Why is video so expensive?
Video is an important part of any content strategy, but we’ve often found confusion around pricing. Clients sometimes think the shorter the video, the less expensive it will be—“just a quick video” is what we often hear—but there are many other factors that go into video cost.
That’s why we addressed this topic in our podcast, breaking down the video production and marketing process to help shed some light on what you are paying for and the value you are getting in return. You can listen to the full podcasts (part one and part two) and catch some of the highlights in this article too!
Understand who you are hiring
First, just as with many things, pricing will vary widely depending on the type of service you are hiring.
Freelancers
Freelance videographers typically work as a team of one. Without much overhead, they are less expensive than working with a full crew. A freelancer may be a good choice to film straight-forward product, event or facility footage. Some freelancers are skilled in a specific area, such as capturing high-quality drone shots, particularly when specialized knowledge of how to work with airports is required. Freelancers may also be able to edit together cool-looking shots for a general promo reel of your business or highlights from an event for use on social media.
Video marketing company
A video marketing company typically consists of a team of experts in a variety of areas including editors, videographers, gaffers, audio monitors, producers, writers, graphic designers, motion graphic specialists, marketers and others who can assist you through every step of the process from pre-production to post-production. Having more people and equipment dedicated to these tasks requires more investment but ensures a professionally produced video executed flawlessly with less risk and effort on your part. When you work with a video marketing company, you can be assured that your video(s) will not only look great but also will effectively convey your intended messaging while keeping in line with your brand and video marketing strategy to help achieve your business goals.
Find your “why”
While the conversation with a freelancer may start out with questions pertaining to what footage to capture when and where, a video marketing company starts with why?
For example, our team always begins with a pre-production meeting to understand the overarching result you’re looking to achieve with your video marketing, as well as whom you’re trying to reach and at where they’re at in the buying process. Are you trying to create more awareness of your brand? Is your audience struggling to understand how your product works? Is the goal to attract more large sponsors to your event?
We also like to learn where you plan to use your video—a specific social media platform (because dimensions, length and strategy differ with each), your website, in a newsletter to prospects, etc.—and, as marketers, we can provide recommendations along the way to ensure the video format and call to action is appropriate for placement. For instance, you don’t want to have a video on your website that ends with telling viewers to visit your website (we see this more than you’d think…)
This may all seem obvious but taking time to understand these elements is key to producing videos that actually work. In the end, we should be able to understand your company, brand/event/service/product enough to sell it because that’s essentially what we’re creating a video to help you do.
What affects video pricing?
Once we determine your specific goal and associated messaging, we craft a video plan to best accomplish it. While pre-production work requires some cost, it’s much less expensive than going into a shoot without one. Showing up on-site without a clear understanding of what we’re going to shoot typically increases the time spent onsite figuring it out and editing on the back end (or even requiring a reshoot).
Other aspects that affect video price includes:
The number of locations and interviews: It takes time to set up, tear down and move equipment around. More interviews require more production and editing time.
Equipment: For example, some shoots require specialized equipment and sometimes rentals. More people are also needed to operate the equipment.
Additional assets: Voiceover artist fees, stock footage, specialized graphics, effects and music
Turnaround time: Tight deadlines or dedicating a sole editor to your project can increase costs.
Additional changes and revisions: Flex Media allows two rounds of revisions, but if you change the scope of your project after filming, we may need to spend more time and money editing. Also, having lots of members of your team submit thoughts for revisions separately can increase the number of revisions. Did you know that every time a change is made (even a small text change) we need to process and export the video again, which can sometimes take hours? Gathering all feedback from your team before submitting changes in one batch will save you time and money.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t add a voiceover or shoot multiple interviews at multiple locations, but understand if this is needed it may require more budget. A common way to evaluate any marketing investment is how many sales you’ll need to make to recover it. For example, if your video costs $10,000 and selling even one widget or obtaining one additional sponsor brings in $20,000 you’ve achieved a good ROI.
It's also important to evaluate your time. As business owners ourselves, we know your time is valuable. Do you want to spend it shooting and editing content yourself, working closely alongside a freelancer, or paying a professional video production and marketing company to effortlessly lead your video strategy and content production? There’s no wrong answer. We just hope this article helps you better understand the relationship between the cost and value that you’re getting with each.
If you have additional questions about video pricing, or are looking for a partner in your video marketing, feel free to reach out and schedule a call with Flex Media today!