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How to create a promotional video on a budget


How can you create a promotional video on a budget?

At this moment in time most business are struggling to stay afloat. What this means is that it is essential to find the right balance between cost cutting and digital marketing. Having a promotional video is a great asset for your business’s marketing strategy, it’s a timeless way of marketing as you can reuse it over and over again. You can even re-shape it by way of cut-downs or even pull out behind the scenes footage to use as a way of topping up your video content.

Ask any promotional video production company and they’ll tell you how good it is to create awareness and also tell people what you do or what you are selling. So if you don’t have one yet it’s time to get one.

But how do you create one? In an ideal world you’d want to hire a promotional video production company like us at Beast, but not everyone has the money for this and we understand that. So in this article we’ll go through how you can create your own promotional video on a budget. Here’s what we’ll cover:

  • Pre production process
  • Production
  • Post-Production

How to create a promotional video on a budget

Promo Video Pre-Production

To start off a promo video, you need to take a look at the budget you are working with. If you know what you are working with, then you can plan out your costs and make sure you get the most out of your money before you even start the production. Then you need to actually decide what you want to do. Our top tip here is dont be tempted top say to much. Decide what the main message of your promotional video is and build in all of your other messaging around that central theme.

So you’ll need to plan what you want to promote, although that should be easy to figure out, to figure out what you want to do its best to take a look at what some of your competitors do. Obviously don’t copy them but taking a look at what they’ve done allows you to gauge what may or may not work in your industry. Once you’ve seen what works and what doesn’t start to think of what will fit your brand, while something may have worked for one brand it might not work for you at the end of the day, so while taking a look at what your competitors do provides good insight, to make a really successful promotional video you need to tailor it to your brand.

Another thing we’d recommend you do is storyboard your promo video. Storyboarding the video allows you to plan your shots so you get an idea of what the final product would look like. Storyboarding also allows you to see if you need any additional things for your video. The storyboard is like the blueprint for building a home. Check you have the right number of bedrooms and toilets before you start!

How to create a promotional video on a budget
How to create a promotional video on a budget

Once you’ve figured out what you’re going to produce, you need to actually plan how to produce your promo video, so what do you need? Well firstly you’ll need a camera, if you already have one, great you’ve saved money already, but if you don’t have one, it can be a bit tricky to get one on a budget. So a great alternative would be your phone, if you have a newer phone then you have a high quality camera in your pocket. Using an iPhone for your promo video would be fine as it has essentially a lower range dslr quality. The next thing you would need to work out is your location, this is the easiest thing to figure out, if you’re on a budget then filming on site at your premises would be the most affordable option, but otherwise perhaps try and find a public place that suits what you’re promoting.

How to create a promotional video on a budget
How to create a promotional video on a budget

Promotional Video Production

Once you’ve planned everything it’s time to produce, this is probably the hardest part of the whole process, so that’s why we’d recommend hiring a videographer, which can be tough if you are on a budget. Perhaps hire someone starting up as a videographer, it’s a risk to take as you wouldn’t know how the work is going to turn out, but it’s worth taking the risk as you not only help someone who wants to get into the industry but you save yourself some money. Although we would say that you make sure that if you do hire a videographer they are compensated for their time. If you are filming during the coronavirus pandemic make sure you follow government guidelines and take adequate health and safety measures, we covered how to film a production during the covid-19 pandemic so give that a read if you want to learn more but, make sure all cast and crew follow social distancing laws and where face coverings. Also make sure that all equipment is disinfected as much as possible with antibacterial wipes.

As an experienced film production company, our top tip is to use a clapper board to properly log all your rushes. This is an essential practise if you want to save time in post-production and ultimately through good organisation you will create better work. Most London film production companies would probably give you the same tip since its so easily overlooked when starting out in film production service.

How to create a promotional video on a budget
How to create a promotional video on a budget

Post-production

Once you’ve filmed all your footage, it’s time for post-production, you need to edit your footage. You can do this yourself, there’s loads of free software you can use however we wouldn’t recommend them, the best software to use would either be final cut pro or adobe premiere pro. These can be quite expensive so if you are on a budget they may not be the best option. If you do want to spend some money during the post-production process, hire an editor. A good editor will make all the difference and they’ll have access to the software we previously mentioned and most likely have more knowledge than you. If you can, work with an editor at a creative content agency like us at Beast then definitely do that. Our editors know the ins and outs of editing and can make the final product look incredible.

If you do want to do it yourself though, that’s fine, but if you don’t have a lot of knowledge when it comes to editing, watch some youtube tutorials to learn a few tips and tricks to make your video better. A great thing to learn about would be colour grading, being able to colour grade well can make any video look great on the eyes. You also have to choose music, it is so important when choosing music to make sure it fits the feel of the video, for free music take a look on the internet for royalty free songs as these won’t cost a thing, make sure to choose a couple different songs and see how they fit in with the actual video.

So there you have it, that’s how you produce a Promotional Video on a budget, following our tips will help you produce a high quality video for cheap saving you money and making the potential return on investment even higher. If you are looking for a promotional video producer for your company make sure to choose Beast!