How to create a marketing funnel EP#061

G' day guys and welcome to the how to Scale Video Business podcast. This week we are going to go back to Alana Joins who we had on the show last week. So if you haven't listened to that episode on the five pillars of an effective marketing campaign, then go and do that because it will make a lot more sense when you've done that to come back and listen to this episode. Now, this week, Alana was kind enough to come back and share with us exactly how do you build a marketing funnel? You know, we spend so much time understanding and hearing about these things, marketing funnels, but oftentimes actually building them can seem quite overwhelming. Now, Alana has got a background in marketing and also finance and she's passionate about assisting small to medium sized businesses with increasing their digital exposure through implementing the right marketing foundations and strategy. So today she's going to share with us what that can look like for you as a video business owner. Now, it's really a great skill to have. You know, when you're starting your business, sales and marketing is the single most important thing you should be focusing on. And as a business grows, sales and marketing is the most important thing that you should be focusing on because marketing creates sales and creates sales creates revenue and revenue fuels the business. So I hope you enjoy this episode and if, and if you do, please do me a favor. Would you share it with your friends and your network? We'd love to kind of scale the viewership of the show. We get so many great messages and bits of feedback and we'd always appreciate, you know, ratings and reviews left on itunes because that's the best way to support the show and we hope you enjoy it. And if you have any questions you'd like for the show, please hit me up on LinkedIn and we'd happily look at doing an episode around that. So guys, I hope you enjoy the show. This episode is sponsored by the video business accelerator Mastermind. This is a business coaching and mentoring program exclusively for video production companies. Rather than me tell you about it, let's hear from some of our members.

As far as video business is concerned, it was a no brainer for us. It's the right pain points that we went. These are the things that we need to work on and these are the solutions that are offered by Den and the video business accelerators. The reason I joined the accelerator was I really wanted someone who could help guide and mentor us through that next level. So we're going through quite a period of change at the moment. Our industry is changing massively and I really wanted that support and mentoring. And that's exactly what Den provides.

The Video Business Accelerator event has been great so far. Dan always provides a lot of value.

He was really good at communicating with filmmakers as well because he obviously has such a great passion and past working in it. So it was really good to hear somebody talk about business theory and marketing strategies and things. But from a perspective of being a.

Video production company, Quarter three of this calendar year was the biggest year, biggest quarter we've had, and now wrapping up on quarter four, towards the end of the calendar year, it's been bigger again. So, yeah, it's obviously working. I'd say the biggest advantage of being part of the Video Business Accelerator Group is the group itself. Yes, you've got Den the expert to turn to for advice. But more often than not, when you ask a question of the group, you get a variety of different answers. Everyone's kind of come across the same problems, but everyone has a different approach to solving them. We're all there to help each other. I think that's a big bonus of being part of the group.

So if these case studies sound like they resonate with you and you're ready to take your business to the next level, then head over to Denleny.com and click on Work with Den. There are also a heap of other great resources available on the site now. Enjoy this episode. Alana, welcome back to the show. How are you?

Thank you. I'm great. How are you?

Really good. Listen, we had some really great chats last week about small business marketing, and I just felt we just didn't. We ran out of time to go deeper. And I wanted to start today and just get straight into this because I think one of the big challenges for a small business is cash flow. And so when they look at marketing, you know, they might speak to a big agency, they'll be like, well, you need to spend two and a half thousand dollars a month on ad spend and $1,500 with us, and that's like four grand a month. And they're like, that's 50 grand a year. They just don't have the money. So what? What? That's the first point. And the second point is how should small businesses structure their marketing? Because I think maybe I'm jumping ahead. They're talking about, you know, paid versus organic. But talk me through the process that you think is important for a small business owner to really think about before doing any marketing.

Yeah. So every small business owner should have a marketing funnel. And so there's basically three layers of the funnel. So the first is awareness. So it's where you're attracting people. It's kind of at a higher level. The second is the middle of your funnel which is attract and nurture. So that's where you've attracted them, but you now need to nurture them with a little bit more, provide a little bit more information. And the third is the bottom of the funnel, which is conversion and nurturing. And the reason that I include nurturing there as well is because a lot of business owners seem to have the opinion of once they've converted someone, they're done. And that doesn't build the ongoing relationships and then the referrals down the track and that sustainable relationship. So I think it's really important to make sure that there's always nurturing and value added.

It's interesting, isn't it? A lot of small businesses spend a lot of time with the perception that their biggest problem is getting new clients and new leads.

Yes.

And what's interesting for me is that that's the hardest thing to do is to get brand new cold traffic who know nothing about you to buy your stuff.

Yeah. And it seems to be a cycle that a lot of them will be so focused on always getting new when they're not actually perhaps treating their existing clients as well as they would be or that they don't have the systems in place like the automated sequences and other components that can really help them grow while maintaining that experience. Because the other thing that I've seen a lot of business owners do is jump into getting too many leads too quickly without the foundations and then the reputation suffers and it's all over. So it's really important to make sure the structures are there with the funnel rather than trying to jump too far ahead and causing reputational damage or losing connections just by not having the right things in place.

So obviously you and I have been around marketing for quite some time. Words like funnels and marketing tech all kind of very much roll off our tongue. But much like a filmmaker who talks too much tech to a client, let's just spin this around the other way. For someone who's never done any marketing, can you explain what a funnel is and how that might work in a small service based business like a small video production company?

Yeah. So a funnel to me is the process and the journey that you take your customers on. And that includes leads as well. Like obviously you're trying to attract new leads, but it also is kind of the end to end process that you have in place. So whether it's, you know, for example, if they see a post of yours on a topic and then you release an ebook that they can download, and then once they download that ebook, they can get more value through emails. And then they might have the option to book a call with you. Then once they've had the call with you, if they buy off you, you'll have, you know, procedures for that. If they don't buy, ideally you should have procedures for that, because that's where I find a lot of people make the mistake, is that they assume that if people don't buy then and there, they basically write them off. And yeah, it's not always a good move.

It's so interesting you should say that because I had a call, a sales call this morning with a client we've now welcomed into our program. And he had come to a live event workshop I'd held in Chicago seven years ago, had in that time unsubscribed from our email list.

But he said to me today, he said, I've always kept an eye on what you're doing. And what was really interesting is he said, he said, now we're ready, and then I trust you. And I'm still skeptical. Cool. But I'm hopeful. And we got him over the line and he helped him kind of, you know, take that first step that broke that fear of, like, making a commitment. But what was interesting was like, seven years ago, he unsubscribed from my email list. That didn't mean he stopped watching what I was doing. He just no longer wanted emails. And because I was connected with him on Facebook, I had my Facebook page, I have a free Facebook group, I have my Facebook profile, my LinkedIn page, my Instagram. He. He was able to see what I was doing. And I think what was really interesting was you don't need to force feed your message down someone's throat. People are intelligent humans. They know you've got a product to sell. They're just not ready for it. And then when they are ready for it, if you're kind of cool with it. And I've learned this the hard way. I've been. I've been, you know, maybe put too much pressure on the marketing in the past, but I found that, you know, the most recent approach I've been adopting is very much an organic, consistent approach. What are your thoughts on that in terms of a customer journey and how to market and the kind of platforms that you might be able to use?

Yeah, absolutely agree. So I think the main things to focus on are personally branding yourself properly as a small business owner. It's really important. The second one, like you said, is just adding value. Not with the expectation that, you know, you're adding value because you're going to get something back, but doing it from an approach of I'm going to be curious about what my target audience really wants and I'm going to add value, and then I know that it will come back, but not in an. Yeah, so in a certain approach, rather than a needy. Because I think needy always shows and people will run from it. So it's really important to just focus on those key things and be consistent as well. Consistency is a massive part of it.

Well, you know, I had my Facebook ad account, which shut down about two months ago, and I haven't quite got the bottom of why, but Facebook is such a beast. Unless you're spending a couple of million dollars a year, they literally don't care about the advertiser. And I'd spend probably fifty grand. But rather than kind of, you know, try and get annoyed about it because there's nothing I could do. And I think it was just the algorithm. Something went wrong and something tripped up and it blacklisted me. So I was suddenly faced with, I couldn't advertise on Facebook. So I went hard into organic. And it's amazing how my business has grown in the last two months by not spending any money in advertising. What's that all about?

I think in terms of organic content, like, we focus on organic a lot with clients, and a lot of that is really how you're showing up. So, again, the personal branding and really showing the behind the scenes and your unique point of difference is critically important, but also adding the right value in appropriate ways, which you're very good at, obviously, being following your content as well, and you're very good at, you know, sharing stories that really highlight the key message that you want to get across. And you're very clever at the way you do it. So I think that, you know, storytelling and really showing the behind the scenes, and not always, I think small business owners kind of fall into a trap of trying to have a facade all the time of things being really good or only showing the end product, and they avoid vulnerability and they avoid having opinions as well. The two biggest things that I feel they avoid.

If you have the opinions or you're happy to, you know, basically show who you are, and you're also showing, you know, vulnerability and the behind the scenes, it makes a huge difference.

I Love that I am guy called Pete Tansley. I had speak recently at an event at Ben Simkins Mastermind and, and Pete talked about a character diamond. He talked about, you know, your North Star, like, so if that was Superman, Superman's a strong, virile, extra muscly human. But his southern star, his, his nemesis is kryptonite. So you've got Superman at the top and kryptonite at the bottom. But then you've got, you know, the, the, the, the aspects east and west. So if you go east, it would be, you know, Superman. What would he go to war for? Well, he wants to save, he's a force for good. He wants to save the world from, from evil. But on the other side, on the west, if you imagine a diamond, he's very relatable because he's only Clark Kent. And I thought that was a fascinating way to look at the depth of stories because I think you're right. Many small businesses always want to make out like he here's a great project we did for X client, or here's an award we just won. And actually that's difficult for us to relate to because in our own lives we have good days, we have bad days, we have days that are good and bad within them. And especially as entrepreneurs, like, it's up and down like a yo yo. And most days it's brutally hard. And yet it's a bit like social media. Everyone's portraying this wonderful life. And yet in actual fact, if people were just willing to be a little more vulnerable, I mean, how do you recommend someone shows that vulnerability with clients that you've worked with? Have you got examples of where someone's been portraying an outward view like, you know, hey, everything's great. And then they've taken your advice and gone down a more vulnerable route. What is the impact of that being.

Yeah, so I have. So I found that in doing that, it's really helped like a lot of clients have. So I've worked with a few. Real estate was a big one. There's a few real estate agents that were, it was appear. It was all about appearing.

You know, a certain way and kind of not adding in that personal side and showing things like that, you know, one particular.

Agent, you know, it was more. They were doing a lot of extra things outside of their business that they weren't actually showing. So that was a huge one that we just started showing little snippets of what they were actually doing. And it made a phenomenal difference because it really showed what the business stands for. And you know, one of the values of their business, which is community. The other one is, you know, in industries like trades, for example, if they're just showing pictures of their work at the end all the time and they're not showing the steps that it takes to get there, or little facts that their ideal target would like to know, like, for example, if they show up on time, that they leave it looking clean, that their workers are decent, you know, showing a little profile of their workers that explains who they are and what they love doing all those sorts of things can really help build that trust. And it can answer a lot of questions before someone talks to you as well.

Yeah, it's so true. And you know, it's interesting because in my own situation suddenly wasn't able to advertise on Facebook and that was really my core area. And of course with being banned on Facebook, I'm banned on Instagram as well. So it's like it's a double whammy. But I found LinkedIn to be an absolute gold mine. And I think it's because there are less people on the platform, there's not really any spam and if there is, it kind of gets weeded out quite quickly by the platform. What's your experience of LinkedIn and why do you think? Well, I think it's a really golden opportunity for videographers. I'd love to know your thoughts on that.

Absolutely. Because video is like video content and the organic content possibilities with LinkedIn are amazing. I probably shouldn't say this, but it probably is my favorite platform. If I had to choose a favorite, I would say definitely LinkedIn. Purely because I love that a lot of it's longer content as well. And I like to read and learn. So I think it is a personality based thing too. But I just find that a lot of people on there are actually on there because they're serious. You know, if they, if they want to do business with someone, then they're serious about it. And the conversations are usually really engaging as well.

Yeah. And I'll tell you about the content. I have noticed like the half life of a piece of content on LinkedIn is like seven to ten days. I'm amazed. And by half life I mean, you know, you post it once and seven to ten days later it's still showing up in someone's feed. Now that's like 10 times, maybe 100 times greater than Facebook. Have you noticed that as well? And why do you think that is?

Yeah, a lot of it has to do with as well, like your connections and how much they're engaging with your content. So for people on LinkedIn, I do say to them, you know, monitor your connections and, you know, make sure that they're kind of relevant to what you're doing and your mission that you're on. The other thing with LinkedIn as well is you've also got Sales Navigator. So you can actually search.

Right down to the finest detail, the people that you want to connect with, which can be really great for clients, but also joint venture partnerships. It's excellent for that as well.

Do you have any tips for videographers on how to use Sales Navigator and how to connect with people? Because we spoke before about, you know, people connecting with you and going, hey, I see we've got mutual connections. And then the very next message like, hey, I offer X, Y and Z and let's, let's have a coffee. And that, like, drives me insane. So what's a good way to, in your experience, approach connections on Sales Navigator? What kind of messages would you, would you be sending to people to kind of get that initial relationship going?

Yes, I find people like, people like to talk about themselves. So if you can reach out and say, I've noticed, you know, you might say, I've noticed xyz, try and put detail in there. You might have noticed their content. You might have noticed that something in their profile. I'd love to hear more about what you're doing or about yourself because I believe there may be synergies between our clients. Or if it's not at that level, you might do a broader, more broad message. Just says, I'd love to know more about what you offer. Try and keep a mix in there of personal, but also, you know, asking a question as well.

So by asking questions, they're more will, they're more likely to actually respond because I guess human nature is if you, if you ask someone a question, it's a question in your inbox, not. Not a statement or a sales pitch.

Yeah. So it might be if you've noticed the post about a particular topic, you found it really good. You might write to them and say, really love that post, and then ask a question even about that. And that starts the conversation off that way. And then down the track you can move on. But I find a lot of people will try and have a generic script. Scripts can be great, but they can also be a downfall. So as much as it can be personalized, I feel the better. Because the other thing is if you, a lot of people will search Sales Navigator, they'll have their script and they'll put in, like, the industry, and then they'll send the script to, like, multiple people at once. Well, chances are, same industry, you know, they probably will know each other. You know, you at least get a couple that will know each other, and if you're sending the same message everywhere, it's not going to take them too long to work it out. So I think you just have to be careful that it's not automated to the point of losing the human touch.

I agree. And I think where. Where we as a society are kind of, you know, failing is that we're always looking for tools or hacks or tricks or tech to save us doing the work. And I think it's. What I've experienced on LinkedIn is that if you just play a consistent game and actually spend time connecting with really meaningful people, it really doesn't take that long before those. Those relationships starts to kind of grow and multiply. Because what I found with LinkedIn is I had someone called Chris Schwager on the podcast a while ago, and Chris and I met on LinkedIn, and I, in one of my posts, I said, hey, who's got a question for the podcast? I'll answer it. I answered it, and then three months later, he sent me a message going, oh, my God, I was in the gym and I had my name come up, and it's so amazing. And we got talking, we built a relationship. Then he came on the podcast, and Chris keeps referring people to me. It's like, I get these messages, okay, I spoke to Chris Schwager. He said I should come and check you out. And, like, I'm not trying that hard because I'm not. I'm not trying to smash a load of contacts, convert a certain percentage. I'm actually just showing up as me being authentic. And we met on LinkedIn because we connected through another group and we met on LinkedIn. Here we are. It actually doesn't take that long to connect with really strong people, and then they naturally share you with their network. So that's what I think I love so much about LinkedIn is it's. It's. You can't really hack the system. You can't really accelerate the process because when people do try and hack the system, it's very inauthentic. And I think LinkedIn is definitely the most authentic platform.

Yeah. And the other thing is, I find the activity is really important. So how you're commenting, as you would know, people can see your activity on LinkedIn. So having an opinion on other relevant articles and pieces as well can be a great way to build your personality and for people to see who you are. Because what I find on LinkedIn is people actually look at my platform and then they go and look at what I've been commenting on. And then when we're having a conversation, they'll bring it up and they'll say, I agree with you on xyz. So it's. Or, you know, they'll say, you know, they'll bring up another opinion of theirs on it. Some have even said to me, oh, my opinion of this is xyz. So it's really important to think about that as well and ensure that you're using that to its full capacity as well.

Well, it's funny, I did a post a while ago about no one cares what camera you use, and it had like over a thousand views in, like a week because it was slightly controversial. I think a little bit of controversy where you polarize the audience is a great way to get conversation happening, you know?

Absolutely, yeah. I've had similar posts that, yeah, have done that. I find the controversy does. And I think, again, it's because a lot of the people on that platform, they're quite intelligent and so they respect leadership. And really, when you think of a leader, it's usually someone who, they have opinions. They're not, you know, they don't say nothing. So I think, yeah, it's definitely critically important.

So some tips for organic posting on LinkedIn. Because the one thing a small business owner has, generally if they don't have money, is they can make some time, even if it's evenings or weekends. So I don't think there's any excuse for not building your business organically. What advice would you give a small video business owner who perhaps doesn't have any money to advertise? They want to do it themselves. What are some top tips to help them? Just get some rungs on the board.

Yeah. So number one would be make sure your branding is consistent. So you've got a color scheme, you've got a logo.

And also the colors that you'll use throughout your imagery if you're putting up tips and other forms of content. Number two is really know your target. And if you're looking at JV partnerships, you would define that clearly as well. So you really know who you want to connect with. Don't try and connect with everyone because it doesn't work. Number three would be have a content strategy as part of that. Include a mixture of, you know, short Sayings that you agree with or opinions, stories that show, you know, kind of show who you are, but also show how you've helped clients and what you've actually been able to achieve. And also bring in obviously branded content that's relevant for your ideal target and showing examples of what you do. The other thing is really make an effort to engage and reach out on other content again. So it builds your activity and shows people you know, your opinions and how you think and you know, the sort of person that you are. And if you're reaching out to people again, just try and have like a basic structure that you might follow, but tailor as you go so that you know you've got it there. You can also personalize it as you go. And even if you're engaging, you know, five, ten minutes a day, if you don't have hours, just start by a consistent time block and then build it up as you go.

We talked in the previous episode about the importance of metrics and data. What kind of data should you be tracking? Let's just stick with LinkedIn for now. What kind of data should you be tracking? Because I guess that's important, right?

Yeah. So you definitely want to be looking at your connections, the views of your posts, and you can look at how much are people actually reaching out, how much do they want to find more? How much are they engaging with you on the platform? Are you building a community and a tribe that are engaging with you and responding, or is it just ad hoc and people are kind of maybe coming in and then going back out? So it's really important to look at how the platform is working for your whole strategy and then with your funnel, you look at, okay, well, I'm getting people to hear and then they're stopping. So it can help you work out where the gaps are as well.

Yeah. Awesome. This has been fascinating, mate. And any, any final tips for a small business owner just with marketing in general, that, that perhaps you could just sum up as, as we come to bring this, this, this, this session to a close.

Yes, I think just be consistent and really give it a go. Like, don't let fear or doubt stop you. Many business owners do that and it's not going to help. It's not going to get any better. So just get out there and do it and doesn't have to be perfect. You know, you can be vulnerable. It's not going to. If you do nothing, it'll do more damage than getting out there and giving it a go. So my main advice is just get started and if you need support, reach out.

Alana, thank you so much, and I hope we can chat again soon.

Yeah, sounds good. Thank you.

You've been listening to the how to Scale a Video Business podcast with me, your host. If you're a video business owner who's hit a ceiling and we benefit from mentorship, support, and coaching, then check out how you can work with me over@denleny.com don't forget to subscribe and rate the show over on itunes, and we'd really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review. And don't forget to share. If you feel you've gotten value from this episode and you think it would be useful for other filmmakers you know, then please do me a massive favorite favor and share it on social media and in groups that you might be in. We'll see you next week.