Video Production Company vs Video Marketing Agency | Which One Should You Hire?
So, you’re ready to make a video for your company. You start searching online for someone to make this video and find two groups out there: Video Production Companies and Video Marketing Agencies.
Which one do you need? Who can best serve you?
To start answering those questions, let’s define: What makes them different?
What’s a Video Production Company?
Video production companies are vendors who are highly skilled at, well, production. At the top level, you can expect a creative team that’s focused on getting the best shots, creating the best lighting, and editing together a piece that really wows. At the low-end, you find a videographer who is aspiring to achieve these same goals, to varying degrees of success. Ultimately, you create an idea, draft a script, then hand it over to them to bring it to life. They are experts at the craft of video. You hire them to make the video you’ve already planned out, nothing more.
What’s a Video Marketing Agency?
In the grand scheme of things, a video is a messaging solution to a business problem. A video marketing agency understands that truth and starts there. They partner with your business to help solve marketing or messaging problems. They’ll serve as a consultant to:
Evaluate what you’re currently doing
Assess your business and industry
Identify content gaps
Help you craft an effective messaging solution (in a video format, obviously)
They won’t jump right into making a video. Instead, they’ll take time to figure out what kind of video you need to achieve your business goals.
Why Choose a Video Production Company?
Do you have a strong marketing team with solid creative, and just need a team to quickly execute your creative and crank out videos? Then a videographer or video production company would be ideal.
Pros: They get right to work and quickly turn out videos.
Cons: No responsibility for the message, that’s on you. And therefore, there’s no responsibility for the ultimate effectiveness of the work. Their job is to make a cool looking video, not craft an effective message that gets you results.
The mistake most people make is hiring a videographer or a video production company and expecting them to behave as a video marketing agency. They want them to come up with ideas and solve their “attention span dilemma” - which is a messaging problem, not a video problem. They don’t realize that’s not what a production company is set up to do. Producing a great video is not the same thing as crafting an effective message.
Most often, the core issue is the lack of an effective message. That’s not solved by video skills.
Most often, people hire the cheapest and fastest videographer they can find. Have you done that before? The situation typically ends up in “revision hell.” Even though the videographer is fast, they often don’t understand your business or what the video needs to communicate. They just know how to make a video. So as you provide feedback to them, the message never lands quite right. And ultimately you end up with a video that doesn’t work...and you aren’t proud of it.
Have you felt that pain before?
If so, you’re probably hiring the wrong person for the job. What you really need is a video marketing agency.
Why Choose a Video Marketing Agency?
Are you constantly let know by video production companies? Do you end up in endless cycles of revisions?
Do you need a video solution but aren’t quite sure what kind of videos you need?
Do you lack marketing support?
Pros: You don’t have to do the creative. They take responsibility for the messaging.
Cons: Take longer to produce.
If any of these sound like you, you’ll be best served with a video marketing agency. They will take the burden of strategy off your shoulders as they plan and execute the videos for you. Yes, it will likely take longer, but you’ll walk away with content that finally solves your marketing problem.
Which One Will You Pick?
Ultimately, you need to decide which type of company is best for you and have your expectations in check. Video production companies will make a fantastic looking video, but won’t provide any strategy or messaging help. If you have a healthy marketing team with everything for the video planned, then this is a great choice. However, if you don’t know what to tell a video company bedsides “make us look good,” definitely consider hiring a video marketing agency. They will listen to what you need, craft the video to solve your problem, and spare you from being trapped in revision hell.