Finding the right video creation service to produce your marketing videos isn’t easy. You need to find a reliable company that has all the necessary skills, tools and ideas to create stellar videos that actually generate leads for your business. And at the same time, you have to make sure that you get a return on investment too.
So, where do you begin?
A quick search on Google for “video creation companies” will give you thousands of options. While you can contact the first few results and ask for a quote, a little deeper research on who they are will make sure you’re not wasting time on a team that can’t give you the final product you want.
There are some telling signs that indicate if a video creation service is going to be a good fit for you. Once you know how to identify this, you’ll be in a position to engage a video company that can meet the demands of your project.
When it comes to marketing initiatives, there’s no shortage of videos that can be created, but to do it well requires a certain level of expertise and skill to execute it.
Branded videos, customer case studies, explainer videos, and client testimonials can all help build a brand. But ultimately, how it’s created is what will help you achieve your marketing goals.
Here’s what makes a good video creation service
By now we all know videos are proven to generate leads, but not all videos are created equal (just like production companies).
With high-quality video content comes a stronger brand image, more engaging posts on social media, and better relationships with your partners and customers.
But before you engage a video creation service, make sure you ask them these questions first. Trust us, it’s better to know this upfront than halfway through a video project. 1
1. What experience do they have?
Experience matters when selecting a production team – but it doesn’t necessarily mean the number of years they’ve been in business. In this context “experience” relates to the amount of work they’ve accomplished, the quality delivered, and the clients they’ve worked with.
You need to look for a video creation service that understands:
- Professional filming and editing techniques
- How viewers consume video content
- How to create and get the best out of videos on social media platforms
- How to manage projects (so you don’t have to be everything to everyone, all the time)
- How to use innovative technical skills and creativity to get the job done
If you’re browsing a production company’s website, make a B-line for examples of the videos they have created for their clients. This will give you a great understanding of their style and the standard you’ll be paying for.
But good video creation services do more than just produce videos. Ask whether they create things like storyboards, scripts and if they can media train on-camera presenters. These are not elements you want to manage yourself if they’re unfamiliar to you.
Working with a multifaceted video team will help you get more out of your content creation plans because they’ll be able to guide you through every stage of the production, filming and editing processes.
2. What equipment do they use?
Videos that you publish need to convey a certain message but they also need to look good too. Thick about it logically, when was the last time you bought a product after seeing it in a dodgy video? Probably never.
So it makes sense that poor production quality interferes with the viewing experience. While some types of video content can be done on lower grade equipment, most need to look visually appealing to generate the leads you want.
While it’s near impossible for you to know what equipment your videos will need, getting inside knowledge on what a video creation service can utilise is advantageous. You don’t want to realise your filming location offers a great aerial landscape shot only to discover the production company you’ve engaged doesn’t have a drone.
3. What types of videos do they create?
Some companies specialise in particular types of videos, while others have the capability to produce a wide range of them. If you only want animation videos, it makes sense to hire a company that specialises in them (that’s not us by the way!).
Instead, we create four types of videos that are primed for brand building and lead generation.
- Branded storytelling videos
Branded storytelling videos show off your business without actually prompting what you do (if you understand what we mean). As you can see in this Nicholas Scott Real Estate video, the focus is on ‘selling’ Footscray as a great place to live, not that Nicholas Scott will sell you property there (but they can if you want).
- Customer case studies and testimonials
Customer testimonials work because they establish your credibility and trust. It does this by showing how your business came in and saved the day for your customer. Having others speak highly of you builds massive authority in what you do.
- Social media videos and scripting
Humans trust other humans and want to engage with a video that features people on camera, but if the presenter lacks confidence and goes off-message videos become confused. That’s why we write structured (but functional) scripts to keep your videos on message and to help optimise them for online platforms.
- Q&A interviews
These videos involve at least two people – often a business owner with an industry expert – in a conversation about a particular topic. These interviews are another way to build trust with your audience, helping them know your brand and what you contribute to your industry.
While there are many other videos that can be created, we focus on these select few because they are proven to capture attention and convert audiences into customers.
4. Do they shoot first and ask questions later, or do the video strategy upfront?
With 300 hours of video content uploaded every minute, it’s vital that your videos are created with the support of a content strategy. If not, your video risks becoming just another video in a long list of similarities.
It’s easy to get over-excited about the prospect of creating and uploading videos and that can mean not enough attention is being paid to what the video needs to achieve and how it will appeal to your audience.
That’s why good video creation services operate and manage client video projects to an approved system. At Story League, we use a six-stage framework that keeps everybody working towards the same goals:
- Content and industry research
- Client workshop and video content strategy build
- Post-production, filming and editing
- Video roll out and distribution
- Marketing success
- Conversion of the audience into customers
Having this framework in place leads to an efficient project and a successful outcome.
Before choosing a team to move forward with, you should know the way they work. You want to be able to communicate clearly with them to make sure you are both working towards achieving the same thing.
Videos can be created in-house cost-effectively, but when the time arrives to use a professional service, it’s important to have selection criteria in place to weed out the good from the bad – that’s starts with asking the right questions.
So instead of just getting random quotes and hoping for the best, ask video creation companies such as copywriting services what experience they have, get them to give you work examples, know what equipment they use and assess whether the videos they create will suit your brand.
