Hey Dr Bill, what with todays economy people are having to spend their hard earned pennys on living and not luxury, have you considered lowering your prices slightly. If youve looked at your target audience then you must have a rough idea of their average earnings, how much they generally spend per month or annum on dvds or educational material ect?
I can suggest one of two things, 1. get yourself all over the internet. Take coca cola, they are one of the biggest brands in the world, everyone in every country knows what coke is, yet they still advertise everywhere; tv, internet, magazines, bus stops, news papers, shows, fayres, beer mats, posters ect ect, why? because they want to make sure that no single person forgets them, they want people to live and breath coke so the second they are thirsty or go food shopping they buy their products, apply this to yourself, advertise everywhere, if you know someone who builds websites then ask them to do a deal with you, you build a links page on your site and you switch links with people, even if its got nothing to do with diving say a music site, i may like the band and also be a diver and never heard of you, or i may drink coke and dive but never have heard of you, all it takes is for one person to discover you then pass it onto one more person who passes it on. advertisement is the key to all, if you advertise right and enough you will get your sales.
The second thing i would suggest is expose yourself (now i dont mean literally, although it would get you some media coverage im sure!!) get yourself on things like twitter, facebook, myspace ect, have an outlet for people on the internet to find you and find out about you, facebook for example, you could have your page with information about yourself, you could add snippets of your footage on there for people to take a sneak peak and get the taste for it and want more, afterall if you look at all food and beverage companies they always give people samples so they can taste how good the product is for themselves, your merely doing the same only interactivly, put photos up of filming the shoots showing how much fun you had doing them and the kinds of things you can expect to see on your dvds. Allow people to ask you questions and answer them honestly and quickly.
No body likes dealing with someone or a company that doesnt look after their customers, people dont mind paying that little bit extra if they KNOW they are going to get outstanding service, how will they know if they are getting outstanding service? by trying your products, offer people things they cant refuse such as first dvd $30 but if on the same order you purchase more you will pay only half price per dvd, with an offer like that people can splash out and get 3 dvd's for the price of two, for $60 they can get 6 dvds.
Get yourself on youtube, put on snippets of each dvd on there, select what you think to be the best bits of your dvd and showcase them, when your planning to upload tell the whole world, some people may not care but others will, if they get the chance to see some of your work first hand for free they will sit and wait in anticipation.
My last peice of advice is what i tell all of my customers (i worked in marketing and advertising if you havent guessed) is be a brand, when anyone starts a company or a venture they always think of the biggest possible picture, nobody opens a shop and aims to have just enough customers to make ends meet, they want to be the leader in their chosen project, they want people to be walking up to them and saying your the dude that does this... i heard about you your my idol. the way to do that.... get a brand, get a logo that stands out so when people see that logo they automatically think of you or when they see something simular they think of you, my example the tick, when ever you see a tick you think of nike, whenever you see a crocodile you think of lacoste, you want to get inside peoples heads, make them think of you and the best way to do that is a big bold logo, if you dont already have one then hire a graphic designer, if you cant afford the cost of a designer then go to your local college and offer them a deal, a competition to design your logo, the winner gets to go out on a dive with you or wins a dvd. there is always a way and students will do practically anything to get their name out there.
one youve got your logo sorted start on your brand, get your website up and running, if you cant afford a web designer ask around, in this day and age there is always a friend of a friend who is a site designer or a 'net nerd' there may even possibly be someone on this forum that would be willing to help for nothing more than a simple thanks and their name at the bottom of the site or again a free dvd, if they see one dvd and like it they are likely to buy some to see what else you have on offer, once yours sites built do the three a's: advertise, advertise, advertise.
After all how can you expect people to buy your products if they dont know they exsist? would you walk around town looking for a shop you didnt know exsisted? no you would go somewhere you already knew about.
Once you have your site and facebook, youtube, twitter ect ect. ask people for feedback, pay attention to what they tell you after all the people buying your products are the peoples who's opinions matter, if people say that your covers look cheap, do something about it, if people say the music is annoying them, find new music, keep the customers you have happy and they will come back for more and bring their friends with them. Get your customers to write reveiws for you, get them to write a simple 5 line statement of why they would recommend your dvds to other people. why they would recommend other people do business with you.
Once you get up and running, start giving people extras, start a blog about filming, tell people where your planning to film so they can come and see you, make making-of videos and blooper reels, people love down to earth people that they can trust, if your not afraid to show your mistakes and have a laugh at your own expence people will respect it and want to deal with you!
I hope all this helps, if you want any more ideas, suggestions or tips on anything iv said, feel free to send me a private message and ill have a good chat with you, its like i said, iv spent the last four years helping people go from being a standard small business to growing and doing what they really want their business to be, im happy to help!
