Written By: Jonny O'Brien, Co-Creator of V O Y A G E P R O . C O
What is it that catches our eye? I’ll save you time. The answer for the average person is movement. Humans have become equipped with a sense of attention for things that move. Now I’m no science expert but I can assume this was to protect our ancestors from stealthy predators sneaking up on them. Anyways.. my point is that if you want to get someones attention you need movement to catch their eye.
Sure, text is great and informative and all; I’m sharing this message with you in a text format. But if you’re out here trying to sell a product with just text especially in the 21st century it’s not going to work out so hot. Here’s why: our generation likes instant gratification. Pictures and videos are where it’s at for gathering instant information. The problem with pictures is that they do not have moment so you loose part of the whole “eye catching” situation. Videos on the other hand use more senses of engagement than any other medium of transferring information. If it used any more senses it would probably come across as violating. I mean imagine if you could not only hear and see a video but if you could SMELL the video. YUCK. My point is that videos are the best way to get an audiences attention.
So you have your product or service that you are trying to sell and you know that videos are the best way to sell it. Now what? Well.. you are left with a couple questions: Question #1 that you should ask is “Where do I want people seeing my content?" For example: If you are a plumber selling your plumber skills people are probably not going to be looking for you as much on Facebook or Instagram. You are probably better off putting a video ad on a website and promoting that website to Google adwords. If you are selling dance lessons, or water bottles or something the demographic on Instagram finds more appealing then you should post your video there. A car dealership? Most buyers of cars download an app off the App Store that helps them refine their searches for cars, so get some moving video ad banners on there. Put yourself in the shoes of someone buying your product/service and optimize that platform.
The next question you have to ask yourself is: “How do I want my video to look?” For this I would look deeper; asking yourself what message it is that you are trying to portray through your videos. Once you find this message you can turn it into a story, giving life to your idea in a way you never thought possible. When your idea has this new found life you can take this and turn it into reality by producing the video.
You have several options on how to produce a video. One way could be to create it yourself. Another would be to hire a freelancer; they are usually affordable. Another could be to hire a full on video production company. They are going to make you an amazing video but for quite the cost. Think of it like this: the higher the quality of the video the better your message will get across and be understood. But also with that better quality comes a higher cost. You need to match what you think the value is of your video with the cost you see appropriate.
When it comes to making the video yourself you will save a ton of money but you are compromising in a HUGE way two very important things: #1 being the quality of the video and #2 being your time. As a business owner nothing is more valuable than time. In fact, you could take this a step further and say that the goal of this video should be to SAVE you time by having the video sell the product on its own so you don’t have to spend hours and hours on the phone or sending emails to interested people asking questions, the video should be designed to answer those customer questions for you, freeing up time! So my fear for those wanting to create a video on their own is that they are going to waste a lot of time putting it together, and the quality may not be good enough to convince someone of the message you are giving. Imagine if you are selling $900 watches and you have an amateur video showcasing it. Something just doesn’t match. Why should someone pay for a luxury watch when their videos look amateur? Are their watches amateur? Am I getting ripped off? These are what the customer of the watch is going to ask when viewing a video made unprofessionally.
The next level of quality you can go to is freelancers. This is my favorite level of the three. This is the case because there are some extremely talented freelancers out there regarding video production. When it comes to freelancers it can be a bit of a shot in the dark but they are affordable and can often produce good work when available. One big downside to freelancers is their availability. 1 person only has 24 hours in a day and needs to sleep for a few. Usually when the good freelancers get more discovered and people find out about them 2 things happen: The first is that they become less available, putting you on the spot. The second is that their prices will begin to go up. Your window of opportunity with freelancers is great when you have them, but it usually won’t last too long.
Video production companies will guarantee consistent and high quality service. You can probably guess why these are often difficult for small business to use. It’s mainly their prices. Video production companies are EXPENSIVE but GOOD and produce incredible videos. They are so expensive because they have a commercialized space to operate from and have to pay their people salary and always own the most expensive cameras so the videos look as good as possible. The other issue with video production companies is that they are not very flexible. Rules and regulations always need to be met that only big studios enforce and last minute switch ups and changes made to your video are a big no-go with video production companies. These companies are best for large corporations that can plan months ahead and have a huge budget.
What we do at Voyage Productions, LLC is combine the flexibility and price of the freelancers with the power and support of a video production company. We are a large organization of freelancers and experts in the fields of both video production and digital media marketing. Most video entities (whether freelance or not) do not help you with optimizing your posts, just producing your video. At Voyage Productions we take care of you all steps of the way so that you are selling your product/service in the most efficient way possible ensuring you are getting the most bang for your buck. We pair one of our talented freelancers with you along with a professional Creative Director to execute your video. Beforehand we have a team come in and sculpt your ideas and work on your script. Our goal is to line our vision up with your vision as perfectly as possible. During the editing process we update you every step of the way. Many large video production companies take multiple weeks or months to edit their videos. We guarantee a 7 day turnaround time from the moment the shoot is complete. Payments are easier than anywhere else at Voyage. We accept half the payment upfront and the other half after you approve of the video. We are the price of freelancers with the power of a video production company and a digital marketing agency combined. We love hearing how our videos helped you out with your professional ventures. If you want to get started on your next promotional video with us or learn more check out the other pages of our website we have much of our work on there as well as more information about our company!