Whether you are marketing online or off-line, marketing with New Media or old media — honesty is critical to your sales success. Denying the facts will get you nowhere. Actually in today’s New Media Marketplace with the unbridled power of Social Media; denial will get you creamed!
So what’s the answer to effectively marketing an imperfect product in an imperfect world?
Watch this quick video and find out. I filmed it myself while driving home in Hawaii so the camera angle is off in some parts — but the topic and tips are so good I decided to publish it and give you a good laugh at the same time as a good profit-boosting strategy.
Online video is the #1 strategy you must incorporate into your New Media Matrix. If you’re not posting your own online videos to your blog, you’re missing out on one of the best ways of creating meaningful connections with your tribe.
If you’re not a member of this Tribal Seduction Tribe, you may have missed the LIVE show Coach Deb was on last week talking about Online Video and getting the Reality Mastermind Guyz to share their best tips for online video. But you can catch the first 30 minutes of the show right here:
Please forgive the poor sound quality in the beginning.
We received feedback that our voices couldn’t be heard and we adjusted the mic accordingly. Well, apparently people were able to hear the star, James Wedmore speak. As for “the others” well, we were mere pawns on his show anyway. (I think he set it up so this would be the result
Ustream was a wee bit glitchy for this LIVE video show. BUT this goes to prove the power of video. The number of participants only continued to GROW by the minute, despite our voices coming in and out.
Lesson of this “poor video quality”? Just DO It!
And as David Grau pointed out, “Just Keep Swimming” is the other hidden lesson in this video. (Hidden because you could probably barely hear him! Thank goodness for the clever post it notes! Sexy visual, wouldn’t cha’ say?)
You don’t need to have a techie or online business to benefit from the power of New Media marketing. A bigger prospect list, more sales, and higher profits are possible for just about any business — even the oldest profession in the world. The difference between winners and losers when using New Media marketing strategies is not in intelligence, technology, or industry — it’s in the strategy, mindset, and skills of influence employed.
The world’s oldest profession shows you how to (and how NOT to) market with New Media
As some of you know, the way we got to live our ideal lifestyle in Hawaii is by my starting, growing, and selling two 7-figure companies in the horticulture industry. Both were generating healthy cash flow, but my passion was always with the design/build work we did for affluent clients and owners of private estates.
Because of that, I still keep my finger on the pulse of the Landscape Design/Build industry. That includes monitoring how companies are using New Media to market their off-line business. This case study is based on one of those companies and will show you how virtually any company in any industry — online or off-line — can use New Media to market and sell more.
If you were to pick the most unlikely industry to use New Media, why not chose the oldest profession in the world. And if you’re thinking prostitution, that’s not it. Besides, I’m sure you’d agree that industry pretty much figured out how to use the Internet.
The world’s oldest profession is actually gardening. After all, that’s what God had Adam doing to keep busy before Eve ever stepped foot in the Garden of Eden, right? Well, in this case study you have some very powerful lessons laid out based on what some people in this profession have done right and wrong online with New Media.
One company used New Media Marketing to influence, persuade, and connect with new prospects and their existing client base in a memorable way. The second company got it all wrong.
The business that got it right
The landscape design/build firm Rosenlof/Lucas in Minnesota had a project that was featured in an HGTV program. But instead of relying on a single episode of a cable show to generate buzz, they created a simple four-minute video that has allowed them to maximize leverage with a single project to attract new prospects and clients using online video.
First – watch the video and the read on to learn from what they did right using the New Media marketing channel of online video. Then – we’ll take a look at what they left out and what they could have done better.
OK, so it may be pretty obvious what they did right at the end of the video, but let’s start at the beginning and go through the online persuasion strategies they incorporated with this New Media foray.
Online Persuasion done right
1: Use a personal/informal tone. The video starts with an informal and completely “personal” intro to the company. You feel as if you’re riding along with Matt Olsen.
2: Grab your target audiences attention up front & disqualify tire-kickers. The initial intro to Rosenlof/Lucas is brief and immediately defines what differentiates their design/build firm from the competition.
Don’t be afraid of losing people. If you don’t turn off (and turn away) some people, you’re not going to really turn-on anybody either. For example; not everyone likes contemporary design. But Rosenlof/Lucas specializes in that styles, so they’d be foolish to not make that clear. Who cares if people who don’t like contemporary design tune out. That’s not their target audience.
With my Design/Build company our style was based on French Provincial estates of Europe. We specialized in that style for several reasons, but one was to immediately turn most people away.
The French Provincial design style is inherently elite and costly, which helped to prospects to disqualify themselves before any of our time was required. Simultaneously, because of a strong stand on exclusivity, we were building rapport with the truly affluent before they even picked up the phone to schedule a consultation. Influence and persuasion not spoken is the most powerful.
3: Tell a story. Matt starts the story feel right in the beginning of the video and
YouTube is starting to make higher-definition streams available on certain videos. This is a long awaited across-the-board improvement available on all YouTube accounts. It’s definitely not true High Definition, but it’s a step in the right direction. Especially compared to the typical grainy YouTube video.
How do you make your higher quality videos available?
Right now these high quality streams are only available on “certain videos,” as YouTube states on the official YouTube blog. It’s based on the source file you uploaded to YouTube.
How do you watch higher quality videos?
On your Account page you’re now able to choose “always show me higher quality when available.” To change your settings go to your Account Home Page >> Account >> Video Playback Quality.
YouTube suggests that you select “always show me…” only if you have a fast Internet connection, otherwise you might find that videos don’t play as quickly or smoothly as you’re used to. Higher quality videos also have a link right below the video player which will allow you to select between the normal or higher quality settings.
Like all videos on YouTube, higher-definition videos can’t be longer than 10 minutes in length. Max file sizes have been bumped up to 1 GB though.
Go Red…
Oh, and while we’re talking about YouTube — China is blocking YouTube after they posted videos showing the recent protests in Tibet.
Yeah!!! Communism shows it’s true colors again. Killing people, and then shutting down any media source that reveals it. At least they make it clear why red is their color.
This is high-resolution 55mb video above and takes a while to load. You can read while it loads or watch it on Revver down below.
Using video to bond with your Tribe in your New Media Marketing will boost emotional bonding.
If you’ve been shying away from using it because you think capturing video needs to be complex or costly — this is going to rock your world and remove any fear. And even if you’re more experienced at filming with an expensive HD camera, you’ll see why this is a “must have tool” for you too!
When it comes to capturing video for New Media Marketing, there’s a new king on the block for simplicity. It’s called the Flip Video recorder. This tiny little recorder (it’s the size of a pack of cards,) holds 60-minutes of digital video. Quality is more than sufficient for Web use, and it even looks good on a regular TV too.
We’ve been testing the new Flip Video in “normal” filming situations. But we wanted to really put it to the test and see how quickly it would adapt to rapid light changes and high speed movement.
As you’ll see from the video, the Flip Video does not disappoint here either. The online trans-coding on YouTube does it no justice, Revver is better.
But above in raw format, and even on Revver down below, you can see that it did as good a job at color and light adjustment under demanding situations. Surprisingly as good as our $2,000 Sony HD camera! You can really see the lush greens of the mountains and deep blues of the ocean even at high speed.
Flip Video is one of the best “bang for your buck” purchases you can make. At around $150 online, Flip Video is a “must have” tool for anyone serious about New Media Marketing.
How could you boost your Tribal Seduction and New Media Marketing with a Flip video Recorder? And if you’ve already got a Flip Video, what are you doing with it to have fun and bond with your Tribe?
BUT this goes to prove the power of video. The number of participants only continued to GROW by the minute, despite our voices coming in and out.
As some of you know, the way we got to live our ideal lifestyle in Hawaii is by my starting, growing, and selling two 7-figure companies in the horticulture industry. Both were generating healthy cash flow, but my passion was always with the design/build work we did for affluent clients and owners of private estates.
