Gift biz unwrapped episode 33. You don't have to have a camera. You don't have to ever touch a computer. You don't even have to be in front of a camera if you don't want to be. Hi, This is John Lee, Dumas of entrepreneur on fire, and you're listening to the gifted biz unwrapped, and now it's time to light it up. Welcome to gift biz, unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop and grow your business.
And now here's your host, Sue Monheit and welcome Unwrapped podcast. Whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or are just getting started, you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your business. And today I am thrilled to have joining us. Alfred por of desktop of wings incorporated. Alfred has been a solopreneur for more than 30 years and has a particular interest in effective marketing strategies for very small
businesses. He's a graduate of Harvard and has built his career on explaining complex concepts to people in ways that they can put to practical use. Alfred is a full-time professional speaker and writer, and is author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including power marketing for small business, how you can boost sales with low cost video. And that is one of the reasons why I wanted to have him on today. And we're going to get into a lot about that.
So stay tuned on the personal side, Alfred is a sailor and a musician playing mandolin in a bluegrass band. That sounds incredibly interesting. Welcome to the show, Alfred, thank you so much. So I'm glad to be here. Is there anything you'd like to add or expand on, particularly with the plane mandolin People who've known me for a long time, 10, 20 years keep discovering new things about me. So it's always a challenge for me to write a bio. So do you Always see it with new things each time?
Not always, But things slowly rise to the top, depending on the situation I acted on the same stage as bill hurt. Oh, a long time ago. Yeah. Like I said, there's all kinds of interesting things that I've managed to do over the years and had a lot of fun doing them. Wonderful. And so I just have to know, do you have a lot of content left to reveal down the road? I, I Don't put it all out at once, So we're going to have to keep following you so, so we can see as, as time goes on.
Yeah. Buy me a beer and I'll share a few of them. Oh, There you go. All right. Well, that's easy enough. As our listeners know, we like to align the conversation around the life of your motivational candle. The light shines on you while you share your stories and experiences. And in this case, you're going to be sharing all about video and low cost video at that. So Alfred, are you ready to light it up? The pilots say I kicked the tires and lit the fires. So let's go.
Alrighty. So guess what? You are a gig with your mandolin in the bluegrass band and the venue has candles all around. There's just one candle that catches your eye that you really like. What color is that candle? It's a sky blue candle. And what is it about sky blue? To me, it's one of the things about blue is it's sincere.
It's a natural color, light blue, as opposed to a dark blue, I think is more accessible and more engaging and, and more personal, which I think are some of the traits about myself that I like to believe are part of my strengths. Wonderful. And if there was a motivational quote on that candle that really resonated with you, what would that be?
It's a quote from Peter Drucker that I take to heart in many settings, Peter Drucker said efficiency is doing things right, but effectiveness is doing the right things. And how do you apply that? I'm very good at, in my career. I've been good at doing the wrong things, coming up with products. One of my favorite mistakes is to come up with a product that I think people need and not necessarily the product that people want. And you know, it's a, it's a problem. That's common.
A lot of people have it. And for me, it's an easy one for me to repeat. So I struggle with that, but I think that's part of what Drucker's messages, just working harder on the wrong things. Isn't going to bring success, right? If you work on the right things, yeah. You can be as efficient as you want, but if you're being efficient at something, that's not going to bring your result. What good is it in the first Place?
It can feel like you're working hard, which can feel good, but you're not going to make progress until you sit down and answer the hard questions about, you know, what what's really important and what are the things that need to be done. Right. Exactly. All right. You talk a lot about online video being the most powerful and cost-effective solution that someone can use. Why do you say that I've been a solopreneur for 30 years, freelance writer and a speaker and book publisher.
And so I, you know, I know what it is to wear all the hats and be making all the decisions and everything. So one of my starting premises is that small business owners, really small business owners don't have time and they don't have money. They're pulled in all sorts of different directions and they're trying to make ends meet. And, you know, they have to make a lot of tough choices. And in many cases, marketing becomes the poor stepchild.
Most people, especially, I know in the, you know, in the crafts and gifts kind of feel people were drawn because they're creative. They want to make things that people love and they get all kinds of satisfaction out of this. This is something I'm very familiar with. My wife as a Potter has been a Potter for 15, 20 years.
And so, you know, I've seen her business grow, but you know, very often you're putting all your efforts into the creation and the managing of the business and marketing falls by the wayside. You put up a website, you maybe build a mailing list, but you know, there's not a whole lot of focus and effort on it. You sort of do whatever you need to get it done and let it, you get The basics done and then move on to something else and never really capture the power that marketing can bring.
Exactly. I get that because you don't have a lot of time or energy or money that you can focus on this. And one of the things I've discovered over time is that video is just remarkable in terms of how powerful it is and how effective it is and how little it costs in both time and money. So for someone who's sitting and listening right now and saying, yeah, but, oh my gosh, that is a huge hurdle in terms of technology and figuring out how to do it.
I'm probably going to need a lot of equipment, all of that. I'd rather just do print ads or just stick with my Facebook page or whatever the current mode of operandi is. Sure. Yeah. And, and I totally get that. And that's one of the reasons that I'm out here promoting this concept, because I think a lot of people put up barriers that aren't there. What I'm talking about, you don't have to have a camera. You don't have to ever touch a computer.
You don't even have to be in front of a camera if you don't want to be. There's all kinds of things you can do with video. And the craziest thing of all is it is just wildly inexpensive. Most people will spend more on a simple local postcard mail campaign than they would spend on a video. And with the postcard campaign, you know, that 90% of those are just going to go straight into the trash. They'd go out once and then they're gone. The video stays on your website forever.
And so it's an investment in marketing terms, we call it a long tail. You get a benefit from it over a much longer period of time than you would get from that little flash of a postcard mailing or an ad in the newspaper, that sort of thing. Right. Okay. So you're selling me here. The thing I'm intrigued about is you're saying that you don't need to have a camera let's get into what is the equipment that you need.
Okay. Okay. If you can figure out a way to get onto Craigslist, that's probably all you need. Let's talk about how you get a video made one way to do it is to do it yourself. And that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do if you're inclined that way. You know, you've got some creative skills. You're curious about learning how to do audio and video editing and all the stuff that goes along with that.
And really, if you have almost any digital camera or even a lot of smart phones can do a good job of capturing a high definition video. So, you know, that can be done and you can get some good, low cost editing software under a hundred dollars to edit it with whether you're on Mac or PC, but it takes a lot of time. So that the expense isn't very big, but there's a big time investment there.
Another way you can go is to go to a professional agency and have them develop a marketing plan for you with it includes video and put that together. And that can cost thousands and thousands of dollars. What I'm advocating is sort of a middle road where you figure out what it is you want to do and what kind of message you want to give. And then you rent the professional help that you need to get it done. And in this case, it's very, very simple.
You just go out and you get a videographer who will shoot it and edit it and come back with a file that you can upload that would probably even do it, upload it onto YouTube for you. You're hosted on YouTube for free YouTube. It's very easy to grab the little piece of code that you can drop into any website, especially if it, you know, if you have a WordPress site or something like that, where you can easily drop in a piece of HTML, you don't have to know anything about programming.
You don't have to know anything, just drop that code in. And you've got video on your website. If you don't know how to do that, find some 14 year old in the neighborhood who come over and do it for you. That Is true. And just don't let what Alfred's talking about. Stop you in your tracks, anybody, because once it gets up to YouTube, it is so easily shareable. And the HTML code that he's referring to is like two clicks away within your YouTube account. And you just copy it and you paste it.
And many, many people can do that for you. So that's not a problem As you say, so it's not technical at all. You don't have to understand anything about what it's doing. It's just a cut and paste. Just a way to get the content over to your site so that it's going to be viewable right on Your site. And it's there forever And it's there forever. It's evergreen.
So the nice thing about that, I mean, we are all time stressed as you were talking about the time and money are the big challenges for people in smaller businesses. And to be able to put your time into something that then would be content that is going to benefit you for a long time in the future. Makes a lot of sense in terms of timing. But I have a question for you.
I have a question for you Alfred, if someone has never done video before, what type of content and, and let's just talk, let's take this in such baby steps that it really seems achievable for somebody. What would be the best first topic of a video. If they're just going to have one video on their site to See there are two extremely powerful ones, but the easiest one to get started with is clearly the how to a demonstration video. So you're demonstrating something that your company produces.
It could be all kinds of things. It could be related to what you produce. If you're a Potter as my wife is you might just do a short video of showing how you make a, a mug, just a quick two, three minute video of showing you at work, creating your pieces, showing them going into the kiln and coming out glazed people love to see how things are made For them to be intending, to be a Potter, but for them to see what was behind the scenes producing the result that they might purchase,
Right? That's one way to go. Another way to go would be a simple project related to what you do, but something that the viewer could actually do and make themselves a simple little project, which would at once be sort of a gift to them and help feed their creative instincts. I mean, one of the things I find working the craft shows with my wife is people have all kinds of creative feelings, but they say, oh, I could never do that.
And so a video to show them something simple that they could do and feel good about is going to be thanked for you. And it also, if it relates to the kind of products you make, it helps them get a better appreciation of the skill and the creativity that goes into your company's products. Got it. So What I hear you not saying is this, isn't a video that says, hi, I'm so-and-so. I have all these qualifications to be in the business that I'm in.
I've been in business for X number of years, none of that type of thing. It all should be from the interest level of the person who's going to be watching so that when they get to the site, they really want to click the video because there's curiosity, cause it's a how to video or they're looking at something like, yeah, maybe I could even do this myself. Exactly how to videos are probably the number one most effective at converting, turning into sales.
And again, keep in mind that a lot of people think commercials, TV commercials, which have to fit in a 32nd window or at most a minute, and they're very active and lots of flashy stuff going on and you don't need that in an online video. You're not trying to yell at the consumer. You're trying to engage them in a conversation. And so you know how to video. You don't even have to talk, just put up some title screens and explain some tech screens to explain the different steps.
And somebody can just video you while you work. And you know, you don't have to feel awkward about saying something on screen or anything like that. It can be just having a nice little soundtrack running in the background. And by the way, YouTube has a ton of free soundtracks that you can put behind your videos at no cost. No royalty can just use them for free think in terms of giving them a gift of content. There You go. And it doesn't have to be such a professional video either.
I mean, you want it to make it look nice and classy, but it doesn't have to be so professional going back to what you're talking about with the commercials, because people like seeing the real person behind a craft or the shop or that type of thing, would you agree with that? They want to see organic. They want to see personality. They want to see honesty. The whole thing about this is trying to build credibility. So I would agree you don't need to have Hollywood production
values. However, it is extremely important that you shoot in high definition in technical terms, it's either seven 20 P or, or 10 80 P resolution, because it really looks better. You want to make sure that whoever's doing the shooting is aware of the lighting because bad lighting is a turnoff and people will bail on your video. No matter how good the content is, if it's just too hard to watch. And then the third most important factor in your video is the audio quality.
So if you're going to be talking, if there's a soundtrack, whatever you want to make sure that the audio levels are good. And again, a good videographer can take care of that in the edit. And so with all of these points, that's why you suggest a middle of the road, videographer, meaning not in terms of the quality of the videographer, but in terms of the services that you ask for.
Because if you are putting together what you think the content already is, that's not something you have to pay someone else to do. Exactly. So you're just want it to be the shoot really, Right? So you're just hiring them for the shooting and the, and so if you go to an agency they're going to want to put together the whole campaign for you. But if you know what you want to have for your video, you can go out and get a videographer. You will be amazed at how little it costs.
I've done this, just going to Craigslist. I put out a call for videographers and I got one guy who had an Emmy. I had one guy who had worked with ESPN. I had somebody who'd worked with Stephen King. And the amazing thing is that with the exception of a couple outliers, they were all five to $600 for a half day shoot. And the editing, which is nothing. When you compare it to the price of, again, a simple postcard mailing, you'll get to $500 easy. Yes, very reasonable.
Because this is again, is not a one-off. This is something that you're going to be able to use for years. Exactly. If you're looking for a videographer, like again, look on Craigslist, look for wedding photographers because all wedding photographers now do videography. One of my secret weapons is if you want to find an inexpensive videographer, one of the best places to go is your local guitar store. Interesting. Think about it.
Turns out if a rock and roll band wants to promote themselves, they have to have a video, right? And if you think small businesses have limited budget, wait till you talk to a garage band, they've got nothing. And so this $500 for a video is a totally reasonable target. Some people say, well, what if I'm in some expensive place? Like New York city? Well actually in New York city. Yeah. The price is different.
You can probably get it done for about three 50 in New York city because the competition is so high. Sure. All right. So we've convinced everybody that a video is something they should consider. We've also convinced them that there is a way to do it. It's an achievable thing for them to do. And you've mentioned a number of different ways and tips on getting the lowest price and the quality that you need, et cetera. What about the content? What about the content?
So again, one of those explainer videos, either how you do it or make your own product or some sort of project that other people can use, that's probably the best choice to start off with, especially if you're in a gift or craft kind of market. In my book, the power marketing for small business, I've got what I call the peach principle. And peach is an acronym. Each letter stands for different kinds of message that you could use in your video.
And so peach stands for position, educate, attach, compete, and help that he educated. That's what your demo video would be. You teaching them either how to do something or teaching them how you do something, giving them some information, how to solve a problem, how to accomplish something. Position is more where you describe what your business is about. Kind of a credibility play, maybe a credibility play, but it's not comparing yourself to others.
It's just saying, you know, this is what we care about. This is our quality. This is why we care about quality. And this is some of the things that we're concerned with that are important. Would you say this is a good video for your about us page. That would be a great video for your, about us page. Yeah. And then the a is for attach at one level attaches basically you're attaching yourself to somebody else's reputation and what it really comes down to is social proof.
A lot of the reasons you see celebrities, endorsing products is because it provides proof to the buyer that it's a legitimate product and it's worth their attention for as a customer, you can attach to all kinds of reputations. One of the things you can attach to our local celebrities, maybe there's a program at the high school that you're involved in. You could have a video about you working with the students on their projects or something like that.
At another level, the social proof can just simply be testimonials, just have people talking about how much they love your products and what they do with them or how they make them feel. And you don't even have to be on the camera for this. You know, you just have somebody else talking about you and get that on video. Yeah. These are some great ideas I've never thought of before. Really great carry on Then. So C is for compete. Here's where you show your difference.
Okay. So say you make reeds and we're coming up on the holiday season. Well, you might be able to say something like we soak our, we use all natural greens. However, we soak them in a special solution that we use and it causes the needles to stay on 50% longer than if we didn't treat them. And nobody else we know does this. So this is a competitive advantage that we have.
You're not going to get from anybody else, vintage ribbons that we've collected all over the country from the early 19 hundreds. I don't know. There are different kinds of things that you could do, but that's where you would make your claim to uniqueness compared to your competitors. This is a big point. Let's use Reese justice. You're talking about, there are very creative wreath makers all over, but so how are you different?
What are you bringing that a consumer is going to get from you that they're not going to be getting from anybody else who is making the creative wreaths? And this is a perfect way to do it through a video. Just like you're saying, show them, yeah, show them. And it also portrays your personality and nobody can copy your personal. Exactly. And then H from peach, the H is for help. And it actually has nothing to do with your product. H is about how you give back.
Maybe you're involved in a volunteer program. Maybe, you know, you do meals on wheels. Maybe you go into senior centers and do craft projects with them. It's not about your product. It's about you and your business. It adds another dimension to it. It adds a level of credibility and realism. And also it shows that you're giving back. And that's something that people definitely relate to. So if you can show something that you're doing, that's good in the community, that's a huge plus.
And that's the kind of video that people really like to watch. Absolutely. So gift biz listeners. I want you guys to remember this acronym, peach P E a C Alfred calls it his peach principle. And really honestly go back. If you are not at a place where you're taking notes and review all of these elements, because there's some really, really good and different ideas that Alfred's put forth, that you should consider for your business.
And so let me just stress that I'm talking about using one of these, one of these five different topics as the focus for your video for Each video. So one video would not incorporate all of these. It would only incorporate one, Right? You don't try to do them all. You, you make one, your focus and again, you only need one video on your website to make a big difference.
Did you realize that adding a video to your homepage makes it 52 times more likely to show up on the first page of a Google search? I've heard of the power of video a lot. And I believe that just think of how we, you know, when you go Google something, if there's a video there, you know, especially people who are on mobile now, you know, they necessarily can't even see the screen,
right? And so a video is so much easier in terms of capturing content And the majority of consumers now say company websites should have a video on it. And so we're now on the cusp of leaving the point where having a video is an advantage and we're entering the era where you pretty much need to have a video to be competitive. It keeps stepping up, doesn't it? It does. It does. Well, thank you. This has been really, really great information, Alfred. I appreciate it so much.
We're going to move now into the reflection section. This is a look at you and how you've been successful along the way. What would you say Alfred? That's one natural trait that you have that has helped you to be so successful in your book, writing and video production. And all of that. I like to think that one of my skills is I've learned to communicate effectively with people. A lot of people get all tensed up when it comes to writing or speaking.
And for me, when I'm doing something like this, or when I'm writing a book or an article, I'm pretty much feeling like I'm sitting down across the table, in the kitchen with a cup of coffee, with a friend, and they're saying, well, what do I need to know about this? And so I try to not dazzle them with my brilliance and not confuse them with a whole lot of unnecessary detail, but tell them what they need to know and how they can use that right away.
I think that's one of the skills that's brought me this far, the ability to explain things in a way that people can use. And what is a tool that you use regularly To help you keep productive? Oh, Evernote, no question of attic because I deal with all kinds of content and a whole bunch of different subject areas. All at once. I once had a secretary who gave me a sign for my desk and said, please don't clean up my desk. I won't be able to find anything I'll be ruined.
So I am not the tiniest person when it comes to the managing paperwork, but a tool like Evernote allows me to just throw stuff into different folders as I come across it on the web and wherever and my email, and then be able to find it again and be able to call on it when I need it. His, if you've never used Evernote or don't know Evernote, I am just beginning to dive into it in true fashion.
It's a little bit different than you think of with a filing cabinet and files because everything's notes, but really, really fabulous, just like Alfred sane. So I recommend that you check it Out. Well, the features that I like particularly about it is one, it plugs into your browser, your email software, whatever. And so you can just, when you're looking at something, you can just click on an icon and it will grab the stuff that you want from that and stick it in your Evernote.
Another thing I like about Evernote, all the information is stored locally on your computer, which I'm old school. I like that. But at the same time, it syncs to a free account. You have up in the cloud on servers, on the internet, it's kept safe. So if you happen to have a problem with your computer, all that information is still safe because it's up on the
cloud. Amen. But the third thing that is absolutely brilliant and incredibly important to me is that you can have it on your smartphone, on your laptop, on your desktop computer. And as long as you're logged into your account, anything you saved gets saved to all three devices. It will automatically sync up your records. So you don't have to worry about I'm out in the field. And I came across this thing, you know, I want to be able to remember to save it to
Evernote. Well, you can do it right there. And then when you get back to your desktop, it's there already talk about a time-saver what's a time-saver and an energy saver for me. You know, not having to think about things, saves me a whole lot of effort. Agreed. Great. I appreciate your telling us the uses to that gives everybody a real good insight. What book have you read lately that you think our listeners could find value in?
Well, it's kind of big, but it's very well written and very accessible. It's actually not all that new. It's a few years old, but it's a book called the new rules of marketing and PR. And it's by a gentleman by the name of David Meerman Scott.
It's a fantastic book because for me, the essence of the book is it pulls together all the flashy stuff about blogging and social media and online video, and trying to get things to go viral and all that, and pulls it all together in a really common sense accessible
way. And what it did for me was it got me out of the old way of thinking about marketing and realizing the incredible potential of the internet and the digital tools that we have old marketing used to emphasize outgoing messages, where you would try to interrupt the reader with a newspaper ad or a television commercial or whatever, and try to grab their attention today. The big focus on the internet is inbound marketing.
When people have a question, they do a Google search and they're asking a question and they come to you looking for information. They're already asking, looking for the answer is a whole new way of doing things. Is it responding to their question with content and engaging them in a conversation about what it is they're interested in, rather than you trying to interrupt what they're and try to get them interested in what you want them to do.
And circling back to the whole topic of today with the videos, if someone lands on your site and then looks at a video and you're giving them the information that they were coming to your site to see in the first place, you are one step closer to the sale, they might as well just take out their pocketbook. Exactly. And different studies show that adding video to your website causes visitors to be anywhere from a hundred to 300% more likely to make a purchase. Ooh, I like that.
Yeah. I didn't know that. I didn't know that stat, so that's really good. Those are good numbers. Yeah, for sure. We'll give biz listeners just as you're listening to the podcast today, you can also listen to audio books with ease. I've teamed up with audible for you to be able to get an audio book just like Alfred is mentioning for free. All you need to do is go to gift biz, book.com and make your selection. Okay. Alfred, we're winding down, but I have one more big question for you.
It's our dare to dream question. I'd like to present you with a virtual gift. It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future. This is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable Heights that you would wish to obtain. Please accept this gift and open it in our presence. What is inside your box? Well, it would be a bridge from Pennsylvania to North Carolina that I could get across in a minute or two. Oh, and what's on the other side.
Well, I have a son and a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren up here in Pennsylvania and I have a daughter and her husband and another granddaughter down in North Carolina. My current goal is to get my business to the point where traveling back and forth there won't be any need to be concerned about making the decision. Just go whenever we feel like going from one place to the other. Now a magic bridge that would shorten that trip would be lovely to have.
But the main thing is I'm happy that I'm, I think I've got it under control that I'll be able to work and make the, at least the, the back and forth part happen when we need it to, well, we're All rooting for you to be able to do that as frequently as you can. So Alfred, how can our listeners get in touch with you if they would like to talk with you further? I have a website that covers some of these small business marketing issues.
That's called the center for small business.com and you can reach me there. There's a link there, but you can also email me@apooratverizon.net or you'll find me on Google or Twitter or Facebook. And I'm Alfred poor everywhere. And as you all know, if you jump right over to gift biz, unwrapped.com, you'll see Alfred's show notes page, and there I'll have all of the links, including the link to his book, power marketing for small business, how you can boost sales with low cost video.
And I'm sure that expands even further based on what we've talked about today, right? Alfred, absolutely. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for all of your really, really unique insight things that I haven't heard before and ideas that I know our listeners can really use. I appreciate your taking the time sharing all of your knowledge today and may your candle always burn bright, Learn how to work smarter while developing and growing your business.
Download our guide called 25 free tools to enhance your business and life. It's our gift to you and available at gift biz, unwrap.com/tools. Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the next episode. Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company, looking for a new income source for your gift business.
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