How to Create High-Quality Video Content on a Budget
Creating video content doesn’t have to break the bank! Here are a few tips for creating high-quality video on a not-so-high budget.
Video content is currently all the rage. Soon it will attract more than 80% of all web traffic, leaving behind other forms of content and marketing channels. That’s because videos can reach a large audience with a fraction of the effort that you would put in other types of content.
Some marketers and businesses still refuse to embrace video content fearing it would be expensive to produce. Nothing could be further from the truth. Professional and polished video content isn’t the birthright of big businesses alone. There are plenty of budget videos that look way better than their more expensive counterparts.
Are you eager to get started? Filming videos with your smartphone is one method. But there are more. Here are a few ideas to churn out high-quality video content on a modest budget.
Turn Your PowerPoint Presentation Into a Video
This is the easiest of all. You’ve likely used PowerPoint slides for your business presentations, and transitioning from slides to video is a simple leap that’ll cost you zilch.
We have often seen PowerPoint slides used in-between explainer videos, webinars, and even video conferences with a good effect. Short videos with well-made slides, the right message, and compelling narration are sure to yield the desired results.
Pay special attention to the voiceover. It’s the narration that’s going to make your video special. You can get a voiceover artist to record the commentary or save some cash by recording the narration yourself!
Use Your Smartphone to Record a Video
Content recorded with a smart phone may not be on par with that of HD professional video cameras, but it’s definitely high quality enough for social media marketing. If you want to create a video to boost audience engagement, produce content they can relate with. With smartphones, you can create down-to-earth videos that people can relate to and can make an instant connection.
It doesn’t matter what smartphone you use, there are several apps to help you edit the raw footage and give it a professional look. Just remember to keep the video real and authentic.
Free Animation Tools to Create Engaging Videos
With plenty of free animation tools online, imagination and creativity are the only resources you’ll need to come up with great visual content. These videos are not only cheaper to produce, but they also help to attract your audience, engage them, and stick to their memories for a long time. Because, let’s face it, educational and explainer videos can be quite boring a lot of the time.
Stock character based animated videos are easier and cheaper to produce than live-action videos. It’ll be easier for you to manage too. You won’t have to stress yourself finding actors, selecting locations, lighting, background, etc. If you don’t like a character or background, you can just erase it to start afresh.
Use Stock Video Footage
Stock footage is a great option to reduce production costs and convey your story and message better, and there are plenty of stock video sites to pick from.
For example, let’s say you’re trying to highlight workplace bonding or teamwork. Suppose you couldn’t find the right people for the clip or don’t have the required budget to find the right actors or location. You can easily search and purchase relevant stock footage from Shutterstock, Adobe Stock Videohive, or other similar websites. Choose the clip that best matches your video project and proceed with it.
Hire a Professional Video Maker
When it’s all said and done, making polished video content can be hard work and time-consuming. Instead of taking upon yourself the enormous task of video production you can always hire a professional video maker.
Today, technology allows you to hire and manage a remote team without setting foot outside. That’s why there’s never been a better time to hire a professional who will craft great videos with the best equipment at the price you want. Their creative inputs can augment the video’s effectiveness and their efficiency can save time and money.
Remember—there’s always the option to focus only on your strong points and leave video production to the experts.
The bottom line is, a not-so-perfect video is better than no video at all. So regardless of what resources you have available at this point, just start creating video content. You will definitely improve as you start getting a little bit of traction.
Which of these tips do you plan on implementing? What cost-effective ways of producing video content have have worked for you?
Cristian Stanciu is a freelance video editor, owner, and post-production coordinator of Veedyou Media, a company offering video editing services to videographers, marketing agencies, video production studios, and brands all over the globe. You can catch up with him on his blog or on LinkedIn.