Getting your video budget approved can feel like the hardest part of the video production process. When it comes to looking at video production cost, ROI, and proving the value of video in marketing strategies... it can be challenging. Because video production is often more expensive than other forms of marketing, executives may be hesitant to invest the time and resources needed for high-quality video content.
But getting video buy-in can lead to additional resources and support to make your video production a success. Before presenting a video budget for approval, you need to understand the value that video marketing brings to your organization and how to prove the ROI your video project can achieve.
Benefits of Video Marketing
Before you get into the details of your video production, you’ll want to share statistics about the value of video marketing. If video wasn’t part of the original strategy this can grab the attention of those approving the budget.
Companies that use video in their marketing grow their revenue 49% faster than those that don’t. They also have more leads and higher conversion rates. This is likely due to the year-over-year increase in how much video is being watched online. In 2022, the average person watched 19 hours of video every week, almost double the amount in 2018.
What to Include In Your Video Production Budget
When preparing a budget for approval, consider all elements from pre-production to post-production to determine the total cost of your video project.
Pre-Production
A marketing video budget begins with hiring a creative director who will help manage the storyboard and script. If your in-house team is managing the creative, you may still need to hire for script writing unless you plan to use a branded template. A good video script will be concise, conversational, and engaging. It’s also helpful to identify snippets you can use later on social media to promote your video project.
Video Production
The cost of creating a marketing video is impacted most during production. A small business can reduce the cost by producing a video on-site and hiring freelancers who charge day rates or hourly rates. Your budget should include charges for a video producer, professional videographer, director of photography, and camera and sound technicians as needed. You’ll also want to budget for specialized equipment like cameras, lenses, lights, and audio equipment.
Post-Production
Finally, add in the post-production video pricing including a video editor and sound editor. This is when your video comes to life with music, motion graphics, or animation. Having your video professionally produced will help ensure it’s formatted correctly to share across platforms.
How to Get Your Video Production Budget Approved
Taking your video production budget to an approval meeting before you’re ready might lead to your budget being denied. But video pricing isn’t the only factor to consider when it comes to budgeting. Fortunately, there are a few things you can prepare to get your video budget approved.
Show How Your Video Fits into the Marketing Strategy
The purpose of your video project needs to align with the goals of the company. If you don’t account for what the company is trying to achieve, your video production won’t seem valuable.
Present what you’re trying to achieve with your video backed with industry statistics. If you’re creating an explainer video, share that 72% of consumers prefer to learn about products and services by watching a video. They’ll also retain 95% of the information learned in a video compared to just 10% when reading text. If you’re producing a promotional video, let them know that video has helped create leads for over 80% of marketers.
Offer Examples of the Video You Want to Produce
The average cost of video production can vary widely. Video pricing depends on the type of video you make and the production time needed. Finding a few examples to show your boss will help set clear expectations on what you’re creating. If you need to be on location for your video shoot, having an example of how the right location can make your video more impactful is helpful to get your video marketing budget approved.
Include How to Repurpose the Video Content
One of the biggest benefits of creating a professional video is that you can use it across multiple channels for maximum growth. Guide your executives through how to use the video throughout their marketing. This helps show how the benefits outweigh video pricing.
So, where can you repurpose your video?
- Social Media: Share your video across your social channels to help drive awareness and sales. Take clips to use for Instagram stories or share longer videos on YouTube. Branded social media videos lead 64% of consumers to make a purchase after watching.
- Blog Content: Use your video script to create a blog post that includes the video link. The keyword-rich content will help drive traffic so you’ll show up higher in search results and you’ll likely see your content shared more often. Blog posts that include video have up to 3 times more inbound links than those with no video.
- Marketing Emails: Increase click rates by up to 300% by adding video to your emails. Be sure to have a clear CTA within the video so viewers know exactly what to do after watching.
- Core Website Pages: Add video to your home and landing pages and watch conversions grow by up to up to 80%. Your video should support the offer on the page to maximize conversions.
Back-Up Your Video Strategy With Data
Once you’ve presented how to use video to engage your audience and grow other marketing channels, it’s time to show them the numbers. Even if you have the best ideas, they’ll want to see evidence that video content will be profitable.
Results can be difficult to measure so you’ll need to have a solid strategy for measuring the effectiveness of your video marketing campaign. This could be done through data-driven metrics like click-through rates or with audience surveys to gauge interest and awareness. Focus on what you plan to measure and have a plan for how to capture data once the video is produced.
Share the Cost of Not Producing a Video
You’ll want to consider the cost of not producing your videos by calculating the growth you are likely to see if videos are part of your marketing strategy. Look at what your competitors are doing and how their brand awareness compares to yours. Video is more likely to show up in organic search results and drives an increase of 150% in traffic. If you’re looking to outrank your competitors, video is the most impactful way to do it.
Invite Executives Along in the Video Production Process
If your company is new to video marketing, it’s helpful to include your executives in the process. They likely won’t be part of the day-to-day decisions, but being part of the planning during pre-production and the final decisions during post-production will help them understand what goes into creating high-quality video content. Once you present the metrics, they’ll be able to see the full value of including video in their marketing strategy.
How to Maximize Your Video Production ROI
Now that your budget is approved and you don’t have to worry about video pricing, you need to deliver on the amazing goals you shared. Whether you work with a video production company or decide to create your video in-house, there are steps you can take to improve engagement and the bottom line of your video project. During pre-production determine your marketing goals and think through how your audience will interact with your video.
Know Your Video Marketing Goals
Set clear goals during the pre-production phase of your video project. Choose which metrics you want to measure post-production. If you’re producing a corporate video you may want to focus on awareness and understanding that can be measured with a quiz or survey. A brand marketing video may be best measured with click-through rates.
A few KPIs you may want to track for marketing videos include
- Reach - number of people who see your content
- Impressions - number of times your content is seen, even by the same person
- Click Rate - percent of those exposed to your video who clicked the link to watch it
- Unique Views - number of unique visitors who watched your video
- Watch Time - how long viewers have watched your video
- Bounce Rate - percent of viewers who clicked away from your video without taking any other action
While these metrics alone can’t tell you the success of your marketing video, they will provide valuable data for how your audience is responding. This will help guide your future marketing strategy, especially when producing marketing videos.
You’ll also want to measure conversions for your video production so you know you’re getting a good return on investment. A few KPIs to look at include:
- Sales - number of products or services sold as a result of your video
- New leads - number of new contacts generated who are interested in your product, service, or company
- Click-through rate - percent of viewers who clicked through your call to action. This could be a sale, newsletter sign-up, joining a program, etc.
You can also use a follow-up survey to gauge brand awareness and intent to purchase. Your video may have successfully made new viewers aware of your business and increased their likelihood to purchase in the future.
Find the Right Video Length
Your video length can impact how engaged your viewers will be. Studies show the average attention span of adults is about 20 minutes. To keep your audience engaged for longer videos, be sure to recap the details at regular intervals and use supporting voiceovers, motion graphics, and text to help them retain the information. If you’re giving a lot of new information, you need to break it into shorter sections or even multiple videos. A video that’s too long may result in your audience clicking away and missing your call to action.
Make Videos Accessible
A voiceover lets people listen to your video, but even those who can hear it may not want to. Using captions for your videos helps those who are hearing impaired or those who can hear to watch videos quietly in a public space. 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. Captions and graphics help illustrate your points if someone is watching your video without sound or help with retention if they’re reading and listening at the same time.
For those with visual impairments, having a voiceover is critical to let them access your content. Being able to follow the video regardless of ability will increase engagement with your audience.
Work with a video production team to maximize your video marketing budget
Getting your video production budget approved is a cause for celebration. This means you’ll have the support and resources you need to create a final product that gets results. If you want to maximize your time, budget, and resources, consider working with a professional video production crew. They’ll be able to develop a storyboard and script, film your content, assist with voiceovers and manage video editing.
Contact Levitate Media to learn more about our video production services. Our team will ensure a high-quality video production with a strong ROI you can reference the next time you need your video budget approved.
