As a business owner, you’re always looking for ways to improve your marketing, sales, and branding efforts. You may be tempted to invest in video production or marketing as it can seem like the perfect solution for improving your reach and standing out from the competition. However, it is important to understand if this is the right choice for your specific needs before investing any time or resources into producing videos.
You might wonder, why would a video production company post an article discouraging people from hiring us?
Well, honestly, we don't like to dupe anyone into paying for a service that isn't right for them. Sometimes, video is a good fit. Other times, it isn't. At the end of the day, videos are a tool for accomplishing specific business goals. Here we will cover 7 signs that video production or video marketing may be a bad investment for your business right now.
Outline:
1. Lack of Clear Goals
2. Poorly Defined Target Audience
3. Insufficient Budget
4. Inadequate Resources
5. Incorrect Platforms and Formats
6. Bad Timing or Location
7. No Measurable ROI
1. Lack of Clear Goals
There are many benefits to investing in videos for your business. This could include increased visibility, improved brand awareness, higher engagement levels, better customer satisfaction and loyalty, more leads and sales, and so on.
However, producing videos costs time and money so it’s important to make sure this is the right solution for your exact problem before investing in it.
To do this, you must first understand what the issue is that you are trying to solve. Sometimes that may be video production but sometimes it may not be. If you aren't clear on what your specific problem is, or have a good sense that video could provide a viable solution, you should talk to a trusted advisor to better understand the issue you're having before investing in video.
A great video production company will discuss your root issue with you and try to understand what you are trying to achieve so they can advise you on whether video is a good investment at this point or if something else is preferable.
For example, a video could help increase sales conversions, but a better email marketing automation setup to follow up with leads, or other systems may be a better fit depending on the specific issue.
The bottom line: If you don’t have a clear goal or purpose for producing the video then it is likely not going to be a good investment. You need to know what you want the video to accomplish and how it will help your business in order for it to be effective.
2. Poorly Defined Target Audience
If you don’t have a well-defined target audience then you won’t be able to create content that resonates with them or drives any real results. Crafting the right message to reach your target audience is key. Without a clear understanding of who that group is, you risk wasting precious resources on content that barely registers with them - and miss out on potential results. Invest time in researching what makes your ideal customer tick so you can make sure every video resonates powerfully!
3. Insufficient Budget
Video production can require quite a bit of money so make sure you have enough budget allocated for it before moving forward. Without enough money, you won’t be able to produce the quality video you need to drive real results.
You've probably heard the saying "buy once, cry once." We think this applies well to video. Yes, video production can be very expensive, we admit! But in our opinion, it is better to pay for an excellent video, tailored to your audience, with a goal in mind, that will drive results the first time, than to invest in video when you aren't ready and be disappointed. A great video can be an asset for your business for years to come - such as an outstanding customer testimonial that can live on your website and help drive sales.
When you hire a great video production company, you are paying for their expertise, efficiency, great customer service, and them keeping your best interests in mind; they should be keeping your end-goal in sight in order to help you achieve that with an outstanding, well-produced video.
4. Inadequate Resources
Video production can require anywhere from a day of resources and manpower to many hours drawn out over a month or two as you work with your video partner to develop concepts, approve scripts, be interviewed, and so on. That may not be available or feasible for your business right now if you are going through a challenging or busy season, for example. Make sure you have the necessary resources available before investing in video production.
(As a side-note, though, sometimes being busy can be an excuse to keep you from doing important things that are time-consuming, but will help your business. We get it! Lean on your video partner and ask them to help you get it done - apply a little pressure, follow-ups and so on - if you need a little bit of a push to get it done. We are sure they'll understand!)
5. Incorrect Platforms & Formats
Do you know where your audience lives - and watches content? Where will your video or videos live? Your website? Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube? How does your audience like to consume content? It’s important to make sure the content you are producing fits with the platform it will be shared on as well as the format that works best for your audience. This could include things like different types of videos (animated vs live action), length, size, etc.
If you aren't sure, this is something worth considering. However, this is a good question to talk to a video provider or marketing expert about to help guide you. Once you have your goals clear, and if you understand your audience decently well, an expert will be able to help point you in the right direction.
6. Not Enough Time / Bad Timing
If you’re trying to promote something that is happening right now or very soon, video production may not be the best solution due to the amount of time it takes to produce a quality video. For example, if you want to use video to promote an event, launch, or something else time-sensitive.
However, in a pinch, many video marketing / video production companies can work wonders in a short time-frame if given very clear guidelines on what you want (up-front), clear timelines, and usually a rush fee for delivery of what you need. This is going to depend a lot on the length and complexity of your video.
7. No Plan for Implementation
Video production should always be accompanied by some kind of plan to implement the video in your business so you can reap results / rewards from your investment. While there is no exact, guaranteed return on investment (ROI) for any particular video, you are guaranteed to get zero ROI and zero results if you invest in a video and it sits in your archives, never shared with your audience.
Believe it or not, this happens relatively often! It is important to have at least a general sense or plan of how the video will be utilized. For example, you plan to create a 'testimonials' page on your website for your newly produced customer testimonial videos. Or, perhaps you plan to shoot 5 testimonials, and send one a month in your company email newsletter to help persuade leads. Or, you just got a company overview that lets prospective customers get to know the origin of the business and the wonderful people behind it, as well as a brief overview of services. You plan to embed this on the home page of your website, or the about page. These are just a couple ideas of the countless ways you could utilize your video.
In addition to where and how your video will be seen, you should think about the various analytics tools at your disposal that can help you understand who is watching, for how long, where, and what actions are being taken during or after the video - among other things. These tools can help you inform other parts of your marketing and sales process and future investment decisions.
Well, that's it!
The takeaway here is that if any of these 7 signs are true for your business, then video production may not be the right solution for you, right now. Or, you may need to take some time and think about it more before making a decision - and that's fine! Take the time to understand what problem you’re trying to solve and find the best possible way to do it. This may or may not include video production but if the timing is right, budget available, and resources in place; then investing in video can help your business reach its goals.
Overall, make sure that you have a clear understanding of how video production will benefit your business before committing to it. If done correctly it can greatly improve your marketing efforts and overall success. Good luck!
If you need help with your marketing efforts, or a free 15-minute consultation could be helpful, reach out to us at contact@occulusfilms.com, 480-421-8043, or fill out the contact form on our website at occulusfilms.com/contact so we can serve you.