3 things to know about Video Production and Marketing
Three things that will help you understand the industry of Video Production and how it works in your marketing
1) Video Production is an expensive industry
| The cost of equipment alone for a standard production team is between $50,000 to $100,000
Video has beome more available than ever. With iPhones, and social platforms focused on just creating video, we live in a day and age where video isn't just an asset, it's mandatory for your marketing. With that being said, why is professional videography so expensive?
It really boils down to a few key factors. One is the cost of equipment, and other contractors, the other is the returns you can see from Professional video production. Many freelancers have a "value based" pricing they do, while many Production companies have a cost of video they build based on what is required. Let me quickly break down the different between the two.
How much does Video Production cost?
Value Based pricing
This is basing the cost of the video, on the returns your company will have. Directly connecting the value of the video to the cost of the video. For example, if a small start up Athletic brand were to get a videographer to film a video for them, chances are that video won't generate more than $10,000 (this is assuming based on a medium level start up) Since they need to cover costs of running the ads, paying for the video, ect.. For us, when looking at a Value Based pricing method, we would price somewhere around $3,500. Now if NIKE were to request a similar video, chances are they could see a 4x return on whatever their investment is (depending on a lot of marketing factors that I won't go into) So for a similar video, the returns could be anywhere from $100,000 to more. So the "value" of the video would start from somewhere around $15,000.
Set Based Pricing
This is based simply on the cost of what needs to be done, as most of the factors are either contracted out, or used to cover costs of employees. This one is a bit more straight forwards, but more expensive as the scale of these videos is much bigger. The main parts that need to be sorted, is the Location Rental, Specialty Equipment rental (anything specific to the job) The cost of contractors, cost of editing, cost of Pre-Production, as well as the amount of days filming.
Here's a quick breakdown of an example of a video we've done.
Pre-Production - $1,500
Location - $3,500
Models - $1,500
Camera Operators - $1,250
Grip - $1,000
Drone Pilot - $700
DOP - $1,700
Equipment rentals - $900
Editing - $2,000
Car rental - $350
Extra day- $5,000
Totalling to $19,400 plus taxes for this video project.
The breakdown of the second way is the main way most production agencies operate, which is why in turn video production becomes an expensive industry.
2) Video Marketing isn't just Video Production
While investing in Video Production does scale your business, and grow your brand awareness, utilizing the low cost marketing of apps such as TikTok to create User Generated Content, is a key component to generating brand awareness. Which leaves a good question, when should I invest into Video Production?
Many successful e-commerce brands have a focus on two main priorities when it comes to video. User Generated Content and Video Advertisements. Both are extremely important when working in the digital world, especially with the new Information Age where most decisions people make are made online. Your brands reflection and brand presence is such a key important thing to uphold. Now how to the two video marketing tools differ?
What is Video Marketing?
User Generated Content
Lets start here, as its the most cost effective way to advertise, but if done incorrectly can actually damage your brand.
User Generated content is simply content that is made by people using your product. Posting reviews, posting skits, posting testimonials, are the main types of content you'll see from users. Companies will often offer people free product in trade, or hire influencers to create video content for them. They'll either post it to their page directly, just use the content as an advertisement, or have the influencer post it to their page. The benefit of this type of content is that it resonated with audiences more. People trust people, not brands, and when someone who they already trust advocated for a brand, they're much more likely to go to their website and hit that purchase button.
There are brands out there that manage companies User Generated Content marketing strategies, one that we recommend is Creator Generated. They pay creators to create your content, and make sure that content flows with your marketing strategies and plans. While it costs more to pay an agency, the returns you see from it are higher than what your marketing team can achieve (since that's an agencies only focus)
Video Production / Advertisements
Moving on to Video Production, a tool used by so many brands across all niches and business types, but when would it be smart to use this tool?
Every business model has different points and different reasons they use Video Production or Video Advertising. For example, e-commerce brands typically wait until they hit roughly one million dollars in revenue, while service based companies would use advertising any any point to grow and scale their revenue. Both do require video production PRIOR to running advertisements for their websites. It's proven that websites with video have a higher conversion rate than websites that just simply have images.
Key thing to implement before you run advertisements is a solid website that you know will convert, which would require a form of video. So prior to video advertisements, ensure you get a website banner, or some sort of company profile video so people can learn more.
3) Invest only when you can hire a proper team
Contrary to many people's belief, getting cheaper video production done can actually harm your brand overall. It's wise to only invest when you're ready
While you want to ensure you can get your brand out there, many people "shop around" when looking to hire someone to create video production. While it's important to have video production done, getting someone who's new to the industry can actually harm your brand reputation. But how?
Video production requires a two things, Quality and Execution. Quality is a HUGE factor that you need to ensure is high when investing. It directly reflects your brand and your brand's image. While not every industry needs to ensure you have the highest quality in the world, having a baseline quality is important once a real camera is involved.
Having poor image quality can reflect a low quality of work to your clients. Now using iPhone and phone quality has little affect on how people perceive a brand, once you involve a camera and the quality gets higher you must make sure it's not "just slightly better". Having low quality can reflect that your brand doesn't earn enough to invest, or that your brand doesn't care enough to invest. Camera technology is insane in our day and age, but how to use those cameras and get that quality requires someone with experience and with experience comes a higher price bracket. We highly recommend that people hold off on doing any form of quality video until they can afford to do so.
The next is execution. You can easily find someone who can create stunning content, there is a lot of talent out there. But the hard part is finding a brand that has a marketing or business approach to creating the content. Imagine you invest $10,000 into a video, and then see little to no returns. You'd be hesitant to do it again. But if you invested $20,000 and saw real returns and growth, it would be a no brainer. Hiring and contracting proper companies and freelancers can almost guarantee you those results since they have the knowledge and experience behind them to know what works and what will work.
Final thoughts
Video production and video marketing is a massive industry. It's one of the highest growing industries since COVID with more and more people flooding the market. Make sure you take these three tips into account before you invest into video production and you'll see returns in those investments.
