James Schramko here from jamesschramko.com. Today, I’m reflecting on the journey of these short videos I’ve been publishing every day. And I’m going to share with you the results.
First, wherever you see this video make sure you subscribe, follow, or tick whatever option there is to continue to receive my videos and I’ll share why in just a moment.
So, in April 2018, I reactivated an old mission that I used to have of making videos but this time I did it with much less infrastructure. In fact, my videos were short and they were specifically designed around the Instagram platform.
And I use minimal hardware. In fact, I’m filming this with just an iPhone and a tripod and an LED light with a clip to mount the phone. There’s not even an external lav mic, there’s no separate soundtrack, there’s no special other effects. It’s raw and it’s simple.
Now, I started making these videos and we published them every single day for a year. And by “we”, I mean my team. They distribute it to multiple channels. We put these videos on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and on my own website, and even inside my membership at SuperFastBusiness. And I just publish.
Now, I don’t get many views for a lot of these videos. So, I was curious — do they actually work? In fact, when I went to the beach the other day with my son, he said, “These little videos, firstly, dad, do you ever run out of ideas?” And I said, “Not really because I can answer questions that people ask me all the time.” “And secondly”, he said, “do they actually work?” And I said, “I’ll look it up.”
So, I looked it up and guess what? So far, from these little videos in one year, which takes me around about eight to nine minutes a week to make, I’ve generated over $200,000 that I’ve tracked from using Wicked Reports from my free social media traffic source.
Now, this number is going to compound and snowball and this is an important thing to note. Because for the first few weeks or months when I was doing this, I’d make some sales here or there. I saw a couple of thousand dollars but it wasn’t significant.
It certainly has compounded over time and because my average lifetime customer value is quite high, and because most of the things I sell are recurring subscriptions, what’s happening is, it’s actually compounding. So, when I look at the stats — I’ve had a couple of thousand people join my email system which has generated me a couple of hundred customers, which is now racking up recurring sales. So, actually, that first year’s worth of visitors is going to turn into many hundreds of thousands of dollars even if I don’t add new people to the sales funnel from now.
So, do social media videos work even if you’re not famous? Which is really the big difference between me and lots of celebrities out there. Some people have been publishing videos saying, Oh, you know, it’s definitely working. But they were already famous and had a huge following to start with.
In my case, I pretty much started with not much of a following and I don’t get huge views. But if you keep answering the questions that are on the mind of your prospects in the market and you do it for a long enough period, eventually, people are going to recognize you and know who you are.
So, you’re not just making sales instantly. It’s not an instant cash machine in that someone will watch the video and immediately purchase from you. It might take time to marinate which is exactly what I’ve been doing with my podcast over all of these years. You’ve probably watched quite a few videos.
If you’ve been seeing these videos, I am curious if you could comment right near this video, if you’ve seen a lot of my videos or if this is the first time you’ve seen it. Because I’m willing to hypothesize that most people watching this video have seen quite a few of my videos. There’s been about 300 out there over the last year.
So, what I can tell you is, for me, having a good offer that converts that people will eventually find paired up with a nice social media front-end with repetition of videos that answer the topics on the mind of your prospects over time should equal a fantastic return on investment. And if there’s one thing I am known for, it’s I like to work less and to make more. And I think making my videos for ten minutes a week is one of the most leveraged things on my agenda and I will continue to do it.
So, I’m really interested to see where we will get to in another year from now of doing these short videos every day. And, of course, if you’ve got topics or suggestions for things you’d like me to address on these videos, by all means, type them near this video. My team and I look at the comments and I will make videos on the topics that you’re interested in because it’s working for me.
So, I hope you’ve enjoyed this. Be sure to subscribe and remember when you’re ready for help to grow your business, this training on how I made these videos and what the thoughts were behind it and the results that I’ve been tracking are all published inside the JamesSchramko Membership. This is just one of the trainings that we do on a monthly basis and some of the monthly trainings are incredibly powerful.
So, when you’re ready, whenever that is, if it’s in 20 or 50 or 100 videos from now, I hope I see you inside SuperFastBusiness.
I’m James Schramko, speak soon.
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