Why Video Production Companies get social media so wrong ... And how to fix it

Introduction

If you run a video production business or are a freelancer in the video world, you've probably tried using social media to promote your services. And if you're like most videographers, filmmakers, or production company owners, it's likely that you've had limited success.

What channel should you be using? What should you be saying? How do you actually make sure that your content, your showreel, your case studies, and your posts actually drive engagement? In this Deep Dive, we break down exactly what works, how to drive results, and share resources that will help you massively.

What You'll Learn

Social media is powerful when you have a process in place. There are three things you need to be clear on in order to make sure that your social media drives opportunities into your video business:

• Know Who You Are Targeting – Without this knowledge, you'll never know where your prospects spend their time. Posting beautiful content to the wrong platform means it will never get engaged with.
• Know What To Say – Posting your showreel or case studies is pointless if your audience isn't problem or solution aware. 99% of your potential prospects are in the awareness or consideration stages, not the decision stage.
• Serve The Right Content At The Right Time – You need systems in place to serve awareness, consideration, and decision stage content to prospects based on where they are in the buyer's journey.

Why Social Media Fails for Most Video Companies

You think you need to use social media, but there are so many channels – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter/X, TikTok. So you never really know which is most powerful and decide to use them all. You create a bit of content, put it in all of those channels, and what happens? Nothing. Maybe a family member gives a post a token like.

Look at your competitor's Facebook feed or Instagram channel. They'll either not be posting at all or they'll have sporadic posts with little to no engagement. It's not only a massive waste of time, but it's actually quite embarrassing.

The Real Problem

Only 1% of your potential prospects will be in the decision stage at any given moment – aware of a problem or opportunity, aware that video is the route that will help them, and actively looking for a video supplier. And all of your competition are fighting it out to win projects from this 1%, which makes it super competitive. Ultimately it comes down to price. This is why the video industry has become so competitive.

The solution? Understand the buyer's journey and blue ocean strategy. When you serve the right content to the right people at the right time based on where they are within the buyer's journey, you suddenly have a system that attracts and converts people who have never heard of you before into red-hot opportunities and leads.

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:28:00
If you run a video production business or are a freelancer in the video world, you've probably tried using social media to promote your services. And if you're like most videographers, filmmakers, or production company owners, it's likely that you've had limited success, but that's very common. What channel should you be using? What should you be saying? How do you actually make sure that your content, your showreel, your case studies, your posts actually drive engagement?

00:00:28:00 - 00:00:47:00
Well, in today's deep dive, we're going to find out. We're going to understand what works, how to drive results, and I'm going to share a few resources with you that are going to help you out massively. Does social media work for video production businesses, and what is best practice?

00:00:47:00 - 00:01:25:00
So, social media is a powerful tool, right? You know, you should be using it, but if you're really honest, it just doesn't drive the results that you want. And because of this, it seems a bit pointless, a waste of time. Now, as you may know, today I teach video production company owners and freelancers how to build powerful marketing, sales, and retention strategies into their video businesses. So, I've seen a lot, but I've also lived it. Aside from my consulting business, I also work with brands such as Shell, Deloitte, and the International Olympic Committee to create and promote their video content.

00:01:25:00 - 00:02:00:00
But back when I had my first production company, I too struggled with this one. It wasn't until I attended the traffic and conversion summit in San Diego back in 2015 for it all to click. I was sitting in a Molly Pitman seminar and Molly's one of the best in the industry when it comes to social media. I knew that social media was powerful, but I never really knew how to leverage its potential for my video production company. And I see this all the time today. You think that you need to use social media, but there's so many channels that you can use. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter or X or TikTok. The list goes on.

00:02:00:00 - 00:02:27:00
So, you never really know which channel is most powerful and you decide to use them all. You create a bit of content, put it in all of those channels, and what happens? Nothing. Maybe a family member gives a post a token like. I see it all the time. Look at your competitor's Facebook feed or their Instagram channel. They'll either not be posting at all or they'll have sporadic posts with little to no engagement. It's not only a massive waste of time, but it's actually quite embarrassing. But let me tell you this, social media is powerful when you have a process in place.

00:02:27:00 - 00:03:00:00
So, let's break this down to make this super clear. There are three things that you need to be clear on in order to make sure that your social media does what you need it to do and drive opportunities into your video business. Number one, you need to know who you are targeting. Without this knowledge, you're never going to know where these people are. You might create an incredible blog post or a beautiful showreel, but if you post it to Vimeo, but your target audience are marketing directors or small business owners, well, of course, it's not going to get engaged with. Same goes for Facebook or Instagram.

00:03:00:00 - 00:03:39:00
Number two, you need to know what to say. Now, if you've engaged with a lot of my content, you would have heard me talk about the buyers journey and blue ocean strategy. Posting your show reel or some case studies, even if it's on the right social media platform, is going to be completely pointless if your audience is not aware of an issue or opportunity that they have. So, they're not problem or opportunity aware, or they don't know that video can genuinely help them. So, they're not solution aware. And that percentage of your potential prospect base that are in these stages of the buyer's journey, the awareness and consideration stage, is 99%. So only 1% of your potential prospects will be in the decision stage at any given moment in time.

00:03:39:00 - 00:04:16:00
Aware of a problem or opportunity and aware that video is the route that will help them to fix that problem or achieve that opportunity. And they're actively looking for a video supplier. And that issue compounds because all of your competition are fighting it out to win projects from this 1% which makes it super competitive. And ultimately it comes down to price. This is the reason that the video industry has got so competitive. Easy challenge to overcome, but you have to understand those two key concepts, the buyer's journey and blue ocean strategy to be able to avoid this. I've got two videos that cover off those two concepts, which I've linked to below, by the way.

00:04:16:00 - 00:04:57:00
And number three, you need to be able to serve the right content to the right people at the right time. Again, this is based off the buyer's journey. 99% of your potential prospect base will be in either the awareness stage or the consideration stage. In each of those stages, they have different questions they need answering. In the awareness stage, they need to become aware of an opportunity or an issue that they are facing. So, your content, your messaging, your posts need to dig into those. And in the consideration stage, your prospect needs to understand why video is going to help them to fix that issue or help them to achieve that opportunity. Why will video help them? Not you, but video specifically.

00:04:57:00 - 00:05:30:00
Why should they be creating video content as opposed to putting their budget into a radio campaign? SEO, pay-per-click advertising, sponsorship, print campaigns, you get the gist. And then and only then once they've decided that video is going to be the vehicle that's going to take them to their goals when they're in the decision stage, they need to understand why you or your team or your business is going to be the person or are going to be the team or business that's going to help them to fix that issue or achieve that opportunity.

00:05:30:00 - 00:06:08:00
Again, a far more detailed explanation of this is available within the two videos of the buyers journey and blue ocean strategy which are linked below this video. But you need to have systems in place to serve the right content to the right people at the right time. Again, that's very easy to do when you know how. When you're using the right social media channel, the channel that your perfect prospects use daily, and you're serving them content or messaging that genuinely helps them, depending on where they are within the buyers journey, you suddenly have a system that attracts and converts people that have never heard of you before, into red-hot opportunities and leads.

00:06:08:00 - 00:07:05:00
Sounds good, right? How do I do this? Well, below this video, I've also linked to my three books and the video courses. One dedicated to marketing, one dedicated to sales, and one dedicated to retention. All specifically for video production companies. Within those free books and courses, there are a ton of resources and worksheets that are going to help you in each of these stages. One of which is an audience persona worksheet, but it's not any old audience persona worksheet. It's the one that I use for my business and that I use when consulting with video production companies and freelancers. It does cover the usual audience persona items such as age, gender, location, income bracket, and so on, but it goes deeper than this. It provides you with a crystal clear view of the challenges that your prospect face, the opportunities that they have, the aspirations that they hold, what content engages them, where they spend their time, and a whole lot more.

00:07:05:00 - 00:07:40:00
It's been built specifically to help video production companies and video business owners to extract everything that they need to know about their audience. There's another resource that builds upon what you will learn as you build out your audience personas. It's a worksheet that helps you to identify what you should be talking about at each stage of the buyer's journey so you're able to attract and convert the 99% of your perfect prospects that your competition is completely ignoring. That resource will give you all of the answers to knowing exactly what you should be talking about, what that content or messaging should look like, and how to convert them to the next stage of the buyers journey.

00:07:40:00 - 00:08:14:00
So, what we focused on today is just one part of a wider marketing strategy that has now been implemented by over 3,000 video production companies and freelancers worldwide. And it's a system that generates incredible results. It allows you to have a system in place that attracts and converts a constant stream of opportunities that are perfect for you to your business. And it does it in the background of your video business. So you can focus on the reason that you got into the game in the first place, which is to create beautiful video content for clients that you are proud of without having to worry about where the next project is coming from.

00:08:14:00 - 00:08:27:00
And that framework, that marketing framework along with the sales and retention frameworks are all completely free, available in book form, video course, or audio book. You just need to hit the link below this video and you'll be able to get access to all of that straight away.