How to convert one-off projects to long-term video content creating clients

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Introduction

One of the biggest challenges that video production company owners, and video freelancers, face is building certainty into their video business.

Our industry has been built on a project-by-project way of working, which means that cash flow is lumpy and you can never really see more than a couple of months down the road.

I’ve got other videos on retainers - how you can build them into your video business, how you can manage and deliver them - but in today’s How-To, we’re going to look at how we win them.

And, as always, I’ve got a few resources available for you to download, which will help you!

How to convert one-off projects to long-term video content creating clients.

Links

• Watch How Do Retainers Work For Video Production Companies And Freelancers?: https://www.timjarvis.online/blog/how-do-retainers-work-for-video-production-companies-and-freelancers

• Purchase the Retain book: https://books.timjarvis.online/retain

• Purchase The Lead Generation Machine book: https://books.timjarvis.online/the-lead-generation-machine

• Purchase the Conversion 90 book: https://books.timjarvis.online/conversion-90

• Sign Up To My Weekly Emails: https://www.timjarvis.online/newsletter-rt

Transcript

00:00:00:02 - 00:00:25:07
One of the biggest challenges that video production company owners and video freelancers face is building certainty into their video business. Our industry has been built on a project by project way of working, which means that cashflow is lumpy and you can never really see more than a couple of months down the road. Now, I've got other videos on retainers - how you can build them into your video business, how you can manage and deliver them.

00:00:25:14 - 00:00:51:18
But in today's How-To session, we're going to look at how we win them. And as always, I've got a few resources available for you to download, which will help you how to convert one off projects to long term video content creating clients. Let's get stuck in. So, how do we win retainers? How do we win long-term contracts that create a recurring revenue stream into our video business?

00:00:51:19 - 00:01:18:00
Well, there are certain things that we need to do, which make this a very simple process to follow. Now, you may or may not know my back story, but back in 2010, I ventured into the world of self-employment. I started as a freelance videographer and quickly transitioned into a fully fledged video production company. I grew the team to 33 full time members of staff working with brands such as Adidas, Nike and Yves St. Laurent.

00:01:18:07 - 00:01:40:02
Then in 2018, that mini empire came crashing down. Once it did, I reviewed everything and there was one thing that was apparently obvious and was the reason for my downfall. I didn't have a system in place to convert one off projects to long term contracts, or retainers. I knew that if I was going to go again, I needed to fix this.

00:01:40:10 - 00:02:02:16
So I met with what must have been 30 marketing agencies, advertising agencies, PR agencies, because they had this locked down. Now, I'm lucky enough to have built very strong relationships with many of the owners of London's biggest agencies. So I spent time with these people. I had calls, lunches, dinners, quizzing them on their business model and how they won and delivered retainers.

00:02:02:17 - 00:02:24:06
I knew that if I could apply their way of working to the video world, well, life would be very different. So I spent a year developing a process in which I, and now you, can win and deliver retainers. And life is somewhat different now. I now have long term contracts in place with brands such as Shell, Deloitte and The International Olympic Committee to name a few.

00:02:24:18 - 00:02:58:20
So what did I do? What did I learn? What's the process? Well, as mentioned earlier in this video, we're going to focus on how you win retainers. I have other videos that are focused on what a retainer should look like for a video business and how you manage those retainers, which I have linked to below this video. But the first step in the process is to win a one off project. And, if you'd like help with that, you might be interested in two of my books, The Lead Generation Machine, which teaches you how to attract a constant flow of opportunities into your video business, and then Conversion 90, which teaches you how to convert over

00:02:58:20 - 00:03:25:23
90% of your opportunities to paid and profitable projects. Both of these books are available in the links below and you can get them for just $7. So assuming that you already have clients, here's the very simple process of converting them to a retainer. We use something that's called The Proactive Pitch. And in the links below, you can use a template document that my students use to proactively pitch the concept of a retainer to their clients.

00:03:26:07 - 00:03:44:15
But the first step is to open up the conversation. There's a high chance that for most of your clients, you've created what we would call Decision Stage content. So that's content that is designed to convert a viewer to an end goal. That end goal could be a sale, or purchase, an inquiry, an opt-in, a subscribe and so on.

00:03:44:24 - 00:04:06:07
And if you've watched any of my other content, you would have heard me bang on about The Buyer's Journey. Obviously, I talk about this a lot to video professionals, because we're very often guilty of only creating Decision Stage content for ourselves. Our showreels, our case studies, our About Us content, our Director's Cut videos, and we expect those to attract and convert prospects to clients.

00:04:06:07 - 00:04:31:23
But we know that this just isn't the case. And if you'd like a far more detailed review of The Buyer's Journey, the link to that video is below, too. But just like this is a huge opportunity for us as video professionals, it's a huge opportunity for our clients. Video is powerful! By looking at the content that you have created for them and identifying areas in their video marketing that need a bit of work (i.e. their Awareness Stage and Consideration Stage content),

00:04:32:06 - 00:04:52:16
you can confidently (assuming that you understand the concept of The Buyer's Journey - link below) open up a conversation about how they can open up their own big blue ocean of people that are perfect for their service, their product, their cause, but haven't yet considered their service, product, or course, as a solution. Can you see how powerful this is?

00:04:53:00 - 00:05:19:03
So, the first step is to look at your client's work, jot down areas in which they can become stronger, and send them a quick email to say that you've identified areas of their video marketing that, if developed, would have significant returns in terms of results for them. So that’s step one. Open up that conversation. And in the link to the resources for this video below, you'll get a worksheet that helps you to work through each client, and take notes on how their video content could be that much better.

00:05:19:11 - 00:05:37:20
And this email, or that call to them, is short and sharp. You're not yet pitching the idea of a retainer to them. You're just asking for a 30 minute spot in their diary, or a calendar, to chat. Nice and simple. Now step two is to build out your slides for that conversation. In the resources that come along with this video

00:05:37:20 - 00:06:04:19
(again, linked below), there's a template Proactive Pitch document that you can use for this. So for each session that you land, structure your slides, or take that conversation, in the following way. You start with a slide that outlines the work that you did with the client. You then talk them through the power of The Buyer’s Journey when it comes to video content (and you relate this to their business or organization), then you outline what content they have in place already.

00:06:04:19 - 00:06:24:22
You may not be their sole video provider, so they may have more content than just the content that you've created for them. Then you identify where their content has gaps, which is likely to be in The Awareness and Consideration Stage. And then finally, you show them what their results could look like if they fix those issues. How do you do that?

00:06:25:05 - 00:06:46:01
Well, there's another resource available for you that will walk you through this, and it's The Metric Calculator. So as long as the content that you're proposing to create for them hit some very safe metrics - for example, a 25% view rate and a 10% conversion rate - then you can confidently forecast the return of their investment into you and win that retainer.

00:06:46:14 - 00:07:07:20
Once you've pitched the concept and talked through these points, it will be time to discuss what that plan looks like. And this is where you need to be in a position to associate costs and timeframes to the relationship. Typically, it's wise to start small and to flesh out their Awareness and Consideration Stage content for example. Then, as you start to create the content and drive results, you can grow those accounts.

00:07:08:04 - 00:07:31:18
So that's the process of converting one-off clients to long-term contracts and proactively pitching the concept of a retainer into your clients. Now, this is obviously just one part of a wider retention strategy, which is what my third book is dedicated to. Within Retain, I walk you through the process, step-by-step, of building a retention strategy into your video business.

00:07:32:02 - 00:07:52:14
I show you how to win them, how to manage them, how to grow them, and how to deliver upon them. And those that apply this framework to their video business convert, on average, 42% of their one-off clients to long-term contracts, or retainers. And that means that they have recurring revenue, they can see more than 12 months down the road when it comes to workload and cash.

00:07:52:24 - 00:08:18:09
They have certainty, so they can invest into them, their business, their kit, their offices, their staff, their family, confidently knowing what's coming up. And as you've watched this far and are clearly interested in the concept of a retainer, I want to offer you that framework. You can get the ebook for just $7, the physical printed book for $27, or you can get both the ebook and the physical ebook for just $27.

00:08:18:15 - 00:08:40:04
The physical book comes with free worldwide shipping, too. So if you're serious about building certainty and recurring revenue into your video business, grab that ebook now via the link below. And of course, don't forget to download the resources that come with this video and check out the other videos that I've talked about here, too. So, I hope that's been helpful.

00:08:40:04 - 00:08:47:12
And if you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to reach out to me, or leave a comment below. Have a fantastic day.