HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE YOUR BUSINESS AND RISE ABOVE THE CROWD

If what we mean by this is that we want to charge higher prices because we deliver a service that is well above the level of the competition, then what it takes to accomplish this is several things -

• There must be a large enough pool of prospects capable and potentially willing to pay your price
• Your branding must suceed in creating, in the minds of your prospects, the image of quality service and a highly valued product
• Marketing must be professional and in line with your branding
• Your product must, upon careful inspection, indeed rise to the level you are promising

PROSPECTS

Depression / Recession, whatever you want to call it, times are tough, no doubt. But there will always be those seemingly untouched by hardship, those who are ready and willing to pay for the best. The question is, are there enough of these people in your area and can you reach that market?

A little demographics study, should answer that question. There are governmental and other sources that show the percentage of people by income grouping and locale. Also, TheWeddingReport.com offers valuable demographic information, probably all you will ever need, geared for the wedding industry.

I can't overstate the importance of understanding your area's demographics. If there are few high-rollers in your area, yet already several companies are positioning themselves for this market, you'll have a big battle ahead of you, while you slug it out with the competition for comparitively few customers.

It's a bit like fishing. If you're fishing for monster bass in a catfish pond, you'll be eating fewer meals!

BRANDING

Few business people understand the true meaning of the term "branding". It is much more than your logo, or the color scheme of your website. Branding includes the way you answer your phone; the way you dress; the way you handle client communications - essentially everything you do in the name of your business.

Offering top-quality products for low-low prices, is pretty much a "branding solvent". People are marketing savvy and they know they're not going to get a quality product for the lowest price. Such claims serve only to weaken your brand and cause distrust.

You must make certain that everything representing your company, evokes the image that you want to present. It can be difficult to keep this in mind, day after day, after day, but it's vital.

For more information about branding, see this businessweek.com article.

MARKETING

If the fish can't see or smell your bait, they can't bite. Marketing isn't just something you do your first week in business. It isn't just sending out postcards to others in the wedding industry or just doing some SEO work on your website. Marketing is a science all to itself, and if you don't own at least three recent books on the topic, then it's likely your marketing efforts have been anemic.

You could start with books like "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Marketing", "The Everything Guide To Writing Copy" and my latest book - "The New Rules of Marketing & PR".

Marketing is a full time job. You should set aside at least six hours a week for full time marketing efforts, but you never remove your "Sales & Marketing" hat, not when your shooting, not when you're meeting people at rehearsals, etc., etc.

Businesses like ours, often see boom and bust periods, just months apart, and I'm not talking about the seasonal aspect of our business. What happens is that when you don't have enough business, you have lots of time for marketing, and so you're "out there" getting business. Then, finally the results start coming in and you get busy. Soon you're "too busy" for marketing, and spending all your time shooting and editing.

But then the boom "busts" and you have no business again, so you go back to marketing and the cycle repeats. The lesson is to always have some sort of marketing going on. Also, anticipate the end of the wedding season and begin marketing for business shoots a month or two before your season ends.

PRODUCT

Your best "salesman" is your demo dvd. Everything we've talked about above is useless if you can't back it up with a fantastic product. The hardest thing to realize is that you are not your best critic. Neither are your friends and family. You need other video professionals to give feedback on your work.

I've seen this first hand with my own work. I still have the demo videos from my first few years in the business. Each one, at the time, I thought was great. I kept them to remind me of how poorly one critiques his own work. I would be ashamed to show these videos today.

I once had a wedding videographer who had been in the business for nearly twenty years, send me a sample of his work - an actual, complete wedding video. He was obviously very proud of it. Four of us seasoned wedding videgraphers watched and graded the video without communicating until our scoresheets were complete. We all failed the video miserably. Exposure and focus issues; other videographer in many shots; no close-ups; story-telling was poor; audio was terrible; etc.

It wouldn't matter if this fellow had done all the above things perfectly, because when it came to "crunch time" and the prospect viewed his video sample, the farce would be over. No, the client probably would never tell the videographer why he wasn't chosen for the job. He just would never hear from the prospect again.

Bottom line: Your product, pricing and branding must all be in line with each other.

SUMMARY

Those fish are out there. You must decide which type to shoot for - which type best matches your product. Then hone your branding, marketing and pricing to match.

PS -

I just caught Matt Davis' column "The Business Coach" in September 2010 eventDV magazine (page 15). It addresses the issue of pricing, and you need to read it.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find a link to an online version of his column, but you can get more of Matt Davis on his VidBizCoach.com website.