On this week’s episode of The Engaging Marketeer, I want to tell you about something that we’re going to be doing over the next few weeks.
I don’t know if you know, because I’ve talked about it a few times, but I’m in this networking group called BNI (don’t switch off – I know some people don’t like it!).
What I’ve been doing at my networking group for the last four, maybe five years is I’ve been recording education slots. They’re about 3 to 5 minutes long, usually – sometimes longer – but they’re short talks on how you can get more business through networking.
I’ve been doing these for many years. Originally, when I was recording them, I was just sharing them on Facebook and LinkedIn – I didn’t really have a plan with them, there was no strategy there.
Then, I started to put them onto a YouTube channel, which I called BNI Education Slots. I even created a website for it, with the domain name BNIEducationSlots.com. The more I’ve recorded, the more professional they’ve become – because, originally, I was just doing them with a mobile phone.
The audio isn’t very good on some of the older ones, as you can imagine. These days, I’m using a professional Canon camera, like the one I’m talking on in front of now (for those of you watching this on YouTube). I’ve got a separate Sony camera for reverse shots, and I’m using professional radio mics as well for the audio, so the whole thing is pretty slick. It’s all edited together using Adobe Premiere, with its own intro and jingle, so it’s pretty cool.
As I say, they’ve been going onto a YouTube channel, which at the time of recording, has something in the region of nearly 1,800 subscribers. The videos are also getting something like 135,000 views, which isn’t bad at all.
The other week, BNI itself sent out an email to all of its members, which is something like 300,000 around the world. It sent out an email linking to one of my videos, which was right at the top of the email, on how to invite visitors to a BNI meeting.
This was a 9-minute video that I recorded outside of BNI, detailing the process for inviting visitors – because a lot of people are hesitant to do it, as they fear rejection. So, in this video, I tell you exactly how to do it – and BNI sent this email out to all of its members, linking people to it.
I wondered, during the morning, when I was looking at my stats on YouTube, why my subscribers had suddenly rocketed, and why my views were going up ridiculously high. It wasn’t until somebody forwarded me the email BNI sent round that I realised what had happened.
I’ve often wondered how I can make more of these videos. If you’re in BNI now, go and Google BNI Education Slots – try and find a video that isn’t one of mine. It’s not easy, because I tend to dominate the first page of Google. I mean, it’s what we do at Engage Web, so it’s what you’d expect – but go and try to find one. You’ll struggle to find one that isn’t mine.
I get a lot of BNI members coming to me from all over the world. I get BNI members from Australia, New Zealand, across Europe, across the United States, South America – messaging me on a daily basis, saying they’ve watched my videos, and that they’ve been played in their chapters. They appreciate how I’m helping other members with their BNI progress, and how I’m helping their business get more referrals.
That’s all really cool, but what I’ve also had is people coming to me who are becoming clients, because they’ve seen what I’ve been doing with BNI. They’re BNI members themselves from other parts of the UK, and they’ve been seeing what I’ve been doing, and they want to work with me, and with Engage Web.
It’s been really effective at building credibility with a potential client, because they start to like you, and trust you, and that’s the whole thing about BNI in the first place.
With these videos, I’m able to build that like and that trust without even meeting people, because they see the videos played in their chapters, or they watch them online, and they think, “that guy really knows what he’s doing. He really knows what he’s talking about, and I want to work with him.”
So, we’re getting clients that way, and I love it. But, I’m a lazy person, and I want to know how I can get BETTER use out of this.
So, I’ve thought – I’d love to take all of that audio from all of those BNI Education Slot videos and make a podcast out of them. Because – why not? It’s difficult to start a new podcast from scratch, so why not actually release them as their own series on The Engaging Marketeer?
There’s about 70 of them, so I won’t upload them all, put I’m going to start releasing them weekly. It’s going to be over the next year at least, where I will release them as episodes on this podcast, but they’re NOT going to replace the regular podcast. They’re not going to replace these solo ramblings, and they’re not going to replace the interviews, because I’ve got people lining up. We’re already scheduled with interviews way out into the future, so I’m not going to be getting rid of those.
What I AM going to do is have them as a separate bonus podcast. So, The Engaging Marketeer comes out every Friday, as I’m sure you know (being an avid listener!). So, what we’re probably going to do is have these BNI episodes creep out every week as a bonus BNI Education Slot video.
So, this will be every week, starting soon, here on The Engaging Marketeer podcast. It’ll have separate branding, and a separate jingle, but it’ll still be me or one of the other members from BNI. They should be really useful, and not just for BNI members – these talks will discuss topics such as how to get business via networking; referral marketing; how to pitch your services in 60 seconds, or a 10 minute talk; and what is the best way to get people to trust you and refer you.
All of this is relevant, whether you’re in a BNI meeting or not. It’s all relevant for business and marketing, and it’s all relevant to help you grow.
So, look out for these, as they’re definitely going to be worth listening to. They’ll be really short bites as well – between 3 and 5 minute education slots on how you can grow your business.
Thanks for listening, and I’ll catch you on the next episode!
About your host:
Darren has worked within digital marketing since the last century, and was the first in-house web designer for video games retailer GAME in the UK, known as Electronics Boutique in the States. After co-founding his own agency, Engage Web, in 2009, Darren has worked with clients around the world, including Australia, Canada and the USA.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/engaging-marketeer/id1612454837
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenjamieson/
Engaging Marketeer: https://engagingmarketeer.com
Engage Web: https://www.engageweb.co.uk
