How to Market Creative Professional Content

by Roxanne Batson, Chairman – WSNTV 75

 Creative professionals are becoming entrepreneurs.  It’s a growing theme in the new economy.  Some say the Age of Information is actually the Age of the Entrepreneur. Rather than trying to break through the established barriers to get creative work distributed, the producers are creating their own distribution vehicles. 

 It will become essential, as we evolve to a more global society, for creative individuals to learn how to do this as competition for the consumer heats up.  Suddenly, in order to be successful, the film producer has to become educated in video and film production, as well as distribution technology and marketing

 Marketing capability is going to become more essential because you’ll be competing with professionals all over the world to get the attention of the consumer.   Designing a marketing program should encompass advertising, sales, product development, distribution and public relations to create brand identity.

 Advertising is a way to get the public to see your product, but one thing you want to make sure of when you advertise is that you can follow up with quick delivery once someone has paid for your product.  If you haven’t thoroughly reviewed your delivery process you may end up spending all your time solving problems rather than making money.

 There are many ways to advertise including spreading the word through networks of people that you know.  Your business card can be one of the cheapest sources of advertising for you.  Then there is newspaper, radio, television and a whole host of other advertising vehicles, of course, but that’s more dollars out of your pocket.

 Speaking of dollars, people vote with their dollars.  Unless you really want to just create and don’t care about income, you need to become a student of people.  Study what people are interested in by observing what is being bought now.  Where is the trend? 

 One trend that is becoming more prevalent is called “nesting” or “cocooning” which says that people are tired of being on the go all the time and want to stay home more.  This means family entertainment is going to continue to gain in popularity.  You have to study people to stay ahead of the curve and identify interests early.  Where’s your market and what specifically is your market interested in watching?

 Distribution is another area you must consider in marketing.  Think about how you’re going to get your creative product from you to the consumer.  Some of the things we’ve learned when building our portal for content professionals is the inherent difficulty of delivering large data files.  Using servers connected to high-speed fiber, capable of delivering at speeds up to 1,000 Mbps, is essential for more than one consumer at a time to access.

 For full frame video viewing, the consumer must have access to speed in order to download larger files.  Streaming and high compression ratios have become popular secondary solutions to enable consumers to view online multimedia content via their slow 56k dialup, dsl or cable modem.

 Don’t forget that it’s a global market out there.  People from Asia, Europe, Latin America and all over the world have begun to come to the internet.  Take steps to address distribution of your product (if you are doing it by sending DVD or Video) and make sure you have a payment system that works for people in other countries.

 Self-publishing is becoming very popular with book authors and the same will soon be true of videographers, documentarians and filmmakers. New products and services are being developed to help ease the way to self-publish.

 But, if you are one of a million creative individuals in the market with your creative content, you must find a way to be seen. Consider this: there are currently over 250 million web sites and only 1 billion surfers.  That is just 4 people for every 1 web site!  How will you attract attention to yours?  Public relations can go a long way in helping get your name recognized so that people and potential partners will actually look for your content.

 The coming trend is the formation of online communities, portals of people who share similar interests. Online communities are attractive because there is a lot for the consumer to access all in one place.  It’s the same as with strip malls and shopping centers where fast food outlets like to be located near each other because it draws more people than if they are stuck out in a physical location with no other choices.  Quantity and quality of choices attracts more consumers to one site whether physical or virtual.

 As a marketing professional with 27 years of background in sales, marketing and promotion of professional services, I believe this trend toward online grouping of professionals is going to be the key to survival in a highly competitive world.  It is also a breakthrough for multimedia professionals who embrace and adapt technology driven inventive methods of reaching their market.  Learning to partner will be critical to keeping your costs down while expanding your market, but it will be the most effective way to sell your work. 

 If you have comments, thoughts or suggestions we would love to hear from you by emailing at info@wsntv75.com