Balancing the Costs and Quality of Your Next Corporate Video ...

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It goes without saying that video is cheaper and easier to create than ever before. You could shoot a video, edit and publish to a hosting site all via your iPhone. But is this going to give you the look and feel you need to drive lead generation or raise brand awareness?

With corporate media, the old adage quality over quantity should be foremost. Ultimately, you get what you pay for. As we pointed out in a recent eBook, you can't cut corners with consumer level video tools when brand image is at stake. For relatively low outgoings, YouTube and Vimeo are great for hosting video and breeding exposure, but there are some fundamental areas that are not optimized for enterprise video needs.

So how do you balance the costs and quality of a corporate video production?

To begin with, always have a budget in mind and communicate that in the first dialogue with your video production company (that's if you choose to outsource production), as this gives the producers' a clear understanding of how creative they can be and the level of quality they can provide that is in keeping with your budget. Once you have a budget in place, you should assign costings to these 16 factors:

1. Professional planning and storyboarding - every campaign should start with a detailed video strategy. Without a coherent structure to video content, viewer engagement drops.

2. Professional Production Company hire if you are looking to outsource production, check out our blog How Great Marketers Find Great Production Houses'.

3. Editing and studio time - how are you going to get your files into the edit suite? To save time in the suite enable fast retrieval by making your metadata matter.

4. Actors and voicing - will you go for a Morgan Freeman style voiceover or utilize your own staff?

5. Camera quality - got a ground-breaking idea but your camera resolution is low why not try 4K? Your final delivery channel will ultimately determine the need for specific cameras.

6. Lighting and equipment - do you have lots of different lights to accommodate a wide variety of shooting scenarios? Although, we all look better in low light right?

7. Graphics and stock footage acquisition - you may require supplemental footage or images to support your video? There are many websites that sell high quality still and video footage.

8. Audio - do you require, special sound effects or music to supplement your corporate video? But please don't ruin another Oasis classic.

9. Production Crew - the decision to use professional talent or remain in-house, or a mix of both is so significant. Does your in-house team have experience shooting corporate videos?

10. Direct costs of locations used - are you shooting in one location or many? Add in transportation costs for both crew and equipment. Let's hope you don't need any re-shoots!

11. Use of b-roll and cut-aways most videos benefit from the addition of footage that supplements what is being said on screen. If you're filming a testimonial video, cutting away to your product or service will help context.

12. Color correction and grading - any amendments can eat up precious time in the editing suite.

13. Finished video formats desired - will you film in multiple formats? How are you going to standardize all the formats? Does your preferred flavor work in your editing system.

14. Reversioning - do offices in different continents need the same content but in local languages. Add in the costs of adding some captions and even better still, dubbing to your content.

15. Online hosting fees and costs - make certain your videos are secure, backed-up and able to be embedded onto your website - this will help improve website SEO.

16. Storage and archive - how will you scale up if your shoot ratio is higher than expected? Choose a provider who won't charge you for going over your plan.

The costs associated with these features vary, but if you choose to work with a reputable video production company, they shouldn't come as a surprise and they should have been planned for in pre-production. The best way to get a quick estimate is to have a reference video to compare to why not ask to see a testimonial?

This list is by no means a complete checklist. What else have we missed? Share your experiences of corporate video production costs below.

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