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Be Memorable (part 1): Trailers
In starting or reinventing your business, one of your first steps will be to decide who makes up your “fan base”
When I say “fan base,” I do not speak figuratively. You don’t just want clients – you want a rabid screaming legion of cheerleaders for you and the service you provide.
Think of the size of the average wedding party. Chances are that the bride and groom will show pieces (if not all) of their wedding video to the them. On average a couple will have a best man, a maid of honor, 4 bridesmaids and 4 groomsmen. They’re all talking about you on and after the wedding day – don’t be paranoid, it just happens…but most of all, you have the power to determine what strong opinions they will be forming about you!
This series of entires on becoming memorable will get you thinking about the many ways you influence the people you serve! Branding involves everything you do, so this series will make branding more practical to you – real world actions to get more clients in your door and on your books!
Trailers are a great way to get your brides excited and talking about YOU! But just doing trailers isn’t enough; you have to make this memorable to the bride. We have our trailers completed and online within 24 hours of the wedding. Now that’s memorable!!! Editing a trailer within 24 hours of a wedding is not that much of a time commitment on our part, but to a bride…it’s magic!
Edit the shots out of chronological order and it will keep her from feeling like she saw all that she needs to see. This avoids taking away some of the excitement about her full length edit late which comes later.
We usually limit our trailers to around 1 minute. Hollywood trailer limits are 2 ½ minutes. Personally I think that’s too long for a wedding trailer.
Make the trailer your own. This might sound odd and un-businesslike, but follow me here.
One of the things that Liz and I decided early on was that trailers are for us, not the bride. The bride doesn’t pay for them so that freed us up to use some non-traditional music and do some creative stuff with the edit. It really became less of a chore and more something we looked forward to doing. And if it puts the couple in a light that they don’t normally see themselves, all the better!!! It’s memorable!!!
So what do you do once you’ve edited this magical trailer?
· Post your trailer to a good quality video hosting site like Vimeo or Blip (youtube is the most known, but the quality is poo poo)!
· Email the bride the link to the trailer. An even better option is to embed it into an email newsletter, more about that later…
· Offer her an incentive to forward the email by offering $100 off her balance for every referral (that books) that she brings in from that trailer email
· Send the trailer to EVERYONE in your business contacts list. “Look what we shot this weekend!” Stay in front of your vendor friends – stay memorable, and thus, referrable!
· For the vendors with whom you worked at the wedding, send a link and a personal note. Venues, Photog, DJ, Caterer, etc. If you worked with them they should see this trailer!
· Post the trailer on your blog (of course!!!)
With web video, you only have a few seconds to grab and hold a viewer’s interest – and most viewers don’t watch more than a minute anyway! Having short trailers is a fast, compact way to ensure that people are viewing and enjoying your work. And that’s what it’s all about, right?
Well, I must also admit that it’s good for the ego when all those raving cheerleader e-mails start filling the inbox.
Come back to see the next installment of this series about becoming more memorable, when we talk about “Image.” This is not Instant Gratification 101, folks, but if you put in the work, you WILL reap the rewards.
Rock On & Work Hard!
Jen, ftp
