How does Charles Alexander generate anywhere from 100% to 1200% ROI for his customers expending inspired explainer videos?
This week on The Inbound Success Podcast, small business advisor and video pioneer Charles Alexander explaining how he helps customers create animated explainer videos, and how those videos are quickly rendering immense returns on investment.
From why and when to use an animated explainer, to how the video product process slogs and how companies can use inspired explainer videos in their sell and sales process, Charles shares a capital of lore on these types of videos, together with how you can create them yourself if you don’t want to outsource.
Highlights from my conversation with Charles include 😛 TAGEND
Charles is a small business coach who also has a business originating 90 second explainer videos.
He specializes in working with beings in an advisory role( ex. real estate agents, insurance agents, monetary advisors, etc .) and helping them more clearly explain how they stand out from the contender.
Charles says that 80% of online freight today is video, and whether people like to admit or not, video is one of the main ways we all exhaust datum.
Regrettably, numerous beings are either very uncomfortable being on camera or very awkward when they are, and an animated video is an inexpensive nature of deriving the reinforces of video without “ve had to” applied a subject matter expert on camera.
The main reason to create video of any kind is to build what Charles calls a “know, like and trust factor” with your audience.
Many people are awkward or awkward being on video, and creating animated videos is one way to move quickly with video even where the subject matter expert either cannot or will not appear on video themselves.
Charles’s process for creating videos begins with his patron replenishing out a six question figure that is all about their aspiration patient. He questions about the person or persons they is collaborating with, the problem they solve, how they solve the problem, why they’re different, what the steps are, and what the final result is.
From that, he writes a 250 command dialogue, which equates approximately to a 90 second finished video.
90 seconds is the sweet spot because anything shorter makes it hard to get a point across, and with anything longer, it can be tough to hold the attention of your gathering.
That is something that coerces his purchaser to strip away all of the lingo and useless information that they might typically include on their websites and simmer everything down to a simple story that is customer-focused.
From there, Charles moves the finished write to a professional voice over artist, marries the audio with video that he generates, and causes a finished product.
Charles has created a 12 quality checklist that goes his purchasers through how they can use their invigorated explainer videos in their sell and sales. It includes advice on using it for social media, on your website homepage, and in related to the follow-up emails to customers and prospects.
The cost to create an invigorated explainer video can stray anywhere from $300 to $20,000. Charles bills $999 for one video, but also offers bundles with volume rejects.
For many of Charles’ patrons, the payback span on this investment is very quick. He’s had customers who have consumed his videos in their marketing and sales process and almost immediately closed new deals. For one client, acre one brand-new client necessitate 100% ROI, and for another, one new patron from a video decoded to 1200% ROI.
Charles is very transparent and shared that he exploits software announced VYOND to create his videos. He says anyone can do it, but it realise gumption financially to outsource because of the learning bow and the amount of experience you would need to spend.
Resources from this occurrence 😛 TAGEND
Check out Charles’ website at www.yourcharlesalexander.com
Connect with Charles on LinkedIn
Follow Charles on Facebook
Check out some examples of videos that Charles has created for business owners, financial management companies, and insurance business.
Listen to the podcast to learn when to use enlivened explainers, and how they can help grow your business.
In this case, that insurance agent locates the right programme at the right price and then they kind of go back to their life as regular. That’s gonna resonate and mean something to them.
And then likewise when they contact you, you should have an email followup unless you just closed down right away. Well, the email followup shall not be required to be, again, a bunch of textbooks, a assortment of gibberish or a boring PDF.
Send them a different video, a follow up video or that, you know, again, kind of tells their story that those two things are almost, well , not nearly, those two things are worth it in itself if you never use the video in any other way.
But yes, I give them extra educations on how to use it on Facebook or LinkedIn. More importantly on those implements, where it certainly succeeds is in the inbox or in the messenger apps.
If you’re transport mortal a one on one message and chit-chat back and forth with them, that animated video will start you stand out very quickly versus time anything else you could possibly send them.
But then on top of that, you know, regular email commerce, during your presentations, there’s time a ton of ways to use an animate a video like that.
What does it cost to create animated explainer videos?
Kathleen: You talked in the start about how you work with small businesses and I actually cherish that because I do feel like it’s easy to talk about best tradition commerce for big companies with big budgets and lots of experts on their teams.
But I’ve been a small business owner and I’ve stepped in the shoes of that person who’s like, “I don’t have the money and I only have, you know, three employees” or, or “It’s only me. I’m a solopreneur. I’m the owner, the salesperson, the dishwasher, the vacuumer and the marketer.”
So I adore exploring ways that small businesses can get better marketing results.
Putting that hat back on right now, the question that that person is always going to have when they hear something like this is, can I render it?
So can you talk a little bit about what it costs to do this kind of video?
Charles: I’ll give you what the speculation is that I ask for from my clients, and in kind of a generic highway, what is it all the way across the board?
It’s still a wide variance. There’s a lot of tribes that will create something indeed habit formed that, you are well aware, 15, 20 grand that you know, is unlike anything you’ve seen.
And then “youve had” few out there that will do it for three or 400 bucks, but they’re probably overseas. You won’t be able to talk to him or you ever get an update on it ever. And it might not be the quality you want.
So I various kinds of tell tribes where I’m at is the loaded Camry, so to speak.
Kathleen: I adoration it.
Charles: I’m not the Yugo that’s falling apart in the driveway.
Kathleen: I drove a Camry for a very long time and you know what? Those gondolas last-place forever.
Charles: Boom. Great example I formed. But yeah, they’re great. So I have three video cartons — a single video, two videos, or three or more videos.
The single video is simply $999. I take care of everything from beginning to end and the only work my patients do is fill out a six question pattern. And from there I, I do all of the task. They precisely have to approve it and then they’ll get a video 17 periods or less from dialogue approving.
The most popular one I have though is the three or more videos at only $797 each. And those are even invoiced out monthly through PayPal. So it fits within somebody’s marketing budget.
And what I realize quite a bit is that somebody will have an an idea of what they want for their homepage video that’s a kind of not just about their patron but excuses who they are, why they’re different.
But then past that, parties will have different targets or different niches. And I know you probably say niche, but I’m right here in middle Tennessee. We say niche.
Kathleen: Potato, Patato, nish, neesh.
Charles: They have different things they offer. They have one or two other makes or services that they really want to advertise and make sure that people are aware of or they may have different customer theories that, you are well aware, if it’s, let’s say it’s business to business, perhaps you target healthcare, but then you too target CPA firms.
Listen, you are well aware, if it’s direct to consumer, you might have a product that targets women ages 30 to 40, but you likewise have a product that targets mortals 55 to 65 that are soon to retire, needs a golf instructions, whatever it is.
You can create additional videos for that. And the financing piece is simple because in most cases you need a patient literally to probably pay for it.
And then you know, you’re, you’re ahead of the game and then you’ve got the evergreen content you can use forever and will continue to help you close those clients.
The ROI of enlivened explainer videos
Kathleen: That’s great.
Now you’ve done this for plenty of small and medium-sized businesses. Can you talk a little bit about what impact it has had for them in their commerce? Because of course on this podcast, we’re all about results and how that translates into results.
So what has this done for your consumers?
Charles: So exactly a couple of quick examples. I recollect I had a pest assure client that wanted one for termite impairment. They created a fun and hiring video that explained how termite damage altered the client’s home in this video.
They sent it out in one of their email marketing newsletters and closed, I forget how many, she said various clients immediately. They watched the video and then right away after, after watching, called them and paraphrased what the video had told him.
He said, “Hey, we need you guys come out and check right away.”
One of very good ones I had was for a real estate agent. She had a series of six videos where she would, you are well aware, upon first congregating a buyer, she had a followup video and then it was a, “shes had” them about buying, selling, pricing, negotiating.
She said there was a particular client that, well, someone that became a client, but as they were going through the process, you are well aware, they were still kind of feeling around, shopping around, and you know, that’s a very personal process — obtaining individual that can help you with your biggest investment.
But she said toward the end, right before they became a client, the husband and wife were sitting there and the partner started saying something that was a little negative and the partner said, “Hey honey, we’re not going to be like those people in that video that are, you know, being negative about selling a house.”
She excerpted a line from the video. They all laughed and then immediately indicated Sandy to become their real estate properties agent.
Kathleen: Oh, that’s funny. I adoration it. So have any of them been able to, I necessitate it sounds like they have real, concrete narratives of like these people became, my patron. Have any of them been able to share, like I, you are well aware, I made this much more fund because of my video or change any of that into dollars?
Charles: I’d love to give you these immense storeys about how they told me all about their ROI. And what I’ve discovered is that although there are I’m creating these videos, they have to once has in a nature to truly measure great return on investment.
Do you know how many beings out there are really appraising return on investment for market dollar?
Kathleen: Yeah. Especially in a small business community. That’s, that’s tough.
Charles: It’s well, they, they do it by the number of clients.
And in this particular case, you are well aware, Sandy, for that one client alone, that was a $ 400,000 plus dollar house or whatever, you are well aware, 6% of that was, but that was just that one client merely or the termite, you are well aware, that’s a, they were doing Sentricon not the board paper with details, but that’s $2,000.
Kathleen: So let’s actually do the math on that. A $400,000 live, and I’m really bad at math, so I might get this wrong.
Four times, you are well aware, let’s say you get half the commission because you’re merely the buyer agent or the dealer worker. So $12,000 on a $1,000 waste. So that’s a 1200% ROI.
Charles: Awesome. See, that’s what I need to be out there. I have some material written on ROI. And I’ve got 40 plus evidences on my page, but when I come back to ask people to help me calculate it, they kind of, they’re on to their next thing.
It exists. It runs. But you know…
Kathleen: No, but that’s, those are great stories because like, even the termite thing, if it’s a $2,000 marketing, you know, that’s double. Right? Right, right. So I cherish that.
So it certainly points to, you know, this can be a really quick way to, to see some increased marketings instantly. I adore that story.
And, and I would love to include links to example videos in the indicate indicates. So route me some relations, Charles. We will set all the links in. So if you’re listening and you want to see examples of these kinds of videos, top to the prove notes.
Getting started with inspired explainer videos
Kathleen: So what admonition do you have for somebody who’s listening and thinking that they might be interested in doing this?
Charles: So first and foremost you can actually go to my site and you can find that six question form there at yourcharlesalexander.com.
So the first question is if you should do it, you know, there’s, I’ve previously, I felt like I’ve once saw the subject. You need a video in some way, chassis, word, or fad. You probably need three or six.
So the next thing is, do I want to do it? And I don’t tell kinfolks not to do it. And I know if they’re in a real startup phase and they’re trying to wear all the hats, maybe that, maybe that’s a situation where you need to start and try to create your own. There are some implements out there you can use.
I’ll even tell you the application I use is Vyond — V Y O N D. And it’s got a ton of competition out there. Toonly, VideoScribe, Moovly anything it concludes with L Y, certainly. Powtoons.
But the point is you can create your own, but in most cases it looks just like you organized your own. I tell folks, where’s your time better invested?
This goes back to my small business coaching hat. Are you better off working on the business or in the business, or are you going to be the one that is doing the $10 or $15 an hour task? Are you the $150 to $200 an hour person now?
And you need to outsource that to somebody else and figure out where the real return on investment is. And that’s when you decide if you should outsource it or not.
Kathleen: Amen to that because I have played around with some of those implements in the past and I’m not a video person. Yeah.
Charles: Like anything else, once you start digging into it, you find there’s a lot of subtleties with it.
Kathleen: Right. Let me just tell you, I could lose days trying to create a 90 second video. No, it has not been able to be good. So that’s, that’s interesting.
I appreciate you sharing the names of those pulpits because it’s good to, to, you are well aware, and it’s not smoke and mirrors. I like that you’re, you’re really translucent about that and that you shared your tolls. That is very inboundy of you. That’s awesome.
Kathleen’s two questions
Kathleen: Cool. Well, let’s shift gears. I have two questions I always ask all my patrons, and I’d love to hear your answers to them.
The first one is, you are well aware, we are all about inbound marketing on this podcast. And I’m strange, when you think of inbound marketing, is there a particular company or individual that you think is doing it really well? Right now?
Charles: John Nemo from LinkedIn Riches, and he has a variety of online content that he generates, but it’s all about inbound market and one-on-one messaging.
So I’m a ponderous LinkedIn user and he talks quite a bit about, you are well aware, extremely if you’re doing B2B or you’re using other businesses to help you create a center of influence to get purchasers, Linkedin is a marvelous scaffold, but a lot of people still don’t know how it works.
I hear comment time and time again, “Man, you know, I organized one a few years back. But I check it now and again, I actually don’t understand it. It’s just like somewhere where I post my resume or parties tried to poach me to go work at a different task or do something, do something else or sell me something.”
John has created a really good business for himself. And he has his own podcast Nemo radio. But if you ever get a chance to interview somebody that actually understands how that works, how to create evergreen content, how to bring in inbound consumers over and over, he’s your man.
Kathleen: And is that Nemo? N? E M. O?
Charles: That is, just like the fish.
Kathleen: All liberty, I’ll check that out.
And then the second issue is, you know, the, the most common pain point I hear from just about every marketer I talk to is that they feel overwhelmed with how quickly the world of digital sell is changing and how hard it is to stay up to date with all of that.
So how do you personally stay up to date with all of those changes?
Charles: So what I do is I help find three or four things that really work for me. Not every single thing on planet earth , not every social media platform , not every email commerce implement , not every CRM. Find the three or four that really work for me and stick with those.
It doesn’t mean you can’t be aware of other tools that might be better, that you might need to change. But like you just said, they’re changing all of the time. So one of the big questions I always get is “Charles, since this is video, you must know everything there is about SEO, Facebook ads, Google pay per click.” And I be said that, actually no. There’s a ton of other video tribes that do that. They’re knee deep in it and it reforms every minute of every day. I don’t do that.
What I have really works for me. Again, I’ve already mentioned his LinkedIn, so I stay on top of that. You know, I’ve came John and I bide be associated with him and keep working with his content. So I figured out what the changes are through him.
For email marketing, that’s something I read up on and stay up on. But quite frankly it has stayed the same throughout all of this, which is crazy. People will tell me from time to time, they don’t feel like it works.
But I can tell you right now, email market in terms of social media has about three times the number of accounts that social media does all developed in partnership and it has stayed the same.
So there’s not a lot to stay on with it other than creating something that’s compelling. Just think about it simply. What would you want to watch or speak? If it’s a bunch of lingo and a boring material, don’t do it.
It’s that simple. It’s a litmus test.
And you know, those are the primary things.
I hope this is a still fits within an inbound commerce, but I still do some old school stuff. My best their customers and my centers of influence, I write them indicates. I send them stuff in the mail.
Even exactly this last week I have already established basketball cards. It was supposed to be for the NCAA tournament. So I told them, you know, I had some downtime from not watching the NCAA tournament. So I compose these silly little basketball posters with their animation scene on it, instant stats and send it all to them. And I got tons of feedback from how much they experienced this.
So to answer your original question, find your road, find two or three influencers so to speak, and then just stay on top of it. Don’t get overwhelmed and try to be all things all people
Kathleen: Amen. And you are well aware, it’s, it’s funny that you say that about the cards and March madness. I had a lot of plans in my marketing programme to do some direct mail that was kind of account based marketing and that’s gone out the window because nobody’s at their bureau to receive it. So we all have to shift gears right now. Right?
Charles: The text, the word “pivot” hasn’t been overused at all, has it?
How to connect with Charles
Kathleen: No , no , no, emphatically. Well, thank you so much Charles. This has been so interesting. If soul wants to learn more about the videos or get in touch with you, what’s the best way for them to do that?
Charles: It’s super easy. Go to my website. I got truly innovative with the identify — yourcharlesalexander.com.
You know what to do next …
Kathleen: All right, I’ll placed that attach in the demonstrate indicates and thank you Zoom for mostly not glitching out on us in this conversation.
Charles: I think we did pretty good.
Kathleen: So yeah, so hopefully this, this’ll be a bellwether of things to come for future future podcast interview recordings.
But if you’re listening and you experienced this, like what you heard, I would really appreciate it if you would head to Apple podcasts and leave the podcast a five virtuoso review. That is how we get help find more listeners.
And of course, if you know someone who’s do kick ass inbound commerce drive, tweet me @workmommywork, because I would love to interrogation them.
That’s it for this week. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy and we’ll see you next time. Thanks, Charles.
Charles: Thank you.
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