How can I market my video service to offline customers?

I don't know how successful you are going to be in getting clients through Craigslist and other online sources. But if you are going to sell the videos for the same price (around $30 a pop), even 100% commission may not be enough for a sales person.

All the best

Tanvir

Have you thought about selecting some businesses very close to you, that are the kind of people where everyone in the entire city knows them, yet they are still a Mom and Pop, and kind of influencers in the city, and making them a killer free one, then going and showing it to them? While you could upsell them on ranking it for something they would want it to rank for (their name, or their type of business), you could leverage that to get your name out there, especially if they don't mind you putting your credits at the end of it. This worked for me and now a chiropractor not only gives me free service but is helping me with other business people that come see him.

The quality of your video will be 50% of your marketing plan. Create an amazing video for a real or imagined business and SHOW IT to potential prospects. You can also explain how and why video is important.

Show them examples of video appearing in SERPs and what that can mean for business.

Keep it simple - if they ask; "why do I need video?" you simply say "because Internet video helps people make buying decisions faster."

PM me for a link that features 101 reasons why video is important - all backed up with DATA. They have taken down the link, but you can plug it into the wayback machine and have at it!

I cannot stress quality enough. It can be average of good. They have to be INSANELY GREAT!

The quality of your video will be 50% of your marketing plan. Create an amazing video for a real or imagined business and SHOW IT to potential prospects. You can also explain how and why video is important.

Show them examples of video appearing in SERPs and what that can mean for business.

Keep it simple - if they ask; "why do I need video?" you simply say "because Internet video helps people make buying decisions faster."

I wi edit this later to include a link that features 101 reasons why video is important - all backed up with DATA. They have taken down the link, but you can plug it into the wayback machine and have at it!

I cannot stress quality enough. It can be average of good. They have to be INSANELY GREAT!

Somebody once told me that hiring a salesperson who will sell something on commission is a loser. The reason is that the successful commission salespeople are already gainfully employed and don't need you.

Not sure this is the route you want to go.

Tom

Call a local plumber, bar, gym and say the words I've quoted from your original post.

If the person you call isn't interested then just ask them how they'd go about getting new customers for your service.

3 things will happen..

1. They'll ask you questions about your service and you may be able to pitch them.

2. They'll suggest different ways that you might get new customers.

3. They'll tell you to bog off (very unlikely in my experience)

See...you had your own answer all the time.

You probably won't do what I've suggested which is a great shame.....because it works.

How do I know it works?

Guess.



EDIT: A typical script on the phone might sound like this.

Hi there, I'm not sure who I should ask for....I wonder if you could help me?

Could I pick your brain as a fellow business owner for about 60 seconds?

I been running a video creation service for over 2 years and most of my clients are online internet type businesses.

I know that my business is a lot different to yours so I wouldn't be stealing your trade secrets......but I just wondered what ways have you found best for getting new customers.
[Listen Carefully...then continue with]

The thing is, I would like to promote more to offline businesses like yours...you know plumbers, bars, gyms etc...now, I know I've a quality product, at a very competitive price... but am trying to figure out the best way to find new customers.


.

You should seriously consider:

# Going to some business networking meetings.

# Talking to business owners you know.

# Asking everyone you know who they know.

That should get you face to face with quite a few business owners.

Outside of that you want to think through the multiple ways you can use video
marketing to help brick and mortar businesses (there are many).

The good news is this is an area where most business owners will show
and interest and it hasn't been heavily promoted yet (business owners
haven't had half a dozen calls from online video marketers wanting to
help them).

So you should have a market that's fairly easy to talk to as long as you've
thought through some cool ways to help them.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Don't underestimate the power of your local newspaper.

It's been a goldmine for me and my marketing business/ad agency.

In fact, we've been running ads targeting local service professionals and then licensing one of our proven ad campaigns that I created.
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but yeah, for me, newspaper ads have worked well. not so much in the freebie
newspaper rags that many cities give away... but the actual city paper.

It's a bit more expensive, but for me, it's been a good ROI because I can
target any given market... and most of the markets i go after, they get and
read the paper.

Hello,
As for Craigslist, I think it is one of the most successful way of marketing and reaching out to your buyers. You just need to know how to optimise it. I'm learning on using it now as I have seen plenty of them benefiting from it.

Been some absolutely great advice and methods shared in this thread by a lot of people.

My methods for selling my videos are (or will be at relaunch):

* Create a local business site/local review/local networking site. A genuine quality one. Then reach out by email offering free promo and a text based interview.

I've seen at least two WSO's on this method and the response rates are high - 10% to 50% keen to get the free promotion.

Then in the process, upsell them with time limited coupon offer with a '50' % off or something from an artificially high figure (there's a good Wp plugin that does these coupons fast and they are effective.


Contant 200 a day (or it could be hire as you can automate most of the process on aweber and maybe even get a bit of software made to autopopulate a page on your site with the info they provide from the interview questions you supplied) and be pitching a nice stream of people each day who will look at your offer if done in the right sequence.

That's one method.

* Create a facebook page around the local site, and build up the likes through advertising (you can get thousands in a few short days to a week). Then you social lead freak to capture their email and other details if you haven't already got them to opt in).

Request friends, or just email or pm them on facebook and offer them the promotion on your site or just link them straight to your offer.

* Linked in. Join groups. Post. Then intitiate conversations on the board and follow up with further questions in pm with interested people and lead them to a pitch or offer with smart questioning.

* Meet-ups. Join groups and mass email or email members. Don't know how good this one is yet. Just read a WSO about it but there wasn't anything but claims from the author and most are lies.

* Telemarketing. Daily. Offering people the free interview to be posted, promoted and syndicated on your site and across the web. Again you draw them in and they will look at your offerings when placed in front of them. I found telemarketing with offering something like info or something 20 times more effective. A lot say yes to getting it just to get you off the phone but it still gives reason for follow up. And in this case, where you actually offer something they want and need to partcipate in and not just look at, you could bring in 30-50 people a day if a pro is doing the calling.

* Strat Alliances with people of influence. People online with big audiences on social media. Contact them by phone and work something out with them to promote or recommend your stuff to their list or implement a referral scheme.

* JV or commission agreements with complimentary but non-competing businesses.

* Some chamber of commerce networking with the owner of the chamber.

This is an aggressive strategy that can be systemized and outsourced pretty quickly.

It gives values first, so opens more doors than the straight selling approach. Gets daily traffic to your offers. Builds trust and credibility. Uses special offers and urgency. Builds a database of contacts that can be nurtured, educated, provided value, and who can recommend and market your stuff and expand your reach even if they don't buy. Has a mix of methods. Can be systemized and outsourced.


That Jalanda is impressive in her marketing btw. Great link.

Hire an odesk person that speaks good english to do the telemarketing for you. I've come across some really good ones for $2 to $3 an hr, and I give them a bonus for sales. If they work 5 hours a day it's only $10 to $15. One sale pays for their time, but hopefully they do 2, 3, 4 a day, then you're really cookin'.

I've done some test calls myself for exactly what you are doing, and I always got a great response. As soon as I started talking about a video for their company their ears perked up. BUT I am wishy washy and fearful one day and full of balls the next so I didn't keep doing it. I was actually just thinking about trying this again, that's why I clicked on this thread.

I think it's awesome idea... do it!!