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What's Right for My SaaS Business —
In-House Video Production, Freelancers, or a Video Production Agency?

If you’re here, it’s likely that you’re running a SaaS company and looking to up your marketing and sales game. You probably understand how videos can dramatically increase your conversion rates, brand awareness, and product engagement and provide better ROI than any other medium.
What's Right for My SaaS Business — In-House Video Production, Freelancers, or a Video Production Agency
However, there are many important issues you need to know before adopting the medium.

But don’t worry, we are here to offer you guidance on your video production strategy like we have done for many top SaaS companies.

There are a number of options available to you to produce video content. But to get the most out of the medium, you must choose the right method to create your video content.
“Make no mistake: A wrong decision at this stage could prove costly for you – both in terms of money and effort.”

How to determine the best approach for your business with a comparison table:

Benefits Hybrid like Content Beta or Rocketwheel Traditional Video Production Agency In-House Production Freelancer Services
Skill set From Idea to Final Video Only works on production Separate specialist for Scripts, Creatives, Editing Coordination with multiple freelancers
Unlimited Revisions
UI/UX Updates
Account Manager Reliance on Zoom calls
Dedicated Client Portal
Timeline 10-20 days 1-2 months 3-4 weeks 3-4 weeks
24/7 Email Support
Cost Starts $500 - $3500 for a 2-minute video Starts $2k/video Starts $18k/month Starts $2K/video
Read More – How to use the Right Videos for each Stage of your Marketing Funnel and Why?

In-House Video Production

The Pros - Why you might want to do it yourself:
1. You hate interacting with external agencies because you have had less-than-pleasant experience working with them.
2. You have plans to build an in-house team for your own needs or maybe your products and services are closely aligned with other fields of expertise like eLearning or instructional design.
3. You managed video production work in your last job and you know what it takes to produce good video content.
4. You are an independent-minded person and want to take charge of how you want to project your brand.
5. You are a video aficionado and you feel confident you can replicate some of the iconic videos that have gone viral.
6. You own new equipment that you bought in a moment of weakness, which has since been lying idle, and you feel you should ‘recover’ some of your investment by producing video content.
7. You feel that your brand and your products do not need expensive production values, and you want to get that ‘raw’ or unpolished.
The Cons - Why you might NOT want to do it yourself:
1. You have limited knowledge about video production, e.g., how to shoot a video but not when to use what type of video or at what point in the customer journey.
2. You are a small business or start up and don’t have the resources. You cannot afford to get your team to spend time on a project whose outcome you are uncertain about.
3. You are a technical person but clueless about sales and marketing.
4. You have not run a marketing campaign before or know about services like storage and distribution offered by production agencies.
Key takeaways:
  • Go for in-house production if you want to have full control over creativity, budget, and schedule. If you have no experience, then this approach can be a drain on your resources.
  • Remember, whatever approach you take, video is the way forward. According to Visme marketers consider video important to their strategies 92% of the time and grab user attention online 85% of the time.
Read More – The ultimate guide to making SaaS onboarding videos from scratch

Outsourcing Video Production

Use this checklist when you approach external agencies for your video content needs. Be clear about:
  • Amount of work needed
  • Quality of content required
  • Description of the technical aspect of the project
  • Your ability to allot time for the project
If you decide to outsource, there are 2 options available to you:
  • Freelancers
  • Traditional / Hybrid video production agency
As they all fall under ‘outsourcing’, we’ll first talk about the pros and cons common to both options before discussing them individually.

Perhaps, the greatest advantage outsourcing offers you is professionalism and accountability. As you are fairly well protected by contracts, getting a bad bargain is rare but not unknown.
The Pros - Why you might want to do it yourself:
1. Video outsourcing service provides solutions to all these requirements through flexible pricing models that are customized to meet your budget needs.
2. No need to invest in expensive equipment, or extra hands. And like good equipment, good talent comes at a price (and rightly so) especially when it involves special effects and animation.
3. A video outsourcing service can easily take on your project with professional-level equipment, talent, and production value at a fraction of the cost you would incur by hiring full time video professionals.
4. You can get your regular workforce to do what they do best - handle work related to your products or services. In some cases, redeploying people - especially those who do not have the skills to help you with it - could lead to resentment and even high employee turnover.
5. The external agency has no particular emotional attachment to your brand and thus might be in a position to think impassionately and create content that reflects and represents your product in a way you as the owner would not be able to do.
The Cons - Why you might NOT want to do it yourself:
1. The internet is replete with horror stories about the perils of outsourcing. Let’s take a cautious look at what lurks beneath the calm surface.
2. Limited control over the creative aspect. You are sometimes bullied into accepting what they can offer using already existing content after customizing it to meet your needs.
3. Services tend to be more expensive compared to what you can do on the basis of individual videos.
Key takeaways:
  • Finding the right outsourcing partner can be time-consuming.
  • Having worked with clients from diverse fields, a professional set up would be more likely to be able to advise you correctly, handle the job meticulously, and deliver the product on time. If you are looking for fast turnaround times or need specialized skill sets, then freelance workers are your best option.
  • In addition to bringing innovation to stagnant areas of a company, outsourcing reduces costs and eases the burden on highly skilled employees, but as video production demands high skills it can be difficult to find the right partner.
Read More – Directory of SaaS Product Demo Videos

How to choose the right outsourcing partner?

Let’s look at some of the best practices for outsourcing your work – which includes both Freelancers and external Video Production Agencies:
Freelancers:
  • Research thoroughly and find the right contractor for the job.
  • Freelancers in particular can offer more affordable rates than full-time employees, but this often comes with a sacrifice in creativity and output quality.
  • Some reputable freelancing services sites include Upwork, Guru, Fiverr, and Freelancer
  • Before hiring them, carefully review their work history and ask for examples of their previous work.
Video production agencies:
  • Do an in-depth analysis of each site’s strengths and weaknesses.
  • Make sure that your outsourcing partner speaks your native language or has a translator on staff.
  • Fill out an “Outsourcing Request Form” which includes details such as your desired subject, project due date, budget, and other supporting information.
  • Get familiar with these sites’ terms of service before signing up or committing any time or money to them!
Key takeaways:
  • As a general rule, evaluate technical proficiency, approachability, punctuality, and reliability of your outsourcing partners.
  • To get a high-level understanding of what it is like working with a traditional video production company, refer to our comparison table
Read More – Which tools do you need to create SaaS video tutorials?

Working with Hybrid Video Production Companies

Next, we will see the end-to-end process followed by a hybrid video production company to create video content.
1. Identify the type of videos to use for each stage of the funnel
This step is often overlooked but it will help you understand what type of content we need to produce that meets your objectives at each stage. The key is to engage with the prospects, depending on their readiness.

Our job is to produce the content that gives you the best results. And to do that, we must trace the customer journey through the Marketing Funnel and identify what content to produce, which is as important as creating the content itself.
Let’s use some examples to illustrate the point:

A marketing funnel has 4 stages which ensures that you realise the full LTV from customers. The key, however, is to earn their brand loyalty and maybe, even act as our brand advocates.

Here are some example videos:

1. Awareness stage: No sales talk; just make the world aware of your brand.
Product marketing video from ThoroughPut Demand Sensing
2. Consideration stage: The goal is to become a reliable source of quality information. Still no sales talk.

How-to videos are extremely useful to convince the leads that you know what you are talking about. Here’s a good example from Chirotouch
3. Conversion stage: The goal of this stage is to emotionally connect with customers using product-related videos and customer testimonials.
4. Retention stage – Loyalty | Advocacy stage: The idea being nurturing long-term relationships, Onboarding, how-to videos, and Academy Video courses work well here.
Read More – Reducing Customer Support tickets using How-to Videos
Key takeaway:
  • For a good understanding of various types of videos, you can create them at each stage of the funnel.
  • Advantages: These agencies have a clear understanding of SaaS Products and specialize in converting just product docs into engaging videos.
  • Disadvantages: Engagement in these videos depends more on how well it can explain the service and the script rather than custom-designed characters.
2. How we are different from competition
A professional outfit should have experts at every stage. With Content Beta you get:
  • Sales and marketing experts to advise on what type of videos to produce
  • Scriptwriters to conceive the idea
  • Storyboarders to visualize the script
  • Voice over actors and presenters to bring the video to life
  • Editors and reviewers at every stage
  • Dedicated account managers
  • Production managers to make it look all crisp and professional.
  • Project managers who are committed to delivering quality products
Key takeaway:

Many video production companies tend to have a team that juggles between various roles mentioned above. The result is an inferior product that does not quite meet customers’ expectations. So pick your video production agency with care.
3. The Content Beta advantage
Content Beta is a prominent player in video content production. Read how we have worked with top brands to help them create their success stories.
Simply put, we help you put your video production on autopilot.
Sr. No. Pain Points Our approach
1. Frequent meetings No endless calls - Just tell us about your needs. We get back to you with a plan
2. Multiple briefings You can give us even a document and demo account and we’ll do the rest
3. Budget Cost could be as low as $500 per video
4. Revisions Unlimited, grumble-free storyboard revisions
5. Waiting period We deliver first draft in less than a week
6. Specialization We understand SaaS and software products
7. Custom edits Get brand-based custom animation
8. Hosting Shareable video library or easy access by your sales and marketing teams
FINAL WORDS
Let’s recap what we discussed in this guide:
  • Benefits and pitfalls of In-house production.
  • Pros and cons of hiring Freelancers.
  • Merits and demerits of hiring Video production agencies.
Remember, you can, depending on your needs, use the various production options discussed above either individually or in combinations.

It’s great to have expertise but what really matters is building good relations with the client by giving them what best meets their needs.

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