It’s that old conundrum – do you attempt to do something yourself for your business, in turn saving yourself money but risking having to call in a professional anyway, or do you just bite the bullet and call in the professional right from the start? It can be a really tough choice to make and so often one that is dictated by money, it also depends which product or service we are talking about too, so let’s take explainer videos in this instance.

You may consider the cost of an explainer video to be extraneous when considering the many ways of spending money in order to benefit your business. A diy alternative to an explainer video often comes in the form of screencast on a webpage that aims to help visitors understand the concept or products of a business. A screencast can be effective when it comes to demoing a site or service, but usually falls down when it comes to explaining a concept or idea- be that of a business or otherwise.

Of course, this is only our opinion and you may think otherwise, but explainer videos allow you to do a whole lot more. In addition to what they allow, the production is a whole lot more also, so usually you would have to bite the bullet and get a company in to do one for you. You need to be careful when deciding what to pay for, and then you need to be careful in deciding who to pay for what you want done. At The Cuillin Collective, we try and carry out as much as we can in-house, but sometimes it is just not possible for us to have the expertise required so we know that we have to pay a company to do it for us. For example, when it comes to web hosting, we pay a company, but it is a company we have worked with and trusted for a number of years. We carried out a whole lot of research to find the right company and we would always say that is an important factor. You won’t grudge spending money if you are getting exactly the right service you want and need for your business, it will be worth it!

When it comes to explainer videos, you have to decide on the length, tone, content, style and type of video you want. After that you need to think of each step that goes into making a video – the script that will determine the end product, the illustration or graphic ideas, the illustrations or graphics themselves, the voice over being accurate, the lighting, sound, filming and editing of the video all being perfect. This is a very brief overview and I’m sure you’ll agree that the amount of work that goes into an explainer video is more than you probably thought before you read this. In addition to having to turn your hand to all of these different talents in a way that your video will represent your company in exactly the way you want, it can also be very hard as a business owner to take a step back from your business to view it as a customer would – another reason that means paying a company will pay off. Some things can be winged and done by someone unskilled in the field, but an explainer video isn’t one of them. Bite the bullet, save your reputation and time and hire a skilled, experienced company to make your explainer video – you won’t regret it.