We explain you here the reasons behind the use of video intros, where you can get them, and the most effective ways of how to use them.
Video Intros can serve many purposes – from branding your video, making a catchy trailer for your channel, to just adding strong visuals to your video production or brand.
Today, they are used in almost every branded online video content: from start-ups, YouTubers, smaller enterprises, to big companies.
They can even help you get your family and personal video looking more professional.
Video intros identify ownership of a video and set expectations for the video content while at the same time building your brand by showing your logo with every video view.
Video intro – do I need one?
Definitely Yes! Videos for marketing and promoting your product, business or yourself are not just important for engaging and keeping visitors on your website, but they also help increase conversions by 80%!
So video marketing can bring you a ton of benefits, but most important, from the moment you use a video intro, you are building your brand awareness and at the same time identifying your videos.
This short animated video intros, or logo intros, are a very effective weapon to boost your business, product or your name on the long run.
Example video intro by Introbrand.com
Where to buy or how to create a video intro
Even though video intros usually last only a few seconds, buying or making a professional grade looking video intro is an incredibly difficult task that can consume a lot of your valuable time and money.
You can give a try learning Adobe After Effects and Cinema 4D or try the free software Blender.
But be prepared for a (ultra) steep learning curve and absolutely no guarantee for stitching together a useful intro that you or your audience will love to watch. Software is just a tool, same as a pencil or watercolor and getting the tools is easy, but learning to master the technique and talent to draw (same than animating motion graphics) can take a lifetime.
That is why we created Introbrand, our online video intro maker. It’s the easiest and fasted way to create a video intro that looks professional and is really affordable.
If you want to go the difficult way by creating it yourself spending weeks, or if you have a lot of budget for your intro, then there are two other options:
Template Marketplaces like Envato
Currently, the market for buying video intros and outros is divided between the online marketplaces that offer preproduced intro templates for download and use with a software, expensive motion graphics animation studios and online freelance platforms where you can hire a freelancer.
But things are more complicated. Downloadable intro templates are usually resolution and software locked.
It means you need to download the software first, then customize and render your video yourself, this brings a lot of hassle and frustration if you are not familiar with complex animation software like Adobe After Effects.
Besides that, there's no way of upgrading to a higher resolution or changing the framerate of these templates since animation projects are created at a fixed dimension, resolution and frame rate.
Freelancers, Fiverr etc.
Quality freelancers on online freelance platforms are very hard to find, and will usually charge you starting around $300-$600 for a tailored HD resolution video intro.
Anybody cheaper than that will just sell you another template, which is a waste of money.
You should be prepared also to wait longer for your video if you decide to hire a freelancer or a studio.
In comparison, you’ll need only minutes and a few dollars when using a quality online animation maker like Introbrand.
The decision is on you. Choose carefully and always go for a pro quality.
Where (and how) to use a video intro?
Video intros can be incorporated into your video project or used as stand-alone creations.
Think of popular TV shows – they usually have a memorable intro and outro showing their logo in an entertaining way, sometimes short parts of an intro are also used as bumpers or transitions.
You can produce your video in different durations and have a short opening and a longer outro at the end.
Just cut it to the length you need during the video editing process or create a longer and shorter version of your video intro with Introbrand.
You own your content! Nobody else.
Make sure to ‘burn-in’ your intro directly at the start of your videos, during editing so it looks the same across all different platforms.
You can also use elements from your intro for secondary graphic elements, including cliffhangers, background colors, titles rolls, lower thirds, or corner bugs to boost your visual consistency.
We don't recommend to use any YouTube built in features like the "branding intro" feature (not supported anymore) or similar, since you give away branding control to some shady video platform.
These features change all the time and nobody knows how video content will be shown, identified and distributed in future. Just imagine YouTube changes its data policy and wants to own all content themselves.
So, burning your short video intro right at the beginning or end of your videos is an excellent idea, it's like signing a painting with an artist's signature.
Conclusion
Video intros are short videos at the beginning or end of a video production, lasting only a few seconds.
Their main purpose is to put your brand, text, or logo in motion in an engaging way while identifying your content and raising your brand awareness.
They are a necessary part of any successful video marketing, video campaign or channel identification. You can get a video intro from online marketplaces, motion design studios or at Introbrand.
Now that you know how to create a video intro and want to learn more about specific aspects such as style, frame rate, resolutions and creative styles etc. read our next blog post on this topic where we explain them in detail.
Thank you for reading this article!
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