How to Set up a Video Editing Business

Video editing involves much more than simply taking raw footage and adding graphics, changing text, or changing the overall look. If you've worked on video editing, you know a lot of work goes into it. 

Visualizing the final output to work backwards and putting elements in place requires organization with detailed attention. Given how many businesses today are exploring video marketing and therefore looking for editing services, it can be a lucrative business idea if you wish to expand on it.

In recent years, scores of small businesses have been approaching video marketing services for help connecting with their audiences, growing their followings, and optimizing for multiple platform algorithms with practical, polished, and relevant video content.  

How Videos Marketing Drives Growth for Small Businesses

Online video demand has grown in the last few years, with a record watch time of 100 minutes per day in 2021. It's also grown as an industry to $61 billion in 2021. This surge from users and the industry calls for better services from existing and new video service providers. With more eyeballs on videos, it has become all the more important to attract the right audience with relevant and high-quality content.

And because video makes it easy to attract visual learners, it's a great tool, especially when the audience is new and wants to know, like, and trust the brand. Video creates the instant ability to connect with a business and understand the content better.

Because video has a longer shelf life on social media, spending time creating videos gives a business better exposure and good ROI. It also encourages more views, shares, and engagement, building momentum for the brand.

When a business actively builds video content, more people can enter a sales funnel, leading to more conversions and customers. If you're wondering if video editing is indeed profitable, there are quite a few reasons you should go ahead.

What Makes Video Editing a Lucrative Business? 

Video editing has yet to see its peak demand, considering it's still catching up with most businesses worldwide. Therefore, it's an excellent time to enter the industry and make your mark. And it's equally lucrative because of the following reasons.

• Recurring business: Marketers are constantly in need of new content. Very few businesses need only one video. They need a steady stream of new content flowing to their social media platforms. That's where you can leverage your expertise and position yourself as the ideal service provider. You get to build authority and attract continuous work. Recurring revenue makes your business viable even if you are new.
  
• High barrier to entry: Video editing calls for specialized skills, as practitioners need to understand the business beyond aesthetics. It requires good problem-solving skills, self-motivation, attention to detail, prioritization, and, most important, organizational skills to keep things together, especially when the workload increases.
  
• Scalable: Once you set up a workflow, you don't have to do it by yourself. You can scale up by hiring skilled video editors and scale up your production. Even if you want to bring new video editors on board, you can train and upskill them to meet your expectations.

Build a Client Acquisition Strategy   

1. Inbound and Outbound  

Once you have set up your video editing business, client acquisition is essential to keep going. It lets you create awareness about your business and connect with other like-minded business owners who could be potential clients or business collaborators. Approach this with an inbound and outbound strategy that lets you automate client acquisition (inbound) to an extent and the rest where you actively reach out to potential clients (outbound).

A small business often operates as a single owner or with a limited staff. When they need video editing, they'll look for experts who can deliver quality videos.

Try social media platforms to reach out to them. Instagram is an ideal platform to find small companies that need video content and also where you can promote your business via video. Find such small businesses with an existing Instagram presence and reach out to them over email.

Instagram can also work for your business to acquire your clients. So, create content on video marketing and how it can help your audience. Create videos to make it engaging. It will also create a positive impression about your work quality and build credibility and authority.

And while you're at it, don't forget to engage with potential clients and their content to give you potential visibility. Also, check your statistics regularly to see how your content fares in the eyes of your audience and if you need to tweak your content to improve your reach.

Another way to acquire clients is to use hosted platforms like blogs. Use content to build a case for video as a marketing medium. Tell readers how videos help build loyalty, engagement, conversions and help create a community of raving fans.

When you invest time in educating your readers, it extends your brand value and helps people know how you can solve their pain points concerning video marketing and editing.

2. Build a Scalable Framework to Edit Videos   

Once you have your client acquisition set up, create a scalable framework to edit videos. While you train your first hires, keep in mind that you'll need more people on the team to scale further with time. For this, create exhaustive documentation on how to go about editing videos. Keep it concise, even while noting down all relevant details right up to the last point. So, include specific dos and don'ts, checklists, and SOPs. It makes it easy for your team to follow through with little intervention.

Set up your systems to hire external people who can operate as your outsourced team or contractors for work overflow. Alternatively, outsource your hosting or other specific modules to third parties. Build this team that can take up orders and deliver within TAT.

Experiment with multiple contractors and build a small trusted pool you can always rely on. This way, you don't have to incur costs on hiring more team members, but you can create a credible team to fall back on when work piles up.

A scalable framework is possible with the right tools to speed up your work without compromising on quality. Tools that are simple, easy to use, and let your team get started quickly. You might rely on different tools to do various tasks, but you can also look at tools that don't have all the bells and whistles and are sufficient to scale.

There are many tools in the market, and you can try a handy one like Ssemble or Videoleap that works on iPhone and iPad. It makes video editing easy, lets you add effects, text and stickers, and gives a professional feel to your videos.

3. Diversifying Income 

• Editing Videos for Clients: Editing videos for clients is one way to increase your income. It's an active way to put your skills to use and get paid in exchange for your service. However, even in a scalable framework, your income potential is limited to the number of hours you can invest in multiple projects, limiting your earning capacity. However, you can diversify your income by using your existing knowledge in video editing.
  
• Online course for video editing: A passive way to bring in income is to use your video editing skills to teach others through an online course. When you package your video editing knowledge as an online course, it gives you recurring returns. It's a limited-time effort that helps build credibility, establishes your authority, improves customer experience, and brings new clients besides money from courses.
  
• Content monetization: Video editing is a popular search topic. Investing in a content strategy could be financially appealing. You may start a blog or a YouTube channel teaching your followers the trick of the trade, and monetize via ad networks or affiliate marketing. Just make sure your channel looks professional. Create a youtube banner that matches your content's style and objective.
  
• Social Media Partnership: Social media partnerships are another way to diversify your income and partner with brands.  In this way, you get to introduce your audience to the brand value and engage in shared audiences between your business and the partner. When you do so, you're expanding your reach and making it easy for people to know what you do and how you can help.
  
• Video Editing as a Service: Pricing your services differently is also another revenue stream. Here you look at offering subscription pricing to clients instead of charging by the hour. It creates predictable income streams, making it easy to provide value-based pricing instead of time-based.

Conclusion

When you're looking at your skills to build a business, video editing is a profitable avenue considering the market demand and large user base. What also works in your favor is the multiple opportunities for recurring revenue, a high barrier to entry, and one that's scalable. And when you plan your client acquisition strategy to grow your business, factor in inbound and outbound avenues that can allow a steady stream of clients.

Also, consider social media platforms like Instagram to nurture and engage clients. And when you have repeat and new clients approaching you for work, set up workflows and systems so that your team is equipped to take on more work. Provide adequate documentation and use tools to ensure a smooth workflow.

While you're at it, don't forget to consider an alternate source of income to fall back on in case your business slows down. Online courses, social media collaborations, and subscription pricing are excellent opportunities for growing your video editing income streams.

Featured Image by Jakob Owens on Unsplash