Okay, quiz time.
As you test yourself, spend 10 seconds on each of the following 4 memories…
Can you remember:
- The first line of “Hey Jude”?
- The house where you spent most of your childhood?
- The definition of “truth”?
- The taste of a watermelon?
Did you notice how your memory worked differently when recalling each of these things?
Most likely, you could easily remember your childhood home — maybe the layout of the rooms, where your parents sat, the smell as you walked into the kitchen… but remembering an abstract term like the definition of “truth” was more difficult.
Your brain does not store memories like documents and files, but instead your brain is much more like Velcro.
Let me explain…
If you look closely at Velcro, you can see a series of hooks on one side and loops on the other. When the sides touch, the hooks and loops become connected, and thus the Velcro sticks.
The more Velcro connects, the stronger the hold.
David C. Rubin, a cognitive psychologist from Duke University, determined our memories work best when there are lots of hooks and loops to connect our minds to the thing being recalled. Just like Velcro.
More importantly, why should this matter to you as a marketer?
Video, by its very nature, will make more hook and loop connections than anything else. Video is velcro.
Just imagine how many connections are made when you watch a 30-second video…
- What you see
- What you hear
- What you felt
…the connections are very powerful.
“Do you remember that awesome ad we saw in the yellow pages when we were kids?”
~ Nobody Ever
But I bet you can remember various TV ads you saw when you were a kid. Video communicates more. It connects more. It sticks.
As marketers, that’s the goal — to stick like Velcro.
However, you need to be careful about what does stick in the minds of your customers. What exactly are people remembering about you and your products? Because if you bombard your audience over and over with the same old sales-y pre-roll ad… what do you think they’re thinking?
Yep, maybe not the best approach!
So is there a better way? It turns out there is.
We Call It Aducation
Think of it as educating through advertising — and it works.
With the sheer volume of “how-to” videos, content is king on YouTube. People either go to YouTube to learn, do, or buy something. Nobody goes to YouTube to be sold to.
Last time I checked, nobody loves watching pre-roll ads.
So, when you realize that video is Velcro, it’s smart to meet your customers where they are. Provide them with good, solid, valuable content as their first interaction with you.
Let’s look at some examples:
Aducational Video #1: Tom Breeze Branding
This is my personal brand where I teach about using video advertising.
My hefty 7-minute video ad has been reliably doing well for nearly a year.
In it, I teach some of the best and most useful information from a 75-minute presentation I gave at BizFest. This is an example of longform aducation in action.
Aducational Video #2: Tony’s Acoustic Challenge
It’s funny, but true.
If you don’t get your guitar out and practice, you’re never going to get any better. Whilst it might be lighter on the content per se, it’s still a useful bit of advice — get out your @%*! guitar!
Aducational Video #3: Andy Harrington
In the video above, Andy teaches how to get customers coming to you by becoming seen and known as an industry expert.
It’s 4 minutes of content, but it’s also an ad for his book, Passion into Profits: How to Make Big Money from Who You Are and What You Know.
Now, the lifetime value of a book sale is around £119 (or $173) after those purchasers have attended his events, bought more products, and so on.
Well, his cold-traffic in-stream ads only cost him £11.07 (or $15.81) per book, which means just from cold traffic we’re doing pretty well.
So, we’ve seen some examples of aducation that works for engaging and converting cold traffic, but let’s break down one of Andy’s best performing videos, so you can copy this approach.
As long as you keep these next 6 points in mind, you’ll be much closer to sticking to your audience the right way.
I call them…
The 6 C’s of Aducational Video
1. Context
Before you even begin the video, think about the viewer’s experience.
This cold audience may see your video ad whilst scrolling through their news feed, they may see it as a pre-roll ad on YouTube, or maybe they clicked the thumbnail to watch your video.
Whatever the context, the setting of the video is really important.
Here, with Andy’s ad, you see that Andy is on stage in front of his mastermind audience, with a flip chart in the background so within seconds of watching the video your mind will think you’re about to learn something, thus your “sales defense” is down and you’re ready to listen in.
The very fact it’s filmed on a shaky smart phone gives it an authentic “in the moment” or “off the cuff” feel (certainly not a professional studio sales pitch feel), so it engages the viewer immediately.
2. Claim
You need to start your video by telling the viewer why they’d be interested in this video.
Andy starts with, “In this video, I am going to be teaching how you can be seen as an expert, become an authority, and get business coming to you.” It’s all about the benefits to the viewer.
People aren’t interested in a flashy logo or even who you are just yet — all they care about is, “What’s in it for me?” A simple way to keep focused on the benefits is to start by saying…
“In this video, I am going to show you how to _______, so you can _________.”
3. Credibility
Once they’re sold on watching the video, if it’s a cold audience, they’re going to ask, “Why should I listen to you?”
It’s a fair enough point, so you need to quickly demonstrate your credibility.
Notice I said demonstrate… sure, you can tell your audience why you’re so good, but it’s better to show them.
In the video, Andy is on stage, refers to his bestselling book, and pans round to his 80+ mastermind group.
He’s not telling you how great he is, he’s showing you, which is much more powerful.
By the time you’re 27 seconds into the video, you already know you’re about to hear some awesome content from a proven expert.
(Note: If you get lots of viewer retention on your videos, your “view rate” will go up. This is a key indicator that AdWords uses to measure the quality of your video ad — rather like Facebook’s relevance score or Google’s quality score. Get your campaigns’ view rate over 20%, and you should get a lot more exposure for cheaper. This is actually a pretty big deal and is the geeky explanation of why this approach works so well.)
4. Content
This is the point where you need to deliver some very high quality content.
This is the material that viewers will actually learn from. Stuff they can take away from the video even if they decide they don’t want to take the next step with you and convert to a lead/customer just yet.
If possible, it’s good to wrap up your content in some sort of framework or model, so it’s easier for the viewer to learn.
Check out Andy’s video where he explains a very cool method to create your “expert positioning story,” or EPS, using a framework that is easy to follow.
It’s always good to give an example of the content in action, so the use of a story, example, or case study can ensure the content is giving context and relates to the viewer.
Oh, hang on, we’re in the content section of the blog post right now… notice how we’ve used the 6 C’s to explain how to frame the creation of these videos?
Makes it easier to remember right? Just like velcro.
5. Call-to-Action
This is the point where you ask your viewers to take the next step with you.
In Andy’s video, he asks the viewer to, “click the button on the video or link in the post” to get your hands on a free copy of the book. This specific wording makes the video both YouTube ad and Facebook ad friendly, so you can use the video on both platforms.
6. Chillax!
Finally, chill out and relax.
Don’t try and be perfect as it’ll never happen, but also remember people want to see you being you (not a presenter version of yourself). If you make a couple of mistakes, so be it — people crave authenticity.
It’s why we like blooper reels so much… they make us human!
So, you’ve created your video, you’ve got it running as an ad, and you’re targeting the cold traffic. People are viewing your video, clicking to visit your website, registering and buying your stuff. Awesome!
Here’s where it gets interesting…
Aducational Video + Remarketing
When you follow-up with those website visitors who didn’t make a purchase through remarketing, the advertising costs plummet.
Remember, remarketing is Google’s term for what we lovingly refer to as retargeting. Facebook calls it retargeting, too. It’s the same concept, different platform.
In our agency, we use an aducational video to introduce the client with a credible, content-rich first interaction. Then, we re-engage the traffic who don’t purchase with a direct response ad.
This is the ad we use to remarket for Andy Harrington…
And here’s the kicker: When we re-engage those viewers and website visitors through remarketing, the cost per book sale plummets by 75%!
Remarketing works so effectively and so well because the audience already knows, likes, and trusts Andy through the aducation video.
Their memory of him is strong because, like Velcro, the video allows them to become familiar with him through the free information that he gives away on their first video ad.
The remarketing acts as yet another hook.
Because the first experience is so positive, that experience has stuck with the viewer, and when they see Andy Harrington pop up again, they’re more inclined to find out more of what he has to offer.
Hopefully this has stuck with you by now… video is like Velcro.
Make your connections count through content-rich, aducational videos, and then remarket to that traffic. It works.
