Myth: You can’t afford a great video unless you have a few hundred thousand dollar marketing budget. Fact: Great videos are more the result of creativity and proper planning than massive marketing budgets. Even a few thousand dollars can be enough to create a great video with the right planning, but for under $10,000 you should expect a high end professional cinematographer, great editing, a powerful concept, and accomplished direction.
Myth: Videos have limited marketing uses. Fact: You can plan and execute a single day shoot gathering enough footage for videos targeted at different groups of customers. Besides multiple cuts, videos can be marketed on social media platforms, YouTube, the company’s Website, and even shared on other sites promoting your products or services.
Myth: Coming up with enough material to fill a video is difficult. Fact: Shorter is better, so don’t worry about having a ton of material. Focus on your core messaging and offerings, especially what sets your company apart from the competition.
Myth: You need someone from the company who is great on camera. Fact: While company executives and employees can be great subjects for interviews, your customers are also great potential candidates for appearing in a corporate video. Otherwise, hiring professional actors for a corporate video is another great path that has many advantages.
Myth: A video production company will charge me extra for every little change. Fact: A professional, customer-service oriented video production company will continue to make editing changes during the post-production process until you’re happy with the result. Changes during the process are normal at all stages, so a great production company should help guide you throughout and work to make you happy with t he results.
Myth: Having a video, even if it’s amateur quality, is still better than no video at all. Fact: Having a subpar, amateur quality video doesn’t help build trust among customers or potential customers. It undermines your marketing efforts by calling into question your company’s quality control and values. If you can’t be bothered to make a quality video representing your company, how can your customers trust you to offer a quality service or make reliable products? Brightcove, a marketing company, found that 62% of consumers had a negative image of a brand that had a poor-quality video and 23% would hesitate to purchase from the brand.
Myth: Video production takes months, but we need a video much faster. Fact: While a normal timeline for video production may be 6-8 weeks, if you have a clear concept and want to create a video, the timeline can be massively accelerated. Usually, a rush order on a video production may incur a bit more expense, but with proper planning you can go from accepted bid to finished video within a month. We have had clients ask for a completed video in as few as two or three weeks and still been able to deliver when necessary.
Myth: Creating ten product videos will cost ten times as much money as just one. Fact: Significant cost savings can be recognized by producing a bunch of videos at once. In the previous example, ten product videos could be filmed in two days most of the time. A similar video structure would save time in the editing room. While one product video may cost $1,500, ten product videos could cost as little as $7,500, a 50% savings.
Myth: All videos created have a shelf life of only a year. Fact: Most of our clients use videos for many years before updating or redoing them. A video refresh is often much cheaper than redoing a video completely, but with good planning and guidance most high quality videos can serve as valuable marketing collateral for years to come.
Myth: One video is all a company needs for marketing purposes. Fact: One video, like an explainer video or corporate overview video, is a great start. Just like blog entries, customer testimonials, and other marketing pieces, additional collateral is always helpful. Most companies offer multiple products or services, so multiple videos often provide the greatest benefits.
