How To Make A Successful Event Promo Video

Got an upcoming event you’re really pumped up for? Want to get more people lining up to be there? The secret to getting people interested in it is really simple - it’s all about promotion! 

When you show people how awesome and even life-changing your event is, it's a surefire way to get people curious - and that’s the best starting point for inviting people to it.

Now, one of the most effective ways to promote your event is by doing a video. You might think it’s just about putting in a couple of pictures and telling people the time, date, and venue, but there’s a little more to it than that if you want a really great and consistent turnout.

See, the point of promo videos for events is to take your audience of potential participants through an emotional journey. Usually, what people want from an event is to be challenged, engaged, included, and most importantly, transformed. To achieve that, you’ll need to have a couple of strategies at hand.

So I’ve made a couple of these videos. I actually have 3 key ingredients to make an inspiring, high-energy video that will get people hyped up for your event. Let’s dive into how you can approach each step effectively:

1) Create Enticing B-roll.

First off, what is B-roll? It’s basically footage that’s not your main focus, which means you’ll cover the important parts of your event and show footage of your main attraction without audio, dialogue, or script.

It’s important to get different shots from all angles when you’re making B-roll. Let’s say you’re holding a conference. You want to have shots of your speaker on stage talking, all your different activities, audiences interacting with each other, people asking questions to the speaker or eating lunch during breaks: the goal here is to make your viewer feel as though they were in the event themselves. 

One of the coolest shots I like to make is going up on stage behind the speaker and film the audience from that angle. That way, you can show off a full scope of how big the audience is and also get a great cinematic shot that looks awesome.  

Be creative! Show off your venue, get shots of cars pulling up or streets in fast-motion, behind-the-scenes clips of your speaker and guests having a laugh - whatever you think goes well with the tone of your event. 

Just have a lot of fun with the B-roll and capture as much as you can! I’ve learned from my experience that you can never have enough B-roll. The more you get, the merrier your post-production process is. That way, you can make a really tight and engaging edit once you have all the footage you need. 

You might be wondering, though, “If it’s not the main attraction, then why is it important?”

The answer is simple: It helps capture the full experience of being in your event. People won’t be enticed to go to your event just for the main attraction; they want to have fun, meet people and make friends, explore new places, try new things. In short, they want the whole package. That’s exactly where the B-roll shines. 

2) Get testimonials from people who have attended your event before. 

So if there’s B-roll, there’s gotta be an A-roll. For a promo video, that would be the testimonials! Now you might think that’s only for late-night infomercials that you see on TV when you have nothing else to watch.

But testimonials can be a really powerful way to promote your event. It adds a level of authenticity to your promotion that can connect with the hearts of the audience you’re trying to reach. It lets them know, “Hey, we’re not just feeding you a bunch of false advertising - here are people just like you who loved our event or have been transformed by it!”

The ideal time to approach people to get their testimonials is right at the end of your event. At that point, the memory of the experience is still fresh in their minds and they’re more likely to be open with their reaction to it. Just make sure to ask permission to use their testimonial in your promo video.

It seems really simple to have people just talk straight into your camera, but getting a really effective testimonial takes a certain kind of flow. I’ve come up with two things you can ask each attendee you approach to help get the best out of them.

First, ask them to introduce themselves. People can get nervous and awkward in front of a camera, so when they start talking a little bit about themselves, it really encourages them to ease up.  You won’t use this footage in the actual video, but the point is to make them feel comfortable and help them realize that you do really want to know about them. 

Second, just let them tell you about their experience! A good tip is to ask them questions that focus on what the event did for them, rather than what they did. So you can go with something like, “How has this event changed you?” or “What’s different now in your life or mindset with this talk?”

This gets you really good responses, like for instance, entrepreneurs who were struggling with their business discovered a game-changing way to approach it or if people who held certain values or opinions thought about things in a completely different way. That’s a lot more effective than someone just saying what food they served at the event.

And lastly, ask them if they’d recommend it to their friends, family, peers, or anyone they know. That’s a neat way to end the testimonial and also have your attendees explain why more people should come to your event. It’s important to emphasize that they have to grab at this opportunity - now! 

Remember to mix up the kinds of people you interview. It’s important that your audience sees people from all walks of life who are changed positively by your event. 

Now when you’re putting all your testimonials together and creating your promo video, keep your story in mind. One way to make it dynamic is to create a back and forth between your B-roll and your A-roll. 

So you can show your testimonial, see and hear a particular attendee talk. But you can switch over to a shot of your speaker on stage or others in the audience. Remember that your audio should only come from your testimonial, so even when we’re not seeing them on screen, you have to make sure we hear them. 

3) Put fun, high-quality music in the background. 

The key to making a promo video really emotionally engaging is your background music. You may not notice it when you’re watching it, but music is a crucial part of what sets up your expectations and the tone for the entire video. 

I’m going to recommend a cool site that has a wide selection for all kinds of videos: pond5.com. Just get on the website, search for whatever keyword applies to your video, and it’ll show you a bunch of boxes that represent music tracks. When you hover your mouse over any box, it will automatically play the music!

What I usually do is I hit play on a testimonial or clips from my B-roll, go back to Pond5, and test it out with different tracks to find what fits well with the feel of my video. 

For instance, if you want inspirational music, just type it in and hit search. Make sure to get something that doesn’t have lyrics so it won’t overlap with your audio. You can go through as many tracks as you can to find the perfect music that can get people bopping along and excited about your event! 

Now you have to pay about 20-30 bucks per track, but you can use it for as many videos as you want! Plus, it’s royalty-free so it’s still a pretty good deal for high-quality background music. 

Here’s my final tip: keep it short and sweet. Clarity and brevity are the two most powerful things your event promo video can have! 

So keep your editing tight and straight-to-the-point while maintaining an uplifting tone. You’ll want to cut down on a lot of footage that might be repetitive or unnecessary. Be strategic with how and where you place yourself to bring out what your event can do for people clearly and strikingly. 

When you’re able to accomplish that, you’ll have a video that’s both top-notch quality-wise and incredibly moving at the same time. That’s all you really need to create a powerful event promo video!

Was this helpful to you? What event promo videos have you watched that really hit the mark? Do you have any events you’re struggling to make a video for? Let me know!