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TLDR: If you’ve worked with video production companies in the past, what was your experience like? Some are good at collaborating and turning out the creative they promised. Others, meh. The best teams, however, truly become partners helping to shape your ideas and bringing out the best in your message while delivering results that help you meet your goals.
How To Choose The Right Video Production Company in Lexington
Learning how to choose the right video production company is a decision you can’t afford to get wrong. Literally. It is a decision that will affect your brand and the reputation of a company, and can blow a hole in your budget with nothing to show for.
I have spoken with tons of business owners across Lexington who have a laundry list of gripes about how their vendor’s assets performed. A handful of them have spent thousands of dollars on videos that have ended up collecting digital dust in a shared drive.
Production companies differ dramatically in approach, ability, and values. Their skill sets and previous experience vary widely, as do their attitudes toward the production process. I wanted to write a post that would help you identify the qualities of a great vendor and those you should avoid.
Why Choosing the Right Video Production Company Matters More Than You Think
The tide of branding is shifting towards higher-quality video. Now that millions of brands are competing for attention, thousands of videos are being uploaded every day, and viewers are bombarded by so many brand stories that what once felt adequate now feels subpar. But the flip side is the massive reward that high-quality videos can provide to brands.
Video success is not won in the editing room. It is won the minute you decide on the right video production company to bring your video idea to life. Success is won in the differences in creative direction, production ease, and overall video production success.
What Type of Video Production Company Do You Actually Need?
The type of video you need should be the first step. Not every company specializes in all video types. We have six specialties, for example:
- Social Content: creating short-form videos that do great on platforms like Instagram
- Brand Overviews: videos that reach a wide audience and improve your brand sentiment (check out our Platinum award-winning video)
- Product Videos: your product needs to be highlighted in a way that generates purchases, and we’re the team to make that happen
- Testimonials: this type of creative helps build trust, and video is the perfect medium for it
- Commercials: needs no explanation, and we’ve created a commercial for Feeders Pet Supply that won a Viddy Award
- Explainer Videos: these projects help tell the ins and outs of your product or service
While most video production companies may get you close to what you need, you’ll want to look at their portfolio to know what they do best. Look at the brands they work with, too, to get a feel for the talent they have on staff.
Our team's skill sets, for example, are well-suited for creating videos for corporations. These can include brand and company intro videos, executive spotlights, detailed product demos and features, and happy customer testimonials. Corporate videos feature real people, and we aim to present them in the best possible light through engaging storytelling and high-quality video production.
Explainer videos, when done right, rely heavily on the quality of the script and the animation used to bring it to life. Event coverage videos require a unique skillset that begins with project management before hitting the vendor circuit. Knowing what you hope to get out of a video before the first meeting is crucial.
The main questions to ask are: Do I need a full-service video production company that can handle everything from concept to distribution? Or do I need a specialized shop for one specific format? Full-service is usually the best bet for growing brands. Having one vendor for the entire process simplifies things and really helps boost collaboration. But knowing what you need first prevents you from getting sold on things you'll never use.
How Do You Evaluate a Video Production Company's Portfolio?
So you’ve searched for a few video production companies online and seen their work. Now you just have to decide which company will be best for your video project. First, look at their website and understand what types of video projects they are good at producing. Like I’ve already said, many production companies have a specialty, whether that is corporate explainer videos or things like event video coverage.
A portfolio heavy in tech startup product demos is different from a portfolio of manufacturing brand films or healthcare testimonial work. While you want some diversity in a production company’s work, you also want to see consistency in their style and how that translates to your brand’s messaging and visual identity.
Review the video from a few different angles:
- Does the video look professional?
- Is the audio and lighting good quality?
- Is the content told in a compelling way?
Bad audio is unforgivable in professional video production. Flat lighting is a sign of a crew or production company that may not have the experience of working in different environments (and may not be able to deliver a great final product).
Finally, a brand video should have a message, and if the video doesn’t deliver on one by the end of the video, then the production company probably doesn’t have a strategic direction. When you start speaking with a vendor, if they talk about the shoot before the strategy, I’d keep looking.
What Questions Should You Ask Before Hiring a Video Production Company?
Now that you have a few companies you’d like to vet, the key is to ask the right questions before signing anything. So we have put together a list of 10 video production questions you should ask before hiring a video production company, what area of the process it covers, and a (very) loose interpretation of the type of answer you should hear from a solid team.
Your discovery calls with the shortlisted agencies you selected are your chance to ensure the chosen agency actually ‘gets it’ and is able to deliver what you need. Don’t be afraid to ask them to run through their production process from initial brief to delivery of finished work. More importantly, pay attention to how they speak about the process. Do you sense that this is a bespoke agency that will work with you to deliver a campaign that is unique and worked around your brief or do you sense that this is a production line driven agency that will shoehorn your project into a pre-defined production template?
Do They Understand Your Target Audience?
A beautifully shot and well edited video that doesn’t go out the door is basically expensive wallpaper. It’s the same issue if it doesn’t get you the kind of results you need to move your business forward.
You want a great video production company to pick apart our assumptions about our audience's needs and pain points, deliver a video they expect, and a journey that takes them to the actions they need.
We take a results-driven approach to video production that involves a lot of collaboration. Before we even start talking about the creative aspects of a project, we want to talk about your audience. We need to know your unique selling point. We ask for rundowns on your ideal client profiles (ICPs) and buyer personas. This is where we work to embed ourselves as a part of your team and a true extension of your marketing efforts.
If they’re a local team, even better. For us, being local and working across sectors for different Lexington companies makes it much easier to understand the audience. The work we’ve done for Feeders Pet Supply shows that:
RELATED: Check Out Our Feeders Pet Supply Member Appreciation and Holiday Sale Commercials
If a video production company is just a vendor and success isn’t defined, what’s the point? Honestly. Your time and your marketing budget deserve a team that gets in the weeds with you and can help you connect with your audience using the power of video.
How Do You Know If A Company Has a Proven Track Record?
Look for signals like longevity, signs of long-term relationships, constant turnover, or past work with well-known brands. But most importantly, ask if they have any examples of how a video helped a client meet a business goal such as increasing leads, conversion rates, or decreasing churn. The best video production companies will be able to tell you how they can help you hit business goals before they even pick up a camera.
If they’re worth their salt, they're entering their work into professional contests. If they have other industry professionals awarding their creative, that’s a great sign.
RELATED: StoryVid Platinum and Gold Winners at Viddy Awards
Another aspect of finding a video production company is reading their client testimonials. But there is no substitute for good research and diligence. Look for a company with a good amount of experience and a track record of producing high-quality video for a variety of clients in different industries. The best situations would be to see how they have handled a variety of different projects and determine if they have the necessary skill set to produce the type of video you need.
Projects within the video production industry are often fast paced with many variables involved, good project management is key to delivering a video based project on time and within budget.
What Does Good Project Management Look Like in Video Production?
The production process is where a lot of video projects go sideways.
Production management can easily become the worst enemy of the most creative people. Missing deadlines, over-scope, guessing at client needs, and vanishing clients are just a few of the many pitfalls that plague the video production industry.
You need a team with a clear production process with clear milestones and responsibilities. That means before you receive a bill for your company’s video production you should have seen approved script or brief, an agreed shot list or storyboard and a clear understanding of the review and approval process. In addition, you should have all of the contact details for the team member responsible for your production and know who to call (and when to call them) should something go wrong.
Project management isn’t typically considered the most exciting function in-house; however, it is vital to ensure a successful delivery of a project being completed on time and of the quality expected.
Red Flags to Watch For When Choosing Video Production Companies
I want to give you the flip side before we wrap up, because knowing what to avoid is just as important as knowing what to look for. Here are the red flags that should make you pump the brakes when evaluating production companies.
No discovery process: If a company is ready to give you a quote before they've asked a single question about your audience, your goals, or your brand, that's a sign they're not thinking strategically.
Vague post-production details: Post-production is where your raw footage becomes an engaging video. If the company can't articulate its editing process, color grading approach, or sound design standards, that's a gap that usually shows up in the final cut. Also watch for: limited or generic video portfolio, no references from past clients, unclear revision policies, and overpromising on turnaround times. The production company you hire sets the ceiling for what your video can become. Choose accordingly.
Finding the Right Video Production Partner
Finding the right video production company takes more than a Google search and a few quotes. It takes clarity about what you need, the right questions to evaluate who can deliver it, and the discipline to value strategic fit over the cheapest option.
Video marketing is one of the highest-ROI channels available to brands today. But that ROI doesn't happen by accident. It comes from high-quality video content produced by a team that actually understands what it's building and why. Your video production partner should bring that level of intention to every project.
If you're looking for a production company for your business that brings a strategic, quality-first approach, that's exactly what we do at StoryVid.
