Strategies for Video Marketing Projects
I Talked with thousands OF people who Ran Campaigns, and ran hundreds of my own.
“Getting nothing is a bit stifling.“Â
-Mitch
“We wasted a lot of money and almost did not make it.”  -Roger
“If you don’t know how to reach people, your campaign
will always fail, every time. “ -Ken
“It takes attention and management.” Â
-Laurie
“People engaged but didn’t buy, and that is a tricky thing to deal with.”
– Josh
“It’s important to market for a realistic goal  “ -Jia
Why do most marketing projects fail?
It didn’t matter how nice our video was, or how awesome the product was. My client didn’t go to potential customers and build community ahead of time, and didn’t have an initial group of committed fans waiting for him to watch during the launch.
HE QUIT AFTER THE FIRST WEEK.
The Truth of Marketing:
People are familiar with the benefits of video production:Â
A. It can help people raise the capital they need to take the next step in their business.
B. It can be a great way to make your idea public and get lots of people sharing about your company.
However, most people don’t know about the myths, and they end up embarrassing themselves in front of their fans.
Is it really that hard to motivate an audience to view your project? The answer is yes.
I put together this research Project so that you can
Solve the audience problem.
Why Do 70% of Projects Fail?
Here are the untested beliefs that you might already be relying on for your project:
People will like my video project
Customers will discover my video organically
Campaigns grow all on their own
Leads will act the first time I ask
Investing in “so called” press services is smart
I don’t need a pre-launch marketing budget
I can run this without much time
People know what action you need from them
Social media has something to do with sales
Once I get my views, conversion will be easy
For most projects, ^^ myths impact your bottom line
1. A project with left-brain features also has to touch people’s hearts
“I didn’t really know how to present my idea/product properly to make it human.” -Julian
“You have to have a good product that people want, something that will benefit their life. “ -Ally
If you’re like most of the people who launch a campaign, you’ve spent 95% of your time at the drawing board, creating your project. You might even still be in “stealth mode,” which basically means nobody in the world knows about it yet and nobody has tested it.
âś” A passionate founder who uses enthusiasm and communication to build authentic friendship and connection with his peers around his or her important idea,
Focus on audience first. This will help you get actual feedback to determine if your features are worth it.
Learn how to present and speak about Your product, and do that frequently.
âś” Try to have ten conversations a day about your project
If you haven’t presented your idea to an actual audience yet, I highly suggest to start there, because those conversations will end up showing your how to position your sale.
2. Evangelists usually come from your existing audience
“I didn’t know how to draw people without having to pay for ads.” -Christy
“Due to saturation, only a tiny amount of projects will get random attention.” -Jay
“We had to promote it ourselves. And found it very difficult.” -Jurgen
“Have a network of people ready if you want to be successful.” -Yoga
You can’t count on New Customers to organically fund your project for you in traffic. Marketing is simply a platform to host the idea, and despite all the popular kickstarter tips showing you how to launch, in the crucial first few days of your launch, it’s up to you to attain critical traffic to back the project.
3. Momentum is human produced – you get what you push
“You need to “market” your project very hard and prep for a big launch announcement to people who are expecting it.” -Greg
“The problem is one of social awareness.” -Zolymar
“Having a long time to fund does not help.” -Karl
“I wish I spent WAAAY more time researching how video marketing worked.”
Do you know about the reverse bell curve of audience trust acceptance? It basically means that people will support your company based either on the number of view and the past successes of the project founder.
The only way to have a strong end is to have a strong start.
4. People won’t buy unless you talk to them directly
“You must first have investors and customers lined up and committed to view your project.“ -Rachel
You want to Develop and Train an inner-circle so that they pledge in the very first moment of your campaign
Finally, look to personal, short messages to your email audience, not newsletters. In 2017 newlsetters died significantly due to the implementation of “Priority Inbox” in google. Find the way to talk to people in their priority inbox.
Email Promotion Quiz: Which messages do you think I’ll look at first? Does anyone really go phishing into Promotions anymore?
5. PR “Promotion Boosters” are out for your cash – BTW they suck
“My money was all lost when project failed.”  – Wolfgang
“I hate all the the gimmicks that I have to deal with from PR companies claiming they can help me. “ -Red
It is difficult navigating the noise and those that can really help you.” -Tim
While there are some established, reputable PR companies, most of the PR “booster services” that contact you will leave you with empty pockets and almost zero backers from your investment.
6. Save a nest egg for legit pre-launch marketing costs
“My challenge? Achieving visibility for the project without making mistakes with my investment – I wish I knew which marketing partners I could trust” -Francisco
You might think, “I’m here to raise money, not spend money!” when you start a campaign. However, the projects that are most successful have at least a small budget set aside to go big in their campaign. You’ll want to research about the best fundraising websites to compare.
Running a marketing campaign has rewards like walking way with the money you need to take the next step in your business, and reaching a larger than normal  audience through social media sharing.
If you’re planning to be in the public eye and have all that visibility, don’t you want your project to look and feel as professional as possible? We usually see folks putting aside 30% of their expected total raise from your project revenues, beforehand, into video production costs and advertising costs.
7. Rushing to start –Â drains you & doesn’t work
“I was amazed at the time and attention it took away from our company to run the campaign. A creative story campaign is a full time job “ -David
“I found raising awareness through social media, emails, and face-to-face interaction to be very time consuming.” -Owen.
The solution is to take it slow with your marketing. Â Contact your entire audience at least a month before the campaign goes live
Once you begin your research, give yourself a breather and make sure you have plenty of time to have all the steps in place for content generation and your leads plan before your launch day.
8. Most people still don’t know what Video Production is
“The majority of our product’s target audience had never even heard of why they’d need us. “ – Daniel
9. Social Media self promotion – you’re getting sidelined
You probably want to know how to use social media for help — after all, you spent so many years building this great following just for this moment. The problem is, self-promotion is really boring.  And on top of that, posts are filtered by Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and if they look promotional then they’ll only be shown to a small % of your audience. We suggest keeping social media and newsletters to celebrate “wins” and use personal emails and outreach for your more direct “ask.” When you work with a fundraising consultant on editorial outreach, you’ll be shown the same principles.
We’ve seen that the solution is to talk from a more storybook fashion, and share about the beliefs and background of your project. Â “link” posts perform much more poorly than photo or video posts. Â Avoid language like “click the link”, and instead have the link to your campaign in the comments section of your post.
10. If you succeed, that’s where the real work begins…
“Tell your customers it will take twice as long as you think it will. “ -Dan
“It was like climbing a mountain. Really scary and really hard the closer to the summit.  The excitement of success was overwhelming.” – Patricia
“The financial & time pressure for fulfilling orders and postage can be a challenge. “ – Phil
Once your project is fully funded, there’s still a lot to think about. Â You must keep in mind shipping costs, credit card processing as well as stay on top of updates and product fulfillment. Ready to prepare yourself to be one of the proud 30% to succeed in video marketing? Â Check out my invitation to make the process as smooth as possible for you below. Also you may be interested in get a hand with video production to make your visual process and broadcast sparkle.
Thinking of doing video marketing soon?
For the brave ones who venture out and do the proper legwork, it can be the exact wind in your sails that your project needs to put itself out to the world.
THE ESSENTIAL VIDEO MARKETING:
OUR CREATIVE PRODUCTION SYSTEM
create a HEALTHY FUTURE for your VIDEO IDEA
“I use this in-depth planning and creative development system everyday to get views. It works miracles.”
âś” Â Strategy and in-depth pre-production
âś” Â The best cinematographers and editors
