Hiring a Video Production Company: A Buyer’s Guide

The Benefits of Video Marketing
Types of Video Content
The Video Production Team
The Video Production Process
Asking the Right Questions – Your Internal Team
Asking the Right Questions – Possible Production Companies 
Red Flags to Watch Out For
Steps to Source the Right Video Production House
The Cost of Video Content
Closing the Deal – What to Expect
Start Making Marketing Magic

Did you know that video is the #1 source of information for 66% of people? We are hooked on them, and that trend is expected to only increase as time goes on.

If you are looking to grab the attention of your audience– and keep them engaged– you need to be creating video content. If you’re worried about the amount of time it takes to produce quality video content, hiring a video production company can make a complicated experience delightfully seamless.

Video production companies are responsible for creating content that inspires an audience or user base to “convert.” This could mean buying your product, attending your event, or requesting your service. It’s creative content marketing at its finest and can be more effective than written content or still images.

Want to know what comes next? Straight from Denver video production experts, check out our complete guide on the video production process— from start to finish.

The Benefits of Video Marketing

There is more content available on the web than ever before. Businesses need to constantly vie for an audience’s attention as they scan the web on their mobile devices and computers. This is where video comes in, as the most successful video can be more accessible and engaging than traditional marketing content.

Need to convince stakeholders that video is the right move for your marketing efforts? Communicate the “big picture” benefits: SEO, website or user conversion, and strong brand building.

SEO Benefits

Leading search engines love when businesses create video content. Reasons for this search engine boost include: 

• Deeper engagement over text and photographs
• Videos create positive and relevant online experiences
• Videos are consistently more original than written web content (sorry, but it’s true)
• UX improvements for a better user experience
• Increase in backlinks
• Increased session time
• Reduced bounce rate

The more your users enjoy your unique content, the more time they will spend on your website. They are also more likely to bring more exposure to your site by sharing your marketing video. Your video ends up working overtime for you for free!

We know that search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo give preference to websites that offer video content. By posting videos to your corporate or business website, you will likely rank higher in organic search and increase the traffic to your site. This means higher conversion rates and better ROI on your digital marketing investments.

Website Conversions

Influence buying decisions and turn your traffic into loyal customers by placing video content on your website, promotional landing page, or as a core piece of a highly targeted paid advertising campaign. Why? Video drives trust amongst your customers or those who are familiarizing themselves with your product or service.

Conversions may look like this: 

• Higher click-thru rates
• More form submissions
• More emails opened
• Higher view rates
• Increased session rates
• Enhanced brand perception
• Established perceived authority
• Virtual trust

Did you know that 35–50% of people actually finish reading an article they find online? People are more likely to watch a video than read an article. Video helps increase engagement rates by capturing the attention of your audience better than reading plain text. To help ensure your video is successful, make sure to take the following items into consideration.

• Make the video short and engaging
• Use real people instead of actors
• Integrate the video with your marketing automation
• Add a call-to-action to the video
• Experiment with lead capture forms

Connecting with the right video marketing company for your video project will ensure all of these boxes are checked and your expectations met. It is time to put the key in the ignition and start the conversion, and conversions!

Branding Benefits

Your audience is being bombarded with marketing messages and content all day every day. Why not take a stand and compete with them by adding video to the marketing mix. Your brand is one of your company’s biggest assets.  And just like other assets, it can lose and gain equity. Video is one the best ways to help shape people’s perception of your business.

Brand perception is a critical component of human-to-human interaction. At this point in the conversion process, a potential customer decides if they trust you enough to sign the contract or purchase your product. For branding purposes, it is best to produce videos such as:

• Product introduction video
• Customer testimonial content
• Company culture-focused promotional content

Externally, your video content will reach decision-makers on an entirely new level and accomplish things like:

• Effectively telling your brand story
• Reinforcing your value proposition
• Leadership positioning and company vision
• Increasing your likelihood of converting

The goal with this kind of video content is to create content that allows potential customers to really see who your company or organization is from a human perspective. It puts a face to your brand.

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Types of Video Content

Think there’s just one kind of corporate video? Think again. With a video production company, anything is possible. The type of video you end up producing is dependent on your goals and the video company’s specialization. It’s important that the two align with each other.

Popular video marketing content might include:

• Brand films – highlight your values, visions and core of your brand
• Animations – can provide both visual and emotional stimulation without incorporating the use of actors
• Education videos – teach your customers about your product or brand vision
• Video documentaries – stylistically cross between brand films and educational content
• Tutorial videos/explainer videos – slightly different from educational videos in that it improves the UX and provides a “quick start” guide for certain products
• Experience videos –  provide user expectations of the services your provide
• Company culture videos – connect on an emotional level with your audience and build brand trust
• Testimonial videos – showcase your user base and the best things about your product
• Thank-you videos – show appreciation and build user culture

We recommend connecting with your video production team to determine the best strategy for your business. They may recommend a single path or pitch multiple options to suit your product and content marketing needs.

The Video Production Team

Never worked with a video production team before? While the size and scope of the team behind the project will vary, a classic video production crew includes a few or many individuals serving in these roles (some of them more than one!).

Account Manager

The Account Manager on a project is usually a company’s main point of contact. If you have questions regarding the project or your contract, this is the person you’ll be communicating with.

Creative Director

The creative director of the project is there to help guide your overall vision. While you should have input as the client, a great creative director will know how to communicate your wants and needs and suggest a visual and storytelling strategy.

Marketing Strategist

A marketing strategist ensures all videos in a campaign as well as distributions and other media are all working together. This person usually defines the initial need for video content. This might be a director of marketing, a product marketing manager or a chief marketing officer.

Media Planner or Buyer

All video content needs a distribution plan. A media planner or buyer identifies the best media platforms to advertise on and negotiates all associated contracts. This can include both paid and non-paid media channels such as social media and direct distribution.

Art Director

If the creative director is involved at more of a high level, an art director may define the visual style of the video and campaign. This results in an overall design or branding look that can be used in other assets.  In some cases, the Art Director and the Creative Director can be the same person.

Script Writer

If you aren’t in charge of writing your own script, a script writer will be in charge of all copywriting and copy editing for a script and/or the onscreen text too. This person will also assist in structuring the entire storytelling journey from the very beginning of planning.

Producer

Producers are typically the organizational wizards of a project. Producers lead and plan and coordinate all components of the content creation and production. This might include hiring actors, writing the shooting schedule, and scouting or booking locations.

Director

Directors are in charge of the video’s story execution during production. They will direct all talent (if applicable) and usually make final creative decisions (as approved by the client).

Director of Photography

The director of photography (also known as a DP) is the authority on all things camera or lighting related. If shooting a scene, this person will direct all shots and request lighting changes when they see fit.

Editor

An editor is in charge of post-production, including editing, animations, motion graphics, music, narrations and special effects. Editing is required for both live content as well as animations.

Sound Designer

If not completed by a single editor, a sound designer may work strictly on a video’s audio. This might include music, mixing, voice-overs, and sound effects.

Colorist

Usually reserved for large-scale productions, a colorist is in charge of matching each shot with the overall video. This is especially important if the content has been shot over multiple days or in various lighting setups. In most cases, the primary editor of a video project will most likely also provide the color correcting functions as well.

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The Video Production Process

New to the video production process? Completely understandable! Here’s a quick overview of the typical video production process.
Please keep in mind that each production plan will be specific to the client and the requested deliverable. Connect with your video marketing agency to understand their specific production process and what to expect production-wise from your contract with them.

Onboarding

Onboarding is the beginning of your relationship with your new video production company. From the very beginning, make it a point to clearly communicate your goals, wants, needs and expectations. Provide preferences and branding guidelines, as well as any examples you may have found that led you down this track.

Communication Preferences

This is also the time to provide your communication preferences. Do you want regular meetings, or is it enough to email, text or call? There may be regular updates you need to receive, so it’s important for the team to know how to get a hold of you when they need to.

If you have unusual hours, availability restrictions, or deadlines, now is the time to communicate these things.

Get to Know the Team

Once you’ve established a basic working relationship, get to know the agency and staff and the roles of everyone on the team. Though a smaller video production company will likely run with less crew than a traditional video production company, somebody is still completing the jobs that need to get done (usually multiple jobs, holding multiple titles). Know who the main contacts are for the job.

Get Familiar With the Project Management Software

If the team uses project management software to stay organized and maintain transparency, familiarize yourself with the login process and user interface. Add all of the necessary internal teammates to this account so everyone can see how the project is coming along.

Concept Development and Storyboarding

Concept development is all about the agency getting to know you and your goals. Once these primary goals are established, the agency will usually pitch a few ideas with your style, voice, and tone in mind. During this time, the entire project overview is finalized and will include a campaign strategy for how the final product will be distributed to your audience.

The agency may also perform a competitive analysis to see what is performing, and what they should avoid. Provide as much information as you can in order to set your collaborators up for success.

Mood Board and Storyboarding

The agency may use a “mood board” as part of the storyboarding process. This helps to communicate the creative vision in a way that’s easy to understand. During storyboarding, you should start to get a feel for:

• Each scene to be captured
• The cinematography
• Overall film style
• The color palette
• Lighting choices
• Characters/actors
• Location plans (if necessary)
• Music suggestions and licensing
• Graphics and visual effects
• Examples of similar projects

Take this all in and be honest about how you feel. The agency wants to make something that you love. Now is the time to be upfront about what you think. Being upfront about your concerns will also help you avoid costly reshoots and additional editing hours.

Script Development

The script is the most important part of the video. The script is the message and documented description of what is happening on screen. It may include dialogue or voiceover. Any copy that is seen onscreen is also included in a copy of the script so it can be reviewed by all core stakeholders.

The script may begin as an outline and then be developed into a final draft for production use. Make sure you review this script– once it’s “locked in,” it will be difficult or more expensive to make updates. Make sure the script is aligned with your brand messaging and is on-point with any company and/or product positioning you may have in place.

Casting Actors (If Applicable) and Location Scouting

If actors are needed in your video, the video production company will handle all casting and management of actors. Casting may be achieved with in-person auditions or remote video auditions.

If the production company intends to shoot some or all of the video content “on location,” they will need to do some scouting in order to determine the most accessible (and affordable) spot. An experienced agency may already have some locations in mind or places they’ve worked at before. Your internal team may be brought in for review or approval once a location has been selected.

Props and Wardrobe

Props and wardrobe materials may be rented if the company doesn’t have what they need on hand. For smaller-budget productions, they can also use the props and wardrobe provided by the client!

Shot List and Pre-Production Organization

Once all of the visual specifics are decided, a shot list and a schedule of production must be created to keep everything on track. Coming in under budget and on time is really only possible if the planning has been executed beforehand. If you’re new to this, a shot list is the breakdown of the exact shots in each scene and usually include:

The scene number (there can be more than one scene in a script)
The shot number (there can be more than one shot in a scene)
Location
Shot descriptions
Framing descriptions
Action/dialogue
Actors involved
Props needed

The editor will also use this shot list in order to piece together the final product. Even if the production agency isn’t shooting with live actors, the shot list is important to visualize an overall picture of the intended product.

Shoot Day

Once all of the planning and organization has been completed, it’s time to shoot! The video production company will work to spend as little time shooting as possible to keep costs low. There is really no need to spend weeks on a shoot that should only take a day or two.

Editing

Once the video content has been captured, it’s time to send it back to the editors. Usually, your contract will state how many revisions you are allowed before the edits incur an additional fee. Make sure you are mindful of these terms before requesting multiple edits.

Distribution

Distribution is the process of sharing your video with your audience. This could mean posting to your website, or creating a larger marketing campaign involving your social media platforms and other channels of communication. Either way, this is the point at which you are going to see conversion and real impact on your customers. In addition to measuring views, it’s also extremely important to monitor view rates.  A million views isn’t worth anything if viewers are only watching for one second.

Video Optimization Components

Next to using real people, shooting on-site, and dedicating yourself to creating genuine and personalized content, there are a few video optimization components that can make your video content even more effective. Let the team guide you through the more technical pieces of this process.

File Name and Video Title

Add a keyword-rich title to your video. Do this both to the video file itself and the title of the upload. This is important because the title you use will appear both as a file name and as a searchable key phrase if you’re using a popular video hosting site like YouTube and Vimeo.  Don’t just use your brand name in the title of the video or the original file name from the export– it won’t be as easily found, especially if you’re still a growing brand.

Video Description and Tags

Add a meaningful description and relative tags! Also be sure to provide a good keyword rich summary of the video’s content.And lastly, be sure to include a link back to your website.

If you’re embedding the video on your own website or on a landing page as part of a larger video marketing campaign, be sure to add a concise description and an <H> tag with the video title to your webpage.

Transcripts and Captions

Don’t ever overlook transcripts and captions. It’s a crucial accessibility component that can also win big with SEO. And depending on how your content will be used, you might actually be required to provide captions and transcripts for your video to maintain Americans with Disability Act (ADA) compliance.

Additionally, the text from transcripts will be indexed by Google–  making it easier to eventually find your video online.

Site Links and Video Sitemap

Build descriptive keyword-rich links on your own site to your video. Just as important– build external links from authoritative sites. A combination of both types of links is ideal.

When you submit a sitemap listing your new video content, Google is given access to your video’s descriptive information like:

• Title
• Description
• Video duration
• Once Google has access to this information, users will have an easier time searching and finding their way to your amazing new content.

Social Media

This one goes without saying: promote your videos on social media. If your internal team needs guidance, connect with your video production and advertising team for recommendations. Typically, testing a video advertising campaign can be effective on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. In fact, YouTube video advertising is one of the most underutilized forms of paid advertising by small and medium sized businesses. This presents great opportunities for digital marketers without enterprise marketing budgets. The right team will be able to help you build backlinks by taking advantage of customers who choose to share your video with their own networks.