Hear how Video Artisan is demonstrating the power of local video production as an effective marketing tool.
What is the benefit of using a local video production company? The answer, pre-COVID, was, “not a lot, really!”. We were all used to travelling, casting our marketing nets further and looking beyond our local business community for business and services. I dare say some of this was price driven. We all believed we could, “get it cheaper elsewhere”, and that “elsewhere” could be many miles away.
I think it was deeper than that though. We had all broadened our horizons and travelling habits. We had become entrepreneurial globetrotters – and loved it! Then COVID lockdown hit and our world collapsed. Many companies in our industry were, and still are, extremely nervous and could not see a future for local video production. Now we must.
No hiding away – Local Video Production is here to stay!
I will mention this now as it must be mentioned. There are many businesspeople that see it as poor publicity to even mention the word ‘COVID’ in any marketing material or conversation. It is a bit like Harry Potter’s Voldemort – ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’. Well, here you go… COVID, COVID, COVID! Writing about it and talking about it is not going to make you get it. It is a fact of life that we must deal with. The alternative is to roll over and play dead – and we are not going to do that.
I too was a bit in shock for a while after seeing about 80% of our business disappear almost overnight. Our two main areas of income were derived from the corporate events industry and large-scale military exercises. Both gone – in the stroke of a pen. We soon realised it was time to go back to our roots and serve the demand for local video production services. It is there; you just have shorten your sights.
Moving back home
When we started Video Artisan back in 2012, I spent some time looking at what businesses were in my local town – Loughton in Essex. I trawled through local business directories, drove around all the local business parks and commercial zones noting down address and company names (both physically and virtually using Google street view) and built up a database of local marketing targets. I drafted a letter, addressed to ‘The Busiest Person in the Company’, because I didn’t have an actual name, and posted out about 250 letters announcing the offerings of my new local video production company.
Within a couple of days, I had picked up a handful of clients that kept the business going through the first three years. I am not claiming to be any kind of marketing guru, but that one single activity got me through what are often the most challenging years for any new business. It was my ‘zero-to-hero’ moment and the COVID crisis has brought my focus back to my local community today.
Local films for local firms
Within a few weeks of lockdown we was starting to plan our return into the local business community. Of course, we had never really left it but all our marketing efforts up until then been on a much wider scale. That made sense pre-COVID, but like any marketing the wider you spread your message the thinner it becomes. Local video production marketing is a lot more intimate and directed – and relatable to your intended targets on an otherwise difficult to achieve level.
Our first task was to make sure all our online efforts had a strong element of “local” about them. In practice this means you’ve got to make sure your website content is location centric. In the longer term, when we are all dashing about the globe again, this will not be wasted effort as your location is still an important part of your business make up.
We also made sure our Social Media content and connections were inline with our local targeting. If you are selling local video production services, you want to make sure any search engine results include you when the term “near me” is typed in by a user (a very common thing users type into Google… “XYZ near me”). Google My Business settings, the Facebook and LinkedIn Groups you belong to etc all should reflect your local ambitions and interests.
Local Video Production Show and tell
We then needed a piece of marketing collateral to hang our ‘local video production’ message on and the only logical medium we could use was a short video entitled ‘Local films for local firms’. We had to put our money where our mouth was, and it was less than 24-hrs after releasing this through Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter that we had three strong enquiries.
At the time of writing this blog two of those enquiries have been converted into completed films (turned around in a week). The first was for a local retailer, and the second a local structured cabling company (see two videos below). The third (a prospectus for a local school) starts in production at the beginning of July.
And this success has not stopped there. We are now talking to a further three companies about their local video production requirements.
Your turn to look more closely at Local Video Production
If your business is local to Loughton – or anywhere within Epping Forest and the surrounding areas – and want to explore ways we can help you to raise your profile through video, please get in touch. We are sure we can introduce ideas into your marketing that will help you do more business locally too. See our showreel here.
Please contact Kevin Cook on 020 3602 3356 – or email kevin@video-artisan.com
Key benefits to doing business locally
1 – Supporting local business helps the local economy, creating healthier financial surroundings for your own business to trade in. What goes round, comes round!
2 – Supporting local business means less travel pollution and is kinder to the environment. Full stop!
3 – Local businesses will understand many of your business challenges more intimately.
4 – Local businesses form networks with other local businesses are more likely to trade with their connections. Get yourself connected too!
5 – Working with local businesses promotes and develops business intelligence for future employment.