A few months ago I was in a consultation with a couple when we started talking about their vision for their wedding film.  Eventually, we chatted about why they wanted to meet with me and potentially hire us to be their Wedding Cinematographers. One of the main reasons is because we had an “About Us” tab on our website in which we identified exactly why we were qualified to be their Wedding Cinematographer. I laughed and asked “Are you serious?” and they said “Yes! No one talks about their qualifications or that they were capable of being entrusted with documenting our memories.”

They noted that Jeff (my husband and co-owner) was an Emmy Award Winning News Videographer and that Sales and Marketing was my expertise. They also loved that there were photos of us & our team on our website. They felt connected to us already and they felt like they knew who they were getting on their wedding day.

Later that night I started poking around online and quickly realized that this couple was right – many Wedding Cinematographers do not have an “About Me” tab or “Our Story” section of their website, and if they did, it talked mostly about that they liked Starbucks Lattes and how well they got along with their dog. It said nothing about their journey and their relevant qualifications.

I get it!  It’s hard to write about yourself and you don’t want to seem like you are bragging – but in truth, you are applying for a job each and every day. If a potential client is browsing your website and this is the only introduction they are going to have of you, then for the love of Pete, SELL YOURSELF!!!

If you are lacking this critical section of information on your website here are the “must haves” to do a rock star job of selling yourself without sounding like Braggy McBraggerson.

1. Add an “About Us” “About Me” “Who We Are” “Our Story” section to your website. Call it whatever tickles your fancy but you need to have a landing spot for potential clients to learn about who you are and what you are about.

2. Talk about your work history and what you did before becoming a Wedding Cinematographer. Did you have a video camera in your hand since the age of 14? Did you shoot Television News for 10 years? Even if all of the work history isn’t video related, it’s probably a great story. Everyone loves a good story and that story will be a part of what draws a couple to you…but you’ve got to tell them about it…on your website!

3. Explain how you got your start as a Wedding Cinematographer. Did a friend ask you to shoot their wedding? Did you 2nd shoot for someone and find your passion? How long have you been doing this?

Most of us have a really fun and interesting story about how we got into this, so TELL IT! Part of the “Serendipity” story is how we love the movie Serendipity and the actor John Cusack and I always find that couples are smiling when I relate this to them.

4. Make it personal. Have a spot that talks about what you do when you aren’t shooting weddings. Do you have a spouse? Kids? Hobbies? Talk about them. It will help the couple connect with you. Who knows, maybe the groom went to the same college as you or maybe you grew up in the next town over. All of these details create connections and connections create opportunities. Opportunities turns into sales!!

5. Finally…. Have a decent and professional headshot!!! We work in the visual aesthetics business, yet we have some of the most horrific photos floating around out there. I get it… You like to stay behind the camera, but people please!!!! You are applying for a job here!!! You have enough photographer contacts trade for a decent photo session. You want potential couples to know that you are easy on the eyes and and that you have got your stuff together…You are not going to show up on their wedding day in a wife beater and jeans.

People have the desire to form connections. Brides want to hire people that are like themselves. Communicate who you are, how you got here, and why you are perfect for their wedding day, and you will not only attract potential clients, but the TYPE of clients that you want to attract. When you do this, by the time that they meet with you the deal is already half way done.

TarynP

Taryn Bills attended Arizona State University and graduated Cum Laude from the Walter Cronkite School of Broadcast Journalism. She worked in community relations at the Phoenix NBC affiliate, then moved on to an account executive position for Infinity Broadcasting where she discovered her passion for Sales and Marketing. After 3 years she left radio for a 3-year stint in pharmaceutical sales, during which time she and her husband started Serendipity Videography. She has served as the sales and marketing director of award winning Serendipity for 6 years as well as with their baby sister company Simply Cinema. When she is not busy growing her own businesses, she offers marketing and consulting services for various companies who need assistance in growing their brand and increasing their sales.

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With this every changing economy did you know that you can actually grow your company and expand your brand to create additional revenue streams? Imagine that, expanding your business and growing your revenue in a down economy. 

Taryn Bills from Serendipity Videography shows you what they did to evolve their business model and grow their revenue by creating a new brand that targets a different bride than whom they were currently marketing and reaching. Not only did this help them grow their main brand but it helped them to expand to a market that was not currently tapped.

TarynP

Taryn Bills attended Arizona State University and graduated Cum Laude from the Walter Cronkite School of Broadcast Journalism. She worked in community relations at the Phoenix NBC affiliate, then moved on to an account executive position for Infinity Broadcasting where she discovered her passion for Sales and Marketing. After 3 years she left radio for a 3-year stint in pharmaceutical sales, during which time she and her husband started Serendipity Videography. She has served as the sales and marketing director of award winning Serendipity for 6 years as well as with their baby sister company Simply Cinema. When she is not busy growing her own businesses, she offers marketing and consulting services for various companies who need assistance in growing their brand and increasing their sales.

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Branding… It’s who you are and what you are about. It is what defines your company and separates you from your competition. Your branding is what attracts potential couples to you. Do you have your best foot forward? Is your branding consistent? Are you maintaining your brand the way that you need to be to make sure that the best representation of your work is out there?

Today’s post focuses on a checklist of items that you need to keep maintained in order to make sure that potential brides are seeing the best that your brand has to offer.

TarynP

Taryn Bills attended Arizona State University and graduated Cum Laude from the Walter Cronkite School of Broadcast Journalism. She worked in community relations at the Phoenix NBC affiliate, then moved on to an account executive position for Infinity Broadcasting where she discovered her passion for Sales and Marketing. After 3 years she left radio for a 3-year stint in pharmaceutical sales, during which time she and her husband started Serendipity Videography. She has served as the sales and marketing director of award winning Serendipity for 6 years as well as with their baby sister company Simply Cinema. When she is not busy growing her own businesses, she offers marketing and consulting services for various companies who need assistance in growing their brand and increasing their sales.

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You’ll want to provide your couple with an experience, not just a disc. Enhancing your packaging and providing your couples with a pleasant viewing experience will be something that they won’t soon forget. Put yourself in the couple’s place, what is going to enhance their first viewing experience? Consider adding some popcorn, candy, tissues, or a giftbasket. Anything you can think of that fits the couple and is consistent with your brand. Don’t forget to include a hand-written thank you card.

Comment below and share some of your packaging ideas; things that have worked or not worked with your company in the past.

Thanks for watching!

Mentioned websites:
Great alternatives to standard DVD/Blu-ray cases
jewelboxing.com
loktah.com

Websites for packaging and shipping ideas/solutions
uline.com
packagingsource.com

Jet

Jet Kaiser saved up enough money to by his first camcorder at the age of 14 and he's been creating films ever since. He eventually created the Indianapolis-based, Jet Kaiser Films where he collaborates his with his lovely wife, Dani. Together they produce cinematic, story-rich, "motion pictures for those in LOVE™ "

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Giving your clients a digital copy not only creates a convenient off-site back up, it also enables them to share your work more easily. There are tons of online companies that offer custom flash drives, I’ve had great luck with Flashbay & usbmemorydirect.com.

Do you offer digital copies on flash drives or other medium? Feel free to share your experiences by commenting below. The IN[FOCUS] community would  love to hear what works well for you and your company.

Jet

Jet Kaiser saved up enough money to by his first camcorder at the age of 14 and he's been creating films ever since. He eventually created the Indianapolis-based, Jet Kaiser Films where he collaborates his with his lovely wife, Dani. Together they produce cinematic, story-rich, "motion pictures for those in LOVE™ "

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Rachelle and Chris’ SDE
Today Show Feature
ABC News Feature
David Robin’s viral video
Loyd Calomay’s viral video featured on Huffington Post

Matt Davis

Matt Davis (coaching at lifestagefilms.com) of Life Stage Films has been described as the “head coach of wedding videography,” providing one-on-one business coaching as well as group coaching webinars. A featured speaker at both WEVA 2009-10 and IN[FOCUS] 2010-11, as well as a multiple CEA award winner and 2009-10 EventDV 25 All-Star, he is based in Wilmington, N.C.

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I have gotten together with a few vendors lately discussing how now more than ever we are seeing new wedding vendors pop up out of nowhere. It seems like the cat is out of the bag, weddings are recession proof!!!

That is only true, though, if you know how to market your business and continue to do so in tough economic times…but that is another post….back to our topic… Now I am all about the open market and I welcome the competition. Competition helps you strive to be better and forces you to take your product to the next level. I am not threatened by it. So more and more I am talking with fellow vendors about what they can do to set themselves apart and here is what I have learned about most people….many wedding professionals are a one-man band… They are the artist, the accountant, the sales person and the assistant all wrapped into one.

Often times the artist is great at the art but the artist’s strength usually isn’t sales. You can have an amazing website wtih stunning collateral materials and pleasing studio space but if you can’t sit down across from that bride and present to her why her wedding day will not be all it can be without hiring, then you then you are dead in the water.

The beautiful website, big full page ads and fancy collateral material will mean nothing to her. Those items are serve as inner confirmation of her decision to go with you after you have closed the deal, but they aren’t going to close the deal for you.

Watch the video above and ask yourself the questions therein – evaluate your studio, and as you sharpen your sales process, you will be more likely to survive and thrive as your marketplace becomes flooded with other competitors.

TarynP

Taryn Bills attended Arizona State University and graduated Cum Laude from the Walter Cronkite School of Broadcast Journalism. She worked in community relations at the Phoenix NBC affiliate, then moved on to an account executive position for Infinity Broadcasting where she discovered her passion for Sales and Marketing. After 3 years she left radio for a 3-year stint in pharmaceutical sales, during which time she and her husband started Serendipity Videography. She has served as the sales and marketing director of award winning Serendipity for 6 years as well as with their baby sister company Simply Cinema. When she is not busy growing her own businesses, she offers marketing and consulting services for various companies who need assistance in growing their brand and increasing their sales.

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So you just finished up a beautiful 20-minute wedding feature and you are so excited to send it off to the couple. You create and upload a trailer to tease everyone and everybody cannot wait to see the final product. But wait! The full wedding film is on DVD…only.

But there are dozens if not hundreds of individuals eager-to-view, what about them? How will they get to see it? One solution is for the couple to buy some extra DVD/Blu-ray copies, but for the most part, couples are unmotivated to do so and have more on their plate.  If the full wedding film is restricted to optical media only, most of the guests at the wedding will never have the chance to see the full, finished masterpiece that you spent the last 2 weeks piecing together.

Making your longer edits (features, short forms, or whatever the kids are calling them now-a-days) available online creates an open avenue to display your true talent and product to anyone connected to the happy couple. The video above shares some ideas and some basic how-to’s to get you started if you haven’t already began sharing your longer edits online.

The couple is going to be thrilled that their film is online and easily shareable. You can offer full wedding video hosting as an addition to a package or surprise the couple with it after they receive their package. It’s up to you as to how you’ll offer it, but the key is to understand how important it is for the couple to have it sharable online. Happy couples should always be your top priority!

Since everyone’s sites are setup differently, I can’t tell you the best way to add an online checkout to your site/blog. We use PayPal because it easy and most web-savvy folks have a PayPal account. I’d encourage you to explore some of the options that PayPal has for merchants. Google Checkout is another popular online selling tool which has grown in popularity the last couple of years. Definitely worth looking into as well.

Has sharing your features online worked out for you and your company? Let me know. Have some concerns? Lemme know your thoughts

Jet

Jet Kaiser saved up enough money to by his first camcorder at the age of 14 and he's been creating films ever since. He eventually created the Indianapolis-based, Jet Kaiser Films where he collaborates his with his lovely wife, Dani. Together they produce cinematic, story-rich, "motion pictures for those in LOVE™ "

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Cue the Jaws music…. There is something coming to a market near you. If you haven’t seen it already it will be there soon enough. It will come without warning, when you least expect it. And it will cost you money. Will it help you grow your business? Maybe… Will it hurt you? Maybe… What is it? Cue the scream…. It’s the Venue Brochure!!!!! Watch my video to learn all that you need to know about this trend making its way into a wedding market near you. This video will help prepare you and guide you through the process so that you can make an educated decision about whether or not to participate in this marketing tool that is being used by the venues where you are a Preferred Vendor.

TarynP

Taryn Bills attended Arizona State University and graduated Cum Laude from the Walter Cronkite School of Broadcast Journalism. She worked in community relations at the Phoenix NBC affiliate, then moved on to an account executive position for Infinity Broadcasting where she discovered her passion for Sales and Marketing. After 3 years she left radio for a 3-year stint in pharmaceutical sales, during which time she and her husband started Serendipity Videography. She has served as the sales and marketing director of award winning Serendipity for 6 years as well as with their baby sister company Simply Cinema. When she is not busy growing her own businesses, she offers marketing and consulting services for various companies who need assistance in growing their brand and increasing their sales.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Hi, I am Taryn Bills, co-owner of Serendipity Videography in Phoenix, Arizona. My husband Jeff and I started our journey into Wedding Cinematography almost 6 years ago. Jeff was a Emmy Award Winning News Videographer ready to make his way out of the news business and I was a Broadcasting Major from Arizona State University who had worked in TV, Radio and was in a corporate Sales and Marketing gig that I was just plain over.

One day we got a call from my best friend who was getting married and she said “Hey I hate to do this to you because I want you to be a guest at my wedding but can you shoot my wedding film?” I shouted “YES!” because I had been saying for years “We should be shooting weddings.” Jeff, however, had not been on board until then we were both at a crossroads in our careers so I signed us up.

So at the end of the night after we shot the wedding I looked at him and said “So what did you think?” and he said “I LOVED it! Shooting a wedding is everything that shooting news used to be.” Tonight I got to tell a great story,”  – he was sold.

I of course was ecstatic because what girly girl doesn’t want to work in weddings? It was that day that Serendipity Videography was born. The word Serendipity means to find something great by accident and that is exactly how our business has come together. Piece by piece it has formed like a puzzle in a very serendipitious fashion. Plus we love the movie Serendipity and we are huge John Cusack fans so we had to be Serendipity Videography.

When it all began I was shooting with Jeff but as much as I enjoyed the shooting, my passion was truly the sales, marketing and the business aspects of Serendipity. So I left the shooting behind and became the brains of the operation handling all sales, marketing and business and he is the Creative Genius overseeing our team of Videographers and Editors.

PS. When you watch my video please know that we actually do understand audio. Our office gets bloody hot and that hum in the background is our fan on full blast. If I didn’t have that on I would have been sweating profusely and that would be gross and a bad first impression.

PSS. Oh yea and apparently my word of the day when I shot this was “super”.

TarynP

Taryn Bills attended Arizona State University and graduated Cum Laude from the Walter Cronkite School of Broadcast Journalism. She worked in community relations at the Phoenix NBC affiliate, then moved on to an account executive position for Infinity Broadcasting where she discovered her passion for Sales and Marketing. After 3 years she left radio for a 3-year stint in pharmaceutical sales, during which time she and her husband started Serendipity Videography. She has served as the sales and marketing director of award winning Serendipity for 6 years as well as with their baby sister company Simply Cinema. When she is not busy growing her own businesses, she offers marketing and consulting services for various companies who need assistance in growing their brand and increasing their sales.

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