Should You Produce Marketing Videos In-House or Hire a Professional?

Featured image by Lê Minh via Pexels

One of the best ways to reach your audience, improve brand visibility, and attract more traffic and conversions is to leverage the power of video marketing. But you can’t practice video marketing without actual videos. So what’s the best way to produce those marketing videos?

Generally, you’ll be torn between two options. You can produce your own videos in-house or hire an online video service or professional videographer to do the work for you.

Which of these options is better? And how can you make sure you make the right call?

Advantages of Producing Marketing Videos In-House

Let’s start by focusing on the benefits of in-house production:

Cost Savings

Certain types of professional video production can be expensive, so you can save money by doing everything yourself. Depending on the type of marketing video you’re making, you might be able to get by with technology that you already have, tapping into the power of basic smartphones and laptops. Even if you invest in better technology, like lighting, cameras, and microphones, you may still end up financially ahead at the end of the day.

Total Control

If you’re making your own marketing videos, you’re going to have total control over the entire process. For some brands, this is important. It means full transparency and no worries about deviating from brand values or positioning.

Familiarity

Small businesses are sometimes more comfortable handling everything in-house because it’s more familiar to them. They don’t have to form new relationships with outside partners and can, instead, rely on people they already know and trust.

Simplicity

If all you’re interested is a simple, straightforward video, in-house production is also advantageous. The process of planning, shooting, and editing can be very simple, resulting in fewer headaches and annoyances.

Advantages of Professional Production of Marketing Videos

There are also some benefits of professional video production team for marketing videos:

Guidance and Expertise

From the start, your professional production partner will be providing you with guidance and expertise. They’ll help you put together a plan and a script for your marketing video. They’ll give you feedback on any ideas you already have and they’ll help you understand any concepts that currently confuse you.

Time Savings

Creating your own marketing videos may be possible, but it’s not necessarily efficient. If you don’t have familiarity with videography already, you’re probably going to spend hours of time learning about the subject, gaining experience, and troubleshooting the problems you inevitably encounter. By the end of the project, you could end up spending far more hours than you intended.

Better Finished Quality

For the most part, a professional video production expert is going to leave you with a product of much higher quality than you could create on your own. The lighting and visuals will be perfect. The audio will be crisp. The direction will be precisely aligned with your goals and motivations. Like in any other field, experts are experts because of the knowledge and experience they’ve earned over the course of years. There’s simply no way to shortcut the acquisition of knowledge and experience when it comes to producing marketing videos.

Ongoing Support with Video Marketing

Most professional video producers will provide you with ongoing support. They’ll help you measure and analyze the effectiveness of your videos. They’ll help you resolve any problems you might have and they can provide you with direction on next steps for your video content strategy.

Scalability

Working with an external partner also gives you greater scalability, especially if you work with an agency. Most agencies have the resources necessary to handle all your video production needs, no matter how big your business grows and no matter how many videos you ultimately want to produce. But if you handle things in-house, you’ll need to put together a plan to scale effectively. This usually includes hiring more people and investing in more equipment. This can quickly compromise some of the advantages of in-house production, like cost savings and simplicity.

Choosing the Right Partner for Your Video Marketing

There’s one more important caveat to note. For most brands, professional production offers more advantages and is therefore the best choice. However, much depends on the partner you choose. Hiring a videographer with minimal experience and little accountability may leave you with an inferior product and no real recourse. Conversely, hiring a competent, authoritative agency will practically guarantee your satisfaction. Exercise caution and due diligence when choosing a partner.

Regardless of whether you choose to create all your marketing videos yourself or work with an external expert, you should make sure all your videos are the highest quality possible. You can see good results regardless of how you choose to produce your videos as long as they’re created professionally in service to your overall goals. The exact decisions you make during this process will depend on your individual business, your goals, and your priorities.