Quick question: when was the last time you saw a video on the internet? My money’s on sometime today.
It’s not difficult to see why video content is becoming more popular these days. The three main reasons for its rapid rise in popularity are cheaper smartphones, better cameras, and faster internet.
Combine three of those. You get a world that relies on visual content, such as videos. Whether you’re on social media or visiting a company’s website, videos are always lurking in the corner, begging for your attention.
You could conclude that video marketing is something that every company with a gen X or younger target audience should be doing. The problem is, not all of them have the experience to handle their video marketing in-house.
In this blog post, you’ll learn about what you should be looking for in video marketing agencies to achieve the best return for every penny you spend on them.
Examining Their Company Portfolio
Any video marketing agency worth their salt must have some portfolio of their work showcased on their website. However, not all of them are legit and credible — we’ve come across some shady websites stealing our videos and claiming them as theirs!
Anyway, according to a Microsoft Technet article, a company’s portfolio is not just about the past works a company has done. It’s about the unity of various aspects, including:
● Company Profile
● Education & Certification
● Missions, Standards, and Objectives
● Products
● Relevant Visuals
● Accomplishments / Works
● Testimonials and References
● Success Stories
● Contact Information
Make sure the video marketing agency you’re going to hire has a compelling combination of those ten factors – and make sure it’s their content by checking everything for plagiarism.
However, not having all of those factors in check is not a sign of a lousy video marketing agency. As long as they have the relevant proof of their skills, for example, having well-made videos, there’s a good chance they know what they’re doing.
Validating Their Brand Authority and Expertise
Brand authority is the trust that a brand earns among its customers and competitors. It’s the degree to which you consider a brand as an expert in the field. A variety of factors can influence authority, including:
● Robust and compelling content
● An active online presence
● Engagement over social media
● Previous works
● Customer testimonials
Having informative and robust content on their website is one of the most vital signs of a company’s expertise on the subject matter.
In this scenario, you’d want to make sure that the video marketing agency you’re going to hire has published articles, infographics, webinars, ebooks, or any form of digital content that shows their expertise.
Checking Their Customer Testimonials
A happy customer testimonial says a lot about a video marketing agency’s credibility in doing its job.
Make sure that their customer servicetestimonials aren’t bogus by reverse searching for whoever the testimonials came from. Here’s an example of a customer testimonial from one of our clients:
The quickest way to ensure that person is a legit client, just to Google their name and organization.
The more detail you can get on the person, e.g., full name, organization, country of origin, etc., the more accurate the results you’ll get.
The Three Types of Video Marketing Company
To invest your video marketing budget wisely, you need to assess what kind of service you need. There are three types of video marketing companies.
Full-Service Marketing Agency
The majority of full-service marketing agencies offer various services ranging from copywriting your newsletter to making a video.
Keep in mind that video marketing is a considerably recent addition to the marketing scene. Therefore there’s a good chance that the agency you’re working with is still experimenting with its strategies. Hire a full-service video marketing agency if:
● You have the budget for multi-channel marketing campaigns.
● You don’t have the human and intellectual resources to handle multiple campaigns.
● You need more than just videos to promote your products correctly.
● You don’t have an in-house dedicated marketing team.
Video Marketing Agency
A video marketing agency is the meeting ground between a video production studio and a marketing agency – only they specialize in video marketing. There are two types of video marketing agencies: marketing-focused and production-focused – each their advantage.
Marketing-focused agencies lean their expertise more towards marketing, such as promoting a video, managing uploads schedule, optimizing the title and description, setting up campaigns, monitoring analytics, etc.
Production-focused agencies can create top-notch marketing videos, but their excitement dies down during the marketing side of things mentioned above.
Consider hiring a video marketing agency if:
● You need video marketing and production but don’t have the resources to do it.
● You can handle other marketing channels yourself (e.g., email marketing, website, SEO).
● You have a budget.
● You want to focus your time on other marketing channels.
Video Production Studio
A production studio provides your video marketing needs, which means they make the video for you. Marketing agencies often work with a production studio to deliver videos for their clients.
This point means that the videos you get from a marketing agency are more expensive than they should be (due to third-party fees). If you want justthe video made for you, then you’d better consult the video production studio directly.
Working directly with a production studio means you’ll get a cheaper video and a faster turnaround time since you’re working directly with the production team.
However, since you’re only paying for the video, that’s all you get. You’ll have to do the rest of your video marketing process yourself or hire a marketing agency to do it for you.
Consider working with a production studio if:
● You are on a tight budget and willing to spend more time.
● Your products are somewhat complicated and rely on visual content to communicate properly
● You want a fast turnaround and cheaper cost per video
● You want to be involved in the video-making process
Which Video Marketing Service Should I Choose?
Now that you’ve read more about video marketing services, which option should you choose? Based on the explanation provided above, it should be clear which one suits your needs the most.
A video marketing agency and a full-service marketing agency are similar in many ways, except that the former focus their services only on one marketing channel. The real question is whether you should hire an entire marketing team or pay for a video.
The Difference Between Video Marketing Agency and Video Production Studio
The core difference between working with a video marketing (or full-service marketing) agency and a video production studio is the product you’ll get.
A full-service marketing agency provides video marketing and your marketing needs on other channels like email, website, and social media, plus all the content you need for your campaigns.
By hiring a full-service marketing agency, you won’t have to worry about setting up campaigns and formulating strategies on your own. However, they tend to charge a considerable amount of money for their services.
A video marketing agency provides you with videos and handles the video publication and promotion themselves. Their job is to make sure that your videos can return your investment.
Most video marketing agencies outsource your videos to a production house. Your feedback is relayed to an entirely different team, which could mean a slower workflow.
A video marketing agency charges less than a full-service marketing agency because they only handle your videos and their utilization. You still need to do other marketing channels for your company.
A video production studio, like Breadnbeyond, provides videos that are the core of video marketing. They usually offer several rounds of revisions and a highlight spot on their website for your video.
Working directly with a production studio means you get a part in the production process and faster workflow. More often than not, working directly with a production studio would cost you a lot less money.
However, the drawbacks, you have to figure out for yourself what to do with the video that you just paid for. This option is suitable for startups because:
● They can save their money for other more pressing needs.
● By doing their marketing, they can learn what works and what doesn’t first-hand.
● In a fast-paced competition, a faster turnaround rate could mean winning the race.
Author Bio
Twitter: @breadnbeyond
Email: andre@breadnbeyond.com
LinkedIn: Andre Oentoro
