Promoting Your Company
Promotion is a job that, if done correctly, is really never finished.
Patty Mooney and Mark Schulze on Set of Date Night on AMC, San Diego
Promoting your company is number one on your marketing list. There is a local company for which we have done several videos in the past. We worked with a woman there who really loved our work. One of the videos we produced for them was instrumental in winning the company a prestigious award. So it was easy to believe that whenever this company required any video production work they would certainly call on us.
When we had not heard from them in several months, I gave our contact – let’s call her Joni – a phone call. The receptionist informed me that Joni had left the company and moved to the UK. Oh no. I knew what that meant…. That we would need to start all over again, from the very beginning: The Cold Call to the new Communications Director, the emails with links to our company’s website and demo reels, a mention of the awards we have won. And then the follow-up calls to make sure she had received the information, the gentle prodding to find out whether the company wanted any video services in the near future. It’s disheartening to know that after basking in the warmth of effusive praise for your work, you are suddenly cast out onto the cold, hard ground, where you then have to dust yourself off and knock on that large and unwieldy door.
Cold Calling, Tough but Necessary
I found out the name of the person who had taken over for Joni, and left her several messages over the course of a few weeks. When she never responded, I stopped calling. I’m not really a bull dog after all, and I place my energy where the odds are best. Then one day we got a call from Joni’s replacement, Alana (not her real name). She said she wanted to get our bid on a video job, and had also contacted another video production vendor.
After giving her our bid, we tried following up with her with no success. And then finally her secretary called us back to inform us that they had “decided to go in another direction.” A polite way of saying they had decided against us. “Who’s the company you decided to go with?” I asked. She told me it was Generic Video Productions (I made this name up), so I went to the website of Generic to check them out. Their website home page looks impressive; they have received 15 Emmy awards. Wow. (But how come I never heard of Generic before, after having been in the video production business since 1981?) Turns out that the owner of the company received these awards when he was a news anchor. He has really only been involved in producing video for two years. Anyone thinking this company had earned 15 Emmies for their video production work would be incorrect; they would really need to dig to find out otherwise.
Mark Schulze shooting EMT in action for a video produced for Environmental Health Coalition in 1983; Photograph by Patty Mooney
Making an Informed Choice
I felt stunned. Why would any smart person select a company with two years of experience as opposed to one with which they have already worked, with a great track record, that has been around for nearly three decades? All I could do was shake my head. We can try to inform and educate our clients (or past clients) as best we can. In the end, they’re the ones who make the choice.
Let this little tale show you why you should not rest on your laurels, because what you have done in the past is yesterday’s news. Always strive to make your clients happy. Stay in touch. Practice your craft. Be ready for new opportunities. Continue promoting your company in all the ways that add up to success. Who knows, some day Joni may return to town, start her own company, and need some video from us old pros.
Patty Mooney is a VP, Video Producer, Sound Technician, Teleprompter Operator and Video Editor at award-winning San Diego video production company, Crystal Pyramid Productions.
