Over the past decade, digital content consumption patterns have changed dramatically, leading to a rapid growth in consumer demand for visual content and providing unprecedented opportunities for major consumer brands. Startups and traditional media alike are investing more than ever before in the production of marketing videos across a wide range of industries. YouTube, for example, has more than 5 billion marketing videos viewed globally every day, not counting the massive amount of marketing video content on Facebook and other social media platforms, proving that video has become a core pillar of content marketing.
Why My Business Needs Video for Marketing?
It's true that relying on text alone is less expensive, but does that mean that marketing videos are unnecessary? In fact, images have a much stronger impact on human senses than words. The language of images can break through the limitations of language, and the rich visual and auditory effects can effectively retain the audience's attention. Studies have shown that marketing videos are more likely to touch the audience's emotions and create resonance and connection to scenarios and stories set up by your brand, so choosing a marketing video production company that has both professional knowledge in video production and marketing acumen is essential to the long-term development of your brand.
A marketing video is more than just a tool for conveying information, it's a carrier of emotions and values. Marketing videos can immerse your audience in your brand's story in a more intuitive format. Adopting a ‘storytelling’ presentation not only avoids the backlash of hard sell, but also makes your brand image more vivid and memorable. In addition to this, building a long-term marketing video marketing strategy provides your brand with greater flexibility. Marketing videos can be promptly adapted to be used on various platforms such as Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) devices, or even projected on the facade of a building to create an unforgettable immersive experience for your potential buyers. This not only extends the reach of your brand, but also provides more possibilities and creative space for future marketing strategies.
As digital media continues to evolve and innovate, marketing videos have become an essential tool for getting your message across, promoting your brand and telling your story. Whether you're a marketing professional, a business development manager, part of a small entrepreneurial team, or even a freelancer with a limited budget but a desire to create, this guide aims to dispel the myth that marketing video production is expensive and complicated. With an in-depth understanding of the marketing video production process, you'll be able to make the most of this medium and take your brand to a wider market.
If we already have a production team or a good amount of marketing video materials on hand, do I still need to find a marketing video production company for help?
In general, regardless of the scale of a video project, it typically requires a collaborative effort to succeed. The threshold for creating marketing videos has significantly lowered, regardless of whether you possess professional skills. However, that doesn't mean that an in-house team and experienced staff or yours are ample enough to fulfil your content marketing needs.
Professional marketing video production companies not only have more mature technical capabilities but also bring fresh creative perspectives to help your brand break through creative bottlenecks, thereby enhancing the quality of marketing videos. Enlisting the help of a professional team can be an effective solution to challenges where in-house resources are limited or specific expertise is lacking, as a professional video production company has extensive experience in scene selection, story ideas and filming details, as well as a wide range of contacts and resources that can quickly solve technical challenges for your brand.
When you already have a production team or abundant marketing video materials, you may wonder if it's necessary to engage another professional marketing video production company.
The answer to this question depends on whether your in-house team has the skills, experience, and equipment to handle the challenges of producing marketing videos in the short to long term, in terms of the purpose of the production, the frequency of the production, and the volume of the production. etc. It's worth noting that there are significant differences between producing general videos and videos for online marketing uses, especially in the preparatory work phase.
What is the difference between producing a marketing video for marketing purposes and a regular marketing video?
A marketing video for marketing purposes requires strong focus on goal setting, target audience research, and incorporation of your brand values in the early stages of preparation to ensure that the marketing video is effective in achieving your marketing goals. Compared to regular videos, marketing videos need to concentrate more on specific production goals such as increasing brand awareness, boosting sales of a particular product, or directing viewers to specific webpages. The marketing video production team needs to closely collaborate with marketing professionals to conduct in-depth research on target regions, industries, marketing trends, and audience behavior, performing more detailed data analysis
Marketers focus on audience attraction and messaging, while incorporating your brand's values and style to ensure that the marketing video is vivid and conveys your brand image. Therefore, if you need to produce a marketing video, it's important to find a video production company that also has a background in marketing. Consider their past work, team composition, and whether they can provide a full range of marketing video production and marketing solutions to ensure that your chosen partner can truly help you achieve marketing goals and create marketing videos that meet your marketing needs, thereby enhancing your brand image and expanding market influence.
Understanding the Marketing Video Production Process
While the marketing video production process may vary depending on style, content, timeline, effort, and budget, successful marketing video producers share some common basic elements. To help you understand how different stages of the production process interact, the basic elements of the marketing video production process are outlined below.
Step 1: Inquiring and Planning for Marketing Video Production
Before embarking on a marketing video production, a thorough understanding of the purpose of the video production is crucial to ensure successful message delivery. Each marketing video should clearly define its objectives, whether it's introducing a new product, strengthening your brand image locally, showcasing mascots or theme songs, or just sharing interesting moments from daily life. This should be established based on in-depth analysis and prediction of the preferences and behaviours of the target audience.
When designing the style of the marketing video, the appropriate style should be chosen based on the content and purpose of the marketing video. It can be heartwarming, thrilling, or full of twists and surprises. The right style can better attract the attention of new viewers and make the target audience feel convinced and delighted.
Before discussing the cost of marketing video production with a marketing video production company (usually during the inquiry stage), the budget should be determined based on the style of the marketing video, as this will directly impact the direction and quality of the marketing video production. Costs include not only money but also manpower, time, and communication costs. These factors will affect the length of the marketing video, the equipment and software used, scene selection, production time for each stage, team composition, and the overall production effect of the marketing video.
When determining the length of the marketing video, clients, marketing teams, and marketing video production companies should make reasonable arrangements based on the target audience, budget, and production difficulty. The length of marketing videos can vary from seconds to minutes. For those who are new to using marketing videos for marketing, it is advisable to start with shorter marketing videos to better control production costs and quality, and to improve marketing direction and strategy through continuous and intensive customer feedback cycles.
Before discussing with a marketing video production company, providing other marketing videos that align with your ideas as references is very helpful. These reference marketing videos can help concretize your expectations for the marketing video, providing a basis for subsequent discussions and production to ensure that the final output meets your expectations, laying a solid foundation for the success of marketing video production. During negotiations, you should maintain open communication with production staff and marketing professionals, identifying all potential issues and solutions as much as possible to ensure that both parties clearly understand the requirements and expectations of the project when putting the plan into action. If the budget is limited, consider outsourcing the parts you are not proficient in to a professional marketing video production company. This can help save costs while ensuring the quality of the marketing video.
How should I decide on the length of a marketing video?
When deciding on the length of a marketing video, the key is to find a balance between the production purpose and content, while also considering the perspective of the target audience. Firstly, considering the completeness of message delivery is crucial. The length of a marketing video should be sufficient for the audience to understand and remember important messages but not too long to lose their attention. This ensures that the audience can fully grasp the content you want to convey while watching.
Secondly, the purpose of the marketing videos should be another factor in the length of the marketing videos. When choosing the platform and medium of distribution, you should also take into account the limitations and best practices of different platforms on the length of the marketing video, such as the platform of distribution of mobile phones as the main marketing video, your brand will be controlled in each marketing video in less than 30 seconds; it is expected that the target audience will be browsing on the computer, then you can try a one to three minutes may deemed more suitable.
Depending on different marketing objectives such as product introductions, event promotions, or increasing brand awareness, the length of the marketing video may need adjustments. For example, short spots should usually be kept to 30 seconds or even the first 10 seconds to ensure that viewers get your brand or product message quickly and deeply. The difficulty of production should also be taken into consideration. Complex productions or marketing videos that require multiple scene transitions may take longer to tell the full story, but such decisions are best discussed with a professional marketing video production company to get their input and advice on the production process.
Even after the marketing video has been completed and released, experimentation and testing are essential. By testing and collecting audience feedback, adjustments and optimizations can be made to the marketing video strategy, including determining audience preferences for video length, content arrangement, and storytelling techniques to create more engaging and effective marketing videos in the future. This iterative process can help improve the quality and effectiveness of marketing videos, ensuring your message is better conveyed to the audience.
Step 2: Script and Storyboard for Your Marketing Video
The script is a core tool that presents the work in text form, conveying the purpose and atmosphere of the marketing video through carefully designed plot content. The script includes dialogues, scene descriptions, character behaviors, and emotional descriptions, arranged in chronological order, detailing the development of each scene and plot. Before shooting, detailed descriptions of each scene help check if the plot flows smoothly and logically. Storyboards also consider different characteristics of the subjects being filmed, whether dynamic characters, static backgrounds, or product displays, each requiring different approaches in storyboarding and scriptwriting. For beginners, it's advisable to start with simple themes and structures without pursuing overly complex or perfect presentations.
When creating a script, one should first think of conceptualizing the beginning, development and ending of the story, and determine how the core message of the marketing videos will be conveyed to the audience. Then, carefully outline the character traits, provide specific descriptions of emotions, expressions, and actions for the dialogues. Finally, provide preliminary technical guidelines, typically given by the marketing video production company for each scene in the script, including camera angles, lighting effects, scene transition effects, and other shooting instructions that needs to be attentive to.
The focus of the script is on shaping the storyline and character interactions. Once the script is mostly complete, the marketing video production process usually moves on to the screenplay stage. Storyboarding is a crucial tool for visualizing the script and is essential for the early planning phase of the marketing video. Storyboards present the script in a series of images or frames, including key shooting elements such as scene composition, camera movements, and angles.
Compared with the text in the script, storyboards focus more on the specific details of the shoot. A good storyboard not only helps the team reach a consensus on the visual style and direction of the marketing video but also reduces misunderstandings, promoting communication and collaboration during the production process. In addition, the camera angle of each scene needs to be clearly defined to determine which character's point of view it is being shot from. Storyboards effectively assist the team in maintaining a consistent creative direction throughout the production process, further enhancing the visual and emotional performance of the marketing video. Good storyboards also help build the overall structure of the marketing video, ensuring it accurately conveys the intended emotions and messages. Therefore, it is important to have ongoing communication with the video production team and the marketing team during the production of a shot diagram, so that mistakes can be rectified and fixed as soon as possible.
Step 3: Time to Start Shooting Your Marketing Videos!
The production phase is the process of visualising the creative ideas in the scripts and storyboards, and it's the moment in the production process when the ‘magic’ starts to kick in. There is no greater sense of achievement than when a well-planned shoot goes off without a hitch. The following are the major processes typically covered during the production phase of a marketing video: travelling and logistical arrangements between locations, setting up lighting and camera equipment, setting up props for the set, preparing the actors' hair, make-up and costumes, filming the footage, recording voice-overs, and producing the original sound track.
The scale and complexity of marketing videos directly impact the preparatory work before shooting. Marketing video production companies need to closely collaborate with you to detail every aspect, including actor selection, location arrangements, shooting schedule planning, and release of shooting notices etc. These preparatory steps are not only crucial to ensure smooth shooting but also the cornerstone of marketing video quality. It is essential to allocate sufficient time before and after shooting, properly set up camera and lighting equipment at shooting locations. If you need to move from location to location or switch between different types of equipment, you will need to allow enough time for setup and adjustments during the trip to avoid disrupting the overall progress.
It's also helpful to have a full rehearsal before the shoot to ensure that everyone knows their roles and responsibilities and that all equipment and processes are in place. In addition, always refer to the storyboard and script to ensure that all the necessary shots are captured. As part of the marketing phase, you may also want to shoot some behind-the-scenes (B-roll) footage, which will not only enrich your marketing video, but also can be used to enhance social media and marketing promotion when necessary, maximizing your budget and increasing the impact of your marketing video.
Step 4: Editing and Post-Production of Marketing Video
The editing, cutting, and post-production of marketing videos are crucial parts in the marketing video production process. The purpose of this stage is to further refine the rough-cut marketing video and ultimately present a high-quality audiovisual work. The combination of technical expertise and creativity in the post-production stage ensures that the visual and aural aspects of the marketing video are optimised and that the core message of your brand or product is effectively conveyed.
First, the marketing video production company will carefully select all shooting materials, choose the essence that matches the script content, and carry out preliminary editing according to the story framework. The rough-cut version usually does not include complex elements like special effects or music; its main purpose is to ensure the narrative flow, pacing of the marketing video, and to detect any missing crucial parts. Simultaneously, this stage is used to check whether the basic structure of the marketing video aligns with the intended theme, ensuring that the story is communicated smoothly.
Once the rough-cut version is approved, the post-production team will proceed with more refined adjustments and polishing. This includes a series of crucial steps such as colour correction, lighting adjustments, subtitle additions, scene transition designs, insertion of transition animations, and application of computer-generated effects. The team also ensures that there are no redundant or lengthy segments, thereby enhancing the overall flow and viewing experience of the marketing video. Sound design involves precise editing of dialogue, sound effects, and music, ensuring that the volume, rhythm, and emotional expression of each audio element perfectly match the visuals. The selection and adjustment of background music are particularly crucial; the speed, intensity, and entry points of the music shall harmonize with the pacing of the visuals to enhance the emotional impact and expressive power of the marketing video.
It is important to note that when signing the contract, the number of post-production revisions for marketing videos is usually negotiated with the marketing video production company. Therefore, during the scriptwriting and storyboarding phases, potential post-production modification needs should be thoroughly considered. When making post-production adjustments to marketing videos, try to cover all necessary changes at once to avoid unnecessary delays and cost increases caused by multiple revisions. Before uploading and distributing marketing video files, ensure that all third-party music and materials used have been properly licensed. A 16:9 aspect ratio marketing video can meet the needs of most online marketing, but most marketing video production companies can provide cropped versions and save your shooting materials for future re-editing reuse.
Step 5: Don't Forget the Marketing Part!
The internet is flooded with a plethora of media. Even if your content is of high quality, it can still be lost among countless marketing videos, making it challenging to attract the target audience. Therefore, making your marketing video stand out requires not only technical skills in shooting and editing but also effective marketing strategies. In the fiercely competitive digital environment. Choosing the right platforms, carefully designing SEO strategies, multilingual promotion, multi-platform promotion, and subsequent data analysis can effectively enhance the visibility of marketing videos and achieve the best marketing results.
Choose the Right Platform and Strategy
Different marketing video content is suitable for different platforms, such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok. When choosing a platform, it's important to make sure that the format and length of the video is in line with the platform's users preference and regulations. For example, Instagram and TikTok are more suited to short, vertical marketing videos, while YouTube is more friendly to longer, more in-depth or serious content. In addition to this, choosing the right posting time and scheduling can help garner more attention for your marketing videos. It is crucial to engage with the audience by encouraging sharing, likes, and comments to increase the exposure of the marketing videos. Targeted advertising is also an indispensable tool. Using Facebook Ads or YouTube Ads to target audiences based on their age, geographic location and interests can be an effective way to attract new audience segments and open up potential markets. Additionally, partnering with influencers or other brands could significantly amplify the impact of marketing videos.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Enriching your website or social media with marketing video content can greatly assist your brand's Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. Since YouTube's search algorithm is similar to Google's, using tools like Google Trends or other keyword tools to select high-traffic keywords and integrating them into the titles, descriptions, and tags of marketing videos, or embedding marketing videos into your website or blog posts, can boost website traffic and visitor length of stay in your website, ultimately boosting your brand’s SEO ranking. Additionally, designing eye-catching marketing video thumbnails can effectively increase click-through rates. Marketing video thumbnails should be closely related to the video content and possess strong visual appeal to attract more viewers.
Multilingual Marketing to Expand Reach
Adding multi-language subtitles and info cards to your marketing video can be a great way to attract potential viewers from different regions. Subtitles not only increase the accessibility of your marketing videos, but also make it more suitable for your videos to be played in mute mode, which is considered as one of the most important parameters ranked by mobile users where not all environments allow their speaker functions being activated. You can also request multilingual dubbing from your marketing video production company to further increase the global reach of your marketing video. Subtitle generation is also important, so make sure your marketing video production company provides .SRT files for all platforms so that subtitles can be flexibly applied to different playback platforms and scenarios.
Personalized Content and Multi-Platform Promotion
One of the benefits of a marketing video is that your brand can personalise the message for different customers by quickly copying and modifying the content. For example, embedding a marketing video into an email and sending it to subscribers or potential customers can be more targeted to promote the right product and increase the chances of purchase. Include a specific call-to-action (CTA) in your marketing video to address the needs of different customer segments, such as ‘Learn more’ for new users, ‘Get discounts’ for repeat buyers, ‘Buy now’ for new customers, and ‘Get discounts’ for repeat buyers. For example, ‘Learn more’ for new users, and ‘Get discount’ and ‘Buy now’ for repeat buyers. Additionally, converting highlights of a marketing video into GIFs or static images for staged distribution and previews on social media often attracts more clicks and sustained attention. If the video is related to a trend or challenge, launching a social challenge can further increase the video's exposure and generate user-generated content (UGC), which not only helps the video to spread further, but also makes supporters feel valued and listened to, thus reinforcing the positive image of your brand.
Tracking and Analyzing Performance Data
While the number of views is important, other metrics such as viewer retention, interaction and click-through rates may be more indicative of the actual marketing effectiveness of your marketing videos. Use data analytics tools like YouTube Analytics to gain insights into your audience's viewing behavior and optimize your video's marketing strategy. Conduct A/B testing and try different titles, thumbnails or descriptions to find out which version appeals to your audience the most and make adjustments to future videos. Choose the most relevant metrics based on your marketing goals, such as campaign completion rates, click-through rates and bounce rates, which will help you better understand your audience's needs and further increase the impact of your campaigns.
ALLUA Marketing Video Production Services
What are the differences between ALLUA's marketing video production team and other video production companies?
The difference between Allua's marketing video production team and other video production companies lies in its unique full-service approach and professional marketing orientation. Unlike traditional marketing video production companies that focus solely on shooting and post-production, Allua places greater emphasis on the role of marketing strategies while creating video marketing blueprints for our clients. With multiple regional offices in locations including Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, and Singapore, these localized offices not only assist in local market research and analysis but also help clients implement more effective marketing and promotional strategies across markets. Allua possesses the capability to provide clients with services for localization and language customization of marketing video content, and with dedicated marketing teams in place to facilitate close communication with the video production team from start to finish. Such integration ensures that the values of your brand and marketing goals are incorporated into the video production, making sure that the marketing video is not just one-time entertainment but an effective marketing tool for your brand to leverage on. This includes in-depth analysis of the market and existing customers, evaluation of past marketing data, and understanding the characteristics of different social platforms. This close collaboration allows Allua to provide clients with more strategic, effective, and executable marketing video production solutions.
Before discussing the creative direction and implementation of marketing videos with clients, Allua will guide clients to clearly define the target audience for the videos, confirm a clear theme for the videos, and provide relevant market strategies for client reference. Armed with this information, our team can better align with client requirements in terms of creation and filming, ensuring that the produced content maximally aligns with marketing objectives. If you value both quality and results, and have needs for video marketing strategies, let’s join hands and create more opportunities for your brand.
Is Allua's marketing video production service available in my area?
What kind of industries do Allua's clients belong to? What types of marketing videos do you specialize in?
Does Allua provide support for props rental, indoor and outdoor location rental, costume design and customization, cast interviews and hiring, and cast makeup and hair services?
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