by Roman Daneghyan, Chief Marketing Officer of Renderforest
Video marketing has become essential to every business out there, no matter whether it is a small startup or a big corporation. However, if big corporations have fewer issues with allocating budget to their video marketing campaigns, it can really be troubling for the small companies. Especially when you are new in video marketing, it feels like you are going up against millions of professional videos which have a high potential to beat you down. Which is why it is natural for you to be tempted to make your videos as perfect as possible. Imagine all those great things that you could include in your video which you your audience will love, and it will help you increase your sales and conversions. But then you look at your budget, and all the dreams about the perfect video fade away.
I am here to tell you that not everything you imagined for your perfect video has to disappear. In fact, there are many ways to keep most of them.
There are several ways to make videos depending on how much budget you have.
Use your smartphone to shoot a no cost video.
No cost videos are the ones where you have to spend $0 on production. These are the simple videos shot using something as simple as a smartphone. You do have one, right? Most of the smartphone cameras are able to shoot in really high quality. But, even if you end up having a video which has cost you nothing and of a little lower quality than a professional video, so what? Let’s be honest here, many small businesses run a big part of their marketing on social media and use it to connect with their audience. And, on social media professional videos aren’t always the ones that get more engagement, but those that are honest and real.
Use videos from your audience.
This is actually a great way to create videos that will have the most emotional connection to your audience and will cost you absolutely nothing. Spend some time watching the videos created by your clients or followers and once you find something awesome, share it. You will be surprised by the reaction of your audience. The owners of the shared videos will not only be thankful to you but also will share your posts. And if you are lucky, their friends will share those too. And boom, you will see your engagement skyrocketing.
Use online video making platforms to make both low-cost and professional videos.
Another way of approaching this everyday challenge of low-cost video making for marketing purposes is turning to online video making platforms for help. Some platforms will give you the opportunity not only to make videos with tons of graphics and animation but also add your live-action videos and mix those up with graphics and animation. However, if you choose to use either only graphics and animation or only edit your live-action videos, you are more than welcome to do so. The best part is, online video makes are extremely easy to use and you can put together a video in a few minutes and still end up having a professional video for free or for a very low of a cost.
Use the talents of your team to shoot live-action videos.
If you still want to hire a crew and go deep into the traditional live-action video making process, no problem, that as well can be done with a small budget. Try to use your existing team to make a video. There is no way that your project manager is only good at managing projects. Find out the other talents of your team and use those. Hire someone else only when you feel you won’t be able to complete certain tasks using your team’s skills.
You may say none of us are actors, and hiring a cast is too expensive. But wait a second, maybe you don’t even need a human cast. What if you use puppets instead of people? That’s just a thought, it doesn’t have to be that way.
This will not only beneficial from the financial perspective, but also will become a great team building activity for your team.
The most important thing in saving money on video marketing is being creative and trying to find alternatives of whatever has a high cost in the production process. Just keep in mind that not all the videos have to be on the same level of professionalism. Consider the audience, the platforms on which you are planning to share those and be flexible.
Roman Daneghyan is Chief Marketing Officer of Renderforest, an online video production platform for creating professional broadcast quality videos. As a content marketing specialist, he enjoys very much sharing the experiences he’s gained along working as a marketer and helping other entrepreneurs succeed.
