This is a re-post from one of my favorite bloggers, friend and mentor, Michael Hyatt. Michael was kind enough to allow us to re-post the blog here on the Comprehensive Media site. Hope you enjoy!
Today I was talking with a New York Times bestselling author. He was explaining to me how he had used video to drive his most recent book onto the best sellers list. “Nothing sells like video,” he explained.
Many authors have done this in the past few years, including Brendon Burchard, Gary Vaynerchuck and Chris Brogan.
While I haven’t yet done this yet with a book, I have certainly seen the impact of video on building my email newsletter list and booking speaking engagements.
In less than nine months, I have gone from 2,500 email subscribers to almost 40,000. In addition, I have more than quadrupled the number of booking requests coming in for my speaking engagements. Video was a key component in both campaigns.
The good news is that video is cheaper to produce than ever. You can get professional quality video produced for a fraction of what it used to cost. And the results can be well-worth the investment.
When I started considering video, I went to Joel Smith, a friend whom I have known for many years. He operates a high-end, video production company in Nashville called Comprehensive Media.
I really just went to Joel for advice, thinking his price would likely be out of my range. He explained that he was launching a new brand called SimplyVideo for people like me—”when simple is all you need.”
I wasn’t looking for a slick product demo or a book trailer. Instead, I simply wanted to look into the camera and tell people why they needed a life plan (in the case of my email subscriber campaign) or show them some demos of me speaking.
Get this: As of yesterday, the life plan video has had 156,610 plays on Vimeo. My speaking demo (a much more limited audience) has had 17,400 plays. These have worked so well, that I can’t envision doing any product launch without video as a key component.
Here’s why I think video works, and why you should consider it for your products or services.
- Video is more engaging than other forms of communication. It appeals to more of the senses.
- Video provides an opportunity for you to build trust. You can communicate in a casual, conversational style.
- Video gives you an opportunity to demonstrate the product—especially if that product is you!
This is why I have begun working on a video for my new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. I see it as a key component in the pre-launch campaign.
By the way, if you are interested in creating a video to promote your brand, product, or service, Joel has offered to extend to my readers a special 15% discount on SimplyVideo between now and February 15th. Just enter the coupon code TAYHO112 in the quote page.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth ten thousand. That’s why I intend to use even more of it this coming year.