How to stand out from the competition as a Video Production Company

Introduction

The video production world is getting more competitive by the day. Thousands of talented filmmakers are graduating from film school each year, equipment costs continue to drop, and it can feel like new videographers and production companies are popping up everywhere. But here's the truth that most people miss – there's never been a greater appetite for video content than right now.

The real problem isn't market saturation or shrinking budgets – it's that nearly every video professional is marketing in exactly the same way, fighting over a tiny fraction of potential clients. In this Deep Dive, we explore Blue Ocean Strategy and how it can completely transform your approach to winning work.

What You'll Learn

Blue Ocean Strategy, covered in detail in the book of the same name by Renee Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim, is one of two key concepts vital for video production professionals to understand. When coupled with The Buyer's Journey, it provides a completely different view of your business:

• The Red Ocean Problem – Why 99% of video professionals are competing for just 1% of potential clients, and how this drives prices down and makes winning work increasingly difficult.
• Blue Ocean Strategy Explained – The concept of creating and capturing uncontested market space, thereby making the competition irrelevant and allowing you to charge what you're worth.
• Connecting to the Buyer's Journey – How understanding the three stages (awareness, consideration, decision) reveals the massive untapped opportunity that your competitors are completely ignoring.

Why This Matters for Video Production Companies

Think about your current marketing collateral – your website, showreel, case studies, and portfolio. All of this content speaks to people who have already decided they need video and are now choosing who to work with. That's the decision stage, and it represents less than 1% of your potential prospect base at any given moment.

Meanwhile, every other production company and freelancer is doing exactly the same thing, creating massive competition where the buyer holds all the power. The result? It comes down to price, pitch processes become lengthy and costly, and conversion rates stay frustratingly low.

The Blue Ocean Opportunity

The other 99% of your target market – people with the same challenges, goals, and aspirations – are sitting in the awareness and consideration stages. They need a nudge. They have problems that video could solve, but they haven't made that connection yet. And crucially, none of your competitors are talking to them.

By implementing Blue Ocean Strategy alongside the Buyer's Journey framework, you can leave the bloody red ocean of competition behind and open up a huge, clear blue ocean where you're the only voice reaching these prospects. This is the secret to unlocking long-term contracts with clients who respect your expertise and value your creative direction.

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:00
The video production world is getting more and more competitive. I wouldn't say it's saturated, but it's certainly getting more competitive. Thousands of people are rolling out of film school each and every year. The cost of equipment is coming down by the day, meaning the barriers to entry into the industry are getting lower and lower. It can feel like there's videographers, filmmakers, video production companies popping up left, right, and center.

00:00:23:00 - 00:00:52:00
Budgets are being slashed. I hear you cry. The economy is tightening. We're heading into a recession. Nope. That's all categorically not true. There's actually never before been such an insatiable appetite for video. Marketing folk, comm specialists, business owners, recruiters all see the power of video. They read all the blogs. They listen to all the podcasts. They watch all the videos. They see all the social media sites putting video at the center of their platforms. They're prepared and wanting to invest into it.

00:00:52:00 - 00:01:20:00
But they as buyers are in the strongest position they've ever been in. In a competitive environment where everyone is marketing in the same way, the only thing that can budge is price. There are hundreds of talented video production companies or freelancers or cinematographers or whatever you want to call yourself in each and every city in the world. So no wonder it's getting more and more difficult to land projects. And no wonder it's even more difficult to land projects that pay what you deserve.

00:01:20:00 - 00:01:53:00
Well, you're just doing it wrong. There's a giant untapped blue ocean that contains 99% of your target market that your competitors are completely ignoring. And it could be just you talking to those prospects whilst your competition fights it out for the scraps, the 1% and the unprofitable projects. So, in today's deep dive, I'm going to show you exactly how to uncover your big blue ocean and how to totally transform your own marketing blue ocean strategy and how video professionals can use it to completely eradicate the competition.

00:01:55:00 - 00:02:22:00
So, first thing is first, what is blue ocean strategy? Well, blue ocean strategy is one of the two key concepts that it's vital for video production professionals to understand. It works hand-in-hand with the buyer's journey which if you aren't 100% sure about that subject I have another deep dive on that concept which I've linked to below. But to serve as a very quick summary of the buyer's journey, our prospects go through the three stages of the buyer's journey.

00:02:22:00 - 00:02:56:00
The awareness stage where they become problem or opportunity aware, the consideration stage where they become solution aware, and then the decision stage where they become provider aware. They go through these three stages before they engage with us and become a client. Now, the typical production professional will only ever be set up to sell to those that are in the decision stage, the people that have been through that journey, have decided that they need a video, and are now looking for the person or the team to create that content for them.

00:02:56:00 - 00:03:20:00
The amount of your potential prospect base that are in that stage at any given moment in time is less than 1%. But all of your competition and pretty much every filmmaker, videographer or video production company in the world are fighting it out for that 1% which obviously makes it incredibly competitive. The buyer has the advantage. So ultimately it comes down to price. So that's a very quick recap of the buyer's journey, but as I've mentioned, the full deep dive on that subject is linked below.

00:03:20:00 - 00:03:59:00
So assuming that you've watched that video in full, this is where the enormity of that concept hits home. And if you haven't watched that video but think that you get it, you don't. So go and watch that video. Otherwise, you're wasting your time here. So this is where a lot of production company owners or freelancers have their aha moment. And this is what we call blue ocean strategy. Now I first learned this concept when I was running my own production company. And this concept linking this back to my business ultimately shaped my belief about the industry and set me off on the journey to building long-term contracts through my consulting offering and then ultimately teaching this to thousands of production professionals around the world.

00:03:59:00 - 00:04:41:00
I was like any other production company owner before I stumbled upon this concept. I had a great team. We were creating brilliant work. But in the grand scheme of things, we were average, converting probably 40% of the projects that we pitched on to paid projects, which wasn't bad, but wasn't great. However, just like almost every single production company and freelancer out there, we were struggling to generate enough leads to really kick on. I was tired with the project by project way of working and all the stress that came with it. So when I shut that production company down and escaped the stress, I made a promise to my wife that I will never allow myself to fall victim to that trap again.

00:04:41:00 - 00:05:27:00
Like I said, I knew of Blue Ocean Strategy, but it wasn't built into my production company. But when I made that promise to my wife and implemented the learnings from Blue Ocean Strategy, that's where our world turned around. Now this concept is covered in detail in a book called funnily enough blue ocean strategy which was written by Renee Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim back in 2004 and that book comes highly recommended but here's a very quick overview of the book taken from the blue ocean strategy website. Blue ocean strategy is about creating and capturing uncontested market space thereby making the competition irrelevant. It is based on the view that market boundaries and industry structure are not a given and can be reconstructed by the actions and beliefs of industry players.

00:05:27:00 - 00:06:11:00
Now, I've read this book about eight times and I still dip into it every so often. It's become a major part of my teaching. When we coupled the buyer's journey with Blue Ocean Strategy, we have a completely different view of our business and in particular how we can attract and convert huge numbers of prospects that are perfect for our business. By implementing the blue ocean strategy, you leave the big bloody red ocean that is full of your competitors who are fighting it out for a very small percentage of your target audience and you open up a huge clear blue ocean that allows you to compete where the rest of your target audience is, but without all the competition. This enables you to charge what you are worth and eradicates the lengthy, time-consuming, and sometimes costly pitch process altogether.

00:06:11:00 - 00:07:04:00
But it's when you link this back to the buyer's journey that the penny drops. We know that our buyer or our prospect will first identify or become aware of an issue or an opportunity that they need to fix or achieve. If your prospect is a marketing professional, this could be that their sales numbers are dropping or their previous marketing efforts just aren't delivering as they once did or there's a new competitor in town or they've got a new product to launch. It could be anything. But once they've identified that issue or opportunity, they then start to research ways in which they can fix that challenge or achieve that opportunity. Again, for a marketing professional, this could be radio advertising, SEO, pay-per-click campaigns, PR, or perhaps video.

00:07:04:00 - 00:07:42:00
Then, and only then, once they have identified the route that they are going to take, the vehicle that is going to take them to their goal, do they look for the person or the business that's going to help them do it. Now relate this back to how the typical video production company market. Think about your own marketing collateral right now. What do you have? A website, a couple of social media channels, a showreel, a few case studies, a portfolio section on your website. That's all great and don't get me wrong. They're all important when the time is right. But what is that content on your website actually doing? What are you saying? Who are you talking to? And what are you talking about?

00:07:42:00 - 00:08:12:00
There's a high chance that you have your showreel on the homepage of your website. Maybe a link to your past projects or portfolio. Maybe even pictures of you and your team. The office dog. Be honest. Do you? Again, it's fine if you do, but who are you really talking to here? You're talking to someone in the decision stage. Someone that knows that they want a video. Someone that's coming to check you out to see if you're the person or team to create it for them. Now, take a look at some of your competition and see what's on their website. Same thing, right? And the rest of the competition, all of the other production companies and freelancers that you can think of, they all do the same thing throughout all of their marketing.

00:08:12:00 - 00:08:54:00
Now, let's stop looking at your competition. Let's go a bit deeper here. This is a deep dive after all. Let's take a look at your showreel. What does it do? What's its purpose? To show how talented you are, right? To show the level of production that you can deliver. To show how tight your edits are. To show past clients that have put their trust in you. It will do and that is the purpose of a showreel. But now let's link this back to the buyer's journey. Who is that content going to appeal to? Who is it going to work on? People in the awareness, consideration, or decision stage. It's the decision stage, isn't it? The people that have already decided that video is going to be the vehicle that's going to help them to achieve their goal.

00:08:54:00 - 00:09:44:00
And this is what nearly every single video production company or freelancer does. Now, why is this important? Because it means that you are only ever going to be able to sell to people that are in the decision stage at that particular moment in time. So, it's a tiny percentage. We're talking about 1% of all the marketing professionals or business owners in your area. And this issue compounds because all of your competition are pitching, quoting, proposing to win the work from those prospects, too. That's the bloody red ocean. You're in it. And guess what? Your prospects or those marketing professionals in this example know that there are tons of talented production companies, videographers, filmmakers in each and every city in the world.

00:09:44:00 - 00:10:27:00
The barriers to entry to the market have dropped significantly in recent years which means that there are literally hundreds if not thousands of people that are supremely creative, talented and reliable doing what you were doing. So what happens? It becomes incredibly competitive and the buyer, your prospect is in a strong position. So ultimately it comes down to price and that's not a good place to be in. Massive effort, massive competition, low conversion rates, and low profit. So that's the 1% of your target audience. What about the other 99%? What are they up to? They have the same challenges, goals, and aspirations as the 1%, right? Where are they? Well, they're in the big blue ocean where none of your competitors are.

00:10:27:00 - 00:11:06:00
They still have the exact same goals, opportunities, and issues as the 1% that are in the decision stage, but they just aren't quite there yet. They just need a nudge. None of your competitors are bothering with these people, and that creates a huge opportunity. Coupling the buyers journey with the blue ocean strategy methodology is what our marketing needs to be built around. This is what allows production professionals like you to charge what you're worth, attract a constant flow of profitable projects to your business, and dramatically reduce the time, energy, and money that's wasted on the incredibly competitive pitching, proposal, or quoting process.

00:11:06:00 - 00:12:06:00
This is the secret to unlocking long-term contracts with clients that you love working with, but also with clients that love working with you. Clients who respect your view. Clients who look to you as the expert. Clients who go with your creative direction, suggestion, ideas, concepts, and knowledge. This is what has helped thousands of production professionals just like you to build a profitable, enjoyable business. And we achieve this by implementing the framework that is called the lead generation machine. So, if this has resonated with you at all, if you can see how powerful the blue ocean strategy concept will be for your video business, I want to give you something that will allow you to create a constant stream of opportunities that are perfect for you into your video business.

00:12:06:00 - 00:12:09:00
Blue Ocean Strategy and The Buyer's Journey are what my book, The Lead Generation Machine, is based around. And you can get it for free along with my other two books and the video versions of those books where I walk you through every single step that you need to take to ignite your video business on screen. Plus, there's a ton of resources, worksheets, and templates. And it's all completely free. So, if you want to sort your marketing, sales, and retention out once and for all, hit the link below and get access to all of that for free right now.