Lessons

Lesson Info

Ana Brandt: Marketing a Photo Business with Animoto Video

I'm so excited to be back on creative I've and video is just something that I absolutely love I think it is important I love that it's been integrated into my business and I actually feel like I'm kind of just getting started even though I've been doing videos since two thousand eight and I'm happy to share kind of some of my tips and ideas for video because if you like anything it can get very overwhelming and you're thinking oh I've got a shoot and edit and now I've got to do video and hire a videographer and I have no money and no one is calling me and you know it can get so overwhelming that you just don't want to do it and I think that that's the struggle with many not just photographers but just entrepreneurs in general video isn't just for photographers I think it's for any business small medium or large obviously the powerhouse big companies have the staff and the money to have a whole you know, media staff but we don't you know small business entrepreneurs whether you're one o...

r two or three you don't have the financial means to do video so can you do it absolutely and I'm here to show you how you can do it with very, very, very little money so we're going to get started you know I'm all about marketing I really am but I my philosophy on marketing is it's not something on the to do list to me marketing it's about telling the world not only who you are, what you are doing now but what you're capable of you know we're always trying to seek new opportunities and new ideas and always trying to say how how can I get those new ideas and I always quote open for you when she says luck is when preparation meets opportunity and so I feel that a lot of marketing is wrapped around that you got to be prepared for those opportunities around you when no one's calling you you're still working you're still marketing you're still doing things I can't tell you how many videos I posted me by myself alone in a room with a flip camera not even know having any idea if anybody was even watching I just felt like I had a message to get out there in two thousand eight I had no idea where video was going I had no for side it was just oh let's do a flip cam and let's do video um now that I'm going to be spreading this message in what I did you do have the foresight and the statistics are out there and it is growing by leaps and bounds and video is amazing but I want you to think about marketing it tells the world who you are, what you are doing now and what you aren't capable of right because we always wantto do what we're doing now but then we want to go one step further okay so let's look at some statistics videos appeared about seventy percent of the top one hundred search engine results this is my mind box productions you know if you just spend five minutes and google video statistics you'll come up three hours later with tons and tons and tons of stats that will just blow your mind away so I did that in preparation for this I knew the power of video because I've really world examples to tell you today but he said you know I better put some statistics behind what I'm talking about and so I did every single day one hundred million people watch a video every single day one hundred million people on youtube one billion people use you too one billion people okay youtube owned by google marketing powerhouse I mean you couldn't have planned it better for those two to come together and talk about adwords and google and key words and that's a whole other day but just the fact that those two are married genius purchasing power fifty two percent of consumers say product videos helped them make their purchasing decisions that is huge how many times have you seen a video about something the new apple watch are you kidding me? Who doesn't want an apple watch I mean I don't even want enough a watch but I want what you really mean and because I see the video and I'm like I want that watch I wouldn't really wear one because I'm just not that type but I just feel like I want because I've seen the video had you showed me a picture of the apple watch not so much how many times my husband's a big gadget guy and he pulls up videos a little products and I'm like I don't even know what I'm buying by I can't tell you how many technology items I've bought because my husband has sent me a video that he's on foot board and don't even know what I'm buying and he's very excited because he knows if he sends me a video I'll buy it and we all know that women are the powerhouse buyers right now we know that we're emotionally connected we love video we have no time so because we're taking care of the kids they're going to run the next generation so if you want to sell me showed me a video and you've got me video for the future by two thousand seventeen video's gonna account for sixty nine percent now this is two thousand fifteen you know that that number is going to change according to cisco you know it's going to change so this is just right now rewatch creative live has mastered the art of the re watch come on how many times have I seen on facebook? I'll catch it on the re watch I'm working about belay you know weird during the day australia's like I'll catch it on the re watch the other countries or we'll catch it on the re watch consumers are watching the same video multiple times I'm would love to know how many people were watching creative live have watched the same kind of live programme multiple times right? Catch it on the re watch in two thousand eight I launched the youtube channel I cannot tell you that I had no idea what I was doing okay so much so that I had named my channel b studio video for brant studio didn't think about it and got a call from a yoga studio saying b studio was their yoga studio and I can't change my youtube channel name so I had a website called the studio and change that so I'm stuck with the youtube b studio video name so when you're doing a youtube channel watch the name because you can't change it so in two thousand I launched the youtube channel with a flip camera by myself in a tripod people in a dark studio for five years I had this great idea that I would have a black shooting room yeah so imagine me doing video on a flip cam in a black shooting her but I still I posted in any way and I never looked at my stats I literally would just create a video and just upload it and initially it was had up a pregnant woman had to do behind the scenes it was just random stuff about more kind of bts behind the scenes and I was never I didn't look at his time cannot I didn't look at my youtube stats till I think it was a year ago I said that I actually was like oh we're two million people I remember looking at it a one point where I was like one million views and I was like oh okay that's fine and then I remember talking my husband and we were having breakfast meeting and he's like do you two million views and like you have over thirty thousand subscribers him like I do and he's like water we monetizing this when he gets on that all his thing and it was just like I had no idea because that wasn't my focus my focus wasn't big money my focus I don't even know what my focus was when I started I just was like I love video I'm a movie girl I like movies I like hallmark commercials I like music and movement thank god I have two daughters that dance I love that world and so that's kind of how I started in two thousand twelve I brought in videographer interns and let me tell you that changed my world because you know, four years of doing video yourself is a long time doing the flip camera went through three flip cams having other people hold it me hold it I'm sure my kids held it at one point you know trying to set up the camera I mean four years is a long time but by two thousand twelve I had already had a million views of my channel without really marketing intern doing anything and at this point it wasn't targeted towards the consumer okay so brought in videographer interns and they were amazing and two different guys one work for disney and one ended up working for a big film house they knew what they were doing but it wasn't for the shooting it was for the cutting and editing and that changed my world because my world edited looks really good when you put some music on it and so I was like I kind of like my edited world this is this is appealing and so by the end of two thousand twelve into about two two thousand thirteen two thousand thirteen I heard a videographer in two thousand thirteen I created a new client channel I'm going to tell you why these were the stats as of last night two point seven million views thirty six thousand subscribers this's with no advertising in the channel you guys this is not with me spending a dime I have not spent one dime on advertising for youtube okay so you can tell me I don't have the money I can't afford it and up until here I haven't spent any money on a videographer okay and I came to this imagine if I had actually put some effort into marketing my channel on monetizing it which is the next generation here's what happened this this is my new channel we're going to talk about the location's real quick because we are in a global worlds but it does affect us local east it's very important here's what happened mr nico he's on my instagram bring in the mouth out of the blue from a soldier in afghanistan watching my videos amateur photographer his wife is pregnant in california wants to hire me to do his newborn photos and I'm like yeah I'm not sending you a check and I thought it was fane I truly thought it was spam and I'm so sorry nico I did but you changed my world and I mean to say this is pam and I didn't see anything rude I said okay here's my information here's my pricing you know we only handle bookings by telephone and he said well calling you is gonna be really hard but you know we can probably get a phone call at around ten o'clock your time and you know I'll try to work it so that I can call you and I was like, ok, a few exchanges kind of put it out of my mind I'm in the middle of shooting and if he comes in and she's like there's this guy nico on the phone from afghanistan and I looked at my watch and it's ten o'clock and I'm like oh my gosh he's really and fast forward the story he does come in for any born session gorgeous family his wife is oliver instrument is stunning and he's explains to me that you know when they're over in afghanistan and they're not in war there looking at you two videos you know and this is what they're doing and they're amateur photographers and their hobbyists and they're watching things like creative live and he has a pregnant wife in california I happen to be in california and so I was like you know what I think we need to switch our channel I think we need to switch the focus so we can keep these b studio video I hate the name something I could do about I could forward some heroes to it but let's do it ana maria photography channel and starr putting videos that are cut down more and make little movies and put the pretty music and and strip down the session and focus to the target market my consumer my client so I launched and rebrand photography in two thousand thirteen no marketing no money no dollars just stripping down my videos and quickly went to one million views hey no marketing no dollars spent so now I look at my locations okay which by the way, thirty three percent of my viewers airmail sixty six point nine percent of female no surprise there it's an almost every statistic we have so I started looking at locations in saudi arabia look at that the leader in my views and so then you say well anna what is consumer video is going to help you in saudi okay two weeks ago uh tiffany tells me we have a client with six months twins this is your session ok great I rarely pre consult with my client so probably ninety nine percent of my clients if they're new I haven't met them before so I walk in this session high or you immediately the husband says to me do you know how I found you and I was like no now one of my big things that we do in a client calls to book us a cz we always ask how they found us number one always but tiffany handles most of my bookings probably ninety five percent of my bookings so if I don't see the paperwork you know something I didn't see how they found me and he said you two let's wait you live here yes yes yes I'm a doctor I live in l a and from saudi my mom lives in saudi and she's watching your videos on youtube in saudi arabia and they've been going around saudi arabia clearly and your many short films on instagram all over saudi arabia and she sent it to me and said you have to find this photographer you have to go to her and he's thinking, well, where is she? I mean she's on you, too. We already saw the stats for youtube, so a lot of people think you, too. But I think we think of youtube as this other planet somewhere, and whoever is watching it must be in another planet and, you know, it's billions people, and so he's thinking what he owes me a youtube channel and he's like, oh, my gosh, she's an hour away, and he came in, he booked a session, and I was like, of course you did, because that that was exactly my intention, right, isn't that was exactly my focus was exactly my intention. And here he wass and you, you know, bouncing around the globe and it's right back at you, it's like that humoring you throw out. It just comes right back to you. And, you know, very little money spent doing that marketing, paying my videographer to do that video that he saw