Creating your own company video may seem like it has merit. You may think it would save you money.
And, since it’s your company, who better to make a video about it than you, right?
But if you don’t know what you’re getting into, you’re setting yourself up for a lot of possible mistakes if you try to make your own animated explainer video.
In this article, we'll review the most common pitfalls and provide guidance on how to avoid them.
Contents
1. I Know My Company Better Than Anyone
This is a classic reason why you may think you’re the best one for the job. Some entrepreneurs believe that since they know their own business better than anyone else, they can create the best concept and write the best script.
This is dangerously flawed thinking.
Here’s why.
First, it takes a lot of work and experience to learn how to write and structure a great script. You not only need to know how to write effectively, but also what language to use to appeal to viewers.
Scriptwriting is a very serious profession on its own. Writing for video is especially difficult; that’s why a lot of content writers and copywriters can’t write scripts for videos.
Here's an analogy. Eye doctors and foot doctors are doctors, you wouldn’t go see an eye doctor for a broken toe.
Now imagine that you aren’t even a doctor, and you’re trying to fix that toe.
That’s basically how it goes if you’re trying to write a script or story concept on your own. You’re going to know there are things you need to cover, but there’s no comparison to someone who has professionally written hundreds of scripts.
2. I Will Produce it Myself
This is another misconception and underestimation of what goes into the production process.
Some think they can build their own team of freelance script writers, designers, animators, and everyone else needed to produce a video. If it were that easy, agencies wouldn’t spend the money to put good people together under one roof — they’d all be freelance-based.
The thing is, there are a lot of great freelancers, but if you’re not qualified to evaluate them and figure out who’s the real deal, it’s going to be a nightmare.
And all of us in agencies have heard the stories of freelancers thrown together on a team and how bad it can go.
A big reason for this is that the creative director and project manager are an integral part of making sure the project is a success. Trying to do that yourself without the experience is a terrible idea.
Finally, the biggest reason why this is a bad idea is because freelance rates are higher than what people get paid at agencies. Freelancers have to cover their own costs, work hard to get projects, etc., so they charge higher per hour.
If you truly put together a team large enough and talented enough to make the video well, you’ll end up paying more than if you even went to an agency in the first place!
3. I’ll Hire an Agency, but Still Produce it Myself
We truly understand people when they try to save some money by producing it themselves or using low-quality services. Running a business is hard, and every penny counts. But we don’t understand those who hire a professional agency and then tell them what to do.
All explainer video companies will vouch that they’ve had many clients like that, always fighting with them to make sure the video doesn’t turn out like garbage.
Please don’t do that!
Explainer video production consists of many stages; creating a script, illustrations, sound design, animation, editing, and more. (You can read more about the entire process in this article.) On each one of those steps, agencies have specialist professionals. Each of those people spent years learning to become experts.
What we recommend here is to make sure that the explainer video company has a marketer that understands your marketing objectives. Then, keep in the loop with them to make sure they’re aligned with your marketing strategy.
And here’s some advice for explainer video companies. You would be better off canceling the project and not getting paid than creating a low-quality project. Because even if the client insists on bad ideas, it’s your work that people will see as the end result
4. What if I Produce a Video Using Online Explainer Video Creators?
The biggest problem with these is that they don’t create any marketing message or concepts for your brand. They just help you drag and drop templates to create simple visuals. This also means that, once again, you’re the producer, which we mentioned already is a bad idea.
Still, some people attempt to create videos using those platforms. There are different reasons why some entrepreneurs decide to create their company explainer videos using online explainer video software or creators. But mostly, it’s budget.
We get it — if you do research and learn that good quality explainer videos start at $2500, the price of an online template can look appealing. That’s especially true when you start getting flooded with ads for $500 or even $100 explainer videos.
Let’s take a closer look at how that happens.
What if I Produce a Video Using Online Explainer Video Creators?
One of the oldest and most effective ways of handling concerns is with a lot of ads or information. These days, your computer, phone, and social media accounts know everything about you and what you do online. When you start researching explainer videos, companies use cookies to target you with unending ads. Of course, once you start seeing that information everywhere you look online, your brain becomes more familiar with it and the information seems more trustworthy. But remember, just because you see the same message over and over again, that doesn’t make it right for you!
Social Proof
This method is as old as the world. Now, it’s evolved into the digital world. Online automatic platforms create a lot of videos and, of course, a few can be successful with the amount of videos they put out. And the companies are always excited to share their success stories. The irony is, those videos they produce to share success stories are actually produced professionally, and not on their own platforms!
Note: Just to be clear, we have nothing against online template creators. They can be useful and solve some problems by creating text animation, image-based videos, or announcements. But they’ll never be able to create a unique and custom animated video or any other video that will work for marketing. There are just too many factors to consider. You can learn more about how to plan for your explainer video production in this article.
Final Words.
Hire a professional explainer video company! The truth is, you need a custom-crafted video created by professionals that will talk to your audience and share your brand message with custom created designed illustrations. Of course, this can be a complicated process too. You can learn how to do that and get the best value for your budget in this post.
