Using Live Streaming Video to Solve a Sales Objection
For many doctors in the elective medical procedure business (plastic surgery, LASIK, etc.), the two-step process for bringing on a new patient is:
- Determine medical eligibility (are they physically fit enough)
- Managing fear
Simple enough. The problem is that “managing fear” is a sales objection that stops many doctors from being able to help their potential patients in the first place. This, naturally, has a negative impact on a doctor’s ability to fill his sales pipeline.
Interestingly, after a procedure has been completed, many patients announce that “it was nothing” or “it was much easier than I expected”.
A perfect example? LASIK.
Dr. Richard Rothman, the most experience LASIK surgeon in Nevada (over 30,000 procedures) and the owner of LASIK of Nevada, recognized that instead of trying to explain away that fear on his website (which, by the way, PodWorx developed), it would be more helpful for potential patients to actually see what a LASIK procedure is all about.
This coming Tuesday (6/23) at 5pm Pacific, PodWorx and LASIK of Nevada will do just that. We will present a complete LASIK procedure LIVE, via streaming video.
Featuring 104.3FM DJ “Cadillac Jack”, Dr. Rothman will pull back the curtain and show folks what the entire process is like. . .from the time Cadillac Jack arrives at his facilities, through the preparation and actual procedure, to the time he leaves, post-procedure, wearing his cool new Ray Charles sunglasses (and no longer having to wear regular glasses anymore).
And guess what? This will be covered live on 104.3FM as well!
But Wait, There’s More
Dr. Rothman has done many procedure on local DJs. One of the problems during these live remotes is that there tends to be a rush of callers listening to the show interested in getting LASIK for themselves. Occasionally, this rush of calls would overwhelm their switchboard, leaving potential patients to wait. . .and sometimes hang up.
We will solve this problem as well.
We have designed a live streaming video page that includes a simple form that folks can use to take advantage of the promotion LASIK of Nevada will be running during the live show. This way, nobody gets left out. A win for the listeners/viewers. And a win for LASIK of Nevada.
Here’s the info for the show. If you’ve been thinking about LASIK, or are even remotely interested in live streaming video, I’d check it out.
Date: June 23, 2009
Time: 5:00pm Pacific (estimated time)
URL: http://www.LasikOfNV.com/LiveVideo
Now, here’s my question to you – how can you use Live Streaming Video to remove a sales objection in your business?
p.s. Almost forgot to mention. . .guess what LASIK of Nevada will do with the video that we’ll shoot during the live event? Exactly. Use it to add fresh, entertaining and educational content to their website.
Improving E-Mail Marketing Click-Thru Rates Using Video
The problem with many online marketing efforts is the difficulty determining the Return On Investment (ROI). For PodWorx, our podcasts and Live Streaming Video productions are designed to help our customers do one (or both) of two things:
- Make More Money
- Motivate People to Take Action on our Customer’s Behalf
For our latest Live Streaming Video production (QBS Live Mondays), I wanted to see how (or if) the additional of this video offering would effect the performance of the customer’s email marketing efforts. Specifically, I wanted to know if adding video would lift their email open and click-thru rates.
I compared the performance of QBS Research’s May 2009 Newsletter (emailed to their list on 5/5/09) with the announcement of the QBS Live Mondays show (emailed on 5/28/09).
The company’s May 2009 Newsletter had a 17.6% open rate and a 11.8% click-thru rate. The email announcing the QBS Live Mondays live show improved both measurements:
- Open Rate: 22.9% (an increase of 30.1%)
- Click-Thru Rate: 17.1% (an increase of 44.9%)
I should note that there were other links within the email other than to the video content. Interestingly, the links to the video content accounted for 64.7% of all the click-thru within the email. In other words, close to two-thirds of all clicks went to the video links.
As I continue to measure the effectiveness of our podcasts and Live Streaming Video productions, I’ll be sure to pass that information along to everybody reading this blog. If you have any questions, please leave them as a comment below.
How Adding Video to Our Podcast Increased Episode Downloads by 50%
The Living in Las Vegas Podcast has been a testing grounds of sorts for PodWorx. As a matter of fact, it was the early success of the Living in Las Vegas (LiLV) Podcast that brought about the launch of PodWorx in the first place! (Having already proven that a podcast can help a company make money, as it did for GreatRelaxationMusic.com, the LiLV Podcast cemented the concept that a podcast, when done right, can influence listeners to take action on your behalf.)
Anywho, I’ve used the LiLV Podcast platform for other testing as well, most recently to answer this question:
What effect does adding video have on an audio podcast?
Forgive me Father
Because of my workload, I’ve not produced as many LiLV episodes as I (or our viewers/listeners) would like. As a result, I was seeing an understandable decrease in the number of downloads per episode. I was not too happy about the decrease. . .but again. . .I understood. In appreciation to those listeners who stuck with the show, I wanted to offer up something new. . .an “inside baseball” look into what producing the LiLV Podcast looks like. So, the last couple of episodes have been produced as a live streaming video production, with live chat.
The feedback from the hundreds of people around the world who attended the live shows was gratifying. But what I was really curious about was whether or not adding the ability to download video on demand would positively impact the number of times a particular episode would be downloaded.
Measuring the Results
The answer, I’ve recently learned, is that adding video does increase the number of downloads per episodes. . .significantly.
Now, because the subject matter of every episode is different, some are downloaded more than others. But when I compared that last two episodes we produced that did not have a downloadable video option (64: Dining at Wynn Encore, New Year’s Eve with 20-Somethings and 65: Living the Loft Lifestyle in Las Vegas) with the last two episodes that did have a video download option (66: Learning About the Origins of Las Vegas at Springs Preserve and 67: Southern Nevada Art Gallery in Downtown, Re-piping the House, Miss USA, Britney Spears), I measured a 50.3% increase in episodes downloaded.
There were three download options available for each show: mp3 (audio), flv (video) and mp4 (video).The breakdown of episodes download for the last two shows looked like this:
- Audio Download: 33%
- Video Download: 67%
I have to admit I was a bit surprised by these results. I felt that video would certainly bump up the numbers but did not expect video to account for two-thirds of each episode’s downloads.
What This Means to Me (and You)
It is clear to me that in this Internet world of ours, even though we are all so easily connected, people want to feel a real connection with others during their online travels. And adding video to your podcast (or adding video in general), when the video is well-produced (content+technically) goes a long way towards improving the approachability of your website and further humanizes what can be a less-than-human(y) environment.
This means that if you’re even remotely toying with the idea of adding video to your podcast as a means of driving more downloads and bringing yourself closer to your website visitors, I’d advise you to do so. The increase in numbers is gratifying and besides, now your mom can finally see what you’ve been doing all this time!
By the way, for those who’ve recently added video to their marketing efforts, I’d like to hear what you’ve experienced. Are you seeing an increase in downloads as well? Is the effort the same, less, or more than with an audio-only show? Let me know.
Live Streaming Video Production: Live Business Brief #7 is Scheduled for June 4th
In the past couple of weeks, we’ve signed on two more Live Streaming Video production services clients. This recent activity, combined with the outstanding feedback QBS Research has received for the show we launched yesterday (QBS LIVE MONDAYS, an amazing sales coaching program), continues to show me that the transformation live streaming video can deliver to a company’s online sales and marketing efforts is outstanding.
That is, if your live productions is correctly deployed.
I believe that whether or not you work with PodWorx to create a professional-level live streaming video production, all great productions help my business. To that end, to educate those interested in improving their website’s contribution to their bottom line, I have scheduled another live Business Brief on live streaming video productions for this coming Thursday, June 4th, at 10am Pacific. This will be our seventh briefing since April and the feedback I’ve received has been unbelievably positive.
By attending this Thursday’s briefing, you’ll receive solid answers to these questions:
- What is Live Streaming Video?
- How does it work?
- What’s the criteria for success?
- What’s the infrastructure required?
- What are the components that make up a Live Streaming production?
- What’s the best methodology towards deploying a successful show?
I will also share with your 30 ideas that you can use for your own live streaming video production. And finally, I’ll answer your questions live, “on the air”.
Strategy Session: $1500-$5000 Free to Those Accepted
I am going to conclude the briefing with a first-time offer: for those accepted, I will offer a one-on-one strategy session to determine how or if live streaming video would work for your company. I charge between $1500-$5000 for these sessions (depending on the engagement agreement). Please note that this will not be available to all those who attend the live business brief. There will be an application process we’ll use to select those with the best chances of success.
Sign Up Today
For the details, visit the Ask Scott Whitney microsite. Because this is an invitation-only event, you’ll need to follow the easy instructions found on the site to receive the URL and password required for participation.
Here’s a reminder of the date/time:
Date: Thursday, June 4th, 2009
Time: 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern
URL: Provided upon signup
Password: Provided upon signup
See you on Thursday!
Entrepreneurs, Salespeople, Sales Managers: ‘QBS Live Mondays’ is a Great Resource to add to Your Toolkit
I have been spending much of the last few weeks preparing for our next live streaming video production. Called QBS Live Mondays with Tom Freese, this program is a twice-a-month live sales coaching program featuring five-time author, speaker and sales trainer Tom Freese.
Delivered live on the first and third Monday of the month, each show is recorded before a live online audience and features sales strategies and a live Q & A session with Tom. I have been a big believer in Tom’s sales methodology for 11+ years. . .the content is outstanding.
As you can see from the image above, the show features a host (Tom) and producer/co-host (me). What’s especially helpful for Tom is that he’s able to link into the PodWorx video production studio via remote video access. In other words, while the video content is recorded and streamed out of the PodWorx studios in Las Vegas, Tom is on the other side of the country.
If you are in any way responsible for the bottom line of your business, either directly or indirectly, I promise this is a show you do not want to miss. Tom’s sales experience is second to none. . .and the fact that he is offering this coaching free of charge is an incredible opportunity for all those who join us live or check out the archive/podcast content when time permits.
Put this on your calendar, you’ll thank me:
QBS Live Mondays with Tom Freese
Day: First & Third Monday of each month
Time: 10:30am Eastern / 7:30am Pacific
Where: Archives / Live Show
