Marketing Media & Cupcakes

Content Is King!

July 31, 2019 Host; John Ondo Season 1 Episode 8
Marketing Media & Cupcakes
Content Is King!
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

John Ondo, filmmaker/tv producer, shares several ideas from his 37 years of award winning television experience about how you can better connect with your audience with media. Whether is posting a video from your phone to social media, or using a professional production company, the content is the same.

Content Is King
-Testimonials are a must
-Get a reveal moment with your product and a customer
-The Before & After (works for makeovers, construction, weight loss)
-The written testimony

All these ideas and more can make your business website insanely popular. You need the algorithms and hashtags, but if you don't have great content, you have nothing. And the best content is testimonials. 

John is a 4 time Emmy Winner, and a 7 time Telly Award winner. He is also author of the book "How to avoid a Media Meltdown" (2012) which he will tell you is outdated now. 

John is available for interviews and speaking engagements at john@ondomedia.com

Speaker 1:

This is the

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small business podcast that is sweeter than all the rest, marketing, media and cupcakes. Welcome to episode eight of marketing, media and cupcakes. I am John Mondo. And are you someone who's thinking, I don't know what content I want to put on social media with my business.

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I hear a lot of things I talking, I hear a key words and this and that and offers and making money and I don't know what I should do. Well, let me help you. Let me help you and try to find out what contents appropriate for you with your business to put on social media or in television or radio advertising. Those industries aren't dead either. So we want to talk about that a little bit. Uh, Angel is not here with me today. She's doing what she does so well. She's training her customer service representatives with her big company that she works for. Uh, and if you're new to our podcast, she has that job as well as she's bi-vocational. She has a cupcake business that she does and she made a ton of mini cupcakes this week. We're fabric. Matter of fact right off to the side here, I'm eating some fudge that she made before she left for me. So I appreciate that. My business is a television film production. I've been doing it for 37 years. I'll know media has been in business for 10 years because I got to the point where I got frustrated with consultants coming in who were telling my bosses the same thing I was telling my boss, but they were getting a check and flying out and I was left with the work. So I created on dough media, really designed it for small businesses. Um, I really love working with small business owners, especially those who say, I don't know what I should do with media. I know my product really well. I know what to create. I know how to make a quality, but I don't know what the put online or I don't know if I should buy television advertising or I should buy radio advertising or should I buy youtube ads and we'll scratch the surface on some of that today. But I just want to, again, thank you for listening and our purpose and our goal here is to take small businesses like ours and encourage other small businesses and say, you're living the dream. You, you sit back at night like I do sometimes and go, what did I do? I can't pay the bills some days, but trust me, it works out. My small business model was I love doing what I do. I would like to make a comfortable living doing it, but I also have three kids. I have two step kids and I want to spend as much time as I can with them. And I want to work on the products I want to work on and a world I want to work with clients that I want to work with versus being told, John, go do this and go do that. And you cannot put a price on that kind of freedom. So whatever it is with your business, uh, you, you, you had a passion to start it. We're a podcast that wants to encourage you. And what we try to do is we have guests on many weeks and we're going to have more guests coming on or we'll help you with your media and your marketing and ideas with how you maybe need to hire staff or not hire staff and how to deal with conflict. We're the podcast for you. So again, we're so glad you're here. I would appreciate it if you would subscribe to us. We're on everywhere from the iTunes and everywhere else. Whatever you're listening to, please subscribe to us and that'll help us and give us your comments and your reviews. We would love to have that. So let's get into content is king. One of the things I did not that long after I started my own production company. And again, I, I, I've been in the industry for 30 some years. Um, I wrote a book, I would have a lot of lunches with, uh, potential clients and they would say to me, John, uh, how do I build a website? What should I do with this? And I would go through the typical, you know, discussion with them about here's what you need to do, here's what you need to do. And finally I got frustrated with that. I'll just put this in a book. And the book's very small. I, you know, it's like 80 some pages and it's called how to, how to avoid a medium meltdown. Now, unlike other podcasts, which I'll say, go buy my book, I'm going to tell you, don't buy my book. It's outdated. It was written in 2012 way back then. Um, I talk about things like Facebook. You remember Facebook? Well, it, it, the whole landscape of social media has changed so much that a lot of the things I talk about from, Gosh, eight years ago aren't relevant anymore. But my media stuff is, so how do we approach this? So one of the things I was just telling somebody I had coffee with the other day, uh, I don't know if you remember the Brady bunch movie from, you know, 20 years ago, the one where they make fun of the Brady Bunch and Mike Brady would, you know, he's the architect. And he would always show his clients. And it was the, it was the Brady House. He kept showing them, here's what we want to build for your fast food restaurant, or here's what we want to build for your accounting firm or whatever it was. And it was the same thing every time. It's just a different sign on top. Uh, just so funny, it was, I was telling my friend the other day, she, she asked me, well, what is it you do? And I said, I do the same thing. I sit down, whether it's a commercial client, whether it is a marketing agency or you know, maybe it's a nonprofit and they say, we want to get our message out and what do I do? I say the same thing every time we need to do testimonials. I am all about the testimonials. I think they are the most powerful way to market your product. And, and in the, unless you tell me you have a lot of people who hate your product, you have a more serious problem than, uh, but otherwise you have to have people who loved your product. You probably wouldn't have started your business had you not had people say, oh my gosh, these are great cupcakes or this is uh, a great food truck or this is a great website business you guys have. Um, so this is why testimonials are so powerful. You should have some already. Let me tell you about one of my favorite testimonials. And it proves the point better than anything. And you can Google it if you don't remember this, but I think the most effective campaign, and I think it ran for about three or four years, was for Onstar. You remember they would run them both on television and radio and it would always start off Onstar, how can I help you? And it always, you know, somebody, a lady or a man, I've been in an accident and then you would hear this real, this real live audio. And then somebody would say, onstar provides your family safety and Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah for just whatever it is a month. And it would go back, oh, thank you so much. You know, we have rescue workers on the way that it was. The instilled in my mind is the most effective spot ever created. It's real. It explains everything. You're probably nine times out of 10, if you were listening on the radio, you're listening in your car to this and you're thinking, what would I do if I was in an accident right now? How could I let my family know this was a great campaign developed by Onstar? I honestly don't know why they don't do anymore. This is the power of the testimonial. When you hear something that's real, when you hear somebody talking about it, it is powerful and it will sell better than anything else. A common thing that happens when I have clients, uh, we sit down and have an initial meeting and they're like, well, we were just thinking of Bob. Our CEO could just say a few things about our product. Nine Times out of 10, my response is, no, we shouldn't hear from Bob. We, I want to hear from your customers. How many times do you buy a cereal, a yogurt, a beer, an IPA? What have you. I enjoy a nice bourbon every now and then and I have other friends who enjoy a nice bourbon and we'll sit down and they'll say, have you tried to such and such just came out or have you tried angel's envy or have you tried the new, you know, decal Tabasco Bourbon or whatever. Nine Times out of 10 the reason I go out and try a new bourbon is because a friend told me they really like this bourbon. Now that applies to cars. Angel's new car is is a key to Telluride. I love this car and I and I forced her pretty hard to look at at domestic GM for a vehicle, but Kia had just come out with the Telluride saw TV ad. That's what caught my, I started googling it and when we finally took her for a test rate, it's the most, it's, it's an incredible SUV for the price. I'm not going to say it's the best, but for the price, this thing is insane and it replaced an infinity and we love this Kia. We tell everybody about it. We have other friends who are looking at them now. So again, this is the power of the testimonial. When somebody tells you, I really love this, you know, that makes a difference. Testimonials I think are very, very powerful. What does this boil down g say? Well I make a, you know, I make custom furniture for a living. Well, the testimonial is a couple of different things. You could simply, and I'm not talking about high tech, high budget production, you could take your iPhone and get somebody when they see that, uh, that piece of furniture you make for the first time. Um, I need to encourage angel more to get a reveal when she does some of these custom cakes that she does it that are just incredible. If you're a photographer and you have a photography business and maybe you could present a framed photo, the best photo that you did, and show them that and have somebody record it on their iPhone, that is gold. Now ask permission of that person. Say, you know, I would like to post this on social media. Is that okay? 99% of the time they say it's fine, but that is, you know, these are great ideas. How can you have a reveal moment for your product where somebody goes, oh my gosh, that's great. Now obviously maybe you're dealing with a food truck or maybe a website is not quite as wow a, it's a different type of reveal a. So how can you capture that? Uh, can you capture it with an iPhone? That's great if you can, uh, in, in, you could also integrate those into a professional media. But a lot of people, I'm, I'm kind of surprised they asked me, he said, John, is it okay if we could use a cell phone video? My answer is always yes. If yes, we want to look at it and see that it's not too distracting. But that moment, that reveal moment is a very powerful moment. Um, especially we can do a before and after. Um, let's take for example, a good friend of mine is in construction, does home remodeling. Again, if you can do a before and an after, that's a very effective, uh, testimonial that you can show here. It was before and here it was after and then you get what we call a sound bite at somebody saying, oh my gosh, I can't believe what they did with our home. Here's another one that many of you may be out there. Maybe you're doing a beach body or you've got your own custom fitness program or perhaps a weight loss program, or maybe you're your addiction with cigarettes or something else that you're trying to get people out of the before and after. Testimony is powerful and you just make it part of your routine. When you meet with somebody, say they come in and they've agreed, they're going to sign up. You just say, listen. Part of what we're going to do is we're going to record a quick testimonial with you before and we're going to do another one later and then I'd like to have your permission to use that on our website. You will find that most people, because one, they are so happy to have the product you've made for them. Whether you've helped them lose weight or you've built some kind of custom furniture for them or you've made some shirts or whatever it is, it, they will so much appreciate what you've done. They want to help you in the fact that how can I help you? Well, you could help me by, let me videotape you. I'm getting your custom wedding dress. That moment where they get to see the dress for the first time. These in television are, you know, it's butter moments when I call them. They are the moments you just, you wait for because it, you don't have to do anything. You put that on Instagram or Facebook or youtube. You are going to have a viral video. So be thinking of those things. What can I do with a testimonial? How can I have the Aha moment, the reveal moment of the product you have. Um, and, and, and focus on that that way. Um, and then the interview, can you just ask somebody and don't, don't let them talk. Tell me about your experience with my cupcakes. Tell me about your experience with our, our um, our tailoring of your Tuxedo for prom or whatever it is and let them speak. And you can always cut out what you want. So doing your own video is, is I think in a very effective way of doing it. Now you do get what you pay for. And I do say in my book, in everywhere in life, and we've all heard this many times, you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. So I do as a video production guy, am going to tell you, uh, to do the first video. If you can pay for one professionally to be done, please do it. Can you do your own videos? Absolutely. Uh, but I would set a goal in your budget that if you are starting your business, you can do some videos. But when you get a chance, try to set aside$2,000,$3,000 and contact somebody like myself and say, we need to produce a video. And here's another thing I always tell folks, and this is important that you, when you talk to a video producer, I'm a good PR. A good producer like myself will give you options. That may be, we'll do one video in 16 by nine for Youtube, but we also going to create a square 10 80 by 10 80 for Instagram and cut them differently and we're using the same footage, which is a big part of the cost is coming out and shooting your, your story and your product and then you have your music and then you have your voiceover perhaps and maybe some animation that you have to throw in there. That's my little pitch for video production companies. So let's do a quick review. Content is king testimonial. Very, very important. Get the before and after of your product. Get the reveal of your product to the client. If you can do that on a, on a video, great client reviews. Reviews on your website are critical. Those are, if you will, the digital testimonies that you need to have on there, and I think you need to have a lot of them. If you're going out to buy golf clubs and you're going out to buy a set of title lists, and the title is, you know, they, you go to their website and it says title list. We have seven irons and six irons, and it's a woods that hit a million miles. Okay, that's great. But if the banner has tiger woods on it and tiger woods says, these are the best darn clubs I've ever used, well guess what you're going to do? You're going to buy the title list. Cause that's what tiger woods would say. I don't know if he's, I don't think he uses title is, but I'm just using that as an example. The power of the testimonial, whether you use an imprint on your website or if you use an envideo to capture the emotion of someone who goes, oh my gosh, your product's amazing. We all get Robo calls. Uh, there's nothing at all that makes me want to buy from a robo call. But if a friend calls me up and says, I just saw the new mid engine corvette and it's amazing, well guess what I'm gonna do? I do that anyway because that new mid engine Corvettes, amazing content is king testimonials before and after. Get the reveal. And if you can't do any of that, get somebody to write you a testimonial or just a couple of lines of what, what they appreciated about your product and it'll make a difference. Make sure everything's authentic, get good reviews. And uh, and, and again, you don't have a second chance to make a first impression. So when it comes time to do video, establish a video budget. Shoot for about$2,000 and contact somebody like me who can help you with your project and custom make a video that will have those testimonies that will have that emotional connection. People buy from emotion. They do not buy it from statistics. Um, I listened to all, I listened to a lot of podcasts and I, and I don't subscribe to most of them because what I hear is numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers. I don't care. I want to hear emotion. I want to hear passion. That's what makes me listen to a podcast. And so I hope you hear that from our podcast and I hope whatever is going on in your business right now, it's on the upswing. Uh, but focus on the content and you find yourself a fringe benefit from all of this is when you start focusing your marketing mind on getting testimonials that will automatically play into how your products are done. Uh, I, you know, unlike everybody else, I have days where I'm working on a project for a client and I, I would just like to clock it in and clock out and just do the bare minimum. But because I know I'm often going to ask for a testimonial from them or some type of review from them, that really instills in me, uh, that I got to do this right. Cause at the end of the day, I want them to say, man, this is incredible. Thank you so much for doing that. Um, I don't mind even when I screw up and there's, there's times I have screwed up projects and I go back and the client says, oh, this is wrong. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm sorry. Let me fix it. And I have, I have great testimonials of clients who have said, you know, John got this wrong, but I was so impressed that you went back and fixed it and got us what we needed. And uh, I call that the recovery and the recovery is very important and think that's a great testimonial when people say, you know what? Uh, he worked really hard to get us what we needed. Just know you are living the dream. Uh, we want to encourage you that your business is there for a reason. We all have a purpose in life. We all have a dream to fulfill. And I believe your business that you're working on, or maybe you have to start it yet, you're thinking about it, but that's your dream job. I want to find out from you how this has impacted you, ideas on testimonials, things you've used as well. John J o h n@aldomedia.com is my email. Uh, we are, uh, obviously on Instagram and Facebook and we would love to have you subscribe to us. It's just so important because we want to continue to do this and it's your response that really helps us continue because it's your testimonial to us. So if you can give us a short testimonial, that would be awesome. I am a big believer in having a vision, especially with your business. I think it's critical, and we will have a guest on next week talking with us about vision a plus angel. We'll be back, which will be a lot more fun when she's here. It always is. Please spread the love. Please let people

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no about marketing media cupcakes, subscribe to the channel, write a review, and we appreciate it so much that you spend time with us today. Connect with John and Angel via Facebook and Instagram and let us know your thoughts. Marketing, media and cupcakes is a production of Armando media.

John's story
Content is King-Testimonials
Why testimonials versus the product creator?
Capture the "reveal"
Paying for a professional video
Get Reviews from customers!