How to Crush Local Marketing with Video Production

How to Promote Your Local Business with a Video Production

2020 has been that kind of year and it’s become even more important to begin to promote your local business through digital marketing. That includes us at Pour.

Business closures as a result of the pandemic have made it difficult to host events and reach more people using more traditional means of marketing. Promoting your local business is by no means dead, it’s just a little different some might say. But even before this whacky year, we saw that, “90% of consumers used the internet to find a local business in the last year.” So the ability to market online has always been important.

Your consumers feeds are flooded with social media posts, photos, weekend getaways. And there’s one thing that is proving to stop users in their tracks as they browse the internet; video.

Video is just flat out winning in all arenas for attracting new customers. Best of all, it’s not going anywhere but up, as experts are predicting that in 2022, 82% of the global internet traffic will come from video (Cisco, 2019).”

Fun Video Facts:

84% of marketers credit video with increasing traffic to their website. (3)

87% of people would like to see more video from brands. (3)

(TopRankBlog)

So how can you start taking advantage of a video production to start attracting the best buyers and right customers to your business?

Here’s what we will be covering:

Here’s a sneak peek of the reasons we will cover:

How and where do you start with a video production for your local business?

If you are brand new to video productions or video marketing, knowing where to start and how to get started can be intimidating. There is a lot involved.

Will this work for my business? Who do I hire? How long does it take and how much does a video production cost? All valid questions, and questions you’ve probably asked before getting here.

However, the better question to help you get started before all of this execution is, “what are my business and marketing goals?” A lot of our clients like to just jump right into the video part, without first knowing what it is they hope to gain from video, and how a video production can potentially help their business.

A Sacramento video production can be expensive relatively speaking. Heck, anything more than $1 without knowing the reason why you’re investing is a cost to your business that is spent on crossing your fingers and hoping you get at least something out of it.

So where do you start with a video production? Start with understanding what your business and marketing goals are, and what you hope to gain from having a video production being a part of your marketing efforts. Understanding this will help you to make your decision on how to approach video the right way, how much you should spend to see that type of ROI, and who you should hire to execute so you don’t invest in the wrong approach.

Pro Tip: Search online for a video production provider and speak with a few candidates. It’s important to go with a service who will work with you to understand your business, your goals, and how you will ultimately use video to support those initiatives. This goes for both a local videographer or video production company.

How to target the right people with your local Sacramento video production?

Now that you have established that a video production is the right fit for your business, it is important that you create a video production for the right people.

Too often, which we are guilty of ourselves, we tend to focus on how awesome we as a company are. Our product, our service. Me, myself and my business. It’s true they need a little of that, but it’s important to figure out who your audience is, and what they want to learn about you.

First, define your audience. “Well my product is for anyone who likes __________,” fill in the blank. Not good enough. You have to go a bit deeper and make your ideal prospect more real.

Who are they, where do they go, what do they like to do, where do they work, what problem are you trying to solve for them, what value are they looking for in a product or service similar to yours, and then…go even deeper.

How do they feel about the problem they’re experiencing, what steps do they take to seek a solution like yours. If you’ve never done this before, here’s a good tool to get you started on being able to define your customer persona.

Second, when it comes to creating a successful video production, it’s important to tell a story that make your audience the hero. They’re Batman, and you’re Alfred. Your audience is a roaring crowd at a rock concert, and you’re the experience provider who has set up the band and music for them to enjoy. You’re the guide.

As a marketer, ask yourself what they can benefit from by using your product or service. What picture can you paint for them to see how this will improve their experience with day to day life? Tell a story they resonate with, and avoid the temptation to just shoot a number of beautiful images and scenes, splice them together and call it a day. They already see too much of that.

Pro Tip: Consider asking current customers and prospective customers about their experiences with other brands and businesses, and what has led them to the decision to choose them over the competition. Businesses tend to make assumptions about who they serve and what it is that makes their product or service the best for their customers, so just ask.

A simple coffee gift card can go a long way in asking for your customers time to interview them on how to replicate that experience for your future prospects and customers.

How much does a Sacramento video production cost?

So how much can a video production cost to market your business, product or service?

Sorry for the not so clear cut answer, but it really depends. One factor is who will produce the video? Are you going to be hiring a videographer, agency, or try and do it yourself? There’s a range of prices for each of these options which you can find here, but let me take you down a different train of thought. Once again, let’s start a little bit closer to the beginning without jumping too far ahead.

The real question should not be how much does it cost for this video stuff but instead, based on my business and marketing goals and who I want to target, how much would I invest to get the job done right and in what time frame do I need to have this done to hit those goals? 

If you’re a pro marketer, you know how important it is to have content that supports your overall marketing initiative and staying in budget is key to making sure you are seeing a return on that investment.

So if you’re only trying to sell a few more products per month in the $50 to $100 range, it probably doesn’t make sense to overinvest in a famous commercial video production agency that can cost up to $200,000. That’s right, commercial costs can add up depending on how many people are needed on set to shoot, who is involved with the campaign, location, talent, props, travel, etc.

Not every professional agency charges that much, but just like building a house, the cost and price can vary depending on so many different factors. That’s why it’s important to find a video production provider who is transparent, and can deliver on your goals, not necessarily the scenes they wish capture on camera.

On the flip side, if you intend on wanting to separate yourself in a competitive market and the only way to go is to have a high quality production that gets attention, you should invest relative to what you hope to gain in the industry. It’s probably not the best idea to reach out to an agency and let them know your budget is $1,000, when you are trying to develop a production with professionals.

Remember, people buy from those they trust and will compare you to other options on the market. A video production can help to gain that trust so the cost is really up to a percentage of what you hope to gain in return.

Pro Tip: Cost and pricing is relative. A better place to start is, how much can I expect to gain from a video production that works, and what percentage of that gain am I willing to invest to get the production I need to see results? Here’s an example of how a local business took advantage of a Sacramento video production, along with what challenges they hoped to overcome:

See Full Case Study:

URBAN ROOTS VIDEO PRODUCTION

THE CHALLENGE

• Urban Roots was in need of a strategy and production that could be used to attract more customers their authentic smokehouse, in addition to their beer.
• Urban Roots was in need of a production to promote the new “Happier Meal.” The menu options, the price, in 30 seconds, needed to be memorable and spark action.

OUTCOME

Pour helped Urban Roots focus their brand and video strategy. High quality commercial video productions were created for each challenge along with several social media videos and stills to last over the course of the entirety of each of the campaigns and target a younger audience in the Sacramento area looking for a good deal on food and beer.

So how do you choose the right Sacramento video production for your business?

As you can see above, choosing the right video production to help promote your business depends on your marketing goals, audience, and budget. Once you have those questions answered, it will be much easier for you to vet out the right partner for your production and truly crush local marketing. Because from there, after strategy, it’s all about the right execution.

As you search for that video production partner, whether freelance videographer or agency, look to their previous work as a benchmark and use your first conversations as an opportunity to see how they approach video. Do they ask you questions about how you expect the production to affect your business, or do they only list a bunch of services you should buy into simply because that’s what they provide for people like you?

Does the partner your speaking with ask how you intend to use the video production? Who is the audience and do they dive deep with you to ensure that the video they create will resonate with the potential buyers you intend to target?

Use your search as an opportunity to see how they work, not just if the videos they’ve shot in the past appear as though they have been produced with awesome quality equipment.

Pro Tip: To help get closer to what direction to move in and with what video production marketing agency, ask yourself if the Sacramento video production you’re interested in, reflects the type work you want associated with your bran.

What We Covered

So how can you crush local marketing with Sacramento video production? As you can see, you need to be strategic. Your video production needs to be more about your business approach and strategy, and less about the pretty pictures and scenes you intend to get on camera. The video production needs to be more about how awesome your customers life would be with you being a part of it, versus how awesome you or your product are alone.

This may not have been the article you were expecting, if in fact you were hoping for a silver bullet approach to making sure your next video production crush your competition in the local market. As you can see, there’s a lot more to it than that. Crushing your marketing with a Sacramento video production is really about understanding the reasons and goals you have in place to go to market, and how can you approach potential customers with as much value as possible through video before they make their decision about what business they want to do business with.

If you’d like to learn more about how to approach Sacramento video production, let us know by connecting with us here or you can leave a comment below about what your last video experience was like. We’d love to hear your feedback!