It’s has been extremely stressful few weeks for everyone. It’s a battle out there. Keep up the great work. This last month we have been all over the place. We shot videos in Phoenix and Baltimore, I spoke at Las Vegas Pubcon on Video Marketing and Lead generation, and Taylor may have found a girl…lol
I want to go over a couple of things and give you some tools to help with some of your clients messaging.
I have mentioned this before, but I think it is important that I go back over it. We have to keep things simple. Our clients tend to want to complicate their message which causes customer confusion.
Less is more. We are seeing that people are browsing sites. If you have a large paragraph on your website, it’s most likely getting skipped.
Every message must be simple and clear. Every website should have a clear call to action and some type of offer. There’s a proven system behind everything that we do.
The message needs to be directed to the customer and hit on their pain points. We want to make it clear and simple as possible.
Once you have created a clear and simple message you can move onto the offer.
Today I was looking at the websites of some of the clients and very few of them had an offer. Let’s get that fixed.
They all need an offer.
Here is a little tool to help you. It’s from Donald Miller at Storybrand. I recommend reading his book.
A Good Video VS. A Bad Video. What makes all the difference?
As of late, I have been talking with leads and prospective clients about our NEW video marketing system. It’s funny that my main job as a business owner is still closing deals and getting more leads in the pipeline. The hustle never ends. This new video marketing system has been working like charm, but 87% of businesses still can’t seem to jump into Video Marketing.
Case in point.
Yesterday I was speaking with a guy that said he was not interested in running YouTube or Facebook video ads, because he had tried it, and it didn’t work for him. He spent some money promoting it, but didn’t get new clients. They even had 600,000 views.
That’s weird…
If your video has 600,000 views and you did not get one client…then you have a video problem.
If you never get any shares, likes, or comments, you have a video problem.
If you don’t get leads, sales, or more customers, you have a video problem.
When I speak at conferences, I always put this quote at the beginning.
“If you can’t link your video back to leads, sales, or customers…you’re doing it wrong.”
The exception to this is education videos and training videos. Those are in a totally different category.
So how do you do this? How do you create a video that will pull in viewers’ emotions to cause them to act? How do you create an insane video that will get you the results you desire?
We do this by creating a an actually story.
Video Storytelling 101
For the past 8 years we have focused on “Storytelling and Messaging.”
Our job is to convince people to take action.
We’ve found that great stories make all the difference.
I have been listening to an audio book called “The Hero’s Two Journeys.” Written by Michael Hauge and Christopher Volger. They laid out the simplest foundation for a good story.
This might surprise you, but all good movies are based off of a simple formula. I learned this when I read the story behind Pixar.
Once upon a time
Every Day
One Day
Because of that
Because of that
Until Finally
The next time you watch a pixar movie, you’ll be able to identify the formula.
It’s a bit more complicated than the one I like to use, but it works.
Michael and Christopher made a formula that is even simpler. I recommend following this formula. Every good story should have:
Character
Desire
Conflict
Michael says, “Good stories have a captivating character who is pursuing some compelling desire and who faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles to achieving it.
You will obviously build on this structure, but it’s a great place to start.
Luke grew up in the outskirts of the galaxy. He wanted to learn the Force. Yet, he had no idea he was going to have to defeat Darth Vader who was part of the dark side.
Character: Luke Desire: Learn the Force Conflict: Darth Vader
Isn’t that easy? That’s a multi-billion dollar formula. ☺
Now, let’s apply this formula to the addiction recovery space.
A young doctor decided he was going to open up his own drug treatment facility. He wanted to help those who were struggling with addiction. The doctor soon realized that he was not able to get anyone to come to his new facility. He needed a way to deliver his message. He started to run ads on Google, but was paying over $115 per click. He could not afford to compete, so he closed the doors.
Character: Young doctor Desire: Help people who are addicted Conflict: Marketing and Google’s cost per click was too high
For a real estate business
The Jones family is looking to move because the father received a new job offer. There is just one problem. They have to sell their house ASAP. Are they going to list it with an agent and take a 6% hit or should they list it themselves and run the risk of not selling the house?
Character: Jones family Desire: Sell their house Conflict: List their home with an agent and pay 6% or list their home by themselves
I am leaving out one key component in the formula, which we discover a little later.
Why does this story telling formula work?
Sticking with the theme of addiction recovery, I want to show you a video that converts. I know this, because we use it for our clients.
How well does it work? Well, let’s just say that we get leads at 1/10th the cost of a click.
Take a look.
If we break it down, you will get the following:
Character: The drug addict Desire: Wants to be clean and get his life back Conflict: Battle with addiction and getting help
A couple of factors you will want to consider when telling your story.
1. The character has to be relatable in some way. If nobody can relate to your character the video will not get the desired result.
2. When watching your video, the viewer needs to feel something. If they can’t relate to the desire or the conflict, they will not act.
3. End with a resolution.
All great stories have a resolution. Have you ever left half way through a great movie?
It’s like torture.
You’ll do anything to see the end.
TV sitcoms are exceptional at this. They will keep us watching for months and some for years because we need a resolution.
Remember when you were a kid watching your favorite sitcom? Every couple of weeks your show would end with this:
…To Be Continued.
There’s nothing worse.
We can’t just end our story with a character, desire, and conflict. There has to be some kind of resolution. Good or bad.
Introducing… The Resolution.
When designing your video, your product or service is going to be the resolution. You can introduce your product in many different ways, but you have to make sure that it clearly helps achieve the character’s desire.
So how do you create a story in under 5 minutes that includes a Character, Desire, Conflict and a Resolution?
It’s not easy to design a story in under 5 minutes, let alone 30 seconds for a TV commercial. You have to create a character, explain his/her desire, battle the conflict, and end with a resolution.
That is a lot to do.
The goal is to dig deep into the viewer’s life. Make them feel like we are talking about them. We are describing THEIR desires and conflict.
Step 1: Character Development
This is one of the reasons that big brands pay huge amounts of money to get a superstar.
We already relate and know the superstar. They can jump right into the desire, conflict, and resolutions.
There’s no need to spend precious seconds defining the character.
If you are starting from scratch, here are some ideas to get the right character for your audience.
1. Know your target audience. Age, Desires, Wants, Likes, Color, etc.
2. Find, build, or create a character that matches your target audience.
3. Make them likable, lovable, kind, powerful, cute, or pitiful.
Step 2: Desire
What does the character want to accomplish? What’s his or hers greatest desire? Does the desire relate to the viewer?
Step 3: Conflict
The conflict should take up the highest percentage of the time. This is where you get the viewer to hurt a bit. We all hate conflict when it’s our battle, but we all love watching someone else battle. It’s what makes great stories.
Step 4: Resolution
This is the simple part. The conflict gets solved with your product or service and the character is happy. Problem is solved.
I hope this helped.
Now that you understand what it takes to create the story, the tricky part is actually getting started. If you would like us to create your story, we can do that. Our writers are exceptional at creating stories. We can take you product or service and design a video your audience will love.
If not…
Use the formula above and create an Insane Video that will get you results.
