Lessons

Lesson Info

How to Make Sales

So here's the secret part of this. We have already talked about how you're gonna make a sale. You are gonna talk to your best buyer. That is how you make your YouTube videos really effective at selling, is you talk to your buyer. If your YouTube channel is aimed at them, and it serves them and it answers their questions, they're gonna be the ones watching it and they're gonna be the ones that are ready to buy. Once they're ready to buy, because you've built that trust and they've just fallen in love with you, you ask for it. You literally say "Hey, if you wanna get more of this, "you can find it back at taraswiger.com slash, you know, "whatever the class is I'm selling, right?". So in last week's podcast, I talked about one of the best marketing tools for my business, has been my podcast and my videos. I talked about how that's worked, what it's done to my business, what I learned from it. And then I said, "If you wanna learn about how to use this "in your own business, "go register fo...

r my CreativeLive class. "You'll find the link in my profile at "taraswiger.com/podcast180, or something". Or I could have given them the exact, like, short link from CreativeLive, to go register for it. That's what I mean when I say "Ask for it". You have to tell them to go do it. And then on YouTube, so you wanna say it, and then you also wanna make sure the link is in the description below. So that they can go click. Because they're not gonna remember to type it in. So there's a couple different ways you can ask for it. I'm gonna show you some samples. One, is from our friends Geeky Girls Knit. Listen to how casual this is, and how easy it's gonna be for you to remember, what exactly you need to do, because the way she says it. And she's just saying it naturally. I don't think this is super scripted. But this is just... So this is C.C. and Dami, again. Thank you, to everyone who has purchased something in our birthday sale. So as you know, last Wednesday, when we recorded, was my 40th birthday. Happy Birthday! Thank you. This coming Friday, is Dami's 18th birthday. Ewwww! Yeah! So we're having a sale on our patterns. So this is valid through the end of Friday. Yes. And you can use either coupon code, or both coupon codes and you can use them multiple times. So you can get any single pattern. Okay, so what she's gonna do right there, is she actually just walked them through what that image said. But by putting that image on the screen, you saw exactly the code, right? Because there was this specific code you needed to use, DAMI18, in order to save this much. She verbally said it and you visually saw it. So whether you were listening, while you were also washing the dishes, and you weren't really watching the video, or you were watching the video, you were gonna see it in a couple different ways. And then in the description, was also that description of what you should do. So she gave a coupon code, which is gonna generate interest in people to go buy it, because its like a you have to go act on this now. She has the kind of product that you can buy it anytime, right? A knitting pattern; you can just buy whatever. But because she gave the coupon code and it had a deadline, people are gonna go get it. Right? Because it has a super specific thing you should do. Now the other thing I want you to think about, is from your videos you're not always gonna just be making a sale. Sometime you're just going to be asking them to do the next thing you want them to do. So this is an example of the KnitTea Retreat our two friends, who put together a retreat in Wales. I really wanna go. And they are, they're opening their retreat to their newsletter subscribers first. So their gonna talk about, why you should signup for their newsletter. So their not making the sale on the video. Their gonna make the sale in their email, that they send. And because there are limited spots, you need to be on the list. And I'll tell you about the results, after we watch. Oh, and they just have the best accents. Subscribers can book on Saturday the 7th. And the rest of you, should sign up to the newsletter, obviously. But failing that, Sunday the 8th. Yeah, we're aiming for about 3:00pm, the website page, for bookings on the website, will go live. But when it goes live, we will put a post on Instagram. Yeah. And Twitter, because as a retreat we're on Twitter. Good to know. Hmmm, I knew that. And Ravelry. Just so that you don't miss it. Yeah! But you shouldn't miss it, because you'll already be signed up to the newsletter, so. That's an excellent point. So did you hear that? Right, it wasn't just to signup for the newsletter because were gonna launch that. They even talked about, like, they're gonna be limited spots, these are the other places, but you should really sign up for the newsletter. I'm pretty sure that wasn't scripted. That was just them being themselves. And that's when I talk about making a call to action, inviting people to do something. You don't have to be like, super professional. You can just talk like you've been talking in your video. It's gonna be most effective, when it comes right from your vibe you're already doing. Yeah? [Audience participant] I like their branded tea cups. (laughs) Did you see that? So what happened with their retreat, is they ended up selling out before it even opened to the public. Because they got everybody on their newsletter, it was .... The people just joined right then. And they had only done a video and some Instagram posts getting people ready, and then announced it to their own list. To get on the list. And so, see they made sales, not from the video, but from the emails. So that's something to keep in mind. Is that you don't necessarily have to make the sale in the video, if you know your email's already super effective at converting people. Okay, so now these are the keys, to making your videos effective at sales. The first one is talk directly to your buyers. Always be talking to your buyers. If you're talking to anybody else, then they're not gonna buy, because they're not buyers. (laughs) So if you were doing videos for a while, and you're not seeing any results in your sales and it seems like your audience, like the people who are commenting, you're like "who are these people? "What, who is watching this?". Maybe you need to change up your videos, to go more towards your buyers. If you already have made some sales, talk directly to the people who have made the purchase and ask them what they want to see in a video. Maybe you're just not doing the kinda thing they're really interested in. So, also, you want to make it obvious and natural, what you do in your work. So whether you are an artist, and you sell your art, or you are a personal trainer. You wanna make sure that that's coming up. You don't have to say, "Hey, I'm Tara. I'm a teacher "and an author". You can just talk about, "Oh, this week I was teaching "at CreativeLive". Or, "Yesterday, when I was working with a client". Or, "My class is about to come out. "You can go find it here". You want to regularly be talking about the thing that you do, so that people understand and they are prepared for it. You're not like, shocking them, right, when you talk about it. So you wanna make it obvious and natural. You also want to invite them to do the next step. So whatever the next step is for you. Whether it is subscribing to your newsletter. Whether it's buying your product. Whatever is gonna be the next step, for what they do after they've listened to this episode. So for me, it was go and register for the CreativeLive class. You can watch it for free, or you can buy it. Sometimes it's, I talked a lot about goal settings, so get my goal setting book. Sometimes it's just subscribe on YouTube and iTunes, because I didn't talk about anything, that has anything to do with anything. Does that make sense? Like maybe I just talked about something and I don't have a product, and I don't have a book, so I just say subscribe. So lead them to the next step. That's how you're gonna make the sale. So you wanna ask yourself, and write in your workbook, what is the next step for you? I'm gonna give you some suggestions, about what the next step might be, for you. It might be, subscribe to my YouTube channel. If you are just getting started, this might be the goal you're going for. You wanna get people on your YouTube channel. It might also be, subscribe to my email list. How many of you guys already have an email list? Awesome! So if you're making sales, with that list already, then you know it's an effective sales thing. Invite people to sign up for it, okay? And you're next step might also just be, go to my shop and buy this. You can go find that in my shop, buy it, that's what you should do. So those are gonna be the main things that you lead people to do. They're either going to subscribe to your YouTube channel, they're going to go to your website, or they're going to subscribe to your email list. Does that make sense? And sometimes it won't always be the same thing. But you always want to be inviting them to take the next step. If they've loved your video, they want to know what the next step is, and it's your job to tell them that. So we call this, making a call to action. So a call to action is telling people what to do. An effective call to action has a verb in it. Click here. Buy this. Sign up here. Register here. So it's telling them really specifically, what actions to take. And if you're not, if you're just like "Oh, yeah, "I'm a personal trainer". So what do I do? Like, you have to tell me. (laughs) Should I subscribe to your YouTube? Do you have an email list? Should I go to your website, to like, talk to you about rates? What is the next step that I should take? What is that call to action? So do you guys have any questions, about your call to action? Or what you can possibly do? I know you've been taking notes. What you're call to action might be. [Woman in Audience] So should you limit it to just one call to action per video? That's such a good question. Yes, it's gonna be more effective, if people don't have to choose. So there's this theory, and it's a book called the Paradox of Choice. When you give people too many choices, they don't choose anything. And so, if you just say, also remember you're the expert, people want to hear from you, what should I do next. So to say, "If you like this episode, subscribe "to my channel, so you don't miss a video". Or if you wanna get more, if you wanna get this coupon code, go here and signup for my email list, and I'll send that to you. So yeah, just one call to action. And it can be different in each episode. Any other questions? Actually, about anything that we've covered in this segment at all. Any of your content ideas? Any of your calls to actions? Are you feeling good, about how you're gonna make a sale, how you're gonna lead people? So you're question earlier was.. Oh, and I'll get yours in a minute. (laughs) Your question earlier was, "How does the interview format, "or the vlog lead to sales?". Because your A, like serving your buyer, so she's the person watching. And then you're making it natural and obvious what you do. So she's aware, like, that your sister's an artist, and sells your products. And then you're gonna invite them to go buy it. Right, so if she's got a painting behind her, or an iPhone case with her pattern on it, she's gonna say, "Hey, go check these out, "there in the shop now. You can get them at "blah, blah, blah dot com". And then, so it doesn't really matter what the format is, if you make that call to action and they're totally into it, they're gonna go do it. And what was your question? Actually, I don't have a question. I just wanted to share that I was inspired by some of the brainstorming exercise. Awesome! And even though mentioned the idea of having a video contest, I thought it'd be very easy for me to just ask my students to send me a 30-second video question. Yes. And it would give me an opportunity to feature my students more, which I love doing. So thanks, for that. (laughs) You're welcome. That's actually quite compelling for me. Yeah. I like that. And it will be easier for you to work off of, right? Well, yeah, they've done all the heavy lifting, because they're asking if I can answer a question. Right. But then they're featured, and then they're relatable. Exactly. And I can pick from common questions. Yeah, I love that, that's really good. It's just the whole thing has just been made ten times easier. Yeah, (laughs) that's the goal. [Woman in Audience] If you could clip that, we could play it as often as we want. Yeah, see there you go. Yeah, to make your life much easier. Ten times easier. Yes. Be specific in our claim. Yeah. We've had to, I mean, just mirroring some of the conversations we've, the points you discussed. James had asked how much time should he spend on editing a video, because he tends to spend way to much time on this process. I know we'd actually discussed this, editing is like everyone's lease favorite task, if you're, you know, having to edit down content, be it video or audio. And he says, "I'd love to outsource, but it would cost "way too much". Well, for starters, it might be less expensive than you think. You should actually, if you're hiring a super fancy video editor, yes. But if you're hiring someone who's doing it freelance, I was surprised at how inexpensive it can be. The other thing is, I want to encourage you James. Was that his name? Yes, sorry. Just shoot a video and upload it. Like, just talk, don't do anything fancy, different camera angles, and upload it. Like, if the editing is taking too long, so you're not doing it, then you're probably not doing it in a way that's gonna be sustainable for you. So there are a lot of people who have the desire to do a real specific video type, that requires a lot of editing. Like part of the reason we didn't talk about tutorials, is 'cus tutorials can take a lot of editing. Because you have to show step outs. Right, like this is what it is in the beginning, and this is what it is later. And you might have an overhead shot, and a side shot, so people can see your hands and what you're doing. But if you don't have the time, or the inclination, or the money to hire somebody, then just don't do those kind of videos. Like figure out a way, that you can still share your work on videos, without something that requires a lot of editing. And maybe be a little bit more comfortable with imperfection and that it's not going to always be perfect. But that you're still gonna connect with people through that. Great. We're getting close towards the end, but we've still got a little bit more to get through. That's right. But this was, I was gonna take any last questions here, before we go to the last section, so. I have a quick question. Is there any sort of promotion outside of anything that you've talked about? That we should know about, or look into, and do a bit more research? Like in all of the marketing world (laughs), or for your YouTube videos? I mean to generate numbers, and to really increase the audience. So what I'd recommend, is A, there are so many videos on CreativeLive about Instagram, email lists, building your website. But what I actually recommend, is that you go and you meet your buyers. So whether that's, I know your sister is thinking about starting up a business, and your podcast would kinda lead people to that business. She needs to go meet the people who would buy her stuff. So maybe she gets a booth at a craft show, or she goes and she talks to shops who might carry her work. Or the more you can interact with the people you're gonna be making videos for, it's just gonna be so much better. You're gonna be able to speak directly to them. And that actually the best promotion when you get started, is to meet real people. And then move it, then do it online. So, like, you could absolutely do Instagram, or you can setup an email list. But you need people to find you, in all of those ways. And for people to find you, you need to be creating content that they're interested in. So it's like a whole catch-22, of how do I do it. So you go talk to people. So yeah, so if she can show her work anywhere, even a tiny little local show, it's gonna bring her into contact, with the kind of person she's gonna make videos for. So that's where I tell people to start. Alright, thanks. Yeah, I know you actually work with artists. Do you have something else you recommend to people, if they're trying to figure out, like where would I start? Yeah, well, yeah, they have a pretty specific protocol, that I suggest, that they follow, which is kind of extensive. But, you have a class on CreativeLive, yeah, that they can watch? I have two classes on CreativeLive, actually. But, you know, really just, you can just ask people why they, you know starting by asking why they buy your art in the first place. Ask them for a referral. Ahem. You can ask them to do a YouTube live with you. You can, I mean there's so many things. I think the bottom line is, asking is free. Yeah. And just try it, and if you fail, who cares? Just try something else, until you find a winning combination. So, if I could just, two tips would be: remember, asking is free, you're no worse off if someone says no; and failing is inevitable, so just plan on it. Yeah. And embrace the, "I suck", part of this. Yeah. And because everyone sucks in the beginning. And then you just get better. (laughs) Exactly, totally. I'm gonna actually say that in just a minute. So I love it. And then something, is that the best thing you can do is asking real people, not finding another tool to use. So like, getting human interaction feedback is gonna help you use any other marketing tool. But just starting up a bunch of marketing tools, like I'm on Instagram, now I have a website, now I have an email list, now I have a YouTube. If you never actually interacted with anybody who buys your work, or might buy your work, it's gonna be really hard to know what to post, or what to say, or how to word it. Because you just need that feedback. So anybody have questions about this coming up with content ideas, or creating a content calendar in the chat room? It's okay if not. I just have a message from Camille saying that all of this has demystified so many of the concerns of filming for YouTube. "Thanks for giving me permission to make imperfect videos, "so that I can grow along the way". (laughs) Yeah, I love it so much, that makes me so happy!