Are you looking for a simple technique to use to build a community for your business or brand?
My Video Marketing Strategy 013 might be just what you need!
I’ve been doing some research to see how different folks in different industries are doing a great job of connecting with their potential clients and customers, and turning them into paying clients and customers.
It’s all about getting to know your followers, building trust and likeability which hopefully will turn into loyalty.
Loyalty can’t be paid for, it is something which a business owner or blogger needs to earn by providing great information on a regular basis for free, with no strings attached – no pushy selling-via-email or inundating the person with emails which overwhelm them.
So what’s the solution?
If you know anything about me, you might recognise my first suggestion :-)
Write a list of questions you’ve been asked over and over about your business, product or service.
That’s right — we’re going to start with the ‘gold’ — know what your potential customers are searching for, and turn that into your list of ‘solutions’.
Once you have a list of questions, work out which one you’d like to use as the basis for a free Project you’re going to offer as a follow-along.
What’s a “follow-along”?
Similar to a Course, a follow-along is a process you can create to solve one of the pressing questions your customer has, showing them how to achieve the solution — step-by-step.
OK, I know this might sound counter-intuitive, but bear with me for a bit longer.
By showing someone how to solve something on their own, you’ll be showing that you are not just all about the $$ money $$.
It is also an easy entry to be on one of your lists, so someone will generally gladly hand over their email name to be on a mailing list where they’ll get an email every day, (or 2-3 or 7 days etc) to SOLVE one of their questions. Some examples of this are:
- someone who sells clothing patterns online could create a Sew Along to MAKE a piece of clothing or an item using one of their patterns
- in a 7-10 step process (each Step becomes a blog post), the website owner can take photos of details plus a video for each step of the process, post it, and update their Sew Along mailing list
- an artist who sells their artwork, paintings etc online could create a Make A Frame Follow Along whereby they show potential customers how to frame a small piece of art (something they sell) in the easiest possible way, and even how to hang the new framed artwork
- a food blogger who sells recipe books could have a Cook Along or a Make A Muffin Follow Along or a Roast Along (you get the picture), which shows videos and photos of how to create one of their recipes step-by-step
- a plumber could create a Fix A Drip Follow Along [I’m making up these names as I go :-) ] and teach potential customers how to fix a dripping tap or faucet in simple steps
- an accountant could show people how to create a document to track their household expenses, or any one of a number of other items suitable for a low-level entry point to help them perform a task they’re probably not doing
- a cafe owner or Barista might create a Make A Latte Follow Along or a Make A Capuccino Follow Along, How To Keep Your Home Coffee Machine In Perfect Condition Follow Along — and cover steps including why milk might not froth, why some coffee tastes bitter, or any other tip which could be relevant to making a good coffee at home
- each business, product or service could potentially come up with something simple like this.
Aren’t they giving away their secrets??
You’re right — it does sound like they’re giving away the secrets to their business, but they’re actually not giving away their main secrets — just teeny tiny ones which won’t impact on the main business.
What’s the point of even doing a follow-along?
The point of doing a follow-along is to engage your potential or current customers by including them in a process — and asking them to share their own results.
It’s the group dynamic of commenting on your steps, asking questions and posting their own photos and videos which makes this a very worthwhile endeavour.
Engaging your audience is one of the key factors search engines like Google look for. If you have folks popping over to your new blog posts (after receiving your latest follow-along update), they’ll watch, read and comment — which are all social triggers. If they share or post your blog links elsewhere, that’s a double bonus, so make it easy for them by providing share buttons.
Make sense? I hope so! For those of you who choose to use this technique, I’m sure you’ll find it will start to build a small group of followers which will grow each time you try a new follow-along.
One of the best parts of the follow-along is that :
- folks are OPTING-IN to be on the mailing list for a short series of steps, so when you email them with updates, they will click the link
- with each new step and email follow-up, they’ll be getting to know, like and trust you more
- this is far more engaging than just sending out a regular newsletter and works like a charm, often spread by word of mouth.
OK — here are the steps to create an effective follow-along:
- pick a topic — which question will you use as the starting point to show your followers HOW to solve this challenge?
- write a series of steps necessary to reach a solution
- each step becomes a blog post and an email to your follow-along crowd
- create a video for each step (or create one video and then chop it during editing to create shorter videos, one for each step), this could also be a slideshow created in Powerpoint, Keynote for Mac or any other software you have access to
- create still shots from the video if your topic needs to show close-up details (zoom on the video and take snapshots using your keyboard, or create still images through your video editing software)
- use SEO 2016 for your blog post and video (and image SEO if you also did photos or stills)
- create an Intro blog post to explain what’s going to happen in the Follow Along process, what’s required (if they have to buy anything), tell them who you are and why you’re doing this, if there’ll be a Facebook (or other) social page, share the links
- add a Sign Up at the bottom of each page of the follow-along, similar to this: “To join the follow-along, enter your email below. You’ll get a lesson delivered for free to your inbox each time the follow-along is updated.”
- if you like, create a shareable Button to go at the bottom of each blog post, with clear details and shareable code to post on their own sites
- at the end, ask via email if they’d like to share their results, telling them you’ll post them on your blog with their name or Twitter handle, etc (this can be one link to a page of their choice); on this final blog post praise all the participants, let your personality shine through. Let folks know they can sign up for your regular Newsletter to be on the Early Bird list for the next Follow Along.
Let me know if you have any questions about this — I might do one myself one day soon — would YOU like to follow along as I share a technique or process? Post me a comment — I’d love to hear from you!
Teena Hughes