Is your website actually communicating the right message to your audience or turning them away? Don’t let yourself fall into the category of those who are doing things incorrectly! We’ve got plenty of tips that will help guide you to the perfect website and make sure you are sending the right message to your audience.
Take a look at this weeks Moron Monday video to learn what you should and shouldn’t be doing when it comes to your website.
If you missed last weeks episode, you can find it HERE! We talked about how to run successful video ads!
VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION
Hey, what’s up guys? I want to welcome you to another session of Moron Monday.
It’s not Monday, we call it Moron Monday because we just show you the different things that morons do in marketing, and especially video marketing.
Today is probably one of the most important episodes we’ve had. We’ve only had three, but it’s probably one of the most important episodes you’re going to see and continue to see, because we’re going to talk about the words. The words we use and the messaging we use. If you are a business and you are creating a website or you’re creating a new video, it’s really important that you say the right things to get people to take action.
If somebody comes to your website, they need to know what it is that you do immediately. It needs to pass the five second test.
If you’re creating a video, they need to know “Hey, what is this video about?”. Don’t go into some long old story before you tell them what it’s about. It’s like a trailer.
Whatever it is that you are using to get your message in front of people, you need to have your Unique Selling Proposition there.
And then same with your video message, it needs to be in there.
STEP NUMBER 1
This is probably where we see people screw up the most, is with simplicity.
I am a big fan of keeping things simple, and a lot of times when a customer comes to us and they’re like, “Hey, we want you guys to create our script,” (because we do all the scriptwriting when it comes to our videos), most of the time there’s a bit of a clash because what they’re focused on is actually confusing the heck out of the audience.
There’s that knowledge gap where they have been working in that industry, they know everything about it, and then you have a consumer who knows nothing about it.
What happens is they try to take all their jargon, all of their message, all of their features, and they just cram it into a video, and usually it doesn’t turn out good and it confuses the audience.
What we try to do is get them to step back and say, “Hey, let’s keep things simple and do not confuse.” Because if you confuse your audience, you’re going to lose them. They’re going to jump over to somebody else who doesn’t confuse them.
STEP NUMBER 2
And then the next thing, everything that you do needs to be customer and problem-solution focused.
Don’t go out there and say we, we, we, we, we.
You need to talk about what it is that you’re going to do for them.
How can you solve their problem? Because people really don’t care about your awards, they don’t care about that kind of stuff.
Now, you do need to show social proof, I’m not saying go get rid of all your awards, go get rid of all your testimonials. No. That comes a little later, like if you’re creating a website, social proof should be down below.
But you don’t want to start off with “we’re the number one lawyer in the world”. And I’m going to show you some examples of different sites.
I’m going to jump over to a simple screencast and give you guys an idea of what to do and what not to do on what makes sense.
So the very first site we’re going to go jump into is a lawyer site.
Lawyers are actually notorious for confusing their audience, and they love cramming so much information on above the fold.
It just doesn’t make sense. And people don’t pay attention to it anyway.
So the very first one I pulled up was this NevadaDivorce.net. And you will see above the fold, which above the fold is above the crease, you have a bunch of call to actions.
You have a ton of paragraphs. You have no idea what it is that these guys do, I mean they’re divorce attorneys, but it just says Nevada divorce and document service.
Now they have some bullet points, they have a whole paragraph here, paragraph there, and bunch of links on the right, call us … You just don’t know what it is that they actually do here, so most people will bounce.
Compare that to this. Neil Patel. If you don’t know who Neil Patel is, he’s one of the SEO experts out there. He ranks for a lot of different things.
But on his website he just says “Do you want more traffic?”
Great. You come there and you’re like, “Oh, what it is that Neil does? He gets me more traffic.” Do you want more traffic lead sales? Enter your URL below if you want to grow your traffic and revenue.
And then he has a website. Now, what he’ll do with this website is more of a lead capture. You put your information in here, and that’s it. That’s what his whole website is set up to do.
It’s simple, effective, and I like to use some of his stuff.
Here’s another attorney. I just kind of make fun of attorneys, sorry. But their websites are usually the worst.
So they start off, here’s my number. They’re the 702 Firm.
Now, you have a smiley, a mean, a half-smile guy here, and they’re awarded the best personal injury law firm. That is a hundred percent me, me-focused, it is not consumer-focused.
Best injury lawyers in Las Vegas…personal injuries…
They’re trying to do a lot of stuff with search engine optimization and load it in here, but this whole website does not talk one bit about the consumer.
Compared to this. This is StoryBrand.
If you don’t know who he is, he actually writes about clarifying your message. So workshops to help you clarify your message, that’s what he does.
He does workshops to help clarify message. And then he just says eliminate confusion, connect with customers, grow your company.
You can see that that is customer-focused and it’s not about him, he doesn’t say, “We do this, this, this, this,” it’s like no, you’re going to eliminate confusion, you’re going to connect with your audience, and grow your company.
And then in the background he actually shows a good image of what’s going on so there’s just no confusion.
Compared to this one, this is a mortgage one. So hundreds of mortgage options under one roof.
Then they have this slider here that is going way too fast. They have nothing here, they just have some images and then this creepy little thing that pops up.
And then if you scroll down, there’s this long old paragraph here that nobody reads.
If you looked at the bounce rate and just said, “Hey, what happened?”
Now, if you space it out it’s okay to do some paragraphs. I’ll show you what I’m testing right now.
Okay, if you jump over onto this page here. I’m testing some longer form because long form sales letters do work.
It doesn’t all need to be simple, but if you hit the website, a YouTube Campaign can grow your business.
Then I go into these long form paragraphs here, where I talk about what kind of results we get for customers, and this seems to be working.
But you’ll see I space it out. I very rarely have two sentences per paragraph. I space it out, I highlight it. I don’t make it look all slammed together where people aren’t going to read that stuff.
You don’t need to eliminate all the writing on a website. This seems to be working, and we’ll keep testing.
But the main point it, just don’t confuse your audience.
Keep things simple, don’t confuse them.
Go back through your material.
The best way to get the most out of these courses that we do is go back through your material and apply these things that we talk about. Look at your website messaging and say, “Am I confusing my audience? If they come here, do they know what it is that I do within five seconds?”
And then another big thing, on a website you should have your headline. You can have a sub-headline here.
Make sure you have a call to action. You want to say, “Hey, if you’re here at my website, this is what I want you to do. Here’s what you’re going to get.” Don’t forget to put a call to action, and most of those websites that I did show you did not have that.
Same with video. So video, it needs to kind of fall in the same format, but it’s a little different.
What we like to do on videos is a headline, problem, solution, call to action, and then we’ll extend it out.
There’s a lot of popular videos that have millions of views that follow this same formula. They will do a guarantee, another solution, another call to action.
But don’t forget this call to action in your videos. You want them to do something. After they engage with any of your material, whether it’s brochures, website, videos, you want to ask them to do something so that you can do business. So don’t forget that.
And that is it. Go through your stuff, make the changes, and we’ll see you on the next episode.
In 2019 we are sharing all the goodies. We’re starting a video series called Moron Monday talking about what we’ve learned about video marketing over the years and what you should be implementing into your business. You can check these out weekly on our YouTube Channel.
In this weeks video, Jace is sharing some tips on video remarketing and why it’s important.
Video Transcription
Hey guys, Jace over here at Ydraw. Today I want to go over just a couple things on video remarketing, why it’s important and what you need to do to put it into play.
1. Build Your Audience
First off, most people take multiple touches for them to become a customer.
If I’m going to go get a product, usually I’ll look at it online, I’ll talk to somebody, I’ll look at it some more, and then finally a couple months to sometimes years down the road, I’ll finally make a decision.
Something you can do to stay in front of your audience is create a simple video remarketing campaign.
Very first thing you need to do is actually build that audience.
Google gives you the ability to put a pixel on your website. If you go to Google Ads, within Google Ads or Google Analytics, you will find a pixel. You can also use Google tag manager.
You go in there and you find a pixel, you get the pixel and then you put it on the header of your website. That way when someone comes to your website they then get a cookie and you can start running and remarketing.
But you can go a step further… so instead of just running and remarketing, you can run them a video remarketing campaign that shows up on YouTube.
Also, they’re getting pretty aggressive on their TV advertising, so if people are coming to your site, they’re home watching TV, you can then run them an ad.
The very first thing is to get that pixel and get it on your site. You should be doing that anyway and building out your audiences. A 30 day, a 15, a 7 day, a conversion, there’s all types of audiences.
Then also, make sure that you build out an audience of anybody who has watched your YouTube videos.
2. Get A Video
Step two, you need to get a video. It can be professional or it can be homemade. You just need to get one, make sure that video’s very engaging.
Make sure that you have a good call to action on there and you’re telling the audience what you want them to do.
Another thing you can do to help it be engaging is educate. Kind of like what I’m doing here, I’m going to give you guys a lot of education, provide you some value, and then you can turn around and ask for their business later on.
If you can’t afford an expensive video, pull out your phone and give them some good education. Then make sure you give them a call to action like go visit your website.
3. Create Your Google Ad
Then finally when you have those two things in place, you got your pixels, you’ve tracked your audience, then you have your video, now you need to go create your campaign.
Go to Google Ads.
You’re going to target your website visitors or target anyone who’s watched your YouTube videos.
A small budget works but if you have too small of a budget, you need to make sure you exclude videos like games.
I even like to exclude mobile sometimes. I feel like when people are on their mobile phones they’re going to a YouTube video they want to watch that’s there and they’re more likely to skip.
But on their desktop, I get higher conversions. So, I’ll turn off my mobile remarketing campaign and just leave it on desktop.
There it is. If you have questions, you can go visit us at Ydraw.com. Feel free to call us. We’d be happy to help you on your video. We’d also be happy to help you set this up.
We’re doing video marketing campaigns all the time and this is just one little aspect of video marketing.
By filling your marketing quiver with smart, sentence arrows, you’ll be able to deliver direct hits to your target audience.
Certain words and phrases can enable you to connect with audiences and spur them to take action.
For email marketers, the importance of using the “right” words in print and video voiceovers cannot be overstated.
Which word or phrase will click with your subscribers and nudge them to open emails, click to visit your website or make a purchase?
Words can motivate. The trick is determining which ones work for your business and your particular situation. A word or phrase that performs well in one campaign may not be the best option for your next campaign. Trial and error can help you narrow down which words connect with your audience.
To get you started, try some of the following “magic marketing words” in your next email or social post. (Don’t hesitate to use them on your print marketing and your website too.)
You: Write as if you were speaking directly to the customer. Make it about the reader, not about yourself.
Because: Give customers a compelling reason to take action.
Free: Don’t underestimate the appeal of “free.”
Value: Highlight the value that customers receive for their money. “Cost” or “price” imply losing something – in this case, money.
Guaranteed: Make readers feel they have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
Amazing/incredible: Customers respond to something out of the ordinary. But be careful not to overuse these terms, or they lose their power.
Easy: Let subscribers know how much easier life will be with your product or service, and then make it simple for them to take the next step in the purchasing process.
Discover: Imply there is something new and unknown to the customer, something that offers distinct benefits and gives them an edge.
Act now: Motivate an immediate response with a limited-time offer.
Everything included/everything you need: Establish that your product or service is all your customers will have to buy in order to achieve their goal.
Never: Use this to point out a “negative benefit,” such as “never worry again,” or “never overpay again.”
New: Like “free,” “new” has the ability to make people sit up and take notice.
Save: The best, clearest word to showcase monetary or time savings.
Proven: Remind customers that your product, service or business is tried and true.
Safe and effective: Minimize risk perception for health and monetary loss.
Powerful: Let customers know that your business, product or service is robust.
Real results: Everyone wants results.
Secret: Is your product or service the secret to success? Let customers know you can reveal that secret.
The: This implies your solution is the be-all and end-all. Consider the difference: “3 Solutions for Marketing Success” vs. “The 3 Solutions for Marketing Success.”
Instant: Instant access or downloads are more appealing than waiting.
How to…: Help your readers accomplish a challenging task or goal.
Elite: Invite newbies to join the highly desirable club you’re hosting.
Premium: Premium helps denote high quality.
Caused by: If your email campaigns build a case for your product, transitional phrases such as “caused by,” “therefore” and “thus” reinforce the logic of a purchase.
More: Do you offer more than your competitors? Show it.
Bargain: Customers want a great deal.
No obligation: Create a win-win situation for your customers.
100% money-back guarantee: Again, no risk.
Huge: A large discount or outstanding offer is difficult to resist.
Wealth: If you’re selling products and services related to money, wealth is a desirable word for customers.
Bonus: phrases that trigger positive responses in readers
Marketing Words and Phrases that Reduce Risk
Minimizing a customer’s perception of risk will make them that much more comfortable pulling the trigger and doing business with you. Try to use phrases that provide reassurance that they aren’t at risk of losing money or being tied into some sort of scheme resulting in a 12-year membership to your jelly of the month club.
Guaranteed
• Or your money back
• You can unsubscribe at any time
• We won’t flood your inbox
• No obligation
• No purchase necessary
• Cancel at any time
• What do you have to lose?
• Premium
Words and Phrases that Reduce Uncertainty
Customers will feel uncertain about your company or services when they’re unfamiliar with you. Marketing phrases that work to reduce uncertainty and boost confidence in a new customer include:
No questions asked
• First month free
• Find out
• See why
• See for yourself
• No hidden fees
Words and Phrases that Inspire to Buy
People must be able to visualize how your product or services will change their lives for the better. Lead them down this imaginary road toward their new and improved self/situation by using phrases like the below:
See for yourself
• What do you have to lose?
• Give us a shot
• Receive
• What you get
• What’s in it for you?
• Bargain
• Do you want to(insert benefits of your services)?
• Results
• Growth
• Effective
• Start now
• Become
• Ends soon
• Real results
Words and Phrases that Encourage Urgency
Running a promotion for a finite period of time is a great way to get people to act. Try using these words in your next time-limited offer:
Download now/today
• While supplies last
• For a limited time only
• Save your spot
• Sale ends Saturday
• Act now before time runs out
• Get it while it’s hot
• Last chance
• Don’t want to miss
Marketing Phrases to Spark Curiosity
You want to encourage customers to engage with you on many different levels. Whether that’s getting them to visit your blog or sign up for newsletters, the key is to make them curious enough to take the next step. Consider using the following:
What if?
• Insider
• Special
• Scoop
• Learn how to…
• Join
• Discover
• Uncover
• Unlock
Marketing Phrases to Connect with Your Audience
Relating to clients on a personal level goes a long way in winning and keeping their business. When churning out customer-facing marketing materials, try to include some of these phrases which show that you empathize with the reader:
Ever wish you could…
• Finally, a …
• At last…
• Aren’t you tired of
• We get it
• We’ve got you
• Improve your…
• Discover what it’s like to…
• Look familiar?
• Experience what it’s like to
• You deserve
• You’ve earned
Marketing Phrases the Communicate Value
Give them an extra dose of confidence by making an appeal for the value of your offerings. Quality will never stop being important to the consumer and addressing it will prove beneficial:
Top notch
• Premium
• Value
• Equivalent to
• New
• Safe
• Secure
• Efficient
• Quality
• Custom-built
• Only
• First
• One-of-a-kind
• Harness the power of
Save now
• Affordable
• Get your money’s worth
• Without breaking the bank
• Easy on your wallet
• Avoid unnecessary fees
• Rewards
• Collect
• Earn
And a few words to avoid
Miracle: This oversells. Is what you’re offering truly a miracle?
Revolutionary: This is another oversell. Unless the product or service truly upends its industry, it’s not revolutionary.
Unique: Everyone uses unique now, so nothing is unique.
Great: Don’t be generic by using “great.”
Exciting: This is nearly as generic as “great.”
Language is powerful and using the right wordswill be the difference between marketing phrases that work and those that fall flat. Remember that a word or phrase that bodes well for one campaign doesn’t necessarily mean it will work across the board. As always, be strategic and conduct A/B testing to confirm you’re using these marketing phrases properly.
What Is Tone and Mood and Why Do They Matter to Your Video?
By Erica Schmidt Jabali
According to a Harvard professor, at least 95% of purchasing decisions are made subconsciously – or based on how we feel. We could be influenced by a brand’s commercial, their marketing, brand packaging, and more.
This means simply giving the facts and figures in your video isn’t enough – you have to strike an emotional chord with your target consumer in order to motivate them to act. (read more here)
This is one reason why we ask in our questionnaire and on our kick-off calls what tone and mood you want in your video.
And, we are usually met with crickets on the other end of the line.
Turns out, for those of us who haven’t been in high school English classes for a long time (okay, a really long time), we might need a little brushing up on our tone and mood skills.
Don’t worry – we got you.
So, sharpen your pencils and sit up straight – because your speed-round refresher course on Tone vs. Mood starts now:
TONE:
Tone is the author’s attitude towards the subject. Remember when your mom used to say, “Don’t you take that tone with me!” Well, she wasn’t wrong – the tone we use in our speech is similar to the tone a piece of writing or voiceover in a video takes.
Here are some examples of videos that use a different tone:
In this video, the client wanted a confident, inspirational, educational tone:
Whereas in this video, the client asked for a relaxed, fun, beachy vibe, so our fan-favorite, chameleon of a voiceover talent, Dawson, actually used a surfer accent to achieve this goal
In this video, we wanted to replicate that infamous movie trailer voice to give it that movie trailer tone:
So, in short, tone is the inflections used by the voiceover in order to communicate how they feel about the subject.
Our VO talents are pros at taking a script and inferring the tone that it is trying to convey.
WHY THIS MATTERS:
You know your target customer better than anyone. You know what they like and don’t like. You know what their interests are, maybe their demographics, and even their buying patterns.
So, how do you think this person wants to be talked to?
Do they want that warm, motherly tone that says, “I’m here for you…”? It might end up sounding a little bit like this:
Do you want a fast-talking, witty, lightning speed commentary like this one?
The tone you choose for your video should be directly related to how your target consumer wants to be talked to.
So, when deciding the tone for your video, consider the following questions:
What prior marketing campaigns have been the most successful and what tone did they take?
What type of tone will your target consumer be most responsive to?
What tone will best represent your vision for your business and how you want to be perceived?
Try to think of three key words to describe this tone.
Excellent. Now that you have your tone figured out, let’s move on to mood:
MOOD:
This is how the viewer will feel after watching your video.
For example, this client focuses on food kits for emergencies:
How did this video make you feel? That’s the mood of the video.
Our goal was to create a feeling of urgency, to make you feel that you need this product in order to be prepared and protect your family.
You need to think about the mood because you want to have that target in mind when writing your video.
For example, if you want your viewer to feel emotionally moved and compelled to act, then you’ll want to write the video with that goal in mind – and anything that does not compliment this mission has to be cut.
Sometimes, it can be painful to make cuts or reduce a video script to get it to a certain time – but if you think about all of your choices through the lens of – what will make my target consumer feel [x, y, z] – then it becomes much easier.
Since we know that people make most of their purchasing decisions based on how the branding or marketing makes them feel- then selecting the most appropriate tone and mood for your video becomes imperative.
WRAP IT UP:
The tone is the author’s attitude in the video and the tone of the VO and the script writing will communicate this
The tone creates the mood that your viewer will feel
With most purchasing decision made based on emotions – how you make your viewer feel is very important
Consider your target tone and mood carefully when preparing for your kick-off call!
There you have it. Everything you needed to know about tone and mood.
We hope this helps as you prepare for the scripting process. We’re here to help and hope to make the process as easy on you as possible.
Please reach out with any questions. We can’t wait to work with you!
Think about the people you follow on social media. You probably choose to follow these people for multiple reasons.
1. You have a personal relationship with this person and you are interested in their life.
2. You appreciate their insight on topics you care about.
3. You enjoy their posts because they relate to you.
For companies, however, social media can be hard to master. You’ll need a strategic approach that will first peak their interest, and then engage them.
How to Create a Conversation Using Your Social Media Platforms
The first conversation can sometimes feel awkward and forced. Picture talking to your crush circa 8th grade. Sometimes our business social media platforms feel that way too. Content becomes generic and wordy and before you know it, you sound like a robot spitting out marketing terms.
Here are 6 ideas to spice up your posts!
1. Think personal, BE A REAL HUMAN!
Customers appreciate when a business behaves like a normal person. Make your captions fun and engaging! Ask questions. Keep up on current events and tie them into your content.
2. Take the focus off YOU and put it on your customer.
-Talk about their pains, and THEN you can talk about how you can solve their problems!
-Use their content. (Example: A clothing company reposting a customer’s picture of them wearing their clothes)
-Reach out to clients and ask for a testimonial. These are great for gaining credibility, and developing trust with your followers!
3. Give them something.
-Who doesn’t love a free item? Offer them a discount off of your services, create some promotional items with your logo on them, do a giveaway! This will encourage your followers to comment on your posts, and is an easy way to create a conversation with them!
4. Ask a question.
People love to give their opinion. So why not engage with your followers by asking some fun questions!
5. Think like a consumer.
Evaluate your target audience, and what they want to see in their social media feeds. You could even look at your competitions pages to help with ideas (Just remember to not steal their ideas. Use their posts for inspiration.)
6. EDUCATE.
Teach your followers and provide them with content that is adding value to their lives. You’re the professional, so share your knowledge!
Just remember-
Keep it Simple. Conversational.
And Real.
Happy Marketing! P.S. Only 40 sleeps until Christmas. We got this!
Client: “Can you make sure that Stan, Larry, Steve, Susie, Jan and Frank all get CC’d on it to look at it.”
Us: *Shutters*
Three weeks pass by… and the client responds with all their feedback.
Some good, some bad, but ultimately not the teams initial vision. A lot of the feedback contradicts itself, and their are many unanswered questions that pertain to Stan, Larry, Steve, Susie, Jan, or maybe Frank?
Rule #687: If you want your video to be done right take leadership of it and designate one person to be in charge of your overall brand and video.
Too many cooks will make your food taste complicated and over worked.
