Using Video Content to Generate Leads and Sales from MODEX

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Why would IndustrialSage film over 150 companies for free at MODEX? Could companies using video content like that actually generate measurable revenue?

David:

So, all right, well, let’s go ahead and dive in. How are we going to use video content, especially that MODEX video content that you guys have, to generate leads and help with your sales process? So here’s our agenda. Lots of great information we’re going to go through. We have our state of the industry, so just some data points that I want to share with you at the beginning to really set the tone of why this is such important information for you to be able to leverage within your sales and marketing. So a little bit about IndustrialSage, so we’re an open platform and we’re making our platform available for people like yourselves, organizations like yourselves, to be able to get in front of your ideal buyer. So I won’t bore you with all the details right now. But there’s a lot of very innovative ways, things that you have never seen before, within the industrial industry that we are leveraging, things that we’re doing.

We are not your typical trade publication, okay? Valuable resource, but we are creating content, publishing content that really enables people to take action, do things, so go into some more detail later on. Obviously I’m available anytime to discuss that in more particular terms for your company. So, we interviewed 150 organizations at MODEX. Super excited, I mean, this is just a massive list I’m so excited to have. A lot of you on this list here on the webinar right now. So this is great. Very excited. We’ve seen thousands of views on these videos, so very, very happy with the results, and there’s still more being published. We haven’t even finished editing all 150 of them, so they’re coming along.

All right, without further ado, let’s dive into some data points. So the average user is spending 88 percent more time on a website when it has video on it. So this is why your video is very important. We’re spending more time on your website. When you include that video within your email campaigns, we’re seeing a 200 percent, 300 percent increase in the click-through rate. I mean, this is fascinating. So then, it’s not just the how-to videos and maybe lower-level people within an organization watching this video content. We’re seeing a massive number of executives that are watching video content. And look at this: at least once a week. So it’s not like they’re watching it once a month. It’s at least once a week, so this is very good. The B2B buyer, they’re watching 30 minutes of video content. So I understand that the free video that was filmed and published and edited for MODEX is about 60 seconds; some are a little bit longer, some are a little bit shorter. That’s just one piece of the pie, of that 30 minutes of video that you really need to have available within your organization. So whether that’s on your YouTube channel, your homepage, or any blog articles on your website, all of that, it all is totaling up to that number of 30 minutes that people are spending watching that video content. And it’s influencing their purchase decision. So that’s what I want to be able to do. We’re going to show you how you can help influence people’s purchase decision with these videos.

So, and then this one’s very interesting. I’m right there on the edge of not being a millennial. Thank goodness, to a degree, but 50 percent B2B buyers now are millennial. And so, they are consuming video at an insane rate. It’s how they buy. It’s how they’re consuming content and being informed and educated, so this is where this video is very, very important. All right, let’s get into some more practical tactical content here, so how are we going to share this video content? Because we all have a variety of follower accounts on our business pages. But maybe you’re not able to reach all of them. Or you want to be able to get in front of even more people than that.

So we see, maybe some of you guys have seen some of these slides before from a couple of other webinars we’ve done, but they’re very important to set the tone. So social media is that new water cooler, okay? Before, you would have that interaction in the office and engagement, some ideation happening. Now that is happening on social media. A lot of us aren’t in the offices right now. So that’s where this whole ecosystem is. People are spending more time there. So, then, with this video, you want to share it with everyone. Everyone as possible, so you look at this graphic where this person’s connected to that person and that person and that person, you hear the philosophy, “six degrees of separation.” Well, you’re connected to somebody else that to somebody else, and so forth that you’re really trying to reach. So that’s why that social element is so powerful.

So let’s look at some numbers. All right, the average LinkedIn user has 400 connections, okay? So if you think about it, when you share a video or share a piece of content, not all 400 connections are going to see that content. It’s going to depend on obviously the total number of connections you have, how engaged they are, how many connections they have, and so forth that goes into this wonderful algorithm of LinkedIn. So the next piece is, well, if I share that video, I’m getting in front of most likely 10 percent of my total connections. Maybe higher, maybe lower. Well, this is where, if you have your team share the video, then you’re further amplifying your total company reach. So you might have a couple hundred, maybe a couple thousand or tens of thousands of followers on LinkedIn for your company page, but think of how many employees you have. So when you’re able to amplify it, so looking at five team members, just getting in front of 10 percent of their connections is 200 impressions. And so forth, you know? The numbers, they get bigger and bigger and bigger. So these are just some examples but this is essentially free reach. So you’re able to get in front of more people simply by sharing it, and now I’m going to show you how simple it is to share.

So given you are the marketer, the savvy salesperson, with all this on this webinar, these things are going to most likely come a little bit more intuitive to you. But I want to add another element, so you’re going to share it, but a lot of times, people maybe aren’t as, what do you say, talented, so to speak, or really use social media that much, okay, especially on LinkedIn. So what we recommend is getting that post, the shared post-link, okay? And emailing it to your team with just a simple “Please share this video with your LinkedIn connections.” So when they click that link, it is going to bring up the video that you just shared with them, and then they can hit share. So it’s very, very simple. They make it as easy as possible. Now I want it to be even easier on how to share and amplify this message. So you’re taking this video and you’re sharing it, they’re sharing it, and so forth, and maybe their connections share it also. This should be great value.

So next is an example of the type of engagement that you can see when you share your video. So this is an interview that we did with Tim Vargo from Exide and he came into the studios on our executive series where we interview executives, and the feedback that he received, and I can share this out, because I know it’s scrolling pretty quickly; you can’t see it, maybe read all the comments very well. But it not only helped him reach his customer base, but this particular example is showing how much his employees respect him. And appreciate what he’s doing for their organization, so there’s a lot of different ways that this piece of content can help influence things and influence people, so there we go. Share that out there. Leverage this engagement. When you see these being shared, go through each of the comments, make a comment that further helps amplify it. When LinkedIn sees that engagement happening on a video, it’s more likely to be displayed and incorporated into someone else’s organic feed, on their newsfeed. So like the other comments. Make a comment. Engage. Tag other people. So maybe someone that you’re trying to get in front of, tag them, “Hey, you’ve got to watch this video that we filmed at MODEX that talks about what we were talking about the other day,” and whatnot.

And you can do this not only with your branded content, okay? But also, any valuable video resource that you find out there. So, something that’s maybe from a third party resource, a news article, a news video that’s incorporating some element within the industry that’s going to bring value to them, do that and share that content. So next, creating a page on your website with the video. So, I realize that there’s a lot of different platforms, content management systems, that organizations are using and so, I don’t want to really deep dive into the nitty gritty of this is how to take it and put it on the WordPress or Drupal or HubSpot CMS or whatever, Squarespace or whatever those platforms are. Additionally, your IT team probably handles a lot of those things, maybe you don’t touch those different elements. So I don’t go into that. But what you need to do is, if you haven’t already received your video via email announcing when it’s going to be published on social, you can also go to industrialsage.com/MODEX and you can see all the videos that have been published. So not all of them are done. So we’re working overtime, trying to get all of these videos edited. There’s a lot of videos. Over 150. And we want them all to be spectacular, so we’re not rushing anything out.

So go to the site, watch the other videos, see what your competitors are doing; that’s always nice to do. And then find your video. And when you go, when you find your video, you can click through to it, and within the video, here’s how to get the video embed code. So you have to click play and that will bring up the controls there at the bottom of the player. And in the bottom right corner, there is a little button that looks like a little sharer arrow and you click that and it brings up another little dialogue that says embed. When you click that button, it’s going to automatically copy and paste. Copy that code onto your clipboard and then you can paste it into your webpage, so the code will look like that in the bottom right corner of that little black box that’s there, so a very simple process. It then pulls in all the video stuff. It works on mobile. It resizes automatically. If you’re at high bandwidth, HD will play; if it’s low bandwidth, then it’ll automatically go to a lower resolution to be able to play in the best format possible. So get that embed code, and then go over and embed it onto your site.

So here’s an example that Waypoint Robotics did with their video from 2018, so, we didn’t interview 150 organizations, but we interviewed quite a few in 2018 at MODEX. And they took their video, embedded it onto a page. I kind of cut out a lot of the content so I could highlight some of the different pieces on there that I want to talk about, but they put that video embed on there and then they included additional content around the MODEX experience that they had, a lot of the different products that they were showcasing, so it’s a valuable article. And then they include a wonderful call-to-action at the bottom, and this is where you’re saying, “Okay, well, how does this all help me generate leads?” Well, you’ve done your organic sharing of the video on social. You share this page on social. So you’re doing that, and then you have that call-to-action there towards the bottom, and, okay, so Waypoint is using what I would consider a very bottom of the funnel call-to-action, where it’s really asking, “Do you have a project? We’re here to help you.” So not a lot of room for someone that’s still in that consideration phase. So very bottom of the funnel. I would recommend on an article like this, seeing some type of downloadable offer, so maybe a free resource, a brochure of some type, with only maybe a couple fields that they need to enter so first name and email address, something very low calorie, so to speak, to get that initial lead generation started. Or maybe a webinar or another video resource of some sort. That way, you’re reaching a much broader audience than just those that are much more further down that sales process.

So this is a great example of a blog article, recap article, that they did for MODEX. This is something that PAC Machinery did and I love that they did this because here you have a video. They spent all that time and energy invested at MODEX of having all their equipment there and being able to showcase it. Well, this video highlights that and they took the video, embedded it on one of their product pages, and now they’re actually running pay-per-click campaigns. So whether it’s Google PPC or Display but they’re now driving traffic to that page and people are watching the videos. So by no means is one video going to seal the deal and make them buy right away, but it’s definitely a way to engage with that audience that’s coming there on that page. And really, when you think of the stats that I mentioned at the very beginning, that’s the data that supports it. So they’re spending a lot more time on this page because they have that video to be able to watch. So a great way to help increase that conversion rate and overall experience with the pay-per-click campaign. So, love what they’re doing with that.

So here we go: video in the sales process. How do we incorporate that into a follow-up campaign? Realizing that there’s so, everyone’s sales process is different, okay? Some of them are two-year processes. Others are single-year, maybe six months. Everything’s different. We really look at eight to 12 touches before a lead or prospect is really engaged with wanting to purchase your product. So, we think through, here’s some different steps, okay. Obviously you have your email follow-ups from your phone calls, things like that. What is a valuable resource that you can share with them? Jot down three different resources that are applicable to the vast majority of your prospects. So have that content ready to go. This is mapped out with a little bit of if and statements. If they do this, then do that. But incorporate that video. Get that video into an email as another touchpoint to bring value.

So, when we look at that data point where it says that the buyers are watching 30 minutes of video influencing their purchase decisions, this is another asset. And you’re thinking, “Okay, great. I have this one video here that I’m able to leverage. It’s definitely better than nothing. I think it’s way better than nothing.” And so you have that. Well, now we’ve got a lot of sales teams that are typically traveling. They’re on the road; they’re going to different shows. Well, now they’re not. A lot of people are grounded, so to speak, so sit them down. Have them use the webcam on their computer. It doesn’t need to be super fancy. And have them record those frequently asked question videos. They don’t have to have it be perfect on the first take, but they need to do that. They need to have that content memorialized into a video.

And this is where we had mentioned in another webinar a couple of weeks ago about this concept, and ABB, when they were a guest on IndustrialSage last year, okay, was talking about these digital cul-de-sacs. So, this digital cul-de-sac is where you have essentially a hub video, so it could be this the short about us video and then below it, you’re able to list off all the different video topics and additional video assets that they’re able to view. And this is where it’s powerful. When you have videos in a variety of topics, and you’re leveraging different Serum Systems, I know Salesforce can do this, Pardot, Hubspot, they are tracking what your prospects are doing on your website. So if you’re able to see that they’re clicking on a particular video topic, that is giving you valuable insights on what you need to address. What is that problem they’re trying to solve? And then when you’re able to go through and see how much of that video content they watched, it lets you know: are they just browsing? Kind of just window shopping, so to speak? Or are they really in that consideration mode? Are they reviewing this video content in detail? Are they sharing it with other people within their organization? When you’re able to capture that data, it makes the information or it makes that process for your sales team much more efficient. They’re able to bring that much more value and insights to the table at each one of those conversations that they’re having with their prospects. So it’s not just the subject matter expertise that your sales team has in being able to kind of dig through and find those challenges that your prospects are facing, but being able to memorialize it and have it work for you 24 seven, 365.

So, and why is this important, okay? All this COVID-19, coronavirus, all this stuff’s happening. It’s really throwing a lot of organizations for a loop. What are we going to do with this sales process? We don’t have trade shows. What are we going to do? For those that were leveraging digital before, all right, wonderful. You’re somewhat a step ahead of everybody else. But given that people are working from home, real-world example, okay? Talking with a variety of industrial organizations and both the husband and wife work and they have kids and what are they doing? Well, their daycare is closed for a lot of them, so one of the parents needs to watch the kids, so mom is getting up at four a.m. and working till eight a.m., so that she can get her hours in and then husband is working from eight to five and then mom is taking over working from five to whenever she’s able to finish her day. So what does that mean? Well, what it means is that typically, your sales team is available nine to five, eight to six, or maybe 24 seven, depending on how dedicated they are, but they’re available, okay? I don’t know how many of you are answering your prospects’ phone calls at 9:00, let alone a prospect actually calling you at 9:00 at night, when they’re finally able to do that research. The fires from the day are done and settled. They’re able to do that research. If you don’t have the content available on your website that is able to answer and address their challenges and explain in a non-over-the-top salesy, this-is-why-we’re-so-wonderful way, you’re missing out. They’re going to be going to someone else’s website. They’re not going to be on your website. So you need this data. You need this video content to be able to, whether it’s video or it’s blogs or product pages, obviously video is extremely engaging and powerful. You can see how much they’re watching. So, I really encourage you to create this content right now.

Think strategic during this time period. That way, when the dust settles, you’re hitting the ground running, and you’re building your pipeline right now instead of trying, fumbling and trying to figure things out. Here we go; I love this. I always love looking at these different documents and seeing this written down on the screen. It’s like, “This is the goofiest thing,” but I don’t know. I wanted to include it. Bonus resources, okay, I feel like I’ve been talking for forever; it’s only been 30 minutes. Wow, a lot of great stuff here, so this is where, and I’m going to explain a couple of things about IndustrialSage, and then we’ll go into some questions if you guys have any questions. So, we’ve made IndustrialSage an open platform. Seems kind of crazy that we allow other people, other organizations, other companies, to publish on our website. Well, this is how we’re doing it. So, we have IndustrialSage News, okay? Julianna, she’s fantastic. We need you to submit your press releases. You have some valuable program coming out, new product, new announcement, we want to hear about it, and we want to incorporate it into our news. There is no cost right now to submit a press release, and essentially pitch Julianna on incorporating it into a video segment or a news article on our website, and each one of these news articles we publish to our audience, our social audience and our email audience and within a given week, we’re reaching 20,000 plus industrial professionals. Wide variety, but we’re reaching them. So, a great way to get your information out there in front of your peers and your prospects.

Next is, become a contributor on IndustrialSage. So, we’ve talked about creating content, having it live on your website. Well, now we’re talking about leveraging content and incorporating it onto a third party website, where you’re able to position yourself, again, as a thought leader. So, you fill out a form, we approve you to be a contributor on the site, and then you’re able to publish. Yes, there’s some editorial rules. We don’t want it to be a infomercial, so to speak, because who wants to sit through that, but if you’re able to provide valuable content within your industry, okay, within that category, so if you’re conveyor belts, we want to know why, what information and value those that are purchasing conveyor belts, they need to have. Think through that. Educate, somewhat entertain, but it’s a great way to increase your reach, increase that distribution of your thought leadership and your brand. Totally free, so obviously IndustrialSage needs to make money some way, so there are some paid opportunities. You just have to raise your hand, and I can share with you those one-on-one.

Next, we’ve seen a massive number of valuable webinars. All over LinkedIn, people are sharing them left and right and once they’re published, once they happen, they disappear. We were thinking, “This is crazy. This is amazing content that you guys are producing. A lot of time and energy to build this, and the time to record it,” so I sure hope you’re recording them, but we’re creating a webinar directory. There is no cost to have your webinar published and hosted on the IndustrialSage platform. As we get more and more topics, we’ll segment it better and all that, but there’s no cost to have that, to submit it and get it on there and also, if you have an upcoming webinar, we want to know about that too. That way, we can help distribute it and get it in front of more of your peers and more of your prospects. So, those are three of those bonus resources that are available to any and all organizations that want to participate on the IndustrialSage platform.

So let’s see, obviously there’s a lot of content that we’re creating on IndustrialSage. And our goal is really to help create this ecosystem where industrial professionals are able to share information, engage, be informed, educated, and get with the times , if we want to say that. We’re seeing, who was it that made an announcement, that they’re no longer printing their print version of their directory or magazine, okay? This is throwing a lot of people for a loop. They don’t know what to do. They like to see their print ad. Well, here’s the thing. If organizations were truly seeing the value out of it, do you think that that trade magazine would stop selling it? Do you think they would stop? So it makes you really wonder. It makes you question, “Well, what are they doing?” They’re trying to do digital. And we’ll see what happens. We obviously want everyone to grow and benefit. Rising tide lifts all boats, and that’s really a mantra that we have here that we want to support and be beneficial. We think we’re doing something very different. We’re doing things different, and that gets us very excited.

So, without further ado, let’s see, I’m going to try and answer some of your questions, so if you have any questions, go ahead and send them in. Let’s see, I think we can, and we’ll come in here, give it a moment. I’m going to drink some water. I’ve been talking non-stop. Love it. So, sure you can see we kind of have some alter-egos so we have our traditional IndustrialSage logo from the beginning; now we have, and you can see there, bottom of the screen, the new IndustrialSage logo, and really wanting to bring everyone together as a great community and resource. Let’s see, come on, anybody have any questions? Andrew? Let’s see, Mark, do you have anything? Let’s see, Cindy, I’m just going to call everybody out on it, let’s see. Coming through. All right. All right, well, we’ll give it another minute. I don’t know if, let’s see, maybe there’s some questions on the live stream. Let me pull that up real quick. I just don’t want to cut things off while I have you all to do this, so, let’s see. Not this. All right, cool. Don’t see anything on there. All right, well, hey, guys, I really appreciate you coming on today. I hope it was valuable, a valuable resource. I’m going to send out a follow-up with some different links to a variety of things that I’ve talked about, some additional resources.

Okay, Mark, all right, I will, I’ll connect with you afterwards and then, yeah, we’ll stay in touch, so listen, IndustrialSage, we’re here for you. We want to help you. There’s a lot of new and unknowns out here in the industry right now, and we want to be a valuable resource. So we’ve been speaking with over 150 organizations and each time we are asking them, “What are you seeing? What is going on? What are these challenges you guys are facing?” And really, a big question that we get is trade shows. Are we going to do them? Should we do them? If it happens, I think there’s still a variety of trade shows that are on the schedule, and I hate to say it, but the feedback we’re getting is a big question mark. Some of them have decided, “No, we’re done. We’re going to take the next 365 days, and not do a single trade show.” So they’re reallocating budget, reallocating resources, and doing that. And the reason that they’re giving is that even if the event is happening, they don’t think the attendance will be there, so they would rather not invest it into that point. So, I know it’s, in a lot of ways, it’s throwing people for that loop. A lot of traditional sales teams that are ingrained in their ways are doing that. But that’s the nature of the beast. That’s where we’re at right now.

Okay, so, “can you send out the links to upload press releases?” Yes, absolutely, so what I will do is a little bit after the webinar today, I will get you a link to everything that I’ve talked about. So where to submit for the press releases, where to request to be a contributor, and even where to submit your webinar, whether it’s happened already, you can give us a Dropbox link to the video file or wherever it’s located or future webinars. So definitely, we’ll get that out to you, so wonderful, I love seeing this feedback; really appreciate that, Lily. That means a lot. A lot of great stuff.

As always, super available. It’s been my objective to just add value, add value, add value. I mean, for pete’s sake, we gave 150 videos away to the industry, so we’re not messing around. We really want to help the industry live digital, thrive in this digital environment, and… yeah. Super excited. So, I will let you know if we have any other webinars. Any questions you think of later on, send me an email, you’ve got it. And I hope you all have a wonderful day. We’re getting some beautiful weather down here in Atlanta finally, so this is great, so all right, wonderful. Thank you so much.

 

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