You already know that video is (or should be) a major cornerstone of your content strategy. Maybe you’ve already made a few simple clips internally. Or perhaps you’ve paid a premium to have a third-party production company put something together for you. Whatever the case, you’ve found yourself at a 21st century marketing crossroads: Should you commit to in-house production or outsourcing for your future videos?
Up until recently, there would be more debate on this topic. But now that there’s powerful video-creation software to help marketers maximize our 8-second attention spans and research that show us that video content is processed 60,000 times faster than text by our brains, the scales have tipped toward one clear answer.
Here’s why it’s time to prioritize in-house production and develop a sound digital video workflow for your team.
1. In-house video production reduces the friction in your content workflow
Even if you’re working with a lean marketing team at first, you’ll be able to reduce friction in your digital video workflow with in-house production over outsourcing.
In fact, according to our findings from our latest report, marketing teams that create video content in-house are able to create up to 10 times more content a month than those that outsource to freelancers or agencies.
That’s because nobody knows your company, customers, and current content better than any contractor. Having to explain what you want and how you want it to someone on the outside will take up crucial time. Time that could be better spent with in-house production of content by an empowered internal marketing team.
Beyond having to explain, set expectations, and manage a third-party production company, the deliverables are also out of your control. If you don’t love what you get, you’ve then wasted time, money, and patience. Nobody wins.
On the flipside, if you rely on in-house production and an online video maker, you’ll eliminate the time wasted between back-and-forth exchanges. People on your team can learn from experience, and get exponentially more comfortable and skilled in creating and setting strategic direction for future in-house productions.
What’s more, in-house production allows you to create content on a whim, should your marketing team get a spontaneous burst of inspiration for a campaign built around a holiday, event, or random news.
If all of a sudden you wanted to capitalize on something in-the-moment, but had to outsource the project, you’d likely not be able to tap into the instant power of virality and you’d miss the window of marketing opportunity that an in-house production squad could seize upon, if given the autonomy and capabilities.
Having the power to create video online on a whim without friction ties directly into building a strong social video strategy for your marketing team.
2. In-house video production maximizes budget and allows your team to be prolific
You may think that you need all kinds of fancy equipment to make effective videos for sales and marketing. But that’s far from the case.
One way to solve this major pain point for marketers, as discussed in our webinar with Parse.ly, is to shoot high-quality content on-the-go with your smartphone and then edit video online. These videos look nearly as good as ones made on professional DSLR cameras and add a personal element to content.
Not only that, you can also tap into powerful video production tools to create video online with access to tens of millions of sharp-looking stock footage relating to virtually every subject and demographic. That means there’s no need to shoot anything original, in some cases.
With that in mind, it makes sense to empower your internal team to leverage these tools to create compelling company content via video.
If you have the budget and resources to build an in-house production studio, complete with a green screen, DSLR camera(s), lighting and sound equipment, and accessories, all the better.
Creating a dedicated space where you can easily walk in and shoot a high-quality video is going to cause a compounding effect within your organization.
Imagine an office where everyone on the marketing team, customer teams, and C-suite feel comfortable and empowered to sit down in front of a camera, record a clip, and hand it over to your easy video editor to polish up and publish on your site.
Your social engagement would be on fire, and your brand reputation could be the envy of every competitor.
This just won’t be the case if you continue to outsource video production, and your internal team will fail to develop and hone their skills in this invaluable content medium.
3. In-house video production takes less time than you think
Just think about this: People retain 95% of information that they get through video, but they only retain 10% of what they read through text. Plus, site visitors spend 88% more time on landing pages that contain a video versus ones that don’t.
And as someone writing an article right now, I can tell you that it probably takes longer for most people to brainstorm, research, write, edit, and optimize 1,000 words of text than it does for them to shoot, edit, and publish a 90-second video.
Of course, not every marketing team is going to have someone with video experience on hand – but these days, that’s not an issue. There’s lots of powerful video creation software available that provides simple drag-and-drop functionality, along with access to treasure troves of quality stock footage, so anyone can make beautiful content for your company. In some cases, without even picking up a camera.
If you want to keep people glued to your site, now’s the time to tap into video creation software that makes it easy for anyone on your team to offer a positive contribution to your digital video workflow, and they’ll only get better, faster, and more effective with each in-house production they work on.