This week on Video Marketing Insights, Johnny Eaker talks about where to start with video marketing, what topics your videos should cover, and how objections are an important tool in your video strategy. Using real client case studies of Dogwood Solar, among others, we show how testimonials can be an amazing place to get results with video!
Show Notes: Time Details
1:20 — Audience’s problems that your business can help solve
3:55 — Objections prospects have when considering your product or service
4:53 — Dogwood Solar testimonial of overcoming obstacles
6:23 — Karen’s testimonial
8:10 — Joline’s testimonial
Resources:
Dogwood Solar Testimonial Video: Dogwoodsolar.com
Cosmic Sauce Explainer Video: View on Facebook
Transcription:
This is episode two of Video Marketing Insights, and I’m your co-host Johnny Eaker, co-founder of Cosmic Sauce. Every week the goal is to share what we know and love about video marketing to make you a better marketing or business owner. This week I want to talk about where to start. It can be pretty overwhelming when you’re thinking, There are all these videos that I could be making, what do I do? So, you’ve been in business for a while, you know your business, and you know your customers, so what are your target audience’s three to five most painful problems that your business can help them solve? Every business is going to be a little bit different here.
As an example, I’ll use Cosmic Sauce. When we first started the agency, people were like, “What is that? Do you guys just make videos?” It’s much more than just making videos, it’s about thinking about the strategy behind where to start, what’s the best type of content to make, what’s the most engaging creative that we can come up with to achieve the goal, and beyond that, how do you distribute and promote this content? Especially when we were getting started as a video marketing agency, we had an awareness issue and, people didn’t really know who we were or what we did. So as we went to trade shows, we created an explainer video, and this explainer video really helped us break down who we are, what we did in a very engaging way and it really showed what a video marketing agency is, and the point of what we could do, and it really helped open up some conversations for us in what that is. I won’t play the whole thing, but feel free to check that out, it’s on our Facebook page now. We’ve since updated it, this is a couple years old. But, the explainer video is a good place to start for us, in that let’s explain what we do and how video fits into the social landscape.
So, I would do a video for each one of those pain points, that is an awesome place to start. The other place to start is that we know there are objections that prospects have when they’re considering your product or service, so with that being the case, making a video that addresses those objections. If you know, then that’s what is going to happen. We had a great client, Dogwood Solar, and I’m going show you a couple pieces from Dogwood. With them, and solar systems, you can imagine that those can be pretty expensive. They’re looking for a very specific type of customer that is interested in solar for a number of different reasons, whether it be environmental, whether it be price, they’re looking for a pay back. But, there can be an upfront cost; so what we did is we looked at testimonials as a way to overcome those objections that Dan, the owner, could share with folks that were interested in solar. I’m going to share one of those with you right now.
– So we couldn’t joke around, well we grow veggies, we grow berries, but we also grow solar.
– First month that we had it, we had a $5 electric bill, which was cool.
– A lot of people, it’s just learning what it can do and how it can do it, they explained how all the systems work and every time I talk to people that find out we have solar, and they have questions, it’s just they’re just amazed when they get done visiting with us, and it really, they recognize the value that it can add for them, and that it’s a good decision, not just financially but environmentally.
So there you have it. He talks about the first month they had the $5 bill, so that really paints the picture that, yes there is an upfront cost, but there’s a long-term payback and eventually you’re gonna have free energy, and to the right person, that makes all the sense in the world so that helped overcome that. The other piece, as we talk to some of their clients, is that it’s about more than just money with them, so we created a second type of testimonial that really speaks to it beyond just the payback angle, it’s beyond the environment. There was another part of purchasing solar that really mattered to one of their customers, so I’m going share Karen’s story right now.
Income in a few years, well little more than a few, but we’re going to have a fixed income, and what can we do to minimize our outgoing expenses. Well, solar panels. So invest now so that we can really realize our return on investment when we’ve got a fixed income, and electrical prices are going out the roof, well we’re not gonna have to pay those astronomical prices because we’re harnessing the sun now.
So there you have Karen. She is talking about going into being on a fixed income as a senior that to her right now that made sense, and that opened up a whole world of targeting age. She was a great focus group, and when we were working the marketing plan, we really hadn’t thought about targeting that segment for solar customers, and for her, it made all the sense in the world. We were able to tell her story and put that in front of people on social, and it did very well. The other piece was, when we talk about Taz and Joline, the first client, they didn’t actually buy a solar system to start, so we wanted to convey that there’s a possibility of stepping into energy-efficient solutions with Dogwood that didn’t require potentially tens of thousands of dollars with a solar system. Dogwood has this product called a Sun Tunnel, so just getting a quick testimonial as to why they even explored that, thinking it’s like a skylight on steroids, so it really brightens up a room, does a lot of really cool things. Go check out Dogwood’s website and you can learn more about it, but let’s check out the testimonial.
– [Joline] And we always talked about wiring a light fixture down there at the bottom of the steps, and when we saw the sun tunnel, it was like “wow”.
– [Taz] It was just what we needed. We put one in the kitchen, too.
– [Joline] Yeah, we got dark cabinets, we got darkwood floor, I like a lot of light when I’m cutting up vegetables and I’m working and I’m cooking, so just being able to see better, working in the kitchen, and our kitchen’s kind of our hangout spot, so we’re really happy that we purchased ’em, just from a standpoint of the light, the energy conservation, the ability to safety and to be able to see better, be able to see better.
So there you have three different types of testimonials, really all trying really with the idea of having price as the objection, I mean you knew that was an objection, that in general, people think solar’s a great idea, but oh it’s expensive. When we talk about where to get started, you look at those pain points, you look at objections, but testimonials in general are a great place to start. If anything else, you’re like “I don’t know what to do, what videos to make,” start with testimonials. We’ll talk about this in future episodes: the sales funnel, and you have top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom of funnel, well testimonials will fit anywhere in the funnel. You can make one for ‘why we do business’ and that can be a testimontial, that’s top of funnel, middle of funnel can be more of that, the pain point kind of things, and then the objections can be the bottom of funnel that really helps someone get over the hump and pull the trigger and do business with you, so make testimonial videos, and I’ll dive into on a future episode of how to go about it and what are the best questions to ask, but if anything else, start there.
Last thing is I will plug our Maximize Your Marketing with Video class, that again is March 13th at 11am. These topics that I’m talking about are little micro-topics, whereas the workshop is going to be an hour and really provide a ton of value as we’ve talked about where to get started, but really learning how to put video and social together to help you maximize your marketing. So we’re looking forward to that, it’s $10, and all proceeds are going to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Columbia, so we’re excited to do that for them for. If you look at our Facebook page, there’s a link to an e-vite, and you can register there, and it’s at REDI, which is the Innovation Hub, right next door there’s training classrooms, it’s right across from the post office downtown; so please sign up and I am really looking forward to that.
I will see you next week. Thanks, guys. Bye.
