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In part two of my interview with Rick Cesari, we’re going to be focusing on video marketing. With the help of direct response video marketing, Rick has helped Amazon Brands like Plugable, Sous Vide Supreme, Organify, and Dazzity launch and grow into immensely successful companies. If you missed part one where we talked about some more general principles of direct response marketing, check out AmazingFBA.com/RickC. If you’re already caught up and ready to dive into all the fantastic information on video marketing Rick brings to the table, let’s jump right in.
Motionbox helps teams create & collaborate on video content and share ideas together in real-time. You can perform basic video editing tasks, like cutting, trimming, cropping, resize, add music and add subtitles. Adding subtitles to your videos will not only help you reach more audiences but will also add value to your content.
Why Video?
Every 30 days more video content is uploaded to the internet than the major TV networks have produced in the last 30 years. Video is powerful. Viewers retain 95 percent of the information presented in a video compared to 10 percent when reading the same information in a text format. Social video generates 1200 percent more shares than text and images combined. Video appeals to both sight and sound. Using a video in an email leads to a 200-300 percent increase in click-through rates. Including video on a landing page can increase conversions by as much as 80 percent. Using video on Amazon can increase your conversions by up to 20 percent. The statistics are everywhere. Video works. It’s important to emulate the successes of industry leaders, and right now video marketing is the best tool out there.
How to Become Eligible to Use Video on Amazon
Use an Amazon Brand Page. You can find all the info on how to start your own Amazon Brand on Amazon.com with a simple search.
The Most Effective Videos for Converting Sales
Plugable, Lumen5, Sous Vide Supreme, Organify, and Dazzity all agree that customer testimonials are by far the most effective videos for converting sales. Testimonials serve to help consumers to overcome objections, build the credibility of the product or company, and provide social proof. When people are in a situation where they don’t know how to react, they look to what other people are doing. Testimonials effectively bring about a herd instinct.
“Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.” P.T. Barnum
This quote fits flawlessly with Amazon. Reviews bring sales. Sales bring reviews. Utilize the positive feedback loop any way you can. Even back to the earliest days of Google, this concept has been pre-eminent. Bernie Thompson, founder of Plugable just so happened to write a book on the subject as it relates to Amazon called (LINK) Flywheels and Feedback Loops: A Guide to Success for Amazon Private-Label Sellers.
Certain marketing principles have always worked and always will work. Check out Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Guide to Direct Response Marketing for a beginners guide to these principles.
Gathering Testimonial Videos From Your Customers
Obviously, these videos have to involve people who have used your product. Amazon makes this difficult, so having a communication channel off of Amazon is vital. One of the most significant faults of ecommerce businesses is a failure to reach out to their customers. What Rick does when he books testimonials is to have 10-12 people come to one location and spend the day talking about the product (about 30-45 minutes each).
These can serve as an incredible free focus group that can also provide testimonials. Just set up a camera, have the customer sign a waiver, ask them what they think about your product, and you’re all set! Edit these pieces of content into a cohesive testimonial composition, and you have an incredible visual and sound byte that’s sure to help your listings convert.
Even if you’re running a small company with only a few sales, these pieces of video marketing content can set you apart from the competition.
Use an authentic spokesperson. You can do a better job of talking about your product and how you use it than anyone else can. People sometimes are afraid to get in front of the camera, but they can be the most authentic spokespeople.
Lessons Rick Learned About Brand Building Working with GoPro
Nick Woodman’s strategy for building GoPro was genius. GoPro was unique in the product’s ability to create user-generated footage. Any extreme athlete could instantly become an influencer for just the cost of a single GoPro camera. The key to GoPro’s success was in the execution. Run a quick search for GoPro on YouTube. The one thing all the videos should have in common is that they start with a fade in from the GoPro logo. This is a valuable lesson. Always begin your marketing videos with your logo. Another incredible tool GoPro used to market their products was the giveaway.
Each video came along with a link that said, “Someone will win one of everything we make every single day. Go to GoPro.com.” To enter the contest consumers were required to provide their name and email; this helped GoPro create a massive email list to which they could market their products. They’d also include shareable videos produced by top extreme athletes right there on the front page of their website. This brought about a viral component. Some curious customers would even end up buying cameras while they were on the site. Brilliant!
What Nick did to differentiate his product from the ones made by Sony, Panasonic, and the other big players in the video and photography industries was to build mounts for the GoPro cameras that allowed the users to shoot video of themselves doing all kinds of activities. You could mount a GoPro on the handlebars of your mountain bike, your surfboard, helmet or wrist or even your dog and share those videos with your friends on social media. Synergistic marketing and product development. Incredible. The product in itself was the perfect vessel for gathering spectacular testimonials.
“You Don’t Build Your Brand to Sell; You Sell to Build Your Brand”
Your focus should be on anything you can do to sell your product, get it into as many consumers hands as possible, and as people start buying your product they’re going to tell other people about it and why they like it. Your money should be spent on driving sales for your business.
As you go, your brand will develop. That’s one of the most significant advantages of selling on Amazon. You have an income stream. Double-down and build a website. Reinvest in products and services that will continue to funnel traffic to your products.
Differentiation is key. What you can do differently than the other people in the ecosystem is the key. Identify a unique feature or service and use all of your resources to communicate it to the marketplace in which you’re selling.
You can find Rick his books Buy Now: Creative Marketing that Gets Customers to Respond to You and Your Product and Building Billion Dollar Brands website RickCesari.com.
Watch Video Marketing for Amazon Sellers with Rick Cesari
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