Behind the Upload

Why LiveChat Created a Second YouTube Channel [EP 003]

Joey Daoud

August 23, 2021
Content
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Marcos from LiveChat explains the strategy and challenges of launching a second branded YouTube channel for LiveChat, why creating great content is only going to be more important, and the best ways to get started creating videos for your own brand.

LiveChat Software offers software solutions to manage business communications, generate leads, and sell online. They allow companies to stay in touch with their customers anytime and anywhere, just as they want to. The product suite consists of LiveChat, ChatBot, HelpDesk, and KnowledgeBase.

Marcos Bravo is a marketing and brand expert with over 20 years of experience in many industries. These days he works as the Head Storyteller for LiveChat, one of the most successful European companies and shares his experience in a series of videos created for SUCCESS By LiveChat. Marketing Mentor and Investor Relations in the European region and LATAM.

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Connect with Marcos & LiveChat


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Show Notes

Transcript

[00:00:00.060] – Joey
Thank you, Marcos, for joining me. I really appreciate it. So do you just want to tell me a bit about yourself and LiveChat. Can I just get a high level overview?

[00:00:07.830] – Marcos
OK, so let me start with a short story from my side. I’m from Chile. I left the country when I was 20. I had an internship in Disney World that changed my life and I said, I’m not going back to Chile. And after that, I moved to New Zealand, I started off picking fruit, teaching Spanish, moved to Australia, teaching scuba diving. Then I got a job in Miami, travel the world a bit. I met my wife in Miami.

[00:00:32.200] – Marcos
She happened to be Polish. We travel a little bit around, and we said, let’s give Poland a chance. And here we are, six years already living in Poland.

[00:00:41.820] – Joey
I know we are talking about video stuff, but I have to ask, like, what about Disney changed your life?

[00:00:48.300] – Marcos
I think it’s- that planted the seed of marketing. Like, how every little thing that they do, it means something for the customer. Like everything that they do, it’s- it’s part of a plan. So there’s nothing happened by accident. So they make sure that it’s the happiest place on Earth for a reason. So everything has to put a little piece of it.

[00:01:07.380] – Joey
Yeah, I- I love Disney as a model of just like of operational excellence and just creating an experience that, like, is completely immersive. Yeah, I think it’s great. That’s really fascinating. Also the Miami. Yeah, I’m from Miami as well, so that’s a fun Miami connection. Yeah.

[00:01:24.660] – Joey
So tell me about LiveChat and how you got involved in LiveChat.

[00:01:28.050] – Marcos
Just to make the story a little more crazier. I opened my own ice cream company right before the pandemic and obviously went bad and I was thinking, what can I do? And I did a couple of podcasts and videos for some companies that- as a favor, and LiveChat happened to see some of those videos. They like, alright. Well, this guy has little- some communication skills that we can use. And they called me said, look, we need it- we need someone for a project. We want to start making a lot more videos so we would love you to come over. Let’s talk and we’ll see what happens. And since then, for the last two years, I’ve just been making videos and video strategy and webinars and basically everything communication for LiveChat.

[00:02:09.690] – Joey
Awesome. Awesome. So can you give me a high level overview because- so LiveChat has, and you can correct me if this is inaccurate, but it has two channels. You have the LiveChat YouTube channel and then the Success by LiveChat. So can you walk me through, sort of high level of like, what this- what the video strategy is, or what’re these two channels, and then we’ll kind of dive deeper into that. But what sort of the- overview of LiveChat’s video setup right now?

[00:02:39.870] – Marcos
So LiveChat’s like any of like most companies, they knew that they had to make video. Right. So LiveChat’s been around- next year is going to be our 20th anniversary. So it’s been around for a while.

[00:02:50.430] – Joey
Yeah.

[00:02:51.750] – Marcos
And they started a YouTube channel. They needed to share some stuff. They get an animator and a designer and they started putting video. They started to try to make some things as LiveChat. But then we started growing with product. We have ChatBot, HelpDesk, KnowledgeBase, Partner Program.

[00:03:07.830] – Marcos
We have a bunch of different things inside LiveChat and we want to hit a different side of the funnel, too. So we said, well, let’s go top, top funnel. They just put stuff out that doesn’t sell anything. It was really hard to sell internally that we didn’t want to sell, but we- we just wanted to put value and knowledge and experiences and stories out that hopefully were going to help people and, well, the people that were helping, eventually they’re going to think, well, if I ever need something like LiveChat, it will be LiveChat.

[00:03:38.010] – Joey
What was the thought about creating a second channel versus just doing- doing it all on one channel?

[00:03:45.060] – Marcos
It was- it- it had a lot of pushback in the beginning. People are like they don’t want to- look, like, we have 15,000 followers in the LiveChat channel, and why are we going to start a new one? But because we- we didn’t know so many things, so I said, look, we- we need to test it. Let’s- let’s try it. In the worst case, we move all the content to the- to the LiveChat channel. So it was sort of my- my personal challenge to get a thousand subscribers as fast as I could, thinking that was going to be easy.

[00:04:13.920] – Marcos
But it wasn’t. It was not easy or fast to get. And, you know, it probably- and it takes a lot of work. So- so I started working. Well, let’s get the channel going. And I started inviting people personally in LinkedIn, like, hey, look, I started a channel with some cool videos that hopefully they’re going to help you and some stuff. Just check it out. If you like it, subscribe. So I did a lot of manual work of inviting people to check it out, hopefully, you know, gratefully.

[00:04:39.780] – Marcos
They liked it and they end up subscribing and the channel keep growing little by little. And we’re planning just to keep- like, putting videos as much as I- as we can. And hopefully that will turn into the main top of the funnel channel. We’re not going to replace the LiveChat channel. This channel, it’s only- it’s going to be for a different sort of audience.

[00:05:01.110] – Joey
Now, the content on the LiveChat channel is mostly tutorials, or like how to use the software. Is that, like, an accurate description?

[00:05:09.570] – Marcos
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, we do- we do some fun stuff once in a while, but it’s mostly for- for the customer, for the one who already hooked in LiveChat and they need a little extra help. We have a couple of sales demos in there and stuff like that. But yeah, you’re right.

[00:05:23.040] – Joey
And then how would you describe this- the content on Success? And also, if- that’s a good chance also, to talk about- you have a bunch of different shows or series all under the Success channel. So if you want to talk about that as well.

[00:05:37.200] – Marcos
So, again, everything started like, well, Marcus, you’re in charge, do some stuff. And I- I- I mean, even though I- I did a film school when I was young, that was 20 years ago. Right. So everything I knew then is not applicable anymore. So, um, so I said, well, why not let’s start with series. Let’s try some different series that we’re going to do this year for that. So we’ll- it will be something different to find inside the channels.

[00:06:03.070] – Marcos
I was thinking more of a- not a YouTube channel with just content, but a real channel with different things in there, here. So we tried the different- different formats. We even- we bring in new formats every so and so just to see what- do we honestly just test this test, right? Is to see what really sticks to people, what- what they really like, what kind of content they’re- they’re really engaging with. And then we started adjusting. But yeah, I mean, the-the whole- everything that we did in the channel, I would love to say we knew exactly what we were doing, but it was so much tests that- it has to happen just for you to learn, like, wow, this works. This doesn’t work.

[00:06:43.230] – Joey
What- what did you find that worked? And also, how are you sort of measuring success? Is it just by views? Is it people that click through and go to LiveChat? Is it like, comment, like what- what’s your metric for success and what did you find that worked well?

[00:06:56.850] – Marcos
In the beginning for me, subscribers, it was like the main thing, right. Like, I wanted to have a lot of subscribers because it makes sense. Even though the channel was never meant to be monetized. So it was not something that we want to make money out. But still, becoming a YouTube Partner has little extra perks here and there, blah blah blah. But the whole- the whole sort of KPIs that we were looking at- views is always important. But it was more about the engagement. When we noticed that people were engaging, not only in YouTube, but, for example, we will- we will try the same video in LinkedIn.

[00:07:31.890] – Marcos
And suddenly LinkedIn, we get five, six hundred views out of a video versus an early video, I don’t know, 200, 300 views on YouTube. So. Well, obviously, we add those up, like, something is working here and there. But to me, right now, is- is more about- more about the number of people following the channel is- is the- the ones that they watch, not the subscribers, but the other people that- they get to that content. Because they’re looking for something like, I don’t know how to do. I don’t, like, public speaking. I need some tips or-

[00:08:04.340] – Joey
Like, how many views you get from- like, from search or from discovery, like how much of your traffic starts coming from- from- from those sources, is that what you’re saying?

[00:08:12.700] – Marcos
That’s the best part. That’s- yeah, yeah, exactly. That’s where most of the traffic comes out of our subscribers. You know, like, we get probably 20 percent of the views are from subscribers, but the rest is just people looking for the content that we’re putting out. And it’s not- it’s not easy because you see channels like, I don’t know, all the tech channels when you cover certain products and things like that.

[00:08:33.560] – Marcos
Those are things that people look for all the time. But the things that we needed to teach were different. So it was a lot harder for us to like, well, who wants to really learn about the fish philosophy every day? But like, maybe there’s someone there who needs to know about the fish philosophy because they have a certain problem and we had content for that. So it was quite a struggle to find out what are the real numbers that we needed to look for.

[00:08:56.270] – Marcos
But now it’s more about the engagement, the engagement. So when people comm- make a comment, or people find us in different channels, they find something in here and there and they talk to us. And that’s- that’s sort of like, yes, we did something right.

[00:09:08.960] – Joey
And what did you find that did work well? I’m not sure if it’s a format or what you talked about. Like, what did you find that worked well?

[00:09:16.190] – Marcos
Um, the short formats for us where- they were- well, when we cover one subject in a very simple way, two or three minutes explaining what it is and things that we really knew. I try to cover things that I didn’t know very well. And I learned- I learned my- I never learned scripts, but I- I learned the material.

[00:09:36.020] – Marcos
I- I read about it and then I talked about it. And then when I watched that, I’m like, I don’t believe myself. I mean, I- I really don’t buy it. Like, I am talking about stuff that I don’t know, but stuff that I really knew. It made a huge difference. I mean, and- and you can see it in the views. You can see it in the- in the engagement of the video. Like people really like, oh, this guy knows what he’s talking about versus sometimes that I didn’t know what I was talking about.

[00:10:01.160] – Joey
Now, you mentioned that, you know, that a lot of this is about experimenting and testing. So you had a series or show #Journey?

[00:10:14.540] – Joey
If you want to tell me about the show. And then I- when I was- when I was watching it. So there was- the show ended and now it pivoted to something else. And so that seems to encapsulate this experiment and reiterate strategy that you’re going with. So can you kind of tell me about that and sort of what the show was, what you discovered along the way and how that- how that changed.

[00:10:33.650] – Marcos
So what we did with Journey, we needed to bring some- I- from the moment that I started, I- I wanted to have someone else eventually with me. And we looked for some people and we find Kaia, she’s the co-host of the channel, right. And when she joined, she was a completely different person. She was super cute, bubbly sort of influencer vibe. And we wanted to give- ok, well, you’re going to create your own show about your own journey into working in LiveChat and- and finding your way, blah, blah, blah.

[00:11:07.250] – Marcos
And she grew so fast and so well that there was no point to keep going through this journey. Like, she wanted to take over. Like, you know, I can talk about things now that- in a different way, like, with so much more confidence and knowledge and like, I can prepare myself. Most of the editing, she does it herself. So it- it- literally, the journey finished. So we- we said, like, we don’t have anything else to say in- in this format. Let’s turn it in to a format and- and she created their own stuff. Like now, she talks about the inside of customer service or customer support in different companies. And that’s a lot more niche. But she feels so comfortable about it that it makes total sense.

[00:11:46.580] – Joey
I think it’s a good example of seeing what worked or also just her as a- as a content producer, being able to pivot and do something else. One thing that was interesting, though, and this kind of ties into how do you figure out what type of topics to make videos about? Because looking at your top, your most popular videos, half those videos were from Kaia and they talked about something that was sort of like a trending topic at the time.

[00:12:14.180] – Joey
So, Cyberpunk 2077, Elon Musk, I know another one. Oh, ah, animal- Animal Crossing. So those are all kind of trendy topics. Has that factored into the type of content you make? Or like figuring out what type of videos you want to make?

[00:12:31.850] – Marcos
To be honest, what we- we thought about those we- like, the- the way I saw it, I- I always imagined Kaia being like- so if we were top of the funnel, she will be top of our little funnel. She will be like the- the sort of, like, bringing the hot topics. So they all like just casual conversation, ha, ha, ha. And by the way, we have more content that Marcos is doing there. It’s more specific, but go and check it out. That- that was sort of the- the dynamic that we wanted to put with Kaia – putting really hot topics. But- but little by little, we- we started sort of walking away from that approach because even though we got a lot of views and people hooked into this content, they- they didn’t stay with us. They didn’t really check much- most of the other stuff that we were doing. Because it was a different niche, like people looking for Cyberpunk. I mean, we put that video out like perfect timing. And Kaia even- she bought- she bought Cyberpunk stock the day before they put- sorry, CD PROJEKT RED stock, the day before Cyberpunk came out.

[00:13:31.060] – Marcos
So she was super into it. But, yeah, yeah, I mean, it was good content. It’s fun. It’s easy to digest, but it was not the- the people that we wanted to stay with. So that- that’s why we also sort of keep moving from it.

[00:13:43.810] – Joey
Yeah, I think that could be an alluring thing where if you make stuff about trending topics and you get those views, but it doesn’t actually convert to people that subscribe to your channel or go to your website or, you know, are potential customers, then it’s like, does it really matter? Just sort of like a- a vanity metric.

[00:14:00.190] – Marcos
Exactly. And- and after all, even though that- we could go to the company and say, look, like, we have- our numbers are beautiful, but we’re not doing anything, we’re not really helping the company. So we really wanted to make a difference. And look, even if- it- also, we have to explain them. Like, what if- if we wanted to stay with the people that we want, it’s going to be a very or a much smaller number than, like, channels with million views, right? But that’s not our business. And we’re- we’re not selling to everyone. We- we have a niche. So let’s focus on that people.

[00:14:30.670] – Joey
Do you want to tell me about your- your podcast as well?

[00:14:35.450] – Marcos
Yeah, well, I mean, we- we started Incoming Chat when everybody was making podcasts. I mean, everybody’s still making podcasts. I- I started my own podcast. after that, too. But it’s fun. I mean, I love it. It’s like therapy. I’m like- I just talk all about my life and things like that. So we wanted to make a podcast and I had a lot of friends that they live here in Poland, that they’re doing very interesting stuff.

[00:14:58.220] – Marcos
So I said, look, let me make a list of ten people. Let’s make 10 episodes. We didn’t even have the right equipment at that time. We were just improvising with whatever we had and start picking up. It’s not that we get tons of hundreds of views, but we get so much content out of that. I mean, we can slice each podcast in hundreds of little pieces and put them all around the Internet and they all make sense because they- they were very, very well-thought interviews.

[00:15:23.870] – Marcos
I mean, we brought people like, alright, you’re- oh, you’re a social media manager for a video game company. We have a lot to talk about. Well, you’re a, you know, you’re a VC fund, investor relations, whatever. So we- we had really cool things to talk about. And then – and then the best part is just that you have- you end up with so much content, you end up with growing your network. I mean, I keep learning so much from people that I interview all the time.

[00:15:48.710] – Marcos
So it’s- it’s a great experience. And- and- and little by little, you also leave your- you create a brand, too, because not too many podcasts survive for that long. So, I mean, we- we are in episode- almost episode 30.

[00:16:02.040] – Joey
That’s great.

[00:16:02.900] – Marcos
That’s a very old podcast. Yeah.

[00:16:06.890] – Joey
Yeah, yeah. I know. Making it past. I mean, I started a podcast like ten years ago and we got like four episodes in. Ah yeah, I kind of kicked myself down like, you know, if we kept it, with it, over ten years, we were way ahead of the curve, like we would have been huge by now. But yeah, it’s a lot of work and yeah. You know, it didn’t- we didn’t stick with it, but yeah, thirty episodes is great.

[00:16:32.900] – Joey
When did you decide also to include video in the podcast? Because you also have this as YouTube videos and you have a very nice video setup. So when did- when did you realize, “Oh, we should also turn this into a video component?”

[00:16:46.310] – Marcos
I- I- if I remember well, I think- I think it was the other way around. Well, let’s have, like, I didn’t want to have- have a video by myself, so let’s invite someone and talk about it. Cool. And then like, wait, what if we do it podcast style? So we have like the headphones and the microphones, like really podcast-y looking. And then when we’re done with that, we’re like, well, we actually have a podcast right here, so why don’t we just start putting it as a podcast, too?

[00:17:10.850] – Marcos
So it was- it was sort of the other way around. The podcast was born out of the style that- that we wanted to bring into the video.

[00:17:16.550] – Joey
So it was like an interview show. And then you’re like, well, let’s turn into a podcast.

[00:17:21.770] – Marcos
Yeah, exactly. We have the material, why not?

[00:17:24.260] – Joey
Alright. Very cool. And now with all of the videos, in general, can you walk me through- you know, kind of like, break down just the tech stuff. Like, what kind of gear are you using? What sort of the gear, software, stuff like that. I want to kind of break it down.

[00:17:36.710] – Marcos
So um, in the beginning, we started shooting in the office, like most people. Like most companies. Right. But eventually the company decided to invest a little bit in office and turn it into a studio. So we have a very specific place that our video producer turned into a- like, better acoustics and stuff like that. For- for example, for the podcast, we use two cameras. Two Sony’s. Sony Alpha and Sony 6500. And for the general shot, we use an iPhone. Because it’s- the iPhone, I think it’s iPhone 12 because the video is great. So we have that one as a general shot, like a wide shot, and then cameras for each one of us. For microphones, we use Sennheiser Shotgun for most of the videos. But we also have a Rode Broadcaster for the podcast. The rest- is that we edit everything in DaVinci studio. And I think, I think that’s about it. And we record the video- I mean, the audio in a Zoom H6.

[00:18:36.080] – Joey
Ok.

[00:18:36.680] – Marcos
See, I did my homework.

[00:18:39.620] – Joey
I’m curious about using DaVinci because I- you know, I’ve been hearing more and more of more people shifting to using that. What were- what were the thoughts about using that for- for editing?

[00:18:47.960] – Marcos
The thing’s- our video producer, he was very into color correction. That was his favorite thing of post-production. Right. So he started practicing with the DaVinci and then it was, alright, well, we’re going to need Final Cut or something like- well, DaVinci has everything that the others won’t have, and I already know how to use it. And I started using it right after, too, so like he showed me the basics. And now if I do my stuff, I do it with Da Vinci because, well, it’s free.

[00:19:13.130] – Joey
Yeah, they have a very good marketing program. Use our software for free. And if you want to use it professionally, then you just pay the upgrade fee. But yeah, it’s a great-

[00:19:21.050] – Marcos
Yeah.

[00:19:21.440] – Joey
It’s a great yeah. They’ve got- Blackmagic has a great, a great model. Now, well how-

[00:19:26.930] – Marcos
Oh yeah, and Black- and we use a couple of Blackmagic stuff for- for if we do live sessions. I think we have a Blackmagic Switch.

[00:19:34.930] – Joey
Ah, the ATEM? I think I saw it in one of your videos. The little- yeah, I have one somewhere around here. Yeah, those things are great. You- would you use that, you know, just to be doing live streams?

[00:19:44.610] – Marcos
Yeah. We will only use it for- for that, because all the rest our video producer would rather to shoot everything, and then just edit piece by piece, video, like, grab all the different feeds and, and do it in DaVinci afterwards.

[00:19:56.610] – Joey
So how many people are on the behind-the-scenes, on the team. You mentioned a video editor. Are there- is there- you have very kind of dynamic animations, like, for your intros, for your videos. So who else, is there another- is there another graphic designer doing that? Is it same editor?

[00:20:15.720] – Marcos
We get to borrow the people from- from LiveChat. So LiveChat has a whole design staff just for everything that they do, right. Websites and everything.

[00:20:23.880] – Marcos
So one of the guys is also an animator, ok, mainly, an animator. So in the beginning or any time we do something new, we just go to our designer and go look, we need a logo or some elements that were like popping up and like, cool. He designed a couple of things. Give it to the animator, make a cool intro, but after that, it’s just me, the video producer and Kaia. It’s- it’s a team of three doing all that.

[00:20:46.230] – Marcos
Like, when we set up things and- and most of the editing and everything, it’s just a team of three, which- I mean, even though we- I mean, we do have good equipment, most companies really think like, wow, like if we’re going to video, we’re going to need so many more people. Like, no, you can- you can bootstrap it, it’s how they say. But-

[00:21:05.430] – Joey
Yeah, I mean, even, you know, you’ve- you’ve exp- you’ve displayed you could use the iPhone, you were using that as one of your cameras. And DaVinci Resolve is free. So like half of your setup, you already have everything right there with stuff that people probably already have. Maybe buy- buy a nice microphone, you know, and add on to it. Or in- a zoom or something.

[00:21:24.720] – Marcos
That’s- that’s- yeah. I know, that’s something- like, even- even the one I’m using now. The thing- I think I paid less than one hundred dollars for, it was a Behringer-

[00:21:32.430] – Joey
Yeah, those things are good.

[00:21:33.630] – Marcos
And I’m using it with ah-

[00:21:35.190] – Joey
An XLR that’s going on your computer. Like through-

[00:21:38.130] – Marcos
One- one of these. Yep. No, actually. It’s full on with the interface.

[00:21:43.380] – Joey
Is that a USB?

[00:21:44.190] – Marcos
But I also pay less than one hundred dollars for this.

[00:21:46.110] – Joey
That’s good. All right. We’ll put that link too.

[00:21:48.510] – Marcos
It’s- it’s a full XLR into a- into USB interface. It’s pretty cool.

[00:22:40.370] – Joey
Now I did want to ask also. So once you have the videos done, have you- what’s your thought process behind thumbnail creation, metadata and are you using any tools as far as like keyword research or optimizing the metadata around it? Have you discovered anything with like, what type of thumbnail styles work better? Can you walk me kind of through where your process is with that?

[00:23:04.370] – Marcos
So for the thumbnails, the first thing we did, it was literally watch video on YouTube about how to make good thumbnails. And now- but yeah, I- I- I told the designers, like look, just give me the- give me the templates, give me things and I will- I will take care of the thumbnails. And Kaia also got a couple of a- couple of tools. I think it was PicMonkey or some- no, something like that. And she’s started- just creating her own stuff.

[00:23:30.350] – Marcos
But we, like, even in the video that- we put a video out about making video and making thumbnails, we- we sort of use the basics, like, have a big face, have a catchy title and contrasting colors, right. I mean, there’s not much science behind. The only thing that we didn’t want to do, we just try to put stuff in the- in the titles in there that they’re not- they’re just click bait, right. So we- we stay away from that.

[00:23:56.810] – Marcos
We created thumbnails ourselves. I do have a meeting with- with our SEO expert once in a while. I, look, ah we’re going to make a video of this. Do you think it has potential? And he will- he will do us a small research or point me in the right direction. And nowadays I’m also using Surfer SEO, and they have a little add-on for Chrome. So I just put it in there, put- put some search in Google and that would give me a bunch of different options and different search intents.

[00:24:27.420] – Marcos
But that’s basically it, I mean, I- I- I try to keep it very simple, I, I love SEO, but I don’t like to write for SEO. I, I tweak a word or two in my descriptions, but otherwise, the video is about what it is. You know, I’m not trying to create just for for hitting- for hitting Google.

[00:24:48.210] – Joey
Actually I interviewed Tomasz from Surfer SEO for the first episode and he- yeah, he mentioned an interesting thing where he said you could use Surfer to write your content description, your YouTube description by just shortening the- you know, just instead of like the- the target number of words, you just make it like 500 instead of the 2,000 that it- it’ll recommend. And then you can kind of use that as a easier way, if you’re targeting a keyword, to- to write out your description and you know, try to optimize your description for YouTube.

[00:25:23.580] – Marcos
It’s- it’s definitely, definitely a great tool.

[00:25:25.650] – Joey
Yeah.

[00:25:26.020] – Marcos
And- and they keep making it better. I mean, I talked to Tomasz every so and so on LinkedIn and they’re doing a lot of cool stuff in there. I mean, I’m also a friend of Tim- we’re not friends, but we know each other from online, with Tim from Ahrefs, which is also a great tool.

[00:25:39.780] – Joey
Yeah.

[00:25:39.960] – Marcos
But yeah. But nowadays I’m- I’m- I’m playing around with Surfer a lot-

[00:25:43.410] – Joey
Yeah. Yeah, that’s great.

[00:25:51.150] – Joey
Now, we talked about- I was just curious, though, if you did find that something worked better, thumbnails-wise or just kind of keeping it simple.

[00:26:03.410] – Marcos
I was- I try to- I try to keep it simple, but I was surprised. We have a series called RAW, which we- we basically take a screenshot out of the video and it still works well. There’s nothing, just like, oh, it will be, for example, this- this frame, just me talking and we just make that in- into a thumbnail. No, no titles, no animations, no nothing in between. It just- it just a quick screenshot from the video. And sometimes just- it’s a good mix of having a good title or a good thumbnails. If you have both of them, great. But like you probably know, it’s- it’s a lot of- sometimes a lot of luck.

[00:26:43.010] – Joey
Yeah.

[00:26:43.580] – Marcos
Like, sometimes you create a thumbnail based on, whatever, like, I don’t feel like it and then wow, this is the best thumb you ever created.

[00:26:49.790] – Joey
Or you see some videos go viral and they have like no thumbnail and it’s just some random thing that froze and it’s like, alright, well, you know, what do we know? Once you publish- yeah, exactly. Once you publish, do you have any kind of sharing model? Distribution model that you found worked as far as like how you get the video out? I know you- that the videos also live on your website, so I don’t know if that has, if you found that that helps people find it, if that’s just sort of keep your website organized. Yeah. How do you, like, promote it after?

[00:27:23.390] – Marcos
So the- the website stays there because that’s how our blog plays, right. And we obviously have the videos there, but YouTube started picking up so well that we decided to focus more on YouTube. And distribution wise, in the beginning, we, for the first year, we only focus on creating. We’ll- we’ll make a video and we post a video out on a few, like, in social media, right. It worked really well to have a good network in LinkedIn, because if you have that, you can put a little preview of your video and your network will- will promote itself.

[00:27:55.910] – Marcos
If they start liking it, it will go around LinkedIn. I think LinkedIn for me at least, is a- it’s a great tool of distribution. But nowadays, what I want to do, I want to- I want to slow down with creating content. I want to go back to the stuff that we have and try to, like, slice up everything and start using it and repurposing so we can see, like, if- if there’s a big difference. Alright. Well, new material versus old material.

[00:28:19.280] – Marcos
What’s working better, what’s working worse? But I mean, there’s so much material there that it’ll be a shame just to let it, like, let it die. I have some videos that they got 50 views and I never really promote them well. You know, I was like, well, what if I go back and put it again? Maybe I’ll get some more views.

[00:28:33.740] – Joey
Right. When you say- can you tell me more about your LinkedIn strategy? Are you sharing the YouTube link? Are you uploading a shorter version of the video? Are you uploading the entire video? What- what’s that look like?

[00:28:46.670] – Marcos
So I try a few things, but what had worked the best was to put a little preview. So I will slice the video in just- just a little bit, and upload it natively and then say, well, if you want to watch the whole video, go to YouTube, link in the comments. So I try to click all the boxes with, like, all the best, the best thing to do on LinkedIn is just send people there. But sometimes I don’t even feel like doing all that. So I will just put the link. And sometimes it works well, too.

[00:29:14.000] – Joey
Yeah, I hear mixed things of sharing content on LinkedIn or Twitter. Where it’s like, OK, if you like, post a link to another site through, like, we don’t want to promote this as much as you uploading content natively to our platform.

[00:29:28.550] – Marcos
But I think that that’s- that’s the most mysterious algorithm of all – LinkedIn. Nobody knows. Nobody knows what’s going on in there. But like I said-

[00:29:39.230] – Joey
Ah, now, just kind of overall, do you have any- I know you have a video on kind of starting a video marketing strategy, and it’s kind of a very thorough, step by step guide. Do you have any kind of just general tips or things to share here that you think is useful, like useful takeaways?

[00:29:53.450] – Marcos
I think the best- it’s going to sound super cliche, but the best thing is just to start. Grab your phone, start recording yourself, because then you’re going to lose the- the fear and you’re going to find your own style and you’re going to help you- also to be more authentic in camera, because a lot of times you see people in YouTube that you’re like, oh, my God, you’re- you’re literally a different person. You’re- you’re not being yourself and- and- and you can tell- you can tell when people do that. And- and, but when you’re authentic and you find your own style, you feel comfortable in your own skin.

[00:30:25.490] – Marcos
You just grab the camera and start talking. Because eventually, little by little, don’t worry about the results yet. I mean, just- just do stuff, do stuff, do stuff. And then you learn so much in that little process that when you have to do stuff that is maybe higher level or more important, it will be a lot easier.

[00:30:42.000] – Joey
I think that goes back to what you said earlier also of- of talking about stuff that you are knowledgeable or passionate about, versus talking about stuff that you- you think people want to hear about, but maybe you’re not an expert in it, so it doesn’t come off as authentic because you’re trying to be something that you’re not.

[00:31:00.830] – Marcos
Exactly. I- I- I still- there’s one video that I have on my channel that I, is about SEO. Oh, my God. Like, every time I watch it, I- I don’t want to delete it because I know- I want to watch it. Just to remind me, don’t ever talk about things that you don’t know. Just- just, please.

[00:31:18.830] – Joey
We won’t link to that one in the show notes. No, we won’t have that link.

[00:31:22.850] – Marcos
No, no, no, please don’t. Please don’t.

[00:31:27.440] – Joey
And now what are just kind of some closing thoughts? What are your general thoughts of just- direction things are going with brands and having, like a media arm, or just a media presence, like this separate channel – it is Success by LiveChat. So it seems like a, kind of like a separate media entity with its own shows. What are- what are your general thoughts of, like where things are going in general?

[00:31:47.330] – Marcos
I love the way media is taking over, right, the media has – video especially is becoming so important for companies to talk, like face to face with their customer. But what I think is really, really making a big difference is not pushing, but encouraging your people to talk about your own brand- like, personal branding. Let them create their personal branding, help them out to put content out themselves or even create content that they- they are willing to share. Because if you- if you see people just retweeting something that the company said that, you know, that, ah, my social media asked me to do that.

[00:32:20.390] – Marcos
But- but when they’re- they’re passionate about things that you do like, I don’t know, you did a trip or- or you did a huge feature for the product. And they’re very proud of it because you’re pointing out that, look, we’re doing this as a team and you’re encouraging them just to create their own personal brand because it’s going to be good for them for the future, too. But people wants to see that. They want to see people sharing their company, wants to see the people behind the company, people behind the product, and see if the values of the people behind the products also matches their values.

[00:32:49.780] – Marcos
But I think it’s going in the right direction, I think with- with the whole thing of Google thinking of like, killing the third- third party cookies and- and more privacy in iOS- man, they’re going to force us to- just to go for it and create good content. That’s- that’s- that’s going to be the whole direction. So yeah, it’s great stuff, that is good.

[00:33:08.950] – Joey
Yeah, I think that’s always the best lesson. I mean, you create good content, you build your audience and now your audience follows you because you’re putting out good content.

[00:33:17.410] – Joey
Well, thank you so much, Marcos. I really appreciate your time. And where can people find out more about you? Find out more about the channel?

[00:33:25.200] – Marcos
Definitely about me, I spend most of my time in LinkedIn, so Marcus Bravo. There are not that many Marcus Bravo in there so you’re going to find me there. Happy to connect with everyone. Go to Success by LiveChat, check it out. We have tons of videos in there. We have our podcast, Incoming Chat, you can find in most- in most- everywhere, basically. And yeah. And- and check what the- what we’re doing in LiveChat. And we doing- we’re doing a lot of things and there are a lot of crazy things coming very soon that they’re going to turn the company in a- in a different animal, which we’re very proud of it.

[00:34:03.180] – Marcos
So, yeah, just keep an eye, keep an eye, find me in LinkedIn, YouTube and perhaps we connect.

[00:34:08.220] – Joey
That’s great. It’s very exciting. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Tags: Behind the Upload LiveChat Marcos Bravo Podcast Video Marketing YouTube

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