The 5 pillars of an effective marketing strategy EP#059

G' day guys and welcome to this episode of the how to Scale a Video Business podcast. This week I'm joined by Alana Joins in a two part episode about marketing. Alana is a marketing strategist who's going to share the five pillars for an effective marketing strategy. Alana has a background in marketing and also finance and she's passionate about assisting small to medium sized businesses with increasing their digital exposure through implementing the right marketing foundations and strategy. And when she's working with clients to help them increase their exposure, Alana's goal is to ensure that they're acting in a way that's authentic and emphasis is always on building and maintaining a sustainable brand as well as working one on one with clients and mentoring them. Alana also runs events and some of the most recent topics she's trained people in include social media strategy for small business, you know, how to properly optimize and utilize LinkedIn, how to manage multiple social media accounts, and social media etiquette as well as writing appropriate content. So in this episode he's going to walk us through the five pillars of an effective marketing strategy. And if you enjoy this episode, please do leave us a review and rate us on itunes. And and if you've got friends that you think might benefit from this, it would be really cool if you could share this with them. So I hope you enjoy the show. This episode is sponsored by the Video Business Accelerator Mastermind. This is a business coaching and mentoring program exclusively for video production companies. Rather than me tell you about it, let's hear from some of our members.

As far as video business is concerned, it was a no brainer for us. It's the right pain points that we went. These are the things that we need to work on and these are the solutions that are offered by Den and the Video Business Accelerator.

The reason I joined the accelerator was I really wanted someone who could help guide and mentor us through that next level.

So we're going through quite a period.

Of change at the moment. Our industry is changing massively and I.

Really wanted that support and mentoring and.

That'S exactly what Den provides.

The Video Business Accelerator event has been great so far. Dan always provides a lot of value.

He was really good at communicating with filmmakers as well because he obviously has such a great passion and past working in it. So it's really good to hear somebody talk about business theory and marketing strategies and things. But from a perspective of being a.

Video production company, Quarter three of this calendar year was the biggest year, biggest quarter we've had and now Wrapping up on quarter four towards the end of the calendar year, it's been bigger again. So, yeah, it's obviously working. I'd say the biggest advantage of being part of the Video Business Accelerator Group is the group itself. Yes, you've got Den the expert to turn to for advice, but more often than not, when you ask a question of the group, you get a variety of different answers. Everyone's kind of come across the same problems, but everyone has a different approach to solving them. We're all there to help each other. I think that's a big bonus of being part of the group.

So if these case studies sound like they resonate with you and you're ready to take your business to the next level, then head over to Denleny.com and click on Work with Den. There are also a heap of other great resources available on the site now. Enjoy this episode. G', Day, Alana, how are you?

Good, thanks. How are you?

Very good. So here we are in January and it's typically a time of year. I know that video producers and probably many small businesses probably think, oh, it's getting a bit quiet, maybe I should do some marketing. Why do you think that is? Why do you think it is that small business owners never, never prioritize marketing until they need the work?

I think there's a few reasons. I think part of it is, unfortunately enough, don't place the importance that they should on it. I think many business owners tend to focus on sales as a primary, especially if they need sales, but they often forget marketing. And then what happens is if they don't have enough sales, they're kind of stuck in a bit of a rut because they've got to generate leads, but without being really pushy. That's, you know, you need to have the right foundations in place consistently to be able to make it work. So if it's reactive, if people are reactive with marketing and they're thinking, well, I'll just do it because I need something, they're going to have the wrong energy. You're not going to attract your ideal target, you're probably going to attract the wrong sorts of clients. So I think it needs to be a component of the business that is consistently focused on as well as the other areas as well.

So.

What would you say? Like, you know, because. Because what I experienced in, in the industry, I'm in the video production industry, is that people tend to only ever do marketing when it's too late. And I've always kind of had the opinion and, and maybe you can help, you know, clarify this. But my understanding is if you do a month's worth of marketing now, you'll see the results in 60 to 90 days. Is, is that, is that something that you kind of, you know, know, subscribe to or what's the lead time for, you know, beginning an initial marketing campaign and actually seeing results?

Yeah, so I tend to focus on the five core foundations with clients they should implement all the time. And I find that having that in place, it becomes something that you consistently do. I definitely think, as you said, planning ahead because unfortunately I feel that a lot of business owners are when they're in a small space, they're very ad hoc and so there's no real consistent themes with their messaging. And sometimes even the way the posts are written can be completely different from one day to the next. And so you don't really get feel like you get to know that business owner. I find typically for, typically four to six weeks for a return, depending on the foundations they have in place. Like if their branding is shocking, if they haven't got the right photography so they've gone and taken their own in the backyard, or if they're shooting live videos while driving or doing anything that's kind of.

Not ideal, then it obviously can take longer.

So you talked there about five pillars. Can you kind of expand on them for us?

Yeah, sure. So the first one is branding. So that branding incorporates the design, but also how your business is projected. And if you are your business, it's how you're showing up your energy. You know, your personal branding is a big component of that. And then obviously your graphic design is another part and the style of photography that you have and your color scheme and logo and those elements. The second one is knowing your target audience. So it looks at their ideal problem that they have right now and then the solution that you have to help them with that. With a service based business, I don't tend to focus on demographics in too much detail because I find that problem solution method is much more effective. The third one is your content strategy. So that's exactly how it's going to look across everything. The style of language that you want to use, the types of content that you want to create. Because again, if you're a small business owner, you really need to work out which ones you're going to use. Especially if you're doing it yourself, you're not going to be doing everything. So you need to work out what you can be the most consistent with and do it all the time. The fourth one is the platform plan of attack. That's what I call it. So that's working out which platforms have your ideal target and really niching down and using them properly. And then the last one is analytics and management. So that's just looking at the analysis on an ongoing basis so that you can take action if you need to and adjust as you go, but also having management procedures in place so that you've got the structure that you can look at and that you can, you know, kind of work with as you go along, and that really helps them track it, but also stay on track ahead as well.

You raised some really interesting points there. And I think it's what strikes me, because this used to be me, is that I used to think marketing was just posting content. And of course that's only like one pillar, but I love, I love. And the other thing that I used, I don't mind admitting I didn't have much time for branding. I thought branding was something big businesses did.

Yeah.

But in actual fact, when we rebranded our business, I suddenly felt much more grown up. I felt like, you know, my Charlie, my business partner, said, dan, we're a premium service, so let's look premium. And it just really struck me with this amazing logo that we'd had designed a while ago. And the designer just started picking out the colors and taking sort of shades of it and putting it across everything we did. And I suddenly went, wow. Yeah, it really does make a difference. I. I think as video production business owners and as small business owners, I think we're quite stubborn. I think we're stubborn because we're bootstrapping our business. And like, every cent that you spend, you've got to think about. So how does a small business operator get over that hurdle? Because, like, without. Without marketing, there can be no sales. Without sales, there can be no marketing. So how do you. How do you recommend the small business service? But like a video production company approaches marketing?

I think definitely getting the foundations right from the start and not trying to jump ahead too far. Like, I see a lot of business owners having spent money on ads when they shouldn't have. They weren't at that stage yet. They should have been getting their messaging right and really taking the time to do the research. A lot of our clients, we will get them to ask questions of their current clients and that's a really great way to find out what sort of content you can be creating. You can use things like Google to search. There's a lot of research business owners can actually do themselves to start Looking at it, the graphics is something that is really important, I believe, to get done and get right from the start. Same with the photography and videography because, yeah, if that's not done correctly, it can have a pretty big impact and it's really just working out. Are you going to invest all your time into learning it yourself or a significant chunk of time? Because there's ongoing updates, you know, with each social media platform that you need to be researching, you've got to be looking at your analytics. There is quite a bit through marketing. It's not just posting. So I think business owners need to be aware of how much hours are they actually putting into it each week and what return are they getting and then work out, okay, well, is it worth me outsourcing that and, you know, generating more work and maybe it will cost them for a month, but then if they're getting more leads back, they're going to get it back pretty quickly. So I think it's just looking at the overall picture.

Well, it's the whole concept of highest and best use, isn't it? Like something, something I hear my, my audience talk about a lot is, oh, you know, clients are bringing video in house or they're shooting at themselves on iPhones and like, you know, no one appreciates quality anymore. And they'll say, you know, well, if they just came to us and we could do pre production and work on strategy and then shoot it and then edit it and help them deliver it, they'd have a much better value. And yet on the flip side, I'll see and come across video production companies who don't want to spend any money on marketing expertise or want to get their photos done cheaply or try and cut corners by designing their own logos. I mean, I see these crazy things in some of these Facebook groups where someone's like, hey, I've designed a new logo on Fiverr.

Which one do you think? And I'm like, just, you know, why is it that small business owners have one set of rules for them and their customers, but do the opposite for their own business? Is that something you come across a lot?

I have seen it a lot. And it's, it's little things with that, like with trademarking. So if people plan on trademarking their logo, then you, you know, for that you've got to have statements that it's original. You know, it's actually an original design. So, you know, some business owners, if they're going to get it from sources that might be cheaper, but then they don't get that like there's so many issues that you can run in down the track if you don't get things done right from the start. And I tend to think of it as, you know, for my business, like I've always understood that the best way to grow it and the best approach is to invest in it and that will get you the return. So I've always had that mentality of investing and then getting the return. So I think it does come down to mentality as well because I know that some people that have an entitlement based attitude, they tend to think, oh well, people should just give me stuff or I shouldn't have to pay a full rate or you know, I shouldn't have to pay. And it's just not. I don't think it's right at all.

Yeah, no, I agree with you. And something else you said there was about, you know, I think it was just before the call you were saying, you know, you had some clients that were or there was a client you spoke about who had a setup by a marketing agency but didn't get the marketing agency to implement the ads. And regardless of you doing ads or not, but tell me that story because I think that's a really valuable insights in that story.

Yeah, so they spent quite a lot of money paying for the setup and kind of the content framework and the languaging and the messaging and the branding. They spent a lot of money on graphic design. And then they decided they would just run their own Facebook ads and that they would take over and do it themselves. The problem was that they actually were that busy that they weren't following on with the strategy at all in terms of the content. And then with the Facebook ads they were just completely bombing like they weren't working. So this particular clients had spent $2,000 on their ads and then they reached out and asked if we could have a look. So we went in and had a look at what they were doing and they'd been running their ads on Los Angeles timing, so trying to target people in Australia. So all the ads were backwards. There was a few other areas that we found as well. But it was just, to me it was a bit crazy that they'd spent that much to that point and then just decided with the last bit to do that, which basically destroyed it. And by the time they reached out, they actually needed clients. So then it was kind of like you've got to not start again. But it was a process to build it up because she was sort of starting. She didn't have like years of content. So, yeah, it's. I don't know why, but I just don't. I don't think it's smart to ever get to the point where it's really painful before doing something because it's just not a good place to be.

It's too late, isn't it? By the time, by the time you feel the pain, it's too late. So here's a question. A lot of video production companies will be scrabbling around for work in January and sometimes they'll be like, well, you. If I just go and connect with a marketing agency, maybe they'll have lots of work. What would your advice be to a video production company who wants to approach a marketing agency and maybe joint venture or do some kind of, you know, revenue share deal or something? How do you as a marketing agency view suppliers like video agencies or video production companies? And how would you recommend they approach someone like you to perhaps think about maybe doing some sort of deal?

Yeah, so definitely. I love working with videographers and video production agencies both. I find that each videographer and even video production companies actually find each of them have their own style and they all have their own strengths. And I really like that because then if you've got a number of them that you're working with, if you get a client, you know where to direct them to the person that's actually really good with that niche or really, you know, great with the type of messaging that that client needs and the type of strategy. So I think for reaching out, having examples of past work, but also how you approach it is really important as well. You know, using LinkedIn, I'm always happy to receive messages if they're of a genuine approach. If someone messages me straight away and says, hey, I own XYZ and this is why you need to work with us, or this is why you should, or that sort of language is not really going to work. It needs to be a connection first and then there needs to be some substance. So they need to have an example of what they've done or they need to be able to explain to me, you know, a strategy on the spot or give some sort of idea about what they actually know and what their specific expertise is.

So a lot of video production companies spend a lot of time focusing, contemplating, pontificating, procrastinating on their showreel. And their showreel is like all of their best work in like a minute and a half. And it's usually on their homepage, usually with the headline, hey, we're great storytellers.

Is that important to you as a marketing agency or do you want to see like more specific examples of specific types of work?

No, not really. Like, I prefer specific examples and I prefer to see videos that tell a story or actually, you know, I think too short, sometimes you lose the whole context of what it actually is and it can almost not cheapen it, but it cannot show the full effect of what you've created. So I would prefer to see samples of longer videos, maybe a few rather than one that's just little snippets because. Little snippets. It's hard for me to get to know who they are and how they work as well.

So what you're looking for in a partner is a particular style or a particular specialism in a niche, Is that what you're saying?

Yeah, yeah, for me I am, because a lot of my clients are service based and then we work with a lot of industries within that. So yeah, for me that's pretty important. The other thing in terms of working with videographers is that they can execute the strategy as well as shooting the actual videos because I think that is a big differentiator within that industry that is still there a lot. Like there's a lot that can take the video, but they don't have that strategy side, which then means that agencies have to either create that themselves or it creates more work.

So are you able to kind of explain in a bit more detail what you mean by that? Because I think this will be really interesting for our listeners to understand this.

Yeah, so I think.

In terms of the service based business owners, because with a lot of their content strategies, they will have series or you know, there will be kind of a map of their content and it will be planned out. And so I think for me, being able to reach out to a videographer and say, okay, this is what the theme is and this is what we're doing and them to be able to work with me on it and say, okay, well let's do X. Let's do the following four videos topics, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4. So it's really been hard to work together and plan that out as well, rather than just saying, okay, we'll all come shoot when it's ready.

So can they get involved with you as really as a partner and start think as if you're on location for a day. A great crew, a great producer, director will be saying, hey, we here for a day. Let's shoot all these different things and then give you Content that you can use later on. And I guess if they've sat with you for even an hour or two and planned that strategy out, it's kind of good for everyone, isn't it? Because the marketing agency gets the strategy in alignment with the video production company and the client gets more value. So there's not really a downside, is there?

No, it's a lot better because you can work together rather than otherwise. It can be a bit like the agency is just bossing the videographer around. And the other thing is with clients, I think it builds trust a lot more. Like I know with my clients where I've said Jess or you know, whatever the videographer's name is, coming out to see you today. He and I have worked on the ideas together. He has suggested X, Y, Z. So he's coming to execute that with you. They immediately build the trust quickly and then they always want that person more. So it helps to build that relationship more in depth rather than, you know, the client just thinking that everything's under the agency and then they don't, they don't understand the full importance of the videographer in that scenario, I think.

Yeah. So here's a question and I'd love to know what you think of this. Is it important what camera the cameraman's using?

I don't think so. I think it. Well.

Yes and no. I mean, you probably wouldn't want a 30 year old camera.

But have you ever had, have you ever had a client saying, oh, I really want this to be shot on a red Epic or an Alexa or. This has to be shot. This has to be shot in 4K at 120 frames a second.

It's about the finish. Like they want it to be clean and good lighting and look professional. But no, I've never had people ask for a specific camera.

But I sort of, I'm smiling and kind of joking a little bit because I have this conversation all the time with videographers and I think what happens is in the videography world, there are lots of specialist groups on Facebook where all they obsess about is the camera, the tech, the codec, the lenses. And oftentimes I think what can happen, Alana, is that they get so wrapped up in that world of directors of photography and technology and 4K and 6K and frame rates that when they talk to a client, they're not always meeting the client where they are. They're coming probably too advanced. And I think that something scares clients off.

Yeah, it probably would. And that happens in all Industries, I think, because when you're an expert, you think too far ahead, so you've always got to be aware of where they're at. Like, to give you an example, a lot of my clients or, you know, when they first come to me, or even a lot of leads that I still speak to, a lot of them actually think of the social media platforms as a problem first. So, you know, I have a lot of calls where they'll be like, facebook doesn't work, Facebook ads don't work. Or, you know, it's organic content has died. You know, statements that I'm aware of. And oftentimes they need help with the foundations. But if I went straight to the foundations and started talking about that, they'd be like, oh, well, like, they would just be completely like, you know, they wouldn't know where to. They'd be spun out, basically. They wouldn't know.

What to think about next. So you've always been aware of where they're coming from and then kind of taking them through the process and working out what they need to know and what's not relevant.

Yeah.

Epic. Well, look, we're. We're kind of coming to the end of this session, I think, with a lot more to talk about. So I'm wondering if you might come back next week, because I know I wanted to talk about LinkedIn and specifically organic content. But just for anyone listening to this particular episode, where can people find out more about you?

Yep. So they can head to our website, which is www. Exposure Exposed u r.com au and I will be giving you a small business marketing checklist, which you can distribute as well, that people can download, which will let you know, you know, what key things you should make sure you have just to make it a little bit easier.

That's awesome. Thank you so much. Well, we will link to that on the website, guys, for now, we'll pause and we'll have you back next week to dig into organic, because organic is something that spun me out at the end of last year and for all. For all good reasons. So, Alana, thank you so much.

No worries. Thanks for having me.

You've been listening to the how to Scale a Video Business podcast with me, your host, Dan Lenny. If you're a video business owner who's hit a ceiling and we benefit from mentorship, support and coaching, then check out how you can work with me over@denleny.com 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 review. And don't forget to share. If you feel you've gotten value from this extra episode and you think it would be useful for other filmmakers you know, then please do me a massive favor and share it on social media and in groups that you might be in. See you next week.