1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:04,140 Robert Plank: Marketer of the Day episode 714, create short, 2 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:08,400 informative, entertaining videos to get traffic, grow your list, 3 00:00:08,460 --> 00:00:11,340 build trust and sell with Colin Hogan. 4 00:00:16,559 --> 00:00:19,019 Hey everyone, and welcome back to the marketer of the day 5 00:00:19,019 --> 00:00:22,579 podcast. We are here with Colin Hogan, who is the managing 6 00:00:22,579 --> 00:00:26,179 director at demoduck, and he is going to be talking to us about 7 00:00:26,179 --> 00:00:29,419 video marketing, about explainer videos, and about what we need 8 00:00:29,419 --> 00:00:32,359 to do to put our business out there and to get more eyeballs 9 00:00:32,359 --> 00:00:34,399 on things. So Colin, glad to be talking to you. 10 00:00:34,700 --> 00:00:36,740 Colin Hogan: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Excited to 11 00:00:36,740 --> 00:00:37,040 be here, 12 00:00:37,820 --> 00:00:40,280 Robert Plank: and I am excited to have you here as well. So 13 00:00:40,580 --> 00:00:43,540 lately in what you've been seeing in marketing and 14 00:00:43,540 --> 00:00:46,240 different businesses, what people are doing, where do you 15 00:00:46,240 --> 00:00:48,520 think people are missing the boat? And what do you think 16 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:51,220 deserves our attention? What do you think we should be thinking 17 00:00:51,220 --> 00:00:52,960 about and focusing on these days? 18 00:00:53,260 --> 00:00:55,960 Colin Hogan: Well, I think videos already kind of arrived 19 00:00:55,960 --> 00:00:58,180 on the scene, if you will. So it doesn't seem like I need to 20 00:00:58,180 --> 00:01:00,900 educate folks too much on that, but I would say really, the 21 00:01:00,900 --> 00:01:03,600 content of the video is something that we have seen 22 00:01:03,660 --> 00:01:06,720 evolve over time, and the more effective videos are not just 23 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:10,680 the ones that are like straight up, explaining the product or 24 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:13,800 service and doing the hard sell. It's more about educating 25 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:17,340 customers. So use even if it's your first video or your second 26 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:20,420 video and you're so new to it, obviously you want the video to 27 00:01:20,420 --> 00:01:23,360 help propel your business and help market what you do and who 28 00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:27,020 you are, but just making it a little bit more conversational, 29 00:01:27,020 --> 00:01:30,020 a little bit more educational, you can still explain your 30 00:01:30,020 --> 00:01:32,780 product, but you know why you got into business, how it 31 00:01:32,780 --> 00:01:35,960 actually works on the back end of things, even sometimes we've 32 00:01:35,960 --> 00:01:38,780 seen companies talk about how they like, how they make money, 33 00:01:38,780 --> 00:01:41,020 if it's something that's like a free service that people are a 34 00:01:41,020 --> 00:01:44,020 little skeptical of. It's like, and then we make money off 35 00:01:44,020 --> 00:01:47,680 advertisers to help get rid of some of the stigma of, you know 36 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:50,320 what? What's happening here? How does this all work? Are you 37 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:52,900 going to harvest my data, or something like that? So just 38 00:01:52,900 --> 00:01:55,840 being pretty transparent through the educational aspect of things 39 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:58,840 is what I would say. In terms of video people are starting to 40 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:02,280 catch on to doing and we've seen that really on the rise, which I 41 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:04,080 would recommend more people do. 42 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:07,440 Robert Plank: Fantastic. And it makes perfect sense that 43 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:11,400 educational video would be what people are looking for. Because, 44 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:14,340 like, you think about someone goes on on YouTube and they're 45 00:02:14,340 --> 00:02:16,620 trying to figure out how to, you know, I don't know, get some 46 00:02:16,620 --> 00:02:19,740 kind of monitor set up on the computer, or trying to figure 47 00:02:19,740 --> 00:02:23,360 out how to fix a broken dishwasher. It makes sense that 48 00:02:23,420 --> 00:02:26,360 people aren't I mean, maybe some people are searching for, like, 49 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:28,760 how to buy, how do I buy this thing? But if they're let me 50 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:31,940 browsing YouTube or looking for a specific video, it makes sense 51 00:02:31,940 --> 00:02:35,360 that they're looking for some kind of, like a tutorial or 52 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:40,420 something to to help them. And so when you say that, it makes 53 00:02:40,420 --> 00:02:45,100 sense to kind of go for, like, the long game, or go make sense 54 00:02:45,100 --> 00:02:48,400 to educate people and kind of introduce a backstory. How do 55 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:52,720 you balance that out with the, like, the short attention span, 56 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:55,120 or that, you know, people are on their phones and they're busy, 57 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:58,600 so how do you kind of make sure to get it, make it all make 58 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:00,480 sense? Yeah, 59 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:02,580 Colin Hogan: I think that's a great question. I mean, we 60 00:03:02,820 --> 00:03:05,820 always kind of advise that the first few seconds the video have 61 00:03:05,820 --> 00:03:08,640 to really catch someone that can either be catch someone's 62 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:11,340 attention, that can either be visually or through the script 63 00:03:11,340 --> 00:03:14,580 or through the sound design. But honestly, it's really not super 64 00:03:14,580 --> 00:03:18,840 easy to do. So how can you make the passive audience a little 65 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:21,860 bit more captive and active and get them to your site and make 66 00:03:21,860 --> 00:03:25,460 sure that if they're clicking on video, you know they're opting 67 00:03:25,460 --> 00:03:28,640 in to watch it. If you are doing something like a pre roll ad, or 68 00:03:28,640 --> 00:03:32,300 you're putting some social post out there, the accompanying copy 69 00:03:32,300 --> 00:03:35,240 that you put with that specific video post is going to be 70 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:38,240 important to encourage people to click probably keep it pretty 71 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:42,520 brief. And speaking of keeping it brief, keep the video brief 72 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:46,180 as well. Still go, you know, 3060, 90 seconds, if you need 73 00:03:46,180 --> 00:03:51,400 to. But really, just outline what the content is through some 74 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:57,820 sort of fun visual or conceptual hook at the beginning to make 75 00:03:57,820 --> 00:04:00,600 sure that it's worth people's time of why they want to watch 76 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:04,680 it. So if it's, you know, geared towards marketers making sure 77 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:07,260 that they know that at by the end of watching the video, 78 00:04:07,500 --> 00:04:09,840 they'll have learned more about this specific software that's 79 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:13,620 going to help them do XYZ or really set up the problem and 80 00:04:13,620 --> 00:04:16,800 how you're going to solve it in that first few seconds of the 81 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:19,920 video. So yeah, I think you know, doing something that's 82 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:23,420 going to stand out visually is important. But if you can, if 83 00:04:23,420 --> 00:04:26,120 there's audio on, because a lot of those social videos play 84 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:29,540 without audio, if you do have audio, use the script and the 85 00:04:29,540 --> 00:04:32,120 concept and the sound design to really hook people. But if not, 86 00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:34,880 think about what you can do to make it visually stand out in a 87 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:36,860 timeline of people scrolling through 88 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:40,640 Robert Plank: and so to help us wrap our hands around some of 89 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:43,360 the stuff, like we've talked about things like, like, have 90 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:48,160 that conceptual hook and, you know, have maybe, like captions. 91 00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:51,220 If videos are off, it's good to throw around ideas and think 92 00:04:51,220 --> 00:04:54,160 about things. But I'm sure something that would really set 93 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:57,400 in concrete better is if we jumped into like, some kind of a 94 00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:00,240 client story, because that's always fun too. Just to kind. Of 95 00:05:00,840 --> 00:05:04,140 see your thought process and action and find it about like, 96 00:05:04,140 --> 00:05:06,780 if you had a client where you came to them and they needed 97 00:05:06,780 --> 00:05:09,360 some help, and you kind of, you know, did some sort of trial and 98 00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:13,260 error. So does any kind of fun story come to mind like that? As 99 00:05:13,260 --> 00:05:16,560 far as, like a client who you helped in making some of these 100 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:17,880 videos? Yeah, 101 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:20,900 Colin Hogan: I think one thing that we learned with a longer 102 00:05:20,900 --> 00:05:23,720 term client, as we had made several videos with them, and 103 00:05:23,780 --> 00:05:26,900 most of these videos were being used to post on social I don't 104 00:05:26,900 --> 00:05:29,360 think there was a lot of paid promotion behind them. It was 105 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:33,380 sure it was just organic social social posts, maybe a little bit 106 00:05:33,380 --> 00:05:36,860 of paid promotion. But after making about eight to 10 of 107 00:05:36,860 --> 00:05:39,560 these videos with them, we got to have a deeper discussion 108 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:42,160 around what was working and what's not, we find out that, 109 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:45,460 hey, if the color palette in these animated videos is a 110 00:05:45,460 --> 00:05:48,700 little bit brighter versus some of the darker colors we use, 111 00:05:48,700 --> 00:05:52,660 like a darker purple blue, that's gonna that actually 112 00:05:52,660 --> 00:05:55,660 performs better. So even little things like that, as you gain 113 00:05:55,660 --> 00:05:59,740 more data points with the amount of videos you make, just like 114 00:05:59,740 --> 00:06:02,340 things like the color temperature of the video can 115 00:06:02,340 --> 00:06:04,920 really impact the amount of engagement for that specific 116 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:07,860 audience. So that was a really tangible example of, like, okay, 117 00:06:07,860 --> 00:06:10,680 for where you're posting these on social and how people are 118 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:14,220 coming in, interacting with them. If we can stick to more 119 00:06:14,220 --> 00:06:18,060 brighter colors in our design and animations going forward, 120 00:06:18,060 --> 00:06:21,800 that's going to help us leverage a bit more success. And then on 121 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:24,560 the front end of things we've also done, you know, if we do a 122 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:27,560 long form video for someone's homepage that's 90 seconds, or 123 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:31,640 something like that, but they also want to use it for 124 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:34,760 audiences that are a little less captive, you can do a cut down 125 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:38,240 and maybe put some text right when a video starts that 126 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:43,540 outlines what the solution does like we made a video for Crazy 127 00:06:43,540 --> 00:06:48,340 Egg many years back in the first few seconds are just exactly 128 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,160 explaining what Crazy Egg does as like a, you know, a heat map 129 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:53,560 tool to help increase conversions, and then it goes 130 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:57,400 through the typical cadence of an explainer video. But just 131 00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:01,200 doing that for those social cut downs really helps get people 132 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:04,860 engaged quickly, because it's no fluff. It's like, here's what 133 00:07:04,860 --> 00:07:06,960 you're gonna see, continue to watch if you want, 134 00:07:08,460 --> 00:07:10,440 Robert Plank: and what I'm what I'm hearing from your answers 135 00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:13,380 here, as far as like, make, make the video and have the like, the 136 00:07:13,380 --> 00:07:16,620 different cut together variations depending on what 137 00:07:16,620 --> 00:07:19,320 you're using it for, or experimenting with things like a 138 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:21,620 brighter color palette. From those kinds of answers. I'm 139 00:07:21,620 --> 00:07:24,200 hearing from you like that we just need to start cranking out 140 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:28,400 some videos, right? That if we, if we sit down and take a whole 141 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:32,120 month making a video or planning something out, then we're not 142 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:34,640 doing anyone any favors. I'm hearing from you that maybe we 143 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:38,300 need to maybe make some mistakes and do some experimentation, 144 00:07:38,300 --> 00:07:41,560 some trial and error, and get to the videos sooner rather than 145 00:07:41,560 --> 00:07:45,760 later, even if they're not perfect, because that that 146 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:49,660 progress towards perfection will come just as a result of making 147 00:07:49,660 --> 00:07:52,000 more and more videos. Is that on the right track there? Yeah, I 148 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:53,500 Colin Hogan: would agree with that. I know that can be a 149 00:07:53,500 --> 00:07:55,660 little bit costly, and of course, I would agree with it 150 00:07:55,660 --> 00:07:59,140 running a video production agency, but I would say we often 151 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:01,920 dig into what's currently being done from a marketing 152 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:04,860 standpoint, to see what that can inform for the video. So if 153 00:08:04,860 --> 00:08:08,640 there is a video that's going to be used for social which static 154 00:08:08,700 --> 00:08:11,520 social posts have done, well, like, go through your Instagram. 155 00:08:11,520 --> 00:08:14,580 Okay, this one seemed to get a lot of likes and comments and 156 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:18,240 think, you know, engagement. Why do we think that was this 157 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:22,280 specific banner ad that we did previously performed well for us 158 00:08:22,280 --> 00:08:25,040 this type of social copy. So how can we use those, all those 159 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:27,800 elements that are non video creative in terms of marketing, 160 00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:31,460 and turn them into video form? So can, because that's a good 161 00:08:31,460 --> 00:08:33,680 jumping off point. But obviously, video being a 162 00:08:33,680 --> 00:08:37,400 different medium, it's going to have its own results, and it's 163 00:08:37,400 --> 00:08:41,560 slightly varying, you know, creative differences from those 164 00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:45,460 more static posts. So it will still be kind of a long learning 165 00:08:45,580 --> 00:08:48,940 session, just like any marketing effort, but at least using what 166 00:08:48,940 --> 00:08:52,780 you're doing now in a non video form to inform the video is 167 00:08:52,780 --> 00:08:53,560 super important. 168 00:08:54,700 --> 00:08:56,800 Robert Plank: Yeah, and you're so right that that's an easy 169 00:08:56,800 --> 00:09:00,040 exercise that anyone can do today is just go back and look 170 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:04,740 on your Facebook page, your Instagram page, and look at what 171 00:09:04,740 --> 00:09:08,100 seems to get more attention, and then put your thinking cap on 172 00:09:08,100 --> 00:09:11,520 and start to think about, how can I make a video version of 173 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:15,900 that? Or maybe that can kind of push me in the direction of what 174 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:19,200 people are reacting to and like, like you said, it's not 100% 175 00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:22,820 going to give you the answer, but that's better than starting 176 00:09:22,820 --> 00:09:25,280 from scratch and kind of along those lines, as far as, like 177 00:09:25,580 --> 00:09:30,560 looking at the data, or taking some of that scientific, I don't 178 00:09:30,620 --> 00:09:33,980 know, I don't maybe analysis, fancy of a word, but like taking 179 00:09:33,980 --> 00:09:37,040 the science part of it and then using that to fuel a little bit 180 00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:41,620 of the the creativity you always hear about people who talk 181 00:09:41,620 --> 00:09:44,380 about, like, the the long tail kind of keywords with the 182 00:09:44,380 --> 00:09:47,200 videos, right? They say like, well, if you're if you're an 183 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:51,400 interior decorator, don't make a one hour long video explaining 184 00:09:51,400 --> 00:09:54,460 everything there is to know about decorating your home. Make 185 00:09:54,460 --> 00:09:58,300 a video about how to decorate a small home, or how to decorate a 186 00:09:58,300 --> 00:10:01,200 room with a lot of light or a. You know how to decorate. I 187 00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:04,260 don't like, like, a solar home or but like, make lots of little 188 00:10:04,260 --> 00:10:07,680 videos. And that makes a lot of sense when I hear about that, 189 00:10:07,680 --> 00:10:10,380 because it's like, well, if people are searching for, like, 190 00:10:10,380 --> 00:10:14,400 specific problems, they're not going to want the two hour 191 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:17,340 answer. They're going to want the the three minute answer. So 192 00:10:17,340 --> 00:10:21,080 do you have any kind of, like, a process or a favorite like 193 00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:25,280 software tool or a way to tap into some of this data. That way 194 00:10:25,280 --> 00:10:28,820 we can make some lots of really specific videos like that. 195 00:10:29,300 --> 00:10:31,820 Colin Hogan: Yeah. I mean, we definitely use Google Trends 196 00:10:31,820 --> 00:10:36,560 just to see what like keywords are trending. In general, I 197 00:10:36,560 --> 00:10:39,560 would also use Google Analytics on your own web page to figure 198 00:10:39,560 --> 00:10:43,300 out where people are engaged the most blog posts, or just 199 00:10:43,300 --> 00:10:46,840 different landing pages that you have, as well as where people 200 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:49,240 are dropping off. So figure out if there's a video that can fill 201 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:51,700 in the gap that's going to prevent them from falling off, 202 00:10:51,700 --> 00:10:55,240 in terms of of your own page, but then, yeah, using both of 203 00:10:55,240 --> 00:10:57,700 those, and also kind of you know, if you're doing any 204 00:10:57,700 --> 00:11:00,600 AdWords, of course, what ads are resonating, but using that to 205 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:03,960 drive your own kind of test search for the industry. Okay, 206 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:08,100 when you search, you know, in interior design, installing, you 207 00:11:08,100 --> 00:11:10,980 know, cabinetry, or whatever it may be, what cabinet looks good 208 00:11:10,980 --> 00:11:15,300 in various spaces, what comes up, and how competitive is it, 209 00:11:15,300 --> 00:11:19,200 and how much of an opportunity is there? And if we know, we use 210 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:22,040 Moz here just for our own efforts. And I think that's a 211 00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:25,460 good solution as well, if you're able to use Moz and set up an 212 00:11:25,460 --> 00:11:27,980 account there to really do a little bit deeper than an 213 00:11:27,980 --> 00:11:31,580 analysis into those things. But yeah, I think what you mentioned 214 00:11:31,580 --> 00:11:35,780 is perfect if being very niche with those specific video 215 00:11:35,780 --> 00:11:38,660 topics, and frankly, keeping them short, if they're 216 00:11:38,660 --> 00:11:41,440 instructional on YouTube, which obviously is this gigantic 217 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:45,940 search engine only behind Google. The more specific you 218 00:11:45,940 --> 00:11:48,280 can get, the better. And also, if you can keep that video 219 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:51,460 short, because I know that when I look up anything, a YouTube 220 00:11:51,460 --> 00:11:55,960 tutorial on a certain like, how to install a new HVAC unit or 221 00:11:55,960 --> 00:11:58,540 something like that, the tutorial videos on there usually 222 00:11:58,540 --> 00:12:01,380 have like, if they're four minutes, they have a minute of 223 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:05,820 introduction who the video is about, and then about 30 seconds 224 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:08,820 of them self promoting at the end to subscribe and do all 225 00:12:08,820 --> 00:12:11,220 these things. And really, I just want that, you know, minute and 226 00:12:11,220 --> 00:12:13,680 a half in the middle, or two and a half minutes in the middle. So 227 00:12:13,680 --> 00:12:16,200 I think we have seen larger brands take advantage of that, 228 00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:20,360 where they just created a very succinct, short, 92nd video 229 00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:23,060 that's like here, step by step how to do it. It's very clear. 230 00:12:23,060 --> 00:12:26,960 It's well paced. It doesn't even need to be super high fidelity. 231 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:29,480 It just needs to be easy to follow. So if it is more of an 232 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:32,000 educational type of video that's going to live for public 233 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:36,080 consumption on something like YouTube, figure out what the 234 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:38,840 competitive landscape looks like using tools like Google 235 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:42,760 Analytics and Moz and then make sure that yours can stand out 236 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:45,640 through a really attractive thumbnail that probably has some 237 00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:49,420 text on it, and maybe the image of the product or the person 238 00:12:49,420 --> 00:12:53,140 who's going to lead that tutorial. And, you know, put it 239 00:12:53,140 --> 00:12:56,440 up there. And make sure that the body of the description is 240 00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:59,680 exactly what's in the video, and be very descriptive, and hit as 241 00:12:59,680 --> 00:13:00,840 many keywords as you can 242 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:06,300 Robert Plank: cool. So there's a lot of just like, finer details 243 00:13:06,300 --> 00:13:10,020 to to do on your videos, right? Like, like, get to the point, 244 00:13:10,260 --> 00:13:14,100 get that, get the keywords in there, get the body, take, you 245 00:13:14,100 --> 00:13:16,560 know, a screen grab of one of the frames, and slap it into 246 00:13:16,560 --> 00:13:19,680 Canva and add some text. And that way that becomes kind of an 247 00:13:19,680 --> 00:13:22,940 attention getting thumbnail as opposed to what people normally 248 00:13:22,940 --> 00:13:27,140 put out there. And I'm sure you've noticed this too, that so 249 00:13:27,500 --> 00:13:30,800 many times now when you do a search in Google, but then the 250 00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:34,460 YouTube results show up like, say, you say, well, I give like, 251 00:13:34,460 --> 00:13:38,780 a few months ago on my my H, you mentioned heb HVAC units, my air 252 00:13:38,780 --> 00:13:42,040 conditioner outside, fans stopped spinning, and there was 253 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:45,040 like a busted capacitor in there. And I was trying to find 254 00:13:45,040 --> 00:13:48,400 the solution. I googled, searched it, and the YouTube 255 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:51,520 video that showed up was one of the first results, but it said 256 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:54,760 the real meat of it is at two minutes, 26 seconds. So even 257 00:13:54,760 --> 00:13:57,100 Google's catching on to this, where they're like, well, even, 258 00:13:57,100 --> 00:14:01,380 even Google wants people to skip ahead to the actual meat of it. 259 00:14:01,680 --> 00:14:06,240 And yeah, so there's lots of things to for us to be doing 260 00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:10,380 here. And then, so as far as, like, the types of videos, I 261 00:14:10,380 --> 00:14:14,040 know that when we began talking, we mentioned explainer, like 262 00:14:14,040 --> 00:14:16,620 cartoony sort of videos. But it seems like a lot of what you're 263 00:14:16,620 --> 00:14:19,620 saying here is that the like, the live action just filming on 264 00:14:19,620 --> 00:14:24,260 your phone, preparing the AC unit is just as important, is 265 00:14:24,260 --> 00:14:25,280 it? Yeah. 266 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:28,460 Colin Hogan: And I think, you know, in the marketing world, a 267 00:14:28,460 --> 00:14:31,880 company here in Chicago that does some really informative 268 00:14:31,880 --> 00:14:36,800 videos is orbit media, where he Andy over there, does a lot of 269 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:41,320 just screen recordings of diving into Google Analytics, here's a 270 00:14:41,320 --> 00:14:44,980 five minute trick to see if the changes you're implementing on a 271 00:14:44,980 --> 00:14:48,040 certain web page are working or not. So that's a little bit 272 00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:50,140 different than shooting something or iPhone, but still, 273 00:14:50,140 --> 00:14:54,040 you can download a software like Camtasia or Screenflow for 274 00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:57,760 relatively cheap, like 50 bucks, and then record how your 275 00:14:57,760 --> 00:15:01,560 software works with you, narrating over top. Or something 276 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:04,680 more educational, like orbit media does. Of here's how we use 277 00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:07,380 Google Analytics for our clients. You're giving a little 278 00:15:07,500 --> 00:15:11,820 bit of that free information away, but it's helping establish 279 00:15:11,820 --> 00:15:14,040 you as someone who knows what they're talking about. And you 280 00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:16,860 know the buzzword of thought leadership as well. But yeah, I 281 00:15:16,860 --> 00:15:19,200 think at the end of the day, if you're not doing any video, at 282 00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:21,740 least put some up there, and it can even be yourself talking 283 00:15:21,740 --> 00:15:25,340 about a certain topic or trend within your industry, post it to 284 00:15:25,340 --> 00:15:28,160 LinkedIn and see if people engage with it. Is that 285 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:30,680 something that's going to work? And that's also, not only just 286 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:34,220 from a quantitative standpoint, it's kind of fun to do. It can 287 00:15:34,220 --> 00:15:37,520 get you excited to get more videos out there as people start 288 00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:41,680 to comment and like and engage with you, when you start to post 289 00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:43,840 these videos, even if it's slightly informal, 290 00:15:45,220 --> 00:15:47,680 Robert Plank: and so with all these places that we could post 291 00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:51,400 video like you've mentioned, like a web page or YouTube or 292 00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:54,160 LinkedIn, I mean, it seems like there's always some new place to 293 00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:57,100 post the video. So I'm curious if you have any thoughts about 294 00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:02,040 what would be a good habit, as far as how often we should, 295 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:05,340 either like make a video ourselves, or pay an agency like 296 00:16:05,340 --> 00:16:07,740 you to make it, or even think about it like, is it a good 297 00:16:07,740 --> 00:16:12,240 practice for someone to like, maybe once a week crank out a 298 00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:14,940 five or 10 minute video just that way they can have something 299 00:16:14,940 --> 00:16:18,300 to post on LinkedIn. Or is, like, a few times a week 300 00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:21,680 reasonable? Or is once a month, not often enough. Like, what are 301 00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:25,520 your thoughts on? Just like, How often should we revisit this 302 00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:28,700 concept? Or should it just be, like, constantly, all day long, 303 00:16:28,700 --> 00:16:29,780 every day on our mind? 304 00:16:29,780 --> 00:16:31,520 Colin Hogan: I mean, I don't think it should be necessarily 305 00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:34,040 constant, because people are gonna get pretty burnt out. 306 00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:36,380 You're gonna spread a lot of the views and engagement over 307 00:16:36,380 --> 00:16:39,200 probably too many videos, and then it's gonna be tough to see 308 00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:41,860 what's actually working. I would say, obviously it depends on a 309 00:16:41,860 --> 00:16:44,620 lot of the maturity of the organization of the company that 310 00:16:44,620 --> 00:16:47,920 you're running. But I would say, if you can do something weekly 311 00:16:47,920 --> 00:16:50,920 and turn it into kind of an ongoing, recurring series, I 312 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:54,940 think that's really cool to circle back to Moz. I think 313 00:16:54,940 --> 00:16:57,580 they've since dropped off doing it. But they used to have 314 00:16:57,580 --> 00:17:01,200 something called Whiteboard Fridays, where one of Moz 315 00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:03,840 employees would stand in front of a whiteboard and kind of walk 316 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:08,520 people through a certain SEO concept and really dig into it 317 00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:11,340 pretty deeply. Again, it was just kind of one camera set up. 318 00:17:11,700 --> 00:17:14,460 It was, you know, pretty relatively high quality 319 00:17:14,460 --> 00:17:17,520 actually, but it wasn't super complex in terms of production. 320 00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:20,900 So even if it's something a little bit more straightforward, 321 00:17:20,900 --> 00:17:23,540 just like, hey, here's my weekly roundup of things that happened 322 00:17:23,540 --> 00:17:26,720 at my organization, or something that a talking point that you 323 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:30,560 want to mention each week. It can be 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 324 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:33,980 something like that. But if you're able to do that weekly in 325 00:17:34,100 --> 00:17:38,120 a very repeatable and scalable format, that's great, if not. I 326 00:17:38,120 --> 00:17:41,380 mean, I think once a month would be ideal, if not. Once a 327 00:17:41,380 --> 00:17:44,740 quarter, maybe a little bit more of a higher quality or higher 328 00:17:44,740 --> 00:17:47,080 fidelity video to put out there? 329 00:17:48,580 --> 00:17:51,040 Robert Plank: Well, great. And a lot of what you've been 330 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:54,340 mentioning here on in our conversation today is just, I'm 331 00:17:54,340 --> 00:17:57,400 hearing like, keep it simple. Don't overthink it. Don't, don't 332 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:01,500 plan for three weeks just to make a three minute video. And 333 00:18:01,500 --> 00:18:03,900 like, you know, these easy things anyone can do, like do 334 00:18:03,900 --> 00:18:07,320 the Roundup, the recap of what you and your company have been 335 00:18:07,320 --> 00:18:11,880 up to the past week, month, quarter, Whiteboard Fridays. 336 00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:15,240 Again. I mean, I'm not what I'm picturing in my mind is like guy 337 00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:17,820 in front of a whiteboard in front of the camera, and just 338 00:18:17,820 --> 00:18:20,900 like drawing a diagram, or drawing like three keywords and 339 00:18:20,900 --> 00:18:25,640 then going off. So these are all easy, fun things that we can all 340 00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:29,780 do, and we can all just begin making video a habit, or making 341 00:18:29,780 --> 00:18:34,100 it a part of our business. And so where do you and your agency 342 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:37,460 come in with all this? Like, if someone says, Well, I've begun 343 00:18:37,460 --> 00:18:40,720 to put videos out there, but I need to move things to the next 344 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:44,800 level, or I need some of this. You know, analytics stuff is too 345 00:18:44,920 --> 00:18:47,620 overwhelming. I just want to do what I do best in my business, 346 00:18:47,620 --> 00:18:51,160 and have Colin and his team do it. What sort of things do you 347 00:18:51,160 --> 00:18:55,000 provide? Where do you fit into all this whole plan here? Yeah, 348 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,940 Colin Hogan: so we've come in a few different points in terms of 349 00:18:57,940 --> 00:19:00,960 people's level of experience with video production, or at 350 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:03,300 least kind of where they're thinking, we've been looped in, 351 00:19:03,300 --> 00:19:06,240 where they have, like, a first pass at the script already 352 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:09,060 thought out, and then we can continue to clean that up, edit 353 00:19:09,060 --> 00:19:11,160 with them, and then figure out how we're going to attack it 354 00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:14,640 visually. We've had people that have said, All I know is we want 355 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:17,280 to do video. We know nothing about video or the types that we 356 00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:21,320 want to create. So we're pretty flexible of how we enter the 357 00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:24,680 process, I think our first step is, you know, why do you want to 358 00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:28,280 do this? We haven't fill out a creative brief of about nine to 359 00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:31,400 10 questions. Some related directly to the video. Of like, 360 00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:35,060 hey, there any references of videos that you like? If so you 361 00:19:35,060 --> 00:19:37,820 share them, and why? To things about their business, like, what 362 00:19:37,820 --> 00:19:40,360 makes you different from your competitors? What's kind of 363 00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:44,200 three big talking points that you usually hit when you're 364 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,620 doing the elevator pitch to someone. But really, we just 365 00:19:47,620 --> 00:19:49,960 want to make sure that what we're creating is obviously 366 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:54,700 going to be true to what they do and who they are, but also 367 00:19:54,700 --> 00:19:57,820 obviously effective. So if they do have customer testimonials, 368 00:19:57,820 --> 00:20:01,500 we can read or customer calls that. Can watch or listen to, or 369 00:20:01,500 --> 00:20:05,580 any research that they've done on their own end, own end, that 370 00:20:05,580 --> 00:20:08,700 all is part of our discovery process to figure out what we 371 00:20:08,700 --> 00:20:12,840 think would be the best way to wrap the content of the video up 372 00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:15,900 in a nice, easy to view and engaging package. 373 00:20:17,220 --> 00:20:19,860 Robert Plank: Fantastic. So you can take those raw materials and 374 00:20:19,860 --> 00:20:22,760 turn them into something great. And even if they just have like, 375 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:25,940 some ideas, you can still get some kind of an output there. 376 00:20:25,940 --> 00:20:30,200 And so where can and where should people go to? The next 377 00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:32,780 step here? What website should people be visiting right now? 378 00:20:33,140 --> 00:20:36,440 Colin Hogan: Yeah, they should head over to demoduck.com, D, E, 379 00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:42,280 M, O, D, U, C, k.com, poke around. There is a contact us 380 00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:45,760 page. We post on the blog about once a month, pretty regular, 381 00:20:45,940 --> 00:20:49,900 regularly, usually accompanied with a video. So yeah, check us 382 00:20:49,900 --> 00:20:53,020 out. Read some things there. We try to keep the blog pretty 383 00:20:53,020 --> 00:20:56,740 applicable to different organizations of various sizes. 384 00:20:56,740 --> 00:21:00,240 And you can learn all more about timelines, budgets, best 385 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:01,740 practices on demoduck.com 386 00:21:03,540 --> 00:21:06,180 Robert Plank: Fantastic. So demoduck.com is a place to go. 387 00:21:06,180 --> 00:21:10,500 And if you have experienced a little bit of jealousy, a little 388 00:21:10,500 --> 00:21:13,200 bit of envy at some of these other companies that put out 389 00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:16,260 these slick videos and you wanted about, how did they do 390 00:21:16,260 --> 00:21:19,560 that, what was the process? What was the timeline, then demoduck 391 00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:23,060 is the place for you to go. That's demoduck.com and if 392 00:21:23,060 --> 00:21:26,360 you've been putting off or dreading the video creation 393 00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:28,700 aspect of your business and you happen to listen to this 394 00:21:28,700 --> 00:21:31,400 interview here today, well maybe that's a sign. Maybe it's not a 395 00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:34,280 coincidence. Maybe this means that you need to go to 396 00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:37,820 demoduck.com go there, and if you like what you see there, as 397 00:21:37,820 --> 00:21:40,900 far as poking around at the content, click on that Contact 398 00:21:40,900 --> 00:21:44,680 Us page, contact Colin and his team. Tell them about your ideas 399 00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:47,560 or requirements. Set up a meeting and see if something can 400 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:51,100 happen, because you never get the day back. Afterwards gone. 401 00:21:51,100 --> 00:21:53,620 You never got those little moments back. So if you have 402 00:21:53,620 --> 00:21:56,740 been thinking about using video to give your business more 403 00:21:56,740 --> 00:21:59,560 reach, then stop thinking about it. Start doing it. Go to 404 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:03,000 demoduck.com and we will see you there. And thanks Colin for 405 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:06,000 being here and giving us all kinds of cool ideas and 406 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:07,560 solutions. I really appreciate it. 407 00:22:07,620 --> 00:22:09,240 Colin Hogan: Thanks. Appreciate it. Have a good one. 408 00:22:10,380 --> 00:22:16,260 Robert Plank: You too. Please take a second to rate and 409 00:22:16,260 --> 00:22:20,280 subscribe to marketer of the day in the iTunes Store. It's free 410 00:22:20,460 --> 00:22:23,840 marketer of the day.com/itunes, you.