Video production was a hot topic at Inbound 2018. The video sessions were alive, eager marketers and business owners excited to learn the secrets of video production. However, as each talk progressed, you could feel the energy drain out of the room.
Because while the sessions covered the reasons why you should do video production, there weren’t many that covered the nuts and bolts of the process.
They didn't answer the question that everyone in that room was asking: how do I actually do video production at my company?
Low-Budget Corporate Video Production: A Balance of In-House vs. Outsourcing
Any business investing in inbound marketing and content at one point, consider doing video marketing. I’ve worked at three companies who went through the process of starting video, and started with the two options: hiring a video production company or tackling it in-house.
In the end, we usually ended up with a third option that in my opinion, works really well when you’re first starting out. You can balance in-house versus outsourcing. In my experience, it’s the best way to use your time, budget, and strategy, especially if you’re new to video marketing.
What To Keep In-House
If you already have an inbound marketing strategy and you’re consistently producing content, keeping some elements of video production in-house makes sense. You can connect your video efforts to your current initiatives.
To start, I’d take a look at your buyer journey or do a customer journey mapping exercise. You can determine where your critical conversion and engagement points are and where a video asset could be useful. From there, you can figure out the videos that you want to create and get started.
From there, you can effectively:
Create A Distribution Plan
Once you understand where video fits into your buyer journey, you can also choose platforms and channels to distribute your asset. You can distribute across video sharing platforms and repurpose and tailor your video for Twitter, Facebook, and Soundcloud.
Start Filming
There are a lot of steps to video production. When you start to make a video, for example, you’ll create a storyboard and start filming. All you need to film is a high-quality camera, tripod, a microphone, host, and a quiet place to shoot. You may not be great at first, but you can practice and get a lot of footage.
Work With An In-House Host
While a lot of agencies can provide a great host, having someone in-house to be on camera during your videos is convenient. Additionally, it looks good to have someone that works for your company represent your brand.
Promotion
Unless you’re planning on investing on paid media, you should put together a promotional plan for your team to push your assets out there. It can take months before you start generating organic traffic, so in the meantime, having your team push content out is the best way to start getting a lift.
What To Outsource
When you start working through the logistics of video production, things start getting tricky, especially if you don’t have very little experience with video content. Unless you hire someone to edit and refine your videos, this is where outsourcing elements of your video production can save you time and budget.
Video Editing and Polish
I went to film school, so I can work my way around iMovie. But it can take hours to edit a video when you’re still learning how to use editing software. Until you can turn around a high-quality video in around 2-3 hours, I would send all of your footage, as well as an outline, to a professional to edit.
Titles And Intro
Unless you have a graphic designer in-house, I would also outsource the opening and closing of your video. You can work with someone who can produce an animation or a quick video introduction. There are a ton of people on Fiverr and UpWork that do this for an affordable price and have a lot of portfolio examples.
Sound Editing And Correction
When you’re first shooting video, you may find your audio to be a little less than desired. There are a lot of sound specialists you can work with to make adjustments to your sound. You can also establish a relationship with a sound editor who can give you guidance on how to improve your sound quality when you’re shooting footage.
Color Correction
It can be tricky to master the lighting in your company or home studio, but thankfully, this is another thing you can outsource to a pro.
Repurposing Assets
A great way to get more mileage from your video footage is finding ways to repurpose your content for multiple platforms. Often, you can also outsource this task to whoever is editing your video. You just need to identify the platforms you want to repurpose the video for and send over instructions on social video best practices.
Video Marketing And Inbound
Regardless of how much you keep in house or outsource, the most important thing is that your video content fits into your inbound marketing strategy. That’s why before you start with corporate video production, I would go back to your inbound strategy and make sure it’s rock solid.
Because video marketing can’t be your only strategy. And with an exceptional inbound marketing strategy, you can align your video with nurturing and engagement tactics, and inevitably get more ROI from your efforts.
As an Inbound Writer for Lean Labs, Melissa writes about high-converting websites and customer-centric marketing. She's an avid traveler, with trips to Iceland, Ukraine, and Portugal under her belt. She currently resides in Wilmington, North Carolina with her dog, Morrie.
