Are you considering adding video services to your digital agency? Do you use video as part of your agency marketing strategy? Do you know how to leverage the power of video for you and your clients? Video is an integral part of any successful marketing strategy; particularly when video case stories are included. Nothing engages an audience as effectively as video content. Furthermore, it’s a great way to showcase your brand's personality, build authority, and improve SEO. As a video marketer, today’s guest understands that people remember, share, and buy stories. He shares what many people get wrong when they roll out video content and the best way to get fast results with video marketing.

Ian Garlic is the founder of Story Crews, a video marketing agency that helps clients tell their stories in video. His team focuses on collecting, crafting, and delivering emotional video stories that help his clients get more leads, better clients, and more sales. He’s also the creator of the Garlic Marketing Show and Authentic Web Agency.

In this episode, we’ll discuss:

Why is video the best foot-in-the-door offer for your agency?
How video helps with client retention.
The best approach to add video services to your agency.

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Sponsors and Resources

E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service.

Leveraging the Power of Video Stories to Sell Results

Fifteen years ago, Ian was working for Thomson Reuters as an SEO consultant in Long Island. He had left his career in commercial real estate to pursue his passion for marketing but was not doing well at all. Looking at what the best consultants in the company did, he realized they all collected stories they would later use while selling. To change things up, Ian decided he would collect those stories in video. With video, it's easier to convey emotion and more easily show people what they need to see. This strategy was the move that transformed everything for Ian. He was no longer selling websites or SEO, he was selling results.

After adding video to his strategy, Ian quickly grew to be among the top-ranked in the company for the next few months. However, he started noticing all marketing looked the same, which made clients hungry for something different. Luckily, this was back in 2007-2008 after Google purchased YouTube, and Ian knew this would change everything. Shortly after, he left the company to start his own digital agency.

What Makes Video the Best Foot-in-the-Door Offer?

Ian believes video is one of the best foot-in-the-doors offers that exist. With video case stories, the client talks about themselves. Most like video format and it is approved quickly. Clients get results quickly from the video too. It just comes down to having the right systems.

When done the right way, video as a foot-in-the-door offer is an effective way to gain more clients because the content is 100% unique. Furthermore, doing shoots with a client means spending the day with them strategizing, which will make them feel like you’re an extension of their business. It’s an opportunity to improve your clients’ results by really diving deep into their business.

How Video Helps With Client Retention

At his agency, Ian started selling websites and SEO, with the video strategy as just part of the package. However, slowly his clients began to realize the power of video. They feel video built their authority in the industry and helped elevate the know, like, and trust factor by being genuine.

Videos can quickly become the best metric to measure success. Ian's agency sends clients very detailed reports – which most don't read. However, bringing eager customers to your clients thanks to video content is what keeps them coming back.

Starting with the Right Strategy to Get Fast Results with Video

Many people start uploading videos to YouTube one day because they have a great idea and want to try it out. Very few, however, have a strategy behind that video content, which means they ultimately don’t see results.

According to Ian, people don’t get results fast enough because they start too far from the right place. Even Gary Vaynerchuck made nothing from YouTube for a couple of years. However, he had the determination, money, and time to keep going. Most people give up after not seeing results for the first six months. That’s why Ian starts with video case stories, which get people results faster.

Nonetheless, faster results don’t mean clients get an influx of cold traffic right away. It can be six months before they start seeing results and one year until they have a successful YouTube channel.

For agencies, one of the most common issues is speaking to the real problems of your target audience. Agencies tend to go for videos aimed at the masses in order to get a lot of views. However, the masses aren’t the ones who hire digital agencies.

The Best Approach to Add Video Services to Your Agency

You don’t need movie-level production equipment to start adding video to your services. According to Ian, you’re better off starting with a partner when it comes to adding any service. This way, you can focus on what you do best and have the proper guidance to integrate the new service into your agency.

There are 3 ways to add video services:

Build a production team. This is what Ian calls the hard option. You’ll need to have a strategy to sell it and hire at least five people to form three departments for production. You need a pre-production team to take care of timing, scheduling, location, etc; videographers for your production team, and a post-production team. It’s overwhelming and it's a process that took Ian years.
Hire film contractors. The second way to approach this is to hire videographers to handle all aspects of the process. You can find a few good ones in your search. The problem, however, is figuring out how to sell or package the offer, knowing timelines, and how to price it properly.
Find a partner. This is usually the best way to start out with a new service. Find the support of a partner with experience in the field who can help you integrate it into your agency. You can focus on what you do best and use the new service as a differentiator.

Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset?

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