Videos can be a powerful tool to engage your audience online. Some stats suggest it can increase conversions by 30%, increase time on site by up to 2 minutes, and increase ticket sales by 13% (Source). 

But a question frequently arises about how professional a video needs to be to do its job. There are two sides to this coin: on one side, you worry that if it is too casual, it hurts your brand; on the other, if it’s too professional may feel inauthentic. These are worthy concerns with real impacts. 

The critical consideration is matching your video’s personality with its production value. What do I mean? Making a conversational video talking directly to your audience should be a little more casual in its production value. Think of how strange it would be to have a conversation with a friend in real life, but professional lights and a backdrop surrounded them – it would feel impersonal. On the flip side, imagine you went to a keynote presentation, and the speaker didn’t have a mic or speakers and was standing off to the side of the audience in a shadow. That would be equally strange. Your video content is the same, even though it can feel very different. 

By matching your production value to the personality of your video, the message becomes more important than the style, and you want your audience to focus on the content. 

Here are some other quick examples of how this plays out: (video pun intended)

• An animated explainer video should be very well done, not cheesy or hokey. We recommend Grey Duck for this kind of work.
• An ad video could be shot on an iPhone if you keep it personal and casual.
• You can equally sell a product or service that is $10 or $10,000 with a casual video if that is the type of connection you are trying to make. 
• If you are doing a voiceover-driven ad, make it professional and not casual. 

It would be best to determine how you are trying to connect to your audience first and then base your production value on that choice. It isn’t about what you can get away with to check the video box (see cheap and homespun). It is not about making something overly showy because you have the budget (see overproduced and potentially impersonal). 

Takeaway:
Start with who you are trying to reach and how and build from there. You will miss your goal entirely if you don’t match your video’s production value to its personality.