What does your reel say about your video business?
The hardest part of running a creative business is marketing your vision to prospective clients. It’s hard because you are basically selling blue sky.
So how does your work communicate what you are capable of?
What do you have available for people to look at today?
There is no limit to creativity, except the budget right? Make sure your reel opens you up to endless opportunities, and communicates the level of work that you are capable and that clients ought to budget for.
If you are good at what you do you are probably out working and the important task of marketing your craft gets placed on the back-burner. Don’t let this happen to you.
This topic came up because I have been looking at a number of videographer reels and websites as we continue to grow the network at Big Video. It is obvious when a website is dated and when a reel hasn’t been updated in a long time. This could be as simple as your copyright date on the site or your last post on Facebook was 3 years ago. I even found myself guessing what a person might charge based on what their work looked like. Your clients will do this too, which is why I thought I might bring up this important topic for discussion.
Your website can be one of the most important tools for attracting the kind of work you want to do and helping the right client find and hire you. This is true for content on social media and the videos you post.
Mama always said, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”. Unfortunately that’s what has to happen when someone is searching for a content creator. They need to see what it is you do and if they can’t imagine you producing their next video you’ve missed out on another potential job. It’s a pain to keep your image maintained, especially when you are focused on the day to day. But enough excuses, keep your content fresh.
This doesn’t have to be painful, make it fun. Challenge yourself by creating your own projects. Do some volunteer work where you can have more control over what the end product looks like without the constraints that a job might create. Do things that help take your work to the next level and that really communicate what you are capable of. Think about the kind of projects you want to be doing and create reels that demonstrate how those will look.
Keeping your own content fresh doesn’t have to be difficult either. Grab behind the scenes clips, testimonials, and quick sound bites that you can use later in your own work (Make sure your own agreements include language that allow you to share your work in your portfolio and that your clients are cool with that). When you have to travel to a location or do a site survey give yourself a little extra time to grab some shots just for you.
Potential clients like to see results. If they can see what their project will look like and having a resource where they can point to the video and say, “I want my video to look like that.” Then all of a sudden you have a place to begin the conversation and you are no longer dealing with blue sky.
Some of you might be thinking, “well a potential client may just take my original ideas and have someone else make them for less money”. That may happen sometimes, but on the other hand, the value you create for the client may get you the work that you want to be creating. A good reel will bring you more qualified clients who will have a clearer picture of what they would like done.
I hope the take away here is that managing your previous work and creating a process to keep your content fresh is important. Jot down some ideas, create a plan, and get to work.
Want to get their faster? Find a mentor who is doing the work that you want to be doing.
