.com.

Promotional Video Optimization (PVO) - Promotional video optimization is the process or processes that are used to adjust the components of video programs to improve their effectiveness in achieving desired actions, such as order conversion rates or subscription rates. PVO may include testing and changing the titles, descriptions and, in some cases, the contents of videos to improve overall performance.

This figure shows a sample video production and promotion process for a white paper. The process starts by creating a storyboard of scenes that qualified white paper readers are likely to find interesting. The production may include performing interviews (at remote locations via web cams), video recording web seminars, and adding interesting stock video clips. The video program is given a title that includes keywords and issues that interest the viewers. A caption is added which describes the video. The audio may be converted into text which may help search engines find the video. The video may be placed on shared video sites to allow for discovery and viewing by many people.