July 31, 2018

3 Ways to Start Creating Videos for a Business on a Budget

by Dhiram Shah

Did you know that about 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool in some form or other? To be honest it shouldn’t be that surprising – not when you consider how effectively videos are able to engage viewers and increase conversions.

The challenge for many businesses however is in creating videos – especially on a budget. Outsourcing video production can be an expensive affair, and your business may not have the resources to be able to justify it.

But contrary to popular belief you don’t need a huge budget to start creating videos for a business – and with the right approach you can come up with great marketing videos while spending next to nothing:

– Plan out your videos carefully based on the budget
Every video should be planned carefully – and that is especially the case when you’re on a budget. The last thing that you want to do is to jump the gun and start recording and then find out later on that you’ll need a much higher budget than you anticipated to complete the video.

If you have a strict budget, you should take it into account while planning your video. In particular you should temper your expectations and plan videos that are within your means.

Try to be as thorough as possible when planning the video, write a script, and vet it ruthlessly.

– Consider alternatives to live-action videos
While live-action videos do provide a lot of creative freedom, they do involve lots of logistics and can be expensive to produce. Even assuming you already have a video camera, you would need to set up the area that you want to film, figure out the lighting, minimize background noise, and so on.

There are lots of alternatives to live-action videos that make it easier and cheaper to create videos, including video slideshows or presentations, animated videos, ‘white board’ videos, and screen recording. For example you could record your screen using Movavi Screen Recorder by simply following the instructions at Movavi.

– Invest where it matters most
Assuming you have a small budget to work with, you should stretch it as far as you can by investing where it matters most. Contrary to popular belief that often doesn’t involve hiring a professional to record the video, as you should be able to easily record the footage you need using a digital camera.

In terms of equipment, investing in a high quality microphone is the best place to start – as it will help to ensure the audio quality of your video is good. If you’re creating live-action videos then a tripod stand may help as well, to keep the camera steady while recording.

As far as services are concerned, rather than outsourcing the entire video creation you could enlist help for the parts that you need most – such as editing. For some videos it may help to hire professional actors (or student actors) and voice talent as well.

By following these steps, you should be able to reduce the cost that is required to create business videos substantially. At the end of the day you may even be able to get away without having to spend a cent – but will have to invest your own time if that is the case.

All in all creating videos is easier and more convenient now that it has ever been in the past, so there’s really no reason why you can’t come up with them for your business – irrespective of how small your budget may be. Now that you know how to go about it, give it a try and start planning your first video.