How do I consistently get more video projects?
Feb 16, 2023
Introduction
So you run a production company, or you’re a videographer, or filmmaker, and you notice a gap in your pipeline. And you start to panic.
You've tried cold calling, cold emails, posting on social, asking for referrals, attending networking events. But nothing really ever sticks. Nothing really returns a constant flow of projects.
It's so common in our industry. We work in what has typically been a project by project business model. So when one project comes to an end, you need to find pitch for, win, and deliver the next. And that's tough. That's stressful. That's what causes the feast or famine way of living, where one month you have a ton of opportunities land and you'll be on cloud nine, but the next you’ll have nothing.
So in today's Q&A, we're going to put an end to this. How do I consistently get more video projects?
Links
- Watch: The Buyer's Journey: The most important marketing concept for video production professionals to understand >>>
- Watch: Blue Ocean Strategy and how video professionals can use it to completely eradicate the competition >>>
- Purchase: The Lead Generation Machine for just $7 >>>
Transcript
00:00:00:04 - 00:00:25:20
So you run a production company, or you’re a videographer, or filmmaker, and you notice a gap in your pipeline. And you start to panic. You've tried cold calling, cold emails, posting on social, asking for referrals, attending networking events. But nothing really ever sticks. Nothing really returns a constant flow of projects. It's so common in our industry. We work in what has typically been a project by project business model.
00:00:26:00 - 00:00:45:06
So when one project comes to an end, you need to find pitch for, win, and deliver the next. And that's tough. That's stressful. That's what causes the feast or famine way of living, where one month you have a ton of opportunities land and you'll be on cloud nine, but the next you’ll have nothing. So in today's Q&A, we're going to put an end to this.
00:00:45:15 - 00:00:48:24
How do I consistently get more video projects?
00:00:51:02 - 00:01:12:24
Now, as you may know, I teach marketing, sales and retention strategies to video production professionals, and I'm lucky enough to do this because of my 15 years experience in the industry - building a production company from scratch to being valued at over $20 million, losing it, and then building back stronger. Now, obviously the people that I consult with and teach today come to me because of this very challenge.
00:01:12:24 - 00:01:30:21
They need more projects. They need more clients. They need more profit. They need a system in place that works in the background of their video business, so they can focus on doing what they genuinely love - creating beautiful video content. Now, I'm not going to be able to teach you every step that you need to take in a short Q&A video.
00:01:30:21 - 00:01:57:14
But what I want to do here is to talk you through the marketing strategy, the marketing system, the over 3,000 video production professionals around the world have used to drive a constant stream of opportunities (that are perfect for them) into their video business. And that's what is called The Lead Generation Machine. Now, if after watching this video, you think that this system might be right for you, you can grab that framework and all the steps outlined in detail in my book
00:01:57:19 - 00:02:17:22
that's called, funnily enough, The Lead Generation Machine, and you can get it for just $7 via the link below this video. So, what is The Lead Generation Machine framework? What do you need to do? Well, let's walk through the framework that specifically provides the answer to the title of this video. How do I consistently get more video projects?
00:02:18:00 - 00:02:40:17
Let's start at the beginning. First of all, we need to understand the basics of our marketing and more specifically, the two key concepts that it is vital to understand when it comes to marketing our video production services. Those two concepts are The Buyer’s Journey and Blue Ocean strategy, and I actually have two videos that talk through those concepts in detail, which you can watch via the links below this video.
00:02:41:03 - 00:03:05:04
But to summarize these concepts in a few seconds - we attract prospects that are perfect for us and our business by capturing their attention and making them aware of an issue, or a challenge that they're facing, or an opportunity that they are able to take. By focusing on our prospects at this early stage of The Buyer’s Journey - The Awareness Stage - we ensure that we completely eradicate the competition.
00:03:05:13 - 00:03:35:20
Typically, video production professionals will market with their showreel and some case studies or portfolio pieces, but there's several problems in doing this. First of all, your showreel, or your case studies, or your portfolio pieces, are only ever going to work on people that are ready to buy your services. So they've identified a problem. They've decided that the creation of video content is going to help them. And now they're looking for someone, or some team, to create that content in order to fix their issue or achieve their opportunity.
00:03:36:00 - 00:04:00:09
So they're already in The Decision Stage of The Buyer's Journey. And the number of your prospects in this stage at any given moment in time is less than 1%. And that creates the next issue, because all of your competition will be doing the exact same thing, which puts your prospective client in a very strong position. So ultimately it will come down to price. Massive effort, low conversion rates, low profit.
00:04:00:17 - 00:04:22:19
Not a good place to be. Don't get me wrong, your showreel, your case studies, your portfolio items, your director's cut videos, are all important, but they're important in The Decision Stage. So, because 99% of your target audience are currently outside of The Decision Stage - even though they still have the exact same goals, ambitions, challenges and aspirations as those in the 1% -
00:04:23:01 - 00:04:49:14
by attracting prospects in The Awareness Stage, you're then able to fish in a big blue ocean that's full of your perfect prospects and there's not a competitor in sight. So the rest of The Lead Generation Machine framework is all about building the systems to do exactly that. Obviously, that's a very top level overview of these concepts. But as I've said, I have two videos where I go much deeper into both of these, and the links to those videos are below this video.
00:04:49:24 - 00:05:12:11
Now, once you're clear on those two key concepts, you're then able to truly understand your target audience. Here we need to understand not just who our perfect customer is, but we also need to understand which projects, industries, types of video, are most profitable to us. We also need to understand whether going direct to client, or via an agency, is most profitable.
00:05:12:23 - 00:05:33:21
Now, I'm not saying that you only look to attract the most profitable types of clients, industries, or types of video projects. You may hate a particular industry, or a particular style of video. And it's important that you love what you do. But by doing this, you are able to ensure that whoever you are targeting with your marketing is indeed profitable.
00:05:33:24 - 00:05:51:05
One of the tasks that we run through within The Lead Generation Machine framework is called The Profitability Deep Dive, where we run a report on your past clients and projects, and the very clever formulas within the spreadsheet spit out all the results that you need. This saves you a ton of time and is actually quite an eye opening exercise.
00:05:51:14 - 00:06:14:23
I've actually gone ahead and made that resource available to you below this video, so you can download it and run this exercise yourself. Identifying who our perfect prospect is, is a vital step in this entire process because by doing that and by working through the steps outlined within the book, we get crystal clear on who we're targeting, and that gives us all the answers to the questions that we'll have throughout the rest of the framework.
00:06:15:10 - 00:06:34:11
Once we’re clear on this, we then need to build our marketing systems to work in the background of our business so we can concentrate on doing what we love, creating beautiful video content. So we start creating content, messaging, hooks, that capture our prospects attention. And here's the key part ... If they show any signs of engagement on that content.
00:06:34:11 - 00:06:53:04
So that could be watching a video to 75% completion, clicking on a link, liking, commenting or sharing a social media post, visiting a certain page of your website or a certain blog post, we then know that they are, well, engaged and are someone that we can start a conversation with, or serve our Consideration Stage and Decision Stage content.
00:06:53:17 - 00:07:13:02
By doing it this way, we aren't wasting a ton of time and money serving our showreel, case studies, to people that we think may want to work with us. We're serving our showreel, case studies, to people that we know are primed for our service and are already engaged. This is how we make social media marketing work for us.
00:07:13:09 - 00:07:38:10
Once they show engagement on that content, we can then transition them to an opportunity. And the beautiful thing about this system is that it works in the background of your business. Once it's set up, you don't need to touch it as everything is automated. That's why we go through the ten steps of The Lead Generation Machine framework to ensure that this system is working, optimized, primed, to create a constant flow of opportunities (that are perfect for us) to our business.
00:07:38:10 - 00:08:03:12
So that’s a quick answer to the question in hand and obviously every single step that you need to take to build this into your video business is outlined in my book The Lead Generation Machine. And, as I mentioned earlier, you can get access to that framework for just $7 via the link below. Over 3,000 video production professionals around the world are now using this very system to drive a constant flow of projects and opportunities into their video business.
00:08:03:12 - 00:08:27:01
So in the links below you can get access to that framework and you can also download the resources I've mentioned in this video. And remember, if you'd like to receive marketing, sales and retention hints, tips, step by steps, and training, that are specifically for video production professionals and business owners, you can join over 10,000 video professionals by subscribing to my weekly emails again via the link below.
00:08:27:21 - 00:08:33:21
I hope that's been helpful, but if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below. Have a fantastic day!
