When it comes to branding, marketing, communications and sales, nothing works as well as video. If you’re not convinced, consider the following statistics from statista:
- There are 232 million digital video viewers in the United States, which accounts for more than 70 percent of the country’s population
- About 85 percent of all internet users watch online videos
- Companies spent more than $9.1 billion on online video advertising last year.
Yes, the “next big thing” in marketing has arrived. And it is video.
But you already knew that, didn’t you? If you’re like most smart organizations, you’ve already developed a video strategy and dipped your toes into the world of video production, and you’ve probably found it to be cost prohibitive. But it doesn’t have to be.
You don’t need to hire a big-budget production team to shoot a high-quality video that gets results. All you need to do is have a smart concept, well-thought-out production schedule and a plan to maximize your video production budget.
But maximizing your video production budget is the hard part right? After all, you want a professional video that resonates with your audience and moves them down the marketing funnel. But this doesn’t have to be hard, as long as you integrate these 3 tips into your video strategy:
1. Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan
If you want to make sure you don’t go over budget on your video, make sure you and your leadership team (the ones making the financial decisions) understand what you are trying to accomplish. Get agreement on the message and make sure that EVERYONE agrees. Schedule pre-production meetings to go over the details, from concept, message and script to location, talent and timelines.
Having a plan in place and getting everyone to agree with that plan will keep the costs down and keep the naysayers and second-guessers at bay.
2. Keep it Simple
You’re not producing a 30-second commercial to be broadcast during the Super Bowl, are you? Good, then you don’t need to over-complicate everything with a confusing concept or convoluted video strategy. Ideas that are too complex can often turn out to be a complete waste of time and money.
Common and costly mistakes include having too many concepts, using too many locations, hiring too many crew members and shooting too many different shots. At the end of the day, these things probably won’t matter as much as a well-crafted video strategy, a smart message and a simple approach to sharing it.
So make sure one of the key principles of your video strategy is to keep things as simple as possible.
3. Partner with a Nimble Team of Professionals
Sometimes the best way to stretch your video budget is to partner with a team of professionals that understands video strategy. This team can help you with building your strategy, managing your budget and maximizing every dollar.
A video production team can also help you double up on shoots so that you can get two (or maybe even three) videos for just about the cost of one. They can help you re-think your video strategy so that it includes different types of videos and different ways of sharing them with to your audience.
But most importantly, a video production team can make sure that your video strategy is cost effective and you’re getting the most out of what you put into the production. Because in today’s world, you can’t afford NOT to have a strong video strategy or make the most of your production budget.
Are you looking to hire a video production company to help with your next project? We invite you to download our complimentary case study to learn how partnering with a video production company can help you achieve high impact results for your next video shoot.