Alan Chu's blog

September 16, 2015 · 11:11 am

1.8 Million Words

1.8 MILLION WORDS

That’s the value of one minute of video, according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research.

That’s the equivalent of 3,600 typical web pages. If you write an average of one web page an hour, it would take you 150 days of writing to achieve the impact of one minute of video.

When you look at it that way, online videos are the single most practical use for your marketing efforts.

For Fund Managers – it’s not just about having a profile video, but what you do with it. If you’re still not convinced that it’s high time to get on board with video, here are other statistics that will make you re-think your strategy.

1.5 BILLION

The number of online video viewers that are expected to be by next year (source). Sure, many of these people are watching the latest viral video on YouTube, but an awful lot of them are looking for information to aid them in a decision-making process. And a whole lot of them will find video as a way to best learn about the product/service.

LET’S LOOK AT SOMETHING AS A WHOLE. PERCENTAGES.

403%. According to a real estate firm, listings with videos received 403% more inquiries (source).

70%. Marketers across the board report that videos convert 70% better than other content formats (i.e. brochures, snail-mail, telemarketing, an advertisement on LinkedIn, etc.).

88%. The average user spends 88% more time on a website with a video. A lot of that has to do with the actual watching of the video. But that’s what exactly keeps them on the site and keeps them compelled to learning more about your competitive advantage.

59%. The % of senior executives who prefer video over text. Your target audience, perhaps?

34%. Bounce rates for video blogs 34% lower than the rest of the site on average. A blog with a video has a 34% better chance for people to get all the way to the end of it.

IT’S NOT THAT HARD.

Videos that are 3-minutes and under. You might think, “that seems short?”. But that’s all you need for an audience that is busy, moving fast, and hard to captivate. Studies show that the majority of viewers tune out if a video exceeds 2-3 minutes anyway.
Answers and tips. Don’t have a grandiose storyline for a video? That’s fine – build a script around frequently asked questions. Most prospects who visit a website and click on a video are looking for answers online.
Clear takeaways and calls to action. At the end of the video, give your prospect a clear next-step and pathway to learn more about the service if interested.

And of course, you’ll be profiling interest and will be in a better position to talk to people who are actually interested in speaking with you.

Move beyond one-dimensional marketing. Create original videos to captivate your target audience. No one can describe your investment thesis better than you can. Don’t miss the boat with video, or you’ll find yourself swimming behind it as it gets goes further away in the distance. Alone.

Jo The Plumber

Plumber

Josephine was an overachieving entrepreneur, but unless you knew her, she just appeared to be an average lady living in Ohio and chasing the American Dream. Her best friends knew her better as ‘Jo’. And if there was a claim to fame for Jo, it was her strong belief in the value of expert advice.

Whenever she had a complex medical issue, she went to see a doctor. Whenever she had a complex legal issue, she went to see a lawyer. Whenever she had a big question about taxes and investments, she would walk over to the bank and speak to an advisor. Jo felt that good advice was worth paying for, and it always baffled her why so few people hired professionals.

7 years ago, Jo got involved in the plumbing business by joining forces with three friends and acquiring a few small shops. After some months of hard work on the ground, Jo made a public announcement to her friends and family that her new plumbing services was open for business. She was very proud of what she felt were industry-defying points of differentiation.

The quality of her pipes. While others tried to cut corners to save money, Jo understood the importance of using high-performance material that wouldn’t burst in case of extreme pressure from floods.
Her diverse services offered. Jo would build and fix anything plumbing-related. Her services weren’t limited to just bathrooms and kitchens, she could work on garden fixtures and even swimming pools too. She was able to customize her services based on what the client needed.

In spite of the high quality of pipes and diverse offerings, years went by and business just was not going up. The dream of growing her client base just wasn’t happening. Frustrated, Jo took some time to think. She was an expert in her field of plumbing. She used the best materials, had close to zero customers who asked for a refund, and was able to do anything that her clients asked her to. She spent countless hours offering advice over the phone, and also never charged for showing up to inspect on an issue unless the job itself was executed. All of her employees did the same, and yet their client base was not growing.

It then struck Jo that she perhaps, and just perhaps, she was not an expert in her field. She was down and began to express her disillusionment with her business every time she met up with friends. One day, she met up with an old friend for an early breakfast and they spoke for hours. This was someone not from the plumbing industry, but someone with a reputation for galvanizing businesses. After talking with him, it occurred to her:

The average person never understood the quality of a pipe. Some of them might not even have cared as long as they did what they were supposed to do.
The average person also didn’t understand all the customization that Jo’s plumbing business offered.

And because of that, Jo’s plumbing business was really no different from any other plumbing business in Ohio. What had appeared important to Jo herself was not a big differentiating factor from a client’s point of view. Slowing down to think again, she realized that most people who had come to her had done so because they trusted that she would do a good job, or enjoyed having her to help because of her gregarious personality. It had little to do with the quality of her pipes and the number of services she offered.

While long overdue, it was better late than never and Jo decided it was time to search for a professional who could develop momentum behind the trust she had from some, the liking she had from others, and making use of that to build a brand…

—
By Alan Chu

Dare To Dare: Build Your Brand Identity

YOU CAN HAVE A SUPERB PRODUCT OFFERING, BUT IF PEOPLE DON’T HEAR ABOUT IT, IT ISN’T GOING TO BE WORTH MUCH.

There are singers in the world with voices as good as Frank Sinatra’s but they’re only singing in their showers because no one has ever heard of them. The question is: what needs to be done then? You need to generate interest, and you need to create excitement. You need a brand identity.

Just about every fund manager boasts about performance, has risk-mitigating strategies, and uses a unique blend of investments. Real money can’t be raised because everyone is saying the same thing! Try something unique that will get ears twitching. Real money is raised by using a more sophisticated way at attracting new clients – being different, or even a little outrageous. If you do things that are different and out of your comfort zone, people are going to be interested. People will be more receptive to starting a conversation with you. Take that good performance and turn it into something a lot more attractive by investing smartly in the right marketing tools to build a brand identity.

As Seth Godin wrote in his book, “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable”,

It is actually safer to take risk

Playing it safe and avoiding criticism does not accomplish your objective

There is nothing to lose and a lot to gain when you attempt to change the rules

Topturn Capital hired a professional surfer and used a video to replace an ageing introductory production. What happened? The world noticed. This video was picked up by Fortune, Barron’s, CNBC, and Bloomberg among others. They essentially received free advertising all over the place. From a business point of view, a full-page ad in a newspaper would have cost nearly $100,000. Having their video launched cost them a whole lot less, and got them a whole lot more. This was something the industry didn’t see coming, and they built a brand for themselves.

How can you convince people that it takes more guts to make a decision that could make or break a billion dollars than it does to ride a bike off a cliff? You have appeal emotionally to people and it has to be something that they aren’t expecting. Brand yourself as someone exciting, not like the 1,000 other fund managers who spew the same lines over and over again. Dare to dare. Dare to be uncomfortable.

By Alan Chu