What to publish so buyers find you, the words Italian brands search for, and the availability signal.
What brands really look for
Four pieces of information, in this order.
The category: what you film, in simple words and in the language of the market.
The location: the city and the region, because some jobs require travel.
The proof: two or three examples resembling what they are going to order, not your most beautiful images.
And the availability: knowing that you accept jobs, which is never obvious from outside.
One counter-intuitive note: the follower count comes far behind. A brand buying videos for its product listing or its advertising is not buying an audience, it is buying a production.
The three places you get found
Three channels, by decreasing volume.
Specialised platforms, where buyers arrive with an intention and a budget, and where the main filter is language and location.
Search on social networks, where your profile name and your first line count more than your posts.
And recommendation between professionals, the slowest channel to start and the most solid afterwards.
A fourth, underestimated channel: comments on the posts of brands in your sector. That is where marketing managers look, and a useful remark stands out there more than a private message.
What to publish to attract buyers, not an audience
Five formats speaking to brands and not to the general public.
The demonstration of a product you were not paid to film: it proves capability, with no client needed.
The before-and-after format applied to a product listing: the photo on the left, what the video adds on the right.
Content showing your method: how you frame, how you light, what you deliver.
One example per category you want to work in: food, home, beauty, technical.
And a post explicitly saying that you take jobs, with the way to contact you.
One useful clarification: this content does not need many views. It has to exist and be findable when somebody searches.
What makes a brand come back
Three behaviours, all verifiable in the first exchange.
Speed of reply: in this trade it is perceived as a sign of seriousness more reliable than the portfolio.
Clarity of the quote: price, deadline, rights, delivered format, on one page.
And delivery on the announced date, which alone puts you ahead of most of the competition.
One detail reassuring a lot in this market: stating your status and your ability to invoice. A brand that has to book an expense checks that point before discussing style.
What makes a profile surface
Six fields to complete first.
The city and the radius covered.
The languages for filming and subtitling.
The product categories already filmed.
The formats delivered by default.
The usual lead time from receiving the product.
And a price range for a first order.
Where a brand searches, and what it types
| Channel | What it looks for | What holds it |
|---|---|---|
| A platform | A category and a city | A complete profile |
| A search engine | A trade plus a city | A page that loads fast |
| A referral | A name | Immediate samples |
What is filled in once and serves for months
The city, the languages, the formats, the lead time in working days and the range. An empty field drops the profile out of filtered searches, and nobody tells you.
What is updated each quarter
The lead sample, the availability, the range and the target categories. A profile frozen for a year disappears from results without anyone noticing.
How long it takes
Three stages, with honest orders of magnitude.
The first weeks serve to make the profile findable: that is a writing job, not a production one.
The following two to three months bring the first contacts, often small local brands.
And it is towards the end of the first year that the channel becomes regular, when recommendations start circulating.
One last marker, useful for getting through the quiet period: keep prospecting while the channel builds. The two are not opposed, and direct prospecting feeds precisely the examples that will make your profile findable afterwards.
What a profile written in both languages changes
Some of the brands searching here are subsidiaries or exporters, and their brief circulates in English before it arrives in Italian. A profile presenting its packages in both languages therefore appears in two searches instead of one, without adding any work. The working rule: Italian carries the local proof, the accent and the cultural references; English carries the deliverables, the deadlines and the rights, which are exactly what a foreign buyer checks first.
Sources
Checked on 4 September 2026. Thresholds and rates change: where this guide and the official source disagree, the official source is right.
