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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

How do you promote/advertise a video production company? How do you find clients?

R

Robert Bentley

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One filmmaker friend of mine, contacted around 300 small businesses in the area to see if any wanted a commercial, he didn't get any responses back. He contacted around 300 realtors to see if any wanted videos of their houses to help sell them, no responses back. Either he's just a really bad salesman, his portfolio is lacking, or his approach is really wrong, or the market is dead. I'm currently in the same boat now as I ramp up my commercial business. :redface:


It's ironic to ask this question, because technically we should all know how to get customers because we advertise our services as making videos to help others get customers. The obvious answer would be to make a viral video for your company, just like the ones you do for other companies, lol. But I guess we have more limited funds than some $100+ million dollar companies.
 
This has been my experience...

Blasts....never work in my opinion...at least not immediately What does work is building a reputation for yourself...by constantly keeping your name in front of their eyes. Small business is about relationships. Tell him to join local business organizations that meet regularly. Offer to do some seminars/talks on the subject. Nothing is ever guaranteed and it is always and uphill battle. And it may take a while.

Remember that saying "If it were easy, everyone would be doing it"

Eventually he will start seeing some results. But again...you are not going to blast out emails and see any major results.
Even in traditional sales...it takes months or years before someone calls you back. Now remember the other old saying...
"Out of sight, out of mind." So he needs to stay out there and involved. Maybe donate services to worthy charities that could
use some video work and couldn't afford to be your client normally.

Tell him to hang in there and start building relationships...not just one sided relationships but good contacts. Have a good looking portfolio too.

I try and base my business on that Zig Ziglar quote.

"You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want".

Sorry don't mean to sound like a motivational speaker but....thats my philosophy on it. The only way to do it is to keep busting it and work hard and smart.
 
That's quite a lot of phone call he made. But with that amount at least some will be interested and make it a go. Maybe something is wrong with his approach. When i make 50 phone calls, at least 10 will be interested.

Blast works for me tho. After blast, i normally follow up thru phone call. They are glad to receive the email and want to discuss further.

But you obviously need to be careful with cold call. It rarely works, unless you really make a research about the company and really understand their need and how to help them. Mouth to Mouth Reference is the best so far

R
 
The market is alive where I am. How does one get a start? Easy. And not so easy.

1. Get one client. Make that client happy.
2. That client calls you back a second time. Make him/her happy again.
3. Client is rather happy with your work at this point, so now that you are referred to his friends and colleagues.
4. A person your client reccomended calls up. Now you have 2 clients. Yippee.
4. In the meantime, talk to everybody you know about what work you have done recently, what you are working on now and what you are aiming for in the future.
5. Keep busy. Always keep busy. If you are doing nothing for a week on end, then do something. I have gotten work in the strangest ways by simply just working... doing something...anything.
6. Be patient.
 
Based on my experience, Ivan's pretty much hit it on the head. But prior to getting that first client, I was working my ass off doing my own stuff and it didn't necessarily relate to corporate. That stuff (a personal snowboarding vacation video of all things) got noticed by my buddy's mom who worked on the board of a charity who was looking for a videographer for one of their charity events. Impressed them on that project and they asked me to work on subsequent projects (some corporate).

Through networking and meeting people after that, I got my first big, steady corporate client. Someone from there saw my stuff through a mutual acquaintance and they liked what they saw. I would even go so far to say that they took a leap of faith with me because they were looking for some green screen stuff and it had to look really good (I was competing with the big media boys/girls in town).

I did my research (not having done green screen before) and nailed it so now they can depend on me for whatever video work is necessary. The lesson learned for me was it's all about relationships. The old saying it's not what you know but who you know really applies in my case. The fact that I can crank out deliverables that wow them is just a plus. I had my Scarlet screw up on a few shoots, which really tested those relationships but I managed to prevail in the end.

My advice would be to find out who your target market is and find a way to meet people who work in it (ex. trade shows - you don't necessarily need a booth, just show up as an attendee and be social). It took me a few years of hard work to break in but all the effort was worth it in the end. Good luck!
 
Ivan Kovax said:
The market is alive where I am. How does one get a start? Easy. And not so easy.

1. Get one client. Make that client happy.
2. That client calls you back a second time. Make him/her happy again.
3. Client is rather happy with your work at this point, so now that you are referred to his friends and colleagues.
4. A person your client reccomended calls up. Now you have 2 clients. Yippee.
4. In the meantime, talk to everybody you know about what work you have done recently, what you are working on now and what you are aiming for in the future.
5. Keep busy. Always keep busy. If you are doing nothing for a week on end, then do something. I have gotten work in the strangest ways by simply just working... doing something...anything.
6. Be patient.
Click to expand...

7. Keep adding all these new jobs you get to your reel
8. When these referrals from Ivans method start asking to see your work, show them your reel.
 
In general - once you have a few customers through referrals, one other option to find new work is to research and engage with businesses in a specific field - especially if this field seems to have blue sky opportunities.

In the past I have done this by literally just reading the newspaper, and looking for industries/businesses that have had articles written about them recently in the business section which said something positive about the sector that I thought they may want to communicate on an ongoing basis.

This lead to cold calling the company, but with the 'lead' of being able to mention the newspaper article and wanting to talk to someone in marketing about it.

Each time we have approached an industry like this, we have tended to approach 20 or so business in a particular sector and gotten one small job out of it. It's never lead to a big repeat client (those have ALWAYS been built off existing relationships or in the broadcast sector regular lobbying as our reel has expanded). But what it has done is broadened our reel to show a more diverse array of corporate work, which can be used to show clients we have a depth of communication experience across a wide variety of subject matter.

This is sometimes helpful when pitching new clients.

So instead of thinking 'everyone needs video' and mass marketing, it's sometimes better to remember timing is everyone - 'who needs video right now?' should be your question. Who has a trade show coming up, a big change in their industry happening, a new product coming to market, new legislation which might affect how their products can be used etc.

Finding potential leads with a pressing need, based on finding their 'good news' stories and offering to expand upon them, should improve your chances dramatically of getting a new on off job.

Of those one off jobs, maybe 5% may lead to a repeat client I reckon (because no matter how good a service you provide, you went looking for them, so even once they say yes they are going to feel like they have been 'sold' a product, not found a partner to do business with, unless you call them literally the same day they had a meeting to discuss finding a video provider).

But researching self qualifying leads (i.e "I read this in the newspaper about your company/industry, then went to your website and found you didn't have any video up there about it - I could help you solve that problem") has, in my experience, created a success rate that makes it a worthwhile tactic when the regular client referrals have slowed down.
 
You also have to look at the work of the guys who currently serve the clients you want and compare your stuff to theirs... And be brutally honest. Perspective is key to achieving the required level of expertise.

I don't know about you, but I go through periods where I feel my work is pretty good and periods when I feel it is crap. It is the crappy cycle that pushes me to improve. Embrace your inner critic. If you figure out how to do that without beating yourself up, please let us know how you manage it. ;-)
 
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