You’re spending 13 hours per week on video content that nobody watches.
Two to three hours brainstorming ideas. Five hours shooting footage on your phone. Another five hours wrestling with editing software you barely understand. That’s an entire workday every week, and the results don’t justify the investment.
The data confirms what you already suspect: 39% of marketers cite finding time for video creation as their biggest challenge, while 33% of non-video marketers name lack of time as their primary obstacle to adoption.
But time consumption is only half the problem.
The Quality-Trust Barrier You Can’t Cross
When Quick Dam came to us, they were creating cell phone videos and animated content for their flood protection products. The videos existed, but they weren’t meeting a critical business requirement: Amazon’s demand for unique product videos for each SKU on their storefront.
Their DIY approach couldn’t scale to cover their entire product line, and the quality didn’t meet Amazon’s professional content standards. Amazon now requires minimum resolution of 1280×720 pixels, 16:9 aspect ratio, and content that “enhances customer satisfaction and upholds Amazon’s professional content requirements.”
This isn’t about perfectionism. 87% of consumers say video quality impacts their trust in a brand. Consumers can quickly tell the difference between something poorly put together and something made with professional care.
We restructured Quick Dam’s entire video strategy. We scripted videos with hired live spokespersons delivering voiceover lines to camera while we captured B-roll footage of products in action. By developing two separate spokesperson-driven video series for their indoor and outdoor product lines, we gave them a complete video library that met Amazon’s requirements across every SKU.
The production quality gap creates a trust barrier that directly impacts conversion potential. Sites using video content achieve a 4.8% conversion rate compared to just 2.9% for those without video. That’s a 65% improvement, but only when the video meets professional quality standards.
The Infrastructure Cost Nobody Calculates
Building in-house video capability requires $50,000-$100,000 annually just for a single videographer, plus $5,000-$100,000+ in equipment. Professional video production for small businesses ranges from $1,500-$7,000 per video, with most explainer videos and social media content falling within $2,000-$3,000 and requiring 2-4 week timelines.
The math doesn’t favor DIY at scale.
When Denali Electronics, a motorcycle off-road lighting manufacturer, transitioned from utilizing interns and an internal team to working with us, the shift wasn’t just about saving money. It was about accessing production capabilities they could never build internally.
We brought professional equipment that enabled car-to-car tracking shots showcasing their lighting systems in action. These weren’t production techniques their internal team could develop or execute. The equipment investment alone would have been prohibitive, and the specialized knowledge required to execute dynamic vehicle shots takes years to develop.
Data shows that outsourcing business tasks saves 40% on operation costs and increases profitability by 4%. Managed video services function as strategic infrastructure investment, not an expense line item.
The Sporadic Content Trap
Your DIY video efforts look like this:
-
Posting only when you think of it or have time
-
Lacking continuity between videos
-
Missing a developed brand voice guiding the videos
-
Failing to tell a continued story through focused video marketing strategy
-
Not understanding how video marketing fits into your broader marketing plan
This sporadic, unfocused approach produces content without strategy. You’re not mapping videos to your marketing funnel. You’re not considering how your brand voice fits into each piece of communication. You’re not thinking comprehensively about the appropriate language and approach for each step of the customer journey.
When Ocean State Air Solutions partnered with Mitsubishi Electric on creative content, they had an opportunity to tell a compelling story. Aquidneck Island had suffered from a major gas outage during one of the coldest winters on record.
We developed a three-part video series that documented how electrification could benefit homeowners, the environment, and local infrastructure while positioning Ocean State Air Solutions as the trusted partner for installing electric heating equipment. We worked with a State Representative to explain how electrification reduces demand on gas heat systems.
The narrative thread across three videos created continuity that sporadic content never achieves.
Without a dedicated video marketing partner, they wouldn’t have been able to capture the necessary interviews with the State Rep, coordinate with Mitsubishi on messaging, and edit the content into a cohesive story. The series produced a 35% gain in website traffic and video views.
The data validates this approach: 78% of businesses experienced increased website traffic after implementing videos, and articles with video get 80% more traffic than articles without.
The ROI Measurement Gap
You’re tracking video views. That’s a vanity metric.
63% of video marketers measure ROI solely by video views, the most superficial metric available. Meanwhile, 60% of businesses should be tracking leads and clicks as primary success factors.
When we created a video marketing campaign for Ocean State Air Solutions centered on giving away a whole house dehumidifier and installation valued at $20,000, we structured the campaign to capture real business intelligence.
People responding to the giveaway told us exactly what was wrong with their house, whether they owned their house or rented, and provided detailed descriptions of their HVAC challenges. We generated a direct lead list of 160 individuals in their service area, each with an exact description of how Ocean State Air Solutions could help them.
That’s ROI measurement. Not views. Not impressions. Qualified leads with specific problem descriptions that connect directly to service offerings.
DIY video efforts fail on two fronts: they count only video views, and they don’t structure campaigns to capture lead data in the first place. You’re not building measurement frameworks into your video strategy because you’re focused on just getting the video published.
For businesses that implement proper video strategy with quality execution, the results are dramatic: 83% of video marketers report video has directly increased sales, 82% report increased web traffic, 85% report lead generation improvements, and 93% report increased brand awareness.
But this performance gap only materializes with strategic, quality-focused execution.
The Ideation Process You’re Missing
Your 2-3 hours of ideation focuses on what you want to say. We focus on how content fits into your marketing funnel, what brand voice should guide the communication, and what language and approach matches each stage of the customer journey.
This isn’t about creativity. It’s about strategic alignment.
When we handle ideation for clients, we’re considering all aspects of their business, mapping content comprehensively across awareness, consideration, and decision stages. We’re thinking about how each video builds on the previous one to tell a continued story.
Your DIY ideation produces individual videos. Our ideation produces video systems that work together to move prospects through your funnel.
The time savings are significant. A video marketing partner can off-load 8 of your 13+ hours per week by handling ideation, editing, and streamlining the shooting process. But the real value isn’t time savings—it’s the strategic framework that produces measurable business outcomes instead of sporadic content.
The Shift Is Already Happening
While 59% of businesses still create video in-house, the data reveals the struggle: 33% lack time, 20% find it too expensive, and 15% don’t understand where to start. Only 21% of small businesses choose to outsource despite documented benefits.
This suggests most small businesses remain trapped in the DIY struggle—sporadic posting, lacking continuity, missing brand voice development, and failing to connect video to broader marketing strategy.
But 49% of businesses are currently using or are open to using a video production agency. The shift toward managed services reflects a recognition that video marketing requires specialized knowledge, professional equipment, strategic planning, and measurement frameworks that DIY approaches cannot provide.
Companies utilizing video marketing grew 49% faster in revenue than those who didn’t. The performance gap between strategic video marketing and sporadic DIY efforts continues to widen.
What This Means For Your Business
You have three options:
1. Continue DIY efforts and accept sporadic, unfocused content that consumes 13+ hours weekly while producing minimal business results.
2. Build internal capability by investing $50,000-$100,000 annually in a videographer plus equipment, accepting the limitations of fixed internal resources during seasonal demand and campaign launches.
3. Partner with managed video services that provide strategic planning, professional production, and measurement frameworks that connect video performance to business outcomes.
The infrastructure gap isn’t closing. Platform requirements from Amazon and other distributors continue to raise quality standards. Algorithm changes demand specialized knowledge that internal teams can’t maintain. The competitive disadvantage of sporadic, low-quality video content grows more pronounced each quarter.
Tired of spending entire workdays on video content that doesn’t drive business results?
We work with small businesses to develop comprehensive video marketing strategies that map content to your marketing funnel, maintain brand voice consistency, and track performance beyond vanity metrics. Our process handles ideation, production, and editing while you focus on running your business.
The question isn’t whether video marketing works. The data proves it does. The question is whether your current approach produces the measurable outcomes your business needs to grow.