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$10k to spend on marketing
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Jason,
Template Monster has some really nice (and inexpensive) ones that you could get some ideas from (or to purchase and have some one
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Couple of thoughts:
SEO- Be sure that this is the right approach for the clients you are trying to attract. I am guessing it’s not. SEO is designed to provide you with a different type of traffic flow than companies from your region. I would put more emphasis on your website as a central location to send potential leads/referrals to. Also, there are multiple levels of SEO. You may find that a minimal amount will be the right balance. I can tell you that my best clients come from referrals and not SEO. The main benefit of SEO for most media production companies is making it easier to find your website if they forget the address. This is a relationship business not a one-off shop.
Web Templates- Please don’t. Take the time and investment to show the world you care about your company and image. Contact a professional to create a site that will reflect who and what your company is. Templates represent hypocrisy in our industry and should be avoided when it really counts.
Budget- While I appreciate the value of having a budget, don’t go into this with the mentality of “What can I afford to do?” rather, think about who you want to attract to your company and how you can best present your case to them. Start with the end in mind and work your way back. chances are, you will find adequate money in your budget to cover it.
-gl
Prologue Media
http://www.prologuemedia.com -
“SEO is designed to provide you with a different type of traffic flow than companies from your region.”
Maybe I am just completely misreading your comment here, but I absolutely disagree with this statement as I am understanding it. First of all, the beauty of SEO is that it is whatever you want it to be. You can use it to target local mom and pops or multinationals based in other countries. You could even use it to try and target your next door neighbor. Totally up to you. It’s also not “designed” to be anything or provide any type of traffic, it’s merely a process of using specific keywords, links and relationships with other web sites to give spiders a hint as to who your ideal audience might be. Many webmasters have totally different approaches and techniques, all yielding different results.
“The main benefit of SEO for most media production companies is making it easier to find your website if they forget the address.”
Again, I completely disagree. While many media production companies don’t see their web site as a powerful sales tool and essentially treat it like a virtual business card, those who DO maximize their site’s potential end up reaping big rewards.
My studio gets about 90% of our leads via our web site – about 60% are high quality leads and we convert about 70% of the high quality leads. As many of these turn into long term customers as from our non-web originated leads. Most of these conversions are for jobs in the $40k range, so not huge but certainly not “floor scores.” This is only after spending a good amount of time fine tuning our site, honing our SEO and allocating marketing resources to the site.
I believe this is one of those areas where people’s opinions differ drastically based on their own results, based on their own particular setup. For example, your “Prologue Media” web site, while very clean and attractive, is a single page, single image design that isn’t much more than your phone number and email address. This is NOT the ideal setup for using your site as a sales tool, and therefore it sounds as though you haven’t received many sales through it. This has probably skewed your perspective on what a web site can and cannot do.
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[Brendan Coots] “The main benefit of SEO for most media production companies is making it easier to find your website if they forget the address.”
Again, I completely disagree.”
I do too. See all those ads on either side of my post? – Ron, rents the space to those companies displaying their ads – they get the exposure and the Cow provides the traffic. That’s what google serves up on their ‘content network’ – image ads, text ads and video ads. If Ron had signed on for google’s ‘ad sense’ google would be sending him a check every month for the traffic. He can, obviously, do better with his own ad program.
Search engine optimization SEO is such a hit and miss proposition that the time spent doing it is practically worthless. Besides, 95% of searches is done on either Google or Yahoo and their robots are reading your pages, not what you say are on your pages. But it ain’t about searches anyway, at least for Google, it’s about traffic and that means their ‘content network.’
As one of my profs said “Marketing is about buying, Advertising is about selling.” The average person doesn’t know the difference – they think they are one and the same.
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Good job in growing your business.
As others have said, your website need updating. That huge graphic F is distracting. I am wanting to click on Conceptualize, Edit, Script, etc. Each of those keywords should be tabs on your services page.While Craigslist is a mixed bag, I have had great luck posting ads for freelance designers and getting some good applicants. It should be easy enough to find local talent in most cities.
You may be able to find someone who can, for a few thousands dollars, design a style for your whole operation – website, letterhead, print advertising/brochures etc.
Do you have a local advertising club or other such organization? If so, get yourself into their events.
Direct mail for selling services probably isn’t the way to go.
Surely you know some people who work for large businesses in your area. Find out from them what agencies they use – take a grassroots approach.
You can always make friends with someone at your local ad agencies to try to get a meeting with an account manager.
Don’t set a budget until you know what it is you need to be spending money on.
The website should be the first thing to do. And use Flash video – when I see Windows Media on a website I find a different website.
Good luck, let us know what you decide to do.
Mike Cohen
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[Mike Cohen] “And use Flash video – when I see Windows Media on a website I find a different website.”
I disagree with this advice. It might make a good topic as its own thread. I have had absolutley no problems using Windows Media on my Website (technical issues or from my corporate clients who are vastly made up of Internet Explorer users).
Bruce
Bruce Bennett
Bennett Marketing & Media Production, LLC
http://www.www.bmmp.com -
My rationale for not using Windows Media (streaming anyway) comes from corporate IT departments blocking streaming video on their firewalls.
I guess it depends upon the type of clients you have.
Ad agencies certainly will have fewer technical limitations.Mike
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Thanks Mike,
I’ve found someone who will be starting on my new website next week. Should be launched by the end of January. I’m pretty excited! The video content will all be Flash this time around. I’m going to be reworking/updating my reel this week.
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