Your Guide to Videographer Marketing: 7 Impactful Tips

With the explosive growth of social media platforms over the past decade, video content is more important than ever. Over 2 billion people will watch video content through a device each year. For this reason, more and more businesses are opting to create video content. This type of content is more engaging and effective at capturing conversions. However, increased demand for video content has also led to a meteoric rise in competition. Anyone can visit an electronics store, purchase a camera, and start a videographer business.

This in-depth guide covers seven videographer marketing tips to help you stand out. So let’s dive right in.

1. Conduct Market Research and Target Specific Markets

An essential part of a videographer’s marketing strategy is conducting market research. Creating a foolproof marketing plan to win clients will be impossible without adequately understanding your target market and competitors. Marketing research shows your video production company what kinds of services are potentially profitable. It also teaches you what your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses are. So how can I conduct market research?

Know Your Competition – Videographer Marketing

First, find a few key competitors and look at their portfolios. By looking at their portfolios, you can see what clients they serve and what videos they produce. Then, watch the videos in the portfolio and note what the other video production company does well and what they could improve. Also, take notes on their filmmaking styles.

Reach Out to Potential Clients

If you have a comprehensive list of suggested improvements for a specific video you see, you can email the client and explain these proposed changes. Introduce your videography company in the email and see if they’re willing to have a phone call to discuss future opportunities.

Know Your Target Audience

Getting in touch with your target audience and asking them key questions is always good. These questions include what they want in a video production company and their preferred content style. You can also ask them how much they typically charge so that you can set your pricing model. Collecting data and information about your target audience will optimize future client outreach and video creation tasks as you run marketing campaigns. This talk about data and reports raises one vital question: who is your target audience?

If you don’t know your target audience yet, you must determine your area of expertise first.

Different styles of content include:

• Commercials
• Social content videos
• Explainer and tutorial videos
• Product videos
• Product testimonials
• Skits
• Animation
• Narrative

Determine your specialty and then begin conducting market research on your target audience.

2. Showcase Your Value – Videographer Marketing

If a potential client can’t see any examples of your work, what are the chances they will hire you? It’s doubtful that they’ll choose you solely based on your word. Therefore, you must ensure your previous videos are apparent and easy to find. This exposure involves creating a dedicated website for your videography company. You can also post your best examples on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

When you create your website, it’s essential to ensure it’s well-designed and highly functional. Well-made websites are exponentially more effective at converting potential clients than poorly-made ones. Along with showcasing your best work, you must build a value proposition that clearly explains your specialty. This way, clients can easily understand what content they expect from you. So, think about your value proposition and focus on a specific keyword. For example, if you specialize in animation videos, bring that specialization to your website and social media accounts.

The key steps here are to:

• Invest in a stellar website
• Create your value proposition
• Build your portfolio

The following brand guidelines are also essential to start building a brand image. These guidelines involve creating a proper name for your videographer company and a logo to go with it. First, you can design your logo or look on Fiverr or Upwork for affordable graphic designers. Then, you can quickly build a beautiful portfolio website with Wix or Squarespace and toss your new logo for the world to see.

To create your videographer company’s name, search for available domains on NameCheap or GoDaddy. A well-branded videographer company like “Lighthouse Video Production Co.” sounds much more professional than “Mark’s Video Company.”

3. Build a Demo Reel – Videographer Marketing

In addition to your portfolio videos of your past content, we recommend building a demo reel. A demo reel is your video specifically used to display your skillset to potential clients. It’s a culmination of all your video production, video editing, and video service abilities in a single video. This reel is significant because you’ll send it to your potential clients. You can also display it on the homepage of your website for everyone to see.

How long should a demo reel be?

Technically speaking, the length of the video should depend on what type of content you create. However, we recommend keeping a demo video to 30 seconds. While 30 seconds may feel too short, it’s the perfect length for the video footage because most potential clients will watch the entire video. If the video is too long, some potential clients will close it before it finishes.

Furthermore, 30 seconds is longer than you think. For example, most standard-length television commercials are around 30 seconds. If 30 seconds is too short for your niche, you can make the video up to three minutes long. However, one to two minutes would be better for showcasing how you can meet your client’s specific video needs.

The demo reel should include the following:

• Your best work
• Recent work
• Content that’s relevant to your area of expertise
• Your personality, creativity, and originality

Once you finish creating your demo reel, please send it to your most trusted friends and ask for an unbiased opinion. Take note of their suggestions and comments and make changes if necessary. You can post your digital marketing demo reel as soon as you finalize it on your website’s homepage. You can also send it to potential clients you’re in contact with currently. Remember, the demo reel aims to showcase your best skills while engaging the viewer. After watching the video, the viewer should be captivated and want to hire you.

Related: How to Become a Freelance Videographer

4. Networking is Essential – Videographer Marketing

Since you own an independent video production company, networking is everything. Networking is developing professional contacts by building genuine relationships with others. It involves reaching out to potential clients, honing your communication skills, and learning about their company and what kind of content they want. Even if they aren’t interested in your services, staying friendly and in touch is essential.

You never know when one of your contacts will reach out to you for work, so it’s essential to maintain a vast network. A single client has the potential to dictate the success of your video production company. By giving you a lot of work or referring you to other clients, your relationship-building skills are an essential marketing tool to develop. Therefore, learning how to draft a personable and professional email is vital. An unprofessional email filled with grammatical errors can instantly turn away potential clients.

How to Start Building Your New Network of Connections

You can start with past clients as well as friends and family. Reach out to your current network and ask them if they know anybody who needs video content creation services. Additionally, you can ask other videographers and business owners how they’re finding clients. As long as they don’t operate in the same niche as you, they should be willing to help.

However, the number one networking tip is to be genuine. Potential clients will disappear with the wind if you appear desperate or needy. On the other hand, you have a much higher chance of getting hired if you appear professional, honest, and authentic.

Once you’ve exhausted your current network, you can move on to the list of clients you found during step 1 of this guide in your market research. We recommend cold emailing clients and asking them if they’re interested in a phone call. If the client is in the same city as you, going for coffee is even better. Shaking hands over coffee is an excellent way to build solid contacts for your network.

5. Request Referrals and Display Them Proudly – Videographer Marketing

If you have any previous clients who thoroughly enjoyed your work, it’s time to reach out to them to request a referral. Social proof marketing goes a long way in convincing new clients to hire you in the current competitive in-house videographer environment.

Why is Social Proof Necessary?

Let’s say your friend went to a new restaurant and told you how amazing it was. The odds of you attending the restaurant have increased exponentially because of their review. However, you might never go if your friend never mentioned the restaurant. Social proof is why you read product reviews before purchasing an item online. If someone else who purchased the item loved it, wouldn’t you love it too?

As such, it’s vital to include positive customer testimonials on your video production company’s website. This feedback is a crucial videographer marketing tool that can convert many potential clients into paying customers. In addition, customer testimonials build trust with new contacts and showcase that you create excellent work. We recommend asking your previous client if you can use their name, picture, and company in the testimonial. Once you have some testimonials, you should create a section on your website’s homepage to proudly display them.

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6. Utilize Social Media Outlets – Videographer Marketing

If you’re not active on social media, it’s time to leverage platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Social media platforms allow you to increase your reach instantly. For example, you uploaded one of your best clips, which went viral, gathering hundreds of thousands of views. Because of this, you may receive dozens of messages from potential clients looking to work with you. Social media is so powerful because it allows you to reach people you wouldn’t be able to connect with otherwise. In addition, since most people use social media daily, you open up new opportunities.

Create Content for Your Audience

It isn’t easy to become successful on social media. You must upload consistently and upload content that people want to see. The best thing you can do is focus on one specific niche or style of content. This way, people interested in your particular place have a better chance of finding your page. Since you already have a dedicated website for your portfolio, your social media accounts aim to build brand awareness. Your objective is to create focused social media content to garner more views and build more followers.

Nevertheless, we recommend testing as many different videos as possible. The best platform to begin testing on is TikTok. TikTok exploded in growth due to the pandemic and is now the most robust social media platform. Since TikTok only has video content, its algorithm accurately pinpoints the best viewers for your videos.

7. Treat It Like a Business – Videographer Marketing

The last video marketing tip is to treat it like a business. Since you may have a passion for video production, it’s not uncommon for videographers to treat their company as a hobby. However, treating your work as a hobby is suboptimal because it leads to a lack of professionalism. Treating your videography company as a business involves spending a lot of time:

• Registering your business as an LLC
• Opening a business checking account
• Talking with a professional accountant about self-employed taxes
• Using an invoice app to bill clients
• Using scheduling apps to keep track of important deadlines
• Registering a professional email under your website domain
• Keeping track of income and expenses, and other key metrics

Around 86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. Therefore, there are ample opportunities for you to find clients for your video production company. Appearing professional and as a legitimate business can only increase your odds of getting hired. Furthermore, a professional-client onboarding process can increase the odds of getting hired for future work and being referred to additional clients.

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Conclusion – Videographer Marketing

Following the steps in this videographer marketing guide brings more new clients into your business. The core concept of successful videographer marketing is getting the right people to watch your best content, and this guide helps you do that.

To optimize your business, use Selfgood to save money on essential items like healthcare, insurance, legal help, and financial coaching. In addition, Selfgood ensures that you’re not alone in growing your video production company.