10 great reasons to use a professional for your website video

^{Always ask to see previous work and recommendations, it will save you money in the long term!}

Most of us can spot the differences between an amateur video and a professionally produced video without even naming them and the same goes with the reasons for using a professional to produce your online video rather than doing it yourself.   But here they are anyway:

1. A Moving Experience:

We live in a world where digital media is now the dominant platform for entertainment and marketing. Adding a High Definition Video Clip to your website brings an animated visual element that will draw and hold the attention of the viewer. Having a well-executed, professionally produced video clip on your site will encourage visitors to stay longer to view and even share your video with others, ensuring your marketing message is seen and heard loud and clear.

2. Cost Effective:

As a marketing strategy, an online video is incredibly cost-effective. You may think choosing a cheaper option will save you money, but many businesses that opt for a cheap or DIY video to promote their business end up spending more later to fix their mistake than they would have spent had they gone with a professional in the first place.  Not only that, consider the incalculable cost of the damage done to their reputation by the shoddy version.  Sometimes you need to spend a little more to gain a lot. Once you have made the initial investment in a professional video for your website, you are left with a highly effective promotional tool that provides unlimited exposure for your business products or services for free!

3. Time is money too:

As with most specialist skills, a professional knows the most efficient way to get the job done.  The same applies to video production.  You don’t want to bother with trying to organise staff, hire equipment, script, film, edit and upload your own video. Nor do you want to use a cheap ‘quickie’ service that leaves most of the donkey work to you anyway so that everything  ends up taking longer and looking, well cheap. Why put yourself through the hassle when you can have everything handled for you by a professional.  A good video production company will plan and organise everything for you from start to finish with as little disruption to your workplace as possible, and can deliver a professional product more efficiently. Meanwhile you get to focus on running your business.

4. Greater reach through online video links:

Reaching new markets with your online video is crucial.  In fact, it’s really the whole point in getting one in the first place.  But having a video clip is only half the job done: you need to make sure it is set up properly on your website, with the right links, tags and other functionality so that it can be found.  A good professional video production service should include all of this, from loading it and coding it correctly on your site to setting up links to and from other online platforms through to testing both the video and the links to make sure they are working as they should be.

5. More information delivered in less time:

A promotional video provides you with the means to deliver more information in less time.  Unlike text on a website or in a brochure or even information given over the phone, a video shows your business, its products or services in action.  You get to tell your whole story more effectively. Your customer sees who you are, what you do, how something works clearly and easily in a few minutes or less.  Video is also useful to deliver assembly or operation instructions directly from your website so the customer doesn’t need to fumble around for a user manual.

6. Enhance your reputation:

Your business is measured by the quality of its advertising.  Investing in a professional high definition video tells your potential clients that you have high standards, applying attention to detail and professionalism at all levels of your business branding.  A well-produced video clip will not only showcase your business’ products or services creatively and effectively, but will also enhance the perception of your professionally designed website.

7. Leverage yourself with panache and professionalism:

You can’t be in more than one place at the same time – but your video clip can.  You can speak to your potential client base directly from your website with a well-designed and executed video clip, bringing a more personal element to your online marketing.  Whilst a professionally produced clip will present you and your business well, bringing you closer to your customer base and help you reach your target market on a more direct and personal level, a poorly shot video will have the opposite effect, sending the wrong message and creating a barrier between you and your market.

8. Professional contacts for achieving a complete package:

In business it is not just what you know, but who you know that can give you the advantage over your competitors.  This is also true when choosing a professional to produce a video for your website.  This can include sourcing the equipment and setting up for filming, getting professional script writing, computer graphics, or animation - even finding the right music, voice actor or presenter for your video if required.  A good video production company has all the right contacts to price and source everything you need to get the best video for your business within budget.

9. Quality product:

Professional videos are scripted and planned to fit the required timeframe, with all the relevant information contained in a sequence of still shots, animation and footage as required, which is then edited together seamlessly. Each shot is carefully selected and each second used efficiently to deliver a short, sharp marketing message that looks professional, from the first frame right through to the last.

10. Lights, camera, sound…Action!

When compiling a video there are so many things that need to be considered to get things just right.  A professional video producer will know exactly what is required to ensure the lighting, shot composition, camera angles, body language, timings of images, sound quality, and editing – to name a few – are managed so that your video contains no distracting background noises, disjointed cuts in the sound and video editing, unwanted shadows, awkward or poorly positioned poses, gestures and body language.  There is so much to remember, that only a professional has the equipment and the experience to get everything just right.