Video and the Sales Machine, Geelong

The Tribe makes videos; they’re good, they’re tidy, professional videos. But, the reality is, most clients only partially commit to the journey they start when they think to themselves, ‘let’s make a video!’
Most say something like, ‘We want a video. We want it to look a little bit like this, and to talk about that.’

Then they ask, ‘How much will it be?’

And often they say, ‘Okay great, let’s do it!’.

…And much of the conversation that we at The Tribe have with our clients goes a little like this, ‘Okay, that’s great! We can make that video, but how are you going to pump it out to your audience?’ and normally we continue on into various conversations about blogging and websites and SEO and social media. Most of the time a client comes on for the ride – but with varying levels of commitment to the importance of these things, normally ranging from none to probably not enough!

The same situation is true for clients’ use of YouTube. The potential is enormous, but the commitment from the client usually does not exist. What is needed, is a radically different and fresh approach, an approach that puts time, knowledge and money into achieving the end goal from the outset of the project. An example of an end goal might look something like this; we sell spare parts for motorcycles in Geelong and while much of our sales traffic is to professionals, many of our customers work on their bikes at home. We have a reasonable online presence and a growing e-commerce sales stream from other parts of Victoria. We’d like to see a planned and sustainable growth in our e-commerce sales over the next two years with the market expanding to all of Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.

To achieve this, we know we need to start with some key items:

• A solid e-commerce/online ordering platform
• The ability to fill the orders in a timely and service focused way
• An SEO/keyword driven sales funnel, to really drive sales

We understand that this means we start by looking at the most searched DIY motorcycle repair jobs that we can sell parts for. We provide the resources for solid data collection and reporting; and we know that while this sounds like a straightforward and almost boring part of the process, it is vital to our success. We know that while what currently sells, and the knowledge we have been trading on is important, this new thinking is exactly that; new. It’s aiming at new sales and new awareness, so our current knowledge should
not sway our belief in the solid data that we’re going to collect.

The commitment we make to this process is total. It will take some time to build in-order to get a good return, perhaps two years or more. And while not in the millions, we know we’re likely to be looking at hundreds of thousands of investment before we totally hit our mark.

Once we gather the data, we look into which videos we begin with, and now we understand why. We’re not stabbing in the dark at which video might work, we know what the data says and we have an aim. And so while the data collection team continues to look for the next
data on the next video, we begin to make the first video.

So our first one might be how to replace the clutch on a 2007 Yamaha R6, our on video Mechanic starts by listing the tools required to complete the job [our video offers a link to our e-commerce site to enable the purchase of any tools the viewer does not already have] our Mechanic then goes on to remove the cover and reveal the basket. As the video tutorial goes on, various parts are shown and our video explains how to access what is required for purchase. Our video once again offers links to our e-commerce site to purchase those parts, the viewer clicks the link, which opens the shopping cart on our site and has all the listed parts included. Our viewer decides not to purchase new springs and so removes those from the cart but proceeds with all the remaining items. The payment is made and the order enters the system. Done, a $470 sale. Two days later, our customer receives the shipment and plans to complete the job on Saturday while listening to the footy and enjoying a beer. Our video on the iPad next to him as he patiently steps through the instructions to replace the clutch.

Now as we continue to build our how-to video library, we continue to gain traffic and sales. Our channel and our website builds in SEO value and traffic. It begins to become self-feeding and therefore it begins to dominate the online space, both in the how-to space
but also the sales funnel space.

It’s a big commitment, a bit more than ‘let’s make a video and see where we get to’ but it offers a huge reward.

The planning and implementation is strategic and measured.
The communication; managed and clear. The team; thorough and complete.
The goals achievable and well defined.

Video is a vital part of the sales machine, the statistics are easy to find.
Smart businesses use video; but really smart businesses invest in the whole machine, with video respected as the vital cog that it is.