Video Production Costs for Small Businesses– As a small business owner, deciding to invest in a marketing avenue for your brand is a big leap of faith. Along with the anxiety, stress, and uncertainties associated with making a crucial decision for your business, there is also the added confusion about how much to budget for it, and whether you will reap an ROI that will cover it.
Video marketing is one such crucial yet rewarding investment for a small business that is bound to give you far-reaching results. Given the digital landscape that you are foraying into, investing in video content is the next big thing you will do after starting your brand. It will also future-proof your business, helping you stay relevant and effective for the foreseeable future, because safe to say, video is in for the long haul.
While video is indeed the right way to go, as a small business owner, we know that you are strapped for resources. Every penny you decide to spend is best objectified, listed, and approved for guaranteed results. For the same reason, the answer “it depends on your requirements” may not be the most reassuring, when you are trying to determine the costs for producing your marketing video.
As a team of experienced professionals in video production Chicago, we know how important it is to figure out a value based on which to budget for video. Hence, here is a look into the different factors that form part of our production process and how they affect the costs. It will give you more insight into what to expect and how much to set aside for your project.
The length of the video is not indicative of the costs
First things first, let’s bust a misconception. Many businesses seem to think that shorter videos cost less, or that it is easier to create, and longer businesses are expensive. However, this could not be more wrong; the effort, time, and resources required to produce a video are not directly proportional to its length. This means, that whether a video is only a few seconds long or 10 minutes long, its production components and scope are what determine its cost, not its length. Sometimes, a 10-second video can take hours or days to shoot with multiple cameras and crew members depending on the shots, angles, and coverage required. At the same time, a 15-minute video can be shot in a few hours. Hence, it is best not to assess your budget requirements based on your video duration. Rather, it would be ideal to have your video objectives, goals, and vision ready for your discovery call.
Concept and strategizing
The first step to creating a powerful video is formulating a detailed and comprehensive video content plan. This involves analyzing the objectives and goals of your video, laying out the primary short-term and long-term goals in black and white, developing a precise and crisp message to be conveyed, choosing the type of video required, brainstorming unique ideas and visual narratives to showcase the message, and outlining the basic framework.
Our experts in video production in Chicago prefer getting to know your brand and its core values, along with the video-oriented goals before starting the production process. For this, we typically start with a free consultation call, followed by an in-depth official meeting during which we map out the details. The meeting can be anywhere between 30 minutes to a few hours, based on the level of planning required, and we have an hourly rate for consultations and meetings.
Pre-production
Once the concept and video outline are created and approved, the pre-production activities commence. This stage covers the prep work required to produce the video such as casting, location scouting, script-writing, scheduling shoot timelines, etc. These aspects incur their respective costs depending on the intensity of resources required and the effort involved. These costs will be inclusive of the travelling, and production experience of our creative team, the time of the additional resources, etc. The point to remember here is that the more resource-intensive your video is, the higher will be the pre-production costs.
For small businesses, we have customizable and flexible production packages that can allow you to maximize your investment budget. For example, to cut costs you can choose to write your script in-house or use a narrator from your brand. However, to ensure the utmost cohesiveness and coordination throughout the project, it is best to use our comprehensive services.
Shoot day
Once the prep work is done and the shoot timelines are scheduled, the next stage is shooting. During this stage, the costs cover everything from the equipment being used to the time taken to the videographers, and location coverage. Sometimes, the shoot involves a single location and a few shots, while for other projects we may be required to cover multiple shots at multiple locations. Additionally, as decided during concept planning and pre-production, the videographer may also shoot raw videos as needed to add depth to the storyline. Shooting may include different aspects such as acting, product imagery, interviews, narration, etc. The cost of the entire shoot depends on how much the mentioned factors are employed in the process. Once again, the more resource and time-intensive the shoot is, the higher the shoot costs will be.
As an experienced team of experts in video production in Chicago, we offer the utmost flexibility and customizability in our shoot package as well, to allow small businesses, in particular, to avail of our professional-level services.
Post-production
Post-production involves aspects that contribute to converting the video footage into a shareable and immersive piece of content. Naturally, this process happens behind the scenes and customers seldom have a clear idea of the costs involved in this stage.
To start with, the shot footage is reviewed and screened to eliminate unnecessary, redundant, or filler clips. For interviews, the sound bites are further transcribed for clarity. Then the video is edited according to the script, and infused with additional immersive elements like graphics, audio, branding, etc.
The costs involved in post-production are attributable to our editing team’s creative prowess, experience, technologies used, and the time taken. The post-production work can take anywhere between a few days to a few weeks depending on the length of the video and the level of refinement required. The more edits the video needs, the higher the post-production costs will be.
Customizable video packages for small businesses
Taking into consideration all aspects involved in the process and the increasing number of small businesses in the windy city, as a thoughtful team of experts in video production in Chicago we offer customizable budget packages for small businesses. This is to help small business owners extract the benefits of video marketing without burning a hole in their pockets.
Our creative team will give you ample customization options and flexible techniques to create your video, based on which you can determine a package that works for you.
Wrapping up
Corporate video production company is an intensive process involving labor, experience, technical qualification, equipment, creative competence, and time. As complex as the process is, the outcome you get is worth much more. The video you invest in today can generate ROI for a considerable time in the future as well. This is why, we encourage brands, especially small businesses to take the leap and invest in the medium.
Use this price guide to determine approximate costs and develop a budget for video marketing. Alternatively, contact our team at K3video Production Chicago for your initial discovery call and we will get back to you with an approximate estimate as well.
