The subject today is stuff that you can do in this new year in order to move the dial. What can we do to start the year off that's going to help us achieve something, and not just stare at our screens and wonder what we should be doing?
New year is, is like time for people to kind of make big, massive plans where, you know, maybe they haven't actually kind of considered the work and effort that goes into them. We've all done it, haven't we? I think, you know, you start with the best of intentions, but digital marketing, I think like getting fit. I mean, it's a good analogy because this stuff can be a slog, right? It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of energy and a lot of effort. And it's not something where you can kind of skip straight to the finish line. So I think anything you do start in the new year has to be something kind of sustainable, achievable. You have to be able to kind of tick those boxes, don't you, and say, oh yeah, I've done this and get that sense of achievement rather than setting yourself some huge goal that you're not going to be able to achieve for three months.
The second episode of 2022 of Digital Marketing From The Coalface, and I've got Alex coming over the wires through Zencaster, which we started using last year and quite like, I mean, the subject today is stuff that you can do, um, in this new year in order to move the dial. That's a phrase you like to use a lot in your podcasts, sorry, in your blog posts, isn't it?
I don't know what you're talking about.
You're always talking about moving the dial.
I didn't come here to get attacked.
Don't think it doesn't go unnoticed. Um. Anyway. Go on. What are we going to do to move the dial in 2022? What can we do to start the year off that's going to help us move the dial, uh, achieve something and not just stare at our screens and wonder what we should be doing.
Right. Because I think that's the that's the caveat, isn't it? It's got to be small things. It's got to be realistic things because everybody's doing that thing where, you know, they're like, oh, I'm going to start 2022 with my brand new marketing strategy, and I'm going to write six blog posts a week, and I'll have taken over Google in three days. And it's, yeah, it's, we're going to, I think, try and cut a line of, you know, kind of here are some actionable and simple things that you can actually do without tearing your hair out or giving up after five minutes.
Um, well, isn't this like, um, you know, the big deal for a lot of people at this time of year is like, right, I'm going to get fit. Yeah. Okay. So you get these horribly unfit people, they squeeze themselves into some Lycra and off they go. And, you know, basically they realise a hundred yards down the road that they're absolutely knackered and they get really demotivated. And the whole thing kind of by the middle of January has gone by the wayside.
Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, just frantically cancelling an order for some Lycra. Um. Yeah. I mean, I think this is the thing, isn't it? I mean, New year is, is like time for people to kind of make big, massive plans where, you know, maybe they haven't actually kind of considered the work and effort that goes into them. We've all done it, haven't we? I think, you know, you start with the best of intentions, but digital marketing, I think like getting fit. I mean, it's a good analogy because this stuff can be a slog, right? It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of energy and a lot of effort. And it's not something where you can kind of skip straight to the finish line. So I think anything you do start in the new year has to be something kind of sustainable, achievable. You have to be able to kind of tick those boxes, don't you, and say, oh yeah, I've done this and get that sense of achievement rather than setting yourself some huge goal that you're not going to be able to achieve for three months.
That's right. I, um, I kind of had a spark of an idea for this podcast. Uh, when I was listening to Geoff Norcott, Geoff Norcott podcast, uh, what most people think. Yes. Um, it's a podcast I listen to a lot. I like it, I've seen Geoff live and I've got tickets to see him again. He's a comedian, I think. Uh, is is really good. But his podcast is. It's not just him telling a bunch of jokes. He talks to people, he gets guests in, um, he, you know, he talks about political subjects. And as you're, as you're aware, I'm interested in politics. Probably my politics are different from Jeff's. But, you know, in some, in some ways, not a lot different sometimes, uh, there's, there's real crossover. But this, this week, um, he had a guest on, uh, I think he's a mate of his, uh, who is a personal trainer. Sure. And so he was bringing him on, he said it's, you know, obviously for everybody who listens to the podcast, but he was particularly going after, um, trying to help blokes who decide, oh, I want to get fit, you know, I want to do some stuff. And the guy started off and he, and it's a, it's a great podcast to listen to. I'd recommend it. I mean, I'd recommend his podcast anyway, but that particular episode, uh, is a great episode. And he started off by saying, you know, the usual thing, like If you want to get fit, then set yourself a realistic goal. Like, for example, decide you're going to go out walking and go out walking three times a week. Just go out for a half hour walk or whatever. And then you might find, you know, three weeks in that, that walk turns into a run walk. And then maybe a month down the line, you've actually started jogging or whatever. You know, it's this idea of do something that you might enjoy that isn't going to kill you, that you're going to be able to keep going back to. And before you know it, you've, you know, before you know it, you're a month down the road. I saw like in a digital marketing sense before you know it, you know, you have hit that goal of writing a couple of blog posts or you've hit now. Okay, before we go on with this, let's just reiterate strategy first. So we're not suggesting we're not, you know, like the whole get fit thing. I just, I just related to you is a strategy, a strategic approach. It's like the strategy is go out walking and get used to putting your tracksuit on and your trainers and going out and walking. Start there with something that's.
Achievable end up running.
Exactly. Yeah. Because I'd hate people to think that we're trying to say, look, it's the new year. Start writing blog posts. Don't worry what it's about. Just put words on a page and put them on your website because people will love it. I'm not saying that.
Yeah, I think that's a really important point. But I do also one hundred percent see your point about kind of walking before you can run, I guess because, you know, certainly with our blog, I'm really guilty of this when I'm in the habit of writing blog posts regularly, I'm always thinking of ideas. I'll just kind of like type stuff while I'm, you know, thinking and stuff like that. When I get out of the habit, it dries up and you kind of have to force yourself to do it. So yeah, I think a lot of this is really just about kind of forming good habits, isn't it? Kind of getting practice in and, and doing stuff.
There's a lot of, um, a lot of the self-help industry revolves around the idea of forming habits. There are people who, you know, that's all they talk about is forming these, what they call micro micro habits. I think, I think that's what it is sounds sinister. It does sound a little bit sinister, doesn't it? Yeah. Um. Well, okay, let's assume that. What what assumptions can we make? Do we assume that you've got a strategy? I mean, if you haven't got a strategy, then then start with that.
Yeah.
That's the simplest and easiest. Do you want to achieve. But if you've got that what you know, you started you made some notes prior to us doing this podcast in order to sort of give us something to talk about. So, you know, I'll hand over to you, start talking about some of the stuff you thought might be useful to people in terms of getting moving in 2022.
Yeah. How wrong I.
Am. Basically. Yeah. You throw them up, I'll hit them.
Yeah. I mean, to be honest, the first thing I've put down is literally that kind of spend some time putting together a content strategy. I think probably we talked about keyword research relatively recently in a podcast. I think if you're kind of sitting there running a website now and you don't have a kind of clear, coherent content strategy with the keywords that you want to target and the types of content you want to write. That's probably the best place to start, isn't it? Spend some time thinking about what you want to write over the course of the next year.
Okay. And in order to create a content strategy, what would you have had to have done first?
Uh, plenty of research, which I suppose is a good place to start.
Yeah. I mean, going back to, uh, Marcus Sheridan book, they ask you answer before you start producing content, you need to at least start developing an idea of the problems that your ideal customers have got that you can solve.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
That's a great place to start, isn't it?
Yeah. Um, I mean, I guess at the risk of kind of treading on the toes of older episodes, um, yeah, I think keyword research, I guess is what we're talking about, right? Things like using tools like Google keyword planner, SEMrush, our own seed keyword tool, that kind of thing. Get a bit of kind of marketing intelligence under your belt, I guess. Know exactly what people are looking for and then start building yourself a strategy.
Okay, well, let's let's make it even easier for people around the subject of keywords. Um, unless they've got a brand spanking new website and if they have, then probably they're better reaching out and having a conversation with a digital marketing agency or a digital marketing freelancer as a starting point. But let's assume that we've got a starting point. As in we've got a website that exists now, we could go out and start called doing the research in order to figure out what we should be writing about. Or we could tap into our old friend, the Google Search Console, or the Bing webmaster tools does exactly the same. It's got lots of data in it as well, and in there we could look for search terms that lots of people are typing in that you're not yet appearing above, you know, on page one for. Yeah. So you might be, you know, we, I know we were going over old ground, but as a as a as a sort of like easing yourself into 2022, a way of, of actually starting to think about what kind of content you might produce. There'll be some real quick wins in, in that data, won't they?
Yeah, it's an interesting point, actually. I guess probably the easiest and most sensible place to start is you're right, just kind of take stock of the data you've gathered over the last year, understand where there's opportunities and start looking at ways to exploit them because you're absolutely right. If you look in Google Search Console for pages with plenty of impressions and no clicks where you're in kind of position, what, like twenty seven, thirty eight, forty two, whatever kind of hovering about, um, they're places where if you invest a little bit of energy and a little bit of time, you can probably kind of shoot up the rankings and get some quick wins. Um, which I guess ultimately is a thing, isn't it? Because then you're gonna feel good about what you've done. You'll be tempted to go back and do it again. And lo and behold, a habit is formed. So yeah. Search Console. End of the episode. Backwash.
I mean, we've we've looked at this. We've looked at this before, but just as a recap to say, if people go in trawling through previous episodes, um, let's obviously we need to describe it because we're not recording this as a video. So what we're saying is that you would go into the search console. So straight away people will be listening going, uh, what's that? I don't even have access to that. Right? So it's a free tool that Google provides. And once you connect your site, or once you prove to, um, the search console that you have access to a website, and it's very simple how you do it. And if you don't know how to do it, then feel free to contact us and we'll show you how to do it free of charge, connect it up. And once you've connected it up, it will give you the a list of the search terms that people are typing into Google that trigger your page or a page on your website appearing in a search result. And by virtue of looking at that data, you can, for example, find a search term where your page appears, but it doesn't appear high enough to get any clicks. But lots of people are clearly looking for answers to that particular problem, or they're searching using that particular keyword. And that can give you then if you sort of look for a few of these, it can actually help you realise the sort of content that your website is missing or the pages on your website that need more work.
Yeah. Well, actually, yeah. And that brings me neatly to the next point I was going to make, really, which is so I don't know about you, but my LinkedIn feed is currently full of people talking about how they're going to create loads of new content this year, how they've got their content plan set up and ready, and they're going to smash it in 2022 and all this. I think repurposing old content, that exact thing that you just talked about, where you kind of locate a page in Search Console that's getting a few impressions, but clearly not ranking very well, and spending your time learning lessons about what works and what doesn't by tweaking that content, adding a few paragraphs, rewriting it completely, adding a video, whatever is probably a much better way to spend the beginning of the year than just going out and writing fresh blog posts or landing pages for the sake of it, right? If you actually kind of spend the time nurturing stuff that isn't performing well on your site already, you end up in a place where you know what helps you improve your rankings, you have some good ideas, and you can go forward and kind of create new content a lot more easily.
Okay. So that's a little bit like it isn't, but I'm going to say it anyway. So you decide you're going to get fit in 2022. And a lot of people get excited about the prospect of getting fit because they go out to buy themselves, um, some new shorts and some new Lycra and some new trainers. In actual fact, you've got some perfectly serviceable equipment languishing in the back of the cupboard. So like, you know, just pull out those old trainers, put a new pair of laces in them and you're already set up without going and spending a load of money on new kit.
Yeah, that's exactly it, isn't it? If you don't need a racing bike to get cycling, you just need to get the old bike out the garage and go do it. So yeah. Um.
You're not going to say anything else.
Yeah. That's it. That's all you need to do. Um, but I guess the other thing that I would say it's probably worth doing if you're going back and re-evaluating old content is just making sure that you've kind of ticked off all the basics. So one of the other things that I think it's kind of you can do very easily and very quickly that can make a massive difference is things like adding CTAs. That's calls to action and stuff like that to old content, making it easier for people to reach out to you if they read one of your blog posts or articles and think, oh, that's a great idea, or, oh, this information is really useful, just make sure that you've got kind of like an easily clickable button that says, here's how to contact me if you want to know more or that kind of thing. And I think, you know, even stuff as simple as going back and making sure, like all the images in your content is, you know, look nice and, and presentable is time well spent really at this time of year, isn't it? It's something you can do that makes a little bit of a difference. Doesn't take too long. You get something good out of it at the end.
Yeah that's right. I mean, one of the things that you need to be wary of, I think is sorry, I've got heartburn. I had a late lunch and I've got heartburn. Um, one of the things you need to be wary of is that if you're going to repurpose content, or if you're going to give existing content a spruce up again, using the search console, make sure that that page isn't already killing it for the keywords. So so for example, you might, you might have found some keywords in the search console and you think, oh, which of my pages already rank for this? And you find a page that like doesn't rank very well for a new keyword or a different keyword, you then go and change it. And in an actual fact, that page was getting lots of traffic and it was doing extremely well because it was already ranking for something else and you've just gone and repurposed it and potentially hurt your, um, your incoming traffic and your opportunity to generate leads.
Yeah. It's funny that you should say that because I was listening to a, um, a, b testing a podcast about CRO earlier and they were saying something very similar, which.
Is, wait a minute, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. You know, when I listen to great podcasts and I really enjoy them, what's the first thing I do?
Uh, do you tell me all about them? Is that way I do.
I do, I tell, I tell you about them so that you can go and enjoy them as well. And I don't remember getting an email from you saying, I found a really interesting podcast about CRO. You should go and check it out.
It is interesting. So it's called a B testing. They get it's it can be very kind of like granular at times. Like they go in hard on kind of like the right way to test and what types of tests there are and that kind of thing. So it's a little bit geeky, I guess, but they were saying something recently, which is that every time you do a test on a page, as in you put up a different version of a page to see if it works better. It's an opportunity to improve things. But what you've also got to remember is that it's equally an opportunity to absolutely trash your conversion rates or piss people off, or show them something they really don't like. So yeah, it's worth spending that time before you kind of dive in feet first and think, right, I'm going to completely redo this page. Like you say, just make sure that it doesn't have really good engagement stats. Make sure people aren't spending half an hour reading it, and you're about to kind of tear it up and replace it with something worse.
And what is a really great and totally free way of making sure that you don't screw up an existing page by changing it all?
Is it to use Google optimised to run an a B test. Did I get it? Is.
Tell everybody about. Tell everybody about Google Optimize.
It is a complete- Do you know what though? It's really interesting because I think. I don't think I know anybody else who's ever even heard of Google Optimize. Every time I tell someone about it, they're like, oh, I had no idea that existed. They'll be using some really expensive paid version of the same tool. So it is.
It could be, or they could be using a marketing platform like HubSpot, which has a B testing built into it. So it could be that as well. True. You know, you know, obviously we love HubSpot as well. And I think we have used HubSpot for some maybe testing when, you know, on sites that are using HubSpot platform, but, uh, yeah, sorry, go on Google Optimize.
Yeah. So it's a completely free tool. It's made by Google. Um, you can kind of log into it once it's all set up and you've installed all the tags and everything on your website, you can log into it and you can say, I want to test out a new version of this page. And you can actually kind of live edit your web page. So you can change text, you can add pictures, you can move stuff around and then run it as a test. So that only kind of fifty percent or twenty percent of your traffic or whatever, see this new version. And what that does is gives you a really kind of easy benchmark. You can test out new copy or new images or whatever and see really quickly, you know, does this resonate more than the original?
So what really is happening there is that Google is from the point of view of indexing and Google rankings, it is looking at the original version of the web page. But when it comes to sending traffic there.
Um, so.
For example, from Google search, it's actually saying, right, you know, the guys said they wanted fifty percent of the people coming from coming to this page to see a different version of it in order to try and figure out if there was a better version available.
Yes. And of course, yeah, like you say, the, the, the plus point being is that you can't accidentally ruin your SEO rankings at any point. You can turn the test off and you'll get the original version of the page back for everybody. So yeah, it's very simple. It's very difficult to screw it up, I guess.
Did you almost say that? Did you nearly say SEO optimisation?
I did not. That's us. It's hard not to. I don't know why. It's one of those weird kind of.
People that talk about that SEO optimsation. It just makes me chuckle every time I hear it. Yeah.
What's the.
Word? Search engine optimisation optimisation.
Tautology. Isn't it? Saying the same thing twice.
I just thought ignorance.
Yeah, well that'll do.
Maybe not. Maybe I'm being. I'm being a bit harsh for early January in the new year.
But as opposed to the rest of the time when you're such a nice man.
You're painting me into being as a as a as a kind of, um, dubious character. Alex.
Yes. Um. Moving on.
Swiftly. Okay. So, you know, we've talked about the search console that, you know, it's a great place to find some quick wins. And we I've said it before, if anybody listening to this would like a completely free no obligation and I mean no obligation, no sales pitch or anything screen share session. So we can show you some of this stuff and, you know, show you or your marketing team or, you know, if you want to see it, we're happy to show you it. It's a fantastic tool. Um, we've talked about that. That's where we could find some, some stuff to, to really get our teeth into in a, in a, in a kind of easy way, if you like, in the new year. Uh, and we've also spoken about Google Optimize so that we can say, you know, right, okay, this page is getting traffic, but it's not actually converting into anything. Maybe there's something wrong with it. Let's run some experiments and change some stuff. Um, again, you know, maybe in the show notes, we could point people at some, um, some easily digestible information about CRO. I know you've written some blog posts on the subject, haven't you? And we have done a podcast on it as well.
Yes, absolutely. Which we can link people to. Um, it's good stuff. Um, I think, I think it's one of those things as well with Crow, where because it sounds super technical and super geeky, a lot of people are really reluctant to get kind of stuck in and give it a go. But really, at the end of the day, it is all just about kind of experimenting and trying different things. So it's, yeah, it's well worth a shot. And you certainly don't have to be an expert to, uh, to dabble in it.
Okay, so what else have you got in your list? What else have we got that's going to be, um, you know, we're going to work up a sweat, but not in a horrible way.
So the next one is like a personal pet peeve of mine. And you might think it's a bit of a silly one to recommend, but it's tracking because the amount of conversations I have with people where, you know, we're halfway through the year and they're like, oh, if only we could tell how many people had landed on our checkout page, or, oh, if only we knew how many people were using our wish list or something like that. So it's the beginning of the year. Now is the time to make sure that in Google Analytics or whatever analytics platform you're using, you have proper goals and things set up and that you can actually track what people are doing. How many people are subscribing to your newsletters? I mean, we we're quite lucky, I guess, aren't we, because we use HubSpot for a lot of this stuff, which kind of does it all automatically for you when people enquire and that sort of thing. But a lot of people out there kind of don't really know how many people are signing up to their email newsletters, or how many people are adding stuff to the basket and not converting or whatever. And I just think, you know, it's a really fundamental thing, but it's the beginning of the year. So if you if you haven't got proper tracking set up, go and do it now. Really?
Mhm. On that subject, just before we, um, decided to record this podcast, um, a customer contacted me. Now when I say customer, we kind of look after the website, but we're not doing any digital marketing for them. I don't think we've ever done any digital marketing for them. It was a website design and build a bit of website management, looking after the thing, keeping the thing spinning and monitored and everything else. And she contacted me via email and said, oh, last year we, um, we paid to have a banner on a website, and I just wanted to know how many click thrus we got, how many people visited our website from this banner? Um, because they've offered us an opportunity to put the banner on the website again. Sure. And she said the banner, the banner was on, uh, ran from, I think it was September last year. So basically I just went into, I actually, rather than going to Google Analytics, clicky was installed clicky analytics. So I went into clicky set the date range, looked at the outbound links or sorry, the inbound links and um, center the data as a PDF. And then shortly after, she sent me another message saying, thanks very much. That's great. Um, actually just out of interest, could you also show me the data between two different dates? So I've just, you know, took me two seconds PDF and I said, oh, and by the way, at the same time, here's the PDF. However, here's a link to the clicky analytics. You can just see all of the data from for any. time. And, you know, she immediately emailed back saying, wow, that's my brain blown, you know? I mean, she was just blown away by it. And it is amazing how many website owners we speak to who say, oh, I've no access to that. I don't get to see any of that information. Now, Google analytics is great and it's sometimes a little bit impenetrable. It's kind of Google keeps changing the layout and it's, it's very complicated in some respects. The basic stuff isn't. But tools that we, you know, one of the tools we like because clients like it clicky is a completely different ballgame. I mean, you really don't even need any help on how to use it. It's pretty intuitive. Yeah. And it's so important, so important. You can become obsessed with it. You can spend like a large part of your day, basically waiting for somebody to come on your website to see where they came from, what they looked at and how long they stayed, etc..
How do you know that?
Because clients have told me people are obsessed about it. One in particular. I think after we installed it, he spent the next sort of month just basically sat looking at this, the real time data of people jumping on his website and see what they were looking at. Um, but yeah, it is important to know what's working, what isn't working, where people are coming from, etc..
I think it's a really fascinating thing, isn't it? Because I guess as kind of working at the coalface, I suppose, um, we forget sometimes how kind of challenging intimidating these things are, but there are so many people out there who just don't really want to engage with all that. Like web analytics is a really scary idea, but that's where all the good insight and all the information that you actually use to, to put together a good campaign comes from. So yeah, I guess given the.
Given the time of year we're at, um, talking about the whole fitness thing, isn't, isn't that a bit like, um, for some people anyway, like I'm not going to jump on the scales because I really don't want to know how heavy I am.
Yeah.
You know, and it's a bit like that. I don't want to see the web analytics because I really don't want to know how bad things are and how shit our website is and why and how nobody visits it. Yeah. So yeah. So I'll bury my head in the sand and I won't look at that available information.
Turn the scales off, slide them under the bath, walk away. Yeah.
Maybe.
Maybe. Um, but I think it's worth grappling with, isn't it? I mean, I guess it's a perfect analogy in some ways because yeah, it's, it's always worth doing that one crucial thing before you get started. Because how do you know how far you've got to climb or what you need to fix? Unless you're actually looking at that data and it's all there. Assuming, of course, that you've got analytics or clicky or something installed. Um, and if you haven't, well, now's the time. Now's the time to do it, I guess. What's that thing you say again?
It's not hard to do it. Yeah. I mean, another another Google tool is Google Tag Manager. Again, if you don't know about it, do a little bit of research. But if you get your web guys, your web company or your web guys to install Google Tag Manager on your website, then it's dead easy then to drop in tracking code for all kinds of different tools. You know, like we've spoken in the past about Hotjar, which records visitors on your website, although there's also a tool within Bing Bing Webmaster Tools now, which is like Hotjar and it records visitors and it's completely free. It's well worth checking out in the Bing Webmaster tools. So that was alert. I was alerted to that by the digital marketing podcast that the guys at Taggart Internet do. I think.
I think we may have incorrectly overlooked Bing for a long time. I always assumed, yeah, Microsoft product that it's a bit rubbish, but.
Yeah, well, it maybe is in terms of, I don't know what the search results are like because, you know, hand up, hands up. I don't use it, but I maybe will start using it a bit more and experimenting with it a little bit. But I think certainly I was quite impressed with the way that our, I am quite impressed with the way that they've set webmaster tools up. They seem to be keeping it nice and simple, easy to understand. If you're familiar with Google's Search Console, then you'll know. You know you'll be right at home straight away with the, um, with with the Bing Webmaster tools. They're still using the word webmaster, which is, which is quite amusing.
It sounds very kind of. Yeah.
It's a throwback to the nineties, isn't it? Oh, yes. I'm a webmaster.
You mean you're the poor, unfortunate soul responsible for somebody else's website? Fantastic.
Yeah. That. Okay, what else you got?
Um, so I guess the the last note I've made is just to try experimenting with things like video and stuff like that. Um, I think, you know, we talked a lot about fitness. It's a good analogy. I know a lot of people who also do things like, oh, I'm going to learn a new language this year, or I'm going to learn to cook or, you know, learn a new skill set. I think picking a technology like video that you've kind of neglected historically or podcasting or anything like that, and give that a whirl. It doesn't have to be super high commitment, does it? You can sit and make a landing page video in five minutes. Just find yourself a nice background. Point a camera at yourself and talk.
Alex. But Alex, where are people going to get a broadcast quality video camera? Where on earth would they find such a thing?
Could it be in their pockets already? Dave.
Mind blown.
Yeah, it is incredible when you think about it though. Like iPhones or whatever smartphone you have are seriously powerful bits of kit, especially for marketing. You point them at anything, record a video bang, you know, free content. But I think people just forget sometimes.
Mhm. Um, yeah. Well, I've said, you know, I've said to you guys, you know, we've changed our homepage and there at the moment. Well, when this goes out anyway, um, there's a video that I shot when I was hillwalking with some pals and we got a what's called a temperature inversion and it was quite spectacular. And so we're using that. Yeah, we're using that video just now. But what I've said to everybody is like, you know, when you're out and about, when you see something, then shoot a video because I want to keep swapping those videos out. I want them to, you know, I want it to be a thing on our website where we just have some really fun sometimes. Awesome. But you know, generally speaking, interesting, um, videos on the website and yeah, you've got that thing in your pocket called your phone, which you don't really use for making phone calls anymore, but it will shoot great quality video. Yeah.
Absolutely. It's got a good microphone in it. It's, it's perfect really. And like I say, I think the thing again, with video is much like kind of analytics and that sort of thing. It looks very intimidating on the outset, but once you kind of dive in and start dabbling with it, you know, it doesn't take long to get to the point where you can produce something that looks professional enough to put on your website.
Mhm.
Maybe that's a gross oversimplification, I don't know.
Well, no, I don't think it is. I think you make a good point because I think I think people shy away from video. And you're right. I mean, if you look at the stats around video in terms of like the way that you can engage your audience and, um, the way that people respond to video as opposed to, um, blog posts and.
Stuff like.
Go on, then rattle some off. Yeah.
Um, so where should we start? Fifty four percent of consumers say that they want to see more video content from all the brands or businesses that they support. Um, internet users spend close to seven hours each week watching online videos.
Does that include, um, does that include um, anyway. No. Carry on.
There goes our PG rating I guess. I think most tellingly of all, though, watching a product video convinced seventy four percent of people to download an app or software. So fair enough. That's only going to apply to a very small subset of, of people listening to this that are marketing an app or some software. But in general, people are persuaded by video in a way that I don't think they are persuaded by purely text based landing pages.
So I mean, some stuff lends itself more to video, doesn't it? I mean, I was, um, Caron and I were talking about maybe swapping out one of our cars for an electric car. And so I was looking and, you know, we got, we got some, uh, we got a, a quart of, um, I think it was select vehicle leasing or somebody like that. We got a quart anyway, and it was for a Fiat five hundred. And so the first thing I did was look for a product review video. And I particularly like the videos that the guys at Carwow do Carwow. Um, they're good. The guys really down to earth. He tells it like it is. Um, and straight away listening to the video or watching the video. Rather, it became apparent that the quote we'd had, which was financially quite attractive, um, was for the Version of the Fiat five hundred electric car that the battery means it will do about one hundred miles, which is okay, but we live in the country and, you know, seventy plus mile round trip to Aberdeen then becomes like um range anxiety, anxiety, central. And you know, so it helped me understand and realise that, but you know, it talked about the good points and bad points of the car, but that lends itself, doesn't it, to a video. I mean, some of our customers, um, in the B2B space, you know, it'll be more challenging to create videos that are educational, entertaining, useful, maybe, or maybe not. Because if you're sat at your desk trying to solve the problem that you need a widget to plug into a widget, then you know, you're going to go and look at a video to try and help you just as much as you are. If you try to decide which electric vehicle to buy, maybe.
Well, yeah, and I think this is the thing, isn't it? Like, I just think in general what the kind of content people like to consume is changing quite rapidly. And like, you know, you make a good point about the car reviews. I think what's interesting is that nowadays more and more people are producing that kind of content where, you know, you get to see something in three dimensions. You get to see somebody interact with it. You get to hear somebody talking while you're looking at it. I just think that that's probably much more convincing for a lot of products, even stuff like, I don't know, I'm trying to think of good examples of things that might be difficult to market with video, heat exchangers or industrial technology. I think there's still a real power to seeing it kind of in action that maybe there, you know, you can exploit if you if you have a few minutes in a video camera, really.
I can't think of a significant purchase I've made in the last twelve months that didn't include watching videos in order to try and decide what to buy. Yeah, I honestly can't think of a single one. Um, it's just kind of part of the process that I employ when I'm trying to make a buying decision.
Yeah. I mean, I bought a, Christmas I.
Bought. You were going to say cricket bat.
Then I'll try again. I bought a kitchen at Christmas. Um, I still spent a lot of time watching videos, watching people review kitchens by various different manufacturers, that sort of thing. Before I arrived at the eventual decision of where to buy it at. And I think that nowadays that's kind of the I mean, we talk a lot about kind of buyer journeys. For me, that's a really big part of it. I want to see the product. I want to see people use the product. I want to hear what they say about the product. So yeah.
I mean, you make a, you know, that's an interesting one. Kitchens. Um, because the guys over the road from us at Arlington, many, they, they've been, you know, as, as a lot of kitchen companies do when they're talking to somebody who might buy a kitchen from them, they will mock the thing up and show the people a 3D rendered, um, you know, version, if you like, of their kitchen. And that is a fantastic selling tool. You know, you're letting people and they do the same with houses, don't they, and that kind of thing. And we. And we've just got a new customer, a new client, or a new gig rather with NHS Scotland. And one of the sort of things of that website is the building that we're helping them promote, if you like, um, isn't finished yet isn't anything like finished yet. So we'll be using lots of, you know, architectural 3D renders and the like in order to be able to communicate to a wider audience and what this building is going to look like and what it's going to do once they start using it.
Yeah, yeah, that's exactly it. And I think people really do appreciate that, don't they? It's anything that makes something feel a bit more real and a bit more tangible. Because I guess especially when you're selling over the internet, there's a risk that a lot of the time the stuff just doesn't really kind of, I guess, land or stick. It doesn't feel like a real product or something you're actually going to touch with your hands. And I think, yeah, short video clips, like you say, 3D renders, that kind of thing. They're all really powerful tools for kind of getting people to focus on what you're selling them and yeah, engage with it.
Okay. So making better use of video should be high on your list for 2022. Um, I think, I think did we actually. I don't know if we've done a podcast yet about video, but again, if you know, this isn't meant to sound like a sales pitch, if you want to chat about video, uh, we've got video capability here at ready for more than happy to have a conversation and give you some pointers. I mean, Leslie would probably be happy to give some pointers on, you know, the do's and don'ts. There's just some basic things. It's like if, if like with photography, I mean, there's, there's basic things that you can do which are going to mean that you're going to produce half decent images when you go out with your camera. And it's the same with, with video and getting the like decent, getting the sound, making sure you can hear it. There's nothing worse than seeing a video that looks like it's going to be quite good. You get them on YouTube sometimes and the sound quality is absolutely appalling. And so you finish up not not listening or watching the video.
Yeah, that's exactly it, isn't it? I was just thinking things like take the lens cap off before you start filming, you know, tips like that.
Do phones have lens caps on them.
They don't know. Showing my age now. But know.
That.
It's um. I think it's just one of those things, isn't it? Like we're always happy to give kind of free advice and pointers to people. I think I'm sure probably to the detriment of the business overall, but I think it's the best way to be nowadays, isn't it really?
Yeah, I think so. It comes back. I think what goes around comes around. And I think, you know, you you pay it forward as they say in American films. Yeah. Um, okay. Just to just to wrap this one up, um, how about we both have a go at, um, a piece of tech, uh, that you're not using probably up to now, but you should definitely start using in 2022. Anything spring to mind? I don't mean to put you on the spot. I mean, to a certain extent, you've already covered it with video probably, but is there anything else that pops up.
Technology that I think you ought to be utilising? Um, I'm going to be really lame and say something like HubSpot, something integrated that lets you do because. Because I think, you know, in the spirit of this podcast, to be fair, you know, this is about finding quick wins and ways to make things easier in the new year. Take some of the pressure off yourself. Something like HubSpot that lets you kind of integrate your marketing and your CRM that lets you do things like automatically taking contacts that fill in a sign up form or whatever, and putting it in a database so that you can easily contact them and track them as they move throughout the website, even send them emails like that's it's dead simple stuff, but it's so, so helpful in terms of just taking some of the load off and letting you kind of crack on with the stuff that's actually important. So yeah.
Well, I'm going to, I'm just going to show you my oops, it's now going to shut itself down. I'm taking notes on my iPad just so you believe me. And you can see at the bottom. Note I've written CRM now because that was going to be my. So, so you, you've actually, you know, you've actually, um, stolen my thunder somewhat, but what I would say is like a tool like, um, Hubspot's free CRM or I think there might be other free CRMs out there. Like there's one called sugar CRM, although I don't know if Salesforce bought them over, but you could, you can download that and install it, but it is a faff. Tools like Hubspot's free CRM is a SaaS, it's a software as a service. Um, and there, there will be others. Um, I, I've got to be honest, I've been a bit slow to the party with CRMs. I know that's a crazy thing to say when I'm, when I'm, when I'm in a digital marketing and run a digital marketing agency. Um, I did spend quite a bit of time over Christmas, um, on our own CRM and did some customisations which are going to make it a lot more useful for us. And I, and I think you're right, I think this idea of making sure that you're capturing the opportunities that are coming in via your website, they go straight into a CRM that triggers something to happen, sending all your emails out from within the CRM, keeping all your notes on the client within the CRM. And just generally making use of that technology is a really easy, quick win.
And.
Something to definitely consider. It is. Yeah, it really is.
I remember when marketing automation started to become a kind of buzzword that floated around, and I remember thinking, you know, this is absolute nonsense. It's a bet. It doesn't make anything easier at all because these things never do. But it's stuff like that where it does just kind of automatically sync and link things up where you just like, yeah, what, how have I, how was I doing this without that kind of technology beforehand? You know, so yeah.
Yeah. That's right. I mean, like with like with anything, um, around marketing automation, CRM, etc., you know, it's possible to put some time and energy into it and, and fall flat on your face. Um, just, you know, as it's possible to put those trainers on and that new Lycra and go out and fall flat on your face, especially just now because it's icy. So if you are living somewhere near us and trying to get fit in this new year, then be very careful because, uh, it's it's icy.
And if you needed an excuse to stay home.
Yeah. Just in case. Okay. Uh, we started to talk utter bollocks now, so it must mean at the end of the end of the road for this particular episode. Um, if, um, we haven't answered any questions in our podcast so far that you really think we should have, then go to https://www.redevolution.com/digital-marketing-from-the-coalface, click on the contacts tab and ask us a question if you want to come on the podcast. We are currently, um, building a list of people we're going to ask to come on and be a guest. If you want to just contact us and come on and talk about some aspect of business growth. Um, even if it's a tenuous link to be to digital marketing, that's absolutely fine. Um, in the meantime, um, anything to finish off Alex or are you done?
I think that's pretty much everything from me.
Okay. Good stuff. Well, uh, until next time. Cheerio.