If you’ve ever tried to produce regular video content for multiple channels you might have found the process prohibitively time consuming, confusing, and expensive. Everywhere you look you’re being told that video is the king of content. The days of having one lone company overview video sat on your homepage are long gone. Nowadays customers expect you to be present on multiple video-first platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram and they expect your content to be up to date and relevant. But trying to generate high quality video content, for every platform, on a consistent basis, can be overwhelming. But if you do try and keep on top of this there are a few different approaches you can take.
The DIY Approach
Trying to create your own video content can be a great cost-effective option. The smartphone in your pocket has pretty much everything you need to create a basic video. Posting a quick piece to camera on TikTok or in an Instagram post can be a hugely effective way of communicating directly with your audience. It gives you authenticity and lets your personality shine through in a way text can’t.
For anything over and above this though you’re going to need the professionals. Producing high quality motion graphics, editing video, bespoke illustrations, design and animation takes years of experience and involves the purchasing and acquiring the knowledge to operate multiple pieces of complicated software. More than anything it takes time, and that’s something you probably don’t have. So where do you go?
Assemble the Freelancers
You can try and assemble a video production team yourself using freelancers. You might feel you can write a decent script yourself, but if you don’t fancy that then you’ll need to find a copywriter. You’ll also need to source a voice over actor, an illustrator or designer, and a video editor and maybe even an animator as well as sourcing good royalty free music to add to your video that isn’t going to get copyright strikes when you get round to posting.
There are quite a few sites such as Fiverr, or People Per Hour that list freelancers offering all manner of professional services, although finding a high quality, reliable one means paying lump sums up front and picking individual people with little or no accountability. You’ll be basing your choices primarily on online reviews which aren’t always the most reliable sources of information. You’re also putting your faith in one sole person, and if they can’t deliver for whatever reason such as illness, or if they just stop responding to communication, you’re left with very little recourse.
Assembling professionals this way can take a lot of the burden off your shoulders, and may be cheaper than going through an agency, but of course you’ll need to project manage things to make sure it’s all moving forward in the way you want. Again, expect to spend time doing this.
Using an Agency
There are lots of amazing professional video production companies out there who will offer you a full end-to end service. A provider like this will be able to produce high quality content and will be able to handle every stage of the process from the initial brief and concept, right through to the final delivery of assets. It’s a safer option than the freelancer approach as you’ll be working with an experienced team of professionals with a proven track record creating the high-quality type of content that you’re after. They will typically handle all the project management and coordinate evert aspect of a production, leaving you free to do other things. There’s a wide range of providers out there and finding one can be a task in itself, but then you’ll come to the next obstacle. Budget.
Money…
Going through a professional video production agency is going to be more expensive than using freelancers. You are paying for a team of people to work for you after all, rather than a sole trader. Agencies will give you a quote for the work based on your requirements, often with little breakdown of the work involved or explanations of where the budget is going. Quotations like this can be confusing and ambiguous, as it’s not always clear why some forms of content cost more than others. As a video creator I know It can quite hard to convey this to clients, as unless you’re familiar with video production it’s not always obvious to know what makes a job time consuming. It can leave you feeling like you aren’t getting the best value for money.
Some agencies might offer you a price based purely on the duration of content you need. This can be much more transparent for potential clients and makes budgeting a lot easier. You can easily price up a job going off the amount of minutes of video you need, regardless of the type of content. You can scale up and down to fit your budget, and know prices before you commit to a project.
However, as you might have noticed, all these pricing models and option listed above are just for one job. ‘Per project’ pricing is the industry standard. And when you need regular content pushing out this can easily multiply and get very costly, very quickly.
Hire staff
Once you’ve seen the prices of using video production agencies on a regular basis, you might feel the only way you can realistically push out the regular video content you need is to bite the bullet and take on full time staff. Having a team member on hand whenever you need them is the best way to guarantee that you can create content as and when you need it, without having to go through the process of getting quotations and contacting agencies every time you have an idea for a video. They can also create the sort of content that you wouldn’t normally consider as well, such as daily social media posts, webinars, and just a wider scope of video content than you would get from any other source.
But hiring staff opens a whole new can of worms, not to mention that this is the most expensive option you can choose. The average salary of a motion designer in the UK is currently £33,000 and is considerably higher in places like London. And you’ll still need the copywriting, voice overs, and project managing to go with them. You’ve also got the burden of employment law, paid holidays, pension contributions, sick leave etc. It’s a huge commitment, and you might not have enough work to keep them busy for 12 months of the year.
Can you have it all?
There is another option that we haven’t touched on yet. An option that gives you the best of all worlds, without any of the drawbacks. You can have the affordability of using freelancers, the high-quality product you get from using an agency, and the dedication and flexibility that comes from having your own full-time member of staff.
With Mooviemakers ‘Unlimited Animation’ you can get as much video content as you need for just one fixed monthly price. There is no contract, no minimum commitment, and you can pause or cancel any time. This means for just one flat rate you can push out regular, high-quality content for any platform and never have to worry about blowing your budget.
Unlimited?
Unlimited really means unlimited. Once you’ve subscribed you can request as many videos as you need in any style and any duration. You can prioritise the order we make them in, and you’ll get them delivered one after the other in record time. This means you can have a full-scale video marketing strategy planned weeks or months in advance and make sure that your business is as visible as possible on every platform, and for every scenario.
It’s like having your own full time video production team available as and when you need it. The package includes access to a copywriter, a roster of professional voice over talent, illustrators, animators and video editors, as well as libraries of high-quality music and video footage. All this costs less than hiring one junior member of staff, with none of the long-term commitments associated with employing someone.
Conclusion
If you’re looking at creating video content you’ve lots of possibilities, from budget friendly DIY options, to using freelancers or even professional video providers. But expect to pay ‘per-project’ each time. And this makes scaling expensive. Hiring full-time staff opens up a new world of flexibility but comes with a high cost and a long terms commitment.
If you are looking at a viable option for creating high-quality, regular content to cover a wide range of scenarios without completely obliterating your marketing budget, then consider Mooviemakers ‘Unlimited Animation’. It gives you as much video content as you need for one fixed monthly fee, without any long-term commitment.