How to Use Storytelling Videos to Convert More Prospects – In Just 7 Minutes with Charles Alexander

Resources/Links:

• Want to find out how you can do more by doing less? Click here: www.yourcharlesalexander.com

Summary

Are you often stuck making 3-5 minutes videos that it ends up boring your viewers?

Do you want to know how to make quick, unique, and amazing videos that will keep your viewers hooked?

Now that everything is instant, consumers and viewers want something quick! It’s important to keep your videos quick and unique to keep your viewers hooked up.

Charles Alexander is a polished content creator that uses humor and real-world experiences to educate others.

Get an over-the-shoulder experience on how Charles transforms long explainer videos into short unique videos that will get your message straight to the point and your clients hooked.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:36 – Charles’ ideal client: Ideally, Tom, anybody that is self-employed, and in an advisory role. I work quite a bit with financial advisors, insurance agencies, also business coaches.
• 02:06 – The problem he helps solve: The average advisor in almost any industry doesn’t necessarily have a really clear or concise, or better yet, even a fun or interesting way to kind of describe who they are or why they’re different in a short timeframe.
• 03:31 – The symptoms of the problem: The marketing is probably a little bit, has become a little stale, or they’re unhappy with it. Or they’re having to reply with the same copy-and-paste message in the email over and over. They’re regurgitating the same message over and over.
• 04:39 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Charles: Copying what everybody else is doing, especially, in some of the folks that I’ve worked with. Have you ever seen an old Xerox copy that showed your age right there? I said zero instead of copy, you know, a photocopy.
• 05:33 – Charles’ Valuable Free Action (VFA): Sure, before you create any video, or even do any marketing materials at all, I’ve created it, it’s one of the other things that my guides give away. But I’ll just tell you right here, and they’ll probably need to pause and write these down.
• 06:29 – Charles’ Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want to find out how you can do more by doing less? Click here: www.yourcharlesalexander.com
• 07:33 – Q: Two big mistakes people have when they create video? A: First, the audio got to be right each and every time. If you’re doing it this way, get a mic, get it for you.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“A video will not just go viral. Once you make it, it won't just start raining in Google and bring you all the leads. You got to go use the flippin’ thing!” -Charles Alexander Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I’m Tom Poland, joined today by Charles Alexander. Charles, a very warm g’day from Down Under. Where are you hanging out?

Charles Alexander 00:20
Just north of Nashville, Tennessee, my friend.

Tom Poland 00:23
Nashville, Tennessee. And tell me, that’s like the home of country music, right?

Charles Alexander 00:28
It is the home of country music. The Tennessee Titans and unfortunately now the bachelorette capital of the world.

Tom Poland 00:39
That’s quite an eclectic mix you got there, going on there!

Charles Alexander 00:41
If you ever go downtown, you’ll know what I mean.

Tom Poland 00:45
Okay. I’ll try and avoid it. Folks, Charles was invited onto the show for various reasons. But the main one was that I was just so impressed with his video explainers. If you get a chance go to Charles’s website, which is yourcharlesalexander.com and check out the video. Pardon me.

Charles Alexander 01:03
Very cleverly named.

Tom Poland 01:05
Well, it is! It’s damn smart because you cover all the marketing bases, and it’s less than two minutes. And it just does, the most extraordinarily clever job of covering all the bases. So, if nothing else, go to the website and check out how Charles does his video, explainer videos. He’s, in his own right, a polished content creator. He uses humor. He uses real-world experiences to educate others. Our title today, Charles, is, “How to Use Storytelling Videos to Convert More Prospects”. Our seven minutes start now. Question number one is who’s your ideal client?

Charles Alexander 01:36
Ideally, Tom, anybody that is self-employed, and in an advisory role. I work quite a bit with financial advisors, insurance agencies, also business coaches. The people that are in a need to not just stand down, but then clearly explain who they are, or why they are different.

Tom Poland 01:55
Right, because I don’t have a physical product, right? And the “so tell me all about it” sort of thing. So, tell us, question number two, has six and a half minutes left. What is the problem you solve? How would you articulate that?

Charles Alexander 02:06
The average advisor in almost any industry doesn’t necessarily have a really clear or concise, or better yet, even a fun or interesting way to kind of describe who they are or why they’re different in a short timeframe. Our attention spans are gone. And if you don’t believe me, thumb through Instagram, or TikTok. There’s a reason they’ll only let reels be a minute or so long. 81% of online traffic is now video. And a lot of the clients I work with either (a) don’t have video (b) they have video and it’s five minutes long. And it’s a talking head video that’s just kind of meandering all over the place. The problem is, they have marketing pieces everywhere, but nothing ties them together. These animated explainer videos can easily tie it together and give you a really clear message.

Tom Poland 02:52
Yeah, and yours’s a tight and concise and clear, and the edit. So, it’s not only, it’s not just the fact that the video medium is a terrific way to engage and educate, it’s also the way that you can articulate the value proposition so that people coming to your website or looking at a, clicking on an explainer video in an email or wherever else you can sprinkle it around, like giving it away in social media, they get it real quick. I think that’s part of your magic. Tell us about, question three, five minutes left. What would you say are the typical symptoms of someone who really needs to find out more about what you do? What’s going on in their business where they go, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s me, I need to find out more about Charles’s work.’?

Charles Alexander 03:31
The marketing is probably a little bit, has become a little stale, or they’re unhappy with it. Or they’re having to reply with the same copy-and-paste message in the email over and over. They’re regurgitating the same message over and over. Or worse yet, somebody says, “What is it again that you do? and they tried to fill it with their jargon certification, and years of experience. And a lot of them know they need something like this, but they’re uneasy. They’re overwhelmed. This is not what they want to do. They’ve maybe even tried it once or twice in the past that either was really expensive. Or worse yet, they did it and they just didn’t like the way it looked and felt. So those are the symptoms that I see quite a bit. And that’s what these, you know, animated explainer videos can help solve.

Tom Poland 04:16
Question four is some of the common mistakes that people make when they’re trying to solve this problem, particularly, in the point of difference. You’ve touched on one which is the idea of “Let’s get a video crew in here and make a really expensive video and then distribute”. Because the people who are often doing videos are great at doing videos but not at explaining and I think that’s a mistake a lot of people make. Any other mistakes you want to touch on?

Charles Alexander 04:39
Copying what everybody else is doing, especially, in some of the folks that I’ve worked with. Have you ever seen an old Xerox copy that showed your age right there? I said Xerox instead of copy, you know, a photocopy. But you know, after it’s been around for a while and people make a copy and a copy and a copy. That’s what happens a lot of times with the people that I work with. Somebody started off with an original listing website copy or marketing materials and\ it was okay then. And then 10 other people copied it. And then by the time they got down to the last person, it was just kind of sad looking. That’s what happens quite a bit. And then when they’re trying to like use it to create their own video, they don’t- they get frustrated. They have other things to do, or, you know, maybe perfection becomes the enemy of progress. They just run into these issues over and over.

Tom Poland 05:19
And the other thing about copying is that we never thought if it will work in the first place. So, let’s flip this. We’ve got under three minutes left. A valuable- like a top tip. People are probably going to need to reach out to you for the whole solution, but it might get them started in the right direction.

Charles Alexander 05:33
Sure, before you create any video, or even do any marketing materials at all, I’ve created it, it’s one of the other things that my guides give away. But I’ll just tell you right here, and they’ll probably need to pause and write these down. I have six questions you should always be asking before you create any kind of script, story, or anything else, and the first two are customer base. You know, one, who are you working with? Two, same as what we’re talking about here, what problem do you fix for them? Three, then you get to talk about who you are after we know who they are. Four, why would somebody want to use you vs the competition? Five, what are the exact steps you use, 1-2-3 generally, because that’s where our attention span is again. And then lastly, number six, what are the results they get from working with you?

Tom Poland 05:33
Folks, if you wanted a simple marketing sequence that is powerfully effective, you got it right there. So, pause, and rewind that part. Question six, let’s give folks more information. Where can they go to find out more about this?

Charles Alexander 06:29
So that website you just gave them, yourcharlesalexander.com. I have a brand-new guide there, right there at the bottom, “Seven Easy Wins with Video Marketing”. So many people have a misinterpretation of what video marketing is. On average, a video will not just go viral. Once you make it, it won’t just start raining in Google and bring you all the leads. You got to go use the flippin’ thing! I often relate it to like the peloton bike. You know, people who can pay 1000s of dollars for the peloton bike. You ride it twice and you know, you’re not going to be in the shape you want. You have to keep using the thing. So, I’m giving you seven easy ways that you already know how to do that it’s going to make your life easier!

Tom Poland 07:09
So, folks, www.yourcharlesalexander.com. We have no affiliate commission or monetary reason to promote this entity, folks. Charles’s here for a couple of reasons but the main one being he’s got good stuff. He knows what he’s talking about. So go to yourcharlesalexander.com. Charles, last question, 30 seconds left, what’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?

Charles Alexander 07:33
Two big mistakes people have when they create video? First, the audio got to be right each and every time. If you’re doing it this way, get a mic, get it for you. Get a down mic, I don’t care. Secondly, make sure it is a story based whether it’s interview style or animated. I will use it, I’d appreciate it, I always use Finding Nemo as my example. You know the East Australian Current if you haven’t seen it, Tom.

Tom Poland 7:54
Five seconds left.

Charles Alexander 07:55
You’re not. Oh, watch Finding Nemo then you’re going to know how to make a video.

Tom Poland 07:58
Charles Alexander, thank you so much for your time. Cheers.

Charles Alexander 08:01
Thanks, Tom. I appreciate it!

Tom Poland 08:03
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.