Let’s start with the obvious question. Can a still photographer produce a video? Yes they can and many of them have started doing more of it. Do most of them do it well? No.

Notice I wrote “most” in there. That’s quite intentional. I’m sure there are still photographers out there who do a fine job of producing videos, but in my opinion they tend to be the exception. There’s a good reason for that and I’ll get to it in just a minute.

Don’t worry, I won’t let videographers off the hook because it goes the other way as well. Can a video producer shoot still photographs? Yes they can and many of them have started doing more of it. Do most of them do it well? No.

How did we get here… photographers shooting video?

There’s a good reason why many photographers are now producing videos and vice versa. It’s all because of the DSLR camera. The DSLR is the type of camera you see photographers using all the time. What’s changed over the last five to ten years is that camera manufacturers started adding video as a capability… and those cameras shoot fantastic video.

I won’t get too technical here, but DSLR cameras have big image sensors inside that allow them to shoot with a tremendous depth of field. The effect you get is a sharp focus on your subject matter and an extremely blurred-out background. It makes for beautiful video and photos.

DSLRs are also, in many ways, more affordable that a traditional video camera. Those two facts led videogrpahers to buy those cameras in large numbers, and along the way they started offering their clients packages to shoot stills as well as produce their videos. At the same time, still photographers who already owned those cameras started offering video as one of their services.

And the whole thing stinks.

Double-dipping doesn’t work

I appreciate both ends of this… particularly from the business side of things. All of a sudden both groups had new services they could offer their clients. It provides a chance for new business as well as an up-sell opportunity.

Bundling services with one person shooting both stills and video may even mean a lower cost to the customer. The issue I have is with the quality of the work. I’m not going to single anyone out here, so I’ll use myself as an example.

I occasionally get asked by clients if I shoot stills and I always turn down that work… and for good reason.

Can I shoot stills? Sure, but I am not a professional still photographer. If I took that work, I could probably stumble through it and do it well-enough that the client would be happy. But I know deep down that if they hired a real still photography pro, they’d get an even better product in the end.

Which is why I refer those jobs to the appropriate people.

Why can’t everyone do both? There are a couple of good reasons why both groups have problems with the others’ discipline.

• It’s not their passion. There’s a reason I picked-up a video camera 20+ years ago instead of a still camera. I love pairing motion images with words. I love storytelling. A still photographer is a storyteller in his or her own right, but it’s not the same as what I do for a living. I followed my passion and they followed theirs.
• Experience. A still photographer might have some experience as a video storyteller, but it’s likely limited in comparison to the experience they have shooting stills. It only stands to reason that they’re not going to be able to produce a video as well as someone who has dedicated their life to it. It’s the same reason a videographer’s stills won’t rival theirs.

Takeaway

As time goes on and more and more young photographer/videographers come of age doing both, this line may begin to blur quite a bit. But for now… there really is a line. Photographers shoot stills better than videographers and videographers produce better videos than photographers.

There are a ton of great still photographers out there and there are a ton of great video producers. Hire the right one for the job. If you need a video produced, hire the person who has a passion and experience to deliver an awesome video. And that goes the opposite direction as well.

–Tony Gnau

 

One of my favorite videos we produce is the event video. I guess I should actually be referring to them as “videos” because there are actually several different types of event videos you can produce.

These videos excel in a few key areas:

• helping promote events
• keeping an audience’s attention during an event
• driving traffic to a booth or table during trade shows
• allowing an event to live on even after it’s over

That last area was actually the subject of a post I wrote this week for Eventbrite, How-To Leave People Feeling Good About Your Event. It’s a detailed look at how you can produce a video during your event that “puts a bow on the experience” for all of your attendees and beyond.

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Looking back at our first event video

Producing an event video always takes me back to the first one we produced. It happened to be for NBA All-Star Dwyane Wade. He’s a Robbins, IL native whose not-for-profit foundation serves kids all over the Chicago area.

Chicagoans, like me, might want to hate the guy as one of the Big 3 on the Miami Heat, but you just can’t. He’s too good of a guy. As a matter of fact, the one question I get most often after people watch the video is, “Is he really that nice of a guy?” Wouldn’t it be nice having people thinking that about your company?

But I digress, the video… he and his team wanted some sort of video they could show to his fans highlighting the work he does at his annual basketball camp. There was also a second goal. They needed a video to show potential corporate partners.

The power of personality

We talked with Dwyane, his family members, and kids attending the camp. The story came together really well, especially because Dwyane was so great with the kids. His personality drives the video, and that leads to a great tip for anyone producing an event video like this. Find people with dynamic personalities and feature them. Their bright personalities shine a light on your whole event.

Produce something like that for your own event and you’ll have a video you’ll be proud to share.

–Tony Gnau

Attention all human resources professionals or others in charge of communicating with team members. I have an internal communications video idea for you. An idea that will have everyone in your organization buzzing.

What I propose is to start featuring employees… at random. Not the employee of the month, not someone working on the latest company product or initiative. No, I’m talking about selecting people at random, and I’ll layout my case for why this is an awesome idea.

Some background

I’ve blogged in the past about my TV news mentor, CBS feature reporter Steve Hartman. He’s just flat-out one of the best in the biz. Back when I was a cub reporter at my first real TV job in Kearney, NE, I called Steve out of the blue one day while he was working at KCBS-TV. As a USC student, I watched his stories and loved them. As a new working professional, I wanted to know how he got into features. Not only did he take my call, he spoke with me on the phone for more than 30-minutes. For the eight years that followed, I sent him tapes of my stories and he critiqued them… even after he moved on to work for the network.

I eventually landed a job in Cincinnati working at WLWT-TV. I was developing a feature segment for myself, so I called Steve to brainstorm. I wanted to do something like what he was doing at the time for CBS. His segment was called, “Everybody Has a Story.” The concept was simple. Throw a dart at the map and go there. Open the local phone book, start flipping pages and blindly throw a finger in to select someone to feature in a story. All of it done on-camera for the audience to see.

Had I been at a CBS affiliate we could have just followed suit, but WLWT is an NBC affiliate so we came up with a similar idea. I wrote down all of the city’s neighborhoods and suburbs on slips of paper and put them in a hat. We would select the place from the hat, go there, stop into a local business, then we’d ask people if they knew someone we should feature.

As a feature reporter, it was more fun than you could imagine. The photographer and I never knew what we would end-up with, and frankly, neither did the people who selected our subjects. I can’t tell you how many times someone would suggest a person for one reason, yet the story we told about them would end-up being something different.

What I learned along the way

It was a total blast and it taught me something. Something Steve already knew, which is why he encouraged me to do the series. Everyone really does have a story. Many times it takes a great storyteller to uncover it, but that’s part of the fun.

Steve’s stories were amazing. I recommend watching some of his best, which still live online. I like to think my stories were a success as well; I won an Emmy Award for the series.

Your internal communications video series

Which all leads me back to my idea for you. Businesses can do this type of series as well. Here’s how you do it:

1. hire a professional storyteller. Okay, a bit self-serving, but if you really want to do this right you should hire someone who knows how to draw-out people’s stories. Storytelling is a skill honed over years, so it’s worthwhile finding an expert.
2. use your company directory to randomly select the people you feature. A side note, I love the idea of asking the current person being featured to select the next person. Bring the company directory on the shoot and have them make the random selection.
3. don’t go for the obvious story. It would be easy to pick out a story related to their job. That’s fine, but also ask them questions about their life outside of work. You’re bound to uncover some amazing stories.
4. whatever their story is, look for a way to make it relateable. If they have an amazing collection, that’s only the start of the story. It’s that everyone has passion, or obsession, or something his or her spouse can’t understand. Look for universal truths the audience can relate to.
5. this is an awesome internal communications idea, but don’t be afraid to let marketing have it. A series like this is a great way to help customers get to know your company.

Bold plan, good reason to do it

So… the big question… why? Why should you do this? The answer is it’s an incredible way to transform your company. People go about their jobs not knowing how much they have in common with one another. When they start to learn about their fellow team members, they develop a bond. They care more about each other. All of that comes back to the company. It fosters a positive culture.

Do this series right and you’ll have people looking forward to each and every video you send.

–Tony Gnau

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Joe Pulizzi is the founder of the Content Marketing Institute and one of the nation’s authorities on content marketing. He knows how to reach people.

No surprise… he LOVES video and is a strong advocate for storytelling. My favorite take from my interview with him:

“If it’s not in some sort of story format, what is it in? How are you going to make the stuff you have interesting because if we want to get found in search, and we want to have social media work for us, if we want to drive leads, you have to be interesting.”

It’s officially Chicago Craft Beer Week. The 5th annual event is quickly becoming a city staple with local brewers, drinkers, and chefs all getting in on the fun. T60 has a rich history in beer videos, so I thought we’d take a trip down memory lane to share some suds stories and marketing lessons learned along the way.

We have produced more than a dozen videos for Goose Island Beer Company, the king of Chicago craft beers, and have won a couple of Telly Awards for that work. We haven’t produced any videos since Anheuser-Busch bought the company in 2011, but believe it or not, I actually take pride in that. See, Goose Island leaders had such a good experience with video marketing they decided to hire a full-time, in-house video producer. I like to think the videos we did for them performed so well they wanted to do so many more it made more sense to put someone on staff.

Anyway, Goose Island was one of our cornerstone clients. They put us on the map since everyone in Chicago knows the company. It should come as no surprise that prospect pitches are much more fun when you show-up with beer… I mean, beer videos… when you show up with beer videos.

Getting to work with the Goose also exposed me to some really smart marketers who were always ahead of the curve, and I learned a lot from them. I’ll give you a couple of examples.

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Beer tasting

T60’s first big project for Goose Island was a series of videos featuring individual videos on many of its beers. I pitched an idea for how to go about it and they liked it, so we jumped in with both feet shooting nine videos.

I thought for sure they’d post them on their website, so I was surprised when they told me that wasn’t the case at all. Instead, they sent the videos to wholesalers and retailers. The idea was to better educate the people who ultimately sell their product. The more a wholesaler knows about Goose Island, the more likely they are to encourage their retailers to buy it. The more retailers know about Goose Island, the more likely they are to recommend it to customers.

Pretty smart, right? It really opened my eyes to the different ways you could use and deliver marketing videos. Know your intended audience and think about the best way to deliver the videos to them. Keeping viewers in mind will always be a good guide as you produce videos.

Party on

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Another project really demonstrates how forward thinking Goose Island has been. I remember when the then COO Tony Bowker called to tell me they were hosting a party and wanted to produce a video during it. There are some businesses that do that now, but very few were doing it back in 2009.

The Craft Brewer’s Association was hosting its national convention here in Chicago, and Goose Island was going to hold a tasting party for all the attendees. Tony told me they wanted a video that would feel like the build-up to a rock concert.

It was a really fun video to shoot and produce, and it really solidified my belief in the value of event videos. Sharing them with attendees, as well as the people who couldn’t attend. Event videos are a great way to allow your event to live on even after it’s over.

Promoting a brand

The final example is a video we produced specifically to highlight Goose Island’s 312 brand. It isn’t really a marketing lesson, just a production tip to keep in mind.

312 is known as the company’s most accessible beer. Company leaders wanted to show wholesalers how committed the company is to promoting the brand, so they asked us to visit several of the events 312 sponsors.

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Running events, cycling, boating, rock concerts… it was a project that took us all summer. They wanted a video to capture the energy behind the brand and they got it. There was so much good video, but as we started to edit it all together it was clearly missing something.

What it needed was the right music. We listened to dozens of songs and finally hit one that really seemed to give us the pace we needed. The music also inspired the video’s opening sequence. For some reason as I listened to the music, the beginning made me think of a countdown.

People always comment on that opening sequence and we owe it to the music. Never underestimate how music can provide inspiration and influence the mood of your video.

Chicago Craft Beer Week

So… there you have it. Beer-inspired video marketing lessons. Chicago Craft Beer Week runs through Sunday, May 25. I recommend checking out the event schedule. Bars, breweries, and restaurants are all holding special events and planning beer pairing menus, so whether you’re a beer aficionado or just a foodie this is a perfect week for you. Enjoy!

–Tony Gnau

 

Congratulations… you have a new marketing video. Whether you produced it yourself or hired pros to create something awesome, you’re only half-way through the process.

What?

You thought you were done?

Nope.

You might have the best video ever, but it’s useless until people get a chance to see it. It’s now time to promote your video.

Video Promotion Strategy

Contrary to what many people believe, you just don’t post a video to YouTube and watch the views grow and grow.

You might get some, but you’re missing out on your video’s true potential if this is all you do.

We won’t let that happen though, right?

Video promotion needs to be a big part of your video strategy.

Here are some things you can do to get your video out to the masses.

Post your video to YouTube

Wait? Didn’t I just tell you that you need more than this? 

Yes, you do. But you do have to post it to YouTube because it’s great for search engines, especially the big dog. Remember, Google owns YouTube.

Once you post your video, you have more to do. You need to optimize your video. 

Think of it as doing SEO for YouTube. Keywords, semantics phrases… these are good things to use.

Here are a few things you should always make sure to do:

• go to your video settings and make sure your video is titled properly. The name of the file you upload will be the default title, but you can rename it anything you want.
• under the title you can enter a description. Write a paragraph or two here.
• next thing down are tags. Enter as many as you like… think of search words you’d like to tie to your video.
• enter a transcript. Yes, a written transcript. It’s one more thing Google will to scan to help people find your video.
• would you like to add subtitles? You can upload a SubRip caption file directly into YouTube. Don’t bother making them yourself, Rev.com and other transcription services like it are inexpensive and give you what you need. You can use it for that transcript as well.

You’re doing all of this to give YouTube (and by extension, Google) written information to crawl to help rank your video and help it show up when people search.

Post it at your website

Now that you’ve uploaded your video to YouTube and optimized it, you need to put it on your website. 

You can create a page just for the video, but I recommend using it in multiple places.

Think about it logically. 

What type of video did you produce? Is it an About Us video, an event video, product demo? 

If you have an About Us page, put your About Us video there.

If you have a blog post about an event you hosted, include your event video.

If you have a product page, add the product demo video to that page.

But don’t stop there, think about who your audience is for your video and place it on the pages those people are most likely to visit.

And again, you can put the same video on multiple pages.

You can host the video yourself, or you can embed the YouTube video. Not sure how to do this? Ask your web professional or contact my buddy Brian Bender at Net Elevation.

Blog about it

If you have a blog for your business, you’re probably always looking for content ideas. Use the video for some inspiration.

Write about what you learned during the production process. If your video is about a specific subject surrounding your business or industry, write a companion piece.

It all depends on the video content, but think about it and I’m sure you can come up with something to write about and to feature the video.

Post it on social media

For many people, this is the most obvious aspect of video promotion strategy.

What’s your social media of choice? Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn… and on and on and on. Post the video wherever your business is active.

If you’re posting to social, you should definitely add subtitles! 

Most people watch social videos with no sound. 

Again, use Rev.com to create a SubRip captions file, and simply upload the file.

Now… when you’re ready to post… here’s the trick. 

Don’t just post it once. 

Remember, people are looking at social media on their own schedules. If you post the video on Tuesday at 8:00 a.m., people who look at social media that night will likely miss it.

Put together a social media calendar for when to post the video… Tuesday at 8:00 a.m., Wednesday at 7:00 p.m., Thursday at Noon. 

Also, if the video isn’t time sensitive, make sure to bring it back and post it again in a month, 6-months, a year.

Keep in mind, posting it this much seems redundant to you because you’re the one posting it over and over. That’s not the case for your social media followers.

They’re not seeing it posted every time, and you never know when someone might watch the video.

Even if it does appear to them multiple times, a social follower might not watch the video until the third, fourth, or tenth time it appears in their feed.

I like to joke that when you reach the point of being sick of your video because you’ve posted it a gazillion times… POST IT AGAIN!

Finally, don’t forget to use social media to target influencers in your field. Send them a note with a link. They might decide to share it with their networks which will expand your reach.

Email campaign

Definitely send an email to your list introducing your new video, but don’t stop there. 

If you do any email marketing at all, include a link to your video in everything you send out.

Make it visually appealing. Use an image of a video player and make sure to make it link to your video. 

An easy way to do it is simply take a screenshot of the YouTube player with your video inside it. Then make sure to link the video player image to your video.

Your About Us video, testimonials… these are great videos to add as staples to all of your newsletters.

Make sure your team knows about it

After the video is done, make sure to send it to every member of your team and encourage them to share it with their networks.

One of the most successful online video campaigns ever, Will It Blend?, was originally an internal series for team members at Blendtec.

They started sharing it with their friends and family and the rest is history.

Share it with your network

Don’t forget your own personal network. They can help with your video promotion as well.

Share it with your friends and family. 

Your Aunt Clara might not have any idea what your company does until she sees the video. For all you know, she’s sitting on a huge contact or business lead for you.

Going back to the last suggestion, ask your team to share it with their personal networks as well.

Not everyone will do it, but you’re bound to get some employees to share it.

BONUS TIP!

I love this one. 

I was talking with a customer at one point and asked how his company had been promoting the video. He listed off some of the ideas mentioned above, but then he added something unexpected.

He said he had all of his team members add a link to the video in their email signatures.

BOOM! 

What an awesome idea.

They have hundreds of employees sending who knows how many emails everyday?

Every email becomes a video promotion!

This is a technique that takes very little effort and is a great way to get the video out there.

You can certainly do it as just a text link, but again, I recommend making it visual by adding a video player image and linking it to the video.

Continue your video promotion education

This is all good stuff, but if you’re hungry for more I have some suggestions. There are two books I highly recommend.

Gini Dietrich is the woman behind what many consider to be the best public relations blog in the country, Spin Sucks.

I have written several guest posts for Spin Sucks, and Gini’s company is a T60 customer.

Her latest book takes the same name as her blog, Spin Sucks, and it’s a digital communications manual for business leaders.
BOOK: Spin Sucks (watch a video preview)

We’re big believers in content marketing at T60, and video is a fantastic addition to anyone’s content strategy. If you’re interested in improving your search engine optimization (SEO), or posting your video in email or social media campaigns… Andy Crestodina has done you a big favor.

He and his team at Orbit Media Studios (another T60 customer) have put together a how-to guide complete with charts, graphs, and screen captures to help all of us figure it out. It is an extremely handy guide and something I use frequently.
BOOK: Content Chemistry

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention another T60 customer.

MarketingProfs is a great resource for upping your video promotion and communications strategy game.

Ann Handley and her team deliver amazing content and the more you consume, the easier promoting your video will be.

You’re just getting started

I’m really excited for you. Producing a video and sharing it with the world is fun.

Whatever goal you’ve set for your video, I hope you achieve it.

Fair warning though, it’s addictive. Producing a video and having it connect with an audience… it’s a magical thing. You’re going to want to do more and I hope you do.

One of the great things about video is the more you produce, the more effective a tool it can be.

It has a cumulative effect on viewers. The more they see from you and your team… the more authoritative your opinion will be, the more they’ll feel like they’re getting to know you, the more they’ll want to buy from you.

Good luck with your video.

 

I’m in the trust business. You are in the trust business. When it comes right down to it, we’re all in the trust business. The more our customers and prospects trust that we’re going to deliver for them, the more willing they are to buy from us.

Edelman, the world’s largest PR firm, believes that so much the company created its Trust Barometer. It measures trust in business, trust in government, trust around the world. When you go to the Trust Barometer page at Edelman’s website, it features a brief description regarding what the Trust Barometer is all about and a pretty cool info graphic.

But do you know what I found most interesting? On a web page devoted to trust, the very first thing you’ll find… is a video.

The trust business trusts video

It’s one of the biggest benefits of video, and there’s a good reason why video helps build trust. When someone looks for you online, they get text and maybe some photos. Those things are necessary and valuable, but they don’t bring much life to your business.

Video on the other hand… video is all about emotion. It’s about tapping people’s emotions and building a connection with them. Video brings your business to life in the eyes of your customers.

Put a face on it

The Edelman video isn’t anything Earth-shattering. It’s simply a series of sound bites featuring business people around the world talking about why trust is important. Here’s why the video works though. It puts a face on the Trust Barometer. It tells us, this is more than facts and figures on a website. The Trust Barometer is a survey of people… real people.

It’s hard to communicate that with just text and an infographic.

People respond to people

Start thinking about your own company or organization this way. Imagine giving your customers an opportunity to get to know your team members. Videos featuring what they do in their jobs to help serve clients. Videos highlighting how they decorate their office space. Video letting them talk about their hobbies and interests.

All of these things help us get to know them. Information like this helps us build a connection with these people. And for content marketers, team members provide a cornucopia of content ideas.

Connection = Trust

Sometimes it’s hard for business leaders to imagine that videos featuring employees talking about their love of Star Wars or quilting or muscle cars or jogging or… whatever… could lead to better sales. But hobbies and interests establish common ground.

Would you rather buy from an impersonal company filled with sterile cubicles and robots or a company with real people who have family photos over their desks and diverse interests?

When your customers start connecting with your team, you’re on your way to earning their trust.

It’s possible

Video is a way to make this sort of thing happen. It provides clients with a chance to see you and your team in action. They get a chance to meet team members they normally wouldn’t get to meet. They get to see your company as more than just a vendor.

Video helps build trust.

–Tony Gnau

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Picking a video production company can be a tricky proposition. No doubt, price matters and you’ll want to find out if they fit your budget. However, there are some other things you can look at when learning how-to pick a video company. 

• look at their client list (do they have many repeat clients?)
• ask who’s going to be the creative mind behind the project?
• are they purely video experts, or do they have a storytelling background too?

Just a few things you should consider.

Of course, you should watch the client videos they post at their website as examples. We have an additional tip on what to look for when you do that in this month’s vlog, so please give that a watch.

–Tony Gnau

Trust. Can you think of a more valuable commodity when it comes to marketing? We buy from those we trust, which is why I consistently encourage our clients to help us create authentic marketing videos for their companies.

I have never met with a business leader who was setting out to lie to their customers, and thankfully, I’ve never met with any who would like to “spin” how they do things. Having said that, we all know they exist.

Gini Dietrich wrote the book on why Spin Sucks, literally. That book and her daily blog by the same name detail better ways to do PR and marketing. It’s all something that translates well to videos since they’re a terrific tactic for a communication strategy.

Having said that, even executives who have no intention to “spin” their message can fall into some traps that in some cases can complicate a video production and in others… even doom them to failure.

Don’t do anything special

One of the most common things executives want to do when the decision has been made to produce a video is… do it up. You know what I mean, nothing crazy deceptive here. On the day of the production they want every desk filled, every machine operating, the office sparkling clean, et cetera. Most executives just want things to look great, but they really don’t have to do anything special.

My college football coach John Robinson had an expression… just do your stuff. Anytime someone would pose a mundane question like, “Coach, should we wear coats and ties when we travel to a game?” J.R. would always respond the same way, “Just do your stuff.”

What he meant was this isn’t a big issue. You know what’s right for you. Just do it. If you think you should wear a coat and tie. Wear them. If you think you look nice and presentable in something else, wear that instead. The idea is that unless you put on something whacky, nobody is going to notice or care.

Same thing goes for staging your video shoot. Don’t worry about having all hands on deck, making sure everyone’s desk is clean, or every machine is up-and-running. While you’re scrutinizing every detail, your viewers are simply paying attention to the story. Unless something is distracting or looks wrong, viewers won’t notice.

Now, you don’t want the place looking like a wreck and you don’t want the place devoid of activity, but you don’t have to play up anything. What’s your busiest day of the week? Is there a day this month when things will really be cookin’? That’s the day you shoot.

It’s good to look busy, but we don’t want to fake it. Viewers can tell when you’re faking it and that’s not good.

Let your team go about their business the way they always do. The visuals are important, but your story is far more critical. If your video producer does a good job at helping you tell that story well, then your video will accomplish its goals regardless of how busy you look.

Let people speak for themselves

The other thing many business leaders want in their videos are finely-tuned corporate messages. They are attempting to communicate something after all. It only stands to reason they want that message sounding perfect.

This is something else you want to avoid. You know what a finely-tuned corporate message sounds like to viewers? It sounds like a finely-tuned corporate message. In other words, it doesn’t sound authentic at all… because it isn’t.

I’m not even a big fan of talking points. You’re far better off letting people speak from their hearts during interviews. A skilled interviewer is going to get them talking about their job and how it’s going to impact customers. The people being interviewed will talk about subjects they’re experts in and the things they do everyday. Let them say it all in their own words and what you’ll get is an authentic message.

Remember, you’ll have a professional storyteller piecing together the sound bites to tell the story. So while you won’t have control over what they’re saying, you’re still going to control the overall message that’s going out.

Will it sound perfect? Maybe not or maybe your people will surprise you. Either way, it’s okay. What you give up in control you get back in authenticity.

Audiences are far more receptive to a message that doesn’t sound scripted. When it sounds genuine, they pay attention and take it in. Viewers respond to the people on-camera because they’re real.

Authentic marketing done right

These are just a couple of things, but they go a long way to delivering an authentic video to your audience. When you focus on authenticity, you create videos that stick with people and help earn their trust.

–Tony Gnau

Pricing out video production can be kind of tricky. Ask someone in the industry for help and you’ll likely get the typical answer… it depends. Not very helpful when you’re planning a budget and trying to figure out your video production costs.

Maybe that’s why so many production companies don’t advertise their prices. It drives me crazy when I can’t find pricing information at a website, so we at least try to give some ballpark figures at our video production pricing sheet. We’re also happy to prepare a quote for you anytime you’re planning a budget.

While I’ve had plenty of customers and prospects thank me for that, I thought a more extensive blog post on how we break down our costs might be worthwhile explaining.

While you’ll probably still have to contact me or another video producer if you have specific questions, my hope is that this post will give you more insight into what goes into producing a video so you know where your money is going.

Also important to note, prices might be a bit higher than outlined here for anyone doing communications in a complex industry. For example, if you were looking into the costs of hiring healthcare video specialists.

Our “Day Rate”

First things first, we don’t charge by the hour. We’re sometimes asked for a 1-hour video shoot; however, customers don’t see all of the pre and post-production activities that take place. Things like travel time to and from the shoot, color correcting the video in post-production, and converting the files into something they can use. In short, video production takes a lot more than an hour.

We charge by using a day rate, $2000/day, or sometimes a half-day rate of $1000. Basically, we figure out how much time will be spent on a project (how many days), then we apply the day rate to come up with our total cost.

As a corporate communications speaker, one of the most frequent questions I get is how much does a 3-minute video cost… or a 2-minute video… or a 60-second video? Regardless of the video length, the answer is always… it depends… and here’s why.

Let’s use the 3-minute video as an example. The finished video might be 3-minutes, but each 3-minute video can vary greatly in how long it takes to produce. We’ve had 3-minute videos that took just a few days to produce costing about $4,000. We’ve also had a 3-minute video take nearly 2-weeks to complete costing over $10,000. It all depends on what has to be shot and how much time we’ll need in post-production.

Let me walk you through the process for how we breakdown our time to help you understand it better.

Concept Planning

The first thing is simply getting on the same page with the customer to make sure we’re producing what they need to meet their goals. At this point, we’ve likely already met with the customer before preparing their video proposal, so this concept planning meeting typically only takes about 30-minutes to 1-hour and can be done in-person or over the phone. We do things like:

Pre-Production

Next, we start to assemble all the things we’ll need during the shoot. This can take anywhere from 1-2 hours. Preparations include:

• create any necessary shot lists (based on the concept meeting)
• prepare interview questions (based on the concept meeting)
• prepare equipment (checking/testing the camera, lights, media cards, tripod)

Video Shoot

The day of the video shoot is the most obvious to people because we’re on-site, so what we do is on display. This is a big part of the “it depends” aspect of things. How many video shoots will be required to capture what we need for the video?

It’s talked about and decided in-advance when the video proposal is being prepared. Sometimes everything we need to shoot is in a single location and all available on the same day. Perfect.

On the other hand, sometimes there are multiple locations involved, someone critical to the video needs to be interviewed on a different day, et cetera.

As far as the shoot itself, here are some of the things we do:

• videographer visits each site to shoot everything on the shot list
• videographer also shoots other raw video he/she finds relevant or beneficial
• videographer interviews predetermined people

Most of T60’s videos only require a single videographer, but there are cases where additional resources are needed or requested. We have helped coordinate things like additional videographers, sound technicians, an online streaming coordinator, a teleprompter operator, hair and makeup, et cetera. Adding professionals like these does increase the production’s cost.

Post-Production

This is where a lot of the time gets spent that the customer never gets to see. It’s the other “it depends” variable. How much time gets spent in post-production varies depending on the amount of raw video there is to sift through and how complicated the story is to tell. It could take anywhere from 2-5 days in most cases. Some of the things that need to be accomplished are:

Logging Raw Video

• review all the raw video that was shot
• transcribe sound bites from interviews

Script Creation

• notes regarding sound bites and raw video are reviewed
• sound bites are selected, then arranged into story form to create a script
• script is emailed to customer
• minor changes are discussed by phone, changes requested by client are made

Video Edit

• edit video according to the approved script
• relevant graphics are created
• preview video is provided to customer for viewing
• minor changes are discussed by phone, changes requested by client are made

Wrap

• digital files are created

Taking into consideration each of those phases… concept planning, pre-production, video shoot, and post-production… most projects take 4-5 days to complete, costing about $5,000 – $6,000

Price is always agreed to in advance with our customers, so they know what the cost is before production begins. We have had a few situations where a project takes longer than anticipated and the price has changed during the process. In all of those cases, the customers added shoots, or other components, and then agreed to an accordingly higher price. Communication is the best way to avoid any potential cost issues.

Low-Cost Videos

We do produce low cost videos for small business owners with tiny marketing budgets for $3,000.

Those videos are all about keeping a very strict production schedule. From beginning to end, the entire production needs to take us less than a day to create the video. We do that with a 1-hour video shoot, during which we follow our 3-step storytelling process. We ask a string of questions leading to answers that essentially create the script on its own, then we edit everything together.

These customers also relinquish creative control to us and trust we will deliver a video that’s on-message. They do not get a script to approve or a preview video that allows them to ask for changes in the final video.

This cuts down on a lot of the time it takes us in post-production. If a customer wants editorial control in one of these low cost videos, we recommend our full-service storytelling instead. Our customers who have purchased our low cost videos have been thrilled with the end result and, of course, the cost!

Making Multiple Videos Affordable

If you’re someone who produces videos on a regular basis, you might want to consider putting a video company on retainer.

A video production retainer is an agreement to perform regular, ongoing video production services at a fixed cost for an agreed to amount of time. In most cases the retainer provides video service at a discounted price.

Having said that… we’re not big fans of the traditional retainer model, which is why we created our VIP Video Club as an alternative.

We feel like a lot of retainers go unused, which is great for the video company that keeps collecting paychecks, but is a bummer for customers who are paying for a product/service they don’t end up using.

Our VIP Video Club membership includes monthly reminders and quarterly planning sessions to help keep our club members on track.

Value for your budget

Okay… let me break it down by budget to give you an idea of what you can expect for the dollars you spend.

• $ hundreds of dollars: you might be able to turn to someone who does video as a side-hustle. Looking for a college student or recent graduate is also a way to go with this budget. You’ll get a video, but probably not a high-quality video.
• $$ thousands of dollars: at the low-end of this scale you should again being looking for someone who does video as a side-hustle. You can find them at places like ProductionHUB and Upwork. If you’re in the middle of this scale, you should definitely be looking at video production companies. Start by searching [city] video production. This should give you plenty to choose from. There are also production companies, like us (cough, cough), who travel frequently to video shoots.
• $$$$ 10K & up: now we’re talking about a healthy budget. You should definitely be looking at video production companies. Once you start getting over $10K, you can expect some seriously good videos.

What’s the difference in quality?

Here’s something else to keep in mind.

The leap in quality from a video that costs $1000 or less to one that costs $4000-$9000… is pretty big.

The leap in quality from a video that costs $4000-$9000 to one that costs $10K and up… well… there’s a gap, but frequently not too big of a gap.

Basically, once you get up over $10K, there are all sorts of extras that can enhance a production. A big team of people might work together on your video (videographer, sound tech, field producer, editor, etc.). You might also enjoy specialized equipment (cinematic cameras, drones, steadicams, booms , etc.).

It all makes for a better finished video.

Is it significantly better than a $4000-$9000 video? I’d say it’s likely better, but I might stop short of saying, “significantly better.”

Maybe in some cases, but not all cases.

Need Help Finding a Video Pro?

Okay, you might be thinking, all of this is helpful… but I don’t know anything about hiring a video production company! If only I had a handy guide that could help me with that process.

Cough, cough… we have you covered. We’re based out of Chicago and Milwaukee, so we have a buyers guide for both cities.

• Chicago Video Production Buyers Guide
• Milwaukee Video Production Buyers Guide

However, a third of our business comes from all over the country, so no matter where you are either one of those guides will give you a good sense of what to look for when hiring a production company.

If you have any other questions, feel free to call. We love being a video production resource for you!

Breaking down your video production cost

So… those are the basic steps for how videos are produced and should be pretty universal from company to company. Of course, every production company prices things in their own way, but that’s how we determine the cost of a video.  I hope this at least gives you some understanding behind the process.

–Tony Gnau