Mark Edwards talks to Salt Lake City-based Joseph Wilkins of FunnySalesVideos.com, about how his company uses humorous videos to connect with audiences and drive massive sales. 

Background..

In 2000, Joseph Wilkins founded ProCreative Studios, which produced infomercials for television & marketing videos for clients, including Google, Linkedin, McDonalds, Goldman Sachs, Chevrolet & Home Depot.

As viewing habits shifted away from television, Joseph launched FunnySalesVideos.com where, after several evolutions, he now creates attention-grabbing "viral style" sales videos that get millions of views, converting cold traffic into sales.

With 20 years' experience, hundreds of millions of views and over $250 MILLION in career sales, Joseph enjoys sharing 8 steps anyone can follow to drive sales on his podcast "How To Make A Video Go Viral."

Evolution Away from Television

Five years after founding ProCreative Studios, it was obvious that people just weren’t watching tv the way they used to - They were no longer sitting there with the remote, flipping through channels so, infomercial sales started to decrease.

This prompted a move towards social media, which became the new ‘television’ because that’s where the audience had moved to. Initially testing the same kinds of videos on social media that they’d used successfully on TV, it became apparent that they didn’t engage the audience in the same way.

The company decided to analyse the reasons people were on social media and the answer was that they were there to be entertained - Not sold to or educated. Therefore the closer the content could be to the reason they were online, the higher the probability it would be successful. And so, FunnySalesVodeos was born.

Switch to Humorous Video Proved a Huge Success

Making the switch to video was hugely successful - Joseph explains that the biggest video success they’d ever had online, using straightforward sales pitch videos was 100,000 views. Yet, when they launched their new brand - funnysalesvideos.com - their very first video campaign hit 7 million views. Fast forward to today and their campaigns are now hitting 100 million viewers and millions of dollars in directly tracked sales.

So, the business has come full circle, surpassing its former huge levels of success, but this time using social media and harnessing the power of humour.

Humour for Software Vendors..?

When Mark suggests that software vendors may well think that humour has no place in their marketing collateral because they’re selling solutions for hundreds of thousands - or even millions - of dollars. With no pause, Joseph says that he “totally” disagrees that any product is too high-brow to be sold via a humorous video. He clarifies, explaining that the initial goal is to ‘stop the scroll’, to pique interest - Even to shock.

Explaining the role of marketing further, he says there are two main aims:

1. You want to disrupt and catch people’s attention
2. You want to emotionally connect.
    

Joseph suggests that software vendors should be ‘playing’ where their competition isn’t - So, for serious-minded techy types, the humorous video will make them stand out.,

However, it’s important to be relevant - You MUST tell a story that is something they will recognise in their lives. The deeper you can dive into the customer avatar the better.

All FunnySalesVideos are based on a problem that the audience has. They enlarge and elaborate on the problem but people will forgive a video for not being 100% accurate because they’re having fun with it.

The best compliment on their videos is when people say, “That’s me!” They recognise themselves in the video because it talks to the issues they have. Humour offers vehicle to be able to portray situations as ridiculous but they still have to be grounded in reality. 

Quadrupled Client Sales
 

FunnySalesVideos.com have doubled, tripled and quadrupled their clients’ sales but Joseph offers a word of caution, explaining that the days are long gone when you could make a video and that alone will make you a load of money. You have to pay to get the video in front of a highly targeted audience.  You can get organic shares, likes etc but the lion’s share for conversion to sales is via paid ads.

What makes successful software companies - How can they generate a ton of leads from the right source? It goes back to setting up a well-targeted sales funnel so you’re not wasting your time talking to non-decision makers.

The Frustration of Generating Many Leads

Despite generating many thousands of leads for clients, Joseph speaks of his frustration and to a certain extent, vulnerability as, once they’ve created a lead-generating vehicle, they’re then at the mercy of what the clients do with those leads.

How do they follow up? - How do they add value..?  It’s shouldn't be about, “Now I’ve got you, what can I sell you?” It needs to be, "Now I’ve got you, what can I give you? - What education, training, free webinars etc can I offer?" People are too used to being pitched immediately. You need to first add value.

It can be a frustrating situation where FunnySalesVideos has to educate their clients in to the "Every second counts" mindset - The more quickly leads are followed up, the more likely they are to convert.

So you Want to Make a Video  - What you Need to Consider...

What is that sets you apart from the competition? - What ultimately is it that makes you different? Why is your customer going to have a better life once they sign up for your software?

There’s a whole smorgasbord of ‘top of funnel’ videos for grabbing attention and piquing interest: a message from the CEO, unboxing the tech, testimonials and so on.. These 'intro' videos are for when people know nothing about you, so the more tricks you can use to make them stand out and lure people in, the better.

FunnySalesVideo’s average video takes up to 6 months to create - Starting with writing the script, finding the right actors, filming and editing. They test over 36 videos to find which works best.

If you want the results, you have to invest the time and money. Companies like the Harman Brothers have created sales of 100s of millions in sales with one video campaign. If your company truly does solve a problem and has a well-defined target audience, all you have to do is connect the two and multiply the ad spend to get the results you’re seeking. If you don’t have 6 months to invest, don't do one of these videos; if you don’t have enough money, you should be asking how you can make a small budget go further and return your spend multiple times.

A Word of Caution…

The worst thing you can do is to try and be funny and end up looking silly. This may be why a lot of companies don’t attempt to use humour.

But there's always a reason it happens - Often because the writing wasn’t good enough. It’s only 'good to go’ when you show it to cold traffic and they ask buying questions such as, "Where can I get it?" - "How much does it cost?"

You need to test your script on your customers - You’re looking for their reaction to it rather than what they say about it - Are they smiling? - or even laughing?

FunnySalesVideos never take their script into production until it’s ready. They don’t write their own scripts; they have virtual writing rooms, where trained comedy writers - often stand-up comedians - do the writing for them.

The other critical piece of advice is, never star in your own video. FunnySalesVideos auditions 100+ actors for every video they produce to get the exact customer avatar they’re looking for.

When is a Sales Video Not Appropriate...?

Joseph says he's never yet seen a situation where video is inappropriate - Even videos created for funeral service companies.

The questions to ask are: Did it do justice to the story and to the audience? It’s got to be funny without being offensive to the audience.

Comedy makes the risky safe - Because you’re using humour you can discuss things that you’d not normally talk about.

And Finally…Reinvention is Key
 

You always have to be evolving - You can never stay still. This is true across all industries and in particular in the software sector. You need to learn to look at the trends and see where things are going. Ten years ago, people were fast-forwarding through commercials on tv. If Joseph hadn't reinvented the company the ongoing changes would have killed it.

Links:

Joseph Wilkins:
Harmon Bros University: https://harmonbrothersuniversity.com/start-home
https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilkinsjoseph/ 
https://funnysalesvideos.com/
joseph@funnysalesvideos.com

Free ebook: How to make a funny sales video without hiring us
https://funnysalesvideos.com/ebook/

How to make a video go viral

Mark Edwards:
https://www.bossequity.com/resources/podcasts https://www.linkedin.com/in/markledwards/
https://www.bossequity.com/