And the answer my friend is simply not black and white, there is no one right or wrong answer. However, in this article I’m going to share with you how you can make the right decision for you, your audience, and your business. Let’s dive in.
As owner of a professional video production company, and a strategic video marketer you’d probably think that I’d advocate for hiring a professional to produce your video every time right?
Wrong.
You see, as part of an effective video marketing strategy there are many significant and powerful uses for video when created more rough and ready, in the moment, or do it yourself style… and to be honest… when done right… this approach can often be MORE effective at engaging your audience than the bigger budget professional approach.
Let me explain more.
It’s all about understanding what I call a ‘full funnel video strategy’ – that is your ideal audience or your business prospect moves down the funnel on their journey to buy from you, they’re moving from what in marketing terms is referred to as a ‘cold’ audience through to becoming a ‘warm’ and potentially ‘hot’ audience as they get to know you, your brand and what you offer better.
In short, as they move down the funnel they are moving from a stage of ‘awareness’ through a process of consideration and then to a stage of conversion… and then ideally, they’re ready to buy from you.
And if we consider this journey mapped out like a funnel, you can see it’s wider at the top, the awareness stage so there are potentially many more people in your audience who will engage with your business here, then they move down the funnel to the pointy end where there will be proportionately less people who eventually become your customers.
You with me?
So when it comes to deciding where to invest your budget on hiring a professional to help with your video content versus when it makes sense to do it yourself I like to refer to this as quantity vs cost inverse rule.
And it goes like this.
If we consider the wider part of the funnel, the awareness stage, then in your marketing strategy you actually need less number of videos to be effective here, perhaps just one or two, BUT these videos are the first potential interaction that someone might have with your brand, so they must reflect your brand the right way. So here, is where you will probably want to invest the most budget.
And as we move down the funnel, the quantity vs cost inverse rule applies. In the middle of the funnel you’ll need more videos than at the top, but you’ll be able to spend less per video, perhaps start to introduce some DIY videos for example.
And then at the bottom of the funnel, for conversion videos. You’ll be needing many more videos which potentially work to sell each individual product, service or offer you have uniquely for each audience type. So more videos, but you can absolutely get away here with spending little budget… and in fact, it’s here where you’ll find authentic, no frills, DIY type videos can be highly effective.
Quantity vs Cost Inverse Rule
Top of funnel, less quantity of videos, higher cost per video. Inverse that down to the bottom of the funnel where you’ll want a higher quantity of videos, but use less of your budget on production.
So… the clear next step for you is to decide with your next video… where does this video FIT within this marketing funnel? Is it better therefore to invest in getting a professional to assist you in putting it together, OR is DIY the right way to go?
