Help! WEDDING VIDEOGRAPHY!! at DVinfo.net

Hugh DiMauro · July 25th, 2003, 06:43 AM

Can anyone suggest how (in an inexpensive, novel, creative, PROVEN way) to get the word out that I do wedding videography? I'm sure there are others out there who thought of a great manner in which to "advertise" their weding videography. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Edward Troxel · July 25th, 2003, 07:22 AM

Do you have a demo yet? Have you taped any yet? If no, find someone getting married that has not chosen to get a video and tape a couple for free. Get a little experience and enough to build a demo.

Once that is done, network with other vendors and attend bridal shows. Eventually, word of mouth will probably be your biggest seller.

Mark Argerake · July 25th, 2003, 07:55 AM

Word of mouth -- tell everyone what you do, and ask them to tell their friends and so on and so on and so on...

Visiting local vendors is good too (photographers, florists and yes even churchs...)

My favorite for the thrill of it and not the return is go into barnes and noble and slip your card into all the bridal magazines...

Chris Hurd · July 25th, 2003, 10:00 AM

The studio I ran in the '90's got all the business it could handle from a simple yellow pages ad.

Hugh DiMauro · July 25th, 2003, 01:37 PM

You guys are fabulous! Being a member of this community feels like a big Greek family of brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles taking care of one another. I swear, it almost feels like the closeness between cops! Thanks so much, people. I like the bridal magazine thing! Fabulous! Word of mouth is how I'm working now. I have done three weddings so far and one of them was by a referral from the previous one. I have a biggie coming up in August. I'm gonna use my XL1s instead of my dinky little Sony DCR TRV20 and see what kind of rise I get fro the guests. Keep the suggestions coming! I'm hungry!

I WANT A PANASONIC AJ-SDX 900! WAHHHHHHHHH! I can deal with the $25,000.00 price tag!

Mark Monciardini · July 26th, 2003, 08:41 AM

I agree with Chris on the Yellow Page ad. When people are looking for a local wedding videographer, they look in the phone book, not the internet.

Yellow pages rock!

Mark Argerake · July 26th, 2003, 09:15 AM

<<<-- Originally posted by Mark Monciardini : I agree with Chris on the Yellow Page ad. When people are looking for a local wedding videographer, they look in the phone book, not the internet.

Yellow pages rock! -->>>

This is very true - but Hugh was looking for inexpensive, and a yellow pages ad is far from inexpensive. I guess it can be looked at as an investment.

BJ Thomas · July 28th, 2003, 11:45 AM

I think Yellow Page is the worst way to go ( it may work for few). A fellow wedding videography put an ad in the yellowpages and in the 2 years that the ad ran, he got maybe 5 or 6 weddings. The rest of inquires resulted in questions like " I just talked to another videographer, he charges 800 dollars for wedding video can you beat it." I heard of similar experience from other videographer.

I started in the wedding business 2 years ago and currently we are booked pretty much every weeks for the rest of the year. We charge between 2 to 4k per wedding. Here are the steps that you should take to get where we are at now.

1. Make sure you have at least 3 good wedding portfolios. Create a demo video out of this. The demo video is your final selling point so it has to look amazing and must catch the emotion of the day. Make sure your camera work (no shakes) and editing is at its best. One way to check if your video is good is to compare it with other wedding videographers samples at their website. Find one videographer that you think does awesome work and try to imitate them.

2. We don't advertise at all. So how do we get our business? We first take the money that we don't advertise with and put it into buying more equipments. Currently we have about 28k worth of equipments. We have 2 xl1s, 2 gl2, cobra crane, glidecam v-16, etc. We don't use all of these equipment at every wedding (unless they want to pay for it)but when people see a crane or a glidecam and very hot looking camera at a wedding they think "wow they are different from most other videographers and they are professional looking let me get their business card" . We just did a wedding this past saturday and got 4 other business from that one just because we used a crane and 2 xl1s. Also minimum cameras to use at a wedding is 2. Don't bother offering a one camera package, it is more pressure and work on you to get all the shots and final result will suffer greatly.

3. Each wedding that you do make sure you give it your 110 percent effort to make it look amazing because that will get you repeat business. Majority of our referal comes from brides and grooms that love our finished product.

So hope this helps, just showing you that you don't have to waste money on advertising to get business in the wedding video industry.

One other thing I forgot to mention is that when ever I do a wedding. I give the church and the reception place a free copy of the finished wedding that was done there. Lot of times they show that video to potential customers that they get and in turn that is another means of more business for us with no huge advertising cost.

Hugh DiMauro · July 28th, 2003, 11:59 AM

Wow! You know, my wife just convinced me to take on a second camera operator! This must be synchronicity! Full speed ahead. I thank everybody for taking the time to answer my inquiry.

Barry Gilbert · July 28th, 2003, 06:16 PM

My biggest fear is one of my first customers NOT being satisfied. I am just starting so I know I don't have the talent of most of you, but what happened when you had your first customer that wasn't happy. Have you ever had one? What did you do? (If you felt it was your fault or not)

Thanks....Just think out load.

BJ Thomas · July 29th, 2003, 12:12 PM

Alot of my first clients were people that I knew. I also didn't charge much. I told them pay whatever they felt the editing was worth and I was expecting like 100 or 200 but they loved it and gave us 500 (which was great because they only paid the photographer 200). I just recently watched that first video and noticed that it was horrible compared to the work we are doing now.

July 25th, 2003, 06:43 AM	#1
Hugh DiMauro Trustee Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Central Florida Posts: 1,205	Help! WEDDING VIDEOGRAPHY!! Can anyone suggest how (in an inexpensive, novel, creative, PROVEN way) to get the word out that I do wedding videography? I'm sure there are others out there who thought of a great manner in which to "advertise" their weding videography. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

July 25th, 2003, 10:00 AM	#4
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,366 Images: 513	The studio I ran in the '90's got all the business it could handle from a simple yellow pages ad. __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

July 26th, 2003, 08:41 AM	#6
Mark Monciardini Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Salt Lake City, Utah Posts: 158	I agree with Chris on the Yellow Page ad. When people are looking for a local wedding videographer, they look in the phone book, not the internet. Yellow pages rock! __________________ Best Regards, Mark T. Monciardini Riverlight Studios www.riverlightstudios.com DVX100/Final Cut Pro 4/Mac G5 Dual 1.8

July 28th, 2003, 06:16 PM	#10
Barry Gilbert Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Winnsboro, SC Posts: 96	Another Follow-up type question My biggest fear is one of my first customers NOT being satisfied. I am just starting so I know I don't have the talent of most of you, but what happened when you had your first customer that wasn't happy. Have you ever had one? What did you do? (If you felt it was your fault or not) Thanks....Just think out load. __________________ "No matter how good she looks; somebody, somewhere is tried of putting up with her crap." Randy Brazell

July 25th, 2003, 07:22 AM	#2
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Do you have a demo yet? Have you taped any yet? If no, find someone getting married that has not chosen to get a video and tape a couple for free. Get a little experience and enough to build a demo. Once that is done, network with other vendors and attend bridal shows. Eventually, word of mouth will probably be your biggest seller.

July 25th, 2003, 07:55 AM	#3
Mark Argerake Major Player Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Murrieta, CA Posts: 227	Word of mouth -- tell everyone what you do, and ask them to tell their friends and so on and so on and so on... Visiting local vendors is good too (photographers, florists and yes even churchs...) My favorite for the thrill of it and not the return is go into barnes and noble and slip your card into all the bridal magazines...

July 25th, 2003, 01:37 PM	#5
Hugh DiMauro Trustee Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Central Florida Posts: 1,205	You guys are fabulous! Being a member of this community feels like a big Greek family of brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles taking care of one another. I swear, it almost feels like the closeness between cops! Thanks so much, people. I like the bridal magazine thing! Fabulous! Word of mouth is how I'm working now. I have done three weddings so far and one of them was by a referral from the previous one. I have a biggie coming up in August. I'm gonna use my XL1s instead of my dinky little Sony DCR TRV20 and see what kind of rise I get fro the guests. Keep the suggestions coming! I'm hungry! I WANT A PANASONIC AJ-SDX 900! WAHHHHHHHHH! I can deal with the $25,000.00 price tag!

July 26th, 2003, 09:15 AM	#7
Mark Argerake Major Player Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Murrieta, CA Posts: 227	<<<-- Originally posted by Mark Monciardini : I agree with Chris on the Yellow Page ad. When people are looking for a local wedding videographer, they look in the phone book, not the internet. Yellow pages rock! -->>> This is very true - but Hugh was looking for inexpensive, and a yellow pages ad is far from inexpensive. I guess it can be looked at as an investment.

July 28th, 2003, 11:45 AM	#8
BJ Thomas Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 39	I think Yellow Page is the worst way to go ( it may work for few). A fellow wedding videography put an ad in the yellowpages and in the 2 years that the ad ran, he got maybe 5 or 6 weddings. The rest of inquires resulted in questions like " I just talked to another videographer, he charges 800 dollars for wedding video can you beat it." I heard of similar experience from other videographer. I started in the wedding business 2 years ago and currently we are booked pretty much every weeks for the rest of the year. We charge between 2 to 4k per wedding. Here are the steps that you should take to get where we are at now. 1. Make sure you have at least 3 good wedding portfolios. Create a demo video out of this. The demo video is your final selling point so it has to look amazing and must catch the emotion of the day. Make sure your camera work (no shakes) and editing is at its best. One way to check if your video is good is to compare it with other wedding videographers samples at their website. Find one videographer that you think does awesome work and try to imitate them. 2. We don't advertise at all. So how do we get our business? We first take the money that we don't advertise with and put it into buying more equipments. Currently we have about 28k worth of equipments. We have 2 xl1s, 2 gl2, cobra crane, glidecam v-16, etc. We don't use all of these equipment at every wedding (unless they want to pay for it)but when people see a crane or a glidecam and very hot looking camera at a wedding they think "wow they are different from most other videographers and they are professional looking let me get their business card" . We just did a wedding this past saturday and got 4 other business from that one just because we used a crane and 2 xl1s. Also minimum cameras to use at a wedding is 2. Don't bother offering a one camera package, it is more pressure and work on you to get all the shots and final result will suffer greatly. 3. Each wedding that you do make sure you give it your 110 percent effort to make it look amazing because that will get you repeat business. Majority of our referal comes from brides and grooms that love our finished product. So hope this helps, just showing you that you don't have to waste money on advertising to get business in the wedding video industry. One other thing I forgot to mention is that when ever I do a wedding. I give the church and the reception place a free copy of the finished wedding that was done there. Lot of times they show that video to potential customers that they get and in turn that is another means of more business for us with no huge advertising cost.

July 28th, 2003, 11:59 AM	#9
Hugh DiMauro Trustee Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Central Florida Posts: 1,205	Wow! You know, my wife just convinced me to take on a second camera operator! This must be synchronicity! Full speed ahead. I thank everybody for taking the time to answer my inquiry.

July 29th, 2003, 12:12 PM	#11
BJ Thomas Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 39	Alot of my first clients were people that I knew. I also didn't charge much. I told them pay whatever they felt the editing was worth and I was expecting like 100 or 200 but they loved it and gave us 500 (which was great because they only paid the photographer 200). I just recently watched that first video and noticed that it was horrible compared to the work we are doing now.