In this week’s episode, we have Aaron Pearson as our guest, who is the Co-founder and Managing Director of BitBranding. He’s a marketing guru who provides stability and flexibility to online businesses. He says that video marketing is one of the best in getting your clients “know I can trust” factor. In his observation, people are going to spend more on brands whom they trust, and at this time when most of your clients are online, the best way to show that you can be trusted is to get yourself in front of the camera. One effective video strategy is thought reversal. This is when you challenge common misconceptions or beliefs about a certain product or industry and positions yourself differently.
Find out more about what he does and his take on marketing trends this year by listening to this episode.
Aaron’s website: https://www.bitbranding.co/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pearsonaaronj1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bitbranding/
Katie Brinkley 0:02
Hi friends. I’m Katie Brinkley and you’re listening to Rocky Mountain marketing. This podcast is all about helping Colorado based small business owners, entrepreneurs, realtors and professionals discover the strategies and systems that take their marketing to all new heights. Let’s dive into today’s episode. Welcome back to Rocky Mountain marketing. My guest today is Aaron Pearson. Aaron is an E commerce marketing guru whose passion is to help provide stability, flexibility and happiness to the online business owner. He is a nerd when it comes to online advertising and conversions. Erin is a competitive runner and also loves to travel. The biggest joys in his life is spending time with his wife, Breanna and his baby girl, Aspen. And then as we just found out before I hit record here hitting the slopes snowboarding. So Erin, welcome. Thank you so much for coming on to the show today.
Aaron Pearson 0:54
Absolutely. Thank you for having me. This is gonna be a lot of fun. It’s so fun to see what clubhouse is morphed into. And then just fun relationship. So super excited. Thank you.
Katie Brinkley 1:04
Yeah. And you know, as Aaron, as you just said, There you and I met on clubhouse, I feel like I’m meeting a lot of really phenomenal guests on clubhouse these days, and you are based in Texas. But the knowledge that you have, and what the conversation we’re going to have today really is for anyone, anywhere, any business owner that is looking to grow their online presence. So I’m really excited to have you on the show.
Aaron Pearson 1:28
Awesome. Can’t wait to talk.
Katie Brinkley 1:29
Well, let’s let’s get to know you a little bit, I know that you’re in Texas, tell us a little bit about where you grew up and what life was like growing up.
Aaron Pearson 1:37
Yeah, so I’m actually a transplant Texas, technically from a small town in Kansas, which that’s kind of what started the whole business side of things. Anyway, I started a business when I was nine, ran it for nine years and then went to college basically sold it off to some friends. And that is what kind of gave me that entrepreneurial itch, and more. So what I wanted to do, but then I followed into what everybody said, which is go the call go the college route, go the corporate route, which I did, and which led me to Texas. And then I very quickly realized that the corporate route, even working for another small business wasn’t really what I wanted to do. And that’s how we ended up developing the agency that we did. But I still keep those small town roots to help those local businesses and help them develop their business online and scale online. So that’s kind of the whole purpose with how we’ve created it.
Katie Brinkley 2:29
You know, I love that. And I think that everything after 2020, I feel like every business needs to have some sort of an online strategy. So whether you’re a coffee shop, or whether you’re a bookseller, or whatever your business is having some sort of online presence and online strategy is extremely important. So, you know, I’d love to talk to you a little bit about attracting your ideal customer. through video, I’ve had a number of guests on the podcast that have talked about the power of video, the second that you can see somebody you really have that opportunity to know like and trust them. So talk to us a little bit about attracting your ideal client and customer through video.
Aaron Pearson 3:12
Yeah, absolutely. And you kind of hit the nail on the head, which is you want to build that know like and trust factor. And there’s a way that you can do that through video, we set up videos, typically three to four different types of videos for our clients. And they all have a position in building that know like and trust factor. So we have what we call a thought reversal, which is a way to challenge your common misconceptions and beliefs about a certain industry. So for example, if you are, you know, mechanic, or let’s say your mechanic that they have a bad rep for treating women badly, or just taking advantage of that’s just like a rep out there, or a car salesman, you would challenge the common misconception or belief. And what that does is that it positions you differently than what everybody else is saying. And even in like, let’s say real estate, if most people are saying like, hey, now’s a great time to sell, or now, now’s a great time to buy, you want to be on the other side of that and position yourself to why you’re different. But that thought reversal is just to get people to think differently than what they had before. So if you and I were sitting and I give this analogy quite a bit, if you and I were sitting on two sides of the street, and you had a six on your side, and I had a nine on my side, it’s not that you don’t see that six, it’s just that there’s a different perspective, you could go and look at that nine. And so if something is 100% true, then it’s a belief and if it’s a belief, then it can be changed. So we use thought reversals to change beliefs about what people have about an industry or topic. And what this does is it positions the person as a thought leader in their industry right away. So that’s really video number one and it’s why we lead with it because it packs the most punch and it really does like thumb stopping it gets stops the scroll because people see hyperbolic or pull Rice text. And they’re like, Okay, wait, I want to stop, I want to, you know, go a little bit more like it basically hooks them from the beginning.
Katie Brinkley 5:07
Now you said a word that I want to highlight. I’ve had a Brendan Kane on the podcast before and he is an author in his latest book is all on hook points. And a hook is incredibly important. How can you get someone to stop the scroll? And as with that hook point, how do you help your clients get a hook point across through video?
Aaron Pearson 5:30
Yeah, so we actually created a video around this there. So there’s four main ways but just tell you, the easiest way is, you can say something that is going to be appealing for them in the video. But most importantly, it’s motion. I always tell people like if it’s an Instagram story, or if it’s a regular video, if you can just get something to flash across the screen or get you to jump into the screen or wave your hand, it instantly stops them for one second. And then at that point, now you stop them for a second, you’ve got to have a headline in the subject line or the headline you’re going to talk about that you’re speaking to is like I would make up if we’re using on our real estate investment side of things, I would say, renting a house is actually the best thing that you can do for your family. So I’d catch attention and say, Hey, if you are a homeowner, or if you’re renting a home, I’ll tell you why this is the best thing for you to do for your family or why buying houses the worst thing for you to do right now just catch their attention to that point and do something that’s polarizing and striking.
Katie Brinkley 6:27
Yeah, that’s really interesting, and a very unique tactics. So I think that what are your thoughts on showing up on the different avenues? So do you like live video? Or do you like having kind of the that polarizing kind of like crafted video where you can help people create the video that can make sure that it stops the scroll? Or what are your thoughts on just showing up on a daily basis or like Instagram stories? Because there’s so many different ways to show up on video? How do you help your clients really show up and get their point across on a consistent basis?
Aaron Pearson 7:02
Yeah, so it all starts with what they’re comfortable with and what they have either a if they’ve tested before they’ve worked with us, or what we’re going to test. So I need to know what they’re going to be comfortable with and push them a little bit farther. And then the other 10% is testing. So we create those three style three staple videos, and then everything else at that at that point is just bonus. Because what everybody’s looking to do through video is make an impact, to have conversations to use marketing, to attract people to their business to have people say that they want to buy their products or services. And if you can do 90% of that through videos, they’re done evergreen and just consistently driving traffic, then that’s the route I would go because it’s the less for the businesses, but I would be continuously testing new things like live video, like Instagram Live, they just rolled out the ability for you to go live with like four people total now. So I would be testing those things. But that’s 10% of your time, because I think what gets a bad rep and people who listen to this podcast, or any type of marketing podcasts or anything like that, is that they think they have to do everything, when really, it’s the 8020 rule, you only need to do a you know, 20% of it really, really well. And you’re going to beat everybody else because everyone else is trying to do everything. And so I do say spend a little bit of time testing and playing around you should do what’s making your business money, and then do more of that. So it just kind of depends on the business. But that’s our approach that we take was for them, and they have less burnout because of that, too.
Katie Brinkley 8:28
You know, I think that that is a really good point. And it’s, it’s something that I teach a lot of my coaching clients that I work with, and heck, why need to be on all these social media platforms, it’s like, well, no, just just go all in on the ones where your ideal clients customer is and be awesome on it, and show up on a consistent basis for them and give them a variety of ways to consume your content. I also know a lot of people feel like they have to post on social media like 30 times a day. And not all of us have the capability or have a team of 20 to do that for us. So I think that showing up consistently and just really knocking it out of the park with the content that you push out there is what is going to help you really grow. You know, we talked about it a little bit at the beginning of the show about the 2020 and having to really pan pivot our business because of the pandemic and have that online shopping option regardless of the industry. Talk to us a little bit about different trends that you see happening in the online shopping industry this year in 21.
Aaron Pearson 9:31
Yeah, so the biggest thing is that so ironically, so think about it this way. When the shutdowns and lockdowns happened, people said that they wanted to shop local, what happened is they actually did it because it wasn’t available to them. 70% of our dollars went to larger corporations, only 20 ish percent of what went to local business. And the other 10% is kind of defined on where it went. But 20% went back into our local communities. So that’s why online is is absolutely so important. And what we’re seeing in 2021 is that in predictions for 2021 is that people are going to spend more to buy from a brand that has a purpose behind it. And it has a reason for what the way that they’re doing things. And they’re doing it in an economical, more environmentally friendly way. Because green is not only hip or cool. It’s a trend right now. But it’s also something that people feel like they can get a hold of, because it’s a mission that a lot of businesses like that have. So that’s a trend that we see. And we see people paying more, up to 20% more for that from a local business or from a boutique style business, then we do the larger companies. And one thing that is even more important is that advertising costs, marketing costs are going to rise. Absolutely, it’s going to rise. And what most people are neglecting is the current audience. So 80 90% of your effort should be on getting people to come back and get them to come back more often. And get them to purchase more. So your email list, your most valuable asset of anything in your business is your email list. And if we know anything about that, right now, it’s the you can have a personalized experience, not just blast to all of your people who are on your list, but a personalized experience via email, you’re going to have a sustainable business, that’s going to last the test of time, because advertising costs are going to increase. But the cost for you to nurture your current audience is going to stay pretty much at the same level. So we have to take care of our current customers, and not just keep seeking new ones. And we have to nurture those people and give them a personalized approach. And we need to find something that we’re passionate about, because that was what drives other people to be passionate for us and will ultimately lead to a deeper purpose, bigger purpose. And honestly, gross in the business.
Katie Brinkley 11:51
You know, you brought up an email list Aaron and I, you know, I do social media. But really, all my followers on Facebook, Facebook owns us followers, all my followers on Instagram, Instagram on says followers, email lists, you own all those followers, every single one that’s on your email list, no matter if Facebook were to get shut down tomorrow, you still have your email list, and you can still get in touch with them. And I’m so glad that you brought it up. Because I know that a lot of businesses might say like, okay, yeah, I need an email list. But, you know, how do I even what offer do I give to them? So I would love to hear just a couple of different ideas that you have for small business owners that are trying to build their online presence for that shopping option to have that great opt in to grow their email list.
Aaron Pearson 12:38
Yeah, so first time, I don’t believe in discounts after they’ve become a customer. I do believe in acquiring that customer for a lower cost. So you could give something away, but I try to avoid a discount at all possible. I love giving away things for free or doing free shipping. I love those as options. But once they’re a customer, and they don’t buy right away, or say they sign up for your MLS and they don’t buy right away. It’s kind of like those old infomercials used to see your parents used to watch it. Like, you know, two in the morning, they would always say, hey, I’ll sell you one knife. And then people are like, 499? No, and they’re like, no, but wait, there’s two knives plus this box, plus the sharpener, whatever else for $39. So they’re stacking it. So what I would tell you to do is stack your offers, don’t give a discount, add more value, when you can add more value people. Now the reason people don’t buy isn’t because they don’t want it, it’s because they don’t see the value there. So if you offer them something, instead of giving a discount and taking less than less profit, offer them something more to get more profit and add more value to your customer. So whatever that is, I can’t give specifics because everybody’s business is a little bit different. But find out what is a good complement to your one of your products and add it together and do a stack and say we’re going to give you all of this together. You don’t have to say discount, but I’m going to give you all of this for x price. And I would value stack it. Yeah, that
Katie Brinkley 14:02
is. It’s funny, because I remember I remember those commercials like that. But this wait, you buy it now then you’ll get you know, why not get the sharpener and everything else too. So that’s a that’s a great analogy. You know, and I think that too, it kind of goes into the whole online strategy with with your ads. And a lot has changed. Just in this past year already with how we are able to promote ourselves and do our ads on some of those big social networks like Facebook and Instagram. I work with the home industry. So I already was a little bit behind the eight ball because of that housing, demographics and special ads category. But there are a lot of new ad changes that are being trickled down and affected because of the new iOS. So privacy concerns. Talk to us a little bit about what some of these new changes are. And we’ll What some business owners should be on the lookout for and then how we can still make sure that we’re not spending $40 per click?
Aaron Pearson 15:08
Yeah. So one of the biggest changes that are happening is that so Apple got mad at Facebook, and they just don’t really like each other. I think it’s Zuckerberg slash Tim Cook don’t like each other. And it’s more of who owns whose data because Apple is still gonna try to track the data, not necessarily Facebook, and Facebook still gonna track data. So don’t worry, people Facebook still going to track data, but they’re just not going to track as much data. And so what that means is that you have to prioritize what you want to consider a lead or a completed registration or purchase. And you need to go and tell Facebook what that is, because that’s going to be rolling out soon. And if you don’t elect choose that, then Facebook’s going to make those choices for you. So you want to go in and make sure that you’re doing that. But the reason that’s important explain the why here is Facebook has used what’s called the Facebook pixel to gather data from people and in gives you better opportunities for you to be in front of the right ideal customer for your advertising. When Facebook has less data, it has less decisions that it can make to optimize your advertising. This doesn’t affect to meet the bigger companies. This affects the smaller businesses. But what’s good about smaller businesses is that we’re tough and resilient and can maneuver things. So a way to back up or to make this even better is to focus on the video, because it’s first party data. That is not the issue. It’s third party data. So if you go from Facebook, to a Shopify store to somewhere else, then that becomes third party data. And Apple’s like, Oh, we don’t want you to do that. You need to get permission. But there’s actually just as a side note, before I explain the video, Facebook and Shopify are working on a partnership where they could actually trigger the Facebook event to happen inside of Shopify. So we actually translates as first party data. So all the events actually do get tracked, they’re always maneuvering, we’re always switching things up. But the one way you can combat this yourself is to use video, and use video audiences because Facebook owns those audiences. So anybody who watches a percentage of your video, you can now remark it to, they may not be able to visit the website, but you can create video audiences for people who take different actions with you on Facebook. And you can start segmenting your own audience and in building up your own audience size and might start advertising to those people probably a little bit more effective than what you could be sending them to the website. So videos even more, I think it’s the underlying thing here is that video is just so important to get in front of your audience. Because you can create those ads effectively,
Katie Brinkley 17:36
you know, and I feel like we’re coming full circle on the conversation here. What do you think is the best length for a video? We’ll just start with the regular Facebook feed and then maybe move into stories and Instagram. But what do you think the ideal length is for someone if they’re like, alright, so I got it. If I want to have a good workaround for this new Facebook privacy and ads restriction thing, I’m going to make some videos. How long should these videos be? In your opinion for Facebook?
Aaron Pearson 18:03
Yeah, this is a good question. I think everybody has a differing opinion. And I will tell you that the length does not matter. What does matter is the content. So I’ve tested this at length. We’ve had people finish our long podcast on Facebook, for our videos, our long podcast, the video length has never been an issue. People keep saying attention span, because there’s so many things going on, which is absolutely true. But there’s still people who watch through our movies like Titanic, there’s still people who watch Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc. There’s still people who watch our long trainings through webinars. If there is so much value in the content, people watch to the end. That being said, I like that minute to two minutes length where you’re just packed full of content. And when I would tell you if you’re creating a video audiences, if it’s over two minutes, I would remark it everybody who watches 25% If it’s less than two minutes, I would remarket everybody who watches 75% Because I just want people to watch the video. And if they’ve opted in to say that they’re going to watch for a certain length of time, I think they’re an interested audience. So the length of the video, again, we we’ve tested it at length, what does best for us is that two to three minute length, but we release our podcasts as a premiere every single Monday. And we get people to watch literally until the end, like the completion rate is probably about. I think the average view rate is about 4550 seconds for the podcast, which is an hour long podcast. So not that long. But if you take into consideration, the average view on Facebook is six seconds, we have something to go off of here. So hopefully that answers your question, but I think the content matters more so than the specific length. Well,
Katie Brinkley 19:42
and it gets back to to with what you’re saying like having that strong hook point, having something that calls somebody right at the beginning so that they stop the scroll and they want to watch just a little bit more. So that’s again, like you were saying have something that’s going to grab somebody’s attention and get them to watch Stick around and continue watching and see more of what you’re all about. And I’d love it if you talk just a little bit longer, we’re getting near the end of our time together. But I would love it if you just spoke a little bit longer about maybe some different ideas for people, if they are seeing some of their numbers drop with these latest changes with Facebook and Apple. I mean, not everybody on earth has an iPhone and a Mac. So I mean, it’s not affecting everybody that uses the platforms. But I’ve noticed with some of my clients that the numbers are starting to change a little bit. So what would you say to people if they’re starting to get discouraged? Or maybe a different idea for them so they can back out? You know, I will try that to see if that works and helps boost up my numbers.
Aaron Pearson 20:45
That’s it? I mean, that’s a really good point, it’s, it’s I think, what’s we kind of alluded to earlier is that the cost is going to go up, but you have to look backwards into your numbers. So first off, I have a base point to where you are, like going to be profitable. How many leads do you need? How are how many sales do you need? What’s the lifetime value of that customer and then more. So how many times can you get them to come back, because in marketing, it’s always who can spend the most to acquire the customer. And so it just costs a little bit more to acquire that customer. But if you know your numbers well enough, you don’t really have to worry about the day to day stuff. But I think one tactic that you could use for your marketing and for your business is to create amazing content for your page, whatever that may be three, four times per week posting or two, three times per week posting whatever it is, and run what page post engagement campaigns to get people to engage with your content. And then once they’ve engaged with it, then I would invite them to like it not if they would not run a light campaign. But once they’ve engaged with your content, then invite them to like it and build audiences around that. And then use video to nurture that audience. And it’s going to lower your cost. So we have this for one lead generation campaign client who does financial services, which is an expensive industry to get into. But our average lead through our video strategy is about four to $5. Without that strategy, which we run simultaneously to a cold audience, it’s about 17 to $18. So literally over three times as much. And we drop the cost of that by using video to warm up the audience. So that’s that’s what I would say is create page post engagements and then create a video strategy for that audience to warm them up and just build up that know like and trust factor.
Katie Brinkley 22:32
know, like and trust it is extremely important, regardless of the industry that you’re in. And the sooner that you realize that you are the brand and you start showing up through a video so that people can get to know you a little bit more I it’s going to help you elevate your brand and help elevate your sales. While you’re in this has been such a great conversation. I want to just ask you a quick one more quick question, you know, what is the best piece of advice that you’ve ever received for your business? Because all of us, I never expected to be an entrepreneur, I and it was if it weren’t for the people that were willing to give me the gift of their time and share their their tips and advice with me, I wouldn’t be where I am today. So what is one of the best pieces of advice that you have received for your business and how you implement it as part of your overall strategy today?
Aaron Pearson 23:21
It actually goes much bigger than that. And that’s a great question. So thanks for asking, because I was thinking about that the other day, which is it’s a who not how meaning in every area of your life, you can hire somebody else who’s already walked that path and give you the expertise. And you don’t always have to pay that person. So for me, I hired a running coach. We did marriage counseling before we got married, we hired business coaches, I hired a YouTube consultant. I even hired somebody who spent like $150 million on Facebook ads to help me with Facebook ads. So it’s always asking the question, Who not how, because there’s somebody out there who’s walked in the path that you have before. And the path of least resistance is so much nicer of a path than trying to beat your head against the wall, trying to figure out the answer. So that’s what I believe. And then that lets me get out of my own way and help more people. So that’s the best advice that I’ve ever been given. And then also how you define success is and this come in via a caveat or an A, which is, success should be defined by using your God given talents more than what society tells you. So just focus on yourself at that point and what success is to you. And once you do that, everything else kind of falls into place.
Katie Brinkley 24:34
And this has been such a great conversation, Aaron, we’d have gotten a lot of great tips about ads and video and business. Thank you so much for coming onto the show today. If any of the audience wants to connect with you further, what is the best way for them to connect with you online?
Aaron Pearson 24:50
Yeah, absolutely. So you can go and Instagram is probably the best thing. You can either go and follow me personally at Pearson, Aaron J. Or everything online for our company. is bit branding. So it’s bi T B ra n d ing. So everything that branding website social media, everything there and happy to connect and give any free advice or however I can continue to help people.
Katie Brinkley 25:13
You know, Aaron and I want to make sure to for those people that are on clubhouse how can they find you on clubhouse and connect with you there because like I said, you and I met on clubhouse and it was by having a fantastic conversation there that we decided to do this podcast and so I would love people to have the opportunity to connect with you on clubhouse too. And join the conversation with you over there.
Aaron Pearson 25:34
Yeah, everything out there is just Pearson Aaron j. So my first name, last name, first name and then my middle initial middle initial so Pearson Aaron J. Or Aaron Pearson. There’s probably not too many of us like that. But find me on clubhouse and I’m always talking in rooms about e commerce or brain building. So which, by the way, Katie, we need to do some rims together to but probably another topic, but that would be fun.
Katie Brinkley 25:58
Yeah, that sounds awesome. Count me in. Well, thank you again so much for coming on to the show today. This has been a pleasure having this discussion.
Aaron Pearson 26:05
Thank you for having me.
Katie Brinkley 26:08
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Rocky Mountain marketing. As always, I’d love to hear from you. You can visit my website at www.nextstepsocialcommunications.com. Connect with me on LinkedIn or check me out on Instagram. Let’s keep taking your marketing to new heights.