How to market and grow a digital content agency in London
When starting a digital content agency in London it can be tough to get your first few clients so marketing your digital content agency is crucial, especially in the ever competitive market of London. Here at Beast Production Company London we have experience in helping all sorts of companies with their digital marketing…even other London digital content agencies!
So if you want to know how to market a digital content agency in London then this is the article for you. In this article we are going to give you five tips to help market and grow your digital content agency.
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Create A System
Number one is to create systems. Running a digital content agency in the London can be incredibly time consuming, more so when you’re meeting with client after client so we implement systems to make the process more efficient. An example of a system that we implemented a few years ago that just works amazingly is writing a list of seven to ten questions that we asked potential customers that come to us with video production inquiries. Having your go to seven to ten questions which is essential a creative video brief, you can either send a client through an email or you can ask them on the phone. This is one less thing you have to think about every time you do it and you’ll get a lot of information in return, questions like what kind of video are you looking for? Ask them if they have a location that they’d like to film at or if they require a studio rental, ask them if they’d like to have people speaking on camera from their company or are they hoping to have actors hired in their video.
What Questions Do We Ask?
A question we love to ask is have you done videos in the past if they have created videos in the past, chances are they’re either not happy with the previous London Production Company they worked with or if the videos were created so long ago that they’re looking to revamp their image and create modern videos you can then ask them well what was it about your old videos that you didn’t like so that we can make them better that this time around. It’s also great to see videos that were created in the past because that helps you understand what quality of video production they’re looking to exceed. You can also ask them if they have a rough budget in mind. It is important to get clear on whether or not this potential client expects a big £50,000 production with a £500 budget because that does happen especially with potential clients that have never done video before. But you definitely do want to exceed your client’s expectations but you don’t want them to have unattainable expectations that you aren’t going to be able to achieve.
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Should You Fake It Till You Make It?
A quite famous saying is fake it till you make but here at Beast Production Company UK we don’t believe in that. We are a very transparent company, we don’t give false promises to our clients as that’s just not us. However a lot of production companies in London do this so our next tip explains that you need to be honest about what you’re capable of and what you’re not capable of, don’t make promises that you know you can’t keep. A rule that we have implemented in our business is we will tell clients that something is going to take twice as long as we actually expect it to take especially with editing, that way we can pleasantly surprise them and exceed their expectations when we do deliver and edit early but we also have a little bit of leeway because you never know what could come up. Be realistic with yourself and your client about how long lighting takes to set the location how long interviewing someone on camera and getting them comfortable with the questions takes, they might need a little bit of coaching with how to deliver a sentence, they might need to do it take a few times. So be honest about how long it will take with pre-production, production and post-production to deliver those best results.
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Keep It Cheap? Or Splash Out?
Our third tip is to not waste your money on a lot of fancy new gear, when working in london you have to compete with massive digital content agencies with all their fancy equipment so it can be tempting to splash out especially when you’re starting out, but in most cases having a decent DSLR camera with a few different lenses, a basic lighting setup and lavalier mics or a shotgun mic is going to do you great. What we do in our business is we set five to ten percent aside from every shoot and every drop that we do and we put that towards gear. You also want to consider how much you’re making if you’re making 2,000 bucks a few times a month with some video projects good for you that’s awesome, but you probably don’t want to go out and buy yourself a $50,000 camera because it’s going to take a really long time to pay that off.
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Should You Upsell To Your Clients?
Our fourth point is to suggest more videos for your clients, as a digital content agency it’s great to get one off projects but it’s even better to get more than one job out of each client’s so if your client only hired you to do one video let’s say it’s a two-minute about video for their website page, once that video is complete and they’re really happy with the work that you did you can offer to them that you could make 30-second Instagram videos out of all the great footage that you got from that shoot. We also recommend that you reach out to your clients a few times a year with suggestions and promotions like if the holidays are coming up offer a £1000 video package that includes an hour on set and a quick video with it where you and your team can wish your customers happy holidays. Your goal should always be to get repeat business from a client. It’s a lot easier to sell a video idea to a client once they know what to expect working with you and your team and they trust you. We’re not a fan of giving for some clients and discounts but we understand the allure of it, you want to work with a client so you give them a deal so that they’ll work with you.
Reward Loyalty
We found that to get repeat business you want to reward loyalty so what we do with our clients is to charge full price for the first video shoot and edit and we let them know that if they come back and work with us again that we’re going to reward their loyalty by giving them ten percent off of any videos after the first one, doing this makes it more likely that you’re going to get repeat business and it makes your clients feel better about working with you again and again. Do case studies and get reviews from your clients, check in with them after their videos are put out into the world, ask them how it went if it achieved the goals that they had hoped it would achieve. Something that we think clients really value and appreciate is when you go out of your way to boast about working with them when it comes to social media. We will share behind the scenes photos or post about what that business does, why we loved working with them and our clients do really like to see and know that we’re proud to be working with them but we really do want their business and their video project your video campaign to do well.
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Be Yourself
Our last tip for you is to be yourself, in London you get so many content agencies that aren’t themselves. If you’re not yourself you’re not going to attract clients that you actually want to work with you. Early on as a producer in London with our business we were not sure who we were supposed to show up as when we were meeting with potential clients or ongoing clients and we really tried to be who we thought the client wanted us to be. Although we do think it’s important to consider your audience, consider your clients and consider the scenario when it comes to how to dress and how to show up. We also think it’s very important to be yourself over the years we have found that being ourselves dressing like we do, dressing professional or dressing casual and showing up with our quirkiness and our honesty and sincerity. When it comes to working with clients it’s allowed and makes it very easy for clients to be vulnerable and honest with us. You build real trust and real connections with clients when you’re yourself.
There you go those are some of our tips on how to market and grow your London content agency so that you’re making great money, so that you’re building great relationships with clients so that you’re getting repeat business and so that you’re happy along the way.