How to make sure you’re choosing the right London Video Production Company for you and your business.
Nowadays, in the age of social media and visual learners, the best way to promote your work, your business or your product is through eye catching and informational videos. So regardless of what you want to advertise, or train your staff in, you will at some point find yourself in need of a video production company.
If you’re based in London, like us, you will know that there’s many to pick from, but that most of them are also often overworked or overpriced, due to the competition and the costs of living in this exciting city. Hopefully, this list of tips will help you when selecting a London video production company for your business.
Know what you need from a London video production company
Before you start looking for the right London video production company for you, make sure you know exactly what you need from them, and prepare everything before contacting them. The things you’ll need to prepare are first of all a brief of what you’d like this video to convey, the visual style that accurately represents your company and what audience you’re trying to attract with it.
Once you know what your goal and objectives are with this video, note them down in a clear brief. The next step is to establish a budget, consider how much money you are prepared to invest in this video, do some research on what a London video production company will typically charge and make sure you can afford a high quality video. If it turns out your initial idea was too ambitious for your budget, perhaps prepare a simpler brief, but keep the original in case you company you select can work wonders with a small budget.
Do your research
London is a global creative hub, people from all around the world gather here to start their companies, work as freelancers and expand on their skills. This means there are many options, but as mentioned in my introduction, many of these won’t be accessible to you. Because of the massive demand for video production, many companies will already have multiple projects on at once. Especially the larger companies will most likely have too much to work on already, your project might get pushed aside for a while and not given the attention it deserves.
Perhaps a smaller, independent company would be able to give a more personal touch to your video and prioritise it effectively. So, before you approach any London video production company with your brief, make sure you do your research and see what kind of company you want to work with.
When looking into them, make sure you check out previous examples of their work, but don’t just watch the videos, see the effect those videos had. Yes of course you want a company which can produce a high quality, good looking video for you, but you also want one which will achieve the objectives you’ve set out for your company. Whether that’s attracting a wider client base, training your employees or getting current customers to keep coming back, you want to know the video will have an effect.
Check if there are client reviews for each London video production company, and if they are not accessible online you can ask them for this when you finally contact them. Ask about the results that came from their previous work and how they would achieve the same for you.
Get to know them
Once you’ve picked your favourite London video production company options and made a list of contenders, try to narrow it down to 2 or 3 and discuss the project with them directly. Send them the brief and, if possible, ask to meet up with them in person to talk about it in more detail. This is important because you don’t just want people who make good videos, you want people you can communicate with easily, people you like and trust with the image of your business. You will work closely with them until the completion of the video, so you need to make sure it will be a smooth and pleasant collaborative experience.
You can mention examples of other videos your company has used in the past that were effective, to give them a clearer idea of what you’re looking for and make sure they understand the concept you have in mind. This is the right time to bring up any initial concerns or worries you may have, and see if they react in a helpful and productive way which makes you trust their judgement and abilities. Each London video production company can also explain what they believe they can achieve with your budget and clarify what it would be going towards.
Set a timeline
Hopefully at least one of your meetings will have gone well by this point and you are almost ready to select a London video production company to work with. The next step is very important, before confirming your collaboration with any of them and paying them for their services you need to make sure the timeline of your project is clear and achievable. Figure out what dates you would need every update by. These updates can include an initial proposal, a rough cut of the video, the final cut and any other stage you would like to be informed about during the process.
Make this timeline as clear as possible, state specific dates for each deadline. This will keep you and the London video production company on schedule to get this project done by when you require it. Send this to them and check that all the dates mentioned work for them and won’t impede on their ability to provide you with their best work.
Request a proposal and a quote
Finally, before selecting a London video production company you need to see a clear proposal from each one to be absolutely certain that they understand your brief and have good ideas for this video. Ask them to write out what they plan to do for it and discuss it with you over a video call or in person. The proposal doesn’t have to be 100% what you were looking for, as long as they are open to alterations and feedback in order to meet your vision. Then you can compare their proposals and see which one would be better suited for your company’s video.
Along with the proposal you can request that they send a quote for their services. This allows you to immediately compare both the skills, ideas and prices of the final companies you are considering. Here you just need to trust your gut, weigh out the options, discuss it with your team and finally pick the best option.
I’m sure you can imagine which London video production company we are going to recommend, and that’s Nostairway, a small but successful company based in the heart of Chiswick in West London. If you’re considering creating videos your business, or already have a clear idea of what you need, contact us today for a friendly chat so we can see if and how we can help you out. We have years of experience in all kinds of video production, including corporate videos, training videos, advertisements and even films.
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