Podcast Episode 19: Interview with David Jenyns: Sales Video Scripts

Today, the Web Video Marketing Show will be sitting down with internet marketing expert and all round good guy David Jenyns.

Dave is a marketing and search engine optimisation expert, and runs a company called Melbourne SEO services. I’ve attended one of Dave’s courses, and he is an absolute master of his stuff, as well as being a very good teacher.

Now, Dave is quite multi-talented, because he also runs a business called Melbourne Video Production, and he’s been using video for many years to promote his stuff. In fact, I reckon he’s one of the first internet marketers I’ve come across who really embraces video.

Dave is comfortable in front of the camera. Add to this his knowledge of sales, and sales letters, and you have all the ingredients of someone who can really teach us a thing or two about using video marketing to promote your business.

We’ve been talking about web video script writing quite a bit over the last few weeks on the show. Dave’s going to add to this by giving us his take on how he approaches producing a sales video.

In fact, Dave’s been generous enough to run us through the formula he uses to make his videos.

Episode Notes

Visit David’s website for more marketing tips.

Episode Transcription

Ryan: Hi. This is Ryan Spanger. About 12 years ago I started a video production company in Melbourne, Australia called Dream Engine. Making videos is a huge passion for me and in this podcast, I’ll be sharing with you a lot of the ideas and techniques that I use in my video production business. I hope you enjoy the show and it gives you clear, actionable ideas that you could implement in your business right now to improve your web-video marketing and build a stronger connection with your audience.

This is the web-video marketing show and I’m your host Ryan Spanger. Unfortunately, my co-host Nico is sick today so he’s not going to be joining us on the episode. The good news is that I’ll be playing an interview with internet marketing experts and all around good guy David Jenyns.

Dave is a marketing and Search Engine Optimisation expert and he runs a company called Melbourne SEO Services. I’ve attended one of Dave’s courses and he is an absolute master of his stuff as well as being a very good teacher. Now, Dave is quite multi-talented because he also runs a business called Melbourne Video Production and he’s been using video for many years to promote his stuff.

In fact, I reckon he’s one of the first internet marketers I’ve come across who really embraced video. Dave is comfortable in front of the camera and add to this his knowledge about sales and sales letters and you’ve got all the ingredients of someone who can really teach us a thing or two about using video marketing to promote your business.

We’ve been talking about web-video script writing quite a bit over the last few weeks on the show and Dave is going to add to this by giving us his take on how he approaches producing sales video. In fact, Dave’s has been generous enough to run us through the formula he uses to make his own web-videos.

Here’s the interview with Dave. All right so I’m sitting here with Dave Jenyns. Dave, welcome to the web-video marketing show. Where I’m sitting here in Dream Engine’s office which in … normally we’d be doing this over Skype or something like that, but Dave is actually just down the road. It’s awesome to be sitting here with you face-to-face doing this podcast. I’ve been keen for you to come in to speak to me about video productions. It’s awesome to have you here.

Dave:  It’s a pleasure to be here.

Ryan:  Dave runs Melbourne SEO Services and Melbourne Video Production. He helps clients with their SEO and also producing videos. He’s also been using video as a marketing tool in his business for quite a few years now. I think, to me, you’re one of the first people in the internet marketing world that I know of who really started to harness the power of video. What was it that got you into using video to market your business?

Dave:  I think just the way that video connects, it connects a bit of in copy, it connects a bit of an any other medium just because you can speak to someone, and they can see you and it’s the richest form of media as well. You have the audio you have the visual built-in. I just see it as a real great way to can and clone yourself.

I think early on when YouTube first started taking off, I could see that this was a trend, it was only going to get stronger as the internet speeds pick up, as more and more people hop online. It just seemed like the natural progression. I thought embrace it sooner rather than later and get good at it. Because the first few videos you do are always shocking and every iteration afterwards, just gets progressively better. I just thought I need to start straight away.

Ryan:  How do you use video in your business?

Dave:  For our own business, we use it for a few different things. A big part of it is pre-selling us and positioning us as experts. We’ll run workshops and we’ll record the workshop, we’ll cut it up into pieces, upload it into YouTube and then that becomes saved pieces of content for blog posts, for e-mail broadcasts and obviously we’re driving traffic from YouTube from it.

That’s a big part of it and then we also use it in the sales process as well. All of our key products and services, they’ll all have videos attached to them which gives me the opportunity to sell it. It’s the best way to duplicate me. I see video is a great way to duplicate yourself. It’s one of the best forms of leverage.

Ryan:  One of the things you mentioned before we started recording is just how few video production companies actually use video. To promote themselves, you’d assume that if this was their area of expertise and they believed in the medium, that’s what they’d be doing. It’s actually quite rare.

Dave:  I know. It’s surprising and I think it’s because maybe they’re used to being behind the camera and they don’t necessarily have someone who’s the focal point for their business that is out there marketing.

I think my real area of expertise or my strongest area is the marketing side of things. Getting a very clear message and an offer together and then delivering it and not being afraid to put myself out there whereas a lot of other video production companies, they’re just really focusing on doing the work, that’s another thing. You need to create a little bit of space to be able to step out of the business and create some videos for yourself.

I’ve always believed that you need to be the best example of what it is that you’re selling. That’s something that I’ve always said for the longest of times. Whether it’s SEO, whether it’s video, you need to be able to point to, “Hey, here’s how I’ve done it and here’s some of the results.” It’s like eating your own pudding, don’t trust a skinny chef, all of those clichés. You want to find someone who’s actually really embracing it.

I mean we’re starting to probably see a little bit more of light, more and more video production companies starting to do it, but there’s still a huge amount. It doesn’t make sense for me. I think video, if you’re going to sell the service, you need to make sure that you use it.

Ryan:  Yeah, yeah absolutely. You were talking about this idea of duplicating yourself and this is something that people have a bit of a challenge with because it makes complete sense that you can’t go out and visit every client and prospect and sit face-to-face with them. That would be ideal because there’s nothing that beats that human contact.

The next best thing is if you can duplicate yourself and reveal your personality, talk about what your offer is and how you’re helping to solve their problems through video. A lot of people have a … they find this to be quite a challenge because they aren’t fully aware of how the medium works. That there is a bit of a system and a structure to putting yourself in front of the camera and talking about what your offer is and how you can help solve problems because it is a little bit different to a conversation. People can just switch you off and they can … someone else can walk into the room or whatever.

If you’re sitting face-to-face with someone, you have that connection and that engagement. There is some things that people might not be aware off that can help them to increase engagement with videos. I came to talk about that stuff today. Give the audience a bit of a template or a system of how they can put their thoughts together to start connecting with their audience in a face to camera video.

Dave:  Yeah. I think the duplication of your-self is probably the biggest reason to really embrace video. When I think about what is the structure of the video and things like that, the way that I put these videos together. Often times it just comes back to classic sales letters really and they talk about what is the sales letter? Its salesmanship in print and video is effectively the sales letter live or the salesman live.

I still see the structure is very much the same. What I’ll try and do is I’ll first start off and I’ll think about, “Okay. Who is the target market?” That’s probably the biggest thing. I like to get inside the head of the person that I’m trying to market to and it’s that Claude Hopkins idea of meeting the conversation that’s already going on in their mind.

When someone comes across your website or a piece of content that you’ve got, typically, you already know a little bit about that person based on the keywords that you were targeting. Whenever we’re loading videos up to YouTube, we’re always picking these keywords and that then gives me an indication as to the type of the person that’s coming in. I know we’re attracting in small, medium sized business owners.

Then I try and think about what are some of the conversations that are going on in their head that relate to web-video and understanding them in their business. They want to do things cost-effectively, they want to make sure that they’re getting a good return on investment. They want to make sure that it’s effective and measurable.

Part of the reason I know that is being part of the target market as well. I can get into their head and with that in mind, once I know who it is that I’m marketing to then I have to think about what’s the message that I’m trying to get across in this video. If I’m selling a particular product or service.

There’s different types of videos we make. We do testimonial type videos, we might be selling, we might just be providing education. Depending on the type of the video will determine what that script is.

For selling video, usually I’ll think about who that target market is or think about what it is that we’re actually trying to sell. I’ve got a little bit of a structure I’ll start off with. My videos always open with something to grab someone’s attention. That’s always key because on YouTube, especially people can quickly jump to the next video or move away. You need to grab their attention straight away.

Often times, you watch a video and they might open with, “Hi. I’m Joe Blogs from Joe Blogs window cleaning.” What does that have to do with me? As the target market, like I said, I try and get into their mind. I don’t really care who they are, I want to know how they’re going to help solve the problem.

Always open with something, “Are you looking for a smart, cost-effective way to convert visitors when they land on your website? Then listen up. I’m going to reveal 10 strategies on how you can do that in this video.” I might, sometimes, depending on the type of the video I might introduce myself at that point. I’ve already given them the hook and then I might follow up with, “My name is David Jenyns, I’m the director here at Melbourne Video Productions” and then go into it. I always lay it with the hook first.

Ryan:  That makes a lot of sense because you’re immediately showing them that they’re in the right place. “Aha. Yes, this is what I’m looking for.” You’re setting up a promise which will be fulfilled later, there’s a reason to keep on watching.

Dave:  Yeah, it’s like that open loop as well. I want to know that and you’ve met my appetite.

From there, often times, if it’s a sales video, maybe I’ll be on focus in on that as the script. For this particular example, the next piece, often times I’ll try and through story is often is a good one but I’ll try and agitate and build up the problem. Sometimes, if that initial hook that I get at is, “Hey, are you having trouble with XYZ?” then I might further agitate that problem or explain it.

Because often times, if you can explain a problem better than someone else could explain it themselves, they automatically assume that you must know the solution. Because you can explain it in terms and clearly so well that, “Hey, you must understand the problem therefore, logically, you have this solution.”

I like to then, after the hook, lead into either bit of a story or something that helps to expand out what the problem is then the next piece after that is introducing the solution.

 

Ryan:  Just before we go on to the introducing with solutions. You’re setting it up and story I think is really important. People are naturally drawn to stories, they love hearing stories. How do you use stories? What’s some ideas of how people can use story to set up the problem?

Dave:  One of the easiest ones is linking it back to you as the individual. If you can talk that your own experience and how you came up against this problem and I think that’s the best way because it gets across the authenticity, gets the person speaking from experience.

Often times, your own stories are the best kind of stories. If you don’t have your own stories then sometimes you can talk in terms of either a client or a friend who faced the similar situation or problem. I like to do it through someone else. As I’m telling this story, I’m telling it about myself or someone else who’s had this problem so that the listener or the watcher can imagine themselves as that person.

The story, really, and as I’m explaining the problem, I’m really explaining the person who’s watching it, their problems and their situation. I’m not saying, you’re having this problem, you’re having that problem. That’s very direct and can be very confrontational. It’s much, if I do it off to the side, if I tell a story that someone else, it just so happens that they share a lot of very similar characteristics and they’ll make the jump. I don’t have to tell them that, “Hey, I’m explaining someone else.”

Ryan:  It’s also nice just to know that you’re not alone, that other people are going through the same thing that you are.

Dave:  Yeah, exactly. Right.

I think that’s probably the best way. Linking it back to you as the individual and having you explain the sword and I think is probably the best way to do it.

Logically, rolls into then how you discovered the solution because, “Hey, I had this problem. Here’s how I moved through the problem.” Often times, as well, I like to bump up the problem. How hard it wasn’t for me to find that particular solution.

I went through the trial and error, how hard was it. You spent x amount of dollars trying to solve the problem then I finally found the solution. It’s the hook, the agitating, the solution which was hard but then the final solution which is easy. The final solution is, now that I’ve gone through all of that, I’ve developed or I’ve got this simple solution now as a result of all of that and you can cut straight to the benefit.

Ryan:  You’ve gone and done all that hard work of trying all the different possibilities to come up with the best solution and you’re now sharing it.

Dave:  Yeah. That’s probably one of the best structures that I’ve found and the importance of making sure that you speak from personal experience because then people really resonate with it. That’s why often times, a lot of the production services that we do sell, things that I’ve used to help solve problems of my own. That way, when I’m selling it, I’m selling it with integrity. I know it’s a solution that will help a problem that I’ve had and because I am my target market as well, I know it will help solve their problems as well.

Ryan:  It’s basically four state process of the hook, explaining the problem, essentially agitating that problem. I guess, showing what the implications are of not solving that problem and why it’s important that it needs to be solved and then moving on to the solution.

Dave:  Yep.  You roll into the hard solution and I’ll say, “Hey, here’s the easy part of the solution.” It’s when I lay into actually making whatever the offer is. Then the easy solution is … may I say, here’s what it is that I’ve got to offer and you want to do it short, secant, straight to the point. When you make an offer, it’s very important that you don’t just keep going on and on and on. You want someone to recognize instantly, here’s what you’ve got to offer and I can see the value in it.

Sometimes in the tail-end, depending on what you’re pitching, that’s when you might add in whether or not there’s a guarantee or any sort of scarcity. Usually, I do that on the tail-end. You have to be careful with scarcity because there needs to be genuine scarcity. You don’t want to just say it for the sake of it, and the guarantee doesn’t necessarily always apply for some products.

The selling point is that we don’t have a guarantee because here’s why. For example, any services that involve my time directly, I say, you want me get me a 110% and I’ll promise to deliver on that. Because I don’t get my time back, I can’t give you a guarantee on that, but there are other products and services that we will give guarantees on.

That final points at the end and a very strong … after you’ve gone the offer and guarantee or any scarcity; then again, finish with a really strong call to action. “Your next step is pick up the phone. Your next step is fill out the form below.” Whatever that call is to action is. I think most people miss that.

That’s the basic structure. Often times, I’ve got a thing on my iPhone. Just over the years I’ve collected little bits that I’ve considered important when putting a sales letter together and I might reference it where I think having headlines, important that we talked about, the story, who I am, talking about the offer, the testimonials, the guarantee. I have that, almost as like a little check list. I look at that should I need to refresh to make sure. It’s pretty ingrained now that this is the process for me.

Ryan:  You mentioned who I am and that’s an interesting one to mention. Because people want to make sure that you have this authority and the credibility to be solving this challenge. At the same time, from a viewer’s point of view, it can be pretty boring to hear people going on about all their achievements and stuff like that. Your final line, you got to make sure that it appears at the right place.

At what point of this sales video do you talk about yourself, because most of the time you’re talking about the viewer and their challenge. When do you start talking about yourself and why you have the credibility and authority to solve this challenge?

Dave:  There is a couple of places. One, when you’re telling that story. Typically if you’re telling it about your-self as well, you can build some expert positioning into telling of the story. As you’ve gone through and you’re explaining the problem better than they can, they just pretty assume that you’ve got that solution.

Sometimes as well, depending on where they’re getting the message. It’s always best to think about the sales letter as independent of all of the other information that a person might be consuming. It’s best to pre-assume that they don’t know who you are and that they don’t know the full offering.

I all had elements on other parts of the website where I’ll go into that proof in much more detail. I might have a rate reviews page where there’s tons of feedback and I might make an off the cuff remark in the video where I might say something like, “If you want to find out more about me, Google my name or check out the rate reviews page to find out a little bit more. Overtime, you’ll get to know of what it is that I do. Once you’ve built up the confidence and you’re ready to take the next step then I’m here for you.” Type thing.

I mean even that language that I just used then was kind of like pre-assuming the close, pre-assuming that they will do their due-diligence and they will make the right choice when they’re ready.

When to actually build it in? Yeah, you need to balance to make sure that you don’t lose someone by just saying, “Hey, it’s all about me.” Because when you make video, I think that’s probably where most people go wrong. They make a video that’s more about them than it is about the other person. You just need to have enough proof in there that gives me that confidence but doesn’t necessarily go overboard. It’s a little bit of a balancing act.

 

Ryan:  What I’m noticing is that you weave it in organically. It’s not like, at this point you go, okay, and now I’m going to talk all about myself and how good I am and how qualified I am. You actually weave that into the story. It actually just comes along as you’re explaining the problem and how you dealt with hit. You’re almost, you just subtly showing your expertise rather than trumpeting it.

Dave:  Yeah, which that level of modesty, you’ll find bonds people to you as well. I don’t know if this is an Australian way of selling or I mean if you compare it against the stereotypes of late night TV and some of the pitching from stage. In the U.S., they are a lot more full-on with their sales. I try and be a little bit more reserved. I like to have all of that proof there.

Where it’s like, it’s that quietly confident. You can keep digging, if you need that extra level of proof, you keep digging and you’ll find it because it’s there but I don’t necessarily need to shove it under your nose for you to know. You get the feeling. Sometimes even just as you listen to someone, whether or not they know what they’re talking about or not.

That comes back to the integrity point of view and what it is that you’re selling and believing what you’re selling. That’s the most important thing. Whenever you’re making a video and you’re trying to sell something, you have to be pitching a good product that you actually believe in and that your potential prospects are going to be better off as a result of using that product or service. If you believe that, it makes the selling, you’re really just trying to educate them, to understand that you’ve got the right solution.

Ryan:  It definitely makes a lot easier if you truly believe in the product and you know that it’s going to help other people because you’ve had that exact same challenge.

Dave:  Yeah. Yeah. Spot on.

Ryan:  I think J. Abraham talks about this idea that you’re almost negligent in your duty of not sharing that if you are truly aware and convinced that this is a great solution. Then it’s almost your duty to go out there and share and to let people know about this.

Dave:  Yeah, which I think it makes sense, because you’re proud of what you’re selling and you have a solution and you’ve got it at a great price and it’s reasonable and there’s a fair value exchange. How can you not want to help people? That’s the other thing. Coming back to building that integrity and honesty into the video. You need to be genuinely wanting to help people. That’s a Jim Rohn type thing where he talks about help enough people get what they want and then you’ll get what you want.

I think from the businesses that we’re in or being in business is about helping solving other people’s problems. If you don’t love helping solving other people’s problems, you’re probably not in the right business. As a I’m in that’s what you’re there to do.

Ryan:  You mentioned language before and this is something that’s quite important that, often, if people aren’t experienced in this, they’re not aware that they might have slipped into some negative speech patterns or maybe they use extremely long sentences. Maybe they’re using unnecessarily complicated words or phrasing things in the negative.

What are some of the classic errors that you notice people make in videos or in sales that if they shifted the tone of how they speak or maybe change their language a little bit they could be more successful?

Dave:  I think, definitely, not thinking from the client’s perspective. That’s the biggest one.

Ryan:  Using I, me, a lot.

Dave:  Yeah. You want to talk in in terms of like you’re talking to one person. Whenever you’re making a video, just assume that you’ve got one person listening to that message and I’ll often say to clients and even myself when I’m making a video, I’ll think about who it is that I’m speaking to and I’ll imagine them and just speak to that one person. Because if you speak to that one person, you’ll be able to connect with them and then that stops you using the.  You guys and talking collectively when you should be talking to the singular. That’s probably a big one.

As far as whereas some other people go wrong and language patterns, I think you need to make sure that … you talked about the positive phrasing and things like that. I think just learning some basics sales is important.

When making a video, you are effectively trying to sell something whether it’s you selling your idea or your product or service or whatever it is. Learning that basic sales thing I think will build into it.

As far as positive, I don’t necessarily consciously think about it but I think the programming came early on from everything from listening to all of the motivational type personal development stuff.

Studying a little bit of hypnosis, language patterns and Richard Bandler type stuff where you are aware of the patterns and the way that you stream sentences and words together and the best way to use those, that type of thing. It’s there, I don’t necessarily consciously think about it.

Have you come across any tips that you … you always want to frame it in the positive, I think that’s one.

Ryan:  You touched on something, this idea of assumptive language. Sometimes people can slip into a habit of, “If you want to, then you can contact me.” Or whatever, but this idea of speaking in a positive way that assuming that you have the right solution to help people and assuming that they’re going to take the next step and contact you. That can be quite a powerful way of communicating.

Dave:  I think people are quietly waiting to be lit. I can’t remember who said that. Someone who steps up and says, “Here’s the problem that you’ve got. Here’s the solution. Here’s what you need to do next.” It’s very clear, it’s direct and you’re telling people what to do. I think people need to be told what that next step is.

Assuming you’d come in from the right place and you’ve got a good solution. I think, yeah, having a very clear language is important.

Ryan:  Absolutely. It’s some of the tips that we give clients when they create their own scripts is just things like keep your sentences short, don’t use unnecessarily fancy language, beware of jargon.

Dave:  One thing that I always think about, particularly when I’m telling stories or when I’m trying to craft a sales process is I’ll imagine, almost like walking the person down a path. If you imagine certain things need to happen prior to a sale.

For example, we used to own a rock and roll clothing music store called Planet 13. We had a store and when we’ve trained our sales people, we talked in terms of don’t be thinking about getting them over to the register and getting them to buy their AC/DC T-shirt. Think about what the next step is for them to get them closer to that end goal.

Prior to someone making a purchase or something, obviously you got to want to try it on. Really, the next thing to think about is how do we get them into the change room. All of you should just into the change room, it doesn’t cost anything to try it on. That type of thing to get them in there and then once they’re in there then the next step is can we either up-sale them or they’re ready to go.

That thinking about what is the logical next step that someone needs to take is really effective. When I do a sales letter or anything like that, I think about what’s the process someone needs to go through to get to that conclusion.

That’s not to say that, a lot of people talk about this idea or if you know the sales funnel and how… having a sales funnel isn’t the best way to go because some people can jump in at any point. That’s not to say that if someone tries on or doesn’t try in a T-shirt, walks over and picks up a t-shirt off the shelve and says I want to but this. You don’t go, “Hey, you got to jump in the change room first because that’s the logical order of things.” You let the person do what they want. If you don’t know what their thinking or what their next step is, you think about what’s the next step and help them make that next step.

Ryan:  Video is a linear process. What you’re talking about sounds like that classic sales letter strategy where you say the job of the headline is to get people to read, the sub-headline and the job of that is to get them to read the first paragraph. If you work on your structure then you can say the first step is the hook. Then build it around what’s going to get people to move to the next step.

There’s no pressure or obligation to feel you’ve got to cover everything. It’s really just to indicate to people that they’re in the right place and there’s enough of a motivation to keep on going. That makes a lot of sense.

Dave:  It’s fun crafting them out too. When I think about it, you put yourself in that person’s shoes and what would you need to feel to go to that next step. What would you want to hear next? I go through that thinking.

Ryan:  One thing that I get resistant about and I think a lot of people do is when you feel like you’re being sold to. I think that’s changed in the culture over the years and it’s partly because, in the old days, sales people had privileged to access to information that your average person couldn’t get.

A lot of the time now, the buyer has actually more information to have access to them then the sales person because they’ve got and made themselves an expert in their particular product.

Do you think that’s something else that you need to take into account that not being too salesy, not doing too much of a hard sale but positioning your video more as sharing information?

Dave:  Yeah. We’re definitely seeing a rise in education based content and people are talking about content marketing and this idea of getting things out that help position you as the expert that help to answer questions that someone might have.

Often times, what people do when they’ve got a question, they’ll go to Google to look for the answer. This is idea or having a piece of content out there that answers that question. When people search on Google, they get to you, you help to answer that question and it’s that whole thing I was talking about. If you can answer their question and explain their problem better than they can, they just pre-assume you already know what the solution is and then you can go into the sales process.

It’s a bit of a way of having these breadcrumbs out across the web that people can people can pick up and eat and they follow the breadcrumb trail back to your website and then you get them into your funnel.

I think moving forward, I think it’s a very effective strategy. I think that’s the one that I’ve been doing. I think I first got that idea from Ken Evoy, Make Your Site Sell, one of the real early people on the web teaching internet marketing. He talked about this idea of pre-selling content and that’s what it is. Content that pre-sells.

I think there is different times when you use different thing. Like I said, me cutting up a workshop and posting that to YouTube, that’s pretty selling content. There are points when I make a sales letter type video where I go straight for the sale. I still go through that process but I’m not necessarily educating as much as I am explaining their problem and then providing the solution.

Ryan:  I think that’s a really good point because the more information and education that you provide around that sales video, the less of sales job you need to do. Because your audience is already half way there just based on all the information that they’ve gathered, they are already aware that you are in authority. They’re already much more aware of what their challenge is, whereas if you just have a sales video. You’re putting a lot more pressure on that one video.

That’s important for people to think about, how does their video sit within an overall strategy rather than just fixating on … I’ve put a website and now I’ve made a sales video. That’s a lot of pressure to put on one video.

Dave:  I like the idea of having different pieces of content on your website that helps to answer different people’s questions. Like I said, I’ll have a section on my website which helps to build up the proof. I’ll have another section of the website that might show examples of the work. I might have other part of the website that might have things that help position me as an expert. I might have another part of the website with frequently asked questions and things like that.

There is a lot of different video pieces there. When someone’s out there, often times, they’ve got a question or a problem that they’re looking to solve. They’ll stumble across one of these pieces of content. At the end of all pieces of content, regardless of what it is or what its purpose, there’s always the call to action and the call to action tries to get them to go to that next step. “Hey, step into the change room. Hey, opt in to the news letter and get on the list so I can then continue to have a dialogue with you and see how I can answer some of your problems.”

Having those bits of content. I often find when people do call us. Using video in this way helps when someone picks up the phone and calls you, it’s lesser that me selling them in because all of these pre-content has sold them. It’s more about, “Hey, I’m ready to get going. How you soon can you fit in?” Because you’ve used your website as the pre-sales tool and it does a lot of the filtering for me.

That’s really what you want, you ultimately want your website to sell the person so your sales people or yourself or whatever. When the person picks up the phone, it’s, let’s get started started as supposed to, “Hey, down the road. I saw someone doing SEO for this price. Can you match it?” You don’t have that discussion. You want to change the levels so that you’re not comparing apples with oranges or they’re not trying to compare apples with apples. You’re saying, we’re an orange, we’re very different. You can’t compare us to them and they’ve already pre-sold themselves on all of the material that you’ve put out.

Ryan:  That’s the power of a video marketing strategy. I could talk to you for hours. You’re mentioning all these things I’d love to follow up on and we’ll hopefully get a chance to do that again down the track. Let’s basically sum up what we’ve talked about.

You’ve shared your structure to create a sales video or a face to camera video and I think this is so useful because it can be quite daunting to sit down and think, what’s I am actually going to say? Once you’ve got a structure, you can essentially fill-in those steps and think about how those steps are going to link together. Let’s just remind the audience of what those steps are.

Dave:  The main thing is I’ll think about what the hook is to get someone’s attention. Once I’ve got that, I’ll bring them into a story that helps to explain the problems that they’re having better than they have or better than they think they even understand their own problems.

That leads to the solution as to how I solve that. Typically, it was a difficult process to solve the solution and how I’ve come across. Now, I’ve done all the hard work, here is the easy solution at which point you make an offer and you might have some elements seen after that whether or not it’s guarantee or scarcity or whatever. If you want to build those elements in. Finally, you’ve got the call to action.

Really, the biggest thing when making any videos is just being genuine and authentic and having a product that you believe in and you’re wanting to get that message out. I think that comes across. When you are genuine and authentic, it just comes across in the video and that’s the best way to sell, is just believing in what you’re selling.

Ryan:  Absolutely. Now, if people want to check out your videos and the videos you’ve done for clients, they can go to melbourneseoservices.com or melbournevideoproduction.com. Is that right?

 

Dave:  Yeah.

Maybe the final thing I’ll just mention is this idea of taking what we’ve talked about here and then making it your own. I think that’s really important. We’ll have our different styles and these different structures. You want to take everything that you hear and then go, how do you make that yours. You don’t want to blindly follow a particular method. I think that’s really the key, you need … take what Ryan and I are talking about now, try and apply it. See what works and what sticks for you. Let go what doesn’t work for you and design your own process.

I’ve loved that formula but some people might want to add extra elements in. Otherwise, you can find there just the copycat type things. Everybody starts doing a particular method and that method loses its value. Really to be a, I thought lately, you have to continue to innovate and you have to find what works for you and test it.

Ryan:  I think that’s really important points. In the last episode, I went through my structure for writing a script and a lot of ways it’s similar and there’s some things that are a little bit different. There might be  particular things, say, to do with the hook. Someone might be pretty good at comedy and they can grab people’s attention by saying something funny or absurd or something like that.

Some people might be good at a bit of shocked value or other people might be quite sober and serious and really hit people with what the problem is. You need to set that up based on your personality, based on your particular audience and your product and change it slightly from video-to-video also so that it’s not obvious that you could just work in a formula because can get stale.

Dave:  Yeah. I couldn’t agree more.

Ryan:  Dave. Thank you. It’s been great having you on the podcast. I’ve learned a lot from you over the years about SEO and internet marketing and sales. It’s really cool to have you here talking to me about video production.

Dave:  It’s really cool to be here, Ryan. Let’s do it again

Ryan:  Head over to Dave’s website and have a look at some of his videos and let me know what you think. I would love to hear your comments and I would love to get your feedback. Dave thank you.