How Much Does A Corporate Video Cost?
How long is a piece of a string?
That doesn’t really help explain matters, does it?
There are so many factors that go into budgeting a video, so many that you can easily spend between a few hundred quid or several thousands of pounds on a 2 minute promotional video.
Above all, any marketing activity needs to get a return on investment, and this is what should always play a part in deciding on your video production budget. If you’re spending £4000 on a promotional video for your business that sells fancy widgets at £5000 a pop, you only need to make one sale off the back of the video and you’ve made back more than your original investment!
It’s not always that simple. Video campaigns based around improving employee engagement or increasing brand awareness have a less tangible ROI so understandably, clients can be uncertain as to what is good value when it comes to video production.
But, there are a number of things you can do to bring down the cost of video production no matter what your campaign focus is.
If you’re looking to keep an eye on your marketing budget or to save costs, here are some of the biggest factors that can impact your video marketing budget.
High Production Values
If you’re at the movies, it doesn’t matter what film you’re there to see – the ticket price will be the same. But the budgets to produce, market and distribute each of the movies, are different.
A special-effects blockbuster with big name actors and a massive marketing campaign, is, of course, going to have had more money spent on it than an independent drama that the critics are talking about.
Why? Because the blockbuster has huge production values which the audience has come to expect from that kind of movie.
The big question is – Does that make it a better film? Not at all! Bigger budgets only make bigger films. Powerful stories make powerful films. And powerful stories are priceless.
If you don’t have the budget for high production values, making sure that your video tells a powerful and engaging story is even more important.
Putting the miles in!
Video projects vary massively in scope from one to the next. Some might involve a few hours filming and a quick edit, others may take in several weeks of production across the globe.
Whilst the length of the video does impact the budget to a degree, the number of days spent on the road or in the studio filming can dramatically affect the costs too.
After getting a project brief from a client, a decent production company will be able to figure out exactly how much filming is needed for the project. You might even be surprised at how much you can fit into one filming day! Either way, you’ll know for sure that you’re getting the most for your money and the producers aren’t picking a random number of filming days out of thin air!.
But what else can you do to reduce the filming cost even further?
See if you can fit more content into fewer filming days. For example, if you need to capture three customers across all corners of the UK, that’s 3 separate days to visit locations in England, Wales and Scotland. However, if these three customers can travel to a central location on the same day, you’ve done what would have been 3 days of filming in just 1 day. Not to mention saving on accommodation and travel expenses along the way!
Also, if you find there are a few hours to spare during a filming day, why not grab some additional content for potential future projects – such as testimonials with customers or general shots or your business that can kept in the archives and be used in the future.
The Time Cost Quality Exchange
Nobody wants there to be any trade-offs when investing in a professional video. Rightly so, everyone wants to have the best quality at the lowest cost, delivered as soon as possible and a decent production company will give you just that.
Some companies only allow you to pick two parts of the triangle – a high-quality video can be low cost, but may have a longer turnaround time. A cheap video can be turned around quickly, but the quality may not be so good.
So how do you avoid the dreaded compromise?
Have a chat with your production company about your priorities and make sure they understand what’s most important to you. Find a company with a good track record with a wide breadth of projects under their belt. They should be honest, so they won’t throw any hidden charges at you and they’ll be 100% transparent about timescales too.
Share your budget
To get the most accurate proposals for a video production project, the best way is to share your budget restrictions with the production company.
Don’t be worried about production companies going straight to the top end of your budget and overcharging you either! A decent video production company will pride themselves on being honest and transparent and will work within your budget and provide you a cost that’s well within your expectations.
A budget is just a number though. To get the most competitive quotes, you’ll need to share a detailed brief too.
Writing down a clear description of what you want from your video, clear goals, key messages and call to actions, even example YouTube links, all give you the best chance to get value for money. A good production company will take this information on board and even suggest alternative or more effective ways to achieve what you want.
You might not have all this information yet, but spending ten minutes on getting the key points down on paper speeds up the process hugely and gets you much better value.
Video marketing is an investment. But as much as you’re investing money, investing time in finding the right company to work with is just as important.
Find a company that understands you and that you want to work with. The numbers are important, of course, but developing a long-term relationship built on honesty and experience will be the best investment you’ve ever made.
