Everybody's all thinking of retention , right ? How do I keep my clients from jumping ship , right ? I call it Thank you Thursday . Every Thursday , pick a random client and record my video email and it says you know , hey , josh , I just wanna say I'm super thankful that we worked together . I hope that we're delivering on our promise to you . Yada , yada , yada .
There's anything that you need you know . I want you to know that we're your web design partner . We want to see you grow in 2024 and beyond . You know , click that link below . You can call me right from this video email . Or , hey , click here if you want to reply back . Just wanna let you know I'm thankful for you . Those Thank you .
It's like sending like a little note , just to send over a handwritten note . You're sending a thank you just to let your clients know how much you appreciate them .
Welcome to the Web Design Business Podcast with your host , josh Hall , helping you build a web design business that gives you freedom and a lifestyle you love . Hey , friends , welcome into the podcast . So great to have you here .
We're gonna dive into a very , very important discussion in this one , and it's important because it's one of the things that you can do in your web design business to build trust and authority and attract clients without having to do a bunch of the typical advertising that you may think of , and it's also one of the best ways to differentiate yourself from the
swarm and sea of other web designers out there nowadays , and that's video , more specifically , video marketing for web designers . Now , if you're like me and you think about video marketing , you probably immediately think about like reels or social media short videos , professional video shoots , and you can do those things in video marketing .
But what I've found is that video marketing , especially nowadays , it's so much more . There's so many more ways to get into it and make it comfortable for you and make it grow your business , because you can utilize video marketing to help sell before a client even speaks with you , or to keep your current clients around and keep them coming back .
You can do video with your phone . You can do video with screen recording . You don't need to have this mindset that video marketing is something to be feared .
It's something that I highly encourage , that you , if you're not doing it yet , that you do it , because I want your business to thrive and it's one of the best ways to stand out nowadays as a web designer .
So with that foundation laid , I'm so excited to dive into this further with a good friend of mine , doug Divert , who is the founder and CEO of a video tool called Magnify .
For those of you who have been through my courses , you've probably seen that at the end of all of my courses I have a little link that says leave a video testimonial , and that is using Magnify . It has been an incredible tool for me for collecting video testimonials because it makes it easy for the user just to click the link .
It pops open their camera and their mic and they can just do a video , instead of having to download Loom , if they're not familiar with that , or me as a web designer , if I don't want to be tinkering around with video editing , magnify is the best way to go , and not only does Doug have a wealth of knowledge with video , collecting testimonials and that , but
he also has been in the industry a long time and he knows what works for marketing with video and AKA growing your business with video . So we're gonna dive into all that and more in this conversation . Again , I highly recommend checking Magnify out , especially if you have no experience with video editing or don't want to worry about that .
You can use Magnify to not only collect video testimonials , but you can also use it to send videos through email and use it as a video marketing tool for you . I have a special link that Doug has graciously set up for you . You can go to joshallco slash magnify that is MAGNFI , joshallco slash magnify .
That'll be linked in the show notes as well for this one , and then I'll give you a special deal that Doug set up for you just by listening to this podcast .
So check that out , give Magnify a spin to see if it's a good fit for you to not only collect video testimonials from your clients , but to send video emails and use it as a nice tool to help you easily market your business with video . So , without further ado , let's dive in .
Here's , doug , let's get into video marketing tips for you , and I'll be right back with my web designer friends Doug . Welcome back to the show man Round Two . Well , josh , thanks for having me on man .
When it is always a privilege to be on with Mr Josh Hall , the man , the myth , the web design legend , Mr Josh Hall . So thank you for having me on .
That should definitely be on my email tagline . Yeah , for sure man . Just use my audio and use the video . Go for it .
Hey , Doug , let's redo this real quick . I'm so sorry .
My golden retriever is a little bit of a mess . I'm so sorry my golden retriever is scratching at the door wanting to get in . Oh gosh , and I totally meant to look up what episode you were originally . Let me look this , sure .
There .
Because you , oh wow , you were 12 . You were episode 12 .
Yeah , man , wow Back in the day Do we want to talk about our little story back in the day , or do you want to do ?
a little intro . I'll do a little intro kind of setting that up , and I think we covered that in the first one too . So I'll make sure we link that too .
So one sec . Let me grab that . Yep , yep , do your thing , man . Oh , they already have breakfast . All right yeah .
They're my office buddies , so at some point they're like , hey , let me in . Office boys are pooping their grass , that's right , that's right , all right . Well , doug , welcome back on to the show , my friend .
Josh , mr Doug , you're back , that's right .
All right .
Well , doug , welcome back on to the show my friend Josh . Mr Josh Hall , thank you so much for having me on . It's always awesome to get on with the man , the myth , the legend the web design guru , mr Josh Hall .
So thank you for the privilege to have me on , sir man . Well , we have quite the uh , the background together , doug .
We've both kind of seen each other come up as networking buddies and and uh , I've worked for you and I've always appreciated about you and uh , where I think you have a very unique uh kind of mindset and just a unique , unique position in the market is video marketing in general .
I mean , I always look to you for for video , testimonial , advice and the systems you have in process with that . But I feel like you've probably seen video marketing in its infancy to , I mean , where I guess a broad question . But to kick us off , I really want to focus on video marketing in general .
Web designers , but where is video marketing today , in the day of , in the age of AI ? You know that she's going on . Where is it at today ?
It . If you , if you look at history and the , the gold rush of uh out in California , right , where people rushed out to to get the gold right Um , that's what I feel like it is right now for businesses and the businesses that are leveraging video on a consistent basis , it's it's golden opportunity , unlike anything , honestly , I've ever seen .
Right , a lot of businesses like you hear about web three right , with all the all the meta version , all that business are just barely understanding just web 2.0 , social media and video and the cool part about like all the AI stuff that's coming out now businesses are going , huh , what's what's ? This video thing is interesting . We need to start doing video .
So it's . It's never been a better time to start doing it than now because a lot of people it's kind of like I hate to .
Well , I don't hate to utilize it , but it's kind of going to the gym a little bit right , we all want to get fit and trim , but you got to go to the gym , you got to lift the weights , got to do the things right , and then you go to the beach and you look good , right , and , like you know , the other people ain't looking so good because they're not
hitting the gym . So if you , as a business , start levering video consistently , it's like you're going to the marketing gym and you're getting those muscles developed and you're just crushing your competition because they're too scared to lever it . So it's just , it's a I say all that . It's a golden opportunity right now to be to really take territory .
Got to build those video marketing muscles . I like the dad puns Doug , I like it .
I got lots of them , man .
You know that is a really good point , though I mean you've probably seen me come up from from a standpoint where I did no video marketing in the early days of my business to now . I've been on video every day for seven years , eight years . World of difference with communication .
It's crazy .
Yeah , it's essential . Yeah , I mean , obviously , and I have a personal brand . But even even when I started implementing video for in transit studios , I didn't do it in the form of social media reels and stuff like that . I was doing a lot of client videos back and forth . I started doing training videos for clients . That was all a form of video marketing .
So let's dive into the term video marketing , Like , because when you think about video , I think everyone probably immediately thinks about reels on Instagram or TikTok but that's not just what video marketing is Like . what , what is encompassed inside of video marketing ?
Video marketing is essentially looking at what your current marketing stack is and how to make it better with video . So I go by the mantra that automate , delegate and eliminate , right , what can you automate with video in your business , what can you delegate out with video in your business ? And what can you ?
What can you eliminate task wise in your in your business with video ? So , like , if you have an onboarding process with a , with a new customer , right , like , say , obviously , your , your , your main , your , your audience is web designers , right ?
So , um , there's probably a lot of , maybe some hand holding , some basic stuff that you say over and over and over again Well , criminally , make a video about it and walk them through that journey to get ready to begin to work with you .
So that way , you're not , you know , there's only , there's only so many times , like Josh Hall , can , can , can , meet with a client back in the day , right when you were doing that stuff . You know , onboarding lots of clients . So what if you had 12 clients come on at once ? What if you have 15 clients come on at once ? You'd be ripping your hair .
See , that's that's why I started doing it . It's just to automate it out right . So send your customers through a video funnel educating them , so that way , when they do get that moment to meet with you one on one , they're already prepped and ready to go and you're not wasting time doing something else . That's a great point .
So it's not just outbound sales and marketing , because that's that's immediately where my mind goes when I hear the term video marketing .
And I've I've been doing this for so long , I know better , but still there's that and I think and I say this because I think a lot of web designers in particular they hear video and they're like oh no , I didn't get into web design to be on video . I got in web design to be on my computer and to build websites .
But if you're going to grow your business and you want to get your , if you want to build no like in trust without having to do sales calls , you could do it with video Like . It's so important . But it's not just the marketing , it's not just sales , you're so right . It is the , the processes , the kind of onboarding , project management offboarding .
Let's go to automation right .
So let's let's say you are a solo web designer and you're you're probably right now on the the teeter totter of business . Get the work , do the work , get the work , do the work , get the work , do the work right .
But if you're creating video content , you're setting aside an hour a month just to create some expert tid videos that position yourself as a thought leader , as an expert . And , by the way , linkedin if you're on the leveraging LinkedIn , they are starved for content , especially video .
If you drop a video or three , you're going to get a video or three in a week . Ideally , you want to get to just drop in one a day . Anytime anybody hops in the LinkedIn , they're going to see your video and then that video is prospecting for you while you're working on web design stuff .
So , and then that video is a hey , you know , you can share a little great tip , you know , and then drive them to a calendar , like to book an appointment , and then that your calendar is full of like qualifying questions .
So you're only meeting with people that are qualified , that meet your budget standards , that are ready to go , things like that , but your video is doing all the sales work for you while you're working on websites .
LinkedIn has come up more and more over the past year in particular . I do because I'm not active on it personally , but for if I were to start a web design business today , linkedin would be a top strategy for me , for sure , unquestionably . And I have heard about the video thing because it's quite .
It's quite different than Insta and TikTok and some others where reels and shorts have taken over , right , it seems like . Do you have with LinkedIn for those interested ? What is the video format like for LinkedIn ? Is it vertical ? Is it they prefer short , firm versus long for it ?
It doesn't matter . I get that question all the time , like you know what's the right form , like how long should my video be ? What format it's it used to be like ? Oh , like vertical video . Is it like you got to do vertical video ? The only can do vertical , the only can do that ? Right , because everybody was like hot on it . Right .
Now it's just all the platforms want video . They don't care if it's vertical , horizontal , they don't care if it's triangle .
Is that true for Instagram and like yeah ?
yeah , yeah , yeah , because I mean TikToks now , like they're pushing like 10 minute videos up to 10 minutes long on TikTok because I want to compete with YouTube , but YouTube is mean they're still the the giant gorilla in the room because they have Google , right , yeah , but LinkedIn , as you said , linkedin is really it's it's it's underutilized platform for video .
They're starving for it and I'll give you the quick , if you , if you listen to this podcast , this is the one thing you should write down and really take . The heart is , just like Josh said , if you're just going to start a web design agency , leverage , leverage LinkedIn .
And there's think of LinkedIn is in two ways right , that DM , right , so within that DM , you're like you're messaging them and things like that , but it's so crowded . So within magnify , we have a tool called create a video message . You can create a video and drop it in the DM and it'll actually generate an animated gift for the play button right at the DM .
So you communicate them directly , right , but here's what happens a lot of time , even with the video , they'll may engage with it , but you might not get a response back . So the next level with that is creating content to put on your LinkedIn profile .
I like to think of LinkedIn is like a really fancy email marketing nurturing platform that has video in it because they may not connect you to the DM , but every time they log in the LinkedIn they're going to see your video in their face every single time that they get in and then may poke them a little bit later with the text . Oh yeah , I remember that .
That Josh guy create some really great videos about how I need to level up my SEO and video and then the website strategy , so it's a really great way to nurture .
That's a great point , especially with those . If you do the little hits like the little quick tips . Basically , yeah , those just continue to build the relationship and those little expert . No one needs to be an influencer or anything like that .
But the reality is , if you dish out your expertise , even for those who are early on , like I've always said to my students , even if you're two months into web designer you've gone through one of my courses you know way more than your clients do .
So you're the expert , so share what you know , even if you barely know anything . R and D . What Josh is teaching you Robin duplicate .
Right , robin , duplicate yeah .
Just like you said , like the basic stuff that you know is going to blow that other pr- , that process , that prospects mind , right . So make little videos about it . And the cool part is , like you said too , it's like you don't have to be an influencer . I call it . I tell businesses all the time don't get hung up on the Mr Beast metrics , right ?
Just because your video on how to optimize your website did it have 14 million views and you only got 200 , right , or 300 . Well , guess what ? People pay a lot of money to walk into a room . Hey , everybody , I'm going to talk to you about video website design to two . Imagine talking to 200 people . That's extremely value .
You'd pay 500 to 1000 bucks to get in front of all those people who are your primary target audience , right ? Because if you saw one of those people , you'd kill it .
I think about that often now , especially with this podcast , because I've been doing it for almost four years there are three years , over three years now and it's with video marketing . The reason I say this is because you feel like often you're talking to yourself when you post it and even if you've know , maybe you get two likes and then 80 views .
It feels like , huh , was that a waste of time ? Well , hold on , not everybody likes video . I'm king of not liking a lot of videos that I actually enjoy .
I'm just not that much of a liker , my nature but I watch it and I see it and I and that continues to like if it's somebody who's going to sell me something eventually , that makes a big impact on me . And if you think about 80 views , like you just said , doug , what if you actually pictured 80 people ?
Exactly , I look like I think about that with the podcast is sometimes inevitably anyone who has a show .
You probably want bigger numbers and and we're getting like we're generally getting about 20,000 on average downloads , slash views a month for the podcast , which is pretty dang cool , not huge , but it's also a niche style podcast , but then I so anytime I feel discouraged .
I'm like , well , 20,000 people or 20,000 , that's an arena , that's huge arena A month that this is in some of these people are doing . But even if we , even if we were conservative and saying 10,000 people unique listens , that's also an arena Like that is real . So that's the power of video . Marketing online is like .
I say that to say just don't forget for everyone who's I don't know about video , like it really is reaching a lot of people .
And then and then really look at , look at , look at , look at your conversion rates , right . So let's say , out of 80 people , 5% of those convert to a meeting , right , and then let's say one then I'm just using low numbers , by the way 1% of those people become a client .
Is it not worth the five minutes it takes to create a simple little expert to video ? In the cool part about , I would say , youtube , like with Magnaf , I really lean into YouTube and because YouTube is forever marketing , you make that video once and it markets for you forever .
Social , I love YouTube yeah .
Yeah , social media is great , but really a lot of those bigger influencers are pushing people over to their YouTube channels because of that forever marketing aspect . You make that one video and , as you know , josh right , I think he posted a video on video testimonials a long time ago .
That sucker probably still gets plays and still gets views and yeah , some of my most popular videos are from five years ago , still on YouTube , especially if they're like . Any thought leadership is good to .
But if you do have anything that you could do a video on like a tool , like a tutorial and most web designers can you will be shocked at how many clients that could potentially bring you . Even if they're DIY , like it's amazing doing a quick tutorial on posting on YouTube , how far that will go .
I'm a friend , james Bernard , who has a massive following on Instagram and TikTok . That's all he's active on , but he does quick tip videos on Adobe and that's what blew him up and now he has a massive personal brand on those platforms .
So it does seem like it can work in some way on Instagram and TikTok , but I think you're right , the longevity is different on YouTube . So that's a couple of things I want to dive into here , because I think everyone understands the power of video marketing . But now the real question is and the overwhelm becomes what should I do ?
Should I do like talking head video ? Should it be like polish and produce ? Should it just be my phone ? Walk into my neighborhood ? Should I be in my office ? Probably all of the above . I've seen them all work . But what is the , I guess , what are the metrics on how you help people decide what type of video they should do ?
Cause even in this stage of my career , I I still sometimes feel like should I do more thought leadership or should I do more tutorials ? I kind of try to do a mix of all of them , but how do you help people decide what type of videos they should do ?
Yeah Well , first the the . The first way to get started with video is just looking at again . I go back to automate , delegate and eliminate . You know what can you automate with video , what can you delegate with video and what can you eliminate with video .
That's the first place to start is really sit down and look at your business and how can I create content to help my sales grow ? Like , what , what , what is your goal ? Do you want to increase sales ? Do you want to do you want to systematize people ? Do you want to increase your conversion rates , like with a video email message ?
Right , you quote somebody , add a video to it . That's a simple way just to boost conversion rates . But if you're , if you're strictly talking on social media is talk about niche topics . So if you're , let's say , for example and correct me if I'm wrong , josh , but most web designers will try to niche down to a specific market , right ? Specific target market .
So if they're not doing websites for everybody , right ? So eventually I may , at the beginning you might , we do websites for everybody , but as you grow , you're not . Yet if you can niche down to a specific industry , that's where the magic happens . So create videos based on the target audience that you want to attract , right ?
So I was working with an agency who was doing they did a little bit of everything , but they noticed that they could do really well in just the home service industry , like builders , remodellers and stuff like that .
So begin to create video content just around that niche market , because most , most businesses , they want to work with somebody that's an expert , right ? So , oh , yeah , you can do web design . But oh , the guy that I'm using , he specializes in just remodellers , so he knows how to create a website design and things like that around remodellers .
So if you can niche down , and then the cool part about it is that you can begin to attract the people you really want to work with , who you quote and go that's it , that's all . Your charge me like dude , we should have signed up , like last week , right ? And then you go crap , I should have raised my prices .
Yeah , it's not too late . You can do it . Then do it for the next one , yeah .
So those are the videos you want to start making . Right For wanting you got to decide what you want to do . If you want to increase sales , you know , start making videos for that specific client you want to attract .
Are these some of the so strictly those type of videos like the expert style videos . I guess we could call them influencer or thoughtly or whatever .
Yeah , thoughtly , or expert tip videos .
Yep , yeah , Expert tip videos Any of those . Do you find that a certain style works better , like a screen recording or a talking head video or something where you're walking Like ? Are they like like getting into the weeds on this , or does it all work ?
Honestly , the biggest thing is this consistency . So if you want to one day like you're out and about and you're walking your dog and you feel inspired to make a video , bust out your phone and record that thought , right . And if you feel like , hey , I got to make a screen recording video , make sure your face is on it right .
Don't just I hate people like , oh , why don't I do the faceless thing ? Not really . If you want to build that no like and trust factor , throw your face in there right , so you're not ugly , you're beautiful . Put that face on there right . It's just , honestly , it's consistency .
So if you feel like making a video walking about , a screen recording video , expert tip video , and honestly , a variety is good , so that way it's not the same thing kind of over and over again . So good point .
And you know the face thing . That's a that's a biggie . And even when I started out with my video trainings for clients and stuff , I did it the way of just doing screen recordings , which was a great , great entry point to help me communicate clearly and get my my thoughts out more succinctly .
But I did realize there was so much more powerful when I got comfortable looking at the camera because , especially as a service provider , as a web designer , people are going to work with you so you can really bypass sales completely by just being on video and them getting to know you .
Because that's one really cool thing about video is it you can't hide behind it like a lot of other mediums . I mean , there's certain people who could , who could come across great but actually aren't that way . But you get a pretty good idea of somebody on video , like even even actors . My wife and I were just talking about this recently .
It's like we can almost identify immediately whether and this probably sounds super judgy , but I'm sure everyone's like this we all judge somebody . Like within the first two seconds you're like , yeah , this person's , I like this person or I just there's something about this person that irks me . Yeah , the video really gets at a cross .
So , like for clients , it is . I don't know do you share that same mindset ? Like it's , it's the weight almost bypass sales by just being on video .
Yeah , well , that's what I was literally going to raise . That next point If , like , you're wanting to see an increase in sales , when you start making those videos and you hop on with a prospect , if they say to you , I feel like we've been hanging out because I've been watching your videos , you need to think in your head slam , dunk , baby .
I need to give them my highest quality package , cause they're already bought . They already bought mentally in their head .
That's such a great point . That's the power of any of these video marketing tips on LinkedIn , any other social media or YouTube as well . Yeah , you , it's almost like you become a bit of a rock star and it makes their value your time too .
I remember when I started doing Divi tutorials , I was still getting a lot of clients that way and they weren't all the best clients , but I had some really good clients that were kind of DIYing it or they had a team using Divi and then they became clients and , yeah , when we would hop on a call to be like , oh my gosh , same thing , doug , they were like
I feel like I know you , I've been in my ear , I've been watching you for months , so , like I'm so excited , I don't want to waste your time . I know you're busy , so here's what I want . And then , yeah , like I said , it was a slam duck , it was an easy sale because it was a hot , like steaming hot lead .
Yeah , so yeah , and the cool thing is I think nowadays too , I feel like I've seen such a transition with video marketing going from more polished to like studio and mics . To some of my students who are doing video marketing , it's them on a phone on a walk or in their crappy office . Like in their office , barely in office .
This is a part of their apartment , like it really that . I think that's exciting now because you don't need to have super high quality to especially as a one designer . You don't need that many clients , so yeah , it levels the playing field .
There's literally no excuses . I mean , with a magnify it like we , it produces it for you . So there's no editing even needed . You just record a video . If you want a little more of a polished look , you want your logo , you all of a music underneath it ? You want to call to action with the graphic , magnify would do that for you Right , so you don't .
But there is a . There is maybe needs for fancier productions when it's warranted , right . But you can't spend $5,000 , and you know , and create 10 , 10 videos at a $5,000 of pop . You know , $50,000 a month and video right Can't do that ?
That's crazy , yeah , and that's why you know I mean , what with what you've built with magnify ? That is really cool , because somebody who and this is another barrier somebody who was like I've never done video editing , do I use garage band ? Do I have to get like final cut pro , Like what am I going to do ?
That is the really cool thing about magnify Literally anyone can do . I mean , I still use a lot of my video programs . I do it every day .
But for those who are intimidated by that , yeah , it's wonderful that that's an option now and you said it Doug like there is probably a difference , maybe categories of videos to where , if you're going to have like a sales video on your landing page for a service that's selling a $10,000 website , I might make some more time for that one and maybe have , you
know , some overlays . Yeah , yeah . But , if you're going to do a quick hit like a minute , you know tip , then yeah , keep that simple on a lot of things .
Exactly , let magnify produce it for you no big deal . But like the perfect example when I was running my video marketing agency , I had a client who , if they sold one job , was a quarter of a million dollars .
So when I called them $15,000 to do a nice , really nice video they're like , okay , that's cool , no big deal , because if they sell one client out of that and they got thousands of views off that video so they killed it . So anytime they want to do a video , I'd give them my cost and , oh , cool , no big deal . They took care of everything .
So , yeah , it just . It all depends on the value of the product that you're selling , but really , at the end of the day , it's all consistency . If you do it consistently , you will see results . And like even for myself , man , like I get , I have a schedule , make sure I have my calendar to schedule out making videos because it's so important .
But we're going through some really deep dives like stuff , development stuff with the platform for new search , getting ready to launch magnify premium , and I fell off the video making wagon and I saw it in my LinkedIn , like you know .
You see your LinkedIn like how many gates and stuff like that again and like but , the moment I started making videos again , it was like shoot like almost like a . you know , if you follow like crypto , it mooned right , it shot right back up . So that's how cool it is . It's so , so easy , it's crazy .
Yeah , cause these algorithms on all these platforms , everyone knows if they don't know , they know now that video is king . I mean it really is . I'm sure that I think there's a lot of place for , for like the , the Twitter feeds and the short thoughts and stuff like that , and even scroll , like you know , like flat image scrolls .
I think there's some of those are still going well , but there is video is just at a whole another level , especially now because it's so accessible to everybody . The consistency , though , is is , like you said , that is the key , and that's also the challenge , particularly like I've gotten in a rut sometimes where I try to do one little video a week .
I'm like the batching thing is definitely the way to go . It's easier said than done , but especially if you can , if you can , you know , do one bigger piece of content and cut it up , and chop it up and send it out once per week .
I mean , the really cool thing about that is and I've seen some of my students do this , as as most of my students who have success in video marketing of any sort it might be these little like thought leader style videos . Some of them are going a little bit more long form , but it's just conversational . It's almost like a little mini podcast .
I mean , you could , you can even do a Q and A style . There's just so many ways to go about it . But I guess the moral of the story is to to just just try it like get a video it really I mean in every way anyone just terrified . I can speak in pure confidence by saying you will get better the more you do it .
You'll get better the more you do it . I even looked at videos I made like when I first started started magnify or even , with my first business , started making videos for myself , like I thought they were great . And I looked back and I'm like , oh my gosh , those are really bad . But it is it's , it's , it's consistency .
And then , to get over the fear thing , I always , I always tell people that , but then I always have in my head like , look , you could be afraid . And then watch somebody else be successful and all you got to do is literally make some videos about your business and get your name out here .
If you are passionate about what you do , you are doing to service the marketplace , not to tell people about it . Like , do you really believe in what you sell ? Well , get on camera and start talking to people about it , start making videos about it . And again goes back to the analogy of being on the beach , right , going to the gym .
You hit the gym up , right , flexing those video marketing muscles and you're looking good , looking ripped right . Who gets all the attention right ? The big fat giant , lardo dude , right , that's not doing anything ? Or the ripped person with a fantastic business that's just killing it . Who would you want to do business with ?
You know , and it's such a good point . First of all , you're living in Florida now , so all your analogies are beach related , you , son of a gun . But it's a great point about video marketing almost being a testing ground and like a muscle builder for sales .
Because it's true , If you talk about your business on video and you share what you do , you share the results .
The next sales call you're on , you'll bust through that like nothing because you've been practicing it , whereas if you've just been behind your computer not talking with anyone and just typing away and coding all day and the next time you're on a sales call you're like , oh yeah , so pricing , yeah , here's what we're doing .
But whereas if you've been doing that , if you've been sharing about your business , sharing your expertise , that comes so much more natural . This is a really , really important point .
I'm so glad you brought that up to up , because video marketing , yes , it's a lead generator , it's a traffic booster , but it's also a hidden gem of practicing sales and getting better at sales .
Yeah , Cause eventually , I mean , just like you , even just like myself right , we were practitioners at one point , I love shooting video , right it was . It was , you know , making stories and editing . I loved all that stuff . But at some point you'll want to grow beyond that , right , Beyond the technician .
So when you , when , when you're working on the business instead of in it , right , and video creating that content consistently going to get you better at sales , so that way you can work yourself out of the web designer day to day and be more high level .
I mean having those big strategic meetings where you're leveraging just your creative thought and then your web development team is executing on your creative thought because you're so good at it .
We were talking about AI before we hit record . And one thing that's fascinating about this I actually have a colleague who's coming into Web Designer Pro here in a couple of weeks to do a live training about local SEO .
And one one interesting thing she talked about when it comes to local SEO nowadays , sarah Dunn is , video is actually a key component to local SEO , especially now in the day of . Ai and copyright and just duplicated content . So I would like to hear your thoughts on that , doug .
Ai and video marketing , because I mean , I know there's tools now that can just rise and all that stuff . But I feel like if anyone really wants to stand out now and not be lumped in with the commodity of AI-ness , a video is like . This is me , and the less polished it is , the more real it is .
That's even more you , even if you have filler words and you're not that great on camera . I feel like that almost builds more trust and credibility now than ever . What are your thoughts on personal video with AI ?
Here's so with AI . Ai is fantastic to kind of help like idea . So like say again , let's go back to what we talked about . Let's say the builder , remodeler , so you can go on like chat , gpt , and ask it hey , I'm a local website designer and my niche is remodelers . Could you help me design a video marketing plan and give me scripts so I can read those ?
Or help me stay on point . It'll give you all that information , right , so you can create some really great videos and post it . You don't have to write all the blog posts out , right , but you still have to create the content . But here's a nugget that I promise you if you do this , you will be on the first page of Google in less than five minutes .
So here's the secret is , when you make a video , especially talking about local search , is you say hey , I'm Doug and I'm a local web designer here in Grove City , ohio and we specialize in the adi , adi , adi . You say those keywords , you want to be found locally . In your video . You make your title grows you know , grove City web designer .
You make your your description , the first sentence hey , you're looking for a web designer in Grove City , ohio . Well , you found the right video and you get those three things working and you keep it private . We upload the video . You keep it private , right , because Google wants to index it , and how they index it is through captions .
So it'll analyze the words that are said in your video . Keep it private , it'll analyze it , but it won't index it . So keep it private , google index it . You go and you correct those closed caption transcriptions and you feed it all the good stuff you want to have . Then you make it public .
Your video will be on the front page of Google about five minutes for your local area .
So let's dive into the private public thing . I was not aware of that . Why can you hit me with ? I don't think I understood why you would want to keep it private .
Yeah , so so when you upload a video on YouTube , you want to keep it private , right ? So because Google will automatically index it . So if you keep it private , it'll analyze the words that are said in your time to actually pull the correct .
Yep , and then before , before you make it public , go in there , click on captions and correct the closed caption transcriptions . Oh , I can talk about in January , right when we do our little bit of education .
We can do it . Yeah , I would love to do . Yeah , I would love to get a visual of that .
Yeah , so we'll walk through that . And then , because Google will say here's what we think is is said in your video , and a lot of times it's getting better , but sometimes it's a train wreck , right , everything's misspelled . So you go in there , even adding fluctuations and things like that .
Now , could you ? Could you publish immediately and then go in and adjust those , or is the damage already done ?
potentially , Damage is kind of already done , right , so you want to correct it . And then , once you make it public , Google will then index it . Right , Because Google is going to figure out , okay , where do I put this video at ? Right now , they have no clue .
You're giving them that information in that video , even like the thumbnail image , even if he goes granular as a thumbnail , like your , the name of the thumbnail , don't just name it like you know , thumbnail video one , right . Name it you know , grow city , Ohio web designer , city state , right .
And then what you do as a thumbnail , right , Because that too will be indexed . It's just like it's all those little nuances that took me 15 years to learn .
I just gave it to you in a moment . So it's so genius , man . I mean this . In the SEO world , this is really common . And still , location pages . There's a lot of some people . There's been back and forth on whether location pages are valid and they were , and whether or not they work . But I'll tell you right now .
If you search on Google , you will see the location optimized pages like this and yes , you're totally right , doug , if you can back that up with a video . First of all , the video is going to come up first and no one's doing it .
No one else is doing it , especially web designers .
No other web designers are doing this until now .
Yeah , if you take away anything from this podcast , listen today , do that .
So , genius man , that's a great tip yeah .
The beauty about it . Think of . I always tell businesses , think of Google's little brother , as you do , right , if your little brother made you billions of dollars , you're not waiting . Your little brother isn't waiting in line doing traditional SEO , right ?
Little Google saying , hey , little bro , we got a special spot for you because you make me billions of dollars . So if you're doing SEO as a part of , like your web design , packaging , right toss in video marketing as a service , create a video for them . You can utilize the magnify platform to create a nice little like about me , about me video .
About me video about this video , faq videos for their website .
Build out their YouTube channel and where your clients , you mean For your clients . Yeah , good for your clients .
Yeah , yep , yep . And then that way , when you post that video as a part of your SEO package video marketing included with your SEO it'll give your client that quick win to make them feel good . Because we all know SEO is a long game . It takes nine .
It could be a year before they really start seeing some nice traction , depending on how competitive those keywords are . But if you can pop a video on the front page of Google based on their keywords , they're going to be . I was going to say something different . They're going to be so excited about that . They're going to go dude , this is fantastic .
I was going to say that's a great . You can edit it out Josh , you can say shit , they're fans on this podcast . It's all good yeah there you go . Such , such . I hope everyone realizes what an important tip this is , what a goldmine this is .
Create a post , especially if you're focused on local clients , because you could do this long tail with keywords as well , but if you're doing local , clients . This is the quickest win and that is to have a blog post . That's location based Grove City , ohio . Web designer .
The video with the thumbnail with the captions , like you said , start private , edit the captions , adjust that accordingly and then do the public thumbnail , all that kind of good stuff .
The really cool thing about this , too , is I didn't think about offering this as an option for clients because , like you said , you don't want most web designers don't want to be a video marketing agency . But with Magnify you can literally send clients the link and have them tell them what to say . Let's say you do that for a client and they do 10 videos .
It's a one time thing and then you could take the time to . You could make that a recurring income and have them do a video a month and , just like that's literally a recurring income source for web designers too .
If you were to to take a year's worth of video work for clients like this using Magnify and then just spur set out once a month as a recurring package , you could add a blog post location page in the video they do . This is an there's so many like there's .
This is a win-win-win as far as the strategy goes , if you're doing some basic SEO for customers , you know , don't call it just SEO , you call it enhanced SEO . They're going to know why it's enhanced .
Oh , because we dovetail video marketing tactics and because we understand YouTube is in the research engine in the world and when they're , and when they're maybe researching other web design companies , they go do you offer an enhanced SEO ? Well , no , like , oh , okay .
Well , I'm going to go talk to Zora , guy I'm going to , I'm going to go to another agency that you know , guy I was .
I was called my . I called my SEO boost . Yeah , and I think we did it for Magnify when we launched originally , because I did the the well I did the second version of the site in Divi before you did the logo yeah , Still standing strong man .
Yeah , don't do any logo design anymore , but people love the logo and we , accidentally for anyone watching this live , or or , if you go to the show notes for this episode , well , you'll see the logo I accidentally ingeniously created two people handshaking on the him . Wasn't it one of your clients who was like I love the people shaking hands ?
He does , chris , chris Borra .
Oh okay , he's recently talking networking yeah .
He's all about networking , so he's like dude , it's like , that's cool , Like there's two people shaking hands .
I'm like you were like it is , yes , my genius designer .
Yeah , you thought about it ? Yeah , we we knew , definitely , definitely .
We thought through that strategy . Yeah , no , doug , I appreciate you sharing that man . That's genius . So yeah , we can dive into that in January , for everybody . Doug's coming into Web Designer Pro to do a visual presentation training . That's a great strategy Again .
Just last tip on that Do do the location based videos if you're doing it , but again , you can do like when I , when I started joshallco , the way I I grew my audience was online with YouTube primarily , and it was the same thing . I would do a video , usually Divi tutorials , on top of a blog post , and that's what comes up .
Now I'm still ranking really high . In fact , a lot of my Divi tutorials and my WordPress tutorials , my video is the first thing that shows up because Google I teach this in my SEO course Google takes those little featured snippets which are just , I mean , it's free advertising that's last forever .
Yeah , Um Trevor marketing .
AI real quick . The one , one , one . I know what kind of got away from AI . But do you think AI is going to infiltrate video in the way of like Well ?
it's interesting .
Eventually we'll cause all my I'm on online so much like is AI going to be able to take a version of Josh and make its own , so I think eventually that could happen .
Right now , like , right now , you're probably seeing the same old crusty people like doing AI video . It's like , it's awful , like the mouth soft sink . It's , it's , it's , it's , it's awful , um , but literally um , at the time of this recording right . So , november , what's the second right ?
Um , yesterday they just signed AI legislation that eventually , if you create AI video , josh , by law you might have to have a watermark on it that says it's AI .
Oh , wonderful .
So it's . It's . It's interesting , it's fast moving , but at the same time , like I could see it to where , like , you want to make an AI version of yourself , like how we Mandel . You know who he is , so how we Mandel was one of the first celebrities to really embrace AI and he created an AI version of how we Mandel .
So how he goes hey um , and this is exactly what words that he said was hey , if you want to hire , real how we Mandel , real how we Mandel cost a lot of money to come in , but if you just need AI , how we AI , how is a whole lot cheaper . You can tell how we what you're saying .
So eventually it'll be like there'll be companies like even like well , I think , well , I think , magnaf , I think we'll eventually do something like that where you'll go hey , josh , we can create AI avatar for you . But guess what , my friend , here's all the legalities you have to sign off on . It'll be like an iTunes thing . Just keep scrolling to the end .
Yeah , yeah , just accept , just go ahead and roll care .
This is , oh my gosh you know this is going to infiltrate the coaching world . Like I could have levels of tiers to WebExiner Pro . It's like tier one . You get AI Josh . There's just a collection of all my podcast tips and stuff and there's like the real Josh where I'm like I'm actually working with you . Uh , that's interesting .
You could , I mean you could , josh . I mean you could do that now .
No , I'm not going to do AI , josh , yet this could be all right if you wanted to .
But , like there's , you could do cloning of your voice and , like right now , you could talk with chat GPT and they're putting a physical human being on there . What's keeping you from doing that ?
now there's no , that's fascinating .
It's uh .
I had considered . I had considered I mean , I've got work clothes . I think this episode might be after the 300th episode . So 300 episodes of this podcast . There's enough content in the show alone to create a entire academy of web design and that's not even my course videos which I could upload like yeah , so that will be interesting .
I had thought about that in the in the way of like making playlists and Success paths with what we've talked about here that are even just outside of web designer pro in my courses .
That is . Ai is awesome . But at this I tell people all the time and I think I say the phrase I tell people all the time a lot . I don't know why I do , but I do . Ai is still artificial .
Well , I was just gonna say here's the thing , though , as much as that sounds really cool , I am such a I'd rather it be messy and human and real and authentic and I just I don't love the AI stuff and I can tell , especially when it comes to written content .
I can tell immediately when something is AI , despite how good it's gotten , and maybe that'll change one day .
But I like it . Yeah , exactly , we've , we've , we've . We've probably all seen that like what it was a I Tom Cruise with that guy like AI does face the truth almost got me at first .
I mean , that was wild .
Yeah , you just said it perfectly . I almost got it , because we eventually we'll see the zipper at the back of the gorilla suit . Oh , it's not real . It's , they go oh , it's not real , it's AI , josh , you know . You know I don't want AI , josh . I'm not real Josh . So it's , there is a phenomenal tool .
I think it's , I think it's gonna grow and I think I think video . I'm currently experimenting with stuff , as I told you , always right , but I think it'll get better and better . But I think , like the swing to like AI automation , I think eventually that pendulum will swing back like to authentic , authentic .
Yeah , power even a video testimonial , like even with Google reviews . Right , I'm actually working in an article right now . I'll share it with your audience once I get it done . It's it's a really in depth , in depth study on how one video testimonial is worth 1200 Google reviews .
Oh , oh , please share that , doug . Yeah , when you get it , if this , if it's out by the time this goes out , or whenever it's out , let me know because we'll link it in the show notes .
I'd love to , it's doing a lot of research because , like People say , oh you know , we did , just ones are cool , but I really want to get more Google reviews . So I started researching into the science of , and I found a really cool study that MIT did on this how your brain pot processes visuals . So , but I won't spoil all the beans , but yeah .
So as we get it done and it's super close to being done I'll share with you even the , even the idea like , even if you don't get that many testimonial views , like I have a ton of video testimonials on my site . I'm how , how timely .
Literally before our call , I was working on a whole series , like a whole set of video testimonials for web designer pro and the cool thing about that is , yes , the text testimonials are great , but you , you still don't like get to hear the person and know them and you can tell , yeah , if somebody is doing a testimonial that's forced or Like , yeah , I beg
them to do one . Or you can tell if they're genuine and like I've got some coming out , you'll see it . Follow me on social and anyone will see here . You'll see the genuineness of excitement and the results that people are getting .
You know what with , with pro and then for everyone in your services , like , if you have clients who really loved your service , get that video testimonial as quickly as possible yeah , that's what I teach in my business course and Share it because that genuine , that excitement , that is contagious and that's what really sells . It hasn't already sold that ?
That will be the icing on the cake .
Yeah , exactly , and then those people become your micro influencers , who are out working and selling your services while you're doing other things . That's the power of Automate , delegate and eliminate processes in your business with video .
I had one question that I almost let my mind , but I wanted to make sure I asked about this . This was in relation to the , the local Videos , like a lot of blog posts and stuff , yeah , but does that work the same ? If you were to republish or repurpose those on Not only just YouTube but on Facebook , instagram , linkedin as well ?
With would those show up , or what is YouTube the primary thing for that ?
for that . Yeah , youtube is the primary thing . But for that , for it for local search , right , because everybody's going , let's say let's face it , google is just a , they're just a giant , right , and their Google is not going away anytime soon . Ai is maybe Hitting a little bit of that , but then they have their own version of AI Mm-hmm .
But at the end of the day , content is king . So post those videos on YouTube , right , and then pull up through them across all your social media channels because they all want it . So repurpose that content out . Oh , absolutely so , that'll work . As far as search goes , it's hard to beat the Google , the Google .
I guess I was wondering if it could potentially be a downside if it was the exact same video on a bunch of different platforms because they're all kind of I mean , they're all like they're , they're kind of siloed a little bit right , Because so Google can't get into Facebook and look at all their content and categorize it right .
Good point , good point so , so , so , yeah , so , but but same time , I know I believe I remember , right , tick tock and Google . I think tick tocks opened up a little bit of Along that the happened to show their videos within the search , but obviously they're gonna prioritize YouTube , right , even though people say all they shouldn't do that , blah , blah , blah .
Well , you're gonna promote your own business . I mean , come on right .
Yeah .
So , just to be blunt , just play by the rules and give them what they want , and then they'll give you what you want , which is exposure , because that social media is dirty little secret , right ? So they know we love video because of engagement . It's so great . They love video because it keeps people on social media longer .
Yeah , if you're on there longer , even for fractions of seconds , guess what they can deliver to you and Add yeah all they make their money . They're not just posting all stuff for fun , so you can post your fun cat videos . They want you to buy something or click an ad so they can make money . Video helps people keep people on a platform longer .
Yep , it's a great point , man . Well , we're getting close at the top of the hour . Yeah , we'd be both need to roll here soon . Fun man some awesome video marketing tips , man I .
I , for one , am very , very excited about Because AI is affected web design a lot in some ways , although it's always really good , just because it's helped make things a lot easier .
But I'm excited about the the particular aspect of video , because I think , now more than ever , it's so important to be authentic and then you can just do video and it doesn't need to be high quality , quality , polished or anything like that .
It really doesn't know it's a no lose , like I will say this All of my web design students who have done any type of video , even if it's one video a month . Obviously more is better , but any video , particularly on social media and for clients and stuff it works like gangbusters for everybody . So , yeah , I can't recommend enough to get going on that .
So To you , doug , I would love to hear tell us a little bit about Magnify right now and what's ahead , and then I love you finish off on maybe a quick tip that you have for anyone on video . Yeah , I'm gonna start with magnify , with where it's at .
Yeah , so magnify . Right now we have . We have five video tools right , with ability to , as we talk about , capture video testimonials . You can produce your own branded video content with our branded video tool . Create little story videos with our story video tool . Takes three clips and produces in one video .
So you do FAQs , send guided requests for video testimonials . We're asking three questions . Then we have video email and video message tool , which video email is recording videos and sending it in email , which is perfect for prospecting you , just communicating to your customers , right .
And then video message tool that allows you to create a video and use like a social media DM , like LinkedIn .
So we're actually getting ready to connect through magnify , like can you go into magnify and then send it to Instagram , or do I would ? I need to copy the link and then yeah , so well , you , you upload it natively .
So we're actually , we have a YouTube upload button . We upload videos right to YouTube because we're we're a big believer in getting those videos on YouTube . But we are getting ready to add one click to where it pushes out to all this . It'll be Facebook , instagram , youtube and LinkedIn . So , but , yeah , pushing those , that all that content out .
And then we're actually working and getting ready to launch a new service called magnify premium . That's a done for you YouTube service . So we help build the video marketing plan for you and then , well , you create the content . But then we'll take it .
Our team will take it , produce the video and put it up on your YouTube channel with your graphic , image , video , seo based on your business , all that kind of good stuff . So that's probably by tennis releases . It'll be live . So that's , that's the the big exciting thing . So that's super exciting and then you're fine , all to your tip , your tip .
Oh yeah , sorry , I think I just .
I lost the video . I think the internet connection is getting a little laggy , but I think it's recording it .
Yeah , okay . So the tip yeah , it's for the one tip . So I'm going to give you a tip to close sales a whole lot better , and that's as I is recording a video email to your customer .
So when you pitch a customer , right , and you get off that meeting , send them a video email as a thank you and ask them when do they want to get started , you'll see your close rates shoot way up higher just by doing that alone . On top of that , right ? Well , you know , everybody's all thinking of retention , right ?
How do I keep my kind of keep my clients from jumping ship , right ? I call it thank you Thursday . Every Thursday , pick a random client and record my video email and this says you know , hey , josh , I just want to say I'm super thankful that we worked together . I hope that we're delivering , uh and uh delivering on our promise to you . Yada , yada , yada .
There's anything that you need you know . I want you to know that we're your web design partner . We want to see you grow in 2024 and beyond . You know , click that link below and you can call me right from this video email . Or , hey , click here if you want to reply back . I just want to let you know I'm thankful for you , those thank you .
It's like sending like a little no to send over , you know , a handwritten note . You're sending a thank you just to let your clients know how much you appreciate them .
I love that tip , doug , thank you Thursdays . I I've I've done something for years which is at the end of the year . I always send thank you letters to clients on maintenance plans and then , and more recently with what with this brand , I do it at the end of the year .
I have like a list of of colleagues and partners and stuff that I'll send a thank you video to . You'll be on this year . There you go , but I like the idea of making it a weekly habit . That's a really great idea because it might be a little more expected . Even though at the end of the year , most no one still does that , it's still an amazing thing .
Yeah , the random Thursday in an October to get like the hey , I was just thinking about you and I really appreciate you and make it genuine , make it authentic . That goes a long way . Well said , and I think it's a great challenge for everyone .
I hate to say it , but your , your clients , are getting prosecuted by other people .
That's also . It's a good way to dive into video if you're new and it'd be more comfortable because it's not to a cold audience , it's not public . It's like this person already knows me . They're a client . I talked to them anyway . Just you know they were asking me about email stuff on Monday . So what have I sent them a thank you video just to say thanks .
So great challenge . I challenge everybody . Try that for like well , you could try it for one month . You could do four videos and get the momentum going and just try it . Just try four videos .
Yeah , and if you want to make fun , jump on magnify , try it out Free for 14 days and have some fun .
Record . So try magnify at my link , josh Hall dot co slash magnifiable , of course . Have linked in the show notes . Do we have a special deal ? I forget , doug . Do we have an extended trial or something for for my link ? I forget , we don't have an extent .
Yeah , we don't have an extended trial , but we do have a free community that people can hop in . It's called magnify connect and anybody can hop in learn video marketing strategy for free . We have live . We have live webinars at 11am on Tuesdays Eastern time and then one PM on Thursdays Eastern time . You can learn it .
You can learn video marketing strategy for absolutely free , even if you're not a magnified member . Beautiful .
And , like I said , we even with a 14 day trial you can record 10 videos . I know Get a little walkie .
So I think the universe is done .
Yeah .
Yeah , but that's a great call . I mean great call .
Well , Doug , before we get kicked off the internet here . Thank you for your time , man , and I'll see you here in January for the pro training .
Thank you .
There we have it , friends . I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Doug with these different video marketing tips . I hope it has empowered you with some strategies and ideas on how to do video marketing in an easy way that works for you .
All right , I do recommend getting out of your comfort zone , like I want you to be comfortable on video , but the reality is I am only comfortable on video now because I've done it nearly every day for like eight years . When I got started on video I was terrible .
So the more you do it , the better you'll get , the more easy it comes to you and you won't even realize the cameras recording eventually . And again , you can start small with screen recordings and everything that we talked about in this interview . So I hope it helps you .
Again , you can use my link , joshallco slash magnify that's spelled M , a , g , nf , I for a special deal to try out magnify to see if it's going to work for you , to get a feel for it Really been a big benefit for me and my business . I know it will for you too .
I also been to mention in the intro , but Doug is going to be coming in to web designer pro , my coaching community , at the time of releasing this episode , he's going to be coming in next week to do a special presentation , a guest expert training on how to collect video testimonials for web designers , with an exclusive framework that you can use to get video
testimonials to put on your website . So also another reason , if you haven't yet , to jump into web designer pro , because these monthly guest expert trainings are just one of the many amazing perks of being in my coaching community .
So you can go to joshallco slash pro to join us there and if you catch this before Doug presents , you can jump on the live training and ask Doug questions yourself . Joshallco slash pro . And again , try , magnify out . Go to joshallco slash magnify for a special deal to get going with video marketing .
All right , friends , can't wait to see what you do with video . Leave me a comment at joshallco slash 307 . If you'd like to leave me a comment and you'll see all the show notes and links recommended and mentioned here over at joshallco slash 307 . All right , friends , cheers to your video marketing efforts to grow your business .
I will see you on the next episode .