With the explosion of digital media, it is becoming increasingly difficult for brands to connect with their audience without creating or developing an online presence. Digital marketing has become too big of a field to be limited to just those with professional training and credentials. Anyone can pick up a camera these days and create a YouTube channel!
That is why we are offering you some basic tips on how to start your own video agency. This is not intended to get you started as a career, but instead as an easy way to increase exposure for your business and promote your services. Many small businesses begin paying attention to social media when they realize that it is a powerful tool for reaching out to new clients.
By producing your own content, you will shift focus onto helping other companies grow through production and advertising of videos. There are many ways to do this, so choose a medium that fits your budget and schedule.
Make a list of your experiences
As mentioned earlier, being able to connect with people is an important part of marketing. Starting your own video marketing company is no different!
Running your own business gives you the freedom to choose how you want to run it. You get to set your schedule, manage your time, and use your skills and talents in the way that best benefits you and your business.
The key thing about having a successful career is knowing when to take risks. By putting yourself out there and making mistakes, you’ll eventually find what works for you.
It’s true that starting your own business takes a lot of work and effort, but don’t underestimate the payoff. With all the hard work you put into running your business, you’ll soon see its success grow under your leadership.
Create a business plan
Starting your own video marketing agency is not as simple as going up to a well-known company and asking them for help with their business. In fact, most large companies that have made the switch from employee to owner started off as employees who now run his or her own business!
The key difference between an employee that becomes an entrepreneur and someone who starts their own business is how they finance their venture. An individual starting out can easily be financed through savings, loans, crowdfunding websites, or even friends and family. However, as your business grows more formal funding sources are needed to keep moving forward.
Most small business owners hire freelancers or consultants to do part of their job due to cost. By offering such services yourself, you could start building your brand and client base. Two of the biggest service providers in this area are YouTubers and bloggers. Both make great money doing what they love so why not offer those services to others?
If you already have some content on YouTube then you could begin posting educational videos about different aspects of video marketing. If you enjoy writing, you could also use your skills to create blogs focused on helping other entrepreneurs learn the field.
Your clients will come to you if you provide good value so make sure to research products and strategies before investing time into promoting them. There’s no need to go all billionaire on yourself but it is important to know what works ahead of time.
Fund your business
Starting a video marketing agency is not cheap, nor will it be quick enough for some. If you want to make good money as a professional photographer or videographer, then investing in equipment and software is necessary.
It’s easy to start filming with your phone but advanced camera gear can cost over $1,000. There are many ways to source funding for this, including through crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo.
These sites allow you to create an advertisement asking people to contribute towards buying new equipment. In return they get early access to prototypes and rewards such as t-shirts or even full products!
By creating a niche market yourself, you can gain initial revenue and more loyal followers. Many successful YouTubers started off making videos using only free resources before developing their style.
Pick your team
Now that you have determined that starting your own video marketing agency is viable, the next step will be deciding who you want to help you run your business!
As mentioned before, being able to communicate well and having a knack for social media are very important tools in the toolbox of every successful entrepreneur. Therefore, people with these skills should definitely consider becoming employees at your new company instead of owners.
This can include developing relationships with other content creators via social media or through meeting with others online and sharing common ground (think about it – would Oprah start her TV show without first building up her audience on talk shows?).
By offering employment positions to those with the right skill set, you increase the chances that they will work hard for you because they believe in what you are trying to accomplish. You also lower costs by paying them salary as opposed to investing money into equipment and running promotional campaigns yourself.
However, make sure to give enough notice so those individuals can find alternative employment! Reaching out to their employers and letting them know you are looking for another position is the best way to do this.
Lastly, try to hire users rather than entrepreneurs. People who already have an established fan base may feel more inclined to put in extra effort to ensure their followers’ experiences are positive.
Know your customers
The second part of starting an online video marketing agency is knowing your audience, what they like, and creating content that fits their needs. If you are not familiar with your target market, start by doing some research and studying them!
Finding out who your clients are will help shape how you run your business and what types of videos you create. You can do this through surveys, conversations, and formal meetings.
By asking questions about what type of videos they want to see, what messages they hope to get, and what products or services they desire, you will know where to focus your efforts in making more money.
As you gather information, think about what format would be most effective for your clients. For example, if your client wants to learn more about how to use a new product, filming yourself using the product may be more efficient than having them meet someone else who uses it.
Know your market
Starting a business is always better when you know what kind of business you want to run. You will be more confident in yourself as an entrepreneur if you are familiar with the field that you plan to work in.
If you do not, then it can easily hurt your chances of success because you may not understand the competition or the nuances of the industry.
By limiting your options from the start, you risk never being able to establish yourself as an authority in your area. This could hurt your long-term success even further.
As we mentioned before, starting a video marketing agency is a great way to launch into the world of online content creation.
Create marketing strategies
Running your own video agency is not as easy as some might make it seem! Sure, you will need to be creative with your messaging and branding, but beyond that, creating engaging videos and promoting others’ content is what really sets apart successful agencies.
As you begin to gather inspiration for your new business, look into the work of other similar companies. You can find out how they achieved success by watching their videos or studying their promotional material.
By doing this, you can pick and choose bits of information to use in ways that are related to your business. For example, if you manage a restaurant group, looking at food blogs and recipes may inspire new advertising messages or features for your site.
Start small
It is better to start with one area of video marketing rather than trying to do everything all together. Choose a sphere of activity that requires little effort and build from there.
For example, starting a YouTube channel is much simpler than developing an e-commerce website or producing advertisements. Yours could even be free if you only have time to create short clips once in a while!
Keep learning
Do not stop educating yourself about video marketing when you launch your business. Keep exploring different types of videos, modes of engagement (vlogs, interviews, etc.), media channels, and technology.
This will help ensure your business stays up to date and competitive. There are many free resources available online to get started.
Develop your website
The second part of starting a video marketing agency is developing your website. This includes creating an About Us page, setting up an online store, and designing your web presence.
Your website should contain all of your important information such as business names, contact info, links to social media profiles, and more. You can use special software to create easy-to-edit pages for most platforms like WordPress or Shopify.
Making changes to your site’s content and appearance is much simpler than changing something like font size, which requires using CSS or Photoshop, respectively. Both of these tools have beginner level settings that you could work with!
Running your own business means there will be times when you are not able to focus fully on other things, so being able to do some simple editing yourself helps keep things running smoothly.
