3 Ingredients for Amazing In-House Video Production

In the first half of our chat at Inbound 2013, Paull Young, the Director of Digital at charity: water told us that video was the best way the non-profit has found to inspire people; but this made us wonder – how are they creating all of their amazing videos?

Turns out, charity: water produce all of their video marketing in-house with a small creative team. Explaining just how they run their inspiring video content machine, here’s what Paull had to tell us:

When it comes to running video production in-house, Paull has outlined the secret formula to getting started. As he says, it really boils down to people and culture.

Step 1: Hire the right, talented people

You’ll notice that when Paull talks about his creative team of about seven people, he has basically assembled the X-men of the video production world. While most of their creatives work on web design, charity: water has a video editor, a creative director, and a copywriter that produce their videos.

Your B2B company doesn’t necessarily have to have all of these video roles established yet, but we are starting to see a lot of large B2B brands (and even non-profits in this case) starting to hire Directors of Video Strategy, or similar leadership roles, to maintain accountability for the vast amounts of video assets they’re collecting. It really depends on your video marketing goals, your budget, your current inventory, and your desired scope.

As Paull says, you need access to talented people and you should choose carefully because, “the difference in talent in the creative pursuits is massive”.

If you can only invest in one dedicated video hire right this second, we’d recommended finding a videographer; someone who can shoot and edit all in one. With a salary ranging from $50-60,000 (depending on the individual’s expertise and experience), they should be able to produce at least one short video a week or 52 videos a year for the average cost of $1,000 a video. While you might not necessarily want to release a video a week, you can strategically schedule major videos around important campaigns as charity: water does.

Overall, the non-profit invests in a production team because video has become so much a part of how they draw attention to their worthy cause. As Paull reiterates, “it’s one of the most important things we do as an organization”.

Which leads us to the next part of a successful in-house video marketing strategy:

Step 2: Create a culture that supports your video team

After you have assembled the best team you can, Paull points out, it’s all about giving your talent the time and energy they need to create inspiring work.

Just take the charity: water campaign for India as an example. It may be an 8 minute video, but it actually took two months of dedication to produce. Sending a six person team to India for two weeks, the team worked tirelessly and created something stunning.

The point is, if you’re serious about video marketing, you’re going to want the internal production process to be as refined as possible and this starts with the right people who know what they’re doing. Then you’ll want to ensure that your team has everything they need to get the job done properly. This means accounting for pre-production, the time required to edit, the resources necessary to create quality assets, and that secret sauce that Paull mentions at the end of our chat:

Step 3: Dedicate some passionate energy

“the secret really, is that passionate energy which only happens if you really believe your content is incredibly important. It’s mainly cultural – you can’t turn that on – you have to commit to it.”

We couldn’t agree more, Paull. Rock on!

What are you doing at your company that makes your video content easier to produce in-house? Share some of your video production hacks in with a comment below.

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