5 Do or Die Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Video Production Company
factors to consider in hiring a video production company,
What questions should you ask a video production company before hiring them?
- How long have they been working in the industry?
- What kind of videos do they usually do?
- What particular client do they prefer working with?
- How fast were they able to deliver their projects?
- After the video is done, what do they do next?
If you are planning to create a video campaign for your marketing strategy, it may be crucial to look for a video production company to help you with. In the Philippines, a lot of well-known brands have been investing on video campaigns which were well-embraced by people, especially on their social media channels. Much can be said that this kind of video marketing strategy has been carefully planned by the marketing department and professionally executed by its video production company partner.
In hiring a company that will take care of your campaign’s video production, it is truly important to carefully consider factors and ask questions that matter. To this regard, here are some of the ‘do or die’ questions that you must ask a video production company before even considering hiring them. Best of luck!
1. How long have they been working in the industry?
In order to narrow down your choices, it is important to take the video production company’s experience into consideration. Given that this is where you apply the infamous quote, “Experience is the best teacher.” Not only will you be able to assure yourself and your team that they are reliable and that they will be able to make your campaign successful.
Moreover, you will be able to determine and understand the price that they would most likely offer you if you know much about their experience and history in the industry.
2. What kind of videos do they usually do?
While experience may guarantee a reliable partner in producing your video campaign, it is also important to know which kind of videos they are specializing on to ensure that you can work on the same page.
In particular, there are 5 different types of video productions:
- Educational videos
- Informational videos
- Promotional videos
- Documentary videos
- Entertainment videos
Typically, these video production types differ in the goal being pursued. For educational videos, the primary goal of the video is to produce content that would educate the viewers about complex ideas in a simple manner. For example, an online course tackling about a subject area or a webinar for industry influencers. Informational videos, on the other hand, is mainly aimed to provide succinct information in a rapid manner. Unlike educational videos which are focused on the why’s, informational videos are often focused on the what’s. This may appear as a television newscast, or a Q&A interview video.
Given its popularity over various social media platforms, promotional videos are distinct in nature compared to the first two types of video production. Simply put, this type of video targets a particular viewer and that particular viewer’s needs. Not only that, these also tend to offer a solution (probably a product or service) and ends with a ‘call to action’ or CTA that the viewer may freely accept or decline. Promotional videos may appear as a corporate, event, giveaway, or an unboxing video – all of which offers products or service to the target audience.
Documentary videos are prevalent in social media channels of National Geographic or Animal Planet given that both offers real-life documentaries on the life of animals in the wild. Most likely, this type of video is both informational and entertainment videos.
Lastly, entertainment videos offer entertaining and fun stuff. This type of video production offers a lot more than others, given that it’s not a particularly sensitive category – so anything that’s entertaining may take place. It also includes travel, wedding, and music videos that can offer a great viewing experience to people.
Given the different types of video production, you may have now understood the significance of asking this particular question: “What kind of videos do you usually do?”
3. What particular client do they prefer working with?
This is among the questions that help you determine whether or not to hire a video production company. This is due to the fact that while they may be a great firm, it’s still important that both of your views are aligned with each other.
You also get to look deeper into their previous relationship with their client – whether they are able to achieve the client’s goal or do they accept changes in the project. Most importantly, through this question, you will be able to determine if they are the kind of company who truly cares about their client and if you will be able to match perfectly and create a harmonious partnership.
4. How fast were they able to deliver their projects?
Deadline is an important factor in creating a project. Thus, it is only reasonable to ask of how fast a particular video production company is able to deliver a particular project. This is in consideration of the marketing timeline and also, the quality of the project.
Moreover, it is important to ask the details in their process of producing videos and how much you can take part in that particular process – whether that is during pre-production or the post-production. Basically, just to save you from future disagreements or misunderstandings.
5. After the video is done, what do they do next?
While this may seem complex given that the video is already done and everyone’s at peace, it is still important to ask of what more can the company help you with. During this digital age, simply sending you the video as the finality of the partnership is not a success. This is because there are still video production companies who will offer you video hosting, SEO, ROI metrics, and analytics for post-production services, which aims to ensure the success of the video campaign, and not just the completion of the video itself.
Key Takeaway
In choosing a video production company to help you in creating a video campaign for your next marketing strategy, it is significant to bear in mind these five factors as they affect the process, the budget, and the product itself.
Moreover, these questions provide answers that will give you an idea of how that particular company works for their clients in order to achieve specific goals.
