0125: Video Persuasion: How to Create Effective high-level Product & Testimonial Videos that will Grow Your Brand, Increase Sales and Build Your Business with Author, Speaker, Producer, & Direct Response Video Pioneer Rick Cesari

Ea interviews, episode 125 inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week. Join Mario Ficcini for today's expert authority effect interview. OxiClean rug, Dr. Sonicare, the Juiceman, the George Foreman Grill and GoPro. What are these startups doing to become worldwide international brands with millions and billions in sales? How would you like to do this for your business? I am excited to have Rick Cesare on the show today because he's the man behind these brands for the direct response marketing and he's going to be sharing these secrets with you. How to use video persuasion, how to use testimonials, how to implement this stuff in such a way you can have strategic growth. He's a best selling author, keynote speaker. He helps all kinds of companies around the world with products, reviews and growing their brand. He is famous for coming up with sell while you brand and he's on the show today. I'm excited to bring up Rick Cesare right after we thank our sponsor.

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He is, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Rick Cesare. Rick, how are you doing today?

I'm doing great and thank you for having me on as a guest today.

I'm excited to showcase you because I know what you're doing and I'm super excited about the people you're helping and it's a fun thing to talk about. So why video persuasion?

Well, you know, I've been doing video marketing in some form or another for the last 25 years. You know, the delivery platforms have changed. I started out obviously using a lot of television because that was the way where most of the eyeballs were. And you know, recently in the last few years it's shifted over to, to the different online platforms. But I've learned a lot about how to convince people to take certain specific actions from watching the video. And so I feel like I can deliver a lot of good experience and expertise to businesses that are wanting to use video in their marketing, which if they aren't, they should be.

Why would someone want to be using video in their marketing?

Well, well, we're becoming a video first society. There's lots of great statistics, but one of my favorite ones is that there's been more video produced in the last 30 days than all the TV networks combined produced in the last 30 years. And we're just consuming video as a way of communicating. And you know this, if you deliver a message through video, you retain 95% of the message. And whereas sometimes it's as low as only 10% if you're just using images and text and video is just becoming the way we communicate. And so if you, like I said, if you don't understand video, don't know how to create it, and don't know the correct content, you're really missing out on your marketing.

What inspired you to get into it in the very beginning, before YouTube, before Amazon, before Vimeo, all the video sites, I mean they're relatively new. Take me back to what you were, what originally got you into it? You said 20, 25 years ago.

Yeah, definitely aging myself, but it is kind of an interesting backstory. I graduated from college, believe it or not, and have a degree in biology. And instead of going into that field, I took a year off from school, went down to Daytona Beach, Florida where my family was living and I became kind of a bum for a year as a bartender and a lifeguard. But I started reading a lot of books, like motivational books. And I read book about how people were making money back then and still today. And it was in real estate. So I started going to seminars and investing in real estate. And I did one deal where I turned around, bought a house, sold it in two weeks and made about $12,000. And to me back then that was like making a million dollars. And so I was so grateful from the seminar I went to, I called up a business magazine in Florida called Florida Trend. And I got the guy who was putting on the seminar a great article. It really gave a big boost to his seminar. So he called me up and said, hey, why don't you help me market these seminars? And over the next three or four years, I started doing direct to consumer marketing. And to show you how long ago this was, we were using newspaper ads to drive people to free seminars. But at the same time, these early real estate guys were the first ones starting to use TV or direct response TV or infomercials. And so I kind of learned how to do the business that way and and then started using it for other types of direct to consumer marketing and helped use it to build brands like the Juiceman and the George Foreman Grill and Sonicare and Oxiclean. And then things have transferred, obviously with the advent of all the different social platforms. But GoPro cameras is another project I worked on where we used a great combination of direct response TV and online marketing to help grow that business to almost a billion dollars in sales. So I felt like I combined everything I've learned in the last 25 years in my book Video persuasion to help other businesses.

Well, I love that you're sharing it with the world and it's impressive that you have that much knowledge that you keep applying. And that's really what I look for in people is not just can they do it once if you did great, but can you do it repeatedly, you know, what the heck you're doing?

You.

And I just want to pause for not really pause. I want to continue on, but I want to make highlight because I'm listening and taking notes. You had said when you made that $12,000 in two weeks, there's that time limiter.

Why do you think you felt so good about it? Would you say it was the amount of money or it was the fact that you did it on your own?

The fact that I did it on my own. Here's something where every, you know, you're always skeptical when people claim they can teach you how to do something that you've never done before. And in this case, I was buying a piece of distressed property and basically I just did exactly what the person told me. You know, went down to the courthouse, found a house that was in foreclosure, went and talked to the owner. Kind of like it did exactly what it said in the instruction book. Did it. And actually it worked. And so I was like, wow, I didn't know it, you know, and so when you learn something new and you actually do it yourself, it's a great feeling. And that's what really led me to, I don't know, to call that business magazine and talk about the seminar. So it's funny how where things will lead, you never know when you start out, where things are going to end up.

Yeah, it's so very true. And I've had that feeling myself. And that's why I was curious about your perspective on it. Because I'm thinking back and every time it was some relatively now small amount of money, it felt like a million bucks. Whether it was or wasn't, it didn't matter. It was. I think it unlocks something in our brain that's like, I did this, I can do it again. There's all this unlimited possibility.

You learn, you learn a skill, you learn a new skill that you didn't have before. And it helps you become self sufficient knowing that you're not depending on someone else to help you make money for sure.

And the other question I wanted to highlight was in regards to the newspaper and magazine ads. And you were saying, you know, we're not talking Internet, we're talking not talking conversion rates and click through rates and you know, opt ins and all that. But are we. Because a lot of people think the only way they can market is online. And I really want to dive into this because how do you get someone to buy. If I'm reading a newspaper article right now, where do I click? Where do I go? What is. I'll let you dive into. I know where you're going to go with this, but yeah, so what do you do to convert people with paper?

Yeah, so I like this is a great question. And.

My answer is, you know, one of the reasons I wrote the book, I've been in marketing for over 30 years, you know, seeing the whole transition from newspaper to radio to TV to online. And the one thing that hasn't changed, I think this is real important for your viewers to understand is that human psychology hasn't changed and the hot buttons that make people react the way they react hasn't changed. So the same things that would make someone respond to a Sears catalog in the early 1900s or a piece of direct mail after that, or a radio spot or a TV spot, if you understand the underlying concepts about what makes people react. And in this case I'm talking a lot about direct response principles. It helps you if you're. When then if you're taking this and using it on the new platforms. Because human behavior really doesn't change, just the delivery platforms have changed. So that's kind of one of the main messages I'm trying to deliver in my book. Plus helping people understand those underlying strategies and hot buttons.

For anyone who doesn't know, and I'm glad you're saying the actual words, what is a hot button?

You know, that's a great. When I say a hot button, it's some type of trigger or something that people will respond to. You know, you and I were talking a little bit before the interview started and I mentioned a book called Influence the Psychology of persuasion by Dr. Cialdini. He's, he's still a professor at Arizona State University and he wrote this book and there's six persuasion principles that he talks about in the book that I mentioned in my book about why certain things work in video. And you know, there's lots of examples, but probably a common one that a lot of online marketers are familiar with is the concept of social proof. And social proof really is just the actual psychological concept is if People are in a situation and they don't know how to react, they'll look and see what someone else does and then they'll react the same way. So let's take a look at that example. If we're in modern day and we're on Amazon and we're trying to make a decision whether to buy a product, we're going to go to the one that has 100 reviews versus the one that has two reviews because that's what everyone else is doing. Testimonials are another great example. Any type of consultation I do with companies nowadays, it starts with how can we talk to your customer base and get some authentic testimonials? And to me, that's one of the most powerful marketing tools because if someone's skeptical about a certain amount of advertising and, and let's take this all the way back to a newspaper ad. One of the things that we used to put in the newspaper ad, they weren't as effective as video were testimonials. In other words, someone's teaching a seminar how to make money in real estate. I want to see some other people that have done it successfully. And that's the power of a testimonial. And I have another day. Everyday example of social proof is how many times have someone. This might have happened to you where you're in the road and you're driving up and there's two left turn lanes and you might see 15 cars in one lane and only one car in the other lane. And the reason is because when you come up there, someone thinks that because all the other cars are in that lane, that's what I should do. So if I'm ever going to a sporting event, a movie, a movie, a left turn lane, I always look and see if there's a shorter line versus the longer line. Instead of just following the herd.

I, I agree 1000%. I was gonna say, yeah, I'm always looking for the one where there's the one person because you can go right up to the front. I even as far back as high school, walking in, in the stupid morning at 7:00am, 7:15, whatever it was, no one wanted to be there. There was these two. There was two sets of two doors. This one was like locked and everyone kept going through here. One side of this was locked, but this one, you could get this, you could open it. That's what doors do. And everyone just kept going through these two. And I just walk with my friends. I'm like, come on. They're like, what are you doing? Yeah, not spending 10 minutes when I can get back into the class and start sleeping again?

Yeah, no. And you know, and that's again one of those basic persuasion principles that if you understand it and you can utilize it in your videos, that's going to help make your videos more effective. You know, there was a movie out last year about P.T. barnum and he's got a great quote. He says that nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd. And it's really that herd concept that people want to do what other people are doing.

Those are some great insights. So I appreciate you for sharing those. You had just, you know, real casually thrown out some things like George Foreman, Sonicare, you know, the GoPro. Who would you say you help and how are you helping them? Do you only work with large major brands like that and what are you doing for them?

Yeah, no, that's a great question. And every one of those brands I mentioned were either startups or you know, doing very low in sales before we started working with them. So they weren't like big companies that hired me to come in and help them create sales. So anybody that has a small business out there, you know, these things that I'm teaching are designed for people with small businesses, Amazon sellers, E commerce marketers. And to answer your question, those are the types of people I work with nowadays are direct to consumer marketers that are, that are reaching people through E commerce or Amazon and really help them with their video strategy and help implement video strategies that will help their business grow and help help obtain new customers, get better conversions, you know, that type of thing.

So you had talked about the Amazon, let's use that for an example because we can talk about the video incorporation, we can talk about the click through rates, the messaging, the trigger words, the hot buttons and you are also talking about the social proof. And I think Amazon just has a little tiny bit weaved in there, just a smidge.

Oh yeah, oh absolutely. You know, let me just give you a quick technique again how things transfer from one format to another. So right now if you look at the majority of the Amazon listings.

They'Re kind of like just product images without any titles on there. So one of the things we teach, and again this is not new to you, is we always like, we like to mention the features but we focus on the benefits. What's the benefit to the end user? And so what I teach the people that my Amazon clients are, let's take a look at those individual Amazon images, figure out what the benefits are to the end user and then here's a concept we steal from video.

Put those benefits on as titles or graphics or infographics. And so that each one of those images, now instead of just a static image, becomes almost like a magazine ad and calling out different, different benefits of it. And it makes it much more effective and it helps your conversions. So that's just one thing that we, we do or help people with.

So instead of five or ten, I don't even know what the limit is, but let's just say four.

Yeah.

Instead of four images of here's one view, here's another, here's another.

What's that?

I said exactly.

You're actually putting infographics as one of the slides.

Yeah. Or taking that image, whether it's a front on shot or a side shot, and just adding different infographics, calling out the benefit. The other thing I like to do, which I've learned from doing television direct response marketing, is instead of having just. I know the rules are the first image has to be just a plain image of the product, but the other image is I like to show a human being in the image, either whether it's just a hand or, or an entire person, because again, psychologically, people want to see other people using the product. And so it's little things like this that have learned over the years in doing direct response marketing that you're using to make little tweaks to make it more effective. And then on almost every Amazon listing, you're allowed to put up one video. And so if you put that video up, what I see a lot of Amazon sellers do is they put in what I call a tutorial video, which is like a how to video, which is important. But that's not good for selling. That's good for teaching people how to use the product. I'd much rather see a demonstration video. And a demonstration video basically not only shows someone how to use it, but then again features the benefits of the product and then even ask for a call to action. And I think that a lot of people fall down there type of thing. And then the next step further on Amazon is if you own the trademark and you can have a brand registry page, then you can post as many videos as you want and then you can start putting lots of videos people using the product. And to me, the more video support you have, the more reason it gets somebody to buy the product.

Expert authority world. I hope you're taking notes. And if you're driving or something, check out the show notes page on eainterviews.com because this is solid gold stuff. And Rick, you're giving me ideas about my Amazon and I'm wondering if I can put an infographic for my book and the real life shots from the VIP book launch party where it was all the people in the rooms while I was signing the Expert Authority Effect book.

People would really respond to that. Just before the reasons we just talked about. It's like, wow, what am I missing out? How come all these people are excited about his book? Maybe I should be getting that. And that's just a psychological thing that goes on with people. Plus, you can add video down if you, you should, you probably have an author's page and if you don't, you should. And then you can add video there as well, helping explain things and taking different concepts from your book and explaining it from a video perspective.

You know, I knew we could add it to the author central page, but I'm wondering if how much we could add even if they don't click like what, what they see right, right up front with the book.

No, it's usually then that's like down below the fold on the, on the Amazon page where you can add more videos and stuff. So.

Oh, this is, this is, I mean this was cool to begin with, but now you got my brain going and.

Let'S help your E commerce people. Probably a lot of your listeners or viewers have E commerce sites. And so one question I get asked is, well, what kind of video should I deploy on my E commerce site? And there's no one size fits all. But in general, one thing I like to do when someone first comes to a homepage is kind of have that overview video. This could be 60 seconds, 90 seconds, even two minutes. And it basically says, tells people who you are, why you're doing what you're doing and why you're different than the competition. Why should they purchase from you if you're selling a product or a service? And that gives people a really easy way, really quickly to just, you know, hit a button, watch your video. They get a complete overview of what you do, why you're doing it. Then if they want to get more information, hopefully your video has gotten them more interested, they'll dig deeper in the website. The second thing is the three most common types of online video, I've mentioned them all already and these are statistics from HubSpot or something, are tutorial videos which are how to demonstration videos and testimonial videos. So of course if you're selling a product, it's important to have a tutorial video here's. How you use it. You also need a demonstration video, which is, here's why you need it and how to get it. And then the testimonial is the social proof. And so if I don't see testimonials on a website, I begin to wonder, you know, does anybody use this product and video, you know, text testimonials are great, video testimonials are better.

I love that you're talking about that. What are your thoughts not only on the website, but social media?

Yeah, same, same thing with social media. And you know, and, and again, you're very active in a video field and one of the really nice things that, that I found is, and is that now you can repurpose footage and use it through different channels. So if we go out and do a video shoot for testimonials and you know, again, give your listeners and viewers an example. We have an email sequence that's in my book Video Persuasion, that if you want to generate testimonials, we have a whole email sequence you can send out to them to get them to show up to do a testimonial for you. And so now we set up a testimonial day and lots of ways of doing it. We cover this in the book. You can rent a house for a day, you can invite them over to your house. And so I'll interview 10 or 12 people. And in the course of that testimonial day, listening and interviewing 10 to 12 people, you learn a lot of research. It's the best focused group ever. You learn what people like about a product, what they don't like, why did they buy it, would they recommend it to a friend? If they recommend it to a friend, what would they tell that friend? And pretty much after you talk to 10, 15 people like that, you pretty much have an idea of how to market the product because the people, real customers, are giving you the answer. So that's one thing that we definitely like to focus on.

So many people overlook that they make life harder for themselves because they're trying to do everything on their own and they're going to edit from the CEO or a high level standpoint, not from the customer standpoint. And.

Excuse me.

When I work with my clients, I've suggested to use the Amazon, Amazon reviews. Not just the reviews. Yeah, the reviews. I'm thinking the start area. People tell you what they're thinking right there. Same thing with YouTube comments. And what you're talking about with bringing them on camera is genius. Along with asking them the stuff behind the scenes because they're giving you the answers on like you're saying what to put in your headlines, what do to. To put in your titles, how to market it. Because you're using their language, not what you think they're going to say.

Yeah. And you've experienced it. But first of all, I want to say that's an excellent point. That's. Excuse me. The other thing I tell people, go read Amazon reviews and you'll get your best marketing copy. I've been doing copywriting all my life, direct response copywriting, and I'm never able to write copy as good as what an authentic testimonial would will say. You just can't think up lines like they say. And you can read those lines in the Amazon reviews. Or if you're doing video testimonials and you know, we make transcripts of the testimonials we take. We pull out the different sound bites that are best we can, then deploy them. Originally, I want to come full circle because you asked about social media. You can repurpose then these testimonials and then use them on social media. You can use them for Facebook ads. You can, you know, just post them on any of the social media channels. And. And it'll really enhance the marketing for your business or product or service.

Have you heard of Repurpose IO?

No. Explain that to me.

So I had the CEO of the company on. Actually just dropped the episode this week. Oh, I just had the CEO of the company on and what his software does. You can take this video, create a snippet of it, maybe one to two seconds, where I go, okay, what. What's this question? Then you answer it and you just take that 1 to 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and you can repurpose it automatically when you're filming it. We use it for the show. And another thing that I really like about it is you can take this video and it will caption it, you know, for Instagram with the captions on the top and the bottom. It will create that stuff for you. You just pick what segment of video you want and it literally does everything for you. The podcast episodes, all your podcast episodes, you can take those and it will do the same thing. And if there is no video, it will add a back plate in a little waveform to it also.

Wow, that's amazing. I got to check into that. Is that the website Repurpose IO.

If you go to eainterviews.com forward/repurpose IO, it will take you to a direct Link, I'll make sure it's in the show notes and he. You can listen to his entire episode. Also, it's Hanny Mora.

Yeah, that's awesome. And I really appreciate. See I learned something when I do these things too. And you know, one thing that brings up a really good point. In the past, the thing that stopped people from doing video was the technical part of it. And in the past the expense of doing it because you know, it wasn't. It's, you know, until not too long ago, you know, five, six, seven, eight years, you didn't have an iPhone. You would have to go out and hire a crew to basically produce good looking video. Now technology is advanced so much that really holding your hand and you know, your iPhone in your hand or your Android and getting a simple light and getting a simple microphone that you can buy on Amazon for under $100, you have the ability to create really great video. And so that shouldn't be a barrier anymore the way it has been in the past. And another reason why, why people should be doing this themselves.

Yeah, there's, it's opened the door because I remember when I was starting off, cameras were tens of thousands of dollars, editing suites were tens of thousands of dollars. The software was tens of thousands of dollars. And it was like holy smokes, you know, it was right after film transitioned to digital and it was awesome. But at the same point it's like you needed some serious coin. If you weren't doing it as business, it was almost unattainable or a very, very, very, very expensive hobby. And now it's like anyone has a production studio in their pocket, but what they do with it, if you. Again, we have the technology at our fingertips, but if you don't know how to light it, if you don't know how to produce it, the same thing. Everyone has a social media account, but do they know the direct response marketing techniques of how to have the headline, the benefits and a call to action that it's going to actually do something for them?

Yeah, you just hit the nail on the head and you know what we're talking about today and what I talk about in my book. Video persuasion isn't like making videos, entertainment videos or family vacation videos. These are businesses. These are videos to use for your business to help with conversions, help with lead generation, help selling products. And it's really that content that I'm focused on in the book and talk about it. But let's take a step further now because again, talking about the different social media channels, Facebook Live, is becoming big and Amazon live. And so I have a whole chapter in the book about becoming your own spokesperson. And for whatever reason, the majority of people are afraid to get up in front of the camera, whether it's a video camera or the camera in your computer. And. And I talk about why that's important, to be your own spokesperson because of the authenticity, the passion that you deliver, the originality of your story about why you're doing things. And it becomes another marketing tool in our arsenal that you should be taking advantage of. And so people will say, well, I'm nervous in front of the camera. And so I say, well, you know, nobody ever steps in front of the camera the first time and does a great job. It takes practice. You can't go out and become a great tennis player the first time you pick up a racket. You have to practice. But I'll use myself as an example. Six months ago, I'm usually behind the camera and working in the editing booth and putting together the content. And I started doing Facebook lives. And I was afraid because you're live. I mean, you're talking to people. But I have to be honest with you, after doing five, six, seven episodes, it's really. It gets easier and easier and you get better and better and just become more natural at it. And you should be taking advantage of these live opportunities because all the social channels will have them soon.

I agree 100%, and I want to unpack that a little bit more because I hear that all the time. I'm always encouraging people to take pictures, do video, go live like we are now. And so many people. I'm not good in front of the camera. I don't want to get in front of the camera. And I just want to call BS on that because how many people do you see taking selfies every 16 and a half seconds, but they're not doing it for any business reason or anything. Why do you think it's so much easier to be like, look at me instead of, I'm trying to help someone. Yes, I'm still. I mean, at the essence, you're both on camera. But one I think is a value add versus a. I don't know what. But what are your thoughts on it?

No, I agree 100%. And I think that any lack of what people perceived as professionalism or being a good spokesperson, it gets made up for in delivering information and authenticity and passion. And people expect. Don't expect you to be a professional newscaster. That's. It's almost. There's a more real feeling to doing a Facebook Live and you aren't very polished. If you're too polished to me, it becomes less believable. And so I just think the upside of doing it far outweighs the downside. I'll give you an example. I have a client that has an eight figure Amazon business. They sell computer peripherals and every time they launch a new product, they're the largest seller of docking stations on Amazon. And every time they launch a new product, they make a YouTube video, they do an Amazon Live, and the owner of the company, who's a computer engineer.

Is the spokesperson and his believability is just off the charts. And you want to hear from the founder of the company. And so anybody that has their own business, I totally agree with what you're saying, should make a video and start doing these things because you're always going to be your best spokesperson. Now if your company is growing really big and you want to take that next step and hire a celebrity spokesperson or a doctor or a George Foreman type spokesperson, that's good. But no businesses can afford that right out of the gate. So you really are a great marketing tool. If you aren't utilizing yourself, you should be.

You have covered so much and it's all been so great. I'm sure you have dozens. But if we were to pick one, what would you say is your biggest success story so far?

You know, I, I, well, let me, I would have to go way back and say company called Trillium Health Products that marketed the Juiceman juicer and it wasn't the largest of any of the brands, but we did this way back in 1990, 91 and we had tremendous success. It grew to 75 million in sales in about four years. But it was something that I was passionate about. I was educating people about getting more fruits and vegetables into their diet eating a better diet eating. And really if you look around today and there's juice bars everywhere and there's fresh cold pressed juices you can buy everywhere and juice extractors are still really big. I feel like we helped start that whole trend and so I'm probably most proud of that. Even though it wasn't, quote unquote, the biggest dollar success of all the ones we mentioned. From a passion and a help to humanity. I think that one was the best one.

Well, I love that you say that for your success story because that's what it's about is helping people and adding value and everything. And you know, every little 75 million helps.

Yeah, yeah, that was, we were at the right product at the right time and had the right message. So it worked out well.

Yeah, and it's not always about the money because, I mean, there's a lot of people that would love to make 75 million in four years, like you mentioned. But at the same point, when you can. I mean, we're talking about persuasion and influence. When you can shift culture, I mean, that's. That's serious. That's something serious.

Oh, absolutely. It was on, you know, when it was at its height, we were on 2020 and New York magazine and, you know, it was just. It was great. It was. We had kind of started a little bit of a revolution, eating revolution in the country. And.

You know, and again, it just contributed to overall better health for a lot of people.

Well, I remember it and I'm glad you were part of it because I found it fascinating and I loved. I don't have a juicer, but I just get them already done. Yeah, but I do love the smoothies and all that stuff. If it's an option, I take it. And I gave up pop back in high school, with the exception of like once a year at Christmas.

Yep, that's a smart, smart choice. Hey, just. If we have about two more minutes, I'd just like to mention, because you did, I like, we never got a chance to really talk about the GoPro thing. And I really.

Please do, because I, I not only remembered it, I'm very familiar and I think they're fascinating.

So I'll just. I'll just do a quick backstory. You know, being in marketing, I would go to different trade shows, and so I went down to the out to look for products and businesses that might need my help. And I was at the outdoor retailing trade show in Salt Lake City, and the founder of the company, Nick Woodman, drove his Volkswagen bus onto the trade show floor because that was his booth. He set up like a beach scene. His background was a surfer and he was selling these cameras out of the back of the bus. And I said, hey, this looks like a good product. We should talk about doing something together. Two weeks after the show, we flew up to Seattle and we sat down and had lunch and really planned out. And I have to give him credit for this. He had the vision of, like, he knew he was going to build a billion dollar company. But one of the things we did bring to the table was basically how we put together the TV ads that made the company successful. So we started every TV ad with a GoPro logo. And that's something I think is really important in video production. Tell the people what the video is about up front.

You were saying you started the TV off with the.

Yeah, every TV. These are 30 second commercials. We started everyone out with a GoPro logo so they knew exactly what the spot was about. Then they had user generated footage, people jumping off a cliff with a wingsuit, snowboarding, scuba diving. But we ended, and here's where the direct response came in. We ended every commercial with an offer that said go to our website, someone will win one of everything we make every single day. So three great things happened. People would go to the website and they'd register for the contest. So we would collect an email address and we build the database and we could remarket to those people the second great thing, they'd get to the website, they'd see other cool GoPro videos, they'd share them with their friends creating a viral effect. And the last was more traditional direct response. They'd get to the website and they'd buy cameras generating revenue which we would then put back into advertising to help the business grow. So one real simple like thing pulling together the combination of direct response principles with video really helped that company grow to a billion dollars in only eight years.

That is really impressive and inspiring. And you said something we can touch on it. You said remarketing.

For anyone listening that doesn't know what that is. Could you go a little bit deeper?

Well I, you know the other thing when I always go in and talk to companies, two things we're looking for. One, do they have great testimonials? Two, almost every company needs to build their database. And so there's, when I talk to remarketing it can mean a couple things. So one of the things is that we're building a database so we can start email marketing and creating an ongoing every time we launch a new product. But the other way, remarketing or retargeting which would be reaching back out to people that have visited your website. And it's a thing that a lot of e commerce companies do now to help if you've ever visited a website and then a couple days later you're somewhere on your computer visiting another website and you get served up an ad for the product you're looking at, that's kind of retargeting. And so when I was talking about it with the GoPro, I was talking about it more in terms of, you know, remarketing to people through their database. So if they didn't purchase when they first came to the website, we had a Specific email sequence. We would send them until they did purchase or became kind of a loyal follower. One of the other two things.

And that is so important because so many people think, well, I said something to him one time. I put out one ad. They clicked, but they didn't buy. I guess they're not interested. And it's. It's so far from the truth.

Absolutely. Yeah. You. You need to, you know, it goes back again. You know, people used to say you have to see a TV ad three or four times before you purchase. You have to maybe see your online advertisement several times before you purchase. So just because someone doesn't purchase and their first contact with you does not mean they're not a customer. They're obviously interested. They just have to be convinced a little more, pulled in a little more. And so that's what remarketing, retargeting helps to do.

So one last question for you before we go to the imperfect action round.

Okay.

If you could have lunch or dinner with anyone in the world, who would it be and why?

Oh, geez, there's so many different people.

For me.

You're adding so much value to expert authority world. You just gained a bonus one. You can pick two now.

Oh, all right. I'm a history buff. I love to read history books. So I, you know, really admire.

Different leaders, like from World War II, like Franklin Roosevelt or Winston Churchill, and the amount of pressure and stress and decisions they had to make for survival. And one of my favorite quotes of all time, which applies to business is from Winston Churchill. During the Battle of Britain, he gave a speech, and he basically said, I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but he said, never, never, never give up. And I think that's good advice for businesses, too, because a lot of times just persevering, eventually you'll be successful.

That is good advice because there's many times I've thought about, you know, what if I did? I can't bring myself to even consider doing anything different. But it doesn't always go perfect. And, you know, I've heard that it's not the failures.

It's not the failures that will stop you, it's the quitting.

Yes. Oh, that. That's a good. I haven't heard it phrased that way. Yeah. And you learn more. I know in my personal life, I've learned more from the failures than you do the successes. And that's what helps you become successful, is very few people are successful out of the gate. You know, they have to trip, fall down, learn the hard way. And. But then hopefully listening to podcasts like this, you can learn through other people's experience, which is a shortcut to success sometimes.

Yeah, I know that you learn through the failures, but the successes are way more fun and enjoyable. But.

That'S how you get there. And yeah, I'll say it. So the thing you just reminded me of was the was it experiences, learning from your own mistakes. Wisdom is learning from others.

That's a great quote. I'm big on quotes I started.

Someone smarter than me said that.

I'm not sure, but I start every chapter in my, in my books is my third book now, and I always start every chapter with an applicable business quote because usually a lot, they contain a lot of wisdom in a very short soundbite, for lack of a better word.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah, for sure.

And so many people in business, even in business, don't get that they need, you know, the whole elevator pitch. It's like they need 20 minutes to explain it. If you can't explain it in a quote.

Yep.

You know, one of the ones I came up with, I put in my first book, Video Marketing for Business Owners is instead of trying to get everyone's attention, why not be so captivating they can't look away?

Yeah, yeah, that's, that's so many people.

Every day are just looking for how do I get the attention for today or whatever. And it's like, why don't you just become someone they can't look away from instead of trying to figure out what's the new tip or trick this week?

Oh, yeah. And that's why I spend a lot of time in my book and we talked about it earlier in the interview about.

Tried and true things that have worked. Not the shiny new object that you're chasing around or the tactic that works and black hat tactic that works on Amazon, but really tried and true principles that have been proven over literally decades to work and how you can implement them in your marketing.

Well, I love that you're sharing this stuff because as much as I love the cutting edge stuff and I'm excited about for the new things and all the stuff I got coming out, I'm equally as excited, if not more, for the stuff from a hundred years ago. I also like history. And it's like, all right, what did Henry Ford do? What did Rockefeller do? What did all these people that built these billion dollar companies without Internet, cell phones, iPhones, all this, what was the, what was the key Differentiators. And they're still working today. So that's exciting. We're gonna come back after thanking our sponsor with the Imperfect Action round and I can't wait to hear what you you have to say for these don't.

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Ladies and gentlemen, we are back with the Imperfect action round. Rick, are you ready to take imperfect action?

I'm ready even though I don't know what it is.

60 second rapid fire answers. I got three questions for you and the first one is what is the fastest path to the cash?

Wow. One on one selling.

If you have a product, you know you can do lots of online marketing, lots of things like that. But if you can go to a event, flea market, swap market and you're trying to sell a product, it's a great way to.

Generate cash very quickly. Learn how to do a pitch which then you can then magnify through video, social media, other things. But you learn the one on one selling first.

Love that. Great advice. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way they can fix it?

I have to say it's something we talked about a little earlier and that's not speaking with or listening to their customers because the customers will tell them just about everything they need to know on how they can improve their business and help it grow and they do not reach out to them often as if ever, but as often as they should and it's very easy to remedy. Just start talking to your customers.

Excellent. Number three, what is the best way to maximize Customer lifetime value.

I have in my other book, which we didn't mention, which is called Building Billion Dollar Brands, I have what I call the golden rule of branding and that's really treating people the way you want to be treated if you were a customer. And it's simple advice, but again something that not a lot of people follow. And if you treat people that way and you treat them correctly, then they'll become a lifetime customer and you'll create more lifetime value from them.

Great answers, great answers. What is a book you could recommend to Expert Authority World that has made a big impact on your business?

Yeah, we didn't talk about this. When I was in my 20s, I read a book called how to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie and it talks about the correct ways of giving a speech and it really was life changing for me at the time. But I've still used the principles today, even in making videos. Dale Carnegie had a formula, a really simple formula. And I use a lot of speaking analogies when I talk about how to make video. And one of them is when you're giving a speech, you tell the people what you're going to say, you say it and you tell them what you said. And even though that's a simplistic formula, I still use it in my videos. Use the GoPro as an example. You start out with a product logo, then you talk about the product and then you tell them what you said. And it's a simple formula that works. So that's a great book for people to read. And of course the one we mentioned earlier, which is Influence the Psychology of Persuasion is another great one.

Excellent. Well I appreciate those recommendations. Thank you so much for sharing everything. Where can people find more about you?

Yeah, the best thing to do is really go to my website which is rick cesari.com My first name is R I C K and the last name is C E S a r I ricksazeri.com and I have a free download for people which is the three most popular types of online video content and how you can utilize them in your business. You can go there, download that and that's a free ebook that people can get. And then on my website I have lots of blogs talking about a lot of the things we're talking about today. And then from there you can see the products and books that I have to offer as well.

Well, excellent. I'll make sure there's a link in the show notes on eainterviews.com and people can check it out.

Hey this is great. I really appreciate being on your show and it's been a great discussion.

Well, I've enjoyed it just as much. Thank you again for sharing. I got something out of this and I know Expert Authority World has as well.

All right, thank you.

All right, Expert Authority World, we got another great episode here for you. I look forward to seeing you on tomorrow's. Have a great day and God bless.

There's money in the metrics. Do you know yours? Pipedrive is the simplest and easiest CRM to close more deals, deepen your relationships and increase your business profits. Get your free trial today@eainterviews.com Pipedrive hey, thanks for listening to today's episode.

I hope you got a lot out of it. I know I sure did. If you haven't done so already, I.

Invite you to subscribe to the show and also be sure to check out eainterviews.com com for complete show notes, the full interview, video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you tomorrow.