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The official podcast of Shoemaker Films. Every week we share content related to digital marketing, video production, and brand building; and frequently meet with local creatives, entrepreneurs, and business owners for in-depth conversations. Get to know local heavy hitters and influencers in the Greater Philadelphia region while picking up some tactical advice and tips on starting and running a business, being productive, creating content, and everything in between.
Welcome to the Shoemaker Lab. This is Dane Shoemaker, your host, and I'm founder and CEO of Shoemaker Films. We're a Greater Philadelphia area video production company. We work with companies of all shapes and sizes, to produce branded content like, you know, brand stories, training videos. We do a lot of podcasts and social media content.
Dane Shoemaker:So if you're interested, please reach out to us. This is our podcast, Shoemaker Lab, where we frequently interview local businesses, entrepreneurs, and creatives. We also do solo shows like this where we share, you know, tips and advice and and knowledge around video marketing, social media, you know, the digital landscape. Right? So, we've been getting a lot of questions, you know, when we're engaging with businesses around, you know, how do we work with clients?
Dane Shoemaker:You know, what does our onboarding process look like? What does our engagement model, look like? How do we go to market? And so I thought that we'd make a podcast, video about this. There's really two core ways clients work with Shoemaker Films.
Dane Shoemaker:So 2 ways. So we have really single project, engagements where, you know, it's it's typically a brand story or maybe it's an event, or some type of main deliverable. You know, it could be a, again, you know, 2 to 3 minute brand story that might live on the client's website or, it's an advertisement. Right? Maybe it's being run on TV or they're gonna run it as, you know, you know, Hulu, you know, ad, you know, content, things like that.
Dane Shoemaker:We also do a lot of events. Typically, that's a a single deliverable. Right? On the other hand, we do a lot of ongoing, retainers. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:So whether that's we're producing a podcast for clients, where we're going in once a month or twice a month, and we're shooting, you know, multiple episodes and we're managing that for them, or we're or it's social media content. Right? So, you know, let's start with a single video production. So, generally, you know and this is industry standard, but when if you're a client that's maybe, looking at, you know, starting down the path of producing a video. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:You'll engage us. You know, you might engage other companies as well. But, generally, you know, it it all starts with a discovery session. Right? This is typically an initial sales call.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? 30 minutes. It can be either in person or, on a on a Zoom, right, or a a Google Meet. We use Google Workspace. So maybe it's 30 minutes, maybe it's an hour, really just to understand what your, you know, what your ideas are, what you're trying to accomplish.
Dane Shoemaker:And we flush out, okay, you know, try trying to understand a little bit more about your business. What are your goals? What's the target audience for this, for this video? Right? You know, what is the look and feel that you're going for, what your budget looks like, and what your timeline.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? Traditional sales, you know, details that we need to get to understand. Hey. Is this a real project? Are you just kinda shopping around, or, you know, are we close to actually, you know, moving this thing forward?
Dane Shoemaker:So that's typically discovery. From there, we have a contract that goes out. This will basically lay out everything that we discussed, including, you know, what we intend to actually deliver. Right? At this stage, you know, we've spent an hour on the phone with you or in person.
Dane Shoemaker:We've spent some time building out this proposal. This proposal is gonna be about 1 page, and then we have a contract. Right? And so, generally, then at that point, you're gonna put down, a deposit. And then from there, that's when really the preproduction process starts.
Dane Shoemaker:So that's gonna involve 1 or more sessions, where we really sit down 2, 3 hours and really iron out exactly, you know, who is the audience, who are we trying to, influence or target with this video, where is the video gonna be distributed at, you know, what does success look like for you, what's the look and feel, are we you know, we're typically pulling, you know, samples, and things like that. We're working with, you know, your you and your marketing team around, you know, brand guidelines. So, you know, what are the colors and fonts and maybe graphical elements that you want in the video? You know, if there's a script, we'll be, you know, actually writing that out. Or if it's more of just a, you know, kind of a brand story where we're interviewing stakeholders at your business, we're gonna develop the list of questions.
Dane Shoemaker:We're gonna storyboard everything at this point. During that preproduction process, we deliver a creative brief. Right? And what that creative brief is really typically 10 to 15 pages. It's really outlines exactly what we're going to deliver.
Dane Shoemaker:And, you know, it answers all the questions like, who is this the the video intended for? You know, where is it going to be seen? Is it going on TV? Is it going online? Those types of questions.
Dane Shoemaker:And then really a production timeline, you know, days, who are we shooting, you know, if there's talent involved. All of that stuff is gonna be laid out. At that point, we move into production. You know, once that's approved, we move into the production phase. So that could be a one day shoot.
Dane Shoemaker:It could be a, you know, 1 week shoot. It could be a couple days. It really just depends on what the project is. You know, we generally have a preproduction manager that's gonna kinda will make sure we do all of, you know, execute on everything, the day of the shoot. And, you know, depending on the size of the project, it's gonna it's gonna vary, you know, who who's gonna be there.
Dane Shoemaker:We might have a director. Typically, I'm serving as a director. Morgan might be a producing or assistant director. We have a whole team that we bring in for that, you know, to make sure we execute the project. After that shoot, then we move into postproduction.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? Postproduction is where, really, the magic happens. Right? You have music selections. Typically, you know, within a couple days, we'll send over, some samples of, the music that we like, you know, 5 to 10 tracks.
Dane Shoemaker:Sometimes that's flushed out in preproduction, especially if it's a you know, something that's not royalty free. We have to pay licensing fees. But, generally, a lot of the work that we do, we're using Epidemic Sound, and we pull tracks from there. We get your approval. Because once that once that music track is locked in, we can't really do.
Dane Shoemaker:Once that edit is locked into that that video, we can't we can't change it. It's very difficult. Obviously, a lot of edits are timed to, you know, the the video. Right? So our our our general time frame post production, 7 to 10 days, you can expect a, first draft.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? So that first draft comes out. We get a meeting on the calendar where we actually, you know, we'll send it to you the day before the meeting so you can review it, or a couple days, right, whatever the time frame is there. We typically use Vimeo. Vimeo is a tool where you can comment, on, you know, actual time stamped areas.
Dane Shoemaker:So it's real real collaborative. If you don't like something, hey. You can comment right on that time stamp so there's no confusion. We'll work with you on that. We'll we'll we'll showcase the video, and then you have some time couple days after that, maybe a week or 2, to get some more feedback from all the stakeholders.
Dane Shoemaker:And then we typically do 2 rounds of revisions, unless there was something else agreed upon prior to. But generally, 2 revisions, you know you know, if we're, if we're not nailing the edit really after the first revision and we're going back 3, 4, 5 revisions at that point, we something went wrong in pre doc preproduction. We did not plan things out. We were not aligned, in that. So that's why that that planning phase is so important.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? After that, we deliver the final product to you, and we always work with our clients after we produce the the deliverable to make sure you're happy with placement. You know? So whether it's going up on your website, we'll we'll consult with your, you know, web team or, you know, if it's if it's social media deliverables. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Maybe there is, you know, a half you know, social media content that we produce for you on a one time basis. We'll work with you to make sure it's optimized to go out on Instagram. You know, the, obviously, the aspect ratios and all of those things would have been flushed out, in the planning and preproduction phases, but, you know, we'll work with you to make sure it's successful. Right? And, you know, that might include, hey, helping you with with tracking analytics on social media, whether it's, you know, working with, your agency, right, or, you know, your your your company that's that's buying media for TV.
Dane Shoemaker:You know, we typically have some relationships there as well that we can work with you on. And that's it. Once that video is out the door, you know, we're we're helping you along the way. This is where our really our second engagement model comes into play. Many of our clients, we work with on a regular basis.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? So you have your single project. It's launched out the door, but a lot of our clients were working on what we call a retainer or a video marketing retainer. Right? So whether that's a podcast that we produce for them, or it's regular social media content.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? All of our engagements start, again, with that discovery phase. What are you looking to accomplish? You know, what are your goals? What are you, you know, what are you looking what kinda content are you looking to create?
Dane Shoemaker:What's the strategy? Right? If we're talking social media or if we're talking a podcast, that there needs to be a strategy laid out. Right? So we go through discovery, the sales process.
Dane Shoemaker:You guys are ready to move forward. There's gonna be a monthly, fee that we work out. Right? And that goes on kind of an autopay basis. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:So moving forward, you'll just be billed once a month, typically on a credit card or through a bank, statement. So then we get started. Right? We always develop a content strategy. Typically, this is a, you know, 5 to 15 grow brand awareness?
Dane Shoemaker:Are you trying to drive traffic to your website? What platforms are we focused on? Right? Is it Instagram, TikTok, YouTube? Are we doing just audio?
Dane Shoemaker:Right? There's all of those things need to be worked out. And what does success look like? Right? Is it more followers?
Dane Shoemaker:Is it more views? Is it more traffic to your website? Is it revenue? Is it all of the above? Right?
Dane Shoemaker:So that that's all gonna be outlined. We we typically also include a brand, guideline. So, you know, if if you're a small business, you don't have a marketing agency that you're working with, we can kinda fill that gap. Right? So we we do work with a lot of clients where, hey.
Dane Shoemaker:I don't really know what my fonts or colors are. I have a logo that I got designed, like, 5 years ago. So we'll take a lot of that content and kinda build it out into a a visual identity for you, just so that all of the content that we produce moving forward has a a, you know, a, unifying look and feel. Right? That's really important to us, and it's especially important to people that you're trying to engage, with your clients.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? So first and foremost, we build that content strategy. We have alignment on that, and then we get into, a a a rhythm of where we're, you know, production. Right? So usually, it's once a month, sometimes 2 or 3 times a month.
Dane Shoemaker:Depends on how much content and what your schedule looks like and what our schedule looks like. You know, if you're if you're local, we can be more flexible with that. Right? But generally, we're going into a business once or twice a month, and we're filming. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:We're creating content, whether that's a podcast or it's a social, you know, social media engagement, short form video. Right? So that might include, you know, before we get into actual the content strategy, we're deciding on what the deliverables are. Right? So whether that's 4 episodes a month, a weekly podcast episode, or it's, hey, I want, you know, 5 reels every week.
Dane Shoemaker:So that means we need, you know, 20 to 25 reels every month. So before production even starts, we we have a plan of action before we show up with all of our lights and cameras and mics. We have a plan. Right? Hey.
Dane Shoemaker:You know, what are the what what's the content that we're doing? Maybe it's the titles and an outline for the, podcast episodes. Or if it's reels, typically, you know, we'll have a spreadsheet or, you know, a a document that has everything laid out. Maybe it's word for word. Maybe it's general topics.
Dane Shoemaker:And, you know, then we execute. Right? So whether it's a 2, 3, 4 hour session, it could be a full day. It really just depends on the client. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Everyone's different. Everyone, you know, operates differently in their business. Some people, it's very exhausting being in front of a camera. You know, it's it can be. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:And you're just talking a lot, and you got cameras, and you got people standing there looking at you. Some people can't do that all day. Some people can, and they'd rather do that. They'd rather batch it all out for the month, and then, you know, go from there. But, generally, you know, once or twice a month, we're going in.
Dane Shoemaker:We're shooting. We're doing all the preproduction, and then we're editing and we're delivering. So on a social media or video marketing retainer where we're working with you every month, that's gonna be typically, we're we're managing everything for you. Right? So we're uploading.
Dane Shoemaker:We're doing thumbnails. We're we're doing captions and descriptions. We're doing all of that content. So, really, once we have, you know, the alignment on the topics and the content that we're creating and we produce that, we film it, we work with you, you know, you have that 4 hour block with us every month, and then you don't have to think about it at all. That's the benefit, right, with working with Shoemaker Films is, you know, we come in, we film everything, then we edit it, and we post it, and then we provide you a monthly report that shows here's how everything is performing.
Dane Shoemaker:Here's what our recommendations are for next month, and then we collaborate on that preproduction process once again for that next month. A lot of our clients would do this month to month. We don't typically lock people into, you know, 6 month or 12 month contracts. Business moves very fast. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:You know, we don't prob we don't wanna get locked in with a client for 12 months because it might be a nightmare. Right? So, you know, I I think, you know, we have to pivot every month. What are the trends? What you know, there's new platforms coming out.
Dane Shoemaker:There's algorithms that are changing. Right? So, we're all about staying nimble and and staying proactive with our clients. So, yeah, that's that's really it for this for this podcast. You know, this is our our client engagement models.
Dane Shoemaker:We have single video projects, that we walk through, and then we have our video marketing retainers, whether it's a podcast or social media content, short form videos. So this was just really to provide, you know, some answers to some frequently asked questions that we get from clients and prospects, and, you you know, hopefully, this was valuable. If you have any questions, please reach out to us. You can drop, some comments in the, descript, you know, in the, below. Or, if you're interested in in getting started with a video project, please reach out to us.
Dane Shoemaker:Thanks again. Thanks for listening today. Shoemaker Lab is an original production by Shoemaker Films LLC. If you enjoyed today's content, please consider subscribing on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your content. Follow us on Instagram at shoemaker.films.
Dane Shoemaker:If you're a business that's either interested in our video production services or would like to be a guest on the show, get in touch by using the contact form on our website, shoemakerfilms.com.