Come up with a general budget range you want to spend. You may not know exactly what to expect, but generally a professional video will range anywhere from $1,500 to $20,000, depending on a variety of factors. More documentary-style filmmaking (interviews with employees and executives, filming at the office or place of business, etc.) will be less expensive than hiring professional actors, a creative director, larger crew, and sophisticated post-production work.
Find videos online that match the style, tone, or feeling you would like for your video. Maybe a competitor has a video that caught your eye, or maybe a TV commercial you saw has elements that you want to replicate. Whatever the case, finding a few sample videos to send to a video production company can be immensely helpful in communicating your vision.
Know the audience for your corporate video production. Are you targeting consumers or other businesses? If you’re targeting other businesses, are you focused on their marketing staff? Their IT professionals? Their HR directors? If you’re targeting consumers, what is the profile of your average buyer? The video should generally appeal to the kind of person who is most likely to be interested in your product or service. By contrast, maybe you are trying to expand your marketshare and want to target a new demographic.
Come up with a rough concept or outline for the video. You don’t need an exact script, but try to come up with the driving force or idea for the video. If you want a highly creative idea and need expert guidance, many production companies have a creative director who can help, but the cost will increase.
Make sure the video production company you choose has experience producing similar quality videos. You don’t need to choose a production company that has done exactly the type of video you want in the same industry, but you need a company that creates work that matches your expectations. If a company primarily produces cheesy infomercials and you want a high-end video for an innovative tech product, you should keep searching for a better fit.
Agree to a timeline with the video production company. Your marketing efforts may depend on having a completed, polished video by a certain date. Make sure the production company understands your deadline and agrees to finish on time or, ideally, early.
Have a point of contact at your company to manage the video production. Although your company may have a handful of people who are involved in the creation of a marketing video, make sure one person takes the lead and communicates clearly with the video production company what is required. The point of contact should be there on the day or days of production making sure everything proceeds smoothly.
Make sure you collect all release forms from the shoot. If the production company is using professional actors, request copies of the release forms that give your company permission to display their image and likeness on camera. If you are using your own staff or customer testimonials, make sure to collect your own release forms from everyone.
Ask the production company to deliver a full quality master file. After paying a good chunk of money for a professional video, you should request any and all files you will need for future use, especially the master file.
Have a plan for where you want to distribute the video. Will the video mainly live on the company home page? If so, you should still find ways to share it on social media outlets through the company channels, on your YouTube channel, and any partner sites that may be willing to share your video.
