Advice for Videographers in a slow economy. EP #306 - Den Lennie

A number of videographers I've spoken to recently are increasingly concerned about what they regard to be a slow economy and that they're finding there's not as much workaround for videographers. So today what I want to do is talk to you about why I think that's happening, but also what you can do when there is a slow economy to actually bolster your business and actually give you more opportunities. If the last couple of years taught us anything about business, is that there are always things out with your control. But I think that if you spend too much time watching the news and potentially speaking to other filmmakers about this so called slow economy, you might find yourself believing that that's the case. Now, all of my video business accelerator clients are not experiencing this. They're actually out there busy, some of them busier than ever, some of them having record months. So what they're doing differently I'm going to share with you today, but let's just talk for a moment about why this is happening. So yes, there are some economic pressures in different parts of the world. Rising fuel costs, mortgage rate, interest rises, and you know, the conflict that's happening in Europe. But there are things that are happening at a broader scale. So what I think is happening is a lot of bigger businesses who have money don't want to be seen to be being frivolous during a time of perceived austerity. But the fact is, not every industry is going through a downturn. But what I have observed with my clients is that the clients are taking a little longer than usual to make decisions and some of them are delaying projects that potentially would have done now, but they're waiting till a bit later, later on. And I think that's all going to settle down. But at the moment it is making some videographers a bit nervous. So that's all out there stuff. So what about what you can control now? First of all, you can control what you consume. And I would avoid television news, mainstream television news, because a bit like when we had Covid, it will start to fill your brain with lots of negativity. And the truth is there are challenges out there in the marketplace, but there's always challenges in the marketplace. And all that's happened is we've come out of a two year period with the pandemic into a tough period where financial insecurity is becoming more dominant. What you can do is control the aspects you can control. And that's what I want to share with you today. If you survived the pandemic, then you can survive this. But you do have to make a conscious decision about what you consume and what you can control. First thing to do is to review your target market. Now, if you've known me for a little while, I always talk about the power of niching. The power of niching is in your marketing message. Too many videographers try and be jacks of all trades and videographers to anyone who'll pay them. And that is not the best way to build your business. By going niche, you focus on a single target market at a time allows you to go and market to that target market in a very specific way. A way in which they will respond by thinking that you are the only option because you're a specialist in that field. So is your target market recession proof? One industry that's making a lot of money just now is the financial industry. So there's an opportunity that perhaps you haven't considered. Health care also has a lot of growth and expansion at all times. I've got a client who does a lot of work for aged care. Again, the population is aging. They still need to promote that. There's opportunities in education, in schools and universities. People are still competing for students and for clients. And so all of these offer an opportunity to create video content. Government organizations also have a need and a compliance to communicate certain messaging. So are you perhaps not looking in the right places? So have a good look at your target markets and ask yourself the question, is there any blind spots that I'm not seeing? Are there markets I could go into that I haven't considered? The second thing to look at is your offer. What is it you're actually offering to the market and is it irresistible? One thing I see a lot of is video production websites that all look the same. Shorio, we love telling stories. Hey, book a call. We're really cool. But if you look at any website by googling video production in your town or city, there'll be five or six or 10 websites that virtually look the same. There's very little point of difference. And when there's very little perceived difference from the prospect community, from those that might buy your services, then the only thing they can measure you on is price. And therefore they can only compare one company to another based on price. If you're a specialist, if you're niche and you look to the right markets, you can tailor your marketing message specifically to suit that market. Your video service has to solve a problem for a client and if you understand what problems they solve, you'll win. I have a client who specializes in healthcare. And he recently won a $300,000 project with Johnson and Johnson because he already had a page full of healthcare videos. And remember, when you're offering your services to a larger company, you're actually dealing with an individual who represents that company. So make sure you communicate effectively and make sure you're talking about the services you offer in a language that that industry understands. My third tip for you is about marketing. And oftentimes I'll talk to prospects and they'll say, well, I've never had to do any marketing, and all of my work comes from word of mouth. And this is why some videographers are finding it tough right now. In a buoyant market, when there's lots of money around, word of mouth will pretty much get you there. But in a market where the financial constraints are tightening a little bit, you have to work harder for the sale. The opportunities are still there. They're just not as easy and as available. Do you have a marketing strategy? And if not, maybe now's the time to start thinking about that now. Marketing in its most basic form is putting the right offer in front of the right audience at the right time. So that's your starting point. Who are you targeting, what is it you're offering? And what is unique about the way in which you deliver your service? One of the easiest ways to get new business is to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator. If you connect with 20 connections a day in a target market every single day. And you post three posts a week on LinkedIn. And a tip here is behind the scenes photographs do really well on LinkedIn. And then you engage people in messaging. That's cool and laid back and friendly. If you do 20 connections a day, five days a week, that's 100 connections a month. Over three months, that's 1200 connections. You will end up with about 25% of those people accepting your connection and between 7 and 10% actually engaging in a conversation. And I had a client recently who did this in early January and won $12,500 worth of work because the person she connected with said, hey, this is perfect timing. We actually need someone right now. Wayne Gretzky was a famous ice hockey player who said, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. So what you have to do if you want to survive this economic downturn is to work harder than anybody else to get in front of opportunities, because people still need video and people are still spending money on video. They're just being more discerning. So work harder to impress them. And if you connect on LinkedIn every day, that is one strategy that will not cost you any more than your time and will be highly effective. My fourth tip for you is to ensure your messaging is congruent across all of your social media channels. So your LinkedIn channel, your website, your Instagram, your Facebook, any other channel that you have, the messaging must be congruent. People want to see that you are trustworthy, and the easiest way to build trust is to make sure your message is congruent and consistent across all social media channels. And if you've got content on a social media channel that doesn't reflect what you do now, take it off, get rid of it. If it doesn't serve your current offer, it's not helpful to be there. One of my pet peeves is seeing commercial video operations with personal projects or film projects or music video projects on their website, thinking the client will somehow think that's more impressive because they've done that. If you work in healthcare and you're looking for a healthcare videographer, you don't want to see documentary projects, music video projects, or any sort of film projects that don't relate to to the work that you are looking to hire for. This is very important. Clients only ever care about what's in it for them. So take anything off your website that doesn't reflect the offer you're currently putting into the market. Next up is a very untapped opportunity with Google My Business. Google My Business is a free service on Google that is essentially a backdoor into SEO for Google. If you fill out the Google My Business profile, upload as many photographs as you can from behind the scenes shoots, write a biog, write some services that you offer, and then go and get Google My Business reviews. Five star reviews are a very high ranking metric. So go and reach out to every client you've ever worked with and ask them if they give you a five star Google review. Now it's very important when you respond to that review that you actually respond and talk about the products and services that you offer because that helps you get more opportunities. And the really cool thing is that you can take the three pieces of content you make for LinkedIn a week and also post them on Google My Business. You've got fresh content going on to Google My Business and that way you get a backdoor into SEO. If you Google any business and they have a Google My Business profile, they show up above the fold in the results before the SEO results. So if you give Google enough information in Your Google My Business profile. You will naturally show up in searches for keywords faster than someone who's trying to optimize for SEO. Now we have training for this insider video business accelerator program, but what I'll do is give you the basics. The basics are optimize your business for the services you offer in your location. The businesses with the most Google reviews generally show up first over businesses with less Google reviews. These are amazing metrics for social proof because people believe a Google review can't be hacked. And finally, draw up a list of all of the clients you worked with last year, put them into a spreadsheet and track how much money they spent, how many jobs they did, and when was the last time you contacted them. A lot of videographers fail to contact clients unless they're looking for work. So contact all those clients and literally call them up and say, hey, how are you doing? We've noticed things are slowing down a bit in the marketplace. How is your business being impacted by this economic downturn? And ask them questions about how that's impacting them. And then this is the magic. Ask them if there's anything you can do to support them. It might just be to get together and brainstorm some ideas for when things get better. But this strategy will show your clients that you care and are not just there to win work. And what you'll find is if you can engage people in that kind of conversation, they will naturally say to you, hey, actually we've got a project we could do with doing here and work with them. People love to feel heard, seen and understood. If you start treating your clients like that, you will find quickly that you'll have a lot more opportunities in your pipeline, regardless of what's going on out there in the world that you can't control. And here's a bonus thought just to leave you with. It's very hard when you're running a video business on your own. And that is why I created my Video Business Experience Accelerator Masterminds to create a community that not only teaches you how to grow and scale your business to 2x 3x 4x, but actually gives you support on a weekly basis with other people who are further down the road than you are. So if you'd like to learn more about that, I'll leave a link below or click the link above and you can learn more about how those programs work and how they might benefit you.

You've been listening to the Video Business Accelerator podcast with your host, Dan Lenny. If you are a video business owner who is tired of going it and would benefit from mentorship, support and weekly accountability. Then mouse over to www.videobusinessaccelerator.com to learn more about how the Accelerator program can help you today. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show over on itunes, and we'd really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a.