Start With A Win - Top Five Ways to Engage with Customers

Episode Date: December 2, 2020

Our topic on this episode of Start With A Win is the top five ways to engage with customers, starting with the simplest and moving up to the methods that make a lot of people squirm. All of these methods will achieve more customer engagement by allowing you to be more present in the minds of your customers and leads.Phone calls – This is the traditional method of engagement, which was the only option before the technological advances of the past few decades, and it remains the foundational component of the customer experience. Even if you initially reach out to customers through a different method, the ultimate goal is to connect with them over the phone. This personal conversation creates an emotional commitment.Email – This is the next level of communication because it allows you to scale your message, reaching more people in less time. With email, your subject line and subhead are crucial for achieving a desirable open rate, so consider using a “listicle” or a group of three. Analysis after the fact is very important in determining why more people didn’t engage and how you could improve the next email or campaign.Video – Video is the way to scale your message and still be present with each customer. In 2020, more than ever before, video is playing a huge role in business and relationships. Evergreen videos have a long shelf-life because people like to see how things are done rather than just reading articles about it. Studies have shown that most executives prefer video to text. Storytelling – By nature, people are attracted to and fascinated by stories. The chemicals and hormones released by this type of connection and engagement create action and lead to loyalty and long relationships. If you take people on the hero’s journey, presenting a problem, agitation, and a solution facilitated by a guide, they will stick with you and want to hear more.Live streaming video – All of the other methods have been building up to this moment, this opportunity, this unnecessarily terrifying action: combining public speaking with video. Rather than letting the fear of public speaking overcome you, be confident and put yourself out there through live streaming video that is dynamic, authentic, and engaging. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn all offer live video options, so go for it!Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos https://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Hey, Mark. Adam. What's going on, my friend? You know, just putting out the vibes, enjoying this beautiful fall. I love it. I love it. It's beautiful around here, and there's a lot of question going on in business right now.

You want to know what that is? I do. What is that? It's how to create engagement, because we've all been through a lot. And what do you say we talk about how to create engagement today? I think that's a fantastic idea. Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the win nation. And coming to you from the dance studio, CEO of Remax, Adam Contos here,

looking across the screen at producer Mark. How you doing, buddy? I am doing so good. I actually had a cold last week and I just got these residuals, you know, like the stuffies. Everyone's looking at me strange, like, hey, what's going on with you? I'm like, hey, I'm fine. It's not the time for people to be questioning your health, is it? I know. It's, you know, but- You know what that does though? It certainly creates engagement. You know, it does create engagement. I start to engage with my audience, whoever that might be. I don't know if it's good or bad engagement, but it certainly creates engagement. In fact, that's what I want to talk about today because I have recently put out several training videos

on five ways to increase engagement and why does this matter? So how about we go through those today? Yeah, I think that is something that we all need to be reminded of and educated on. So number one, let's go. All right, Mark, we're going to start basic and then we're going to get a little more uncomfortable throughout this. Okay. Does that work for you? I like to be uncomfortable.

All right. All right. Here we go. So, I mean, the first one, let's talk about traditional engagement. And we've all participated in this type of engagement since we could possibly hold something in our hand and talk. And that is pick up the phone, the traditional way of getting out there. So, really what we're trying to do with engagement overall and getting on the phone when somebody does this is become emotionally involved or committed in this particular relationship. When you're talking to somebody on the phone, it certainly causes that to happen, doesn't it? Oh, yeah. And it's funny because I remember being in middle school and I don't know, you know, my sister was always on the phone

and, uh, but I would, you know, talk to a friend for maybe like an hour. Like we would just sit on the phone, like, what are you doing? It's like building Legos. What are you doing? You know? And then we would just, just be there talking, breathing on the phone. Some people that listen to this won't even know this, but it used to be where you could only make or receive one call at a time. And then you got this thing called call waiting. And in that whole process, our phone was tied to the wall. So we couldn't really walk very far because you had the handset stuck to the side of your head and you can only go as far as your phone cord was long.

I did have a cordless phone, but it had a retractable antenna and it was the size of a football. Do you remember the fatal mistake with the cordless phone? Would you take your hand and try and push the antenna down from the top? It snaps it in half. It's like, dang it. Oh, well. Really, this is interesting because we look back and we's like, dang it. Oh, well. So really, this is interesting because we look back and we're like, it was so much fun making phone calls. Why did we stop doing that? Because that truly is one of the best ways to create engagement. And it's interesting because we have to think small here. Let's think small and then work our way bigger with these engagement processes. Because ultimately, every one of these does lead to a conversation where you need to understand at some point, I'm either going to be face-to-face or on the phone speaking with somebody about

what's going on. Now, you may create a transaction digitally, but ultimately, there's no reason for you to not pick up the phone and say thank you or something like that. So this is the foundation, is the conversation, otherwise known as picking up the phone. And by the way, by the way, business leaders, if you want another customer, pick up the freaking phone. Okay? I mean, just bottom line, pull out that, that contact list and pick up the phone

and engage. So that's number one. Just one thing to wrap up. I will say is that it's a warm, fuzzy feeling when you actually get a phone call from somebody, you know, it's like, you know, we'll text back and forth or whatever, but sometimes you'll just give me a call and I'm like, Adam's calling me, you know, and you're like in your car, like on the way somewhere or whatever. And it's like, we have a good conversation. And there is something I would say that's next level connection, just doing a phone call. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We're going to get to that. We're going next level, my friend. We're going next level. Number two.

Well, but actually, number two is next level, but it's not quite next level. And number two is more about scaling your communication. So we're starting with basic, then we're talking about scaling communication. How do you reach more people in less time? So number two is about reaching more people in less time, but is less personal. And that is email. So a lot of people are like, email's dead. That's a bunch of hooey.

Email is not dead, okay? Email is not dead. Email is incredibly powerful if you can get decent open rates. So the way you get decent open rates is you have to be connecting and engaging via your subject line. So there's two places where email really matters. This is going to be like a mini two-minute masterclass on email here. Essentially, what matters is what is your subject line and what is your subhead there? So your subject line is that header line where, you know, like when you pull out, if you pull out your phone, I don't care what kind of phone you have, and it says who the email is from and when you got it, basically. But it gives you a subject line. Now, if you've shrunk down the text a little bit, you also see what is the next line of text.

Yeah, you can read the first two or three lines of the email. Yeah, those things that are right there, that's where the gold has to be. That's where you have to really get their attention and create the engagement in the email in order for them to actually open it and go further. Now, most email campaigns or most times people send out emails, unless it's like an expected conversation, like, I'm like, hey, Mark, I'll email you this. And you're like, okay, thanks. And I'll go, all right, here it is. And you're waiting for it. The open rate on those is really, really high and you're likely to read it because you're waiting for it. The open rate on those is really, really high and you're likely to read it because you're expecting it and we've agreed upon it. But most email open rates are less than 30%. If you can hit even above, even into the teens or the 20s, you're doing really well.

It's big. Yeah. It is. But the bottom line is, when you take a step back and you look at it, you look at the contact list, you're emailing, you're like, okay, let's say 15% of the people that your email actually opened. Why didn't the other 85% open your email? Did it suck? Was it not engaging? Was it that it was the wrong thing at the wrong time or a combination of one of those two things? I mean, the reality is email is good for continuous presence, but not necessarily continuous engagement. Right. And there are a few different kinds of emails.

A couple kinds of emails. One is there's a direct message, a, you know, hello, Mark. I wanted to share an idea with you today. I've seen this challenge occur in many businesses. Here's blah, blah, blah. What's going on? You know, that's a direct email. Then you also have things like a email campaign that they sign up for. my weekly videos or my annual business plan or occasional value bombs that I'm sending your way,

whatever it might be. Or here's one that's really common. And if you don't have one of these and you have an email list, you're missing out. You need to have a newsletter. And I'm not talking about like a traditional newsletter. I'm talking about something that actually has some decent information and make them get used to seeing something from you. Call it like on Thursday or something like that. You know, like what is it? James Clear has three to one. Oh, I was going to say that.

Yeah, that is. It's why I look forward to it every week because I'm like, you know, they're out of all the paragraphs. There may be just be one quote or something in that email that I'm like, all right, this was valuable to me. You know, I'll copy and paste and share with the team or or something like that. So yeah. And I don't remember what three quotes means, but it's like three quotes, two ideas, and one thing from me. Something like it's catchy. It's catchy. And by the way, we think in threes. So if you can, like in your email subject line, you can give them three reasons why, or three things to look at or three challenges of you're likely, it's called a listicle where you're listing things out. You're likely to get opened more. So just think about

that. So we got number one is make phone calls. Number two is email. So you ready to get a little crazy here, Mark? Yeah, let's get crazy. Okay, so this is one that starts getting scary. We started small. We learned how to scale. Now we can scale and still be present with video. And the reality is video has made a larger impact this year than ever before. And a greater impact than ever expected. Why?

Because we couldn't be with each other and we miss that interpersonal relationship that occurs with seeing somebody's face, hearing their voice, and understanding their motions, their posture, their body language, things like that, all at the same time. Which is why when there was a transition way back in the 1900s, when we went from radio to television, people couldn't handle not watching it because they're like, whoa, I get to see this person. And we had movies and we started falling in love with people via a parasocial relationship, which is like a one-way relationship where you see somebody and you're like, I really like that person because they do something for me. I might not know what it is, but they do something for me. Or it's possible that the thing that they do for you is something that irritates you so bad that you just can't get away from you know it's a bad train wreck in your life i mean it's reality yeah we love extremes right either very helpful or unfortunately very hurtful sometimes so you know as some people like comedians who are really brash and insulting you're like

that was funny i mean frankly i don't find that you know that that doesn't do it for me i like helpful and growth and things like that but some people are that, that, that doesn't do it for me. I like helpful and growth and things like that. But some people are entertained by that. Yeah. Well, why do you think, you know, news is so polarizing, right? It's like, this is so stressful and there's so many polarizing ideas going on, but it, people are drawn to it. Totally. So I'm going to give you just a few real quick statistics on video here. So 78% of people watch video online each week, 78%. So remember we talked about, you know, up to 30% of your customers may open your emails. This is like, there are probably 20% who don't watch your videos. So flip the paradigm. There are more

people watching your videos than likely opening your emails. So, you know, think about the combination, put video in your email or have a link to it. Oh, the double whammy. Now we're getting crazy. And 55% of people watch video each day, each day. Here's the other part. Video has a long shelf life. People will go back. So if you go Google a video title, just how to create a podcast, you're going to see videos show up from three or five years ago. And you're going to go, oh, I want to watch that because there's still good content in it. I mean, the beginning of the day doesn't mean that everything, the way that people used to do things changed and you have to learn today's version. There's still framework everywhere on how to accomplish things right yeah i think that's why

it's that's why it's so important to create evergreen content you know evergreen videos that you know can live out there on youtube or wherever because you know youtube you know this right it's a second largest search engine out there so you have google and then you have youtube as the second largest so it's one of those things where if you're creating evergreen content that has great keywords and tags and a great title, when someone goes to search for whatever you created that content for, there's a chance it's going to be served up and people will be able to discover you and engage with you. Totally. That's some gold right there. If you didn't listen to what Mark said, hit that little, that backwards circle button and listen to it again, because he is absolutely true. In fact,

72% of people prefer learning about a product or service by watching video about it. 72% want to learn about your product or service by watching a video. Do you offer a video about your product or service is the big question there. And have you continued to update that through a series of videos? Obviously, some weeks I'll put out six to 10 videos about our business, what I do, business growth, mind-body business, things like that. And you develop this following because people want to go listen to those little changes of updated information from you. So next key stat on here, 82% of businesses use video in their marketing strategy. 82% of businesses use video in their marketing strategy. That's up from 61% last year.

So you hope you're not in that 18%. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Are you in that 18% that did not change? Good question, Mark. Okay. And then the last two statistics on this, because this is extraordinarily important. Who are you trying to reach in a business? Who are you trying to reach in a household?

The decision maker, right? Yeah. The executive or the senior executive generally. My wife says that she is the CEO. And I believe her. She is in my house. And honey, don't listen to this. The CEO CEO. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think I might just got fired by saying that. But so here's the reality. 59% of executives, 59% of executives. So six out of 10 executives prefer watching a video rather than reading content. Yeah, of course. It's quick. You can spend maybe 90 seconds watching a video that would

give you the same information that reading three to five minutes will give you. There you go. There you go. And okay. So we talked to executives. Let's talk senior executives now, Mark. So executives was 59%. Senior executives is 65% visited a website related to a video that they've watched. So are you trying to capture the attention of executives and senior executives? Make a freaking video. There you go. Make a video. All right. So that's number three. That's number three. I can go on and on about that. I know. You're the video fan. If video had a fan, that would be you. I am certainly the video fan. So let's review real

quick. We got traditional, pick up the phone. We have build a new list. We have video messages. Let's talk about what we say, stories, stories. And I've been doing a lot of study on stories lately. And it's fascinating. If you go out, there was a 2014 Harvard Business Review article about stories. There's a fellow who actually studies what the psychology of a story is and why we fall in love with it. It's fascinating because we have all these different chemicals that are released in our brain. As our brain follows a story arc, you release these different chemicals in these different orders. And what they do is they create engagement and they create attachment and they create action.

So ultimately, you know, we, we can't do justice to telling a good story on this podcast because we just don't have time. In fact, Mark, we need to probably do another podcast about just telling a story, right? Yeah. You know. I'm a huge fan of this. I went to Nashville last year and became a certified story brand guide. And so I learned a lot about story and connecting through that. Because as humans, right, since the dawn of time, we've connected and engaged with each other through story, right? You'd sit around the fire and you'd tell a story and pull in your

audience with that form of communication. And obviously entertainment, right? What are we mostly consuming as far as movies and TV shows and all these things? They're stories, right? So it's a form of communication that's so ingrained in us. And so when a story loop gets opened, our brain needs to have a closure to that story loop. So in business, it's so important for us to open a story loop like, hey, are you having this problem? And then close that story loop by being the solution to that problem. Totally. I've also heard it called the hero's journey. You have a hero who's actually facing a struggle, facing the challenge, the main character. You've got the guide who steps in, which is you, their business advisor, the person selling the

product or service or whatever that they need. And you watch them suffer through this challenge a little bit. So there's this, you always see there's a problem, there's an agitation of that problem, and then there's a solution and it's facilitated by a guide. Yeah. You look at Star Wars, right? You have Luke Skywalker, and then you have Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi, who are the guide to Luke Skywalker becoming a Jedi. Perfect example. Perfect. In fact, I mean, you should always be looking for, now that you know the secret of storytelling, you should be looking for this story arc in the open loop that Mark was talking about. And, of course, people can reach out to producer Mark here. He is a certified StoryBrand coach and can help you accomplish those things through Brand

Viva, who is the company that produces this podcast. Thanks for the plug. Hey, look at that, buddy. Any chance I can get, right? That's right. All right. So we've got four things here. Storytelling is number four. Number five, and this is going to freak some people out. Because, Mark, did you know like 93% of people are afraid of public speaking? Yeah. Yeah.

I think I heard a stat somewhere that someone would say they'd rather like die or something than like public speak. And so when you look at, we talked about video. When you look at live video engagement, which to a lot of people, it's the same as public speaking. Why are they afraid of this? They're afraid of this because they're afraid of being judged. They're afraid of somebody coming in and giving an opinion about them. And that's why leaders won't get out on video a lot of times times because they don't want somebody to say, oh, you were wrong. It gives the other side fodder

to go after you. And really what it does is you just get lost in business and society. If you're not willing to have some confidence and put yourself out there, which is why public speaking is so great. But how do you practice public speaking and how do you start small? The best way to do this, and here's number five, streaming video, live streaming video. This is probably one of the most current, most effective ways of creating engagement. Let's talk about what live streaming video is. Really, three words give you the reason why this is great. One, it's dynamic. People want to see dynamic. They want to see ideas. They want to see things evolve. The top television programs are these live, unscripted reality shows.

Live streaming is live, unscripted, and reality for the most part. Realistically, right now, what you and I are doing, if I fell out of my chair, people would be like, whoa, he fell out of his chair. If I go to take a drink of coffee and I spill it on my shirt, guess what? I keep going. So dynamic, authentic, authentic. People want to see the real you. They want to see you being you. They want to know you struggled to get out of bed in the morning, or maybe you did spill coffee on your shirt, or your dog walks in and throws a tennis ball on the table in front of you while you're broadcasting, who knows what it is? I've had that happen quite a few times. But I mean, the reality is you're live and authentic.

And the third one is engaging. This is about engagement. So I mean, the live video is incredibly engaging. If one, you are you, okay? Don't try and be something you're not. And two, you tell a good story. You're either delivering value. You're taking somebody through an anecdotal process where they open a loop in their brain and they close that loop. You're helping them.

You're helping them. So real quick, where can we go to live stream is what I hear the question of. And there are different platforms that you can do this on. Yeah. You know, a lot of us use one called StreamYard. And a good place to find, you know, obviously Google is a good place. Where can I live stream?

And what platforms help me live stream? So some easy places to live stream. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Okay? Yep. They all have a button go live. And then the last one here and the latest one, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, right? I may still have to apply for that, but you can't apply for it. Um, but I, that's, that's a fantastic one. Yeah. There's no button on LinkedIn. Unfortunately You got to, yeah, like Mark said,

you got to fill out the application and they want to see that you're already live streaming. So go to those other four, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube and get that live stream going and just go on and talk for a couple minutes about something. You just experienced something. Most likely, in fact,

I know you just experienced something that you can live stream about. It was this podcast. So go give somebody these five methods of engagement. Yeah. Hey, it's Adam. I just finished listening to a great podcast by Adam Kanto, CEO of Remax. And I heard him talk about five ways to create engagement.

Let me give those to you real quick. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You got it. So that's what we're in this for, Mark. I think engagement, right? That's, we want to connect. We want to engage, provide value, entertain. I'm a big fan of entertainment, right? Just make some food, just connect with people. I love that. Yeah. I mean, you've done a cooking show sometimes. Yeah. I'll just hop on Facebook and be like, this is how you make a clam pasta.

Yeah. I love your cooking show, Mark. And then you've also done, you know, how did you get there? You've done, you know, some of these things like, how would you create that? I mean, I find a question and answer it on video and then send out an email to people, pick up the phone and call them and go check out my video I just created. And that's called engagement. There you go. Yeah, you can use each one of these steps in a circular motion, creating the content, making a phone call, sending an email, and you'll hit all five of these and see huge success, huge growth and great engagement. And that's what you want.

So, hey, Adam, thank you so much for those five tips. Go out there and put them into practice. And guys, thank you for listening to Start With A Win. If you'd like to ask Adam a question or tell us your Start With A Win story, leave us a message at 888-581-4430. Don't forget to go on to iTunes and subscribe, write a review, and rate the show. And for more great content, head over to startwithawin.com. Follow Adam on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, LinkedIn,

I mean everywhere. And remember, Start With a win.