Jim Kukral’s website home page doesn’t have any fancy pictures, branded logos, or engaging copy. It consists of a simple question, followed by a video just over two minutes long.
The video, the same one Jim links to in his email signature, answers, “How Can Jim Help You?” by offering a brief introduction to his services: website development and branding through Sproutar.com, book creation and marketing through Digital Book Launch, and producing “explainer videos” through FunnerVids.com.
The video itself is nothing spectacular – it didn’t require an expensive studio, hours of production, or animation skills. But that simple video elicits about an email a day for Jim, resulting in at least 25 percent of his income.
How? That’s what the Cleveland Social Media Club gathered to find out from this week’s event, “Using Web Video to Convert a World of ADHD Users” at the Cleveland Animal Protective League. But before Jim took the stage, the APL summed up his message, without meaning to, in this tear-jerking introductory video. Step aside, Sarah McLachlan:
Try watching it with dry eyes, I dare you. Fellow SMC’er Jeremy said it best when he tweeted:
#smccle To get a roomful of social media enthusiasts to put down their phones and look up, show us a Cleveland APL second chance video.
— Jeremy Bednarski (@JeremyBednarski) March 4, 2014
Even Jim Krukal confessed that the APL’s video made his point better than his keynote could. “Emotions create reactions,” he said, “whether you’re the APL or an accountant.”
The Attention Span of a Goldfish
Storytelling is the traditional mode of eliciting emotion, but we’re facing anxious fans with a severe shortage of attention. We used to scoff at the fleeting 9-second attention span of goldfish but now, according to Kai Ryssdal’s interview with Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn, those silly fish have us beat: The average American attention span in 2013 was only about 8 seconds, down from 12 seconds in 2000.
Jim estimated an even lower number: the few seconds it takes to read 140 characters. “People don’t read – they scan,” he said. “They read headlines, scan for bullet points, pause on the next headline, and scan. You have about 3 seconds to catch a reader’s attention before they click the ‘back’ button.”
Authenticity Trumps Polish
But, bring in the audio visual pizzazz of video, and you have the chance of holding the attention of a text-weary audience a few seconds longer. That is, as long as it’s authentic.
“People can smell advertising a million miles away,” Jim said. “Video advertising turns people off. So authenticity is the key to video.”
In other words, forget the prim and proper talking head reading articulately from a polished script while staring uncomfortably into the camera. Forget the $30,000 video production budgets that require extravagant studios and hours of production. All you need is a smartphone, a $12/mo. tool like Videoscribe, and a couple hours to pull together an engaging video.
Short and Simple
“People say, ‘Oh, I can’t make a video; it’s too hard, or I don’t have time, or I don’t know how.’ Enough with the BS!” Jim said, tapping into his inner Tony Robbins. “Fancy $30,000 videos don’t convert any better.”
The key, of course, is to keep it short. Even with video, engagement drops off between 45 and 90 seconds. The magic formula for a winning script is simple: Explain the problem, and offer a solution. Jim doesn’t use any fancy storyboards, but rather, pulls inspiration from the oh-so-predictable infomercials for ShamWow and the Ove Glove.
You can picture it: A dope grabbing a hot pan by the handle. “Ow!” she yelps, shaking a burned hand in pain. Cue the voiceover: “Has this ever happened to you? We’ve got the solution you’ve been waiting for!”
Yep, it’s really that easy. “Introduce the problem your customers have, then offer your solution: ‘Here’s how we can help you,’” Jim said.
Always Be Closing
Of course, it’s not quite that easy to create a viral video – you know, the videos that get shared without you having to beg for shares.
“Videos get shared when they make you laugh or cry,” Jim said. “Don’t try to make a viral video. Try to create an emotion in your customer’s head. What hits them? Get into their head, and build that into a video that tells a story.”
Then, most importantly, you have to close. After all, this is about using video to convert leads.
“When you have their attention, be sure to close at the end,” Jim said. “The biggest mistake new business owners make is they’re not good at closing – getting customers to take the next action. Just watching a video is not good enough. If you don’t spell out what you want them to do, you’re losing business.”
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