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Falling Behind on Video Production?
Or Need Design Support for Product Launches?
Videos can range from product explainers to live commerce to POV style unboxing videos. But a successful video project is the one that feels personalized and localized.
According to Statista, online videos reached over 92% of the audience on the internet in 2023. That makes it an audience of over 4 billion! This raises a question – are you using the right kind of videos to promote your products and services?
Videos help you precisely show what customers can achieve with your product. They enable your prospects to see and connect with what the product does for ‘them’. Therefore, the content should speak their language or prospects can get bored and move on.
At the end of the day, it’s all about the ICP, their preferences, and use cases. But many video projects fall short because of a lack of streamlined video production process.
Yes, modern AI creative tools like Synthesia or Pika can help you overcome creation barriers. But generative video production tools are not yet capable of producing the fully-fledged videos that you commonly see on the internet.
Now let’s move on to understanding how actual video production takes place. But before you do it, think upon these questions when you’re planning to make videos:
With this, now let’s understand the whole video making process.
We help B2B, SaaS and AI product teams ship on-brand videos without fresh hiring, for launches, campaigns and sales.
Video production refers to the process of creating video content. It can be for business purposes like marketing, training, corporate communications etc.
It involves multiple stages of video production:
The goal is to produce videos that align with the company’s branding and effectively communicate the desired messaging to the target audience.
While both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) video productions aim to engage their respective target audiences, there are some key differences in their approaches:
Messaging: B2B focuses on expertise, business results, and values while B2C prioritizes lifestyle, benefits, storytelling, and brand personality.
Style: B2B uses a professional tone to emphasize focus on product usage. B2C is lively and conversational to emphasize branding and storytelling of the product/service.
Length: Both B2B and B2C videos are typically of length 1-2 minutes.
Production Value: B2B is modest given smaller audiences while B2C invests heavily in high polish and visuals.
Format: B2B uses live expert talks, animation for complex topics, relevant to the industry. B2C uses more creative commercials, music videos, and narrative stories.
There are several formats and styles of videos created for B2B marketing. Some key types include:
Short animated videos that explain a concept, product, or service. Example: A 2-minute video explaining how your app works.
Promotional, image-building videos that tell your company’s story, showcase company culture, highlight achievements, etc. Example: “About Us” video on website, company anniversary highlight video.
Short, engaging branded video content meant for social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc. Example: Behind-the-scenes company footage shared on Instagram stories.
Videos targeted to a particular industry or niche, using relevant terminology and examples. Example: Video for software developers showcasing a new dev tool.
Videos that talk about products in every way. Can be hands-on videos, product reviews, tutorials, product demos, etc. Example: Step-by-step tutorial showing how to use a piece of software.
Videos integrated into the website that complement and enhance the user experience. Example: Video homepage banner, customer testimonial videos.
This includes two types:
We help B2B, SaaS and AI product teams ship on-brand videos without fresh hiring, for launches, campaigns and sales.
This is what a video production process flow chart looks like:
Now let’s see the process of video production by taking an example. A client wants to make an animated explainer video. This is what a typical explainer video production process would look like when a client first approaches the video production company:
The journey begins with a comprehensive briefing. Here, we align on the project’s objectives, target audience, and desired outcomes. It’s all about understanding the ‘why’ behind the video, setting clear goals and expectations.
This is where the client specifies they need an explainer video for their product.
Next, we immerse ourselves in research. This involves studying the target audience, market trends, and competitor content. The goal is to find that unique angle that will make the video stand out.
The video production company gathers as much detail as possible about what the client wants to achieve with the video.
In the planning phase, we lay the groundwork. This includes deciding on the type of video, the resources needed, timelines, and budgeting. It’s about creating a roadmap that guides the entire production process.
This involves developing a concept, creating a detailed timeline, and allocating roles and responsibilities to the production team.
Scripting is where creativity meets strategy. The script should not only convey the message effectively but also resonate with the audience. It’s a balance of engaging dialogue, clear narrative structure, and strategic messaging.
Based on the plan, the video production team creates a script for the explainer video. This outlines the key messages, visuals, graphics, animations etc. The script is shared with the client for feedback and approval.
Storyboarding translates the script into visual frames. It’s a crucial step for visualizing the story flow, camera angles, and transitions. This is where we start to see the video take shape.
The approved script is turned into a visual storyboard, which is a frame-by-frame layout of what will be seen and heard in the video. The storyboard is iterated until the client is satisfied.
This is the action phase – shooting and asset creation. It encompasses everything from setting up locations, lighting, and sound to directing actors, capturing the footage and designing visuals. It’s about bringing the storyboard to life.
In this case, the creative team starts creating the visual assets. These assets include illustrations, motion graphics, animations, music etc.
The voiceover adds another layer to the storytelling. Choosing the right tone and pace is key to enhancing the video’s impact. It’s not just what is said, but how it’s said.
After the animations are ready, a voiceover artist records the narration. They make sure the words fit well with what’s happening in the video.
Editing involves cutting, rearranging, and refining the footage to create a cohesive and enjoyable story. This stage also includes adding music, sound effects, and visual effects.
An editor puts together the animations and the voiceover using video editing software. They add extra elements like special effects, scene changes, and titles to make the video look professional. They may also adjust the pace of narration if it’s too slow or too fast, to make it just right.
The review process is collaborative. It involves gathering feedback from stakeholders and making adjustments accordingly. It’s a critical step to ensure the video aligns with the initial objectives and vision.
The first version of the video is shown to the client. The client watches it and tells the team what they like and what they want to change.
If the video needs changes, the video team makes changes to the video based on what the client said. This process might happen a few times.
When the client is happy with everything, they say the video is good to go.
The final video is made into different formats that the client needs. Then, it’s given to the client. They can put it on their website, social media, or other places to show it to people.
The video production process can scale up or down depending on the size and needs of the client. For smaller businesses, the pre-production planning may be more informal. You may handle editing in-house with just one freelance editor on the side. And video distribution may be focused on a few key channels.
For larger enterprises, a corporate video production process may be more extensive with more people/crew involved. You would need high-end video editing and animation that would make it more suitable to hire creative agencies. Distribution would be focused across many platforms. But the overall workflow remains similar.
The video production process requires coordination across multiple teams. Let’s say it’s an explainer video. So, the explainer video production process will have these key stages:
This lays the groundwork for a smooth video shoot. The steps include:
Key pre-production steps include:
Key video production process steps include:
Finally, the finished video gets shared with target audiences by:
In summary, the video production steps involved in the process require team coordination and careful planning to meet the client’s objectives. The same video creation process applies to almost all types of videos whether they are explainers or video shot with an action camera.
While project sizes can vary, they typically go through the same video production steps: pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution. There are also many AI tools that can assist in the process, so it’s worth checking them out.
As video demand grows, mastering video production processes can maximize overall marketing efforts.
The key stages in the video production process for B2B SaaS are:
Budget considerations that should be taken into account for SaaS video production are:
Common mistakes to avoid in B2B SaaS video production are:
We help B2B, SaaS and AI product teams ship on-brand videos without fresh hiring, for launches, campaigns and sales.
Rishabh Pugalia, CMO/Co-founder, ContentBeta. He advises B2B SaaS companies on brand visibility & product adoption through video & design. He believes in AI-assisted, human-in-the-loop workflows for scaling marketing ops.
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