How to Scale Your Video Marketing Efforts on a Tight Budget

The importance of video marketing can’t be understated for modern brands. From digital ads to commercials, YouTube videos, social media posts, and beyond, branded video consumption is at an all-time high.

In fact, HubSpot found that 62% of consumers watch videos like product demos, reviews, FAQs, and unboxings to learn more about brands and products. Another study determined that 84% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service after watching a brand’s video. 

That said, video marketing can be expensive—but it doesn’t have to be.

You can get started with video marketing and scale your efforts with as little as $1,000 or $2,000 per month, and still edge out your competitors who spend upwards of $10,000 or $20,000. 

It’s all about making smart decisions and cutting unnecessary costs. Read on to find out how.

Don’t Blow Your Whole Budget on Equipment

This is one of the most common blunders that I see from businesses that want to ramp up video marketing efforts. They get an outrageous quote from a video marketing agency that’s $15,000 for a single 90-second video and decide they’d rather take that money and handle things internally.

While there’s nothing wrong with having your own marketing team produce and edit videos, it doesn’t mean that you should go out and just blindly spend tens of thousands on equipment you don’t actually need.

Get a halfway decent camera and a couple of microphones. Depending on where you’re shooting, you may need some LED lights, but don’t get carried away.

I highly doubt there will be a noticeable difference in quality if you’re using an $800 camera compared to an $8,000 video camera. Save that money for ads and other video marketing costs. 

Pay For Extra Time When Outsourcing Tasks

Paying extra may sound counter-intuitive when it comes to stretching a tight budget, but in this case, an extra few hundred can go a long way. Here’s why.

Let’s say you’re outsourcing an entire marketing video project to an agency or freelancer. You’re looking for a polished video that’s two minutes long and ready to publish. 

If this person or team is already taking the time to film, produce, and edit your video, having them create something that’s three minutes long or four minutes long may be well worth it.

Maybe the quote for a two-minute video is $1,500, but they’ll charge $2,000 for three minutes. 

That extra minute can be cut and spliced into five different quick clips to share on social media—and it’s all still professional-grade video quality. Whereas if you reach out to an agency again to produce a standalone 60-second video, they may charge you a $1,500 minimum. 

Produce What You Can In-House

Handling video marketing tasks internally is another easy way to control costs. You might ask salaried employees to edit and publish videos, and your costs won’t change at all.

Filming things yourself can be tricky, but it may be worth it in the long run if you’re committed to video marketing.

The biggest hurdle here is that quality can suffer. So you need to find that balance between cost and value.

It’s a bonus if someone on your team has experience producing videos. If you can lean on them and they’re willing to take charge on these new initiatives, you might be willing to live with a handful of low-quality videos over the next several months if it means never having to outsource production down the road. 

Always Look For Ways to Repurpose Video Content

Another way to stretch your budget is by taking one video and turning it into multiple pieces of content. 

For example, a five-minute video can be uploaded to YouTube. From there, it can be embedded into a relevant blog post or landing page. You might also decide to include it in one of your email marketing messages.

But there are even ways you can squeeze additional content from it.

I love clipping the best parts of longer videos to share on social media. So a five-minute video could easily have 10+ clips—all of which can be shared across Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and more.

Here’s another secret. There’s nothing wrong with sharing the same video clip more than once.

Yes, I said it, and I mean it.

For some reason marketers have this weird phobia of using the same piece of content twice. But who says you can’t share it again? You can even call attention to it with something along the lines of “This received so much positive attention, we wanted to share it again for those of you who missed it.”

That’s how you take one video and turn it into 50+ pieces of content. 

Sacrifice Your Own Time Instead of Paying For Someone Else’s

You obviously need to protect your time as an owner, executive, manager, or decision-maker. 

That said, there’s nothing wrong with getting your hands dirty and doing some of the work that you’d otherwise delegate. 

It’s super easy to just pass tasks off to your team. But this comes at the risk of overburdening them and sacrificing the quality of their work.

So if you don’t want to outsource and your team’s capacity has already been reached, try to handle some of these tasks on your own. 

It could be as little as five hours per week. But over the course of a year, that may amount to $30,000 in savings. 

Keep Your Videos Short

Longer videos are more expensive to produce, especially if you’re outsourcing them to an agency. To keep costs under control, try to focus on keeping videos shorter and concise—at least early on.

You’d be surprised how much fluff can be cut out of a video, and those extra minutes can easily translate to thousands of dollars spent.

I have a friend who insisted on creating a 30-minute documentary about their brand. They hired a professional video production company to handle everything, and the filming alone took about a week. Editing took a month, and all in, they spent about $40,000.

That video has less than 1,500 views in three years, and in my opinion, it was a massive waste of money.

Do people care about your brand? Maybe. But not nearly as much as you do. 

Who is going to sit through a 30-minute video about your brand? Based on the engagement of this example, I can count it on one hand.

I know this is one extreme scenario and may not apply to most of you. But don’t stretch your videos just for the sake of adding length. If you can get your point across in two minutes, the video shouldn’t be five minutes long. Save yourself the money.

Read More: Long-Form vs. Short-Form Video: What Works When

Don’t Spend Your Entire Budget on Ads

This is another huge mistake that beginners make with video marketing. 

At scale, they think throwing more dollars at something will lead to better results. So they go from spending $500 on video ads to $5,000 in one month, and then they’re surprised when the results aren’t 10x.

Ad budgets are tricky, and lower-spend campaigns don’t always give you enough data to scale. 

You might get a handful of false positives or anomalies in there telling you that the ad converts at a 20% rate when, in reality, it’s closer to 3% at scale. 

While I definitely encourage you to ramp up your ad budget as you scale video marketing, make sure you do it cautiously and don’t just blindly increase your spending.

Prioritize Quality Over Quantity

When we think about scale, our minds automatically go to large numbers.

So you might set a goal of producing and publishing 20 new videos per month, up from your current volume of four.

But quantity isn’t the answer if your videos stink.

There needs to be a real reason behind everything you create and distribute. Is it adding value? What’s the message? Why exactly are you doing it?

If the answer is just “I want to create more videos,” then you’re going to have a real problem. 

Instead, you can scale your efforts by putting a little extra time and emphasis on the quality of your videos. I’m referring to things like pre-production planning and post-production video optimization. These efforts can move the needle more than simply doubling your production output. 

Negotiate and Find People Willing to Work Within Your Budget Constraints

I really enjoy working with contractors and freelancers. 

Not only are they cheaper than employees and agencies, but they tend to be really good in their areas of expertise. This definitely holds true for video marketing efforts.

The other great part about working with a contractor is that they’re often willing to work with your budget, especially if there’s the potential for a long-term working relationship. Agencies don’t have as much wiggle room because their overhead costs are much higher.

For example, let’s say you find a freelancer who can create and edit a handful of marketing videos for $5,000. But your absolute maximum budget is $3,500 per month.

I’m willing to bet this person would much rather secure a long-term client that pays $3,500 per month for the next two years compared to a one-time $5,000 project. 

So be honest with these people about your budget and make sure they see the big-picture value of working with you. 

Don’t Cheap Out and Expect Amazing Results

Going the cheapest route possible is not the best way to scale your video marketing campaigns. 

While you don’t need to pay a $20,000 monthly retainer for a professional agency, a person quoting you $200 when everyone else is quoting $2,000 probably won’t deliver exceptional quality. It may end up being a waste of $200 instead of $1,800 in savings. 

For example, you can’t expect free user-generated content to be on par with studio-quality video.

Can you find someone in Eastern Europe to narrate your videos at $3 per hour? Sure. But that’s useless if they can’t pronounce your brand properly or their accent is too thick for your target audience to understand. 

You get what you pay for. So make sure you set realistic expectations when planning your budget. Don’t be afraid to spend a little bit more if it results in better quality. 

Final Thoughts

Everyone’s video marketing budget is going to be a little different.

Whether it’s large or small, you can apply any of these tips above to stretch your budget a bit further and maximize your efforts. 

Video marketing is here to stay. So scaling sooner than later is going to pay dividends in the long run.

Still need some help? Book a free consultation today to learn more about our video marketing services.