How To Make Professional Corporate Videos on a Budget

What are the benefits of professional-looking videos for small businesses?

Small-business owners typically run with a small staff, and with so much to do and very few resources, the amount of work can feel overwhelming. Customers need support on their buying decisions, staff needs HR help, your accounting system needs to work perfectly—when will you also have time to explain your products, do demos, share your business’s mission and culture, and train new staff? By creating videos that tick all those boxes, you can save time to do the work instead of explaining the work.

Certainly, creating a corporate video on your phone is an option. There are many video apps that make it possible and are available at a cheap price. However, will your video still look professional? The answer may be yes. But not everyone is well versed in these tools, nor do they have the time to become proficient. If corporate videos are part of your marketing strategy, we suggest looking to hire a video production company or freelancer to support you through this process.

How much does a professional corporate video typically cost?

Now that you are aware of the benefits of implementing corporate videos into your marketing strategy, it’s time to talk about the costs. As we said before, going the professional route means more money. But it doesn’t have to break the bank.

What is the difference between a freelancer and an agency?

First, let’s discuss the different options within “professional” video-making. While there is the option to hire a video producer to your staff full-time, it can be quite costly and inefficient. So, you have two choices left: hiring a freelance video producer or video production agency.

Agencies typically have access to all the bells and whistles, including various types of cameras, a video production team, space, connections to actors, high-end software and animation techniques, and access to libraries of music. 

Freelancers may also have a lot of connections, techniques, and resources, but it is less likely as they typically work alone instead of with a team of producers. It is worth noting that freelancers may only be videographers and not have the ability to do post-production processes. When deciding if you want to work with them, there are several considerations that follow:

• Do you want to work with someone who has a specialty or can do a lot of different things?

You can find specialties in freelancers and agencies, but it depends on the specific need you have. Agencies typically have an army of staff who can do very specific tasks or have general skills. In order to be more marketable, freelancers tend to be more general in nature.

• Do you plan on working with this business every once in a while or on an ongoing basis?

If you are looking to work with a business on an ongoing basis, then an agency may be your best bet. They will have resources to work on many different types of videos and will be able to be fully staffed no matter when the video is needed. Freelancers are great for one-off projects because their availability is more fluid, and the contract process is likely quicker.

• How many videos do you need to get out and how quickly?

If you are looking to have a lot of videos made at once and completed quickly, then an agency would have the resources in-house to do that for you. You are less likely to compete with other customers to get your product done.

• What is your budget?

If you have a small budget, then a freelancer is your best bet. Agencies have a lot of overhead to cover the costs of all the staff and resources they have, even if unrelated to your project, so they are inherently more expensive than a solo freelancer.

What generally goes into a professional corporate video budget?

Video budgets are like anything else—they include pre-production, production, and post-production costs. This includes staff time to plan, write the script, create a storyboard, and plan the production of the video. Then the filming includes costs for equipment, costuming, actors, and potentially even permits. Post-production costs include video editor software, music rights, voiceover, and animation.

However, before going into the specifics of the budget, you need to determine the call to action in the video and how your target audience would best benefit from receiving the information. If the video is a product demonstration, then you may need to budget for a space that the product can be used. If the video is a training video on how to use a specific software, then the majority of the video can be a screenshare while using the software and will be less of a cost investment.

A good rule of thumb is to use 10% of your budget on pre-production, 50% on production, and 40% on post-production. Filming and all the resources needed to create a film are inherently costly but post-production costs can pile up quickly.