Written for client Sightworthy, a video marketing agency:

Last week we held our first live webinar on “How to Think About Video for your Business,” hosted by co-founder Aneri and one of our NYC-based videographers, Jesse Chorng of Skillshare. In case you missed it, we’re going to drill down into the key points we covered.

Our core goal is to make video marketing easy for every company in the world. The way it used to be done is companies would spend tons of money to make big TV commercials and that was their video marketing. Not so sustainable, right? Companies moved with the times and are now spending that ad budget towards things like Facebook advertising and online video. We can help decode all the pieces that go into making videos for you — what type to make (explainer, testimonial), what distribution channels to use, and how to optimize.

We have some mouth-droppingly crazy stats for you on this, too. Like these:

So far this year 75% of Internet traffic is video
On Snapchat, Facebook, and YouTube combined, the daily video views are 21 billion!

These insane numbers are only projected to keep growing in the next few years. Video is here to stay and companies will need to figure out how to do it or risk falling behind.

As we’ve seen with vastly successful examples like Buzzfeed’s Tasty videos (2.5 billion views and counting), video is a lucrative way to get eyes on who you are and what you’re doing.

We know your burning question is “Where do I begin?” The biggest hurdle is often thinking that what you create has to be live footage. It doesn’t. Here are some of the easiest types to make:

Screencast — This is capturing something on your computer screen and doing audio over it. You can use free software or your existing computer’s microphone to get started, or just do a slideshow. Great way to test what type of content resonates with your audience.

Stock footage — Using pre-existing footage (from sources like Shutterstock or Videoblocks) and will require working with a video editor to cut scenes together, and add in voice and music.

Animated — Requires hiring a designer/animator to actually create the scenes, which you’ll then record voice over. Anything can be animated — your logo, drawings you already have, and then music can be added over it.

Live footage — Refers to on-location shooting and live interviews. This is the most-involved from a pre-production, production, and post-production standpoint. Great way to represent your brand if you want to go on camera.

OK, so now you know more about what your options are for shooting. We’re sure your next question is along the lines of “How much is this gonna cost me?!” To break it down:

Content and production — Often people need help figuring out what available content they have and how to use it (or if it’s usable). This can include tasks like creating an outline or a complete script.
Type & amount of stock media — You can have your videographer find stock footage for you or do it yourself through a site like Video Supply. The quality of stock media has improved greatly, and often looks user-generated and very on-trend. Using it is a great way to get content out fast.
Complexity of motion graphics — Depending on what you do, you’ll need to consider the cost of creating a logo, animating key concepts, or having assets created.
Filming on-location — When capturing live footage and doing interviews, you can cut costs by finding a good location (good natural light, low amount of ambient sound) to make filming smoother. When working with people, they can vary in how nervous they get when being filmed, so you might have to film a lot of takes to get 30 seconds of good footage.
Amount of footage — This is the biggest factor in the cost of a project. For example, if you film for 8 hours, but only need 2 minutes of footage…that’s a lot of editing time you’ll be paying for.
Distribution strategy — You need to determine what your end goal is with your video before you start. Some things to consider: where will it be hosted (Facebook ad, blog, website?), and what audience is it intended for. Figure these things out ahead of time, because the longer you sit on a video, the less relevant it becomes.

How Can Sightworthy Help?

Our goal is to make it super-easy for companies to create lots of video content that fulfills their goals. We do this by offering:

Templates — We have a whole series of video type templates for things like app videos, testimonials, educational videos, etc. All you have to do is pick a template and distribution channel, and we’ll match you with a vetted videographer in your location with expertise in those areas.
Marketplace — The average turnaround time for a video is just one week so time from concept to distribution is very fast, especially since we require you to choose your distribution channel ahead of time.
Performance data — Our service includes providing great data based on whatever distribution channel you choose. If you use Facebook, we can tell you how many app downloads your video drives. We can also tell you what type of video performs the best for you (ex: number of clicks on stock footage vs. animated). This will help you make smarter decisions about your videos moving forward.

Sound good? We have even more good news — clients we’ve worked with so far have seen measurable increases in their website traffic, organic Facebook reach, and Facebook post clicks.

For example, our client WorkMarket posted a video on their website and got a 10x increase in traffic after only 30 days. This is a huge jump and is possible now not only because video is so engaging, but because both Google and Facebook are pushing video up way higher in their search results.

Clients like EV-Box are getting great results on Facebook because of them favoring video over text/photos for organic reach: they got 3x their usual organic reach and 2x as many post clicks on their video posts. It’s a great marketing channel for telling your brand story and getting more engaging content out there to reach your potential customers.