How to prepare for filming with a professional videographer

As noted in IR Magazine as an “IR trend to stay on top of” by Alyssa Barry, Principal and Co-founder of irlabs, video content is starting to reign the marketing world. This is nothing new, but with many companies being slow to adopt due to the fear that video projects require major budgets, this continues to be important to iterate. 

“Video is helpful to explain your business, create visual stories, and raise the profile of the product or service you deliver. People want to invest when they understand your value proposition,” says Caroline Sawamoto, Principal and Co-founder of irlabs.

Video content is not the only quantifier in this new age of digital communication. The quality of your video, editing, lighting, and content sends a subliminal message to anyone in your investor relations circle. High quality videos give off a sense of professionalism, attention to detail, and overall care for your business that shaky, poorly edited, or quickly thrown together videos can’t recreate.

As you gear up to start preparing your video shoot, here is a simple guide to help you stay on track and get the best out of your investor relations videos:

Find the right videographer

Videographers vary in style, workflow, and specialties. Do you research, review their portfolios, and make sure that the content that they make will align with your brand and business. Reviewing their portfolio allows you to see what they have created for others and compare it to your own vision. Pro tip - find someone who operates within the same industry as you as they are likely seasoned in bring storytelling visions like yours to life. Making sure that you have a friendly and efficient working relationship with your videographer is also important, as you will be spending ample time working, creating, and collaborating.

Find inspiration

When looking through a portfolio, take note of the things that you like, and the things that you don’t. The best inspiration will come from companies like your own, so take a look at what your competitors are doing and find examples of what you want to maintain and how you would like to differentiate. It’s also a good idea to look at companies that you admire, even if they don’t work in the same industry. You can pick up on different creative ideas, storytelling points, or even video angles and editing that might be ahead of the curve for your industry – positioning yourself as an innovator by using outside-of-the-box ideas. However you choose to find your inspiration, keep in mind that it is simply a guide and not something to copy and paste with your own content. When you’re delivering this inspiration to the professional team (videographers, directors, editors etc.), make sure you’re clear on what you consider inspiration versus expectation.

Set clear expectations

It’s important to remember that you’re building video content to tell a story for investors, and that story needs to be clear and accurately delivered. Make sure that your videographer—and everyone involved in creating this content – understands your story. Give each person working on this final project enough information to craft the right video for your company. Details such as branding guidelines, company vision and values, key competitors, and overall marketing goals will help streamline the process. When everyone is working towards a collective and well-understood goal, you’re less likely to be spending valued time with excessive editing and revising. Being clear on your intentions can also involve providing your creative team with restrictions and expectations such as budget, timeline, cost, revision allowances, etc. We highly recommend getting all these expectations in writing so that you can keep communication clear and efficient and save the energy for the fun and creative pieces of video projects.

With clear direction, an investor relations strategy, and the right content team by your side, high-quality video can bring climactic traction to your business. Still not sure where to start? irlabs provides personalized support for designing and executing investor relations programs, including the ideation and creation of successful video content. View our Services or reach out at happyinvestors@irlabs.ca.