Do your customers know you or THINK they know you?  I’ve got a funny story that will make you realize that you’re missing a BIG opportunity in your marketing.  In 2005 a guy walked into our boat dealership and was interested in buying a boat from us.  He went on to tell me how he was friends with the owner of the boat manufacturer, Earl Bentz, and he deserved a better deal.  Earl was a legend in the boat business.  He had been around for many years, he reminded me of a politician, always on camera and somewhere shaking hands and kissing babies.  So the customer explained how he was great friends with Earl and could buy a boat from the factory if he’d like (not actually possible), but that he wanted to do business with a local store.  Of course I was agreeing with him and in the conversation I asked how they became such good friends, how they knew each other.  I won’t bore you with the LONG story, but at the end of the day it turns out they had met ONCE and that was when he waived to him and shook his hand at a fishing tournament.  This was how they became “good friends”.  No I didn’t call him out on it, I sold him a boat and he became a good customer of mine.

You might ask yourself how this happens, how does a consumer get to a point where they THINK they are good friends with someone, but they don’t actually know them.  It’s called MARKETING.  Earl like any smart business owner always put his face out there.  He was in the marketing, videos, at events, on tv shows, etc. Everyone knew Earl and when you thought of one of his boat companies you always thought of Earl.  

Flash forward to today and the great results a client of mine is having.  Steve Cain of Steve Cain’s All Vacuum Center in Crestview Hills started using videos to market his company a few years ago.  He does product demonstrations, how-to videos and showcases items he sells.  Steve has become really good at making these videos and his message comes across great.  What’s happened isn’t surprising though.  Every week customers come into Steve’s store to speak with him about a new vacuum.  They mention that they’ve watched many of his videos.  These customers are more educated now on what Steve sells and more importantly they are more comfortable with him.   They aren’t walking in off the street to a stranger, they are coming in to see STEVE, the guy from the videos.  On top of that, the videos make his website and other marketing standout from the competition.  Plus there’s the added bonus of the organic SEO value of each video on YouTube, the pages on his website and the content for email and Facebook.

So I’ll ask you again, do your customers REALLY know you?  I didn’t think so, get started today and create your own video marketing plan.