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Corporate videos are a big deal. They can help drive more traffic to your website, get you more customers, and help your brand become more relevant. Though all of these things are awesome, things all of us want, the process of creating a corporate video can be intimidating. There are a lot of things that need to be done before you can successfully release a video. Promotional video productions don’t need to be chaotic or confusing anymore because we have created a corporate videos ultimate guide to help you step by step create your dream video.

What is a Corporate Video and Why Do I Need One?

Corporate videos are simply videos that are created for a company. Their main purpose is to promote the company and contribute to their brand. Branding is a huge part of corporate videos, but we will talk about that more in detail later on. These corporate videos can be created for internal uses for the company, like instructional or announcement videos, or external uses for everyone else, things like marketing or recruiting videos.

The main reason you should invest in creating a corporate video is that it can help promote you and your company; it is one of the best ways to promote your business. Have you noticed that whenever you search anything, videos are one of the first things that pop up? Google loves videos, and it’s no wonder why. They are an easy and entertaining way to get information across to people. By not making corporate videos, you are actually hurting your company, more than you probably realize.

Hiring a Video Production Company

After you decide you want to film a corporate video, hiring a video production team is important. Promotional video productions can be quite the process. It can cost a lot of extra money and stress to do it all on your own, especially if you don’t have past experience with corporate videos. There are a handful of reasons you should consider hiring a promotional video productions team. Here are just a few of our top reasons.

First and probably most important, video production teams have experience and know what they are doing. This fact alone will save you so much money and time — two very valuable things. These companies have learned from their past mistakes, so they know how to avoid these mistakes now. They also know what looks good when it comes to motion graphics. Their experience will help make your video unique and next level when it comes to quality.

Next, these companies have sets of fresh eyes. Though this may not seem like a huge deal, it really can make or break the success of your video. You may not realize, for example, that within your script is terminology that is only understood by people in your field of work, or your products aren’t explained clearly enough to convince people to buy them. Video production teams will be able to come in with a fresh set of eyes and see the video the way others will.

Hiring a video production company comes with so many benefits that we couldn’t possibly fit them all here, so you can learn more about what video production companies can offer here and the benefits of hiring these companies here!

Stages of Production

There are three stages of production that need to take place whenever you are filming. It is important that you follow these stages to ensure the success of your video. Here is a quick break-down of the stages.

The first is pre-production. Pre-production is everything you need to do before you begin filming. From script writing to casting, pre-production is a vital step to the success of your video. Putting the time in here at the pre-production phase is how you are going to get the good results at the end. In essence, pre-production prepares for mistakes before they occur in the production stage. No one ever complained that they were too prepared for anything.

The production stage is just that — the actual production of the video. This is when all your planning starts to come to life. You actually get to see all the planning come to fruition. Shooting your video can take a couple hours to a few days, it depends on how well you planned if you and your team have video production experience, and how long and complex your video is going to be.

Post-production is the last stage in promotional video productions. This stage includes everything you do after filming. From editing the motion graphics to advertising and marketing the video (we will touch on the marketing aspect of corporate videos at the end so hang tight). Editing, like filming, can take different amounts of time. Be aware that it can take a really long time if you have a lot of edits you want to be added into your video.

Branding

See, we told you we would come back to branding. Branding is one of the most important things you can do for your company, whether you are filming corporate videos or not. First of all, branding improves recognition. Think of things like the Nike swoosh or the golden arches of McDonald’s, no matter where you are in the world, people will recognize these brands. These are examples of super successful branding campaigns. Videos that provide quality exposure to your company is becoming one of the most essential techniques to market your company’s product or name — in other words, an essential way of branding.

What branding does for your company is it creates trust. People are more likely to trust a company that has consistent and credible branding rather than a company that doesn’t know its own identity. People are more likely to hire or buy from you if they have heard or seen your company brand before. Even if it is a subconscious thing, studies show that consumers are more likely to go with your company over another random one if they recognize your brand.

Branding doesn’t need to be hard. If you aren’t sure how to create a brand or how to maintain and include your brand into your content, hiring a digital marketing agency could be a very good idea. These companies will be able to work with and help improve the brand you already have, show you how to incorporate your pre-existent brand more frequently, and help you brand your company from the start. They will be able to help you no matter what stage your brand is at. Contact us here at Fusion 360 Agency if you need help with brand development, we would love to help you!

Promoting Afterwards

Let’s say you have finally finished your video. You’ve gone through hiring your video production company, included your brand in your film and finished almost all three stages of the video productions. Now it is time to work on promoting your film. This can come in a lot of different forms and no matter how you decide to do it, it is crucial that you make time and effort to promote your video.

Without promoting your video, it won’t bring in the traffic you worked so hard for. You will have spent all this time and money for virtually no reason as no one will ever see it. Hiring a marketing agency at this point is a good idea. Marketing or advertising agencies are experts in getting your content out to the world; they will know the best way to get you the most views. Hiring these marketing companies won’t end up being as expensive as you may think at first, especially because you can get a lot of business and traffic because of the video promotion.

Overall, corporate videos boost brand recognition and traffic to your site or business. In today’s society, it is critical for you as a company to create these corporate videos. There are a lot of steps you can take to help make the process easier, and if you need any more help or have any questions about this guide, contact us here at Fusion 360 today.

Did you know that 50 percent of online searches are voice searches? If this doesn’t make you believe voice search is a huge deal, we don’t know what will. If you are new to voice search, click here to learn more about what it is. There are a lot of ways to optimize your voice search, but how can you make sure your business is being represented when the location is brought into the equation?

Google has released a number of algorithm updates throughout the years. Though they all play a super important role in search results, the update called Pigeon is crucial to the location aspect of it. Pigeon was released in late 2014 and helped to make local businesses rank higher on Google. This offered local listings the opportunity to get more clicks and business than ever before.

Some of the most common types of voice searches are things like “dentist near me” or “grocery store near me.” People don’t want to look up restaurants and be sent two hours away when there is one just down the street. There are a lot of things you can do as a company to help bump up your ranking on Google and other search engines, especially when the location is in the equation. One of the best ways to do so is to hire voice search optimization agencies. These agencies can make sure your business is available on different platforms and search engines (Google, Bing, Yelp, etc.)

The majority of voice and normal searches are on Google these days. In fact, Google searches make up 64 percent of all search engine searches. Making your website available on Google is important, but it should also be available on all the other search engines for potential customers that use those. You want to make sure your message is reaching as many people as possible. Voice search optimization companies can help you figure out how to do this if you aren’t quite sure.

Voice search optimization agencies are companies that optimize content for a living. They are simply experts at doing this kind of thing. Coming up with keywords that will get you the most results is another thing they can do. Keywords are crucial for companies to use if they are wanting to get traffic of any kind to their site or business. Often times, these companies will encourage and help you take advantage of the popular “near me” search feature. Including these types of words will help your ranking to get higher on Google.

There are a lot of different things you can do to help optimize your website and voice search in relation to location. If you feel like your company could use some help or you aren’t quite sure how to go about some of the tips we gave above, voice search optimization companies are here to help. Contact us here at Fusion 360 Agency if you have any questions.

Video production is a big part of advertising agencies. There are so many ways to successfully advertise your company or business today and one of the best ways to do so is by creating videos. Good advertising agencies have the tools and abilities to create quality videos that will promote your product or service successfully, and there are actually quite a few steps in creating successful videos. Let’s touch on the five main ones: Development, Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production, and Marketing.

Development

The first thing you and your video production team need to do is to develop ideas for your shoot. Some of the things you will want to discuss and have decided by the end of this step are who you want in the video, who your audience is, what your budget is, and what your end goals are. In this step, it crucial for you as a client to speak up and get your ideas across to the video production team.

Pre-Production

The next step for video production teams within advertising agencies is the pre-production stuff. This step includes anything and everything that needs to be done before filming to ensure success. Things like script writing, auditions, hiring and preparing a crew, making schedules, buying equipment, selecting wardrobes and more. This is a very important step as it includes a lot of things that are crucial to the video’s success.

Production

This step may seem pretty straightforward. The production step is simply that- the production; the step when all the preparation proves to be worth it. Directors and producers work together to film all the shots and scenes needed for the video. Obviously, depending on the video, the production step may take different amounts of time from a few hours to a few days. It is still important at this stage, as it is at all stages, to make sure you are communicating with the director and producer to make sure your video is going the way you want it to.

Post-Production

Again, this step may seem pretty obvious. Post-production at advertising agencies is when editors go into the footage and edit it. They add visual effects and music. edit out mistakes and adjust color. At this stage, video production teams also generate publicity content (depending on your video.) Like the other steps, post-production can be pretty quick or it can take a lot of time, depending on your personal situation.

Marketing

This last step of video production in advertising agencies is very important. You have spent a lot of time and money producing a quality video, you want to make sure people see it, right? At this point, we shift our focus as creators from video production to advertising. We work to make sure your desired audience gets the chance to watch your video.

Before even talking about the steps included in hiring a marketing agency, you should understand why you should hire a marketing agency. Marketing agencies are experts and dedicated to advertising for your company. They come up with campaigns, know where to allocate your money, and know how to get the most traffic to your business. They are the best way to get the word out there when it comes to your business or company, and they also take away all the stress of trying to figure it out on your own.

Again, they are experts at what they do. They know how to do it, and they know how to do it well. Marketing agencies can help companies of any size grow and expand; once you have decided that hiring a marketing agency is a good idea, you’ll want to follow a few steps. Following these steps will help you to get the best marketing company for you and your company.

Do Your Research

Researching marketing and advertising agencies is the first thing you should do after deciding to hire one. There is so much you can learn about a company just from some simple online research. One of the best ways to do research is to ask around. Ask companies you respect which marketing agencies they use or ask what advertising agencies companies that are thriving use.

Successful research will help you hire a marketing agency that you are going to want to work with. This research will save you from getting tied down on contracts you weren’t aware of and will help steer you away from companies that don’t live up to their promises. Careful research is the very best way to make sure you get what you want.

Case Studies

Marketing agencies can make all the promises in the world, but you can’t really believe them until you see the proof. As humans, we are all creatures of habit. You can assume that if a marketing agency doesn’t have great reviews, they aren’t likely to change just for you. Looking at their past work in case studies is a great way to compare their claims to their actual work. You can also check and see if the work they are doing and have completed in the past is what you are wanting.

You want to hire a marketing agency that does exactly what they claim they will. After sorting through all of your options, you should be able to shrink down that list to a few agencies. Make sure they not only live up up to what they say they will do, but also that they measure up to your personal expectations.

Know What Services They Offer

Different marketing agencies offer a variety of different services, so you need to be sure the agency you decide to hire actually offers the specific service you want. Some services different marketing agencies offer include things like brand development, SEO, measurements and analytics, and some companies include things like website development and video production services. The more services the company offers, the more they will be able to market your company over multiple platforms. Make sure that you aren’t paying for services that you don’t actually want.

Like the Marketing Team

An important aspect of hiring a successful marketing team is to make sure you get along with the crew. If you and the marketing agency are disagreeing on everything or simply just don’t get along, you aren’t going to get much work done. Even if you do get work done, you aren’t going to get the quality of work that you want. It’ll also be a waste of money using your time to fight or not get along rather than coming up with good ideas. Making sure you get along with any marketing agency is crucial before signing any kind of contract, which leads us to the next step.

Read Before Signing

Marketing agencies are going to need you to sign some sort of agreement or contract for multiple reasons. They need to make sure you are willing to work with them for a set amount of time, they need permission to use your companies name and trademarks and a lot of other little things that they need legal permission for. These contracts shouldn’t scare you though, it is just simply a part of hiring a marketing agency. You should, however, be extra careful about reading all the terms and conditions of the contract to make sure you know what you are signing.

Reach Out

The final step in hiring a marketing agency is to reach out to them. Once you have narrowed the race down and found an advertising company you are interested in, you can contact them. Shoot them an email and express your interest in their services. You can and should also include in this email any worries you have about working with them. This way, you and the marketing agency can work out some problems you think you will face before you even start working with them. You can also discuss which types of marketing tactics will be the best for your specific content.

Overall, advertising agencies are here to help promote your company. They want to work and get along with you. They want you and your company to be successful. Looking for these companies doesn’t need to be stressful. By making sure you are doing your research, reading case studies, knowing what services are offered, getting along with the marketing team, reading before signing, and reaching out, you are bound to find a marketing agency you can be successful with. Contact Fusion 360 Agency today with any questions you have about marketing agencies and strategies.

Unexpected things happen on set.

People forget lines, things break, locations don’t end up working, you run low on money and more. Though professionals know how to improvise in these situations, why not try to eliminate the risk of these things happening in the first place? Here are our six tips production companies use to avoid chaos and the need for improvisation on set.

Get Insurance

Like we said, accidents happen. Whether it is your fault or not, things happen. Making sure you are prepared for these accidents is crucial for avoiding chaos on set. Before you start filming make sure you are insured. Insure the location you are filming at (if applicable) and insure the things you are using to film. Props and equipment can break and can be very expensive. Save yourself the stress and money by getting important things insured.

PA

Production assistants are people that are on set and simply there to help out—they are extremely beneficial to production companies. Need an extra body to go hold a sheet up over a window? Call your production assistant. Need someone to run and buy some duct tape? Assign your production assistant. Need help maintaining order on set? Production assistants can be helpful in any situation.

Scout Out Location

Something a lot of production companies do that is super helpful to ensure the production process goes smoothly is to go out and scout your filming location ahead of time. Even if you have a perfect location in your mind, going to the spot can help you see things you didn’t think about. You may not realize that the location is smaller than you thought or that you can’t use stage lights at that certain location. Taking the time to perform a walk-through before the actual filming day will help exceedingly.

Pad Your Budget

A thing a lot of production companies sometimes do wrong is not giving themselves extra leeway when it comes to money. You may have a set amount of money you can use for your film, and that is fine. Good production companies will plan on not using all of the money available. They will set aside some of it to use in case of an emergency. This way you won’t end up spending more than you have.

Set Hierarchy

There is a set hierarchy that needs to stay intact for production sets to go smoothly. The specific hierarchy can vary based on what positions are filled at different production companies. Typically though, producers are at the top of the hierarchy followed by directors, cinematographers, lighting crew, and then PAs. As we said, it can vary from company to company, but whatever the hierarchy is, it is crucial that you respect and adhere to it. Here is some more information on different roles on production teams.

Safety

We think it is important as a production company to make sure everyone on set is on the same page when it comes to safety procedures. Having a meeting before filming even takes place is a great way to make sure everyone is aware of what to do if an accident does happen. Not only will it help to reduce the amount of chaos there may be on set, but it will also help to make sure everyone is as safe as possible. Here are a few tips for maintaining safety on set.

Overall, if individuals involved in the production of any kind of video take the time to proactively prepare before the filming day, there will be a lot fewer improvisations and stress when it all comes done to it.