Why Small Offerings Are the Key to Landing Big Projects with Jacob Snowden
Episode #219
Overview
Who doesn’t want to land a high-budget project for a big brand? That may be the goal of many of us, but seldom can you start there. Before you get booked to make something big, you often have to do something much smaller. Today’s guest is an expert in video marketing who’s going to tell you how to introduce yourself to big clients by offering smaller projects.
Key Takeaways
When talking to clients, focus on how to best use the videos you create rather than the video itself. Your videos are a means to an end for them and you can help them reach their goals. That’s what they’re truly interested in.
Have something to offer a potential client on the cheap (or even free) to help you establish a relationship early on. This will not only possibly lead to more lucrative work later on, but it will also help you decide if you’re a good fit for each other.
If you ever do free work for somebody, be very clear from the start about your expectations of what you’re doing for them and what they should expect from you.
About Jacob Snowden
Jacob Snowden has worked in video and marketing for the past eight years. Starting out with Kickstarters and music videos, Jacob now leads a team of nine video creators for one of America's fastest-growing companies; Marketing 360.
Focusing on Strategy to Help Your Clients
More important than making a great video, is putting it to use in the best way you can. Jacob describes the process for selling clients on the importance of the videos you create for them rather than the video itself. It takes remembering that they have a goal in mind and focusing on how you can help them achieve that goal with your creation.
By focusing on strategy, you’ll not only sound more professional, but you’ll help your clients even more. Knowing what they want the videos to achieve will guide your creations towards a more narrow focus and make them more effective.
Starting Small Before You Can Go Big
We all want to create big-budget projects. But sometimes it pays to make something with a tiny budget or even for free when just starting your relationship with a brand. Jacob and I have both found that this is a helpful way to get your foot in the door and find out whether or not you’re actually a good fit for each other.
Templatized projects can also fill this role. They are cheap, fast, and easy to make while still serving your client’s needs. Sometimes the most memorable video is just a few seconds long and quickly made. Although they don’t make you much money upfront, Jacob knows that they often lead to much bigger projects down the road.
In This Episode
- Why implementing a video correctly is more important than creating it [8:10]
- How to introduce yourself to a big agency as a small company [17:00]
- Important considerations when it comes to doing work for free [20:05]
- Using inexpensive templatized projects to grow your business [32:35]
Quotes
“You can talk to a client about video until you’re blue in the face, but if they don’t understand how it’s going to benefit their business and how it’s going to be used, you already lost them.” [9:14]
“If you can get somebody to say yes once, you’re more likely to get them to say yes again.” [28:49]
“Just keep creating videos and just keep learning. That’s all you can do.” [42:03]
Links
Get access to the free Client Budget Workshop
Join the Onward Summit Waitlist
Follow Jacob on YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Follow Studio Sherpas on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
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