Pure, unadulterated strategy: marketing, brand positioning, & entrepreneurial wisdom. New trends with staying power. Old standbys with inarguable value.
What to embrace, what to avoid, and what to attempt — with steady discernment.
It was once called The Great British Bake Off but a trademark issue with Pillsbury forced it to change names when it came over from the UK to the States. Perhaps you’ve caught a bit of it with initial judges Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry (best names ever), and then later with Paul and new sidekick Pru Leith – all well-respected, famous fixtures on the British baking and cooking scene. And the hilarious hosts (for comic relief) who narrate the happenings and in equal parts tease/encourage the contestants.
Why do I love this show? Not just the ridiculously amazing creations these amateur cooks make, from patisserie to scrumptious fruit pies, to ornate wedding cakes, to savory pasties and mouth-watering crunchy breads.
The show is a competition. And it’s beautiful and glorious.
And apparently, I’m not alone. No backstabbing. No diva drama. No ruthless camera asides when their fellow competitors are not watching.
Just a group of ambitious people doing what they love, and making sure they show their very, very best.
Some will help each other when things go wrong. Others will provide a little advice to someone who is not quite sure of the end result (this often happens with the technical challenge, where contestants have no idea what they’ll be asked to make.) One episode even found an ICU physician bandaging up a fellow contestant who had sliced his finger with a sharp knife.
This is how classy competition can be.
You can be classy and still want to win.(TWEET THIS!)
No one needs to tear anyone else down to build themselves down. They let the creations speak for themselves. And they celebrate each others successes, often giving a little wink or silent cheer when another person’s work is judged well by the experienced hosts.
And, more importantly, all this compassion and support does not mean each contestant does not want to win. Some of them are very competitive.
Forget ugly American reality TV shows (except The Voice, which I think does a similar nice job with this). People can be supportive and ambitious. Kind and competitive. They can learn from each other and celebrate their successes.
We just need to change the script that defines competitive success.
More articles you may like on how to change the way we look at “competition”:
“Hi, nice to meet you! You’ve never heard of me before but please click this button/take my business card and spend over $1000 on my products or services.”
The underappreciated skill of marketing is to take a customer on journey. One where they get to know you, assess your approach/values, evaluate how you can solve their needs and compare you against the alternatives. This sales cycle can happen in 5 minutes (rarely, unless you are chewing gum at the checkout line: a low-risk, low investment impulse purchase) or more likely, if you sell high-value goods or services, anywhere from one to six months. For some enterprise software firms with deals worth more than $500,000, this could take even longer.
I know, I wish it could be easier, believe me. You write a clever social media post, create a slick sales page or run one compelling ad and…BAM! New buyer.
Please stop proposing on the first date! Prospects need time to learn about you, know, like and trust you before they are going to invest their money and time.(TWEET THIS!)
Most of you don’t sell $5 items, but more expensive products or professional services.
When was the last time you parted with more than $100 when you met a brand for the first time?
To take a prospects on the journey, you need to build a marketing funnel. Or as I like to call it, do some good ole’ fashioned wooing and create a courtship plan.
Here are 5 ways to build a sales funnel so prospects can get to know, like and trust you before they buy:
Offer a safe, no risk way for them to get to know what you are all about: an easily digestible free guide, white paper, or short video. This should be packed with value and not immediately lead to a hard sell, as they are still getting to know you. You are welcoming them to your world, so make them feel comfortable. Dating analogy: Don’t talk about how many kids you want or ask someone to meet you parents on the first date.
Make each call to action or next step crystal clear: While the next call to action from #1 should not necessarily be BUY NOW, what other step should they take in the journey to get closer to a purchase? Perhaps ask them to invest some more time at a webinar or an event. Or ask them to sign up for your email list so you can deliver valuable content on a consistent basis and prove your expertise. Dating analogy: Plan some fun dates and keep things breezy and casual for a while…but make your intentions known that you are serious about building a long-term relationship.
Offer multiple touch points: Building an automated follow-up funnel and getting them on your regular emails is great, but make sure you also have air cover (also known as brand marketing!) Are you posting regularly to social media? Are you doing a few ads every now and then so you stay top of mind? Are you booking speaking engagements or media? Combining your lead funnel “ground game” with the “air cover” of brand is a winning combination for prospects to start getting more comfortable. Dating analogy: Know any friends who can talk you up to your new crush? Or how about sending some flowers, an article you think they might like, or a “thinking of you” text so you stay top of mind between dates.
Follow-up: Don’t leave people hanging. I can’t tell you how many vendors I wanted to spend money with, but I got busy and they never followed up. If you had a conversation or they attended a webinar and asked a lot of questions, be sure to promptly follow up and ask what they thought, what specific challenges they face, why they attended your training or downloaded your guide. You can automate this with emails or if you have strong analytics and can segment out the really interested folks, reach out directly with a personal email or call. Dating analogy: If you say you’re going to call the next day after your date, CALL!
Make it easy for them to buy: When you get to the purchase phase, tell them what to do to seal the deal. Offer options. Ask for the sale (gracefully). Clients want to be led and they need to know what to do to say yes. Make sure your directives are clear: What button to press, where to click, what the contract process looks like. Dating analogy: When we are ready to commit to someone, what do we do? We pop the question: Will you marry me, or will you move in with me? Don’t assume they know that’s what you want!
For more advice on this topic, you may enjoy these past articles:
And did you know? Sales funnels that effectively use video marketing can greatly increase your customer conversion. Check out this article on How to use videos in a sales funnel for high conversion from Studiotale, to know more about employing videos in your sales funnel.
We very rarely, if ever, get to make a major life decision
and live with it as reality – before it is undone. We often wish we could “try
decisions on” and then turn back the clock if we change our minds.
Why? Because it’s one
thing to talk about a choice and quite another to actually DO IT.
This is a rather personal story about what it’s like to feel
a real decision and then have it unmade.
In 2011, I found out I was pregnant. It was completely unexpected, as I just happened to go to the doctor for my annual physical and told him I was late. “Let’s run a pregnancy test to be sure.”
I half-listened to the doctor’s voicemail, knowing it would
be negative. “Your test came back
positive. You’re very early, about 5 weeks, I’d say, but congratulations. Let’s
talk about next steps.”
You must understand the current state of affairs. My husband and I had talked about kids but were not even close to a final decision. I’d had a major health crisis a few years prior and, in the aftermath, we leaned toward no kids. Still, I always wondered what it would be like. Sweet cuddles and fun adventures balanced with sleep-deprivation and no more freedom to take off at a moment’s notice.
But there was no way to predict how I would actually feel if/when it happened.
Until it was real.
I vividly remember driving to lunch to meet a friend that
day with a new found sense of safety to do the speed limit. And wondering, “How
do I do this? Who do I tell first?”
Mind you, I had left my husband a message that I had
something to talk to him about at home. But no way was I going to drop this
bomb over voicemail.
At lunch, it felt weird to tell my good friend, but good to
share it with someone. Me. A pregnant
woman?! Between our shock, we giggled.
As the excruciating hours passed before my husband got home, I settled into the idea. No more imagining. This was happening. How did I feel? I sat with my emotions in this new reality for about 8 hours before my husband knew anything. Panic. Excitement. Shock. But the overwhelming emotion? Joy. I couldn’t stop smiling.
Then later that afternoon…
Some light bleeding. Maybe this decision was being undone
right before my eyes? Fear. Dread.
My husband came home and I told him. But with a caveat that
“this might all be going south.” He reeled
from the shock but also expressed concern about me.
And then….it all unraveled.
Light bleeding turned to heavy turned to emergency doctor calls and then
finally, that last callback where a total stranger, the on-call doctor, said out
loud what I dreaded to hear.
Two days later, an exam at the doctor’s confirmed it. There had been a very early pregnancy but it was over now. No baby.
The decision had been undone.
But it gave me what I needed to be sure about my choice. And now we have a beautiful almost 5 year old boy.
This story is not just about the 48 hour pregnancy. It’s about how we make decisions.
And what we really want when we have to make especially tough ones is to understand how our final choice will make us feel.(TWEET THIS!)
We rarely get visceral certainty. We can only speculate with
what we know right now. We really wish we could marry that guy, start that
business or take that job and get a taste of it before we truly commit.
We often cannot.
We have to examine
both choices from two angles:
How will I feel if I do make that choice?
How will I feel if I don’t make that choice?
You don’t often get the luxury of emotionally and physically
stepping into that reality before you decide. So you have to do your best to
imagine. But even that can trick your brain, because I’m telling you, the
emotions I felt that day were not even close to what I imagined.
So what can we do? Short of being able to go back in time…
Gather the right information. Get enough data to make a balanced, informed choice… but then stop. There comes a point where you start simply seeking data that confirms what you already want to do!
Use pro and con lists wisely. Such lists are okay as inputs, but they’re not a useful decisioning tool, so say Chip and Dan Heath in their book Decisive. We often construct those lists with an existing bias. And sometimes that one pro is worth way more than all of those cons (or vice versa!)
Get a similar perspective. Talk to people who’ve been through it and probe about their before and after. Especially if they possess a similar worldview to yours. But remember, they are not you. You are not them.
Trust your gut on how you may react if it happens….and if it does not. When you tell yourself “This is happening” or “This is not happening” take note of your physiology and mood. Sometimes, you actually already know!
Ask others to notice for you: When you describe the dilemma, ask your friends to notice how you talk: voice pitch, facial expressions, body language They may tell you that you are already pointing out all the negatives of one option, or that your face lights up for the other.
Make all things equal. Great for deciding between two options. Ask yourself what you would do if most things were equal. For example, when faced with two different kindergartens for our son, one close to our house, one 20 minutes away. I asked myself, “Which would I choose if the commute were not a factor?” When put in those terms, I didn’t even hesitate, which told me what I needed to know. We made the decision to put up with the longer commute.
Take the leap. Or don’t. At a certain point, just decide. You only know what you know right now, so stop trying to predict the future. While it is true that we often regret more of the things we did not do, than those we did do, you just need to make a call. Often, we can adapt to whatever decisions we make.
P.S. While this post is about making decisions, if the topic brought up anything difficult for you around miscarriage, please find some resources right here:
Customer experience is now a defining competitive edge.
In fact, this Forbes.com article states that customer experience is one of the top disruptive trends in business this year.
So let me ask you: Which customer experience would you rather have?
One where the customer service rep responds promptly, empathizes with your issue, and offers you options to solve your problem, even if it may not be the original solution you’d had in mind?
Or one where the customer service rep blames their lack of responsiveness on the company being too successful to manage all their new business, implying it’s somehow your fault for being impatient?
These were two such experiences I had recently. The first with, of all companies, a cable company. The second, with what is supposed the be a new darling of online retailing.
What made the difference? EMPATHY.
Empathy is not just a feel good trait. It’s an essential brand advantage that impacts sales and customer experience. Especially when dealing with an upset customer or client. (TWEET THIS!)
The bad customer service rep (for lack of a better term) blamed me for the initial problem, acted like she didn’t care at all that I was now in a bind, and haughtily said to me, “Well, I can’t help do anything about it” to which, when I prompted, “Well can you ASK someone who CAN do something,” she replied with indifference, “”Sure, I guess I’ll ask if something can be done, but I don’t think so.” Yep. She never asked.
The good customer service rep immediately empathized with my frustration and shock over a huge increase in my monthly bill (“Wow! I would totally feel the same way if I’d opened up a bill and saw that increase too! Let’s see what’s going on here.”)
The bad customer service rep had canned email responses that were supposed to “show empathy” – except when you get the same phrase in every single email, it’s clear it’s from a script (“We never want our customers to have that kind of experience.”) Well, clearly you do if you do nothing to fix the process.
The good customer service rep had no script. She looked at my account and customized a solution on the fly. (“Let me check something real quick. I think I can move your plan to another one we now have available so you’re paying the same price you were before.”)
How do we build empathy into the customer experience?
Implement the right processes: Empower customer service reps to do what it takes to solve the issue and not tie their hands with onerous “permission getting.” Allow for fast resolutions and creative problem solving.
Hire right: Emotional intelligence is crucial. Don’t just staff a body. Be sure you are screening and hiring people who have shown empathy in past roles. Ask them how they collaborate, problem solve or handle angry customers. Role play scenarios in the interview and see how they respond.
Scale for success: Your success is no excuse for a poor experience. Don’t blame “too many customers” on the reason you don’t have enough reps or logistical support to solve problems. Don’t blame your email system for not getting customer complaints. That’s on you.
Acknowledge feelings: While it’s tempting to not want to legally “take blame” for something that went wrong, you can still be human and say you are sorry the customer is having such a bad experience. Acknowledging their angry or hurt feelings by relating to them from a similar experience you have had can go a long way to easing the pain.
It’s not enough to have a great product. The bad customer service experience company has a great product and it’s killing me that I just don’t want to give them any more of my money.
While I might be a branding expert with years of experience in consulting and marketing, when I started out in 2008, I was not an expert at running a business. I cobbled together my operations and processes over the years.
Since then, I’ve learned a lot about running a business and working for myself. And that includes slowly finding many of the tools I use to run my business on a daily basis.
If you’re wondering what tools, software or apps might help your business run just a bit more smoothly, let me share my 5y favorite go-to’s with you.Full disclosure: A few of the links below are affiliate links, so if you decide to buy, we both win. You can trust me: I personally use everything on this list, almost on a daily basis!
Landing Pages:
LeadPages has changed my life. Yes, I used to build pages off my website and add a clunky little button and have to manage and maintain it, etc. I finally broke down a few years ago and quite simply, I can’t imagine being it. Landing pages are a breeze. Especially since the best performing landing pages are simple and uncluttered. You can add your branding and make them your own. A must if you want to build your email list and quickly and easily get new subscribers with different campaigns. I also use their Campaigns functionality, which operates as a shopping cart and integrates with Stripe (see Payment Processors below)
Email Marketing:
You’d better not be sending marketing emails from your personal email list and BCC’ing everyone – you’ll end up on a spam blacklist! Get thee to an email marketing platform immediately. While MailChimp is free for simple uses for under 2000 subs, I pay for Aweber now and have for several years. I need more list flexibility than MailChimp provides. Their service is the best. I can ask them anything and immediately get help. Truthfully, I’ve had some issues with more complex tasks and being able to route different funnels to the same list, but they are adding functionality all the time.
Social Media Posting:
I use Buffer to schedule my social media posts in advance. I’d like to say I was uber efficient and plan way ahead with a fully stocked queue at all time, but alas. I’m working on it. But when I do think ahead, I can easily schedule posts for Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. They also offer Instagram. I don’t recommend using them for Facebook, as the Facebook algorithm dings you when you schedule with 3rd party apps (use Facebook’s native schedule for that). But Buffer is great if you plan in advance, want to set up promoting a colleague’s campaign, or even for when you are on vacation. I like to spend about 10-15 minutes stocking up my queue each week. But remember to still get on social media live every now and then to interact. It’s SOCIAL, people. Don’t just phone it in all the time!
Social Media Drip Campaigns:
I think I discovered Missing Lettr from another person’s blog post about productivity tools! Missing Lettr hooks up to your blog and when you publish a new post, it automatically sets up a year-long drip campaign. You can approve and edit all of the campaign posts, but once you do, BAM! You re-promote your content for an entire year without thinking about it. And it let’s you do some cool things, like create speech bubble images, which I kind of love. A huge promotional time-saver.
Payment Processing:
I use a few tools for this. PayPal is my standard for both taking and sending payments. It’s what I started out with. And you can set up subscription payments with them as well. But…I’ve started using Stripe for digital products because there is better integration for some marketing funnels I put together. Since I’m less familiar with it, I haven’t quite figured it out as easily as PayPal…but my VA knows, so that’s all that matters! And when I sell books onsite at an event, I use Square on my iPad or phone.
Email marketing? Landing pages? Social Media sharing? Check out @redslice’s 5 go-to tech tools that run her consulting and online business! (TWEET THIS!)
We always want more, don’t we? We’re all looking for that perfect list-building trick that will unlock more clients, more customers, more money.
We all know it’s a lot easier to nurture a large, warm audience and convert them into sales over time. So we collect people and names like we’re picking blueberries and dump them into our sacks as we hunt for more.
But what about those people who already joined your team? Did you just seduce them to get on your list or pay for your course and then you tossed them to the side?
Newsflash: No matter whether you have 5 or 5,000 email subscribers, 10 or 10,000 customers or 5 or 25 clients, these loyal people are your biggest advocates. They have already raised their hands to support you and are your best brand evangelists.
A list-building trick you’ve never considered:
Love the ones you’re with. While you’re out there marketing to collect clicks, email names, or new customers, do not forget all those people you already have on your side. (TWEET THIS!)
We all start out at Ground Zero and you have to build a brand from nothing. To accelerate, you have to start where you are.
Never lose sight of those who already know, like and trust your brand. Give them VIP service and they will talk about you to others, forward your charming emails or dish about your next big event.
But how do you love on them? Here are a few quick tips:
Cherry pick a new subscriber: Every week, check out your new email subscribers and send one or two of them a personal note (“No, this is not a bot, it’s really me!) thanking them for joining your list.
Engage with a question: Use your Welcome email to instantly engage them. If you’re a massage therapist, ask them the last time they had a massage and how it made them feel. If you’re an HR consultant, ask them what their biggest retention or recruitment challenge might be.
I promise, you won’t get 600 responses back to which you’ll have to reply, but those you do get will never forget you!
My Welcome email asks folks to tell me about their biggest marketing challenge, and someone actually tweeted about how this was the best email sign up she’d ever seen!
Offer them a freebie…just because. Not because you’re launching anything or want them to buy. Occasionally surprise and delight them with free discounts, a new eBook, a fun video or even an inspiring playlist curated just for them.
Go old school: When a prospect schedules a call to find out more about you or someone refers a client to you, send a handwritten note to prospects you talk to or meet with.
Assuming this is a reasonable number, of course, but if you have any business development conversation, take it to the next level beyond a thank you email and write them a handwritten thank you note. This personal touch will not go unnoticed.
For more practical ideas on how to nurture your existing loyal fan base, however small, to attract even more fans, followers and clients, please check this lovely little mini-course I cooked up for you, CLIENT LOVE.
Imagine: an army of adoring fans, eager to buy your next product, attend your next event, or hire you for your next gig! The course also includes lessons on getting great customer testimonials, creating a signature touch that gets people buzzing and curating connections so people love you even more.
Social media is a big part of promoting your business. Except for a few folks I know who have managed to build empires without it (believe me, they are outliers), social media is one of the best ways to boost your visibility and nurture a warm audience. It’s a fabulous way to share your content, and help people know, like and trust your brand.
Am I preaching to the choir?
But many of us don’t always understand the nuances of the platforms, especially when it comes to advertising. Yes, I’m raising my guilty hand on this one. I know branding, not social media…which is why I turn to experts like social media marketing expert Devani Freeman to guide me and share the latest and greatest. Algorithms and consumption habits change all the time, faster than we can keep up, or so it feels.
Social media platforms are changing all the time. Learn the rules and nuances to make your posts and ads successful and see ROI. (TWEET THIS!)
Devani specializes in helping clients generate leads and build audiences with Facebook and Instagram. Her company has helped me launch programs in the past and I’ve learned a ton from her, as well as built up my list with her strategies.
We sat down for this great video interview to share practical tips and surprising rules you MUST know so that you can spend your money wisely and get results from social media advertising.
Watch the video now and you just may rethink your entire social media advertising strategy – for the better!
? VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS:
* The crucial ingredient to REALLY standing out on social media (and why most people don’t!) * Why and how to build a marketing funnel and not simply expect people to buy from you with one-click – and an easy one you can create right now. * Practical action tips for how to build a strong community in Facebook so it works for you. * How exactly to make your Facebook ads work and drive sales for a new offering or course – and how to nurture those leads. * The surprising rules you need to know or else Facebook will reject your ads! * How to make the most of Instagram stories for your business – and why you need to just on this platform NOW.
The tools are out there to boost your visibility. You just have to make sure you’re getting good advice on using them the right way!
Any tips particularly resonate with you? Please Tweet me or stop by the Facebook page and let me know!
Be authentic. Have an authentic brand. I want to be seen as authentic.
Everyone’s all about “authenticity” these days. Which really hasn’t changed all that much since I first blogged about this in 2011. And yet, marketers and entrepreneurs are still fretting out about it.
It’s time to bust this myth of authentic branding, once and for all.
Authentic is not something you can BE. It is a way of being that is unique to whatever you already are, what you deliver or how you serve people.
Trying to be “authentic” is like trying to “be original.” An original what? Authentic to what? How does this show up in the world?
When experts advise you to be authentic, all they are really saying is to be who you are. Play to your true strengths. Don’t try to slap on “coat of brand paint,” as I like to say. This is the very reason why your brand must be lived from the inside out.
Some confuse authenticity with transparency, or homemade, or natural. If that is who your brand and business really are, then, yes. You are being authentic if you convey that vibe. But if you are truly a loud, obnoxious and rabble-rouser, your brand can convey those traits and “authentically” be that, too.
All authentic really means is that you walk your talk and deliver what you promise.(TWEET THIS!)
It’s not an “end state” to aspire to, it’s a way of being what you already are and showing that to your audience. Period.
What I believe entrepreneurs and marketers often mean when they say they desire an “authentic” brand is that they want to be seen as down-to-earth, conversational, approachable, open or direct. If so, then use those attributes. Don’t say authentic. It should be a given that your brand walks its talk.
You can be an elite, exclusive, downright snobby brand and, if that’s truly what your organization delivers and what you convey in all of your messaging and design, then it is an authentic brand as well.
And please don’t take things too far! Being authentic is also not the same as having no filter. It’s not an excuse to forget about your audience’s needs and what would be valuable for them. Personally, I don’t find an Instagram feed full of what a thought leader ate for breakfast “authentic.” To me, that’s just egotistical. If, however, showing me the “behind the scenes” glimpses offers value, then great. Share the story, lesson, or failure so I can learn something. Heck, make me laugh or inspire me. That’s adding value, too. Be real…as long as it’s genuine to who you are AND in service to the promise you made your audience.
Authenticity is not a state to be achieved that means one thing. Authentic is a qualifier: Your brand is authentically….what?
Have you ever committed to a productive or healthy habit only to have it all fall apart and revert back to status quo within a month, a week….or an hour?
Yes, I’m talking about that daily afternoon scone I said I would give up forever, but by 2 pm had already scarfed down. Please don’t judge.
We all have. We’re human.
It’s so easy to talk about productivity habits, or “hacks” (I abhor that word when used for anything other than computer espionage) but it’s an entirely different thing to make them stick.
Which is why I was thrilled to talk with the charming and wise Sarah Von Bargen, lifestyle blogger at YesandYes.org and creator of the Make It Stick Habit School.
Sarah graciously spent some time talking to us about the mental game of why we flake out on good habits, how we can ensure we don’t, and which habits have worked for her in running her business more efficiently and profitably. (Hint: Steal these!)
We talk about everything from procrastination to guilt to time management to, heck, healthy habits for content creation, analyzing your analytics and networking. And how to make them such easy habits, that your day will feel strange if you DON’T do them.
The best habits are things that are incredibly fast and very, very doable. (Tweet this!)
If you feel like your work or time is running YOU more than you are running it, please grab a notepad and click below to enjoy this video:
Highlights include:
How to be successful without getting overwhelmed:
People who were simultaneously successful and not overwhelmed are people who put good business habits on auto-pilot…Because they put these good business habits on autopilot, they removed the stress from it. 2:48
What causes us to abandon good habits so quickly:
If you are constantly looking outside of yourself for solutions, buying things you don’t use, procrastinating and over researching, you are going to have a hard time moving forward 7:52
If you can associate the physical feelings, stress headache or stomach aches, with these bad habits, you will develop a distaste for them. 11:20
Sarah’s success habits that can work for you, too (P.S. Llama farm is optional, but seriously, why would you want it to be?!):
In a perfect world, you will know your best work times. So if you know when you’re most strategic, you can block out your calendar for these habits. 15:45
I swear up and down by writing retreats. Once a month, I go to the same Airbnb, and I do 90% of my writing in 2 nights…I still write every day, but the bulk of my writing is done in two nights at this llama farm in Wisconsin. 17:49
Being a happy and successful business person is knowing your strengths, knowing your weaknesses, outsource properly and knowing what success looks like for you. 21:27
Powerful business success habits that you can start TODAY:
[Networking emails] You have to do it so often and so much that a) your day feels weirdly incomplete if you don’t do it and b) you send so many emails that you loose track of who does and doesn’t respond. 24:53
Once or twice a month, look at your website analytics to determine where your traffic is coming from and what things you are publishing are the most popular. 28:12
Updating old blog posts and re-promoting them. 29:40
What good habits are you committing to? Drop me a line over on Twitter or the Facebook page and let me know!
ABOUT SARAH:
Sarah is a writer, blogger, lover of cats and cheese… and creator of online courses that make your life and work happier and more productive. Read her incredible lifestyle blog, which attracts more than 14,000 visitors daily, and find out more about her courses, including the Make It Stick Habit School at Yes and Yes.
Video is one of the best ways to promote your business, build trust and convey your unique brand personality. So why is it so terrifying for so many?
If video marketing or vlogging is on your branding to-do list for the year, good for you! Video is a great way to build trust, establish your expertise and allow your audience to get to know you. And when it comes to driving traffic, YouTube is the second most popular search engine in use.
But how does one start? Do you need a lot of gear? What will you talk about?
My wonderful interview with globally-recognized YouTuber, author and business video marketing expert Amy Schmittauer Landino is here to help!
I kind of adore Amy #GirlCrush
Amy and I “met” years ago over social media and started promoting each other’s content and collaborating virtually. I even featured her expertise in the second edition of Branding Basics for Small Business. We got to meet in person when I went back to Columbus, Ohio for a holiday visit and it was like we’d known each other forever (the power of virtual business relationships done right). She’s sassy, straightforward and super smart – all the things we love here at Red Slice, am I right?!
Why do video? Well this quote from Amy in the interview says it all:
“At the end of the day, we’re doing this so someone will buy something. But truthfully we’re trying to get someone to trust us to make a buying decision.”
So, in my attempt to do more video myself, I hope you enjoy and get a ton of value out of this lively video interview:
Some highlights:
The benefits and ROI you can get from doing more video marketing (4:00)
How video works for both B2C and B2B businesses: “This works no matter who you’re talking to, but if you lose track of you’re talking to, it’s going to be hard to accomplish anything but that’s a B2B or a B2C problem.” (11:15)
How you can make your video content stand out in a crowded content landscape We talk about Search, Playlists, tagging and the YouTube algorithms (13:22)
The YouTube Gold Rush and why it’s much harder to make money simply from ad dollars (14:27)
How to manage your content and production schedule…True Confession time from me! (34:51)
How long should your videos be to keep attention and “win” on YouTube (50:32)
Tips for being on-camera, including lighting (53:11)
How often to post new videos to generate more traffic on YouTube (15:22)
And a really interesting conversation about how video impacts society. Are we becoming too concerned with surface appearances or a false reality? And does video play a role in reducing our desires for real-life interaction and experience? Spoiler alert: No, and Amy and I talk about why. (1:00:05)
If you’re still not convinced incorporating more video can help your business and build trust in your expertise and brand, I’ll leave you with this quote from Amy:
“I knew that the best way to get myself out there was not just meeting people , because obviously you can never replace that. But the second thing to that in my opinion is allowing someone to have an experience meeting me in a way that I could get out to more people and I just don’t think there’s anything like that compared to video that is as effective.
Video is that really, really close second place to being able to shake someone’s hand.” (TWEET THIS!)
ABOUT AMY:
Amy is a globally-recognized YouTuber, speaker, author, and business owner. She coaches people at her popular YouTube channel, AmyTV, on how to go after what they want in life and leveraging video storytelling to make it happen. Owner of two creative companies—Aftermarq and Vlog Boss Studios—Amy presents to and consults with a global clientele about leveraging online communication and content marketing to increase brand awareness. In her best-selling book Vlog Like a Boss: How to Kill It Online with Video Blogging, she shares her collection of strategies and tactics to help you create video that gets the attention you deserve and builds real relationships with your community. Amy’s an international speaker and has appeared in media outlets such as The Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Inc and more.
Check out Amy’s wonderful video masterclass, Vlog Like A Boss. I can personally vouch that the content is solid (and her action steps manageable) if you want to create great videos…and content overall.
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