I've hammered on this before, but it bears repeating: A focused and consistent direct-mail marketing strategy will get you video business. I will say that a strategy utilizing virtually all marketing approaches is best, but the single, most effective and affordable way to get business, establish branding and gain eyeballs is through "focused" direct-mail marketing.
By "focused" I mean selecting the specific area of interest you want to pursue and developing an attention-grabbing visual marketing vehicle (a postcard specifically) that addresses that need and how your services or products provide the solution.
Depending on your studied focus area you can be more general with your address resources, or tighten it down to ONLY graduations, grad nights, specific youth sports events such as soccer, baseball, t-ball, football, basketball, swimming. I might rotate my images to reflect specific sports, mixing soccer and basketball photos for example, and going with a more general postcard that might appeal to ALL youth sports groups.
On the other hand I'll research via Google and identify all the youth basketball or soccer groups/clubs in my service area and hammer down only on them.
What is effective, and what works, in using focused direct mail strategies is consistency and persistency. Mail a minimum of one piece every day, or seven a week, 30 a month - you get the idea. Set a budget of $40 to $50 a month and do it consistently for one year.
If you only send out ONE piece a day for 365 days, you've spent less than a buck a day (counting ink, supplies and postage, on average) and you WILL get more traffic, more name recognition, more calls, responses and replies, a higher brand recognition...
...and, most importantly, you WILL get business.
This approach is accumulative. It will bring eyeballs to your website. It can be used in conjunction with a Twitter/Facebook and LinkedIn and other social strategies, as well as your blog (You do blog about your business and your clients and the resulting productions, right?)
One postcard a day. Even if only one gig a year comes of it you've likely broke even. Not only that but you've gained visibility and linkage, name (brand) recognition generated traffic to your website and blog.
Take it one step further. When you keep, maintain and utilize an ongoing direct mail list for focused areas of interest don't let it rest. Don't send each address a postcard then never use that address again. The whole promise of a focused direct-mail strategy is developing traffic, eyeballs, recognition and business. You achieve this by rotating your lists - direct mail a minimum of every 90 days to every good address you have.
Don't let them forget you. Keep a soft, general (but focused) information only approach and you will upset fewer people by far than when using e-mail blasts, SPAM, marriage or junk mail, hard-sell approaches or telemarketing.
I've had clients call a year later and ask if I still specialize in youth soccer, or whatever, telling me they kept my postcard(s) on file in the event a need developed. That is a GREAT shelf-life for your relatively cheap postcard mailer.
Remember: If you market, you will make it! © Earl Chessher
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