Filming and editing is the creative part of funding your travels with travel videos, but in order to make money, you’ll need to know a little bit about selling.
Here are four simple steps that you can follow to sell your first travel video. I will go into even more detail later this week, but here is an overview of the steps you have to take to sell travel videos.
Step 1: Create a sample video
If you’d like to sell your services, you’ll need to show exactly what you will deliver and that you can deliver. Find a local business and offer them a free video for use on their website. This local business could be a hotel or a restaurant or perhaps a day-trip operator, even a local shop.
You can explain to them the benefits of video and how this will help them to get more business. You’ll create the video completely free of charge, so that you can use it as proof of your skills later.
Step 2: Identify other potential clients
When you’re trying to decide who to contact to sell your video services to, the first question you have to ask yourself is: what type of tourism experience would you like to film and what kind of perks would you like to receive?
If you really like outdoor activities, then you might make a list of day-trip operators, perhaps hiking or kayaking tours or even sailing trips. If you’d like to stay in a luxury hotel, then make hotels your target.
If you’d like to cover a certain destination, then you could contact tour companies offering trips to that particular location.
The easiest way to find these companies is via Google. Think of what you’d search for if you were looking for that particular kind of business. Now make a list of potential clients, including their email and phone numbers and save it in an Excel sheet.
Step 3: Contact the person in charge of marketing
Once you have your list of businesses, you can start contacting them by phone to sell your services.
It’s important that you connect with the right person. If it’s a family-run or small business, then you’ll want to speak to the business owner. A medium-sized business will have a person specifically in charge of marketing, and you’ll want to speak to them directly.
Find out a bit more about their business and how they get their clients.
You can point out the benefits of video and how it will allow them to find even more clients. Listen first, and then offer a tailor-made solution for their specific business needs.
Explain what type of video would really help them sell their services. Offer to include interviews and customer testimonials to make it even better.
Once you’ve spoken to them and gauged their interest, you can send a follow-up email with more specific information on your services, as well as pricing.
Step 4: Follow-up and close the deal
Once you’ve sent out more information, you’ll want to call again a few days later, make sure they received it, and address any concerns or questions they may have.
To keep track of whom you’ve contacted and sent out information to, you should keep updating your Excel sheet with the list of your potential clients. If they are expressing doubts, possibly offer a discount for trying you out this month.
Try to talk about how it really helped the business you previously created a video for (your client from Step #1, for instance) and how they get lots of positive feedback.
Don’t be too pushy, but do try to get them to commit to it, and explain how their investment will bring great returns, especially compared to other forms of advertising.
Tomorrow, I’ll explain more about the benefits of video and what to say and write when you contact companies.
[Editor’s Note: Learn more about how you can fund your travels and make an extra income with photography, travel writing, blogging, and more in our free online newsletter The Right Way to Travel. Sign up here today and we’ll send you a new report, Profit From Your Photos: A Quick-Start Guide, completely FREE.]