Why is it that a business can be extremely picky when it comes to their logo, letterhead, business card, brochure, company dress code, etc., but when it comes to producing a video that is most definitely going to populate a lot of first impressions, the business gives the green light on a product of what I kindly call, “crap. What happened to presentation standards when a business decides to use this channel of advertising? Maybe my standards are too high?

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind shaky, handheld video when it comes to catching an action on the fly when the situation doesn’t call for pre-production planning. There are lots of entertaining viral videos that are of poor quality. The poor quality video makes the action believable. Nobody is calling the viral video shooter asking him or her to shoot their next commercial or company overview video.

If any of you have skipped asking the viral video shooter and went looking for a professional video production house to shoot your video, you probably found that the price actually wasn’t cheap and that it was most likely “outside your budget. My first question is; what is your budget? My second question is; does your budget aid your growth goals? My third question is; why the hell don’t you have defined growth goals!?

Taking A Photo In The Snow On A MountainGrowth goals are your business’ blueprint for everything you do marketing. Where are you spending your dollars and where is your best ROI? Effective marketing targets a specific audience, also known as your buyers, and attempts to gain the attention of that audience in hopes of converting each person into a customer. In case you didn’t know, video is the all-mighty Rolls Royce of media when it comes to grabbing the attention of your target. The best part about video is that it can be used in multiple advertising channels. If you produce a television commercial, don’t just put it on TV. Put it on your website in a media gallery, write a blog post about your experience making the video and include the video at the end of the blog. Share the blog post on social media and include it in your monthly email newsletter. Make sure you get the absolute most out of the video instead of allowing it to collect digital dust.

We all know that money is not endless and that you need to make sure that you receive an ROI. Make sure you hire a reputable firm that understands how to use video to effectively gain the attention of your buyers, and that their video team produces high quality video. When I say “high quality video I’m mean that the video team thoroughly understands lighting, audio recording, video cameras, composition, and all of the technical aspects of professional video shooting and post-production editing. Make sure that they understand your needs and how to achieve them. Like anything, if it doesn’t feel right, don’t pursue working with this particular team. Go back to the search and find a firm that instills confidence and has a portfolio worth bragging about.

Many of you are probably reading my advice and thinking, “an advertising firm and professional video production team is far outside my budget. I thought this blog was about professional video production being cheap. Well, the bad news is, it’s probably going to cost your business more money than any other advertising channel, but the shelf life of video can withstand time and work for you far after the video was originally produced. At PatraCompany, we label video production as “cheap because we know the power it holds if properly planned and executed. The next time your marketing staff considers producing a video, we hope you take the professional video production plunge and share the same success we’ve shared with our clients.


A Marketer's Guide To Live Video Streaming Call To Action