Episode 17
Episode 17: Atiba de Souza - The Content Superman
About This Episode:
CEO of Client Attraction Pros sits down with Guy to discuss his backstory on marketing, and his specialty: content. He explains how essential video content has become. Atiba touches on how valuable video content has become in regards to SEO, especially in a post-COVID world.
He expresses the importance of understanding the customer's purchase journey. What are people Googling? How do you use SEO to market your brand? Check out this episode to understand the impact content (specifically video content) and SEO has on your brand and business.
About Atiba de Souza:
The Content Game is Intense with Third Party Data restrictions. New privacy laws and growing competition.
So what is the answer to generating more leads? Nothing less than fresh, original, and engaging content. But who's got time to create content, much less launch it across every platform in the appropriate format?
The answer? A customer-focused, tactical, technology-driven plan for radical content creation and repurposing that will land your content on Page 1 of Google.
Atiba de Souza is the Content Superman. Decades of running an exclusive agency combined with hardcore technical skills -- I'm talking CODE, people, REAL CODE! -- have made him one of the few people with the skills and insight to marry emerging software and Google’s algorithm with an intuitive feel for the culture of every social media platform.
His clients call him the SEO Super Sleuth, the Business Ninja, the “Build Your Team” Guru, and the Super Connector!
He was killing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) before the term was even invented, ranking regional and national brands in the US on page 1 of Google for over 15 years.
His content strategies are not just bells and whistles; his vision is inspiring and his voice is thunderous in the B2B SEO space.
Kasim Aslam, owner of the #1 rated Google Ads Agency in the US was blown away by his tech-backed ingenious process, “Nobody else is doing this. You’ve got stuff people need to hear, ” he told him.
Not even the best of the best can say that they ranked more than 3000 pages on the first page of Google results while helping companies enjoy qualified leads.
Atiba’s experience and insights are so mind-boggling that Lauren Petrullo of Mongoose Media believes that there is “brilliance oozing out of his pores”
This Superman CEO of a Video Marketing Agency has been featured on many renowned platforms including Traffic & Conversion Summitt, Digital Marketer Blog, Fox, Digital Journals, The Times, & USA Today.
It's time to grab the content marketing bull by the horns! And Atiba is your man.
Links:
https://marketingmachine.prorelevant.com/getting-started/
Sign up for ProRelevant Emails: https://mailchi.mp/prorelevant/newsletter
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/83DU8io7eL8
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/atibadesouza/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/atibadesouza
Thought Leadership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu7Np_hjeakCER3xFzeu-Tw
Team Building YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChjej0lyswDeDd91x7y63ew
SEO Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoEGC8wJj2WjotcfFU8Xudg
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theatibadesouza
Transcript
Hi, I'm Guy Powell and welcome to the next episode of the
Speaker:backstory on marketing. If you haven't already done so please
Speaker:visit pro relevant.com and sign up. For more of these episodes
Speaker:and podcasts. I am the author of my just released book, the post
Speaker:COVID marketing machine, prepare your team to win. You can find
Speaker:out more information on this at marketing machine dot pro
Speaker:relevant.com. Today we'll be speaking with a Teva D'Souza,
Speaker:welcome ativa Hey,
Speaker:guy, thank you so much for being here. And man, what a great
Speaker:title for a book. Genius.
Speaker:Well, you know, it's funny when when we were doing it, we we did
Speaker:some social media, and we did a handful of polls on it. And, you
Speaker:know, during when and this was in the middle of COVID. And so
Speaker:everybody really, really liked it. Now that we're kind of post
Speaker:COVID Truly, then it's kind of like, well, you know, I don't
Speaker:know, but I think it's good. I think it'll I think it'll do
Speaker:well. So yeah, thank you for that. So, yeah, tell us a little
Speaker:bit about yourself, what is your backstory on getting into
Speaker:marketing?
Speaker:Well, my backstory goes way beyond COVID. So that's for
Speaker:sure. But I actually started off in 1996, building my very own
Speaker:search engine, me and two friends sat in my mother's
Speaker:basement, which, believe it or not, y'all, my mother's moving
Speaker:out of that house right now as we speak, as we record this, and
Speaker:we sat in that basement, and we wrote a search engine, because
Speaker:it was a cool thing to do. And we thought we needed it. And
Speaker:that started me in search. That way back in 1996, then I went
Speaker:over to the government and did search for the government and
Speaker:then got tired of the government. kind of tough
Speaker:working with the government, and then went back into the private
Speaker:sector. And at that time, which was right around 2005 2006
Speaker:timeframe. I was looking at Google and the search results it
Speaker:was providing and what people were saying about those results,
Speaker:and I realized Google had a problem. At that time, Google
Speaker:was also realizing it was having a problem. Right, it was
Speaker:returning search results that people weren't happy with. And
Speaker:there were people, business owners who had really great
Speaker:content, even back then, who could not get their content in
Speaker:front of their right customer. And being an old geek, who wrote
Speaker:search engines, I was like, Well, I know how it works. And I
Speaker:think we can figure out how to get your content to the top of
Speaker:page one of Google, I think we can do that. And that started me
Speaker:in at least search marketing.
Speaker:Right? Right. Yeah. Fantastic. You know that. And that is so
Speaker:true. Google, I mean, you know, who knew back then how important
Speaker:that search engine is, and now with our clients, paid search
Speaker:and organic search are just about everything to their
Speaker:businesses. And if you're not successful in those, then you're
Speaker:not, you're not your business is missing out, it's missing out on
Speaker:opportunity. So tell us about your business client attraction
Speaker:pros. Tell us about that.
Speaker:So as you said, organic, right and searched. And so that's
Speaker:where we started. right around that time 2006, and really got
Speaker:going 2007 2008 and saw the market and what we can do. So we
Speaker:did a lot of trials in those first couple of years. And by
Speaker:2008 is when we really got started. And it was all about
Speaker:written content, blogs, that's what we had back then. Okay,
Speaker:that's what everybody had. And that's what people still have.
Speaker:And we were helping our clients produce fantastic written
Speaker:content, whether it was just a copy on their website, or more
Speaker:often or not blog posts and blog content. And we did that, really
Speaker:up until 2018 2019. And about 2018. And really excited 2019 I
Speaker:was tired. I was tired. We went on vacation. And at the end of
Speaker:2019, my wife and I, and she said she wanted to get her
Speaker:business really going. It's a great because I'm getting tired
Speaker:of written content. And I've been doing this a long time.
Speaker:Maybe it's time for a change. And at that time as well. In I
Speaker:had written really a spec in 2018 about video and that video
Speaker:was the future, right it was becoming harder and harder and
Speaker:harder to write rank for written content and video content was
Speaker:really starting to pick up steam. And as I was saying, I
Speaker:just, I think I'm done, then well, we all know what happened
Speaker:after 2019. Right? Yep. And when COVID hit in early 2020, I said,
Speaker:Well, maybe this is good timing, then. Because a lot of my
Speaker:clients started saying, Hold on, we're not sure what we want to
Speaker:do. We're not sure if we want to keep spending money, we're going
Speaker:to pump our brakes a bit. So I started thinking this might be a
Speaker:good time. But then something else happened on the other side,
Speaker:bunches and bunches of people who I'd said for literally a
Speaker:decade, you need a web presence, and you need SEO, started
Speaker:showing up and knocking on the door saying, hey, we need help.
Speaker:We need to get online, or we're online, but our online sucks.
Speaker:Can you help? Can you help? Can you help? And it forced me into
Speaker:this juxtaposition of okay, how can I really help you? What is
Speaker:it that I can really do here for you? Because the other thing
Speaker:that COVID did, for any of you who don't know, listening, is it
Speaker:made a bunch of people who I'm not saying this to to be
Speaker:disparaging to them. But who took a course. And then started
Speaker:a Facebook account, AD account, and ran ads and said, I know
Speaker:everything about SEO, I know everything about paid search,
Speaker:because I took a course. Right? And so and you know, this guy,
Speaker:and so people were just inundated, but they didn't know
Speaker:who to trust. And it became even harder to rank on page one.
Speaker:Because there's even more content being created. That
Speaker:sucked. And so I said, Okay, what are we going to do with
Speaker:this? And how are we going to help? And it was about that time
Speaker:I met someone who was a really close friend of mine now us,
Speaker:they're from the UK. And he's like, man, I've been doing this
Speaker:YouTube thing. And I've been doing this since, like, 2016.
Speaker:And here's my results now. And it reminded me of that spec that
Speaker:I've written way back in 2018. Okay. And I pulled it up, and I
Speaker:said, Hold on. This is actually really close to what he's doing.
Speaker:And he was having some issues with just a written SEO. And so
Speaker:we started collaborating on some stuff, and his stuff has
Speaker:skyrocketed, you should go check them out. SF digital, absolutely
Speaker:wonderful in this space. And what I learned there, though,
Speaker:was that there was a way that we could help people create videos
Speaker:using the same concept of spec in terms of content that we use
Speaker:with written content, create videos, and then get those
Speaker:videos ranked on page one of Google. Giving if you don't
Speaker:mind, yeah. Quick, quick example of this. And I'm not listened to
Speaker:listen to me yet. I'm not saying that these results are typical.
Speaker:And always. But this just happened last week.
Speaker:We have a client who has been struggling for several years to
Speaker:get anything he's done, ranked on page one of Google two weeks
Speaker:and two weeks, we were able to help get 14 out of 18 videos
Speaker:ranked on page one and eight of them. And spot number one.
Speaker:Now, that's phenomenal. That is phenomenal. So and you're
Speaker:talking about page one of YouTube as opposed Oh, one of
Speaker:Google? No, I'm
Speaker:talking about page one of Google. Oh, no kidding. Wow.
Speaker:page one of Google?
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I do want to talk to you a little bit
Speaker:more about that. But one of the things on your LinkedIn page, I
Speaker:saw a couple of really good videos on there. And, you know,
Speaker:and I really liked what you did in terms of, you know, your
Speaker:customer value journey. And the key, I think you called it the
Speaker:key to good content. Tell us about that. And then we'll get
Speaker:into some of the YouTube stuff because I was, I thought that
Speaker:was pretty impressive.
Speaker:No, thank you. I appreciate that. And so this is what we
Speaker:figured out back in 2005, to 2008, and we've used to help
Speaker:written content rank, and we then took it to video content.
Speaker:And that is the problem that Google has. And the problem that
Speaker:Google is trying to solve is it wants to answer people's
Speaker:questions. Google has been spent really the last 20 years trying
Speaker:to figure out how do I take what you type in figure out exactly
Speaker:what you mean exactly what your question is, and then give you
Speaker:an answer. Sir, that exactly fits your question. And 2017,
Speaker:they've they came as close as they've ever come, and they keep
Speaker:getting closer and closer and closer every single year. The
Speaker:challenge that they've had though is even though they're
Speaker:getting better at figuring out what we call user intent, or
Speaker:searchers intent behind what they typed in, the results
Speaker:aren't getting any better. So what we do is very simple. We
Speaker:figure out what real questions sorry, what what questions real
Speaker:people are asking. So that backwards, what questions real
Speaker:people are asking? What are people really asking Google? And
Speaker:then how does Google interpret the intent? And then does that
Speaker:intent match who you are as a business owner, and what your
Speaker:business is all about? If it does, let's create video content
Speaker:for that. And so we map that to the customer value journey, in
Speaker:that it's important to understand before you buy
Speaker:anything, there's a journey that you go through with that brand.
Speaker:There's a process that you go through. Sometimes the process
Speaker:is really short. Look, I need toothpaste. Okay, I'm gonna go
Speaker:to store buy toothpaste, what was my journey with that? Well,
Speaker:my journey was I went to the store, it was on sale, I buy
Speaker:what's on sale, that was the journey. Lowest price one
Speaker:journey. My journey could have been, I saw my mom using this to
Speaker:say there's always a journey. And everything that you pursue
Speaker:Brian car, there's a journey that you go through the
Speaker:businesses that can master that journey can understand that
Speaker:journey, and then create content to help the buyer along that
Speaker:journey is going to win every single time.
Speaker:Okay, yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, one thing too, in my
Speaker:book, post COVID marketing machine. And actually, the last
Speaker:two or three books, one of the things that I talked about is,
Speaker:you have to understand how a consumer makes a purchase
Speaker:decision. And you now widen that out even further, which I really
Speaker:think is, which I really like is how that consumer then takes
Speaker:that journey to go from, you know, I want to buy a couch or
Speaker:whatever it is, or a car or whatever it is. And then how do
Speaker:they follow that journey, all the way, then to the final
Speaker:purchase? And I like, what you're saying is that the
Speaker:content that you put out has to feed into the different steps
Speaker:along that journey? That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker:Yes. And, um, we did start doing that 2005 2008, then Google, and
Speaker:this is when we really knew we were onto something Google came
Speaker:out and then said, it's still way to go in 2011. Okay, so in
Speaker:marketing in the history of Miami, go all the way back to
Speaker:the 60s, there was this concept of moment of truth marketing.
Speaker:Right. And the moment of truth marketing was, hey, these
Speaker:moments that you've got to master with yada, yada, yada in
Speaker:order to make the sale, right. And in 2011, Google published a
Speaker:spec, and it's still out that you can go sue Google, this zero
Speaker:moment of truth marketing. And Google said, Hey, I think people
Speaker:need to start to realize that there are moments of truth that
Speaker:happen before the customer ever calls you. And that's true,
Speaker:because they can come to us and search, right? And if they come
Speaker:to us and search, then the answers that they find, create
Speaker:moments of truth. I'm going to back that up to with a study
Speaker:that was done. And forgive me, because I forget it was either
Speaker:Princeton or Yale that did this study. I forget which one it
Speaker:was, but it was one of the Ivy's. And he was the study.
Speaker:There's absolutely astounding. So that people are more than 90%
Speaker:likely to blindly follow the first person that taught them
Speaker:something about a topic. Just think about that.
Speaker:That is very true. That is very true. That is and I know I'm
Speaker:guilty of that as well. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So
Speaker:that's then kind of like the the value of influencers if you if
Speaker:an influencer in whatever fashion then really comes out
Speaker:and has something that you can learn from and if you as your
Speaker:brand or that influencer and teaching then that makes a huge
Speaker:difference.
Speaker:Yes, yes. And though being that brand, and the one that teaches
Speaker:about your topic is even more important, the COVID marketing
Speaker:machine.
Speaker:To your point about the customer journey and the customer value
Speaker:journey, which I like is, is how do you influence those, those
Speaker:zero moments of truth to points that you may not even be aware
Speaker:of, because I especially for, for what I call high
Speaker:consideration products, typically products that are, you
Speaker:know, that that are more expensive, or have a big impact
Speaker:on your on yourself or on your business, you're going to be
Speaker:trying to learn about them way, way, way before you actually
Speaker:start to seriously consider your purchase. And, and I know I'm
Speaker:definitely guilty of that, you know, well, I'll start thinking
Speaker:about something today. And, and then maybe, you know, a month or
Speaker:two from now I'll finally you know, pull the trigger and say,
Speaker:Okay, I'm now going to, I'm now going to really seriously do
Speaker:something and buy it within the next couple of hours. And if I'm
Speaker:a brand, and I am not involved in that, in that activity, now
Speaker:very early on, and I'm I'm not even going to be part of the
Speaker:journey throughout the whole thing,
Speaker:you lose out. And so this is the key. So so guys got us a great
Speaker:question. It's an absolutely great question. And that's what
Speaker:we do for our clients is we help them figure that out. Right? So
Speaker:yes, everybody sees the videos, and everybody wants to talk
Speaker:about Yes, but the real crux of it all, is we've got to figure
Speaker:out what those questions are. And in figuring out what those
Speaker:questions are, the thing that you have to consider is, every
Speaker:solution creates a new problem. Every solution creates a new
Speaker:problem. So when you went from living in an apartment, to
Speaker:buying your first house, you solved the problem, you no
Speaker:longer had to pay rent, okay, now you have a mortgage, but you
Speaker:no longer have to pay rent. Well, what's the problem that it
Speaker:also created? Well, now you also have to pay for trash. Now you
Speaker:also have to get the lawn cut. Right? So if you're a lawn care
Speaker:company, you know, there are people who are going to have a
Speaker:problem after they buy a house. So who do I need to communicate
Speaker:with? So that's one thing is understanding where you fit and
Speaker:the life of your customer? And asking what was the problem that
Speaker:they had right before mine? Something caused them to have
Speaker:the problem that I solve, what was that? Let's go figure that
Speaker:out. Because if we can educate to the end of that process, or
Speaker:even through some of that process, then again, going back
Speaker:to that study, we're the ones who educated them. When they,
Speaker:when they have a need later, they'll blindly trust me. Here's
Speaker:a case case study for this. I have a client, that's a caterer.
Speaker:Okay. And they primarily do weddings, large weddings, most
Speaker:of their weddings are minimum 20,000. So you're talking 20 to
Speaker:60,000 hours, just for the food service, not for the whole
Speaker:event. Right? Larger weddings, okay. And obviously, that's a
Speaker:very tailored type a couple. It's not every couple. And they
Speaker:were in a place where every couple was coming to them and
Speaker:they were wasting a lot of time talking to a lot of couples who
Speaker:had no business ever using their service. Right. So okay, what's
Speaker:the problem that they have? Right before they get to you?
Speaker:Well, they've got to the venue before they get to me. So we
Speaker:created content for them around educating about the venues that
Speaker:they work at. Yeah, right.
Speaker:Yep. Yep, makes total sense. And you know, to your point, you
Speaker:know, you would call those life stages or life moments. We work
Speaker:with a furniture company and exactly to your you know, your
Speaker:example when somebody is going to change from living in an
Speaker:apartment to you know, to moving into a home. Just like you said
Speaker:they need the lawn cut they need you know, to sign up for
Speaker:electricity and gas and whatever but they also need new
Speaker:furniture. Absolutely. I mean, typically the house when you
Speaker:move from an apartment to a house, it's going to be bigger,
Speaker:you need more furniture and and if you're in that early process,
Speaker:that is exactly where to where you as a brand want to be and
Speaker:then I do like your your your story about that IV research.
Speaker:Will it you will have to give me the link on that because that
Speaker:will post that with that because that I've really liked what that
Speaker:means. In terms of being the first, it's not, you know, it's
Speaker:always interesting, the fear of missing out. Well, this is the,
Speaker:you know, the opportunity to to to miss in, you know, do you
Speaker:want to be in there right there?
Speaker:Yes, yes, absolutely. And you know, it's so very important,
Speaker:right? Yeah, that's that's the. So if you've listened that those
Speaker:are the things you have to really consider. Now, to your
Speaker:next side of the question is, okay, so I've, I've figured out
Speaker:where they were, before they got to me, maybe I've educated or
Speaker:maybe I've talked to them. But now how do I, it's still like, I
Speaker:just bought a remarkable, I don't know if you're familiar
Speaker:with them. But I have been looking at a remarkable for a
Speaker:year and a half. So how do you communicate with somebody for a
Speaker:year and a half? What, what's going on there for a year and a
Speaker:half? Right? So one, that's a lot of what we do with the data
Speaker:analytics and the research that we do to figure out the
Speaker:questions that they're asking along that year and a half
Speaker:journey that you need to answer to keep them in your value
Speaker:journey until they're ready to actually make a purchase. But
Speaker:then here's the second thing that so many people miss. It's
Speaker:voice of customer research. Ask your current customers.
Speaker:Absolutely, absolutely. You can't learn more than I mean,
Speaker:they are the fount of of all information. And if you're not
Speaker:doing that, you are so right. And you are so right.
Speaker:Yes, yes. So you got to ask your current customers have those
Speaker:surveys. And so many people are afraid to have those types of
Speaker:servers. And I know, I'll admit, I've been in business a long
Speaker:time, I've owned multiple types of businesses, and I've been
Speaker:there too. And every single time that I've done it, I've been so
Speaker:very thankful
Speaker:that I did. Well, let me let me tell you a short story, as well,
Speaker:even on my post COVID marketing machine, I had the concept more
Speaker:or less down. And and you know, you wanted to refine it. Well,
Speaker:instead of just going off and writing and researching online,
Speaker:I went off and did 25 customer interviews earlier, and get
Speaker:their case studies and then write up those case studies and
Speaker:understand how each one of those fits into how you build a
Speaker:marketing machine. And, and I, I don't know about you, when I was
Speaker:younger, you know, I was afraid to talk to customers, oh my god,
Speaker:they're gonna give me some negative feedback or something
Speaker:like that. Yeah. And now I want that negative feedback, because
Speaker:I need to learn, you know what I'm doing wrong? Yeah. And then,
Speaker:and then to your point is, how do you learn what their, what
Speaker:their customer journey was, their customer value journey was
Speaker:six months or 12 months before they made that decision to, you
Speaker:know, to start the search. And, and that great point, I really,
Speaker:really like.
Speaker:And so, since you went there, let me give give for everyone
Speaker:listening, the advanced point, because this is the other thing
Speaker:that we do, okay. We had a customer, whoever the customer
Speaker:was, whatever we delivered for them. And it was successful. And
Speaker:even if it wasn't successful, really, but we're done,
Speaker:engagement is done. I then have a staff member, go back through
Speaker:all communication, and audit, all communication and look for
Speaker:What questions did they ask along the way? Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely. Right. We take those. And then we create
Speaker:content from those. So that that content becomes like, let's be
Speaker:real, especially if you're selling high value, high ticket
Speaker:stuff, your sales cycles are longer. You may send a proposal
Speaker:and you may not hear from somebody for three months.
Speaker:That's real. Right? And so what do you communicate with them? In
Speaker:that timeframe? The answers to all the questions, all the other
Speaker:customers have already asked. Because guess what? They get
Speaker:those same questions too. Yeah,
Speaker:absolutely. Yeah, I like that. And you're so right. And, and
Speaker:when we do a proposal or where you are presenting our proposal
Speaker:or whatever, we very carefully, just like you're talking about
Speaker:write down exactly what those questions are. And and actually
Speaker:use those words in the next round or in the next meeting. So
Speaker:when they say you know, something like, Hey, I want to
Speaker:build a, I want to, you know, improve my overall marketing
Speaker:effectiveness. And we want to do it with word ABC. We absolutely
Speaker:make sure that word ABC is in the next conversation that we
Speaker:use, and so important, that is so important.
Speaker:Yes, yes. And so Study was pilgrims. It's called the
Speaker:Milgram experiment. While you were talking, I was looking it
Speaker:up. Okay. Well, I had it in my notes because it uses the funny
Speaker:story. It used to be on our old website. When we redid it, we
Speaker:actually took it off because people were worried. But we
Speaker:found it interesting. Most people didn't. So yeah, it's
Speaker:about what your customers know what, let me touch that point.
Speaker:When we're talking about the value journey, so many of us
Speaker:gets stuck in talking about what we want, versus what they want.
Speaker:Yep. I'm guilty of it. I'm telling salutely. Absolutely.
Speaker:And this Milgram experiment was one of those things. We love it.
Speaker:But nobody ever read it. Oh, we took it off.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah. Well, and it's so and it makes so much sense. But
Speaker:you are so right, though, quite often. And I think, you know,
Speaker:it's, it's often, you know, founders bias or entrepreneurs
Speaker:bias. It's, you know, we do as as we are guilty of it, you try
Speaker:not to, but you put those blinders on. And you say, you
Speaker:know, I heard you when you say, but I heard, you know, I think
Speaker:you mean this, and in reality, no, no, they said this for a
Speaker:reason. And that reason is then what's going to get you to the
Speaker:next level, in whatever it is you're trying to do with your
Speaker:clients.
Speaker:Yeah, so let me share this with you. And this is a friend of
Speaker:mine, Christina Hooper. brilliant marketer, as well, by
Speaker:the way, just taught me recently this framework for that, to help
Speaker:us as entrepreneurs, you ready for this? Get this, give them
Speaker:what they want. Give them what they need, and then give them
Speaker:what they want again. Right? And so, and so she framed that I was
Speaker:like, okay, yes, that's what they wanted. And so we're gonna
Speaker:give them what they want, we're gonna give them and she does
Speaker:this in a presentation framework. So she's telling you
Speaker:how to present she's teaching you how to present, right? So
Speaker:they can't do a presentation to learn this big thing. Because
Speaker:they want to slay this big dragon, whatever it is, right?
Speaker:So you give them that upfront. But you and I both know that in
Speaker:order to get there, you gotta go through bla bla bla, bla, bla,
Speaker:bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla bla to get there. Right?
Speaker:They don't care about that. But they actually need to know it.
Speaker:And most of us as business owners, we say, Oh, I know you
Speaker:want to do that. But first you got to go through and we lose
Speaker:them. Yes. Because they don't want to hear that. Yeah. Right.
Speaker:So she said, So instead, do the presentation in a way where you
Speaker:give them exactly what they asked for. Give them all the
Speaker:bells and whistles, take them to the end, and give them the
Speaker:victory. And then to Okay, that's the victory. Now, let me
Speaker:tell you the story of how we got to the victory. Bla bla bla bla
Speaker:bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. And then they're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker:yeah, yeah. And then you say, and when you do all of this,
Speaker:then the next thing is, here comes the big moment where
Speaker:you're going to get the victory. Yeah, the victory?
Speaker:Yeah, no, that is, that is so true. And, and, and I think I
Speaker:think you, you have to sell exactly what they want. Because
Speaker:that is what they're wanting to buy. Now, of course, there's
Speaker:other just like you said, there's other obstacles or costs
Speaker:or steps or whatever it is, that has to be done. But if you if
Speaker:you really say this is what you you know, if they tell you, this
Speaker:is what you want, and you're answering what they want, then
Speaker:how you get there is totally secondary. They just want to
Speaker:they know what they want. And you just have to answer that. I
Speaker:really liked that. Very good. Very good analogy with what was
Speaker:it? Tell them what you want. Tell them what you need, and
Speaker:then tell them what you want, again,
Speaker:give them what they want, what they need, and give them what
Speaker:they want again.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very good. Very good. So. So we talked
Speaker:about the customer value journey. You also had a notion
Speaker:in your in your, in your LinkedIn videos, you had
Speaker:something called a customer avatar. What did you mean by
Speaker:that?
Speaker:Okay, so this is the next piece. So we've talked about these
Speaker:questions. And the next question, the next logical
Speaker:question that you should be asking me, right, because we
Speaker:said, okay, find out where they were before, but then ask your
Speaker:current customers. But the next logical question you should be
Speaker:asking me is okay, but who are my actual customer? When when
Speaker:you say think about where they were before? How do I know
Speaker:exactly where they were before? Because is it anybody buying a
Speaker:house or going back to the furniture example? Right? Is it
Speaker:anybody buying a house? Or is it anybody going back to the
Speaker:catering example? Anybody who's looking at a venue? No, it's not
Speaker:because if they're in a rinky dink venue that was $10 They're
Speaker:not affording your $20,000 wedding. If they're buying a
Speaker:house that's only 200 square feet bigger Other than their
Speaker:apartments, then they're probably not what you're looking
Speaker:for either, right. And so the avatar gives you the ability to
Speaker:do the first time. And they're the three keys to traffic, and
Speaker:let's go there for a moment. But the three keys to traffic, if
Speaker:you really want to generate organic, organic traffic, the
Speaker:three keys, and the first key is being completely and utterly
Speaker:obsessed with your audience. One of the ways to get there is by
Speaker:building a customer avatar, the avatar is a real person in so
Speaker:much that it's on paper. But you need to think about it as a real
Speaker:person. We talk to our avatar, we name our avatar, when we have
Speaker:meetings, we talk about the avatar as a real person. Well,
Speaker:how would Maxine respond to this, when we do it? The Avatar
Speaker:grows, as you interview your customers, you learn more, you
Speaker:build more of your avatar, the avatar is your ideal, perfect
Speaker:customer, then not every customer. They're the customer
Speaker:that you want to wake up and serve every single day. Because
Speaker:be real with me, you notice some customers, you'd rather stay in
Speaker:bed and to serve. Let's be real, right? But this avatar is the
Speaker:one who's going to make you jump up and say, I'm ready to serve
Speaker:you today. Because I love working with you. But the only
Speaker:way you're going to get to know that avatar is you got to be
Speaker:obsessed. You have to create them as a person, give them a
Speaker:personality, learn about them. Where did they go to school?
Speaker:What type of work do they do? How much money do they have?
Speaker:What do they need? What do they do on a Friday night? When you
Speaker:know you have your avatar, correct, is when you're having
Speaker:conversations with your clients. And you keep getting the
Speaker:feedback. I feel like you're in my head. How did you know that?
Speaker:Yeah, it's just making my life. Yes. Those are the moments when
Speaker:you start to realize, yes, I'm dialing into who my avatar is. I
Speaker:know you. What motivates you? What are you afraid of? What
Speaker:makes you happy? What makes you sad? What makes them get up out
Speaker:of bed. And then finally, finally, as it relates to your
Speaker:product and service, there's a before state that they exist in
Speaker:right now that they don't want to be in. There is an after
Speaker:state after they've experienced you and your brand, you need to
Speaker:clearly define the before state. And clearly the fine after
Speaker:state. That my friend is your avatar?
Speaker:Absolutely, absolutely. And I like that I we call that a gap
Speaker:analysis basically and where they are today where they want
Speaker:to be. And then the second piece of that as well. How much is
Speaker:that worth? And you know, how much are they willing to invest
Speaker:to get from where they are today and the pain that they're
Speaker:suffering today? To the promised land? Which is, you know, on the
Speaker:other side of that gap? Absolutely. That makes so much
Speaker:sense. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So. So here we are, we're in 2019.
Speaker:We're running rolling along real well. And then big oops,
Speaker:pandemic hits. And so what happened? How did that affect
Speaker:what you're doing? How did that affect what your clients and
Speaker:customers are doing? So that you now we're able to respond and be
Speaker:able to really help them to take advantage of, in some ways the
Speaker:disaster called COVID.
Speaker:Right? So is it for me, at first, it was almost a blessing
Speaker:in disguise, because I was thinking maybe it was time to
Speaker:leave the industry and go a different route. Maybe it was
Speaker:time my wife wanted to build her business, like, you know, maybe
Speaker:just take a back seat and kind of do her marketing and be done
Speaker:with it. Right. And that's kind of where I was, and then COVID
Speaker:hits, hadn't quite made the transition or the decision to
Speaker:transition yet. And when clients started freaking out, right, we
Speaker:had a couple who didn't, who buckled down and said, Okay,
Speaker:this is a great opportunity. Let's figure out how we can get
Speaker:better. But most most of them started freaking out and saying,
Speaker:Well, we don't know if we want to spend and we don't know and
Speaker:then the team started to scatter. Okay, because writers
Speaker:who all of our writers are freelance. We're just losing
Speaker:their minds. Because all of their clients were starting to
Speaker:scatter. And so it became harder. And really about July of
Speaker:2020, my top writers were all gone. You know, the ones who are
Speaker:rock solid, I'm IKEA. been with me for a long time. Awesome.
Speaker:They are, they all had to make lifestyle changes, given what
Speaker:was going on and where life was going. Right. Especially since
Speaker:most of my writers were stay at home moms. And now, they have
Speaker:spouses who income is being jeopardized because of COVID.
Speaker:Like, I gotta do something different. I got to Yes. And
Speaker:that's, again, around the time when I started, but I already
Speaker:met users, I met us in like March or so. And started
Speaker:thinking again, about this whole video thing and said, Oh, maybe
Speaker:video. And we started doing some research, and started trying
Speaker:some things out and started seeing some things that were
Speaker:working and started realizing that what we've been doing, we
Speaker:could translate over to video very, very well, which is
Speaker:answering specific questions, helping customers answer
Speaker:specific questions. The question was, could we get our current
Speaker:client base? To come over with us? Short answer no. By and
Speaker:large, the answer was no. One sub for someone who was too
Speaker:early stolen COVID. For others, you know, we were a lot of times
Speaker:dealing with, with people who are extremely busy. And so they
Speaker:didn't have enough time to even help us with the written
Speaker:content. And so that it felt like, especially in the early
Speaker:days, it felt like it was going to be too much work for them.
Speaker:Which, again, folks listening to customers. And so one of the
Speaker:things that we saw for is, yeah, we create quality content for
Speaker:you. And I only need you two hours a month. I actually need
Speaker:my clients less time now than I did when we were doing written
Speaker:content. To do video content, we need less from you. Because we
Speaker:heard when we had that exodus of clients who were like, it's too
Speaker:much. It's too much. It's too much. We're like, Okay, we got
Speaker:to do this thing. We got to figure out that it's too much.
Speaker:And it's too hard. And it's going to take too long problem,
Speaker:which we did, which we absolutely did. It's easy. It's
Speaker:fun, and it's painless now. And people actually tell us how much
Speaker:they enjoy it. Right, which is absolutely amazing. Because who
Speaker:the heck likes to be on camera? Most of us
Speaker:well, I always say I have a face for radio. So but yeah,
Speaker:absolutely. And interesting, though, that what you said is
Speaker:interesting that the the so the writing component actually went
Speaker:down when you when you shifted over to media.
Speaker:Yeah. And so what ended up happening for us there too, was
Speaker:by 2021, we had made the commitment that we were going
Speaker:video, and at the time we were even coining the term, we were
Speaker:going to be a video first content marketing agency like
Speaker:we're going to do first, right, that we don't do written
Speaker:content, but our written content is based on video. Okay, that
Speaker:was for a shot. And so I had to make that very, very hard choice
Speaker:in 2021. To say, the rest of the clients who were still paying,
Speaker:by the way, right, who were still around, they said they
Speaker:weren't going to convert they, you know, besides some really
Speaker:big clients paying north of six figures to say, Hey, I know last
Speaker:year I said, Either we're gonna go video or not. And a lot of
Speaker:smaller guys when they catch up because y'all are big. Because
Speaker:we weren't dumb, but now I'm going to be done. Understand.
Speaker:Either you come to video, or the relationship ends. We lost
Speaker:clients.
Speaker:Well, that's a hard that is a hard thing to do for us for a
Speaker:small business or for any business.
Speaker:Well, think of it this way. Like I said, we lost six figure
Speaker:clients and dropped our income down to
Speaker:under 10 grand a month animates? Yeah, it was tough. It was
Speaker:tough, but it was the right thing that Do what we needed to
Speaker:do. Had to do. Otherwise, we would have always still been on
Speaker:that other side and we would have never made the
Speaker:right. The full switch over the commitment. Right. And so we've
Speaker:had to say goodbye. It was hard.
Speaker:Yeah, sometimes, you know, you have to do cold turkey on that.
Speaker:That is that is a tough decision for anybody that's for sure. So
Speaker:So what do you see now is the the biggest challenges facing
Speaker:your clients, as they are now shifted? Or have shifted over to
Speaker:video? What do you see as the next big challenge for them? Are
Speaker:we going to be inundated with video is that is that now what's
Speaker:going to happen?
Speaker:Video is the future. videos, videos, the presence and video
Speaker:is definitely the future. Now video is the future for a bunch
Speaker:of different reasons. Number one, there is no better way to
Speaker:connect with another human being outside of being physically in
Speaker:their presence than video. No words on the page can do it. No
Speaker:audio can do it. No slideshow can do it. But I can sit here on
Speaker:video and look you dead in your eyes, even though we're not
Speaker:together. And you can feel my heart, you can feel my reality.
Speaker:You can feel my sincerity as we sit here and communicate. And so
Speaker:video is absolutely 100% the future and the future of
Speaker:marketing at that. It's absolutely the future of
Speaker:marketing. Now, video is going to be changing. What do I mean
Speaker:by that? When we started, and so this is now 2020, late 2020. And
Speaker:we started talking to people about this, people started
Speaker:saying okay, I remember the very first person, but one of the
Speaker:very first people to say this to me. Alright, so we're gonna do a
Speaker:video, and you guys are gonna make it be able to make it look
Speaker:like a Superbowl commercial, right? That Well, number one,
Speaker:you don't have a Superbowl commercial budget. So no. Right.
Speaker:But now the question get this now the question. So this was
Speaker:this was late 2020. Right now, late 2022. The question that I
Speaker:get all the time is, so is it going to look like a tick tock?
Speaker:Because that's what I want. There's a vast difference
Speaker:between a Superbowl commercial and a tick tock video. Yes, but
Speaker:it speaks to the shift that has happened. Post COVID. And where
Speaker:the marketing machine needs to go. And that is people want
Speaker:real? want authenticity. And the Tick Tock video, even though
Speaker:they're becoming really good at being professionally
Speaker:unprofessional?
Speaker:That's the point of them. Yeah, I'm not saying that we're trying
Speaker:to create tick tock videos, either.
Speaker:What we're trying to do is help you the brand, be you on camera.
Speaker:Yeah, well, I've been so amazed about how Tiktok and Instagram
Speaker:reels and then YouTube shorts have just exploded, you know, a
Speaker:friend of mine, he, he's been on there for a while now. And, and
Speaker:I you know, in the hundreds of 1000s of of downloads and views,
Speaker:it's just it's really incredible. And how how can you
Speaker:otherwise get that kind of exposure with the message that
Speaker:you want. And to your point about, about being authentic,
Speaker:that really does allow you video does allow you to actually see
Speaker:the person, it's not just marketing speak, you're seeing
Speaker:the person to see what you know, and look in their eyes to your
Speaker:point and be able to really see and get that that all of those
Speaker:visual cues, in terms of what they're saying and what they're
Speaker:showing and what they're talking about.
Speaker:Yes, yes, absolutely.
Speaker:So do you see so do you see regular YouTube videos that are
Speaker:longer than let's say 60 seconds or a couple of minutes? Do you
Speaker:seem to see those continuing? Or do you see everything really
Speaker:getting down to the you know, the 30 to 62nd time sighs?
Speaker:But that's a really, really great question. And one of the
Speaker:things I learned early in business is when you're small,
Speaker:and you don't have big budgets, look to those who are big and
Speaker:have big budgets and a trying to do or answer the same questions
Speaker:that you are and figure out what they're doing. Because if
Speaker:they're doing it, they didn't do it accidentally, they spent a
Speaker:lot of money to figure out or to believe that that's the right
Speaker:answer. Okay. So let me answer your question in this way, a
Speaker:little less than a month ago, YouTube released a new feature.
Speaker:Were a short video on YouTube now has a very highlighted
Speaker:button at the bottom of the video that you can click on,
Speaker:that takes you to the long form version of that video. So Google
Speaker:is telling us, Google is flat out telling us where they see
Speaker:the world going, is that shorts will lead to someone wanting to
Speaker:consume more information from you. In other words, that shorts
Speaker:are going to help people move along your customer value
Speaker:journey. Mm hmm.
Speaker:Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And, and that actually is an
Speaker:advantage, I guess over tick tock, I don't know if Instagram
Speaker:has that same capability. But but that would be an advantage
Speaker:over both of those because as an as an advertiser, as a marketer,
Speaker:as a brand. We want them to engage longer. And in getting a
Speaker:32nd or a 45 second engagement with a button to do several
Speaker:minutes or even a half an hour or whatever it happens to be,
Speaker:then that is for the advertiser anyway, then, you know, really a
Speaker:major advantage. Yeah, yeah. Brilliant. Yeah, absolutely. And
Speaker:I think to your point, as well, if the consumer is on their
Speaker:value journey, then it's, if they're very early in that in
Speaker:that journey, then they you have the ability to take them to that
Speaker:first 30 seconds to get them to the next five minutes. And then
Speaker:to your miligrams experience experiment that makes a whole
Speaker:lot of difference to be early on to be that influencer, that
Speaker:educator so that when they really get to that moment of
Speaker:truth when they're about Dubai, they can then you know, they you
Speaker:will have you will be a preference for them.
Speaker:So now let me take that plane that just flying guy up here,
Speaker:right because I love where you're flying the plane, you
Speaker:know, I love it. Right? And so for anyone listening who is not
Speaker:as theoretical as guy and I and need this plane Landis, let me
Speaker:let me land a plane for you already for this. Absolutely.
Speaker:Atlanta plane. So here's what this looks like. So on your
Speaker:customer value journey, it starts off there eight stages on
Speaker:the customer value journey, but it starts off with awareness.
Speaker:Okay, then it goes to engagement. And then to
Speaker:subscribe. Okay. We also call that people getting to know you,
Speaker:liked you, and then trust you. Oh, you like you and then trust
Speaker:you another way of looking at it. Okay, the first three stages
Speaker:of your customer value journey, at the subscribe stage is where
Speaker:they come to your website and give you a piece of information
Speaker:that you can communicate back and forth with them. Email
Speaker:address or phone number they sign up for something. Okay, so
Speaker:follow me for a moment. As I land is playing they see a
Speaker:YouTube short because they're on YouTube and shorter just
Speaker:scrolling through. They see a YouTube short Oh, what's this?
Speaker:They consume 30 seconds they got they were AWARE. AWARE. Okay.
Speaker:Then they click either in the description or the big button
Speaker:down below, and they go to the full video. Now they're watching
Speaker:your full 1510 minutes, six minutes, whatever it is longer
Speaker:than 30 seconds minute, right? They're watching your full
Speaker:video, they watch that full video. They're engaging, they
Speaker:went from knowing you. Now they're beginning to like you as
Speaker:they're beginning to like you. And they're watching this video.
Speaker:In the video. If you follow our process, there's always a call
Speaker:to action. And they say you tell them, hey, I've got a link down
Speaker:below of a guide or a cheat sheet or something that you can
Speaker:go get that will help you and they click that link. They go to
Speaker:your website. They go to your website, they put in their name,
Speaker:their email address, they hit submit, they've just subscribed.
Speaker:They know like to trust
Speaker:that's how it works. Yeah, I like that. And and you see that,
Speaker:you know, all over the place and and that know like trust is is
Speaker:critical. I can talk to you for hours. And so our 32nd to our
Speaker:hour now and then but anyway, we're going to have to close but
Speaker:is there anything that we haven't mentioned that you want
Speaker:to mention before we close out?
Speaker:Here's the deal. Video is here, it's here to stay. And you have
Speaker:a major opportunity right now. Because Youtube earlier this
Speaker:year published a study and get these numbers. YouTube has said
Speaker:that 91% of your competition does not have a YouTube channel
Speaker:right now 91% of your competition does not have a
Speaker:YouTube channel, which means they're not creating video.
Speaker:Which means even if you don't have a YouTube channel right
Speaker:now, you have an opportunity today, to go start a channel to
Speaker:go start creating video right now. And get ahead of 91% of
Speaker:your competition.
Speaker:How else can you do that in your business? And do it so
Speaker:inexpensively? I don't know any other way. Now, exactly. If you
Speaker:need help with that, come talk to me.
Speaker:If you can, obviously go to client attraction proz.com. If
Speaker:you want to come to me directly meet a tebow.com that will take
Speaker:you to my LinkedIn page, send me an AD Connect with me send me a
Speaker:message on LinkedIn. I'm here to talk to you.
Speaker:Fantastic. No one. I like that. And yeah, and no question. If
Speaker:you get an expert like yourself, it makes so much of a
Speaker:difference. To get it right. Get it done fast, and then beat that
Speaker:other 91% Because you know that being first in, in many areas
Speaker:can can be a game changer for a business.
Speaker:Absolutely. Especially something as big as this
Speaker:right? Exactly. Exactly. Well, Atiba, thank you so much. I'm so
Speaker:glad that we were able to set up this podcast and spend some time
Speaker:chatting together and really understanding what the what the
Speaker:whole market is doing. And then specifically as well, how you
Speaker:can take advantage of that in search, which is so critical for
Speaker:that customer value journey. So and you definitely helped to
Speaker:educate me and I hope that our audience will also like what
Speaker:you've talked about, so where you can learn more information
Speaker:about a teba is meet a tv.com. So I heard that one. And then of
Speaker:course, client attraction proz.com client attraction
Speaker:proz.com for learning more about this incredible new opportunity
Speaker:for businesses of all sizes. So whether you're small, medium or
Speaker:large search is where you want to be. Video is where you want
Speaker:to be. And and so client attraction proz.com for fortiva
Speaker:Otherwise, please stay tuned for many other videos in this series
Speaker:of the backstory on marketing, please visit marketing machine
Speaker:dot pro relevant.com and download the first chapter of my
Speaker:book and also learn about some other valuable excerpts from my
Speaker:book, The Post COVID marketing machine. And also don't forget
Speaker:to sign up for more episodes and if you liked this episode,
Speaker:please give it five stars and rate it for five stars. Thank
Speaker:you very much.
Speaker:Bye nice guy and John catch that he just didn't know like and
