This week, Bill sits down with Tim McLaughlin, co-founder of Blink, to discuss how video is revolutionizing marketing for manufacturers and B2B companies. Tim shares actionable insights on using video as an essential sales tool, helping businesses overcome the challenges of a dwindling sales force by leveraging video content to fill gaps, engage prospects, and close deals. Tim's production method allows clients to create multiple videos from a single shoot, maximizing content efficiency and ensuring consistent messaging across platforms.
This episode is packed with tips on how to integrate video into your overall marketing strategy, from creating explainer videos to product demos, and using video to train new sales teams. If you’re a manufacturing marketing manager or executive looking to boost your company’s video presence, this episode offers the guidance you need.
Tim McLaughlin is the co-founder of Blink, a full-service marketing and video production agency based in Pittsburgh, PA. With over 15 years of experience in the video marketing space, Tim has worked with numerous brands to create compelling video content that aligns with their overall marketing strategies.
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Bill: And I think something you said. We're not here to replace salespeople or displace them. The reality is, today, there are so few industrial salespeople. I mean, every client we have continually is after more salespeople. So it's not a it's not an either or. It's a we can't find. And we've got to do something different so that the market can be prepared so our whoever's left can close and not prospect.
Tim: But when you have a good video that helps complement and says the things that maybe I don't naturally think of, it makes to me a good sales guy better. And it and it it it fills the holes. Like I said, if this guy struggles with price and let's put the price, let's get it out in front of it and let's have it there. Don't give him the option of cutting it or doing it. And then if this guy struggles with technical acumen, then let's get let's make sure all the technical parts of this. He's great at building relationships and he's great at pushing the product through, but he doesn't cover this part. So let's cover those things. So again, vertically, you know, you have a video of Tim and then horizontally you have all the technical parts. So Tim says he can use those pieces for when he's out trying to sell or you can you can you can push it in front of it. It's it's that passive sell. I send you the email. Hey, Bill, take a look at this. I know I don't have the time to sit here and spend 4.5 minutes with you because I want to do this to 30 people. And then when you look at it and, and you tend to be, you receive the content when you're ready to receive it.
Bill: Thank you for joining the Missing Half podcast, where we're discovering what's missing in manufacturing and B2B marketing. Today I'm joined by a very special guest. I've been very excited to have on, Tim McLaughlin from Blink.
Tim: Hi. Thanks for having me.
Bill: Thanks for joining us, Tim. And we're really excited, to talk about all things video today. You've been in the video space for many, many years. Seen it mature, change dramatically. And certainly recently we've seen the acceleration of that change. So we're excited to hear, your perspectives on video and, what you've learned over the years.
Tim: Sure, sure. Yeah. It's, it has been quite the change when we when we started Blink and about 14, 15 years ago, a video was kinda ish, just, you know, getting started. And, you know, for those of, you know, anybody listening and and watching know that the, the capital investment to get involved in video is is not cheap. And we had just started out and figuring everything out. We we doubled down and we said let's let's just get in. So we bought a couple cameras, couple light kits and we started doing video. And then we started doing more video and doing more video. And then, you know, I mean, we're at our core, we're a full service marketing advertising agency. And we were more known for our video and one of the things that we we made a commitment to as a company is, you know, we’ll a la carte our services and, you know, but we approached it always from a marketing and advertising background, you know, that, that that's at our core of who we are. And we found out in chatting with our clients, and people that were just prospectively looking for video that not approaching it just like a pure video production company, who do, there's a ton in Pittsburgh and they do great work. And this is definitely not a knock or a slight on them, but we didn't know how to approach it any differently because my partner and I, Trip, at the time, neither one of us worked in an agency or we work in video production. We just started and we approached it how we would as marketers. And so I'd like to think that we were visionaries, rather than just lucky, in, in our thoughts and plans, but and and it's, it's worked and served us well, you know, for all this time.
Bill: That's great. Well and you guys have certainly been, built a reputation in and around the region and western Pennsylvania. Certainly. And I've been a fan for a long time. Watched your work. And, you guys have done some amazing, amazing stuff. And I think one of the things we need to think about when we think about video in, and so for specifically for our audience, we're talking about manufacturing, B2B, not so much D2C. But one of the things that has become apparent to me is that there is very little difference in delivery anymore. It's all the same. It's just a different audience solving a different pain point. So if I'm watching something on Facebook or Instagram or YouTube and I'm learning about, some new dietary thing I want to do or some lifestyle thing, that's my D2C, I'm going to ingest the same type of information if I'm trying to solve a problem for my company. So that has certainly changed over the past five, seven, ten years. Have you, have you seen that?
Tim: Yeah. No 100%, Bill, because, you know, again I go back and I don't want to turn this into a, you know a Blink show, but the but you know, our ignorance in the approach early was again to our benefit. I came you know I came from the cable side. I came from the B2C side. So, you know, we never had anybody tell us like, hey, that was a really good brand message you got there. It was all about ringing the bell and getting people through the door. But when you when you kind of softened that approach from a B2C perspective and you started looking at things like, you know, like explainer videos, you know, product demonstrations and, and I'll, I'll never forget we were down, my family and I, we were vacationing down in Deep Creek and we were going to rent a boat. And guy says, here, watch this. This is 15 years ago or whatever. Watch this video and it’ll talk you through all the safety things. And in my head I'm thinking, how genius is this? Number one, from a liability standpoint, there's no mess up. If somebody says, he did not tell me that I had to do this, and it was like, well, at eight minutes and 42 seconds, they absolutely told you, as opposed to having to pay a person to stand there and go through this competitive kind of nature. So for me, it was kind of like a little light bulb. I'm unfortunately on vacation. So the rest of the time I'm thinking of all these other places that we could make these videos. And that's where, you know, when people talk about explainer videos, you know, where you're basically taking, you know, a semi complicated process and, and explaining to people how this works. You know, you're selling them, you know, you're selling them. You know, whether you're selling people to purchase a product whether you're selling people on how to use the product, whether you're selling your investors on why they should invest in a product, you know, so there's that part of it and the, you know, the product demonstrations. I remember one time reading it was a massive statistic. 70 some percent of people don't purchase a product because they weren't familiar how to use it, and had nothing to do with the trust of all the other, you know, badges of honor and things that you go at trust with, with a product. It was based on how does it work? So and then now obviously, I'm going back, you know, some of these comments are 10, 15 what brought us to here. Now that's all you see are product demonstrations. How does it work? You know, sometimes, you know, maybe not to the best degree. So, so that's how we see the best. The best usage of it is looking at all the different types of video that you can do. And types of video are the styles of video, you know, like we said, explainer videos, product demonstration, you know, training, instructional videos, virtual tours, you know, but, you know, brand, you know, our, our, our brand team is gonna look at me like me like Tim, you can't say brand like that, you know, sir, but but you know, but they're good here, but they're not here, and we're not going to let them watch this. o but but that is, that is a big part of a building, a brand. And so as our agency grew and we got more agency people in there and the marketing in this strategy and the development of everything, how that how that process works, it brought it back to us from a video perspective. When you and I were chatting about doing this and I told you about the horizontal vertical approach and for the folks listening, you know, when people call us up and say, hey, I want you to make this video. In my head, I'm thinking, no, you know, you don't want to see because that is the, the, the worst use of their dollars and our resources is to make you a video. And then I’m like we're going to make you eight videos. And when you explain to them and show them how that exponentially, it's not an exorbitantly increase in the cost. But when you're using the time because you all know anybody that does a video, setting it up and breaking it down and rolling those cameras is the biggest pain there is. So when you're set up, let's get as much as we can. So from a marketer perspective, we look at every opportunity and say, what else can we accomplish today that fits within the brand? Because your brand is already set up and your brand guidelines and all the other, fun things when it comes to building a, you know, the continuity of a brand, we push forward and then we create that content that it can be used, as I always say, vertically, whether it be, you know, one individual and then and then when you have 6 or 7 individuals that you're asking the same questions. Now you can spread that across where you can make a video. Here's a Bill Woods video. But then here's a question number five video. And then now you have for doing nothing different other than the set up. You now have six, seven, eight videos. Sure you have to edit them. You do that. But the the footage can sit in a can. It can sit on a shelf for 4 or 5 months if it's evergreen. So you're not going to have to edit and pull out all the time where the cost comes.
Bill: So when I think that's even more important today because we look at, you know, so let's go 7, 10 years ago they wanted that one corporate video they could show at the trade show. They could show to the investors that it was, you know, the big broad brushstroke down like a little bit of B-roll, a couple key statements. And that was it. That is not good enough today. And not only do you need video to kind of communicate your entire brand promise you need video to, be available for social media and all the different formats and channels and all of those things. And then on your YouTube channel, then it needs to be in your emails. It needs to be on your website. It's got to be everywhere. So we absolutely believe in that concept. You guys call it vertical and horizontal. We have some other, nomenclature for it, but it's the same thing. And as you've pursued this and, one of the things we always try and figure out, what's missing, right, for our clients, for people in the industry, when we look at that concept and how you've implemented that vertical and horizontal approach in the market, what value, what outcomes have you seen driven for your clients? Whenever you're able to do that capture experience right where you're getting that vertical and horizontal and then okay, now, great. We have video, we have it in the hopper whenever we're able to take it to market. Like what's the outcomes. Because that's, you know, ultimately a marketing manager is going to have to justify this idea to their boss or to that executive or to whoever’s signing the paycheck. What are the outcomes you're seeing from that?
Tim: So so what to me, we're delivering and what they're getting, is going back and you know, video as powerful as it is, it is one element of your complete marketing strategy. And where a lot of times we see where we're folks misstep is they have a marketing strategy. They have all these beautiful designs and putting good content out, and then they go and make these videos that sure, it may have a lower third that matches whatever, but but it doesn't have the volume that they need. And then they also where, you know, you know, listen, using a company like ours, you know it's not may maybe some it's not the cheapest thing at all times. So we tell people, well let's help. Call us and help you build the strategy. You know, these things have changed the way that people you know, which is and we tell people use that as part of your strategy, have us come to a real nice open, you know, do, do a nice close. We'll do something else we can help you to lower third. But there's nothing wrong with catching some good video. You know, you can add the assets to to an iPhone and you can intermingle into that for that regular volume and content, you know, so if you don't have the, the budget or the resources. So when we to to maybe do that on a regular basis. But you know, we tell people your audio has got to be crisp. You got to people will forgive you know, certain things, but if they can't hear it or if it's if it's too long, you know, we we and this is where marketing folks come in and say, well, we're looking for a five minute video. I’m like no you’re not. Unless you're going to lock the doors and hold people captive. You don't want a five minute video. We'll say people will watch five one minute videos. But they're they're less likely to watch a five minute video. And I remember one time, somebody was was we were chatting about and they referred to it as the reverse hockey stick effect. And they said, if you took a hockey stick and stood it on its end, and then right where the bend comes in and they're like, what's at that bend? And that bend is about 90 seconds now it's probably about 60 seconds is people. What's the first thing you do when somebody sends you a video? You look and say, oh, am I going to invest three minutes and 27 seconds of my life? Probably not. Am I going to invest 82 seconds, 51 seconds? Sure, I'll do that. And then oh, and then I want to watch another one and another one, you know. So, and then, giving that to a marketing professional who says you have all these little nuggets, these assets because you have to keep I mean, I don't know what your recommendation is for your B2B folks on how often they should be delivering content. You know, because we do get involved in it and we do guide folks. And, you know, a lot of times, when we are chatting with, especially our B2B clients, sometimes this is their first venture into any kind of anything like that. So to tell them you should be doing something 3 or 4 times a week is preposterous to them. They haven't done anything in 127 years. So so we're like, okay, yeah, let's start with this. Let’s get to this.
Bill: Crawl before we walk.
Tim: Exactly. Yeah. So but when a true marketer gets involved and starts helping some of these folks and they realize, hey, we can we can create more content and we can start delivering more content for their first thing is, I don't have all these. I don't have all these ideas. And that's when we say, well, when you get everybody together, you do it vertically or horizontally. Now you go from one three hour session where you're grabbing one four minute video to having maybe 34, 35 videos, because you can piece it when you strategically think it from a marketing perspective, and you look and you're asking these things, it gives the individuality of everybody that you're talking to. But it also gets the uniformity of a brand. And that's that's kind of the approach. Whether, you know, whether we do it or somebody says, hey, just tell us what to do and we'll do it ourselves. Here's what you need to do.
Bill: So no, I agree with that. And I think, you know, what does success look like for a B2B or manufacturing company today? I think if they can walk their client through their entire brand promise, brand story, products and services, how to, those type of things online with video. So you go to their YouTube page and there's a number of series with the thumbnails and they can self-select what, what they want, when they want, how they want. Right? Whether it's on the phone, whether it's at their desktop, however they want to do it. That to me is what video success looks like. Kind of as a table stakes. And if you don't have that, your competitors are developing it or have it and you are not going to be considered when it comes time for purchase. And then you know what? Okay. So let's we're we're talking about the YouTube channel. But then what does that give you? Then that gives you that maybe 1 or 3 social posts a week you leverage. And then also to be consistent when you're talking about that topic or referencing that idea on your website or in the email or however it is, it's available. And just like you said about the boat issue, I've been through that training. I am also a licensed captain in Maryland. Right, because I went through the video. But one of the things I think that people that marketing managers, marketing executives undervalue is the consistency that can be created, not from a liability standpoint, like the the boat captain video, but from we want our brand story to be told the same way or similarly with very low variability every time, all the time. And we can, I'm not saying we can control what people say, but we can direct and create a brand standard around which video is created vertically and horizontally in those sessions. And then when we put it on YouTube, of course they proof it, right? So they know it’s right. We can have that consistency. And I think when we look at industrial salespeople, they're all aging and retiring, the good ones. And if you can find one, they're very, very expensive because they know they're amazing. So the inconsistency in the sales messaging at the point of sale, the whole way back through to the attraction phase is tremendous. And we we can reduce that variability, have a more precise communication against that brand standard with video. And I think that's also part of what success looks like for what we're trying to do with these things.
Tim: Yeah. No, I mean check check check check check all the way across the board and the, you know, the part that I guess I want, I don't want to say folks struggle with. But again, the part that we see where maybe there's some disconnect is companies make it hard for people to tell their story. And the more content, like I'm, I want it to like, I'm doing this because there's going to be somebody out there who's going to say, hey, the guy who seemed like he's all right kind of knew what he was doing. Tell your story. So you put your story out there and and then you don't have to worry. We've all been around and part of organizations where their sales guys or some guy, he's Joe Technical and he goes down a list and he puts people to sleep because he's going over the technical acumen of your product. That's nice, but that's not what's selling it. And you get the other guy who's already to dropped his drawers and give you a lower price, because that's what he does. But when you have a very delineated process and structure of how this video tells you about your your product, you can say, hey, here are the technical parts of it. And like I said, if question number five is technical and you have seven people talking about it, for the guy that's a techno junkie, he's going to want to watch that three minute video about the technical aspects of that. But that's not your whole video. So you pull that aside, you pull that aside. And then the guy who says, I just need an overview and I'm just looking at it and I'm seeing it. Then when he goes to his boss and says, listen, you got to give this Bill Woods guy call. Who is he? I'm going to send you a video about it. I'm going to send you a link to it. You're making it easy for your your supporters. I always say you need an evangelist. You know, somebody evangelizing out there for you, but you're not giving him anything to evangelize. So. And that's that's where video, nothing is more powerful. There's an emotional connection to it. You know, people don't say, oh, I read that, I read that ad or that billboard brought a tear to my eye. That doesn't happen. People talk about videos. They talk about tearjerkers. They talk about that stuff. There's an emotional attachment to video, and it can be emotionally attaching that to your product in a, in a sales subjective kind of way. Right.
Bill: One of the tensions I think we run into with video is, and I think this is a misconception or what might be missing in people’s strategy is that it has to be overproduced. So you do some work for some D2C brands, some big brands, and that is Hollywood level production. And I mean, we don't do any of that. So I just have a total, reverence and awe for that work, but amazing high value production. And that's an area, that's one thing. When we come into the B2B space in, the manufacturing marketing space, it feels to me like we can be more aggressive on the candid and authentic and having these type of conversations as opposed to, oh, Bill's not very good looking, let's get a paid actor to come in and say exactly what he would say, because that’ll, they know how to deliver a line. I don't know how to deliver a line, right? Like I hold this conversation and we've now seen the extent of my capabilities. So what are you seeing as far as the ability and the tension the companies have? Like, I'll talk to clients and we'll talk them into like one of these vertical, horizontal. We call it a content create experience. And they're surprised at the end how easy it was to just sit down and say, hey, Tim, tell me about your business. And then five minutes into it, they forget that the cameras and the lights are there and they're like. And and sometimes you can't get them to be quiet. And sometimes we’ll have 12 interviews scheduled and two hours into it, they're just going right. Right they’re heading north. And what have you seen and how do you navigate that tension of like super produced for B2B and as opposed to just completely authentic? Which I love it when some people say, why can't I just have one of our interns shoot that on their phone? Right? Which that's way too organic and candid.
Tim: Yeah. It's, I've, I've said for years you have a greater chance of robbing a bank with a camera and a microphone than you do with a firearm, because you want to make people freeze and, put a camera and a microphone on them. I've seen people who are so poignant and well-spoken, and they could be in the automotive industry, in the grocery industry, and they could talk to you just as you and I are talking now from their heart. And you put the camera on them and it was like, okay, your name, let's get your name. And they freeze, right, right. And they just can't do it. So, so a lot of times, I'll talk a little bit about our B2C side. You know, there's a process with that when people say, we don't need hair and makeup. Hair and makeup should be classified as, you know, as therapy because you're when somebody feels when they feel like they look good, when they when they're when they're if they're concerned about a certain part, whether it could be maybe their skin is shiny or maybe their hair, you know, how they look on camera. And when you start bringing those inhibitions down a little bit, then you start to get people in a natural capacity. I could tell you, we we shot some video, and it was, it was kind of a dirty that we did. We shot some video for, for a startup, and they were very technical driven. Very, they wanted to know what we were doing, what we're saying. So we said, listen, we're just going to ask a couple questions. We shot the video when they didn't know we were shooting the video. It was rolling. We asked them the questions and that was it. And as soon as we said the cameras were rolling, we couldn't get 3 or 4 words out them. There were so were there were so concerned about being technically correct as opposed to just letting their, you know, speaking from the from the heart and the knowledge that they know they have about their product. And, and that's, to me, there's got to be a connection. Right? That's why I say there's different videos. There's the explainer video that people want the, the specs and the details of how that works, you know, or a product demonstration. But when you're talking about your brand or, you know, a virtual tour, people want to see you and they want to they want to get a feel for the type of environment that you're in. But that's not natural for some people. And if it, so a lot of times when we tell folks, it's like, okay, listen, we're going to give you a script, we want you to read the script. So we'll have them on camera, read the script, read the script, and then after. And this is this would be my advice if you were a DIYer or if somebody says, I'm going to have my, my intern pull up their, iPhone and they're going to record me, script it, write it, read it, go through it, and then find out what are the parts in that video that you that you have the emotional attachment to? Then, you know, so if you have a 90 second video, put the script down and deliver that line looking on camera. And so there's a passion, there's a connection because all the rest is going to be B-roll or cutaways. Or something else. So if you can deliver, I mean in a, in a 90 second video, if you could deliver maybe 15 seconds of, of poignant, impactful looking at the camera like I'm the guy, I'm the one, I'm the one you want to be able to do, then you're okay. You know. So so when you kind of give them those little, little tips, I guess, you know, and then they start creating it and then they want to increase the production value and everything else. But back to the the B2B side, you know, everybody's there. There's there is a value to that because, you know, chances are your video is going to be watched on a 55 inch flat HD flat screen. 9K, 10K, whatever they are up to now and then, man, if you have a coffee cup in the back, or if you're at a grocery store and there's a hole in the shelf, meaning, you know, the 30 bags of chips has only 28 bags of chips and some, people notice that you have a client paying you big money in big money to air that. And the focus is on not what the message should be. The focus is on the stuff in the background. So again, we always tell people what is the focus of this. Find a clean place, find a good background, find something. Don't do it because it's just distracting, you know, even if that's what you're selling, it's distracting. So remove the distractions. And what is the message? That's always our guidance and advice.
Bill: So Tim, we were talking a little bit about, the intern with the iPhone and that type of thing. If you were going to give a company some tips of how to get started in video, because we run into something you said before, someone will call us and say, hey, we want to do video. And my first question is, okay, interesting. What are your goals? Not what video do you want. What are your goals? Because they say the word video and that's like describing a universe. Because there's so many things. Oh do you want something for top of the funnel to attract? Is this for investor relations? What what is the purpose? Where is it going to be delivered? How is it going to be communicated? So with that being said, when someone is thinking about video, let's say one of our listeners is a marketing manager and their company says, okay, we need to get into video. If you were going to give a quick elevator outline of how to get started or the way to approach it, what would you say to that person?
Tim: So this is probably going to make a lot of groans, for our listening audience. But the first thing is start with a budget. You know, because, we get, I mean, we can make I can make a $5,000 video. I can make a $500,000 video. And a lot of times when people come to us, if we don't have any financial parameters around it, it's not like they're we're going to suggest stuff for the sake of suggesting it, but our minds are racing like, oh, this would be cool. That would be cool. Well, it's only cool if you have 50 grand. If you got 15 grand, say, listen, we want to make a thing. We want to make as many videos as we can really do what we can. We have $16,000 budget for this. And I you know, our response may be good luck to you. Here's four names. Go make a call. These guys do great work for 15 grand. And if somebody comes says, well, no, I just need to get, you know, aerial footage, whatever else. You know, then that's when our thing to do. All right. You have $15,000 to spend. You have budget for this. Then we we kind of redirect it back into what are your goals? What do you want to accomplish from this? Is this going to be part of one video? It's going to be part of a strategy? It's going to be part of the strategy if it works well, well, let's define work well you know and and so so it always boils back around to the strategy, the approach from a marketing perspective. But but you got to have a number, you know, I mean, and they're just and there's no right or wrong number. It's a number. You know somebody can come to me I always said that and say, Tim, this is the greatest car in the world. You know, it's 2,250 bucks a month. I was like, it could be whatever I want it to be. I'm not spending 2,250 a month on a car payment, you know? So so it doesn't matter. And somebody could say, Tim, it could be the greatest video in the world, but we're not going to spend ten grand, 15 grand, 20, 50, 100, whatever that number may be, but exponentially. And this is a this is a number no one's going to hold me to. But I'm going to put it out there. But it's probably 50% of a decrease of the cost of a video the more you do. So let's just say one video costs you 20 grand, two videos may cost you 24 grand, three videos may cost you 25 grand. You know, I mean, I mean the number. And you're like, why? Well, because when if we know that going up front, the analogy I always use, if you're building a house and you build the house and the house is done, and then somebody comes up to you and they say, boy, I think I want to put a swimming pool in the back. And then the first thing you would say, had I known that when I was building the house, I would have prepared for you to have that. Doesn't mean what it was probably only going to cost you a couple grand more to get ready for that swimming pool. The swimming pool is going to cost you a whole heck of a lot of money, but it's not going to cost you nearly as much. It's going to cost you more now than it did you told me that. So for us, it's always about asking, what are you, what do you want to do with this? What are you going to do and what are your future plans for it? I know it sounds salesy sometimes and schticky like. Yeah, you know, he's just trying to get more, but it's in really, truly in their benefit. You know, as a business owner myself as you are as well, I would be mad at me for not telling me, yes, that if I did, if I did something, if I went to, again to a restaurant and I sat down and I had 15 people there and he said, you know, if you had 60 and it would have been half the cost. I was like, well, why didn't you tell me?
Bill: Why didn’t you tell me that?
Tim: Why didn’t you tell me that? So I always on the side of, just so you know, making one video is not really in your best interest. Let's talk about this and then here's why. So you’re gonna spend 15 grand on one video where you can maybe get 2 or 3 for 20, you know.
Bill: I think that's what marketers have brought to video production, because it seems to me whenever I had video quoted before we did video ten, 15 years ago, you'd hear, oh, I need 15 grand for one three minute video from a pure video, like a videographer who also edited. Right. You and I don't think like that. We're thinking about how can we capture once, produce multiples in a series or however the outputs are vertically and horizontally like you talked about are. And then not only that, how do we distribute and activate that content consistently through social channels, on YouTube, in the other platforms. So I think that's something that, what may have been missing in video production and execution before, but now we're our profession is bringing efficiency to that. And, it's the market is demanding it because if you want to, and not that we do a lot like with like influencers, we don't work for influencers. But those folks, I mean, they're turning it over all the time. So, that's a whole other realm that is. I don't think you or I, either of us, deal in that. So, so, we won't talk about it, but, but, yeah, I think that's interesting. The way that's changed. And, it is it also seems to me that budgets are loosening up for this because people are seeing the value. And even if their organization hasn't seen the value historically, they can look to a competitor or an industry leader who has done it, whether they've done it well or not. That's a different situation, but they've at least tried. And to me, the barriers to entry to having a really successful video program have never been more available to companies if they just engage. And set a little bit of money aside. And when you compare the money that our organizations would need to execute something really, really amazing and successful and you say, oh, wow, that's all. Well, how much does a trade show cost, and as soon as it's over, it's done. How much does a new salesperson cost? And this is something I think that a lot of business owners don't really look at is, you know, you hire new salesperson, how much they cost, per diem, and then you train them for a year or two, they go out and they build that book. By year three, you're hoping they're bringing your return. And oh, in this market, they probably don't stay for year three and four. That gets into the hundreds, if not half a million. I mean, you can spend a lot of money in that scenario I just described. And I think for you and I and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but if a company invests $100,000 over the course of six months, 12 months, our organizations can do a lot. I mean, we can we can not only do some attraction, we can do some sales enablement, we can tell the entire story for that company with a couple of shoots and a couple those vertical and horizontal things. And that's just something I know you believe in, I certainly believe in it. And it's good to have separate voices, because I preach this to my team all the time. And I think that some of the time they're like, Bill you’re crazy. But then I met somebody else who's as crazy, right? So to two are gathered and talking about it. So it must be true. But I talk to other colleagues in the industry, and we're seeing this trend and I think it can't be undervalued. And we need to keep talking about. We need to be that evangelists of this idea and get it out there.
Tim: Yeah. And I'm, I'm, I'm the last guy, especially from a sales perspective, to try to put a sales guy out of work. However, as you know, as you know, budgets and, and, bottom lines get tighter. You know, somebody is looking at I would rather say, could you use those resources, you know, that these resources for something else because your video on your website doesn't ask for a day off, it doesn't ask for sick leave. It doesn't, you know, it's not it's not causing any HR issues. You know, there's a lot of value to having that video kind of tell your story. And then and if it's and what I like about them is, you know, we all have our, our, our sales shtick that we kind of go through. But when you have a good video that helps complement and says the things that maybe I don't naturally think of, it makes to me a good sales guy better. And it and it it, it fills the holes. If like I said, if this guy struggles with price, then let's put the price, let's get it out in front of it and let's have it there. Don't give him the option of cutting it or doing it. And then if this guy struggles with technical acumen, then let's get let's make sure all the technical parts of this, he's great at building relationships and he's great at pushing the product through, but he doesn't cover this part. So let's cover those things. So again, vertically, you know, you have a video of Tim and then horizontally you have all the technical parts. So Tim says he can use those pieces for when he's out trying to sell. Or you can you can you can push it in front of you it's a passive sell. So send you the email. Hey Bill take a look at this. I know I don't have the time to sit here and spend 45 minutes with you because I want to do this to 30 people. And then when you look at it and, and you tend to be, you receive the content when you're ready to receive it. You know, and if I catch you. So that's the purpose of the video. If I'm talking to you and then you're like, all right, I gotta get home to get, you know, Mary Jane to soccer, and I got to do this. You're, I could be giving you the best pitch in the world. But when you're already when she's at soccer and you're like, okay, it's a, you know, eight year old’s soccer game, I'm going to look at the video and then I'm going to engage. You're you're more receptive to engage because you're you're ready to to receive that video. One thing you said before that, I think what has changed in our thing that we said about how we as marketers and even B2C people approach the B2B process. I always use this analogy too, I said, I feel like, you know, we're a lumber yard and, you know, coming from your work, before it was, hey, here's a two by four, you cut it, you do it. And then all the scraps just got pushed over in a pile. Well, now these scraps. It's the sawdust. It was like, here's the sawdust, here's a scrap here. You put, what can you do with sawdust? You can shove in a bag. You can throw it out if there's a spill. There's all these other uses for it. So. And when you, when you think of that now all of a sudden you're a little bit, if I told you to build me something and you just start cutting and do it and throwing this stuff over there, if I told you to build me something but I want usefulness out of this stuff that you're not going to use, you're a little bit more thoughtful about it. And all of a sudden you're sitting there saying, all right, I'm building a deck for a guy. Does it have to be 18 ft? Could it be 17 seven inches? Sure. If it's 17 ft, seven inches, I can use this piece here and I can use something else. So I, I and again, the challenge that we all have and is, is working with our creatives because the last thing you want to do is clip your creatives’ wings. Because that's what makes them so good at what they do because they they aren't bound by, you know, limits and restrictions and, and and keeping all the, the things that maybe a marketer might have to do and staying within the brand. So you don't want to cut your creatives, but when you give your creatives those suggestions of like, how can we make that? It's even more of a challenge for them. So, so yeah. So I, I, I just I dig the whole process of it.
Bill: No it's good. And I think when we look at. So we're not here really to talk about delivery. So but when we talk about production and we talk about having that, that list of assets that inventory of videos, and I think something you said, we're not here to replace salespeople or displace them. The reality is today, there are so few industrial salespeople. I mean, every client we have continually is after more salespeople. So it's not a it's not an either or. It's a we can't find. And we've got to do something different so that the market can be prepared so our whoever's left can close and not prospect. They can close and not educate. And I think when we look at that model and we look at how it's changed so dramatically, you know, you and I are old enough to remember the rep groups. And that construct, which I don't even know if those exist anymore.
Tim: Yeah, I don't know if they do either right.
Bill: But but, you know, we don't run into them like we used to, but if we can offer video that will get get that process started and take it the whole way and then let our salespeople leverage that information. The other thing I love about it is if you hire a new sales firm, let's say you have to bring somebody on. They don't have to wait for the training. They sat there and saw that video, and you can point to eight minutes and 42 seconds, right? Yeah, and I did from a liability standpoint per se, but just from process, all those things. I ask our team because I know that they're rabid fans of the Missing Half podcast and everything I say, and they're just waiting every week for my next episode to drop, like our, our team. But I asked them to watch it because I talk about the things that are consistent with the brand promise and what we're trying to learn at 50 Marketing and trying to deliver for our clients. So that creates some continuity. And then I'm not going to talk about this in a Zoom call with them because I'm like, just watch the episode. Tim and I had a great dialog like we covered this soup to nuts. We, nothing was left unturned. I don't have to do this again. So I think there's a lot of value there. So one of the other things and I get stuck on this and I think it's a mistake and I've tried to, correct it and maybe what's missing in my approach, I'll talk about that $100,000 plan to, like, take the whole thing. And sometimes we need to solve smaller problems for marketing managers and for corporate teams, because they won't believe it till they see it for their brand. So maybe talk about, okay, if someone wants to get started and budgets or investment levels that they can kind of tiptoe into, you know, oh, okay. Let's start with that five grand and I'm not putting words, but whatever that low number is, let's do a little project. And yes, it might not be as efficient as if we had the whole strategy. Let's walk into it and get. And not that you're quoting a number because there's this is just napkin math. But when you're thinking about starting something so someone can get a taste, deliver and show their corporate group, hey, this is what success could be if we bought into this bigger strategy.
Tim: Yeah. And there's a balance of, like, DIYing it, you know, and then giving them. But then also the strategy. Like that's where a lot of times we see folks struggling with is really wanting to invest in the strategy. And and so if, if the budget is cost prohibitive, you know, cost prohibitive for us that it's just like, listen, we could do something for that. But it I don't know what it's going to do for you, you know. So then we'll take a step back and say, listen, if you got five grand, here's a couple ideas. I mean, I'll redirect them to this podcast and say, you got you got right. Go listen to it. And then if you get where you're going. But the struggle there is sometimes if you're trying to sell something up the ladder, you know, and then you're going to show them something, they're going to say, well, do me more of that. Well, number one, it's it's probably not the best time use, for the marketing manager. So a lot of times it's we want to help them. Let's develop a strategy and then say, listen, here's, here's how we can do if we really invested in to shoot this video and get this video and, and get it in the can. Then every month we can go back and maybe edit 1 or 2. And then if we shot every, you know, every eight months, then all of a sudden you're about 18 months in, you have a nice arsenal. You know, and then if you're again, if you're thoughtful enough and you don't, you know, spring upon us. Oh, by the way, we're changing our name and our logo and the color scheme. You know, we're like, well, that would have been nice to know. We wouldn't have, you know, I mean, so if you're if they're very forthright and then you're knowing that content, you know, if your product is new and the content is, it's probably not going to change. So you now have it and say, well, I need the I need to freshen up the front end or the back. You know, we call them donuts. We could say bumpers. Whatever you want. That it's like you have something that's opening up to getting their attention. Maybe that is changed. The messaging in the middle is very consistent, and then you push them out at the end. And like I said, that that's bringing the B2C approach to a B2B. It's, because it's cost effective. You know, you talk about, you know, your automotive dealers, your furniture. And I know some of the B2C people are like, what does that have to do with me? Believe me, the volume that they do. You look at your personal injury attorneys, all the other ones. There's a lot to be learned from the B2C side or the B2B to the B2C because of the volume they do. You look at their efficiencies and then when you see that, you know, when we do, we do some of these people who say we're going to make thirty some commercials in three days and they are ready. And because they know what it costs to shoot 30 commercials and then we're good for 14 months. 16 months, 18 months. And if we were to shoot every other month, some like that would have been twice the cost. And for us, yeah, I mean I'm happy to do that if they want to give me that kind of money. I'm not going to turn them though. But again, I'd be mad if I were. If I were them working for me, I'd be mad that. Why didn't you tell me I should just do this all at once so. A question I actually have for you, if you don’t mind.
Bill: Sure.
Tim: So one one thing that we always come, that has changed, because guys, I say guys like us are driving it as marketers and media people. Before the days, people would say, I'm going to make this, I’m going to make this video, and you even said up front, and we'll just cut that down. So the challenge that we put to people is say I refer to it as edit up. And then so a lot of times people will say, all right, I want to, I want to make this 30. And then they tell us, well, let's cut that to a ten and then can you make me a five? And I'm like, how about we start with the five and the ten. And then so and then it's easier to match that message as opposed to because a lot of times if you have somebody who delivers a good solid, if there's a solid line that they love and it's a line that they want to end with and it's seven seconds. What are you going to do with seven seconds? So now you got to extend it to ten. But if you can say, hey, can you deliver that in five seconds? Can you give me that line? Or let's rewrite that line so that I can have that as a five. So now all of a sudden as a as a media placement guy, you're like, oh my gosh, I got a five, I got a five. And if somebody says, hey, that's a really solid message, that's eight seconds, you know, let it breathe a little bit. Deliver it a little bit more impactful. So now you have a five and you have a ten. Now you have a 15 that you have, but you have a strong solid five. You have a strong solid ten. Now you have a 30. Now you just plug it and play it and putting it there. And then if you're like, well, I need to put something on the back end of it. Sure. You're only changing that part. So we always, when we when we start writing copy and we started working with folks, we always try to say, what's our what's our single five second message, you know. And then is there one. If there's not then we'll say, all right then we got to live within a ten. You know, so I, we always and again that's a to the folks sitting back at home saying how can I do this? That's from a marketing perspective as well as, just an overall video perspective, the approach to it.
Bill: So I think, the way we look at that is it used to be that you would have these candid conversations or extract this content, and then you would try to find the hook. Right? You would try to find the thumbnail where we've matured as an industry. And I think what's driving it is finally coming down to the B2B, right? This is prevalent Mr. Beast, those people, they think about that first. Right? And then, like you said, they, How did you say you, go vertical?
Tim: Edit up. Right. Right.
Bill: And that concept, and that label is that now we need to start with the hook. We need. And then we go vertical from there. So I think what's driving that in B2B is the fact that they're starting to mirror the D2C in the social media channels. I've had more executives challenge us with, hey, we're ready to take our social media and be way more creative. I mean, sometimes our teams come to us like, hey, we got this great idea. I'm like, yeah, don't ever pitch that, right? No no no no no no no no no. We're not doing TikTok for this. But everyone's becoming more accepting of that. So I think this idea of editing up is right on and where we're going to see the industry go. And I think that'll also make us more efficient when we do these vertical and horizontal shoots, because we will be able to shoot every six months, every 12 months, whatever, get a ton, and then fill that calendar. But I think this goes back to I love the way you answered that question. I was hoping you would say it. Whenever we look at the clients that are going to be successful in this space and they say, oh, let's try something for $5,000. If I was going to try something for $5,000, I wouldn't pick up a camera. I would just spend it on strategy. Because the the reality is to come up with that proper framing of the video strategy to make sure we're capturing the brand and then executing that long term strategy. Because let's be honest, if you just want a $5,000 video, you're not in the video game, right? You should probably just save your money and do something else. Pick a different channel and leverage that. But if you're willing to invest in it consistently and have these shoots where you can capture a lot of content and then edit up, edit down, edit left and right, right, all the different directions. Then you can really distribute a lot of content. We're doing studies now where, we're looking at competitors of our clients, looking at all their videos, what’s viral, trying to figure out that magic sauce, because we all want to play the algorithm, we all want to get that free right from the distribution. So I certainly think there's a lot to be done there. But that happens not with a camera. That happens in copy. Right? That's scriptwriting, copywriting, whatever you're, the person you have working on that, strategist pulling that together. And if you don't have a good copywriter who can, you know, write it really quickly. In the short and, you know, I would say you better envision that thumbnail. Because, what, Mr. Beast will spend the ten times the time on the thumbnail and the hook that he does on producing the video. He has shown us the way. This isn't like we don't have to go on a journey of discovery. There it is. So, no, I think that's absolutely the correct approach as we move forward. And I think the other thing we have to look at is in B2B, in manufacturing, we ant this long form, we want to tell the whole story. Well guess what? Nobody cares. Everybody wants their little snippet, like you said, when they want it. You know that they can just self they can go and access it whenever they want it and absorb it. And you know what? Maybe it's at the soccer game or maybe it's they saw that from you. It was sent to them. And then six months from now, the CEO or whoever makes makes them move, says, hey, by the way, we were talking about this. This is now a priority for me. Oh, hold on a second. Give me a couple minutes and then let me send this to you. I've been on this. I've been researching this. Because the other thing I tell my team all the time. I tell our client success team, you have many jobs, but one of them is to get your marketing manager promoted and get them a raise. And if you do that, you never have to worry about, like renewals. Because if you make them look good, then you're solid. So. If we're able to provide them with that knowledge and they understand it as well, and we can educate them, I think that's valuable as well. I love that idea of editing up, is, did I get it right this time? Okay, yeah. Fourth time, I’m not really smart, but I listen and I come back around. I like that framing of it. And I think that's that's very valuable to think of it that way. But yes, when we look at it, we we have to make sure that we're capturing those micro moments. Right. And we're really able to get that copy done. And I think when we look at a budget, if you only have a small amount to spend, strategy. Get that strategy in place. And like you said, generally we can find tremendous savings by having a long term plan as opposed to knee jerk, oh, we've got 5,000 this month. Let's spend it on this. And then.
Tim: And then next month we’ll shoot another video. We'll do something else. We want to catch that. And you think it through, right. It's definitely makes makes a lot more, I mean, your resources, the people I mean yeah I mean I could check 50 things of why it makes more sense and the biggest one being the economics of it.
Bill: Yes. So another thing I'd like to ask you about, and we have some experience in this, I just want to get your take, is there are a lot of companies that are based here in Pittsburgh and our region, in our territories, as it were, that have locations all across the country. And I think some of them feel that they can't work with an agency locally here that can develop a comprehensive strategy that can handle their entire geography. Oh, let's let the office in Portland deal with their situation. Let's let the branch in Dallas deal with their situation. Have you been able to combat that and come up with a way that you can service those clients and cover their entire geography with traveling crews and that type of thing, and making sure that you're able to be their single source provider for video?
Tim: That's I, I would think that you talked to my team before this and set me up for this because I, we were just in South Carolina, we were in London, we were in Sweden. We were I mean, just, we we were planning to go to Mexico, but we didn't. But we organized the crew, you know, so the so, so 100%, remember, we're not we're not, you know, I mean, we I'm just speaking for us. We're not a vendor. We're not somebody, you know, we're we're part of the team. And then and then when you say we need to shoot video in D.C. or somewhere else and we say, well, okay, well if we go do it and it's going to, travel, we got to do this. You got fees, you got pay all this kind of stuff. It's going to be this. If we hire somebody, they're who we trust and we know, based on our speak to their speak, see their work and say, here's what they're going to do. We send one guy to kind of quality control to check it out to be able to do it. We take the footage. The magic is it I mean I'm not I'm not a the shooting is obviously a big part of it. But the magic is in the editing. You could keep the stuff you need the brand, you know, from the keep the consistency of the brand to be able to do it. But we do it all all the time because 20, 30 years ago, when somebody couldn't look up your location in another place, now that they can, it's one location. It's one brand with multiple locations. Before it was, you know, multiple just multiple, you know, brands and locations, whatever the inconsistency of it that may have existed, now you can control that. And so we do I would say probably 40% of our video has tentacles well outside of the, the Tri-State, the Tri-State area, you know, so which is kind of fun, you get to see some cool places. And there's also a different approach sometimes. How we, you know, we did, really cool video for CMU. That was talking about this was years ago, but was talking about, organ donation. And and it was, you know, certain ethnicities and, and, and, religious backgrounds had different approaches to it and all kind of stuff. It was I won't get into the details of it, but it was it was pretty cool. But then we learned like, well, you know what, if you're going out in Vegas and we're going to run this in Vegas versus running here in western Pennsylvania versus Jersey, same three denominations, ethnicities, whatever, what, whatever, but by their geographic area where it was going to be playing, completely different approach. So it was it was like you I mean, not that you, it's, there are certain things that seem basic may seem fairly obvious to the people listening to this, but for you, you get so ingrained into it and you're like, I guess that does make sense, that somebody. You know, yeah, Vegas is going to have a different approach to this than maybe than somebody here because of their, you know, exposures and whatever else they have. So, so you could even see even though you're being asked to do the same thing three times, it's still from a marketing perspective and a brand perspective, a different approach.
Bill: Absolutely. And, you know, we've seen some of that same geographic distribution we've been able to achieve across the United States a little bit in Europe. And it's we've found that whether you're sending that, producer level person to make sure the QC’s done or if you're sending your whole team, a lot of the economics aren't that much different because quality teams cost what quality teams cost. Right. And then they have more overhead to cover that they need a greater margin because they're available. Right. So, but that's interesting and I'm glad you said that, but I think that's something we need to do a better job of communicating to this local market because, we can go places, right? And we can execute. And then the other thing I like about that is not only sending teams, but then we have the ability to capture like Zoom-like recordings with like Riverside and stuff like that. So we can polish off or patch up if we need to get some extra SME, you know, subject matter expert film from their chief engineer or whatever and lace it in. So yeah, but you have to be part of the strategy. You have to have that plan and be able to really leverage those things to be that efficient and effective for the client. So, no, interesting. Well, Tim, his has just been a fascinating conversation.
Tim: Digging it.
Bill: Yeah, this has been great. And I think video is in its infancy really.
Tim: Still, yeah.
Bill: Because there's so few companies that are doing it the right way that they're actually activating their market. So it'll be interesting to see how we're able to, both conquer this market and really, do well to help these folks, these marketing managers, these executives move this forward.
Tim: Yeah. Excited to, to chat more and hopefully, you know, some folks hear this, take some nuggets away. You know, I mean, and if, if at any point in time somebody they can get ahold of us.
Bill: Yeah, absolutely. And please, take a moment for a shameless plug. We're all about shameless plugs.
Tim: Well there's no shameless here. I have I am completely comfortable with it. So. Yeah. So we are we are Blink. We're a full service marketing agency. We have offices here in Pittsburgh and up in central PA, up in Belfont. Full crew, video production, branding, marketing, everything and anything that you need done. And if you can't, we do have, you know, we're very strategic and nimble. We we we talk about our core values of being bold. Leadership, integrity, and nimbleness and the nimbleness of it. And then we're kind. We like to think, you know, be kind. You can be nice to people while you're doing work. But the nimbleness of it is, you know, we invest where we know that we have the request and the volume to do it. But where we don't we have strategic partnerships. Like if somebody came to us and said, you know, like this, I was like, I'm going to call my man Bill, because he does that better than us. And, you know, that's what people want. They just want solutions. They don't care. They really don't care who does it.
Bill: Correct. And they want partners because then if if you're referring us or we're referring absolutely, then that takes a lot of the guesswork out.
Tim: You've done what they want to do. Vetted them out that that's that's what we want too. Because we unfortunately have vetted some out and they don't work out and say not again. You know.
Bill: Well and there's a lot of challenges I think in the agency space, there's so many, folks who think they can start an agency who and they can do some things for some folks, and God bless them and good, good for them. But it's a very challenging business to execute at the level that Blink is executing at. And I've, you know, I've been a fan of your work for a long time. And you certainly have a nice, run of logos of like, you know, you've got some nice trophies on the wall there. So, well, Tim, thanks again for the conversation and, really appreciate it.
Tim: Absolutely. Thanks.
Bill: Thank you for joining The Missing Half podcasts where we're discovering what's missing in manufacturing and B2B marketing. Please subscribe, like and share. Have a great day.