How to choose a Corporate Video Production Company
What to ask and what not to forget
If you're looking for a corporate video production company to bring your ideas to life, you need to make sure you pick the right fit for your company to get the best out of the service. Video production options have increased massively in the past decade, due to the prevalence of cheaper equipment and DIY videographers using just their phones to create quality content.
In this article, we talk you through all the key steps you should go through when approaching a video production company for your corporate videos, whether they are for inhouse training or marketing.
Corporate Video Preparation
Setting out everything before you begin will make all the following steps so much easier, so we suggest you take some time to really focus on this task and find out exactly what you need for your company’s video.
Set The Brief
To be able to compare companies effectively, you need a guide by which to measure them. Firstly, why do you need a video or series of videos? This may seem obvious but unless you thoroughly understand the why, you are unlikely to get what you want.
A few examples:
You want to showcase a new product or service.
You are an established brand but need some marketing/sales collateral to expand.
You need to train staff
You need to educate buyers to convince them to shop with you
The next thing to decide is who the video is for; who is your target audience. If the target is your customers, you need to customise the video specifically for them. It’s not enough to say, ‘I want to target my customers’, you need to lay out your customer as a buyer persona. Buyer personas help you understand your customers (and prospective customers) better, and will give your video production company a clear understanding of the audience they are producing for. You can create buyer personas by collating information on existing customers and seeing any trends. We are talking about age, gender, location, buying habits, anything you can obtain to build up an image of your ideal customers.
For internal training, your video’s audience is simply your employees, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t tailor the video to their needs. If your company culture is informal and friendly, make the training video as such, so it doesn’t become a chore that workers will switch off from. If your workplace is more formal and the training has a serious angle, then make sure the video reflects that.
The last thing to consider in this part of the preparation stage is, what would a successful outcome look like for your business? Is it about sales, high pass rate on a training test, increased user engagement on social media? Whatever the goal, make sure it’s in writing. We find the easiest way to do this is using SMART goals; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.
Set A Budget
If you are going to contact prospective video production companies, you need to have in mind a budget. You may already have a fund set aside for it or you may need some help deciding at this point. The best thing you can do is outline the maximum budget you are willing to spend on this project and then work down from there. Often people will set just one budget that reflects their ideal price, rather than what they are ultimately willing to spend. This can put a barrier between you and your ideal company from the beginning. Know your absolute maximum, and allow flexibility to adapt to what you learn along this process.
Prospective Video Production Agencies
Once you have a clear idea of what you need out of your videos, it’s time to start approaching prospective companies. You can look online, simply using a search engine, or go to specific directories that list production companies such as Spotlight. From here, you can narrow down production companies based on area, experience and budget.
Realistically though, having a meeting with a video production company will give you a far greater insight than what you view on the web. We therefore recommend you book meetings with your shortlist of companies to discover what they offer face to face. A dedicated company will take time out of their day to understand your needs as a business.
The Corporate Video Production Company
Hopefully, you’ve narrowed down your potential companies and are set up to meet the right people in their business. Send your prepared brief to the company, and allow them the time to examine it and come up with an action plan. If you provide them with the information up front, they should have no problem providing you with an outstanding proposal once you are in a meeting with them. Below are the things to look out for and the questions to ask in the meeting.
Do They Understand Your Needs?
If you have provided a brief, they should be able to give you a comprehensive overview of what you are trying to achieve and how they propose to do this. If they are asking vague questions that don’t relate to your brief, then they possibly didn’t take the time to research their own potential client: you. If they ask you lots of qualified questions about your business and want to learn everything they can about your company, they are going to do a much better job.
Do They Align With Your Vision?
What they propose to you should fit with the message you’re trying to convey, reflect your brand well and match up with how you want to represent your company. This isn’t about them selling well to you, it's about them showcasing they have creative ideas for the subject matter that fit your intentions. You should allow these experts to push you out of your comfort zone, as it’s what they do best, but you also need to ensure that the video stays true to your company vision.
What Is Their Existing Portfolio Like?
The work should speak for itself and the production company should be able to provide you with examples of previous videos, preferably one with a similar goal to yours. When viewing their portfolio pieces, consider these main technical aspects; camera work, sound quality, editing style and flow of the piece. The visuals should be well focused with adequate lighting and center on the subject matter. The sound, whether music, dialog or atmospheric sounds, should be loud enough, in time with the action and clear, especially in the case of dialog. The editing should have smooth transitions and succinct shots that are trimmed of unnecessary starts and endings. Great editing allows the piece to flow, which is essentially the measure of moving you through the story with ease. You should forget you are watching a video and become engrossed in the topic. The last thing to look for is whether their videos give you the ‘WOW’ factor. If they do, you are on to a winner.
Testimonials
Have they as a company got good feedback for their past work? You can get this information from several places, but be wary of the source.
You can view the production company’s website for testimonials, but be mindful that they will of course put their best ones front and centre.
They may have case studies on their website which could include client feedback.
Look at online reviews such as on Google, Facebook, Trustpilot or other established directories.
Ask the company directly. They may be willing to put you in touch with a previous customer that you can chat with for candid feedback.
Pricing
The biggest question of all; what's the price? Does it match with the budget you laid out in the preparation stage or does it fall below and do you think it reflects the value you are going to get? Though you should try not to extend your budget beyond what you set originally, if it is for the right company you should at least consider it as an option.
Things Not To Forget When Choosing A Corporate Video Company
Clarify The Timeline
If you think you’ve found the right company and you are almost ready to sign on the dotted line, find out first what the proposed timeframe for the work is. There would be nothing worse than finding your perfect match and discovering they can’t start work for another six months.
Speak To Former Clients
If the company has provided you with some clients to contact for feedback, make sure you give them a call. It’s easier to gage what people really think about a company when you have a proper conversation with them. You can also contact clients directly if you see their business video as part of the portfolio work. This approach can be more difficult as you need to find the right person in an organisation to speak to, but it could give you the reassurance that you’ve picked a good company or alternatively may reveal that they would be a nightmare to work with.
Work With People You Like
The last point, but one we think is the most important; work with people you like. If you don’t gel with the creatives working on your video then it's going to cause friction and potentially a poor outcome for you. If they are good at their job and great to work with, you can create a long term business relationship with a supplier you trust, and one who trusts you back. It’s a win win for everyone when you all get along.
Get Your Own Corporate Video
If you’ve gone through the preparation process above and you are scouting out potential video production companies for your business, why not give Isaac a try. We’ve worked with clients from a number of industries, using our skills to help create top quality marketing materials for their businesses. Read more about our corporate video work here and take a look at some of our portfolio. Get in touch using the form below to find out what we can do for you.