Internet business owners are bombarded with advice to use video to promote their websites. Great advice. Video works.
How well does video work? Some split-testing research from Russell Brunson’s website, Dot Com Secrets, shows an incredible 98.9% chance that video will outperform any other method, text, images, or audio.
With statistics like that, it’s impossible for a website owner to ignore video.
Problem is, adding videos of any sophistication beyond a head shot is often more than a small business can handle. Learning video production can take a while and with everything else you need to concentrate on, outsourcing video production might be a good idea.
So here is some outsourcing advice.
First, consider yourself the Executive Producer on the project as you will direct each of the other crew members, any where from one to ten people depending on your project.
Think about the overall style of the video you want and ask yourself these questions.
- Who is the audience for your video?
- What do you want them to learn?
- What do you want them to feel?
- What do they already know?
The more you can answer these questions upfront, the easier it will be to create a good video.
Next, determine your budget. Budget determines everything else.
Video production is one of those things that’s probably best done locally. There are lots of video production services over the internet but you will have better control with local people. Certainly if you want to be in your video it’s best to have a crew come to you.
For lower budget services, call local television stations in your area and ask to speak with both the manager of the production department and the news photography department. Lots of TV station employees freelance on the side using company equipment. This way, you can get reasonably competent people and professional equipment.
Even if there are no weekend freelancers, TV stations often have remarkably low rates. They will do stuff for free if you buy enough advertising time. If you’re not buying advertising, the rates are still low, especially PBS stations.
While you’re calling around, ask if there are any active local chapters of organized video professionals. These groups exist so people can network and are often the best source to find quality professionals.
Local high schools and universities often have students (or teachers) for hire who will work for less.
Small government TV channels are another great source to find competent people who won’t charge too much.
Local wedding photography companies also charge fairly low rates. Production houses who specialize in commercial will charge the highest rates.
Once you hire someone, talk to them about the three phases of production:
- Pre-production: What video will you shoot? Where will you shoot it? Write a script but realize it is best at this point to be flexible with your script. Plan everything out as much as possible.
- Production: This is where the cameras roll. Production is the most expensive phase by far so you want good pre-production planning in order to keep things as efficient as possible. Keep locations to a minimum to save time and money.
- Post-production: Another word for editing. All the elements of the video are brought together and presented to the audience in a concise, entertaining way. Ideally, editing is planned out.
Quality video professionals will walk you through the entire process and make your life easier. Producing quality video is not as easy as it looks. It makes a lot of sense to outsource so you can get on with the business of running your business.
