[tags]

Episode 75 – Content Marketing – The Groundwork for Future Sales

May 2, 2018

This Episode

Mark Stephenson & Marc Vila

You Will Learn

  • What is Content Marketing and why it’s important
  • Just how long your content needs to be
  • How you can re purpose ONE topic into lots of content

Resources & Links

Episode 75 – Content Marketing – The Groundwork for Future Sales

Show Notes

How a small business can get the most out of content marketing:

1. Use it to drive search to your website / FB page / Google Page, etc
– searching on google for tampa t-shirt companies, embroidery, etc…. various pages that show up are FB pages. Be sure yours has images, videos and written content. Give you credibility.
– Yelp and google business pages are also going to come up on the top. Write a great description of yourself.
– if you have a website be sure to have posts, pages, etc that will help google know you are a local business and what you do. E.g. embroidery , t-shirt printing in tampa, florida. etc.

2. Content builds trust.
– when you have pics, videos, articles, etc. it shows you care about your business and what you create. People need to trust you to provide the custom apparel they need.
– can also be proofs that you do great work. Impress people who are browsing you online.

3. Reviews can be great content marketing too
– not only asking your customers to leave good reviews, but also commenting when people review you. Reply to reviews whenever possible. FB, google, yelp, etc. Even if just thanking them for leaving a good review.

4. User Generated Content (UGC) – ask your customers to create content for you.
– please post to my FB page with a company photo
– can you send me a pic with all the kids wearing the shirts? is it ok if i post to social media and my website?
– interview your customers and write it up… include pics or a video. help show others what its like to work with you.

Transcript

Welcome to the Custom Apparel Startups podcast, your best source for information, news, tips and tricks to get you off the ground running, and earn success with your custom apparel decorating business. So, get ready to soak up some knowledge!

Now, here are your hosts, Mark and Marc!

Mark S: Hey everyone, and welcome to episode 75 of the Custom Apparel Startups podcast! My name is Mark Stephenson, from ColDesi.

Marc V: And this is Marc Vila, from Colman and Company. I want to actually start today with – I miss all of the age jokes!

Mark S: Do you really?

Marc V: Yeah.

Mark S: It’s 75! I forget! The CAS podcast is forgetting to do age jokes, now!

Marc V: Well, hey everyone! Thanks for listening today. Today, we’re going to talk about the secret weapon of successful businesses, which is content marketing.

Mark S: By the way, we spend days crafting just the right title for these podcasts. We definitely do not think of them two seconds before we go on the air. We definitely don’t do that. It’s all very planned out.

Marc V: The title is important for this episode, but the title is important for everything that we’re going to talk about today. The title of what you’re going to do is important on this, so we’ll get into that.

First, I think we should probably just define what content marketing is, give a few different definitions of what it is. Then, we’ll go into why it’s important, and then finally, how you’re going to be able to start doing it tomorrow.

Mark S: Marc here had listened to a podcast on content marketing, on the way in this morning, and almost dozed off in traffic.

Marc V: Yes! It was really boring.

Mark S: We’re not going to let that happen to you. Honestly, content marketing is kind of the basis of how ColDesi does business. So, I think that the lessons that you learn here today, the ideas that we give you, really have the potential to have a big impact on your business. So, I hope you will pay special attention to this one.

Marc V: Honestly, I do a lot of different marketing. I’ve done a lot of different marketing in my life. And content marketing, for me, is clearly the most fun. Let’s maybe define a little bit, what it is, and I’ll say why I think it’s the most fun.

Mark S: Please do!

Marc V: Basically, from a high level definition of what it is, you’re creating things that are specifically designed to engage a target audience. That’s like a marketing definition of what it is – a simple marketing definition of what it is.

What that means is you’re going to create articles, videos, pictures, information that is going to be valuable to somebody who could possibly visit your website or your social media, or be on your email list, or is Google searching for something.

Mark S: For example, we’ve got a great article on how to price embroidery work. Right? That is a great piece of written content.

On the Avance website, we’ve got a great infographic that talks about the best features, and why you need them, of the Avance 1501C. That’s a great kind of picture piece of content.

Then, we’ve got tons of videos. The ColDesi-Colman YouTube channel has over – I think we’re up to 1,100 videos on it.

Marc V: Somewhere over 1,000.

Mark S: And we’ve got at least four video channels, as well.

Marc V: Plus all of the videos that are just sitting in a folder, waiting to be edited and cut.

Mark S: I just realized that this is all we do is – this podcast is content marketing.

Marc V: This podcast is content marketing. Content marketing gets to be a lot of fun, because you’re bringing your customers in, potential customers. For example, with the embroidery article that you mentioned. So, it’s for a target audience. The target audience is people who embroider, or who are considering getting into embroidery. That’s the target audience.

They want to know “How do I price my work?” If you’re a member of the Custom Apparel Startups Facebook group, you realize that that’s probably the question that gets asked every hour. People want to know that.

Mark S: “What would you charge for this job? What would you charge for that?”

Marc V: Yeah. So, we said we need to be able to really break this down for some folks, and create a really good piece of content that’s designed for marketing. But in my opinion, a lot of things I’ve heard and read and seen on content marketing is that part of really good content marketing is that it is a little bit altruistic.

Mark S: It’s the value.

Marc V: Yeah, it’s the value. We give this. We took a long time to make that article on how to price embroidery. Right? I don’t know how many hours went into it, but man!

Mark S: It was a lot.

Marc V: Because we really wanted it to be great. Then, we put it out there, and it’s free for anybody to read. In exchange for that, we hope to gain followers and likes, and people to visit our website, and trust us.

Mark S: And buy lots of embroidery machines!

Marc V: And buy embroidery machines.

Mark S: But you know, it does fit in this kind of thing,  and we’re going to talk about different kinds of content, and why do it. But your primary motivation, where you have to sit and look at all of this stuff, is to be useful to people.

If you’ll notice, all of the pieces of content that we talk about are useful to people in some way. Maybe it helps them make a decision, or maybe it helps them take care of things, or it helps them get things more inexpensively, or to get the appropriate item. Or it just serves to inspire them in some way.

Marc V: We talk so much about how you, the listener out there or the viewers out there, as well; you’re the expert. You’re the apparel expert, and when somebody comes to you looking for t-shirts or caps or whatever it might be – promotional items – you’re the expert that they need.

Mark S: They don’t know what they’re looking for.

Marc V: They don’t know what they’re looking for. And sometimes, you think you know what you’re looking for, and you don’t. We’ve all experienced that. You go out shopping, and you think you want a particular gadget or appliance. Then, you get to the store and you talk to somebody, and you’re like “That’s not even what I wanted. I thought it was.”

So, this is all part of creating content marketing. I think we had a good example we discussed, and that was KitchenAid. KitchenAid has on their website, they have videos and written, and all types of stuff. Recipes, a cookie recipe.

They don’t sell any of the things to make cookies. Right? They sell the machines. The machines and the attachments. They don’t sell any sugar, or anything like that. But the article is all about sugar and chocolate chips, and what chips are the best, and stuff like that.

You find this recipe online from KitchenAid. It was given to you for free. You make them, you bring them to a party. Everyone loves the cookies. You feel really good that you found this awesome recipe, and boom! You’re a hero! You feel great.

They gave that to you for free, no strings attached. But now it’s time for you to get a new mixer, or a new attachment for your mixer, whatever it might be. So, you go to the big box store, and you’re walking around, and now you see.

Mark S: There’s KitchenAid!

Marc V: There’s KitchenAid, but then there’s the Hamilton Beach one. The Hamilton Beach thing is $99, and the KitchenAid one is $129. But immediately, now, you’re associating KitchenAid with -.

Mark S: That successful recipe.

Marc V: Yeah. “The recipe was great! I remember their website had so much information. The quality of the product looks really good. I watched the video, and the lady used the mixer, and it was really cool. Then, the guy had this other KitchenAid pan he used, which the cookies just slid off.” You want to own that, it’s so good!

Mark S: Right. So, you’re developing some goodwill there. It’s a very useful article, that recipe. You’re also getting some of the benefit. One of the primary benefits of doing content, especially written content, is SEO, search engine marketing.

The person that found that cookie recipe was not typing in “I need new kitchen appliances. I’m looking for a toaster. I’m looking for a coffeemaker.” They’ll have other pieces of content, maybe, to relate to that. But this is just a way to get people that just cook. “I cook.” “I embroider.” “I do vinyl.”

I do all of these things, and I’m going to find these useful articles on a website, and I’m being served up examples. The lady in the video for the KitchenAid recipe, they’re using KitchenAid appliances. There’s an ad over on the side, for KitchenAid.

Maybe you fill out a little form, you give them your email address, so you get notified when the next recipe comes out. And you’re getting marketed by KitchenAid.

Marc V: Yes. And I’ll tell you, the reason that this example fell right into my lap, thinking about this, is because -.

Mark S: You were making cookies?

Marc V: No. It’s just literally what happens to me, with KitchenAid. I don’t even remember how I first got the mixer, when I got the nice KitchenAid mixer, like a decade ago. But I got it. I ended up on an email list, which I normally would have unsubscribed from. It’s like “Why am I interested in any of this?”

But I got really cool pieces of content. I got some recipes, I some new attachments, all of these things people did with it. Every time I saw it, it was like “Cool, cool, cool!”

The next thing you know, ten years later, I’ve been engaged in their content. I’ve bought little trinkets here and there, over the past decade, but not a lot. And then, a decade later, I’m in a big box store, and I’m getting ready to buy a new dishwasher.

I’m torn between two models that fit exactly what I want. My big thing is – long story short – my kitchen area is close to where my TV is. So, a loud dishwasher is annoying. So, I said “I want a quiet one.” I got between the two, and I saw the GE and the KitchenAid one.

I bought the KitchenAid one. I trust them. I like them. I don’t know anybody who works there, but I like them, because of their content.

Mark S: So, you get those warm fuzzies. You get the pure marketing thing, from something like the recipe. You get people that feel good about you. You get them to engage with your content. They sign up on your email list.

Let’s talk about how that might relate to – or similar things that somebody could do in the t-shirt business, the same way.

Marc V: When we think about a little bit of how it relates to this business, for example, it might be you create a great piece of content that’s about how to choose the right apparel for your corporate business.

Mark S: Yeah. You would start with your niche market. So, if it’s corporate apparel, if it’s cheer, if it’s blue collar, if it’s uniforms, whatever it is, it’s how do you choose the right garment? What are the differences between going with a PK cotton and a synthetic polo shirt? That’s a great piece of content.

Marc V: “How To Choose The Best Uniforms For Your Contractors, Plumbers, and Auto Repairmen,” something like that, right? The title, by the way, is important, because that’s what people may search for. When they see it, they realize that’s for them.

So, how do you choose the right, for say, like contractors? For one, you probably want the material to not get a hole in it, if you accidentally drip battery acid on it, for example, if you’re a mechanic. When I used to work in an auto parts store, all of our uniforms were made from a particular type of material that, if you got a little bit of battery acid on you, which would happen every day – we installed batteries – it wouldn’t destroy the clothing.

The uniforms we had before that, when I first started working, as soon as you got a drop on the shirt, you knew it was done. There was nothing you could do about it. You could go to the bathroom and wash it immediately, but the next day, when you would go to wash it, there was a hole there.

Mark S: It could also be something that’s wrinkle-free or wrinkle-resistant.

Marc V: Wrinkle-free or wrinkle-resistant, yeah.

Mark S: You put yourself in the place of your potential customer. What is a purchasing agent for the local electric company going to look for, if he’s looking for new uniforms for his field personnel? Maybe he’s going to Google something like “stain resistant uniforms,” or “wrinkle resistant uniforms,” or something like that.

So, these are things that you would incorporate into the article on how to pick the right uniform for field technicians.

Marc V: Yes, that’s great.

Mark S: What are the best wrinkle-free uniforms on the market? That serves two purposes. Right? People are going to be looking for that article. Maybe they’ll find it, and they’ll find you, because of it. Or you might get that phone call, or somebody walking in your shop saying “Hey, I’m looking for a uniform for my field technicians.”

“You know what? I’m going to send you a link right now, to how you should choose one.”

Marc V: And it will help you pick between the good-better-best of those options, compared to they go to a different shop, or they call up somebody else, and somebody says “Oh, yeah. I’ve got a great shirt. I can do them for $8.99 apiece.” That, you know, is a price sell. He’s like “$9? That’s cheap. If I need ten of them, it’s less than $100. Heck, yeah!”

That’s what they’re thinking. However, that’s not the business that you want to be in. You don’t want to be that low price all of the time. That’s going to be a fight. Content marketing helps to get you out of that.

KitchenAid is not the lowest price in appliances, by any means, but they have great content. So, “Let me email you something that’s going to give you good-better-best, and then we’ll talk about some pricing afterwards.”

They see that. They love the one that says “best.” The owner, “I’m a big stickler for an ironed shirt. It drives me crazy, if I don’t have an ironed shirt. I hate when I see my guys come in. They’re all 22-year-old kids, and they wear the same shirt that they did yesterday!”

He’s going on a rant. You’ve solved the problem in this piece of content, by saying “No. If you get the best, you can crumple that shirt up in a ball, and throw it underneath the mattress, and pull it out, and it’s not wrinkled.”

Marc V: You may have found this podcast, because you were – I’m just going to use the embroidery [inaudible 00:14:44] for my example – you may have found this podcast, because you’re looking to get into the embroidery business, and you found the “How To Price Your Embroidery Work” article.

Or you may have just heard in the marketplace, about the Avance, which is not the cheapest embroidery machine in the world. Right? It’s the best, but it’s not the cheapest. You didn’t hear about it from a bunch of people who said “Oh, yeah. I found a $2,000 embroidery machine that I love,” or anything like that.

You heard about it because we have a reputation at ColDesi, for providing value like that to our customers. How do you price the work? How do you hoop a cap? How do you do all of these things that have to do with the use of an embroidery machine, or success in the embroidery business?

That’s what you’re doing, with this kind of article.

Marc V: You show people that you are an expert. You desire to be an expert. You desire them to understand, and know what’s going on, and why they should choose you. Or sometimes, when these articles have complete altruism in them, it’s really just “I’m going to give you some information that will really help you out. If I can help you out with something else, let me know.” And that’s it.

Mark S: It’s not like you’re going to set up like an email gateway, where they have to subscribe, to read an article, or anything like that. You’re engaging them.

Marc V: I might do that.

Mark S: You might do that.

Marc V: I might actually do that sometime.

Mark S: So, we’ve talked about written content, anyway. And we’ve talked about the reasons that you might do it is so people find your business, in the first place, SEO. You might do it to interact with people that you’re on the phone with, or in your shop.

You can also take that piece of content on choosing wrinkle-free uniform apparel, and you might publish that on your Facebook page or on your Google Plus page, or you might spread it around social media. You can engage with current customers that way.

If you are in a position where you can write something like that periodically, or hire somebody to do that, then you’ve got this piece of valuable content you want to get in front of as many people as possible.

So, you can put it right on your company Facebook page. There’s a local plumber – I wish I could remember their name – here in Tampa, that does things like that. They will say “Hey, this is how you can unclog your own drain. Here are the three steps.”

Now, you could say that they are killing their own business. But it’s really valuable. I’m never going to search for a new plumber like that. I might have a clogged drain. How do I unclog it? “Oh! I got this notice on Facebook!”

Marc V: I did this thing that they told me to do, and it worked. Great! Then, the next time you know probably how you’re going to find them again, or whatever it is. Maybe you liked them on Facebook or you signed up for their email, or you bookmarked them, or whatever it is.

Then, the drain clogs again. You try to do the thing again. “It’s not working this time. It’s got to be deep.” Then, you call them up, because you’re thankful for that.

I’ve got a couple more notes on the why, here. One we basically mentioned was about search. When somebody is searching for something on the web or on Facebook, or on Google or on Pinterest, or anywhere that you think your audience is going to be, remember, cater to your audience.

If your customers are all people who are on Pinterest, it’s probably a great idea for you to pin things, and write things for your website on there.

Mark S: If you’re thinking right now that your audience is everyone, then you need to go back and listen to the other 74 podcasts. You really do. Google “niche marketing,” Google “focused marketing,” things like that. You really need to listen to something else, because your customers are not everyone.

It will be broken down by region or by activity or by special interest. There is some kind of common theme there, that you’re going to appeal to.

Marc V: Exactly. And a side note on that is a little exercise to just look at your past customers, and try to find “Do I have a handful of them that fit within a theme?” Don’t say no, because they do. They all do. You have to find what that is. You have to find what that commonality is, and that can be your niche.

Mark S: You were going to talk about other whys.

Marc V: Yeah. Searching; I have here, if somebody is going to search for “Tampa t-shirt company,” “Tampa embroidery company,” something like that, they’re going to search for that. Part of your content is going to be making sure that your Facebook page, your Google page, Google My Business theme places, Yelp, anywhere you can get on, where you can register, that it’s all got a great description of what it is.

So, this piece of content that you’re creating here is really just an informative piece of content, so a potential customer searches, sees, and says ‘I’m in the right place.”

Mark S: Right. And we’re still talking about written content here.

Marc V: Yeah. This is 100% written.

Mark S: So, if somebody types in “custom t-shirt companies” into YouTube, for example, “how to make a custom t-shirt,” or something like that, then the description that’s all about your channel, Google and Bing and Vimeo, all of those places, just as an example, are not looking at the content of your video yet. They’re not watching your video and deciding whether or not what is in your video matches up to what people are searching.

Marc V: The AI will, soon!

Mark S: They will. What they’re doing is, one thing they look at is your description of your channel. It’s the same thing with Facebook. You get suggested Facebook pages that you might want to follow. One of the things that it’s based on is how you describe your Facebook page.

Marc V: Yeah, so your first piece of content is describing what your business is, in as many places that make sense. So for sure, if you’re a local business and you sell locally, 100%, you want to make sure that your Google My Business, Bing Places, Facebook, at a minimum, are ready to go, and have a good description of what you are.

I think that’s like the minimum piece of content that you need to create. It’s because when you go to search on Google – I did it yesterday morning. I just did random searches, like “Tampa embroidery company,” “Tampa t-shirt shop,” all different things like that.

Every single time, within that first Google page of results, there was at least one, up to three, Facebook pages that came up, because Facebook ranks high.

So, you need to have a Facebook page. You need to describe yourself well on that page. Then, other content you create is what’s going to happen when people go there.

Mark S: We’re talking about the basics.

Marc V: Yeah. The number one why is just because your first basic piece of content is actually going to just help people find you, when they’re searching, even if it’s nothing more than by accident. Literally just searching “Tampa embroidery company,” they hit “Go,” and they see the third one down is a Facebook page. They like using Facebook, they click it, it’s you.

Mark S: That goes into the SEO, into the getting found kind of reasoning to do that.

Marc V: Then, I put Yelp and Google Business, also as another note. Be sure to try to get everywhere that you can, where you think that your customers are going to search. So, not only ask yourself “How would I find a t-shirt company?” Ask friends and family. And then, say “No, literally. How would you do it? How would you search, if you were going to search?”

Mark S: Yeah. If you needed custom t-shirts.

Marc V: Do they open up Yelp? Do they open up Google? Do they open up Bing?

Mark S: Do they go back in time, and find a Yellow Page book? It could happen.

Marc V: Find out how they’re doing it, and then use that for inspiration, to say “Oh, I didn’t even think that I should also set up here. I didn’t even think that I should set up a profile on Waze, but one of my good friends, he searches for restaurants only on Waze.” That’s an app.

Mark S: That’s a good one.

Marc V: He’s like “When I want to find something, I open up Waze.” And guess what? There’s all types of ads and information and descriptions for restaurants in there, and some just say “Sushi.” Others say “Sushi Hibachi, in a wonderful home style atmosphere.”

Mark S: We haven’t even mentioned one of the good parts of content marketing. One of the fundamental things is that it’s mostly free. You’re building articles and putting them on the website that you already pay for. You are publishing them on Facebook, publishing them on Google.

You’re filling in your profile. This is free marketing, which you can’t say about advertising and things like that. That’s one of the big things about content.

Marc V: It’s great. And good content, as I mentioned earlier, is evergreen, meaning that you create something that lasts a long time.

“How do I properly size for shirts?” Because if you ask anybody “What size shirt are you?”, “Well, it’s small if it’s here, but it’s a 2x there.” That’s the answer you get. So, “How do I size shirts?” And you pick your favorite shirts, and how to size them.

And that piece of content that you created for free lasts a really long time.

The other big why for me is that it builds trust. Like in that KitchenAid example, it is a trust builder. Folks say all of the time, when we talk to them, “I’ve read your articles, I’ve listened to your podcasts, I’ve watched your videos. I feel like I know you guys.”

Mark S: “It feels like you guys care.”

Marc V: “It feels like you care.” It helps your customers know that, for one, hopefully you legitimately do care.

Mark S: Absolutely! You’re different. You’re setting yourself apart.

Marc V: I know I do. I know Mark does, here. When you do care, then you create good content. When you create good content that comes from a good place, then your potential customers will see and notice that.

Then, they’ll turn around and say “You know what? Mary’s T-Shirt Shop, I don’t know Mary. But I’ve read a couple of her things. I saw her on video a couple of times. I’ve been on her Facebook page. She seems like a good woman. I want to give her my business.”

All of us have made decisions like that, where we’ve never met the person or the business, or know anybody, but you trust them. So, it builds trust.

The third thing I want to say about why is because it gives you the opportunity for asking for customer feedback, and using that to create content, which further builds trust, which further creates more content. So, I think it’s really important to be able to take your kind of content marketing strategy, and you’re using it within your customer base, as well.

Which further ingrains them in. The reason is – there’s two. One is because it has to do with, if you go back to our Persuasion episode.

Mark S: Please do!

Marc V: If you have one of your customers publicly say out loud that they like you and you’re great, they are probably going to stick with that decision, and they’re going to repeat that.

Another thing that has to do with content marketing, while I’m thinking about the persuasion, is the reciprocity, which we talked about in that. If you give somebody a really good recipe, and it worked out great, they kind of feel a little bit of a debt to you, and they would want to buy the product.

The same thing. If you provided your customer some really good information on how to pick the right work uniform, and they took that to heart and said “Yeah! This is how I’m going to do it,” they’re more likely to buy from you than they are to take that piece of information and go to your competition and say “Go to SanMar and get me the 910,” or whatever it is.

Mark S: Absolutely. And to avoid the panic that some of our listeners might be feeling right now, or to try to get them to stay on, so they don’t stop the podcast right now, you don’t have to be a writer, to accomplish these things.

Marc V: No.

Mark S: What you have to do is be kind of an expert, or become an expert on these different things. For example, ways to brand your business, or the best leave-behinds when you visit. Those are two common topics there are a thousand articles on.

You can write down your ideas in a bullet point, and have someone that’s good at English in high school write you a 500-word article. Give them an assignment. You can find a contractor to do it, pretty easily, that will write you 500 or 800 words, which is about where you want to be if you write content, to clean it up and make it good.

You put your intent down. You put the information down. And there are people out there that will help you make it more presentable.

Marc V: You mentioned short. It doesn’t have to be long. 300, 500 words is not a lot to write, and that’s all you need. A little exercise you can do, if you’re kind of new to doing this and you haven’t done it before, is you can take your phone out or your computer, and put on the recorder app. Then, think of the question in your head, that you want to answer.

“How do I pick the right shirt?” Just talk about it to yourself out loud, and kind of say “Okay, how do I pick the right shirt? First, I’ll go here and here, and this, and this one’s good because of this, this and this.” Maybe you’re reading out of a book.

Now you can listen to that back to yourself, and take notes from what you said. Then, you’re writing it, at that point in time. Then, just put it into sentences.

If you run your own business, and you run an embroidery machine, or you run a direct-to-garment printer, you can put together 300 to 500 words that are nice, simple, easy to read, and make sense.

Mark S: Remember, they just have to be about topics that your customers or potential customers will care about.

But one thing we didn’t go over, and I think now might be a good time to do that, is that so far, we have really just been talking about words.

Marc V: Yeah, you’re right.

Mark S: The other basic parts of content marketing are pictures and videos. Everything that we just talked about, including the terror that some of you are feeling right now, applies to videos especially.

Sometimes, if I don’t feel like I can write anything else for a day, for doing content, then you’ve probably seen the videos. I will literally just go and stand in front of a camera and talk about DTG printing, or I’ll talk about what you can do with an embroidery machine, or my favorite things about this product.

You have somebody hold a phone, stand in front of the camera, and talk about different ways that you offer, that you can brand apparel or that you can brand your business. So, using the uniform example, instead of writing this 800-word, or in addition to writing this 500-word article on the best wrinkle-free uniforms, you could grab a sample, stand in front of somebody with a phone, and go “Look! Here are what we think are the properties of the best wrinkle-free uniform.”

“I’ve got this uniform material here, and I am flapping it back and forth, and look! It looks great! And honestly, it’s probably going to look this good at the end of the day, if your guys are out in the field. The reason that it’s wrinkle-free and the reason it works is it doesn’t scratch, it doesn’t stain. You can see it doesn’t wrinkle. It’s going to look good.”

“It embroiders really well. Look at this logo that I just embroidered.” You can do those little clips, and that’s another thing that you can upload to your YouTube channel or your website, that is going to keep people there longer. It’s going to educate them.

It shares really well. You put that on your Facebook page, and now anybody that is looking at buying uniforms, they’re going to share that with their boss or their partner, or the purchasing agent, and it’s going to help your business.

Marc V: For one, now you’ve terrified them. You thought they were scared at the words.

Mark S: Yeah. Now, you’ve got to stand in front of the camera.

Marc V: So, let me give you a few camera tricks, because first of all, so many people are deathly afraid to be on camera, more than less. For one, the counselor in me, it’s time to get over this.

Mark S: Yes. Your hair looks fine.

Marc V: Your hair looks fine. You walk around all day, every day, with people seeing you. You go to Walmart on a Sunday morning. You’re going to go to church on Sunday morning, but before you go and get dressed, you throw on a stained shirt and a pair of shorts, and you go to Walmart. You could get on video.

You were just in public like that. So, you can get on video. Here’s a couple of things you can do.

Mark S: That’s a terrible example.

Marc V: Have you been to Walmart on a Sunday morning?

Mark S: No.

Marc V: Okay, don’t. But for real, how you can actually get over it is really easy. It’s this easy. First of all, you can start alone. Take your phone, hit Record. Just prop it up against a wall, on a table against the wall. Don’t worry about the angle being perfect.

Get in front of it, and just make your first pitch. Go over, hit Stop, and play it back to yourself. If you feel okay about it, share it with your spouse or your brother or your business partner. Delete it. Do it again on a different day, or later that day. Do a different topic.

Get in front of it.

Mark S: Get comfortable.

Marc V: Do it until the anxiety goes away. Because what will happen is, after you do this thing ten times, eventually it’s like now it’s habit. It becomes simple.

You just go off and now you start talking about it, and then the confidence comes up. Your chest comes out, your shoulders are up, and you feel good. If you just got your hair cut or your hair done, or you just got your nails or a new dress or shirt, or whatever. If you’re feeling good, that’s a great time to practice, too. Just practice a bunch of times.

The second thing you can do is just ask somebody else that’s really good-looking or well-spoken.

Mark S: And I am available. Or, you know what? One thing that you can do is don’t be in the video. What you could do is you could – it’s better to be in the video. It’s scientifically better. People will stay more engaged, and they will like your content more, if there’s a face in it. That’s just the way we’re programmed.

But if you, let’s say back to embroidery, if you want to take that uniform example, and you just want to point your phone at an embroidery machine, while it’s sewing a logo out on a wrinkle-free uniform, then you can go “Hey, look. I’m embroidering this today for a specific company. But let me pan over here, and show you why we picked this particular garment.”

“It’s because it’s like this, it’s like this. It has these properties. It washes well. It will look good at the end of the day.” Go back to the embroidery, and say “Look. You can call me any time, and I’ll help you pick out the right product for you.” Click.

It’s a 60-second video. Once you’re done with that, you can upload it on YouTube and Vimeo. You can put it on your website. If you do it right, you can put it up on Instagram. You can make it so people will find it, and they’ll see you doing your work. And they’ll get the same information they would in the article, just consume it in a different way.

Marc V: Yep. It’s fantastic, and it’s so easy. And you could do all of this from a tablet or a mobile device, including editing, adding your business name, adding your logo at the end. You can do all of that stuff right from your mobile device, if you want to.

If you’re better and you want to use a computer, and get some better software, you can get into that, too. But you don’t need that.

Mark S: Right. We had one of the new people on Custom Apparel Startups just this week. They signed up, and they posted a great video that they had done. It was their first try with iMovie. They used their iPhone, and they took a video clip of some of their team weeding vinyl, and some of the shirts that were done, and some of the equipment that they were using, and the vinyl cutter cutting stuff out.

It was great! It needed a few tweaks, because it was a first effort, but I’d be very comfortable as a business owner, sharing that video, so people would know a little bit more. “Oh! That’s how they do it. That’s really interesting!”

Marc V: And if you’re struggling with the app, and you can’t figure out how to do it, just give it to like a seven-year-old, and they’ll know how to do it.

Mark S: Literally, any seven-year old. So, words, we talked about videos. Let’s just talk briefly about pictures.

Marc V: Okay.

Mark S: And pictures goes for graphics, as well.

Marc V: Yeah. I think the great thing about pictures is it goes right along with the words, because you can do pictures with a caption. And that could be your whole post, just a short caption and a great picture.

I think on pictures, just make sure that they’re clear, and that there’s not weird stuff going on in the background.

Mark S: Again, just this week, I’d come in on Monday, and over the weekend, they printed out some new DTG sample shirts to send out, these white shirts. Three different graphics, and they were amazing. They looked great.

Marc V: Those were so cool. They’re on the Facebook page, right? They’re so cool.

Mark S: Right. I took my phone, literally, and I laid them out on the table in the showroom, and I took three pictures. I posted it up, and I just told everybody what happened. “I came in today, took these pictures, and they’re great! They’re like 30 cents apiece in ink.” You might not want to publish that, if you’re selling the shirts.

It got great interaction. People loved the images. It’s a great use of content. So, imagine yourself, you’re doing a job for a cheer group, and you’re doing bling, and as the machine is finished, as you do your final press, you’re looking at the glitter vinyl or the spangles or whatever, and you take a picture. You just put underneath it “I loved doing this job! It came out great!”

Then, send that over to the Facebook page of your customer, and share that. What’s the value-add for people, when you do something like that? You inspire people to think outside the box. You’re getting them excited about wearing the shirt, about representing this company.

You’re letting them know these are your expectations. These are the kinds of things that you should expect. What do you expect, when you’re ordering uniforms? Well, you should expect “Your embroidery looks like this. Look! There’s no strings. There’s no puckering. It looks great! The colors are good.”

Great examples of using words, videos and pictures.

Marc V: And what’s so cool about pictures is that one job that you do, if you’re doing and taking a picture of that completed job, you could set up those shirts in a handful of ways. You get a picture of your customer wearing one, you get a picture of them on a table, you get a picture of them on a machine.

You get all of these pictures, you get like 15 pictures, and all of this content can last for a long time, too. Just because you did the job today, and you shared it on Facebook today, doesn’t mean that you don’t hold on to a few of those pictures for a few months down the road, and say “Hey, for those who didn’t see, a while back, I posted this. Here’s some more pictures of me doing the work.”

Mark S: We do stuff like that. But more importantly, Facebook is a master at this. When you log into your profile in the morning and it says “Here’s a memory from a year ago. Here’s a memory from five years ago,” what are they doing? They’re encouraging you to re-share a picture that you’ve already published.

So, you guys can do that. Take a couple of good pictures. Ask if you can go onsite to the electric company. Everybody is using the uniform. Do they have a meeting? You can go take a picture of everybody in uniform. Whatever it is, pictures of your equipment or your shop. They’re things that serve a lot of purposes, including just keeping your customers engaged in you and your business.

Marc V: It’s great. One way to get pictures, and I think we can talk now a lot, more about how to do this.

One way you can get great pictures and you can get great content, and it can be videos or written or pictures this way, is user-generated content.

Mark S: UGC! That’s the industry term.

Marc V: UGC. We mentioned it, I think, a little bit earlier. “Can you send me a picture with all of the kids wearing their sports uniforms? That would be great! I’d love to share it on Facebook, if that’s okay.”

“Hey, do me a favor. If you really like the shirts, will you take a picture of a few people wearing them, and post it to my Facebook page?”

Mark S: You do a company event. “Do you have any videos of anybody playing any games or anything at the company event, wearing our shirts? If you do, do you mind if I grab that?”

Marc V: Yeah. “Send it to me, please. It will help me out.” There’s a lot of different ways you can encourage that even further. Like we mentioned in other episodes giving a free cap or a free koozie as a bonus. You could put a card in there. “Hey, here’s a free koozie. By the way, if you could send me a couple of pictures of some folks wearing the shirts, I’d love to share it on my Facebook page!”

Mark S: One of the things that we talked about in a previous episode – we really have to start writing this down – one of the other things that we talked about in a previous episode is the idea of following your biggest customers on Facebook.

For example, if you are following the American Cancer Society on Facebook, and you do their charity shirts, then they will be posting pictures of that event on their company Facebook page or organization Facebook page, and you can share those pictures. So, that’s user-generated content.

You have a cheer organization that wins a championship, and they’re putting pictures all over their Facebook page. Then, you share that and say “Congratulations! I love it when my customers succeed! Really enjoyed doing these shirts for you guys. They look great!”

That’s great. It’s perfectly appropriate, and you did not have to do anything, except make sure you’re aware that that was happening.

Marc V: What’s so cool about that is it touches everything we just said. It’s got the altruism in it, because like you said, “I really do like it when my customers win the championship.” It’s so cool, right? So, you’re happy for them.

Then, you share that out, and it makes them feel good. You get a little bit of the reciprocity back on there, because they like to see.

Also, new customers, potentials see that. They go to your Facebook page for the first time, because you wrote a great Facebook little blurb about what you do. Somebody searched, and that day is the day that you shared that image. It’s right on the top of your Facebook page, and they see that. And then the warm and fuzzies flow through.

They just see that, and they’re like “Oh, my gosh! Look at this! These kids are so cute!”

Mark S: You get to humble brag. You’re not saying anything, but “I’m just publishing all of these pictures of this fantastic work that I’ve done.” Right?

Marc V: Yeah, so you get people to feel good. Now, they trust you. “Look at this page. I know that plumbing company. They actually fixed my [inaudible 00:41:36]. I didn’t even know that they he did the uniforms for them.” Or “Oh, I can’t wait for my kid to go into soccer. I’d love for them to do that.” Then, you see that.

All of that is going to make people feel good. It’s going to help build trust. Then, they’re going to see other people liked you, and use your for your business, compared to going to a Facebook page that’s dead and empty and blind. There’s nothing there, and when somebody goes there, they either decide to call or not.

Mark S: That whole description just bummed me out. Dead and empty and blind. That’s terrible.

Marc V: Yeah. Go to a Facebook page that has no posts, and it feels like that. It feels like a desert.

So, what are some other things you could do?

Mark S: I like events. We just did a podcast recently, on doing events. If you are going to go do a fair or a market or a show, that is a hotbed of potential content, especially pictures and videos. You should take a picture of your booth. You should take a video of your booth.

You should take a picture and video of people in your booth, every time somebody buys a shirt. You should say “You know, if you put this on and come back, I’d love to take a picture.”

You’re walking around the show and you see somebody with something that you created on, they’re wearing one of your hats. Say “Hey, do you mind if I take a picture?” Boom! You do a Facebook Live video of the same thing.

You do that when people buy stuff in your store. “Hey, we’ve got a changing room. Do you want to go put that shirt on right now? I’d love to take your picture.”

Marc V: So many people will say yes.

Mark S: So many millennials will say yes. They’re always taking their own picture, anyway.

Marc V: As deathly afraid as people are of planning to do a video, and then recording it and being like “I’m doing a promotional video. I have no clue what to say. I forgot every word, and I can’t believe my hair looks like this on video, and I hate my voice!”

However, if somebody is taking a picture in public, what happens? You jump in! So, when you ask your customers “Can I take a picture? Can I shoot a video of you guys wearing my shirts?” So many people are going to say yes.

Mark S: Or you could just say “Obviously, you’re 25 years old. You’re going to be taking a selfie within the next four minutes, anyway. Could you just send me that? Just tag me.”

Marc V: Yeah, it’s great. Some other things – we have event videos. We mentioned apparel care video.

Mark S: I love that.

Marc V: Yeah, I think that’s really cool.

Mark S: It serves a couple of purposes.

Marc V: We were talking about it serves you and it serves your customer. For one, a little kind of public service announcement; you’re in the apparel industry. You sell apparel for a living, you make apparel for a living. You should be an expert on how to wash, care, dry, iron apparel. You should know how to do that.

You should understand, when should I use cold? When should I use bleach? When should I use fabric softener? All of these things, you should know all of this stuff.

Mark S: What’s the best fabric for this situation, because of the way you care for it?

Marc V: Yes. Then, you can create a piece of content that tells your customers “Hey, if you’re using this style of shirt, I’m going to tell you the proper way to care for it. Here’s the do’s and the don’ts.” You can show some don’ts.

You could take something and wash it on high. Take a white shirt, and wash it on hot, with red shirts. Then, they come out pink in the dryer, and shrunk.

Mark S: Here’s a great idea. Go buy some of those $7 shirts that people advertise.

Marc V: Oh, yeah.

Mark S: And get some of the shirts that you would normally recommend, and wash them, and just show them. Especially if the shirt doesn’t maintain its structure and it skews, it twists, which happens a lot with cheap shirts.

Marc V: Or have somebody try it on. Then, you see the shirt’s gone up three inches.

Mark S: This serves a couple of purposes. You are really serving your customer, because you are helping them make a better decision on picking a better shirt. You’re also putting that on your website. So, if somebody comes back to you and says “My design, the shirt cracked after the first wash.”

“Really? Did you visit this page? Did you wash it inside out? Did you do it in cold water? Did you hang it to dry? Did you bleach it?”

Marc V: Whatever the instructions are.

Mark S: “I don’t know. I just washed it with everything else.” “Well, you’ll get better results if you do the things that I provided for you.”

Marc V: It’s true. It doesn’t matter what it is. It doesn’t matter if it’s embroidery, if it’s rhinestones, if it’s spangles, if it’s Digital HeatFX, if it’s direct-to-garment. Whatever it is, period, if you wash clothes properly, they last longer. That doesn’t even matter if it’s custom decorated by a small shop or by Ralph Lauren.

You could take the nicest shirt you own, and it says “dry clean only,” and wash it in cold and low tumble dry, and it comes out, and it’s destroyed, because you shouldn’t have done that. Your apparel is the same way.

You can make this content. This content is really cool, because then you can ask your customer – say it’s the coach – to share it with the team.

Mark S: Absolutely.

Marc V: Not only is this going to serve them, because their shirts are going to last longer. It’s going to serve you back, because they’re happier, because their shirts lasted the whole season, and still looked perfect. And all it was, was because they did not put fabric softener in it, because maybe that was not good for the garment you were using.

Mark S: I agree. You’ve got some other good examples here, like “How to order custom t-shirts online, working with a custom t-shirt company.” You can do an article and a video of the things that you should expect.

One of them could be “Here are the things that you should expect. You should expect a full description of the kind of material, and the wash instructions that are in the shirt that you’re getting decorated, so you’ll know if it’s good quality. Here’s a couple of things you can look for: You can look for the weight. You can look for the fabric mix, whatever that is.”

“Here is how an order should go, how an order should be placed: You should get a confirmation email. You should get a phone call from somebody.” And you can tilt it toward your business. Because there’s a benefit to working with a very small business, a boutique custom apparel shop, versus a Café Press or a Zazzle.

And “You should be able to, if you have any questions about your order, pick up the phone and call the guy who is going to be doing the shirt for you.” That serves your potential customer, and it’s a great piece of content for you to point to.

Marc V: Yeah. “What questions should you ask, if you’re going to order custom t-shirts?” That could be a great piece of content. “What’s the material, or the shirt made out of? How are you going to decorate it?” Etcetera, whatever they are.

Mark S: “The difference between a $7 and a $20 custom shirt.”

Marc V: Yeah. “What weight is it? You said it’s 100% cotton. What type?” “What do you mean, what type?” “Is it ring spun?” You educate your customers, because you know that you’re going to provide a really quality garment, so if they go somewhere else and they ask these questions, they’re going to get the answers you just told them are the ones they don’t want to hear.

Mark S: You could also do something that emphasizes the difference, if you’re a Digital HeatFX or a direct-to-garment printer, the possibilities between the two technologies. So, if you are, for example, you’re fighting against that $10 or $12 shirt from a screen printer down the road, what you could do is you could highlight the difference in a design with an unlimited number of colors, versus two.

Because one of your advantages is going to be that “I don’t care what you give me. Give me a full color photo. Give me a full color graphic. I’m not going to charge you any different, because of the number of colors.”

“So, you can get a $12 shirt from a screen printer, that has one color and a saying, or you can get a $20 shirt from Digital HeatFX or DTG, that has whatever you want on it.”

Marc V: Millions of colors.

Mark S: You can turn that into an article or a video, or whatever you want.

Marc V: These are all great, and these are all simple things that anybody listening to this can do. You could do this right after you stop this, and you sit down. You can go and you can take some pictures or take a video right away. This is all simple stuff.

Another thing you put here is you put success stories. We already kind of mentioned that a little bit earlier. “I love to look at the soccer team.”

Mark S: Absolutely. I love to do that.

Marc V: The “About Us.” That would be if you have a website, you have an “About Us” page.

Mark S: That really should be your first piece of content, along with the description of your Facebook page and your YouTube channel.

Marc V: Remember the basics on this stuff. What should it do? It should help people understand that they’re in the right place. It should help build trust in who you are. And there should be some altruism, so the customer really trusts and believes that you’re going to take care of them.

So, an “About Us” page should say “We’re an embroidery shop. We are really passionate about apparel. We are really going to help you out, and we’re going to make sure that you get everything you want, and more.”

Mark S: “We specialize in these things. We serve this area. We are more concerned that you’re happy, than making an extra 50 cents on a shirt.”

Marc V: Yeah. These are all great things, and these are simple. You can go back to older episodes, like you mentioned a specific area. If you’re in a city, but the area of town you’re in, like there’s an area of Tampa called Temple Terrace. People who live there, their address is Tampa.

However, if you do live there, you might search for “T-shirt shop in Temple Terrace.” So, just because your address is Tampa, if there’s a community name, put that in your description, too. And this is true for Facebook, for YouTube, for your Instagram, everywhere.

We did mention that if there’s a Facebook page, load that up. YouTube, if you’re going to do video. By the way, a bunch of pictures in a row, thrown into an app -.

Mark S: That’s a video.

Marc V: Turned into a slide show, with some words typed over it, is a video, as well. So, even if you only do pictures, and you’re not really getting into video yet, you could take a bunch of pictures, put it into a phone app, create a slide show that’s 30 seconds long.

Mark S: Before I forget, if you are going to publish pictures on your website, or anywhere really, make sure that you treat the description for those pictures just like you would an article. You’re going to mention your business in the description. You’re going to put what it is, “Custom t-shirt care instructions by” the name of your company.

Because again, when someone is searching for something, you’re often served up images as part of the results. So, if you search “DTG printer,” for example, there’s a very good chance you’re going to find a picture of one of ColDesi’s DTG printers. That’s because – what do we call it? We call it the “DTG M2 DTG printer from ColDesi, where we sell and support DTG printers.”

We make each individual picture and the description, an event by itself.

Marc V: Yeah. And when you’re doing all of this stuff, I also want to make sure, always remain tasteful and thoughtful in how a customer is going to perceive it. Sometimes, what can happen with content is somebody is so either afraid of someone stealing their art, or want to make sure, “I want everyone to know definitely, I made this.”

So, they put a giant logo of theirs, like crooked in the middle, and it blocks the whole image. Now, it’s not even pleasant to look at anymore. So, think about the taste in that. “Okay, I want to put a logo on every image.” Throw it in the corner, in the same spot.

Mark S: And you guys can relax, because most of your stuff, if it’s good, will get stolen at some point. Just don’t stress.

Marc V: And just like we talked in the episode with the copyrights and such, like that, your designs can get stolen. But there’s things that you can do. Remember, when you take a picture of something and you post it online, go back and listen to that episode. That actually gives you some rights to that, too.

Not only do you get the content marketing and the customer and the trust, and all of that, but you also get a little bit of protection for the work that you create. It’s very cool. It does so much.

Mark S: Man, we’ve done some really good podcasts!

Marc V: Yeah. Is there anything else to cover?

Mark S: No. Before we wrap up, which it’s getting a little late. I think we should.

Marc V: We’ve got a couple of minutes.

Mark S: Before we wrap up, what I want to stress here is, actually I want to make an offer.

Marc V: Alright, do it!

Mark S: If you have your company description that you are thinking about using in your “About Us” or in your Facebook page, or you’re working on a particular piece of content that you’re not sure about, you can send it to me. I’ll take a quick look. I’ll make sure that it’s long enough, and I’ll help you with keywords and things like that.

Just send it over! Send it to mstephenson@ColDesi.com, and we’ll give it a quick look. We’re glad to help. If I don’t understand something, or I need some help, Marc is the real pro.

Marc V: He’ll just send it to me.

Mark S: That’s what will happen.

Marc V: A lot of that happens here! We were joking the other day, but there’s a report that we’re putting together. I don’t know if I told you this. But a gentleman here named Joe, if you guys have talked to him, he’s a Sales Manager. He said “I’m trying to put together this report on this information, etcetera.”

I was like “Yeah, I can do that. Sure!” He was like “Great! Can you do it and send it to me, so I can take credit for the whole thing?” I was like “That was my plan anyway!”

But for real, if you want help on any of this, shoot it over to us. You can also feel free to post it on the Custom Apparel Startups Facebook group.

Mark S: That’s a good idea.

Marc V: Because you’re going to get other people to comment, too. I’ll tell you what, man. Some of the responses and comments that I’ve seen people make, I’m like “Man! That was so good! I wish that was my idea! I wish I would have said that!” You’ll get great feedback from other people.

One or both of us are glad to read. Same thing, if you make a video and you think it’s terrible, I promise you this. I have no problem telling somebody “Don’t ever share that online.” I’ll tell you, but don’t be afraid of that.

Mark S: If you’re looking for the sensitive answer, don’t ask us. We’ll give you the real answer.

Marc V: I’m not just going to say yes, but I will say “Here’s the two things to improve, and then do it.” Or I would say “This is definitely good enough to post. Don’t re-shoot this one. However, next time add more light to the room.”

Mark S: I think that’s exactly what I did for the video that the guy posted on the CAS group.

Marc V: I guess the homework today – I always like to leave with homework, right? Is make one piece of content marketing, before this week is out.

Mark S: Good.

Marc V: The day that you’re listening to this. I hope you’re not listening to it on Sunday at 11:50 PM, because you’ll run out of time soon. But before the week is out, go ahead and find something good, interesting. Take a little video of something. Write something down.

Gather some testimonials from customers, and put them into a little article. “This is why people liked me.”

Mark S: And if Leah is listening, then what you can do is you can record while you’re listening to the podcast. You can record a video of yourself listening to the podcast on your way to a show that you’re going to do, and you can say “I’m on my way to my next event! This is Leah, and I’m in this business, and I do this kind of stuff. And man, when I get to that event, I’m going to show you some pictures of the work that we’ve done. You’re going to love it!”

Do that, and then cut it in with some pictures of the work that you do, and that’s great!

Marc V: What’s interesting about that is someone might think “Does anybody care to watch me sitting in my car, getting ready to drive to an event? Like I’m about to buckle up?”

Mark S: Surprisingly, yes!

Marc V: Also, it’s about that trust. It’s about understanding who you are. It’s about them looking at you and saying “You know what? Leah is a real person.

Mark S: “Working hard in the business.”

Marc V: “I see that she drives a Toyota Highlander. I have one, too!” They see all of this, they see a value, they see you’re a real person. Also, it’s about they know that you care. Really, customers love that. They feel terrible when they think, like some reviews that we get when sometimes, we are unable to help somebody with their problem. I mean literally, it’s not what we do.

It’s like somebody comes to you and says “I really need pens,” and you’re like “I’m not into that.” And then, they’re mad at you, that you don’t do pens. That happens, right?

But sometimes what you’ll see in those reviews and comments, and you’ll see in restaurant reviews everywhere, is “The waitress didn’t even care that I said that I don’t like olives.”

Mark S: Actually, last story. My daughter lives in Orlando, in an apartment. She’s had some maintenance problems in the unit. Literally last night, she’s telling us one of the maintenance guys came by, there’s a leak in the ceiling periodically, and he’s like “There’s just no way for us to fix it. I’ve got 400 people in this complex I’ve got to take care of. I can’t return your phone calls really quickly, and there’s nothing I can do about this.”

The thing that angered her the most was that the guy obviously didn’t care. So, these kinds of little videos that you do, that are an insight into your life and your business, and what you’re doing to make the shirts and make your business successful, and take care of t-shirts, and give them some business advice on branding, all of that stuff leads to them believing that you care, and want to do business with them.

Marc V: I’ll tell you, you may make a video and share it online, and you might get a customer right away, from that one video. That’s so cool, when that kind of stuff happens. It happens here. We share a video, and then we get a phone call, “I just watched this video on Facebook!” I’m like “I just put it up, like a minute ago!”

That might happen, but more than likely, you’re going to make a bunch, and you’re going to say “Only one person liked it?” That doesn’t mean that only one person watched it, and that doesn’t mean that that video is not just sitting there, ready for somebody to come down the line.

Mark S: The right person is going to share it.

Marc V: They’re scrolling, and “What’s this company all about?” And boom! They find it, they see the picture of the soccer team. It was from last January. It was 16, 17 months ago. And they saw that, and it’s like boom! That was the gold, for them, and you’re doing business with them.

Mark S: Then, you get a call from National Soccer.

Marc V: Yeah! It could be something that doesn’t get you business now, but later. So, when you create this, create this stuff in confidence, knowing that marketing experts all over the world, everywhere you go, anybody who really studies marketing, what do that say content is?

Mark S: Content is king.

Marc V: Content is king. You hear that all of the time. Content is king, they say, because content is one of the pieces of marketing that just really destroys everything else, in getting people to want to come and be your customer. It is better than everything else.

Great advertising that you pay for is great, but if the content on the website is really bad, or the Facebook page is a desert, so much of that money goes [inaudible 01:01:05].

Mark S: I feel really good about this piece of content we just finished!

Marc V: Oh, my gosh!

Mark S: So, this is what you’re going to do next. You are going to let us know if you would like us to take a look at a piece of your content. You are going to find this recording on YouTube, with a great description in it, and you’re going to share that piece of content with us.

You’re going to listen to this piece of content on iTunes or Google or Stitcher, wherever you consume podcasts, and you’re going to share that. Then, other people are going to fall in love with the Custom Apparel Startups podcast. They’re going to learn more about content marketing, and all of our businesses are going to be better.

Marc V: That’s literally how it works.

Mark S: Awesome! Well, this has been Mark Stephenson, from ColDesi.

Marc V: And Marc Vila, from Colman and Company.

Mark S: You guys have a great business!

Pin It on Pinterest