I’m not sure I have ever mentioned how I came about focusing professionally on the production of video content. Being a quality minded person it did not take me long to learn the difference in quality video and poorly produced video.
Since videos are now the number one form of marketing I figures NOW might be a good time to talk about the need for quality video production.
History Tells the Story Best
Less than 100 years ago taking a leisurely flight in an airplane was still unheard of. Just over 50 years ago space travel to the moon was just becoming a reality. Cellphones, 20 years ago, were the size of a brick and just over 15 years ago the internet became a place for everyone in the world to be instead of a computer system requiring a doctorate in computer science to operate.
Before video there was film which required dozens of hours of time to just produce a minute of movie quality visuals. Now, nearly every cellphone has a higher quality HD video camera than the camera used to shoot the very first Star War movie. Unfortunately, giving the world a powerful tool like a HD camera has produced some awful marketing videos.
Where Things Got Out of Hand
Somewhere during the change from professionally produced high tech graphics driven videos to video clips taken by some dude, or dudetts, using their cellphone to walk backwards thru their office in an effort make a commercial, things started to go horribly wrong.
Add to the growing number of misguided online digital marketing consultant, known only their twitter handle, telling the masses of hungry business owners their homemade videos would go viral in 24 hours..BAM..we now have YouTube filled with low quality videos hurting the businesses who produced them. This was where the DIY video production went wrong and this is where I felt it was time for me to do what I can do to bring back the sanity of video centric digital marketing for business.
Have-To-Have a Strategy
It is perfectly OK to take a cellphone video of your cat taking a crap all with hopes it will make you famous online, but let’s get real… ONLY One in 500,000 get the extremely large number of viewers needed to push a video to being classified as a “Viral” video. Is that a risk you want to take with your Brand’s Image? The answer better be NO!
The questions then become…
- Does a viral video help your business?
- Even if your business was selling Kitty Litter, why would a business that has invested tens of thousands, if not millions, of dollars want to use a low quality produced video to promote their business?
It really doesn’t make sense.
The Best Way To Go
There is no doubt videos are the best marketing tools for businesses every invented. However, many businesses forget about the bad image poorly produced videos cast on their brand’s image. The better way for a business to go after the millions of video viewers is to hire professional videographers. Better yet, hiring a video centric digital marketing agency would be better since they should be able to develop strategies on what and how the videos are to be used.
Video Production Company vs Digital Marketing Agency
Most businesses will start their search for a professional videographer in the video production community and not in the digital marketing industry. That again would make sense, and would be the right direction to take if:
- you know what type of video you need,
- what the video is going to look like,
- know what your consumers will watch
- and then know what to do with the video once it is produced.
A video production company would be the right place to be.
However, only 1% of businesses know:
- what type of video they NEED,
- how to scripted a video so people will listen to the message
- where best to distribute the video to hit their target market.
A video centric digital marketing agency would be better suited for the 99% who have not clue of what it takes to produce a video.
There is a huge difference between a video production company and a video centric digital marketing agency. Video production companies generally just do what you, the business owner, tells them to do. Whether that is right or wrong comes out in the video you have them produce.
A video centric digital marketing agency will use it’s experience in marketing to take what they hear the business owner wants in a video and developed a strategy around their wants balances with what they need. This why it is very rare to find a video production group who has the experience to know if what the business owner wants will actually be worth producing.
Wrong Direction Will Cost You
Yes, all of this stuff about the difference between video production companies and digital marketing agencies is very confusion for business who are just trying to compete in their market. This confusion also results in many businesses to move in the wrong direction of attempting to produce their own videos. As a result, they will have a video produced that will appear “Good Enough” to them. Good Enough to them will probably be rejected by their potential customers because it was not presented to them in a high enough quality. Or, they posted the video on Facebook and their target audience is on LinkedIn.
The day of low quality self made videos produced to move consumers to buy something are fading away. Consumers are more demanding on where they spend their time and what time they spend viewing videos. Consumers now days watch the no-commercial TV programs produced by motion media production companies, like NetFlix. These very high quality productions have set the quality standard for what consumers expect in the product demonstrations and service explainer videos they watch on YouTube. These cannot be produced by a cellphone or even an iPad.
The time has come for your business to produce high quality videos in order to compete. I have seen it coming. Since 2011, when Google ramped up YouTube to show HD Videos, the demand for quality, fun, entertaining, social media driven commercials began.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking of doing your own production will save you money. It might save you a few dollars, but cost you thousands on rebranding your business due to consumers getting the feeling you are cheap. Take your business serious..think quality. That thinking will pay off every time.
Let me know how I can help.
A Very well written article, now I know the difference between Business video production and Video marketing services. Also, we must focus on making good quality videos. Thanks for sharing