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Should all videos have high-end production? VIDEO FIRST Newsletter #03

2 mins read

Planning, producing and editing a video is too often a BIG investment. Time, money and effort. So, it's no wonder people ask, "Should all videos have high-end production? Can't some just be simpler?"

It's a common question I hear in the sales process and training sessions when working with people getting stuck into video.

The answer is, "Yes! MOST videos should be simpler!"

But there's definitely a time and place for doing high-end production videos. And NEVER a time and place for shoddy, sloppy production of videos.

For these answers in detail, check out edition #03 of our VIDEO FIRST newsletter.

...Now, let's get into the answers. First off, remember this: Not every video needs to be a high-end production. But none of your videos should be rough and scrappy... 

Remember - the goal is connection, not perfection. Do just enough production work to match the context the video will be being viewed in. Consider these situations:

  1. Putting a lot of marketing and sales resource behind a video case study? It's worth investing the time and money into a high-end production.
  2. Introducing your teammates before a client call? A tidy Vidyard video will do.
  3. Looking to increase conversions on a page? Somewhere in between a high-end production and a quickly-shot video will work just fine. 

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The VIDEO FIRST Newsletter #03 transcript:

Hi... in this newsletter, we're looking at the quality of production of video
and where the bar is on the quality that you should be aiming for, and to understand and work out where that bar is for you.

I think it's worth looking at the history of video quality and what perceptions we have of video and how much effort to put in and what quality to aim
for.

In the past, even as recent as... up to the past four or five years, video has been an expensive game to get into. The equipment is expensive. People with the skills
to do it are rare, so therefore they are expensive. And it's a niche skill that not everybody has.

It's a wide encompassing skill that's hard to grasp and not everybody has. So, if you're gonna do it, it's an expensive investment in terms of time
and money. So it's worth doing it right - which pushed up the production quality of video, so you're going to pay for video, it might as well be done right.

But also the producers are competing with each other. So they had to up the quality.

Then what's happened over the past, like, half a dozen years-ish, data with the advent of four G and five G and fiber and cheap broadband has made video
sending cheaper and faster for everybody. Also, technology in terms of hardware has got cheaper and more accessible.

The phone you've got in your pocket has a camera miles better than what most people will have had 10, 15 years ago. Miles better. And everybody's got one. Also, sending it [the video] is a lot faster as well as cheaper. And then the apps that allow you to edit control, trim, add features, like filters and text, they've become more accessible. Then you've got apps like TikTok, Instagram stories, Snapchat that have made video short, disposable and nothing with longevity.

Adding to that 2020 and everybody being in lockdown and on video calls, video, on the one hand, has become a throwaway commodity. So where is that bar of quality?

Now, there are times where a video should be rough and ready like this. I'm in a meeting room, the lighting is poor, but it's just me and you in this newsletter. Then a marketing video, actually, is a more competitive space because all those benefits of cheap tech and all that kind of thing is still there to be taken around during the... production phase, which means you can push that quality further.

When you're doing a produced video, raise that bar. When you're doing a quick video, lower it. Hope that helps! See you in the next newsletter.