“Matt — hold up! I just run a small business. How can I afford professional video production?”
It’s a fair question.
A basic video shoot and edit can cost anywhere from $3,500. How can a small business, as a sole operator, get professional video production for their website or social media … and be able to fit that within their budget?
The first bit of advice I’d give would be to space things out.
Don’t try to do everything in one hit. There might be an important event on your horizon: you may be breaking ground for a new construction; you could be expecting important international visitors on an inspection tour of your premises; or perhaps you’ve been invited to deliver a speech to a local business group. You would like to use that event, somewhere down the track, to the advantage of your enterprise, but you can’t really commit yourself to a full, ‘all bells and whistles’ production right now. So, instead of signing up to get a complete video made at the moment, why not think about just getting it shot for now and holding on to that vision until you have enough material to make a great video, rather than having to have a mediocre one ‘right this very minute’. Get the editing done when you have enough material; that approach will break up having to fork out all of your hard-earned at the one time — sometimes a painful procedure!
‘You need a plan’ is the second of my pearls of wisdom.
Every company needs to be careful about where their hard-earned dollars go, and this is especially true for small businesses. Every dollar spent has to count and must be earmarked for some specific end; it must earn its keep. The thought that will go into planning for your video will help you achieve this end. There is no point in going in to shoot footage with little to no idea of what you want to achieve other than that you want to make a video. So, make sure that you work with a production company that is going to work with you towards a good return for you on your investment, not one that just wants to take your money. Work with a company that is going to make a video that will be to your benefit, one that wants your video to succeed.
Before you begin, you should be very clear about the outcome you want, so it’s probably worth going back to first principles — ‘Marketing 101’, if you like. So think, long and hard, about
- the purpose of your video: to sell? or maybe just inform?
- who your customer is
- where can you find them?, and
- what is the best way to sell to them?
Nothing costs more in video production than indecision and confusion. If you don’t shoot what you want, then you can’t edit it.
Next: consider engaging a company that offers a monthly subscription package.
Some companies, ourselves included, offer you the opportunity of paying a fixed monthly amount in return for a certain number of half days, or days, per month. You might start off paying for one half day per month, you then can use these half days across the course of the year to make your video. You can even let them accumulate for when you finally get around to getting the job completed.
Monthly subscriptions help you manage your marketing budget, knowing that there would be a fixed cost every month.
In summary, then, you CAN get great results on any budget, you just have to plan and be highly focussed on getting the right video in front of the right people.
Click here to get more information about our pricing.
Whatever you hope to create, you can be sure we will be able to help you out. Give us a call on our new phone number, 1800 JASPER or, if you need some more ideas on what we can do, feel free to check out our work on Vimeo or read our past blogs.