Pricing Creative Video Marketing with Chris Schwager (Episode 49)
Mar 19, 2021
How the hell do you price creative videos? Well, in this episode, Chris Schwager (Video Marketer from Ridge Films) Is going to tell you why they've finally committed to showing a pricing page on their website, and what that will do to give prospective buyers clarity on what they can and can't afford.
"My first recollection of being asked the ultimate question, 'how much does a video cost?' was many years ago, and my reply was 'how long is a piece of string?' Any question about your business deserves a professional and thorough response. I was young and inexperienced, but it motivated me/us to find new ways to reply."
Find out how much videos cost in this episode.
Links and Resources:
- Connect and follow me on LinkedIn and let me know you’ve heard the podcast
- See Video Pricing for Google's highest-rated video company in Australia
- Learn how to produce quality videos with ease, speed, and scale with our DIY Video Program
- Register for our video marketing workshop to learn how to leverage engaging videos for your company’s website, social and offline channels.
Episode Transcription:
How the hell do you price creativity?
Well, in this episode, I'm going to tell you why we've gone and put a pricing page on our website, and what that's gonna do in terms of giving people clarity on what they can and can't afford. So stay tuned.
Hi, I'm Chris Schwager and welcome to Video Marketing Legend. I believe one of the most valuable medium in business is video, videos that lead your audience and inspire them. Your journey to be a more purposeful and connected video marketing legend starts now.
Another end of the week, rainy rainy week. And of course, I'm struggling to get this out Friday afternoon. But I'm committed to getting this right. The average pricing for video in this country I believe is still 7000 for professional video marketing, on average industry wide, okay. And this episode is very much dedicated to pricing. How do you price creativity. This many competitors of ours have actually had pricing pages on their website for many years. But I've also seen them with a video complementing the pricing page that kind of makes excuses to a certain degree of why they price it.
I think it needs an explanation. When we put our pricing page together with confidence that it is what it is. If it gets you to call, then great if it gets you to walk away, because you can't afford it right now and you need to consider your investment first before you come back to us again, great. You're either qualified or disqualified. That's a perfect decision making process. And so often people are asking about pricing. And there's you know, when people were not people are asking you, Jesus Christ deliver.
Do you know it reminds me of my first recollection of being asked the ultimate question, how much does a video costs by somebody that I met at a networking event once. And I replied like this how long is a piece of string. And that is a professional responses really immature. A potential buyer is asking you a serious question, then you need to really find a new way to reply. And so over the years for me and Brendan, we've talked about this about the ultimate question around pricing. And for many years really went with a product range pricing range, to give people least some sort of an indication.
However,now, it's exciting, because we've gone and just put this up on the site. And it's a really great reference point, I'm already using it within the sales meetings, to give people a bit of a guide, you know, just to help them. Because a lot of people that inquire with us, they need to really sell it up through their organisation, they need a starting point, sometimes they don't want to actually make a decision, we'll move forward at this point, I really just want to say, all right, if we were to invest in video marketing, what would be a reasonable investment.
So here's how we've broken it down, because we've done the same as everybody else, three different elements, right, and the preferred package in the middle. But we've done it slightly differently. So our first package is the single video. What does a single video indicative cost? Well, for us, the average range is between 2k and 15k. Okay, now that obviously the variables, the credit variables, that is vast, you know, but it does give people a bit of an indication of what they might be likely to spend. We don't do very many videos have 50k like a single videos, do, you know, I mean? So, you know, at least this is a starting point. This is professional video marketing. This is not pulling out your smartphone, or I could do one of each, but of course you could write you can go and outsource it but you're getting a crap. most likely and you know, you pay for what you get. So what is the 2 to 15k? Well, it's for businesses just getting started. It includes video marketing, online course production, planning, the on camera training, Video Script, writing, video production, so the studio filming and on location filming, and video editing, video implementation, pretty much everything you need, right? We want we want you to have the ultimate experience. Because if you're new to it, you really need to build trust with the process and build trust with a supplier who's actually going to be able to grow with you partner with you, not just somebody that's gonna be doing the video and walk away like if it does well and you know, the ROI is proven, then why not continue, go again, go again, and move on.
And that's ultimately what leads us to our preferred pricing model on site which is video marketing packages which start from 2k to 8k per month. Right? This is serious investment and it's for building a lasting brand and driving growth. So it has everything that the single video package has. But it also includes ongoing video strategy, success, video coaching, multiple sales and marketing videos. So this could be anything from 50 videos in a single month to 50 videos over the course of the year, you know, it really does depend on a plan that we execute for you, right, we put the plan in place, scope it out properly, here's what 12 months look like, okay, that's how to do it.
Because then you have an ongoing relationship, you're not overwhelmed by mass production up front, you can actually produce video in what I like to call trenches or sections of content, understand the process, build efficiencies, you know, because whatever you do, unless you're in unless you're hiring, I like a digital agency who by the way, I'm probably going to charge you an arm and a leg, you really will be investing your time, money or resources into this process along with whoever it is that you're that you're hiring to produce the content, right. So we have a very much a collaborative relationship with our clients that don't need to be there for every single detail. It's really scripting on camera training, you know, parts of the filming. And you know, just approving and signing off on the video. So that's actually it is limited amount of effort.
But look, anyway, I'll move on. So the Connect Program, so this is how to deliver to leverage the video assets once they are built, right. So it's not about just producing the content, but also finding ways to repurpose, reuse and distribute the content to different areas and really maximise the ROI. And of course, tracking the videos performance so that we actually know that it's working right, there's no point, you know, the investment is about tracking and measuring. It's not about Okay, just do the video and then forget about it tick, we've done it right. So that's a really important thing to mention here.
If you looked at this pricing package as a cost, that's probably not the right way to look at it. It's really how's this improving ultimate business performance, you know, sales and marketing activities, how's it plugging holes and making things easier. And then our third pricing model here is for the DIY video program, because COVID has presented so many new opportunities for us, particularly around the DIY helping people, ordinary people who otherwise would have either invested in a little bit of equipment or really just don't know, and they need to start being more video centric in their business, then this is a really great package, the DIY video program, which has all you need for professional dry video production. And it really comes with a lot of our ingenuity, assistance guidance to help you on your journey.
It's not about just the equipment, you may have seen, the little videos that we've done, the vignettes we've done around the equipment's really that is one element. And if it's not complemented with production assistance, and remote editing, and all these other things, I really just like coaching, then it's kind of the another dusty bit of equipment that sits in your office, right, you can't be doing that you need to be proactively using it to support your business, particularly now where access to salespeople is, is difficult, if not already denied. I had a client this morning saying the problem I have is I cannot get out to these premises anymore. That's where I close the deals, and I can't do it. And he had basically given up on any other alternative. And I said well, you cannot sit there and sit on your hands and do nothing about it.
You need to find new ways to be innovating and finding your video and emails and videos, sales videos, lots of trust building that can happen in video form, you know, it's just a different way of doing things now and you've got to really come to the party and and think about these new tactics. So what does the DIY video program have included? Oh, by the way, it's $850 per month, for 12 months, okay, that's the base model. That's you're not going to get it any cheaper than that. And then if you want to start doing all these other wonderful things, you probably climb from there. So it's from 850 per month, right? So it's the DIY desktop studio. If you don't know what I'm talking about, click on the DIY tab. I'll put it in the show notes, as well. The DIY desktop studio is part of the DIY program.
Okay, so it's basically the hardware production assistance that's asked helping nurturing you through that. Oh my god, you wouldn't believe it. But it's my daughter again, interrupting my podcast for I think it's the second week in the row. Yes. Stop right there. She just wanted some popcorn, right. Okay, love you too. Okay, and video in email. We're gonna show you how to do that script templates, video in email script templates and video in email. What does that mean? What does it mean? means that you can virtually get in front of anyone personalising videos, video messages, reply to inquiries, prospect nurture content, client nurture content, retention content, you know, proposal walkthrough videos, oh my god, it's a game changer, guys, it's an absolute game changer.
If you're not thinking about doing this, it is the ultimate way of keeping up appearances effectively on demand as your prospective buyers want it. Not pestering them on the phone or with you know, email marketing. This is this is something that's far more personalised. So video an email, we'll show you how to do that script templates, this will guide you so you can write compose your own scripts, and then deliver them present them on your dry desktop studio, and video coaching.
So virtually you get access to us as part of the DIY video program. So that's hopefully given you some context and some clarity around I guess what things cost and how they're priced.
Just to disclaimer, all of this, you know, we're probably one of the few companies that have actually bundled pricing into a single product. So I could tell you what a personal profile video pricing is, I can tell you what a company testimonial videos like on you know, obviously, it does push and pull depending on specific requirements. But you know, a company profile would range between four and a half and six and a half 1000 for instance, right? So I know I can give you that price and be confident that I know pretty much down to the hour exactly how long would it take to build, what level of detail that you need to go through in order to help along with that, it really is quite, quite methodical.
People often think that creative is you know, endless amounts of variables and changes and things that could kind of go push and pull in any which direction and we've really spent the last six years to try and minimise those creative variables, if not completely get rid of those creative variables, right? It's not about you know, it's always quick communication ever creativity. You know, the key takeaway for you is there is an opportunity to McDonald's Happy Meal, video marketing, okay, you know, you want a you want the fries, you want the burger, you want the drink, you can do that, you know what I mean? And there are companies like Ridge Films that are able to do that for you. Now, if you want more information on this are around I guess pricing, but more importantly, around understanding more about how video marketing works and how how, I guess our clients have done it for themselves.
So you're getting access to a menu of different videos, how they work, the types of different videos, you're gonna get access to, you know, script templates is part of that workshop, there's really so many benefits to submerging yourself in for 90 minutes and, and having that presentation play out really getting a good understanding about via marketing, not producing a video, video marketing, right. And this is, you know, part of the video production is in there, but it's really not.
The core message is this is really just about you getting a general overview on how video marketing works. If that's something that you're interested in, there's a link in the show notes to the next video marketing workshop. Get along to that next one's in April. I'd love to see you there. If you have any more questions then please DM me on LinkedIn on love to hear from you and see how I can offer some more assistance around this. Have a great week.
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