Great Marketing Advice I Learned from The Death of Scott

Great Marketing Advice I Learned from The Death of Scott

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.

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

  1.  Facebook ads are still working great, but you have to make sure the target audience is dialed in.
  2.  YouTube is still our poster child. We love video ads and video marketing.
  3.  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
  4. PPC ads – Adwords are still working, but can get very expensive.
  5. Bing and Yahoo Ads are gaining market share so make sure you are using them
  6. 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
  7. Video SEO – organic search marketing is awesome
  8. Google and YouTube autocomplete is going to be a big part of our strategy for 2015. We have created machines.
  9. Email marketing is a must. The money is in the list
  10. 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.

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

graphic-rob-amundsen-and-scott

13 Marketing Steps Every Company Needs To Achieve Online Marketing Results.

13 Marketing Steps Every Company Needs To Achieve Online Marketing Results.

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.

 

[xt_list]
[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..

How To Create The Perfect YouTube Video Marketing Strategy.

Hey everyone I wanted to give you a couple of ideas on how you can turn your marketing video into a YouTube traffic-generating machine. YouTube and video are not going anywhere. So buckle up and jump in. This is your YouTube video marketing strategy.

Why am I doing this?

Because I am nice and I want you, yes you, to succeed when it comes to video marketing.

Lets get started.

“The real fact of the matter is that nobody watches ads. People watch what interests them, and sometimes it’s a video ad.”

You should have a YouTube Channel and a nice explainer video educating the consumer about your product or service. If not you can use ydraw.com.

Once you have those two things in place, you are good to proceed.

I do not really care to discuss the lucky viral video that comes every couple years. I am talking about a consistent Video Marketing plan that will pay you dividends well into the future.

We are going to discuss ways we can use and abuse the YouTube platform to get the biggest ROI.

YouTube, as many of you know, is the 2nd biggest search engine and it is basically the biggest cable company around.

Cable-networks-vs-YouTube

[xt_blockquote author=”NY Times, December 13 2012″]“Once again consumers demonstrated that they will gladly watch a commercial if it is their choice to do so.”[/xt_blockquote]

Specifically I want to show you how to get in front of the right person at the right time.

For example, if someone were looking for your product or service and they typed in your specific keywords, you want your video to be in front of them. Right?

They are a perfect buyer.

This can happen 2 ways.

  1. Organic Search (this take time, work and money)
  2. Paid Video Ads (this just takes money)

Business owners need traffic and can benefit from having your content found at the top of YouTube or from running targeted YouTube ads.

Organic Traffic: First How Does YouTube Rank Your Video? (organic)

Since we are playing on YouTube’s platform we need to look at 4 things.

  1.  Relevancy
  2.  Engagement
  3.  Clout
  4.  Competitors

Like Google, YouTube is search driven. They want to give the consumer the best possible choice for every keyword they type in.

If you have a lot of impressions yet nobody is clicking on your video, you have problems. If people are only watching 2 seconds of your video. You have problems. The material you are presenting might not be that relevant.

How can we make Google happy?

By creating a video that will fit the needs of a searching consumer. If you are a lawyer, you do not want your video popping up for a pool guy.

Unless deep down you have an uncontrollable desire to be a pool boy.

To be relevant you will want to:

  1. Optimize your file name
  2. Optimize your Title
  3. Optimize the description
  4. Optimize your tags (keywords)
  5. Optimize your transcript

This is not rocket science.

Next you will want to make sure you have good engagement.

  • Views
  • Subscribers
  • Posting
  • Backlinks and Embeds

About two years ago I made a huge pitch on why you do not want YouTube videos on your website, I have since adjusted my thinking. If you take a look at Ydraw.com you will see nothing but YouTube videos on the home page.

Why the change?

Because I want more views, more subscribers, more backlinks and embeds.

A word of caution…

The main reason I did not want YouTube videos on my home page was because I did not want my traffic going elsewhere. Most people will use the simple embed code that Google provides which will allow them to run ads or give you different video options at the end. We will want to block both.
And hope that your competitors do the opposite. That way we can advertise on their videos…

How fun!

Take a look at the image below. You will see there is a spot where you can uncheck:

  • Show suggested videos when the video finishes

Uncheck-Show-Suggested-Videos-At-The-End

Make sure that is unchecked

You can also block in-stream ads from running on your videos.

You can do this by disabling the monetization tab on your YouTube Channel.

YouTube-Marketing-Disable-Ads-Running-at-first

Now back to organic traffic.

There are a couple of tricks you can use when it comes to getting video views and subscribers.

  1. Go to Fiverr and purchase some views or some subscribers. That will at least get you started.
  2. Create a blog network and embed your videos on the blogs.
  3. Create a slide share that talks about your product or service and places the video in the slide share.

There are a lot of ways to get views and subscribers, but do not go overboard. Natural is always best, but it never hurts to give yourself a little push to get started.

Paid Traffic: How To Get Immediate Traffic With Video Ads

Now, let’s talk about my favorite way to immediately drive some qualified traffic to your videos which in turn should produce leads and new customers.

If your video sucks, sorry I can’t help. When you start purchasing ads on YouTube, the content and quality of your video will make a huge difference.

Yesterday I was on the phone with Google going through a couple of our video campaigns (I’m always trying to get one-on-one meeting with them).

He said there are three main problems that they run into all the time.

YouTube advertisers do not:

  1. Create a video specifically for YouTube Ads
  2. They do not target the right audience
  3. Companies do not have a strong Call To Action.

A simple way to structure you video is to follow the sequence below.

  • Headline (to grab attention)
  • Identify the Problem
  • Solution
  • Strong Call To Action (you need to ask them to do something)

The last step being the most important. I like to call these the “Marketing hy test.”

Nothing bothers me more when a big corporation wastes millions of dollars on bad YouTube Campaigns. Well, actually deep down I like it because it gives the observant a big advantage.

I have seen companies take a video that begins with 10 seconds of disclaimers. Who’s going to watch that?

Skip…

Once your video passes the “Marketing Hy common sense test,” you should be good to proceed.

Here is the other issue:

You can’t expect to get qualified traffic if you do not target the right viewer. I see companies blanket YouTube with their ads and then they wonder why they do not see any results.

You have to identify your target audience and identify your keywords.

For example, when I am running ads I will usually pick two or three demographics per campaign.

  • Age, Location, and Keyword
  • Age and Placement
  • Age and Remarketing
  • Age, Gender and Placement

I will also double up on the campaign and run one for in-stream ads and one for in-display ads. Here are some results we get for one of our clients. We have produced 65 leads in the last 14 days. You can also see the average cost per view, cost per conversion and our conversion rate. These are all great numbers to have.

Video-stats-for-YouTube-Ads

Not all target groups are equal, but once you have a long enough testing period you can make the necessary adjustment to maximize your ROI/Conversions.

Remember that everything needs to be tracked. Make sure you have your conversion pixels in place so you know what is working and what is not.

So there you have it, a simple guide/reason why you should be running video marketing ads.

Obviously, we can help and we would love to talk to you on the phone about your video marketing efforts.

We love seeing companies become successful through online video marketing.

We also have some amazing YouTube marketing guides if you like the DIY space.

We love internet marketing and have executed successful internet marketing campaigns for companies of all different sizes. We want to earn your business.

Thanks for reading the…

How To Create The Perfect YouTube Video Marketing Video Strategy.

Video Marketing, Remember These Brilliant Commercials?

Video Marketing, Remember These Brilliant Commercials?

Creating a “viral video” is no easy task, but every now and then someone pops one out, let’s examine how.

Let’s take it back to 2013 shall we? I know it was sooooo long ago, who can even remember? I can’t. Not much at least, but ya know what’s one thing that I can definitely remember? Kmart’s commercial. Yeah, I said it. KMART. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then take a look.

(more…)

What Can Whiteboard Animation Do For Your Business?

What Can Whiteboard Animation Do For Your Business?

So many of you may have noticed that I have a whiteboard video on my home page. (obviously right) The video is amazing and has increased my conversions, dwell rate and my overall user experience. Not to mention the fact that it is cool. Here is the best part. This whiteboard video is part of the Fast and Easy series created by Ydraw. Meaning you can get this video for $1299 customized to fit your companies needs. Normally this video would run close to $10K so I got a bargain and I have a little bit of say on what happens with Ydraw. 🙂 So far the stats have been great. Once the video was completed I uploaded it to our hosting and put in directly on my home page. Within a couple of weeks it hit the number one spot on Google for a couple of my keywords.  Video works better than text and you have a lot better chance of hitting the number one spot with video then you do with text.

Video Retention Conversion and Attention

 

Online Video Growth

Video needs to be part of every marketing campaign and social media campaign.  This last week I had the chance to attend PubCon in Las Vegas and they kept talking about the importance of sharing great unique content. This includes video, infographics, images and slideshows. Be careful on the infographs right now because the terrain is changing. Matt Cutts said they might not give them as much weight, so do not dump a huge amounts of money on them until we get further clarification. Instead spend your hard earned cash on creating videos. If you are broke or bootstrapping your company, then use the Fast and Easy Videos to launch new unique content on a monthly basis.

Check out some of the online video stats

86.6 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video. Source ComScore Tweet this stat!

55% percent of marketers that used video reported higher CTRs. Source eMarketer Tweet this stat!

51.9% of marketing professionals worldwide cite video as the type of content with the best ROI. Source eMarketer Tweet this stat!

Internet video traffic will be 69% of all global consumer Internet traffic in 2017. Source Cisco Tweet this stat!

Consumers are willing to watch videos 60% of the time they are found. Source Website Magazine Tweet this stat!

Over 75% of Fortune 500 CEO’s are viewing online video. Source Forbes Tweet this stat!

Mobile video ads that include social media buttons drive 36% higher engagement. Source Rhythm New Media Tweet this stat!

Video viewing on smartphones increased 41% during first half of 2013. Source Inside Mobile Apps Tweet this stat!

About 46% of people say they’d be more likely to seek out information about a product or service after seeing it in an online video. Source Eloqua Tweet this stat!

Conclusion on Whiteboard Videos

Get a whiteboard video from Ydraw and if you do not have a budget then figure something out.  Videos need to be part of everything you do

+Jace Vernon