The online buying journey is a complex process. It rarely looks exactly the same for different shoppers. BUT, there are distinct stages that most shoppers pass through in their unique journey. Video can be your secret weapon along each stage of the journey - compelling customers, educating customers, and delighting customers.
Ben Amos lives in Australia’s Sunshine Coast and is a master at creating video content that shapes buying behavior. In this episode, we talk about how video can impact these 4 distinct stages of the shopping journey:
- Awareness - this is where we tell our brand story in a compelling and helpful way…Ben shows us how.
- Consideration- this stage is all about information and education. As shoppers evaluate their options, your video should be there to help guide the way.
- Conversion event - your video can and should do the job of a sales person whether on a product detail page or as a remarketing ad.
- Advocacy - Your video strategy shouldn’t stop with a happy customer. Use video content to encourage more referrals and repeat purchases.
Mentioned in this episode:
“Building a StoryBrand” Book by Donald Miller
Ben Amos - Founder at Innovate Media
Innovate Media - Online Video Strategy and Production Agency
Engage Video Marketing Podcast
Engage Video Marketing Foundations
Engage Video Marketing Academy
Episode Transcript
Brett:
Well hello and welcome to another edition of the eCommerce Evolution Podcast. I'm your host, Brett Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce. And today we are talking about video marketing and how video can influence shoppers at every stage of the shopping journey. But, we're not talking about this in the way you may expect to hear about this topic from me. As you know I am more of an ad guy, traffic guy, so we talk about video ads a lot. Today we're going to be talking about organic video. Video as content, video on landing pages and a whole host of other things.
Brett:
My guest today is Ben Amos. And Ben I met at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego back before the world was shut down. Back when live events were still possible. So we got to talking about video marketing and he was a speaker at the event as was I. I was fascinated by some of the things he was talking about. And Ben is the founder of Innovate Media on the sunshine coast of Australia. You'll be able to tell right away, he's got an amazing accent. You'll enjoy listening if for no other reason than just to enjoy Ben's accent. He's also the host of the Engage Video Marketing podcast. And they also have courses and training and I was on the podcast not long ago. So you can tune in to that if you'd like. But with that, Ben, welcome to the show and thanks so much for taking the time.
Ben:
Good day Brett. Thanks for having me.
Brett:
Yeah. I'm really excited. I love video. Been a video guy for a long time. But mainly on the ad side so I really like this perspective, your perspective on this. We're going to look at how video influences the customer journey and where to use it and how to use it and when to use it and all kinds of fun things like that. Going to talk a little bit live video as well. Before we do that, I would love to just hear your background. How did you become a video marketing expert?
Ben:
Sure. Well my background is not in marketing at all. In fact originally it wasn't even directly in video. I started, I guess my career, as a high school teacher and I taught drama and I taught film and television as well to high school students for about seven years. After doing that for a while I ended up finding myself over in London and in then in Ireland, working over there. I ended up landing a job actually not in teaching but with a small video production company on the west coast of Ireland in a town called Galway. And that kind of sparked up this idea of maybe I can start my own thing. Maybe I can start my own business. And when I moved back to Australia that's what I did. I basically left teaching and started a video production company and that was nearly 14 years ago now. And then so yeah, I started just creating videos for anyone who would let me create videos for them and would pay me to do that. I was creating wedding videos, I was creating short promotional videos for businesses. And it got to a point basically where I was creating videos for a local business and being inquisitive, I checked back on what that business had done with their video that we had created for them. And at the time everyone was happy with the video, we got paid. We moved on to the next client.
Ben:
But six months later I look back and all they had done is they'd just taken this video and stuck it up on YouTube. And at the time I remember it amassed a lousy 34 views. And I was like, that's clearly not a return on investment.
Brett:
Not exactly transformational for that business. Exactly.
Ben:
Exactly. So I kind of had this realization that potentially I was failing our clients. We were producing a video that they're asking us to produce but maybe it was the wrong video or maybe it wasn't being used in the right way. So I felt that we needed to do more. And that was about seven or eight years ago and that kicked off the journey for me into really trying to understand what it is about marketing? What is digital marketing? How does it work? How does video marketing work? And now fast forward to now and that's exactly what we do. Our position, what we do here and in my agency in Australia is a video strategy agency. We still produce content but we focus on the strategy first with our clients to make sure that the videos we create actually get results. That's what we can talk about today.
Brett:
Yep. I love it. I love it. The right strategy properly executed, that's where you find results with video or with anything really. But I bet ... And I didn't know that about your history. I didn't realize you were a teacher. I can think back, my speech and debate teacher in seventh and eighth grade, transformational for me. She really helped shape me and gave me confidence and that was part of the groundwork I think for me enjoying speaking in public and stuff like that. So one, tip your hat to you for that. That's awesome that you did that. But then also I bet that came in handy, like teaching people how to be comfortable speaking as a high school student, probably helped you coach people to overcome the fear of being on camera and stuff.
Ben:
Absolutely. I think it's aided me in a whole bunch of ways that I didn't realize until after the fact. A background as a teacher ... Effectively what I do now is I teach. So for me, the way that we attract clients into my agency as well is about leading with value, with education. I teach through the podcast, I teach through my speaking and consulting. The more that I can help our clients understand why we're doing what we're doing or why they should take the action that we're suggesting, the more we can educate, the better informed they are and therefore it's better for everyone. So I'm still a teacher at heart.
Brett:
I love it. I love it. So let's just dive right in. So let's pretend we're consulting with, helping an eCommerce company. And so we're going to be thinking about what is our video marketing approach? And so totally agree with you, we need the strategy first before we go anywhere else. How do you help people come up with their video marketing strategy? What questions do you ask them? What thought exercises do you have? How can we begin to flesh out that strategy?
Ben:
Where it all begins for me when it comes to an effective video marketing strategy is really understanding the audience. If you don't know who it is that you're trying to sell to and the journey that they go on to make that purchase decision, then it's really hard to create content that's going to resonate with them at different stages of that journey they go on to buy from you. I mean, it's the same whether it's eCommerce or a B2B or service based businesses or whatever. But at the end of the day, if we can understand that ideal customer and understand where they start that journey first of all, I feel that most people in business, and it depends on where they are in their marketing journey as a business, but most people are focused on the conversion end of the journey. So trying to get the sale to happen. And that comes from I believe more traditional advertising. The idea of direct response where let's just put our message out there, our sale or our price or our product, and the right people will see it and they'll buy it. And that's fine.
Ben:
But when you're focused at that end of the journey, you're kind of forgetting the rest of the decision making process that someone is going on to buy from you. And so that's where it needs to start is really understanding that when people make a decision to purchase a product, it starts well before that purchase decision at the phase of where they're becoming aware of a need. That awareness phase. When we talk about the funnel, the marketing funnel, we kind of go through a phase of awareness, consideration, purchase, and then advocacy or post purchase. And that's how we can map out a video strategy. So we can start with awareness. Should we dive into that?
Brett:
Yes do it. Let's talk awareness. Yeah.
Ben:
Cool. So at that stage it's critical from a video perspective or any kind of communication as a marketing perspective, that we recognize that people are making decisions here based on emotion. They're not caring about the product that you sell or what it is that you do or what you can offer them. What they care about there is themselves. They're waking up every morning living their own life, dealing with their when issues, their pain, their frustrations, their excitements. These are emotions that are impacting on that person. And that's where that trigger happens that moves them on the path to eventually by something. Should we work to an example Brett? Like is there an eCommerce, like a product or an example we can use to tie it all together?
Brett:
Absolutely. I think that is always easier, clearer when we talk through examples. Let's talk about an eCommerce business. What kind of product or what kind of product category would strike your fancy here?
Ben:
Okay. Well let's talk about baby products for example.
Brett:
Yeah, there you go.
Ben:
Generally babies, toddlers, that kind of thing. I think many people can connect with that. So if we think about selling baby products then there's a realization as a parent who is the purchaser, at that emotional end of the journey, when they're becoming aware of a need, there's a lot of emotions at play. So they're not necessarily thinking that they need a specific product for their baby. They're thinking instead about wanting the best for their child or wanting to ensure that their child develops in the right way and that they're healthy and that they're developing the right way. That's the kind of emotion that's at play there.
Brett:
And they don't want to be a bad parent and they don't want to be seen as a bad parent either. All those emotions come in and they don't want to fail at this.
Ben:
Absolutely. So for a brand intending to get that parent to buy their product, we need to start first by marketing to them at that emotional end of the journey. You see the big brands do this. So the big brands are going to spend a lot of money at this awareness phase in creating emotional advertising or emotional campaigns. And video works really well here. And the best way I direct our clients to use video at this awareness end of the journey is to focus on story telling. So story telling as a form of communication is intrinsically emotional. So if you tell stories, people resonate with them at a more emotional level. So here for the baby products you're going to tell stories around parents and around the successful upbringing of a child into a healthy toddler and that kind of thing. And obviously the product comes alongside and is the guide or the thing that supports that happy outcome of this story. So here you're not directly selling your product or pitching your product. But instead, you're telling an emotional story that people can buy into. I think it's critical in this kind of purchase journey to first get people to buy in before you ask them to buy. Buying in is an emotional thing.
Ben:
So that's where it needs to start. So an organic video strategy needs to start by thinking, how are we going to use video to position our brand with the right emotional connection with our ideal audience? Because if you can do that then they're more likely to actually resonate with the rest of the way you're going to communicate with them on the purchase journey. Does that make sense?
Brett:
To shift tactical for just a minute, so we're thinking about awareness, we're trying to understand the emotions that our new parent is having that we would love to build a relationship with and hopefully eventually sell some products to. So we're thinking of these emotional stories. So where are we deploying this in? Is this going to be specific videos we put on YouTube or other places that someone may search and find organically? So they're maybe searching for the answer to a question or how to solve a problem or how to get my baby to do this or that or where would you think about deploying this or are we not quite ready to get to that point yet?
Ben:
It's a good question and it's an important question because at this stage the intent of the audience ... They're not actively searching. They're not yet in that middle of the funnel, that consideration phase. They're simply living their life, going about their everyday life, and because of the emotions that they're feeling internally, they're open to that sort of emotional messaging. So using a paid strategy here is where you can target cold audiences. You'll be familiar with that because you put that kind of emotional messaging in front of them and even though they weren't thinking about even considering a purchase, now they're starting to think about it. But from an organic strategy, the goal is just to put it in places that you can get the most eyeballs. So yes you would put it on the front page of your website for if people are referred to your bands. They're going to come in and they're going to see that and resonate with your brand and understand that you're a good emotional fit for what we want. You're going to want to use YouTube for example, so that it potentially will come up in suggested videos or things like that. You would use organic social media as well. And ideally the goal here is to get it to be sharable.
Ben:
So if it's a story that somewhat emotionally resonates with them they're likely to comment on it and say, that was beautiful, that really connected with me. And then you get this kind of organic social spread. That's the goal here is to use that video organically everywhere where your people are hanging out. Or you can obviously apply a paid strategy to it as well.
Brett:
Awesome. So that is we're looking at okay, I'm creating this content for the awareness stage. I want to tell a story. I want it to be emotional. But what kind of content? What thought starters? What questions should I be answering? How would I come about getting an idea for a video that's going to engage people and make them want to watch? So again, let's keep using this baby product company. I like that example.
Ben:
Sure. Again here recognizing that it's not about you, that it's about your customer. So when you think about story telling and referencing Donald Miller and StoryBrand-
Brett:
Yep. Great book.
Ben:
He often talks about the idea of ... Exactly. That you're not the hero of your brand story, that your customers are. And that's the way to think about it. So whether you take a direct storytelling approach in your video or you take something that feels a bit more organic and natural or user generated, the idea is, your products really shouldn't be front and center. It should be there. It should be clear that your product is being used in this situation. But it really needs to be about the people and the emotions that they're feeling. So there's a number of ways this can look. You can certainly use an awareness type video here to position your brand. I would call this a brand story video. And this might be more telling the story of the product's foundation or inception or invention. Or it might feature interviews with the founder of the company. But again it's not about the company, it's about why did they discover this new type of baby food that's organic and healthy or something? Whatever. Just making that up. So it's all about the idea of communicating the why behind the brand rather than the features, the what. Again, referencing Simon Sinek for example. Your listeners might be familiar with that.
Ben:
So that's what the video can potentially look like. It can take a lot of different forms, but I think critically it needs to be human. It needs to take people on an emotional journey in some way. People need to resonate with it and you need to really understand your audience to know what it is they're going to resonate with.
Brett:
Yeah. I love that. And so looking at ... And you mentioned organic baby food. That's actually a good example where you look at, the founder of this business could be telling the stories of years ... My baby had all these problems and wasn't sleeping and wasn't happy and we didn't know what to do, we're at the end of our rope. Just tell this emotional story. And then we started trying at the request of somebody, these organic foods and then it worked so well we created our own company. And you begin to tell that story. And then other parents who are in a similar situation they say yeah, that's me. I'm there. I've been there. That type of thing.
Ben:
100%. And I also love using client stories or customer stories here as well. So if you're not comfortable telling your brand stories directly as that then use your customers to tell the story. Because your other ideal customers are going to resonate with other people like them. And I think critically it's not a testimonial. It's not like a product testimonial where you have people at a shopping mall and they're just tasting your product and going, "Yeah, it tastes great. We love it." That's kind of more down the other end of the journey. But here you need to be taking people on a story arc. So like you explained the customer might say, "I was frustrated that I couldn't find this kind of product for my child." And like you said, there was pain there. "And then we discovered this product and now we've got this new normal life where our child is growing and thriving and happy and healthy and all that sort of stuff."
Brett:
That's awesome. Okay so we've got the awareness stage. Beautiful explanation there and walkthrough. So next is the consideration stage. The shopping journey. So what are we looking at here? What types of videos? How are we approaching this? Walk us through this stage.
Ben:
Absolutely. So recognizing that the intention of your customer here is now focused on research. They're focused on okay, I'm thinking about purchasing something. I don't necessarily at this stage know what it is I'm going to purchase. I'm not even now thinking about specific brands or products. I'm just thinking about solving my problem, whatever that problem is. And this is where people move into this research phase where now they're googling stuff. Now they're actively seeking information. Maybe they're doing that through digital means or maybe they're just speaking to friends or talking to their mothers groups for example in the baby product example. But critically what the customer wants here, what the potential customer wants here is the information. So the goal here for video in this consideration phase is to think about how can we show up for our idea customers with the information that they're looking for? So from a video perspective I talk about using helpful content. So again, it's not about pitching a sale or even pitching a product in any way. It's about how can you answer the questions that your customers have. So think about frequently asked questions. Think about what are people searching for?
Ben:
This is where things like keyword research can be really valuable. You want to be creating short videos that are allowing your ideal customer to get a small win. So they watch your video and they learn something or the feel a little more informed about something. And again, I just need to preface here that it's not about educating about your product, that can come later. But right now it's about educating about the problem that they're facing. Using the example of organic baby food for example, you might create some videos which are educating about what is in non organic baby food. The kinds of things that maybe cause issues that they haven't thought about. Maybe you're going to create some content around just general natural baby health. And it might not be related to food. It might be like, ways to dress your baby for summer in natural fabrics for example. You might not even sell natural fabrics. But you know that your ideal audience that's going to buy your organic baby food, they're going to resonate with that kind of content. Now of course it's going to be a brand impression in this kind of content so you have your logo there or there's a representative from your business is presenting that information but it's not about pitching the product at this stage.
Brett:
Great. And so keyword research, frequently asked questions, I really like those concepts a lot. Other tips that you would give for how does someone get started there? So frequently asked questions, are they just kind of brainstorming and coming up with those or do you recommend people interview customers to kind of come up with some of this content? Or how are we generating the ideas for this content?
Ben:
Yeah. It's all of the above. So yes, you can do your research just using data that's available to you. But the best way is to ask your customers. Whether it be through customer surveys. So, what were you searching for that lead you to our product? What questions did you have before you bought the product? That kind of thing. So where you can, getting real data from your customer. Just listening. And that should inform the kinds of content that you can create. So speak to your people who meet your customers or who are on the ground or your salespeople. They're getting the same sorts of questions over and over again. So you need to be showing up and answering those questions. So that's a really good way to do it. The other way to go about it is to think about ... Like I said before, just do some brainstorming around really understanding your audience and what other things do they care about that are maybe just one step removed from your product? So yeah you sell organic baby food but like I said, maybe you can create some content around clothing or around general baby health or maybe you can bring in some expert content as well. Like maybe you can get a doctor or a baby health expert to create some content about getting them to sleep or settling babies.
Ben:
All that sort of stuff is what your audience is going to lap up and you can show up and be that expert source for them. And then when they're ready to buy, who are they going to buy from? You've already built that trust and built that relationship with your customer. And that can be really impactful.
Brett:
Love it. So let's talk a little bit about the technical side of creating these videos. So how much do we worry about ... And again, I've got several thoughts here from the ad side but how should we think about production quality? How are we filming these? Is this going to be on our iPhone? Should we hire a production company? Does it vary between the awareness stage and the consideration stage in terms of how you're creating this? Just speak to production quality a little bit.
Ben:
Sure. It's a good question because as you move down the funnel I believe that you can start to drop production value as you go because it's kind of ... I kind of liken it to dating. On your first date with your prospect in front of you across the table at the restaurant, you're going to wear your best clothes, right? You're going to make sure you've had a haircut, you got a shave, whatever. You're going to smile and give a lot of eye contact and a lot of attention. That's what you need to do on the first date. And then as you get to the 20th date or even the third or fourth date, you're probably going to be a bit more casual. And then obviously ... This is making assumptions. But once you're kind of married or you're engaged then maybe you can let your guard down and you can be yourself. Liken it to that. So from a production quality perspective I think you need to ... If you're going to invest higher budget and hire a production company then your awareness content should reflect your brand highly in that way. It's like your first impression.
Ben:
As you move further down ... And it's going to vary based on budget. If you're a large organization and you can use professional production all the way through this journey, that's great. But if you're a smaller company, then you can start to pull back on production quality as you move down here. So at this consideration phase, I think the goal here is just to be smart about how you produce content. Often you can produce content in a batch here, so it's not just making one video once but it's like let's do a filming session, say with that child health expert, and create 12 pieces of content from this one opportunity. So short videos that are used as regular content marketing, it's all part of a strategy here. So budgets are going to vary, but that's the way I think about it.
Brett:
Yeah. I think it's way more important to be valuable. To resonate, to deliver a message that speaks to people than it is to have high production value.
Ben:
Absolutely.
Brett:
So it's more about the value of the content. But I do like that dating analogy. The dating analogy. Hey we can get more ... You've still got to be valuable. You've still got to be intentional and bring energy and value throughout the journey, but you can be more casual potentially. You can be more real, whatever, if that's the right word, the further down the funnel you get. So I like that a lot. Where do you believe live video fits into all of this? Whether we're going YouTube live, Facebook live, some other service. Where does that fit? In any and all categories or how do you typically use it?
Ben:
It can be used in any and all categories. It's about what you present in your live or how you go about sharing the information. So you can use live video to tell a story to make an emotional connection in that awareness phase. You can absolutely use live video. And this is probably where it's more commonly used in the consideration phase here where it's more about providing value, educating people about something. Or even entertaining. At the consideration phase if you can show up and just be entertaining for people, then they're going to spend more time with you and your brand which is valuable as well. So live video works really well here. But live video can also work well at the next stage which is all about actually making that sale, that conversion into the journey. And that's where you can do a live product demonstration for example or a live sale event which can be quite impactful as well with live video. So it can be used anywhere across this journey.
Brett:
Great. Let's transition. Let's talk about the conversion stage, the purchase stage of the journey. How are we using video at that stage?
Ben:
So now recognizing that the intent has changed again and now they're actively looking to purchase. Whether they purchase from you, or they purchase from someone else is really what's at stake here. Or postnatally not purchase at all. So what we need to do is show up for people with our content that overcomes any potential objections they have from buying from us. So this is where if the other end of the journey at awareness was about emotion, now we're about rational information. When someone's going to part with their cash and press that add to cart button or whatever it is, they have rational questions and they need rational answers. So they want to know the facts, the figures, they want to know how it works, they want to know if it's a good fit for them. So this is where your video need to do the job. Particularly in eCommerce. This is where it need to do the job of what a traditional bricks and mortar sales person would do in a retail store. So you're in there. So the intent is that you're looking to buy something usually. So that salesperson's role is to actually show you your options, help you try things one, see if it's a good fit, understand how the thing works, open and close the doors, press the buttons. All that sort of stuff.
Ben:
So from a video perspective, that's what you need to do is to create videos that help the purchaser overcome any objections that they have to buying from you. And critical here is that these videos, they need to be deployed on the page. Whether it be a shopping cart page or wherever there is a limited barrier to that sale talking place. Because if it does its job it needs to be just one click away from add to cart basically. So these kind of videos they really shouldn't be on social media or on YouTube or on the front page of your website where they then need to go into the story or the website and actually kind of find the product that you were talking about. Does that make sense?
Brett:
Yep. This is on the product detail page. This is-
Ben:
Landing page.
Brett:
Email maybe to an abandoned cart list or something. Someone who's really close to making the purchase. We're now demonstrating, showing them the details, really clearing up any questions. Handling any objections. You're hopefully pushing them over the edge to say yes and to purchase.
Ben:
Absolutely.
Brett:
Fantastic. Very, very good. Cool. What other tips would you give to someone again, kind of getting started on creating videos for what equipment do you invest in, any things along those lines of how to get started in creating this kind of content?
Ben:
Before we get into that Brett, can we go one step further with the journey? Because I think it's critical to recognize.
Brett:
Oh absolutely. I forgot advocacy, right?
Ben:
Advocacy. Yeah. But let's go back to the technical stuff because the advocacy stage is next. Because after the purchase is made, we recognize that that's not where the journey end because our goal here is to provide a fantastic customer experience so that they'll buy from us again, increase lifetime value, refer other people into the top of the funnel here. So using video here is something that's often really overlooked by everyone in business. And particularly a lot of eCommerce as well. And there's real opportunity for using video in a way to just surprise and delight effectively. So some examples of this ... And it can be used in different ways. But maybe it's a video on the confirmation page just saying thank you for making this purchase. So a personal ... It feels personal. Thank you for buying this thing. We can't wait to hear how it improves your life. Or maybe it's a video that comes through in the receipt email for example that makes you feel that you made the right decision in buying this thing. I think depending on the product buyer's remorse can be really critical thing here.
Ben:
So you can for example if someone's just bought something that's a higher ticket thing, have a video that comes out from the founder of the company or from someone within the company. It doesn't need to be highly produced, it just needs to feel personal. Just saying you've made the right decision, this is what happens next. We've now got the order and then going to be dispatched within one day and you can expect it within a week. Whatever. Now people feel like okay, we're clear, I made the right decision. You're going to probably minimize support requests or refund requests, all that sort of stuff just by using video in a way that is surprising to people. I think another way to think about video here is using it as part of your CRM or something like that where you can actually say, okay, so someone's bought from us six months ago but haven't bought from us again depending on the frequency of the purchase for your product. So you can actually trigger something in your CRM that says, okay, let's send them a re-engagement video which is ... And it's actually really powerful if it can be personalized and there are ways to do this through different video tools.
Ben:
Where maybe one of your salespeople gets a little notification in the CRM. It says, "Hey, Brett hasn't bought from you for six months, time to re engage him." You can just press a button and basically opens up your webcam and during can say, "Hey Brett, how are you? It's Ben from Baby Food Store. We noticed that you haven't bought from us for a little while and we'd love to get you another order shipped out. So how can we help you further?" Or something like that. You can do that in a personalized way and that really stands out for people and it's more likely to improve that customer experience and get them buying from you again, talking about you and the possibilities here are kind of endless.
Brett:
Yeah. That's so good. And I think there's a lot of way that you can use video in that just right after purchase stage and you hit on some of these. But even a video telling people what to expect. So hey, when the product arrives it's going to come in a box like this. Here's how you get into it. You open it up and ... Like almost an unboxing video. Or when you're using the product for the first time, here's what we recommend and here's some things you may run into. You kind of alluded to that or mentioned that, that hey, that can help with support requests. It also helps build the anticipation a little bit of when the product comes. It shows that you care as well. It shows that you're really engaged and interested in them as a customer. So lots of ways to use video. And especially in that stage. That does not need to be high production quality. Just good lighting, clear message, iPhone or whatever and just deliver that and that's perfect.
Ben:
Yeah. 100%. Love all those ideas as well.
Brett:
Yep. Yep. Awesome. Okay, so we got our stages, we got awareness, consideration, conversion or purchase and then advocacy. And so then let's talk through some of your favorite tools and technology to make this process easier. Because I think there's a lot of people that just don't know where to get started.
Ben:
I think as you just mentioned there, critically just get started with what you've got. You've got a smartphone in your pocket or a webcam on your desk then you've got the tools to create video. Like we said, tolerance for production quality can vary depending on budget and where your video fits within that journey that we talked about. But don't use technology as an excuse not to get started. There's no reason to use that as an excuse these days.
Brett:
To kind of piggy back on a point there, we ... As we're talking about YouTube ads as an example, we'll recommend, hey start with remarketing first. Talk to your customer first. Do remarketing, repeat purchase, reorder campaigns or whatever. And again, those are the areas where you can be a little more raw and authentic. So yeah, I'm really glad you pointed that out. Don't let the lack of technology or equipment keep you from doing it and start with those lower in the funnel videos first and then you can kind of work your way up. That'd be my advice anyway.
Ben:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think from a tools perspective, it's kind of endless as well. I think that using tools that are available to you such as social media, tools like using live video is free and available to anyone with those social media accounts. I think when you get down to the conversion end, particularly for eCommerce, using video tools that allow the right analytics is critical. So don't just embed a YouTube video on your sales or your product page. Just doesn't allow you enough of the metrics that you really need. I'd recommend using a tool like Wistia or Vidyard for example. But Wistia is probably the most common used tool there which allows better analytics and better ways to track engagement with the videos. Then when we get ... Let's just talk quickly about some of those personalized top video tools because some people might want to experiment with those. I really love Bonjoro. Bonjoro is one that is free to get started with and you can connect it through certain triggers with a CRM or shopping cart software.
Ben:
So someone buys your thing, your app on your phone will kind of ping you with a notification to say, so and so has bought the product. Then you can just pick up your phone, shoot a quick little video and say, hey just saw that your order come through for our baby food, whatever and it's so awesome to have you here. We're really passionate about what we do and we can't wait to get this product in your hand. Thanks again for buying from us.
Brett:
I can also see that being used for some eCommerce stores that are going to get thousands of orders a day or whatever, that'd be kind of difficult. But I could see once someone reaches a certain threshold, hey, this was the fifth time they've purchased or something like that, they've now graduated into this class of this is one of our best customers, let's trigger this process. It was Bonjoro?
Ben:
Bonjoro. B-O-N-J-O-R-O.
Brett:
I got it. So now that triggers and now we'd say, "Hey, they just told me. You made your fifth purchase. We are so excited, we're so thrilled. Here's what we're going to for you. We're going to send you this little gift or be on the lookout and we're going to email you something special. But just wanted to tell you thank you." Something simple like that and you do a handful of those, you take someone that's a great customer and make them even a better advocate. Really cool tool and tactic there for sure.
Ben:
Absolutely. Some of those are not scalable, but it's the things that aren't scalable that really build those relationships-
Brett:
Absolutely.
Ben:
Improve those advocates experience.
Brett:
Yep. Cool. Excellent. Any other tools or resources you'd recommend?
Ben:
I can't think of anything of the top of my head except I think just recognizing that if people don't get bogged down in the technical stuff. I think that when it comes to editing, people are thinking, I'm going to film my own videos and now we need to get them edited and things like that. I'd just look for ways to keep it natural, keep it real, keep it authentic to your brand and your business. And that resonates these days. The tolerance for lower production quality I think even now post coronavirus is probably even-
Brett:
Now it's just everybody having kids walk in which I had kid noise earlier. Yeah. It's just people are pretty to tolerant of that. Shows you're human.
Ben:
Yeah. Absolutely.
Brett:
Fantastic. So you have an amazing podcast that people should check out. So talk a little bit about your podcast and what you cover and then any resources, articles, blog posts, things like that that people should check out.
Ben:
Yeah, thanks very much for that. So we also have awesome guests like Brett for example recently. The Engage Video Marketing podcast is basically all about exploring this world of online video and its power in moving people to take action. So I interview a whole bunch of guests in all sorts of different areas about this space of online video which I am super passionate about. As far as further resources, further learning, if they head to engagevideomarketing.com, to the main page of my website, there's a few different options there. I have a free foundations video course. That's actually at engagedvideomarketing.com/foundations. Which will kind of walk you through the foundations of what an online video strategy might look like for your business. And I also have an academy, a membership for ... More for the DIY video marketer, the smaller business, maybe a smaller eCommerce out there and they're just trying to figure out how to do this video stuff themselves. That's at the engagedvideomarketingacademy.com.
Brett:
Really good stuff Ben. This has been fantastic. What about on the socials? Are you active on Facebook, YouTube channel, things like that?
Ben:
Yeah. Just really building my YouTube channel right now. It's something that I neglected for too long. You can just search Engage Video Marketing on YouTube or Engage_Ben on Instagram is a great place to find me too.
Brett:
Awesome. Ben, this has been a ton of fun. I love talking video. I love your approach and your perspective so really appreciate you taking the time and being so generous and sharing your insights.
Ben:
Thanks Brett. Awesome to be here.
Brett:
Yep. Absolutely. And so as always, thank you for tuning in and spending your time here on this show. We would love to hear your feedback. Let us know what you'd like to hear more of, less of. We'd just love you feedback. Also we'd love your review on iTunes. So if this show has been valuable, share it with somebody. Leave a review on iTunes. That helps other people discover this show as well. And with that, until next time, thank you for listening.
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