by Jace Vernon | business, Internet Marketing, Video Marketing
Marketing Advice
Two men set out on a mission. It was a mission of discovery, adventure, and misfortune. 1400 miles in total.
One had all the resources at his fingertips and the other did not. One man was well funded and had all the training and talent necessary to win the prize and the other did not.
A David and Goliath story.
The goal…The South Pole
Scott had all the resources necessary to succeed and bring home the prize, but it was Amundson who would arrive at the South Pole and live to tell about it.
It all came down to decisions.
Scott made bad ones Amundson made great ones.
Make no mistake about it: Scott and his men had heart and hardihood in spades. But Amundsen was the superior tactician.
Here is a great example…
A day when Scott should have been in a mad dash to get to the next station he decided to stop and collect rocks. This was after they were already starving and frost bitten.
He took horses and skis instead of dogs
He didn’t plan and prepare
He took one navigator compared to Amundson’s four.
His depot stations were too few, too little, and too far apart.
It was a disaster, which would eventually cost all of them their lives.
They froze…
Amundsen’s route had never before been taken, but it put his starting point 60 miles closer to the Pole than Scott’s.
Amundson, on the other hand, did the exact opposite.
He planned for emergencies.
Instead of one depot station he would set up multiple.
They had so much food on the trip back they were eating all they could to lighten the load. They were even feeding the dogs delicious chocolate. (don’t do this at home, your dog might leave you some presents)
His men reached the pole 30 days before Scott and were back home about the time Scott was dying.
You might be asking how does this apply to marketing, especially video marketing?
Let me elaborate.
There are two companies that have similar products. They are both looking for success, but one makes millions while the other shuts it’s doors.
It all comes down to decisions and preparation.
Are you going to spend the time and prepare for success? (due diligence)
Are you going to make sure your video and marketing efforts are really producing results? (measure results)
Do you have different lead sources? (preparation)
Who are your marketing partners do they know what they are doing?
I continually consult with business owners and find that some are prepared but unfortunately most aren’t.
The majority never makes it back from the South Pole.
It’s the perfect time of year to go back over your marketing efforts.
I did…
When Marketing You Make Your Own Luck
Here is what I found
- Facebook ads are still working great, but you have to make sure the target audience is dialed in.
- YouTube is still our poster child. We love video ads and video marketing.
- 2015 is going to be a big year for video marketing. Platforms are only getting better and Google is always improving the target audience options. I will we harping on this throughout the year so expect to see a lot more in terms of video marketing. It works
- PPC ads – Adwords are still working, but can get very expensive.
- Bing and Yahoo Ads are gaining market share so make sure you are using them
- We stopped running Twitter and Linkedin ads. They still need to improve conversions and results. I might look to test them in a couple of months
- Video SEO – organic search marketing is awesome
- Google and YouTube autocomplete is going to be a big part of our strategy for 2015. We have created machines.
- Email marketing is a must. The money is in the list
- Customer retention and customer service is also a must. Look for ways to improve it.
“I may say that this is the greatest factor—the way in which the expedition is equipped—the way in which every difficulty is foreseen, and precautions taken for meeting or avoiding it. Victory awaits him who has everything in order — luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.” -Roald Amundsen
That should cut it.
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The logistics of Scott’s expedition were complex; he started out with 16 men, 23 dogs, 10 ponies, 13 sledges, and 2 motor sledges. Since the different forms of transport varied in speed, they had to each start out at different times from the camps, so that they’d all arrive near the same time at the next camp. The party was slowly winnowed down to the five men who man-hauled the rest of the way to the Pole. In contrast, Amundsen’s expedition was very simple: 5 men and dogs all the way there, and all the way back.
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Why take horses? Bad Decision by Scott
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We want to be your strategic partner and see how quickly we can get to the pole and back.
Jace Vernon
(your video marketing consultant)
PS. Hey guys I think it has been a month since I have written a blog, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do better in 2015. We have some great guides and advice coming.
I’m serious we have some amazing stuff coming so keep a look out.
Great Marketing Advice I Learned from The Death of Scott
by Jace Vernon | Internet Marketing
Be more productive this year and take that “Queen B” title…or King…
I mean, I don’t even like Beyonce, but the girl is on top of things.
1. Zero Your Inbox
Emails come in all day and all night long. Emails don’t take evenings or weekends off. In the New Year check your emails when they role in but only to make sure they aren’t urgent. Once you’ve read them and realized they aren’t, keep them in your inbox until you are in the office, then handle whatever they are concerning. Once you’ve taken care of the task within the email, file the email away into a folder. Leaving you with a clean and clear inbox. Using your email as a to-do list will allow you to be more productive this new year.
2. Take the Nights Off
Like I said earlier, make sure your emails aren’t urgent and then let them sit for the night. You can actually become more productive when you force yourself to get your work done in the office. When you allow yourself to work at home you tend to be distracted and take longer to accomplish tasks. This causes you to spend less time with your family or resting which then can cause distractions at the office.
3. Use Your Phone
We live in a world of texting and emails. Start using your phone for what it was made for, pick it up and call your clients. You can get your point across more accurately and articulately when you make a phone call. You might think sending a quick email will be faster, but certain things aren’t the easiest to convey over text and that can lead to confusion between you and your client, which can lead to more emails and an inevitable phone call anyway.
4. Work Offline
Turn off your Wi-Fi. Of course some things you will need the Internet for, but if you’re editing photos or writing blogs or a novel or doing anything that you don’t need the Internet for, turn it off. Better yet, work on a computer that doesn’t connect to the Internet. This will allow you less distractions and more focus on your work, making you more productive.
5. Time Management
There are a million books on time management, I suggest reading some. Chris Hardwick, one of the busiest men in entertainment, once talked about how he learned time management on his podcast, The Nerdist. He read a ton of books and has an assistant, but the short version is to set a timer and time how long it takes you to do tasks. Then the next time you do the same task, try to beat that original time. Make sure you don’t get distracted by other things. You will want to time yourself doing only the task you have set, not anything else and no other distractions.
6. Checklists
Start each morning with a meeting with yourself. Create your to-do list with your priority tasks first, and the rest lower on the list. You never know what you’ll receive throughout the day that needs to be done immediately and will take most of your day away, so get your priorities right and done first. This will allow you to accomplish things quickly and wont push you into working after hours to accomplish those priority tasks you neglected.
by Jace Vernon | business, email marketing, Internet Consulting, Internet Marketing
As many of you know I have 6 wonderful kids that keep me pretty busy.
Two weeks ago Camdyn (2) and Taya (4) discovered Taylor Swift. So I have spent the last 336 hours listening to “Blank Space” and “Shake it off” over and over again.
Normally this would drive a Dad crazy, but I am all for it. I love Taylor Swift and her lyrics are amazing. There is nothing better than cruising around in a Mini Van, stereo blasting, listening to two little girls fumble through the lyrics of a song. That is what I call happiness!
Taylor Swift was the 2nd highest paid Female Musician last year bringing in close to $64 Million. Why is that?
Answer: She has created what I like to call the “Attractive Character”
Think about it. Her songs relate to her audience. Taylor writes or co-writes every song on all of her albums and most come from her personal experiences.
People love Taylor because they see themselves.
“A key line in the song (Blank Space) “Ain’t it funny rumors fly, And I know you heard about me,” gives us a glimpse into what it’s like to be miss Swift, but it’s also very relatable to the average person. Many of us have heard things about others and ourselves that aren’t true. The art of a Taylor Swift song comes from being able to take personal experiences and having them translate into the lives of millions of other people. This is the reason Swift can still sell over a million copies of her album the first week and why all of her concerts sell out. She knows how to connect to people’s emotions.”
The point…
When it comes to building a business, writing emails, creating scripts, or interactive with our audience we need to create an “Attractive Character.”
A character that relates to our customers.
- Apple = Steve Jobs
- Oracle = Larry Ellison
- Disney = Walt Disney
Obviously, when building an attractive character you open yourself up to push back and criticism. That is just the way it is.
You will be tempted to return to your old ways of corporate talk and bore the heck out of your audience. A good indicated of progress could often times come in the form of criticism.
Example:
Two weeks ago I sent out an email about my cleaning lady stealing my wife’s camera. It was a great way to introduce our new watercolor videos, but I still get one or two emails where people seem to take offense no matter what I say.
Here’s a response from XXXX XXXX
“No good deed goes unpunished” huh? What a lovely message. Well let me encourage you that I find your email less than a good deed. In fact I found it insulting as the introduction was unnecessary and placed an unbalanced, negative light upon an almost universal spiritual message of giving – whether it is returned and appreciated or not.
So you may be encouraged to find that bad deeds don’t go unpunished either as I have no intention of rewarding such behavior by patronizing your business. How’s that for balance.” XXXX XXXX
Crazy, right? Who is this guy.
I know, I know, I am confused just like the rest of you… Who doesn’t love my emails?
Criticism and push back can be a great indicator that you are heading in the right direction.
Although I get some negative response, they don’t even compare to all the positive ones.
So do not be afraid to go out there and write about you, your experience, your triumphs and failures.
In the coming weeks I will try and do the same, I will share with you guys:
How I lost a million dollars in one day.
How $60,000 cold hard cash show up at my office in a Fedex package (You’re not going to believe where the money came from).
How I gained a net worth of 8 million by age 27 and lost it all by age 28.
How we made $400,000 in one day all because of a simple mistake.
The list goes on. I share these things, in hopes that I can help some business owner improve their business in one-way or another.
I am just like most of you. I am out their searching for my tribe…
We all want to find our tribe.
“A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate. … Tribes need leadership. Sometimes one person leads, sometimes more. People want connection and growth and something new. They want change…you can’t have a tribe without a leader – and you can’t be a leader without a tribe.” Seth Godin
You know how last week I mentioned that I was going to deliver on the 13 online marketing strategies every companies needs, well this one ties into all of them…
When you are creating your email sequence, blogs, videos, etc. You will want to make sure you are relating to people and you do this through creating the “Attractive Character.”
Someone whom people relate to.
Attractive Character = You
Here is simple PDF that will help you create the “Attractive Character.” I got this from Russell Brunson.
Attractive Character PDF
I will leave you with another quote by Seth Godin
“If you’re remarkable, then it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise — ever.
The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.
Playing it safe. Following the rules. They seem like the best ways to avoid failure. Alas, that pattern is awfully dangerous. The current marketing “rules” will ultimately lead to failure. In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.”
P.S. I am going to be sending out another email on YouTube Marketing. You are now able to create annotation that will link out to a website.
I will explain in the next email.
Lead Gen, Business Marketing Or Advertising? You Need This!
by Jace Vernon | Internet Marketing, SEO Content Creation, Video Marketing
Recently, I have gone a little overboard with my studies in online marketing. I just love to find little tips and tricks to help my own marketing efforts and yours.
So lets talk about marketing.
I’m big on it.
When I say marketing this includes every bit of interaction your company has with the outside world.
It’s so important to keep up on the latest trends. Yes, most of them are not going to contribute to your bottom line, but some will. If you don’t keep up, you will eventually get burned.
Here are a couple of Jaceisims
A message has to be heard and understood. It doesn’t do you any good to plant confusing seeds. (which most companies do) Simplify your message!
Simple can be harder than complex.
The better you teach the more you sell.
As long as you have material and content. Most customers and clients are 70% sold by the time they contact you.
Stop trying to sell with marketing. Instead, use marketing to help customers buy..
So enough of that..
I wanted to put together a comprehensive checklist.
Here is what everything single company should have in place if they expect to make it online.
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[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]Website: clean and mobile friendly. Focused on User Experience[/xt_list_font_item]
[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]Explainer Video: Tell your story and the problem you solve.[/xt_list_font_item]
[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]Adwords Campaign: PPC, Video Ads, Remarketing[/xt_list_font_item]
[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]SEO campaign: different forms of Content, keyword research, etc.)[/xt_list_font_item]
[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]Email Campaign: 12 sequence follow up.[/xt_list_font_item]
[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]Facebook ads: [/xt_list_font_item]
[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]Retargeting/remarketing[/xt_list_font_item]
[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]Landing pages and sales funnel pages[/xt_list_font_item]
[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]YouTube channel for Video marketing[/xt_list_font_item]
[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]Explainer Video: Tell your story and the problem you solve.[/xt_list_font_item]
[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]Backlink strategy[/xt_list_font_item]
[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]Social Media: facebook, instagram, twitter, google+[/xt_list_font_item]
[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]Analytics, indexing and tracking. [/xt_list_font_item]
[xt_list_font_item icon=”ok-circle”]Customer Love Campaign[/xt_list_font_item]
[/xt_list]
Once everything is put into place, you can determine where your highest ROI is coming from and allocate more resources to that avenue.
Now, I always get companies who say that the system doesn’t work with B2B businesses.
As if a B2B business advertise to Aliens…☺
At the end of the day B2B companies are ran by people and they are the decision makers behind a B2B business. The system works for any business marketing to any customer. Especially aliens…
How do I know this? Because it has helped land clients like: Amazon, Ford, Oracle, Google, Disney, P&G..etc.
So the questions is…
What are you lacking?
We are here to help and answer questions.
I would recommend reading our guides and blogs. Overtime we will discuss each one of the 13 steps in detail.
But, for now we have…
Facebook marketing Guide
Youtube Marketing Guide
Instagram Marketing Guide
SEO Autocomplete
Read them. That way you can be rich, take vacations, and use your money for good. ☺
Until next time..
by Jace Vernon | Internet Marketing, Whiteboard Animation
One Sunday morning I was in church and me and Camdyn, by youngest daughter, needed to take a little break.
We found ourselves in the hallway where I came upon a flyer that said.
“I need some help and I would be happy to clean your home or office to make some extra money. I have a lot of experience and worked for a cleaning company.”
“Call XXXXXXXXXX”
What does one live for if not to make the world a better place for those who are struggling?
So, I immediately called her and gave her some work.
It was all fine and dandy until last Monday she seemed a little distraught and nervous. Something was up.
Next thing we know, we are missing our $2000 camera and the cleaning lady has disappeared.
Elphaba said it best in the broadway play “Wicked”
“No good deed goes unpunished.”
I wish I could say this has never happened to be before, but I have a tendency to get ripped off a lot. It’s a good thing I can afford it.
Which brings me to the point.
Introducing our new Watercolor Videos.
Whenever we launch a new product you can bet 4 months later our competitors are going to be launching the same thing. Just a lot uglier.
I like to call them…
“The Swiping Men”
They did it with Yswipe, they did it with our Blackboard, and they will do it with Ypaint.
That’s the name of our new Watercolor Videos
“Ypaint”
You ought to get one…they are pretty cool.
And for those of you looking to rip us off…
Go ahead. We are all about sharing. I like to think of it this way.
Without competition nobody would cheer when we make a touchdown.
We all go to watch the battle.
So check out the new video
You are going to love it…
And one other thing:
If any of you have bought a used Nikon Camera in the last couple of days and you find pictures of a 4 year old’s birthday party on the memory card, send us the pictures…you can keep the camera.
Happy Hunting
If you want to order one of our Watercolor Explainer Videos, please get it touch with Ydraw.com. Your experts in Animation Explainer Videos.
[xt_callout style=”minimal” title=”Do You Need Help? Our Offer To You” href=”http://marketinghy.com/contact/” btntext=”Sign Up Now!” icon=”tags” btnstyle=”flat” btnsize=”large” btncolor=”blue” target=”_blank” btnpos=”right”]
Alot of times people we find they are too busy or they just do not have the technical skills to implement our strategies. If you can not implement this strategy, we would love to do it for you. Everything we do is based off of ROI and will help your business. Sign Up and we will get you started right away. We will manager your Video Ads Campaigns, Email Campaigns and Autocomplete Services. They Work and we use them. Sign Up and see if we are a good fit. We may not be…but it’s worth seeing. This could change your business.
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by Jace Vernon | Internet Marketing
Charlie Day Inadvertently Teaches Marketers To Tell Stories To Sell
What is there to say about this speech? This speech is amazing and inspiring. Charlie Day is the last person that I would think, yeah he’s a great speaker and he would give some of the most insightful inspiring statements, but he did.
Now, I love Charlie Day. So when I heard he did a commencement speech I thought, sure I’ll watch that, just sort of thinking it would be a funny 20-minute video. There’s a reason this video almost has 2 million views on YouTube. It’s refreshing, inspiring, and REAL. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything.
While he’s now in the “honorary doctorate” group with Mike Tyson and Kermit the Frog, and how Doctor Charlie Day sounds like a club DJ, he actually gives quite an intelligent and coherent speech. Very unlike what his character from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” would do.
One of the great things about Charlie’s speech is that he tells stories to prove his point. Three to be exact. If you check this blog we have mentioned time and time again that it’s important to tell stories, because it get the audience interested and is one of the best ways to get the viewer to relate to what you’re selling.
He talks about his time at college, his struggles, and how your diploma means almost nothing in today’s society, but not in the sense you think. He basically breaks down three stories about how your diploma can’t do anything for you. YOU have to do it. It’s up to you to create your future. To follow your dreams. To work hard. To take a chance. And to struggle. The struggle is inevitable.
Don’t let the struggle break you, let it build you. There are three fantastic quotes in his speech, which I’ve included below if you don’t feel like spending the 20 minutes to watch it (although I think you should).
“You cannot let a fear of failure, or a fear of comparison, or a fear of judgment, stop you from doing what’s going to make you great. You cannot succeed without this risk of failure. You cannot have a voice without the risk of criticism, and you cannot love without the risk of loss. You must go out and you must take these risks. Everything I am truly proud of in this life has been a terrifying prospect to me.”
“You do not have to be fearless. Just don’t let fear stop you.”
“Do what’s uncomfortable, and scary, and hard—but pays off in the long run. Be willing to fail.”
