How To Hire & Find A Video Production Agency
A video production agency is a specialized agency who helps you with Video Production.
So, why you need a specialized agency for video production services
Video Production has 3 important elements
- Creative Storytelling
- Video making
- Video specific Project Management
If you go to an individual video production house/video production company/ video creator/online marketplace – you will only get help with Video making and not with other 2 and that’s where specialized Video agencies come into the picture
Once you have decided to take the help of a video production agency, the next step is to figure out who you’ll hire so that you get the best product at the best price and with great efficiency.
Hiring production agencies, or a video production company as many like to call, is a tough task especially if you care about the results of your brand.
When to hire a video production agency
1. Your overall marketing and video strategy are clear:
When you are trying to work with the external video production company, that means you have already figured out a rough idea of what it means to get a video marketing campaign done.
In a basic way, you have a rough idea about how things work and you are somewhat clear on how to make your marketing work with your video marketing campaigns.
If you have your basic concepts and ideas clearly, then you just need to hire a corporate video filmmaker. Then you get him to work on your ideas. The main thing that you need to watch out for is to figure out what type of video agency will suit you the best.
Some people really expect high-quality cinematic level video. If you want that, then you need to be prepared accordingly. But if your brand is a high-quality brand that people really look up to, then that’s something you should find a high-quality video production company only.
If you hire an unprofessionally who does a sub-standard work, then you won’t be able to find the REAL growth that you are looking for from the video marketing exercise.
2. You want someone who can work with you hands-on in video production:
It really depends on the level of help you are looking for. If you are looking for a video production company that can take end-to-end care from scripting to marketing your videos, then you will have to pay a big sum.
But if you have your own ideas and say you’d be able to figure out the storytelling part, you just need someone to create the video. Then, the cost will be on the lower end for you.
The quality of video production can be a subjective thing. See the kind of work they have done in the past for their clients and their testimonials about them. One more thing you could do is, to see how well-talked those videos are.
If the production company were the talk of the town and were covered in a lot of press, then that means the work was praiseworthy. Maybe you should consider the possibility of working with this video production agency.
3. You want someone who could help you in pulling this off:
This is ideally where you speak to the video production agency or a corporate video company that will turn your idea into something that will represent your brand in the best possible manner.
Usually, from our experience, most of the production agencies are very good at the video production part, but they lack a big-time when it comes to the video marketing aspect.
(You can read more about video marketing trends in the article that I have written here)
So to get the best results for your brand, you need to carefully select a video marketing company/ agency that is good at creating videos as well as marketing them well. That’s the secret recipe for success.
While trying to find the right team, you should avoid digital marketing agencies or other types of agencies that don’t have expertise in this domain. Hiring someone who is a domain expert will get the best results for you and your brand.
How to find and hire the best video production agency:
So now that you and your team have finally made up your mind on hiring a video production company to do your job. The next step you need to figure out is how to hire the right video production agency for your Organization.
You can do that easily by picking the right set of qualities in that video production agency, that will help you in selecting the best talent to work with.
a) Excellent Video Portfolio:
Before you finalize to work with any video production agency, the simplest level of reference check you can do is by checking out their portfolio category. See the kind of work they have done and figure out whether that video production agency able to produce high-quality work or not.
With video production agencies, you should be very particular about the quality of work they can produce.
You shouldn’t focus more on the number of clients that a video production company served earlier. I think that’s not the right metric to decide for hiring a video production agency. Just try to see which team has the best and the most high-quality video production capabilities, and how they have gotten the best results for their clients.
If you have even a slight percentage of doubt over their creative chops, then don’t go for them. Go and find more people and see which one works the best for you.
b) Checking Their Clients’ Testimonials:
I think after checking the portfolio of video production agency, the next best thing that you can do is to check their clients’ testimonials. You can usually find client testimonials on the website of the video production agency whom you are dealing with.
If the video production agency has client testimonials listed on their website, then you can check them and see the kind of feedback others have given to them.
If you aren’t able to find that, then you can ask the team for 3 references and speak to those references on a personal basis. Ask questions that are relevant to you and that matters the most to you.
c) Managing Deadlines:
Personally I like to keep the deadlines very sharp and accurate. This way you’ll have the team working hard and delivering things before expectations. If you are working with a video production agency that can work fast and is moving ahead at a rapid pace, that means you are working with a professional team.
It is not only related to video production work but also replying on-time. Showing up on-time and delivering the project on-time are the other things that matter to the project.
If you are working with a video production company that doesn’t take timelines seriously, then you shouldn’t work with them.
d) Expectation Setting:
Before you even start your video production engagement, you should be clear and precise about the engagement that you start with. You should be clear on how much video production price you are paying and what sort of quality you can expect with respect to your video.
If you are dealing with a professional video production agency, they’ll be able to meet your expectations financial-wise, quality-wise and able to keep their word with every dealing that they make with you.
e) Quality Work:
Having a high-quality video is essential for your business because video marketing isn’t something that you do on an everyday basis.
Given the cost that it takes to get it running, you won’t be able to do it on a regular basis.
So it is critical for you, as a business, to select a video production agency that can deliver on your high-quality standards. You could check for high-quality standards by looking at their videos, testimonials, and their camera and editing equipment.
f) Creative Script Writing:
Video content is a creative entity. We create videos as we want to deliver our message to our audience creatively.
And hence storytelling is an important factor to select a video production agency
Producing good results really requires creativity and thinking from a different level altogether.
Look out for the most creative graphics, storytelling, voice-over artists, creatives, animations, etc. Look for video production agencies that really stand out from the crowd with their craft and that deliver a stellar experience with their work.
g) Passionate:
This is an important point. While dealing with the video production company you should ask about their background story and question them to find out whether they like making videos or not.
There are some video production agencies who care only for money, or they see it just as a task.
So you should find out whether this team really wants to work for my success or not?
If they aren’t passionate about movie making and video production, then they won’t be able to generate that kind of magic that you might need to impress the end-users.
So be very particular about that.