About 4 years ago, when I decided to sign-up my kids for piano lessons, of course the first thing I did was to start thinking about which keyboard to buy.
I did extensive research online for keyboards: I did Google searches, visited an insane number of web sites, musician forums, read reviews on Amazon and other e-tailers, and even called up several music stores and asked for recommendations.
To make a long story short, it came down to two products: the Yamaha Motif XS and the Korg M3.
And I was really, really torn between the two, unable to make up my mind… until I saw this free video on YouTube…
Yup, literally one free video on Youtube sealed the deal for Yamaha, and they literally reached into my pocket and sucked $3,200 out of my credit card (it costs like $2500 now!)
So yes, video does help you sell better.
And actually, it’s not just about “selling”. Video basically helps you “persuade” and “close” better – regardless of what the goal is.
So video rocks whether you’re selling a product, building a brand, building a reputation, or simply trying to make a very cool viral video…
And creating such videos is a LOT simpler than you can imagine.
Andy Jenkins, a marketer whom I admire and am a big fan of, has released 3 spectacular videos that show you how easy it is to create videos that work.
Yes, the videos are free.
One thing I can guarantee you: If you’re not totally impressed by the production quality, humor, fast-paced and multiple-sensory-stimulating narration in the videos, then I will let you smack me silly and call me “Ravioli” 🙂
So click here to watch them all for free before they get taken down when the actual product launches in 2 days…
And don’t forget to leave a comment below about what you thought about this post (or Andy’s videos).
Cheers!
– Ravi Jayagopal
-------------------------------------------------
Check out my podcast SubscribeMe.fm below: [coolcastplayer id="1"]
Hi Ravi,
Great example of a video that made me want to buy, and I don’t even play the keyboard.
A perfect pitch (please excuse the musical pun) for a product, no heavy selling just a guy who’s obviously very passionate about his craft.
Regards,
Paul
Paul,
>>no heavy selling just a guy who’s obviously very passionate about his craft.<< Absolutely! That's probably the big takeaway here: passionately "showing" the "benefits" rather than "talk" about the "features". I guess this is a variation of what Frank Kern calls "Results In Advance" - where you get people excited about your product, by delivering (or showing) some of the end results up front. I have seen so many "how to" videos, where the videos take forever to "get to the point", drag on for a long time about the "setup" and "behind the scenes" and the "history", rather than straight away show me what will happen at the very end, what I can ultimately achieve if I bought the product. - Ravi
Yes, I’m loving the Andy Jenkins videos too. By the way, next time you and Veena want advice about pianos etc. remember to write to me. Greg’s a piano teacher http://www.playpianolessonsperth.com with amazing experience and could have provided some excellent advice. Cheers, Thea 🙂 P.S. Say hi to Veena for me.
Thea,
Thanks for the link. Here’s one quick unsolicited suggestion for Greg’s web site.
As soon as I land on that page, how about a quick video of Greg playing some amazing songs with chords and arrangements and the works, which would engage me right away and get the viewer excited about playing the piano, where he could talk about how the viewer “would eventually play” if he learned from Greg? He could even swipe personality and energy from the Bert Smorenburg video (the guy in the video above).
And also how about the sign up form, instead of saying “Get Greg’s Updates For Free” (which sounds like he’s going to send me marketing information or blog posts), could instead say, “Get 2 free lessons on how to play within 10 minutes – free music sheets included” – or something to that effect.
Now that would convert like crazy, I can bet.
– Ravi
Hi Ravi
You know this guy’s a real musician, I bet he learnt on a real piano – then you can understand what he’s getting at. Get your children a real piano – and a gift for life is in the making.
Cheers
Graham
Graham,
It’s 4 years too late to get a real piano :-). I already purchased the Motif XS, and it is an unbelievable piece of equipment. And the model I bought has weighted keys, or what they call the “Balanced Hammer” or some such thing – which makes the keys as heavy as a real piano. Which is why I got that specific version.
– Ravi
This is not a crappy video. In fact, being involved in the music industry I can say with come credibility that this guy is one of the best keyboard demo guys I’ve ever seen. He has a lot more than just passion. This guy is a veteran salesman with a lot of experience doing product demos.
Good video is one of the absolute hardest things to produce. Look at any film budget. A lot of movies these days cost over 1 million dollars a minute to produce.
I took Andy’s course last year and I can say that it was worth the money. It took me more than a year after taking his course to produce a decent sales video and I needed to get a video producer to help me make it but I’m sure I would not have understood the things I needed to in order to make a decent video without his course.
Also after taking Andy’s course I no longer felt like I had to go and buy other video courses. I knew I had all the information I needed to succeed — and that’s exactly what happened. I did succeed in getting my first real sales video done.
I also took the video boss course last year and it was the best course I took in 2010. Andy is a master.
I agree with Graham. Buy a real piano. My mother was a piano major in College and we’ve always had the real thing. The electronic keyboards like this are primarily for performers and composers. My son is finishing a degree at Berklee College of Music in Boston as a film scoring major (composer). He’s had 11 semesters of music theory and a $7,000+ computer workstation (I know as I paid for a good chunk of it). The keyboard is just part of his total toolkit.
In my opinion, you really need a LOT of musical training to make it worthwhile to purchase something like this. If you’re just learning, this is massive overkill.
Hi Ravi. Thanks for the tip about the video boss clips. You’re right. Very funny. Great production quality. I’m inspired.
Ideally you’d do an A/B split or multivariate test to see whether a video/no video/bad or good video improves the conversion you want. There’s no blanket “one size fits all” statement you can make about this.
You are right, the guy got a great personality, he also give a pretty good review of the keyword do the video is good in my opinion.
Of course Ravi, is always better a bad video than nothing.
Success Dap
Yes, a real piano, even a beat up used one, might be a better choice for keyboard lessons. And BTW, all of the arpeggiators and effects on this admittedly very nice workstation can also be created using off the shelf software and your existing laptop computer.
I have to weigh in again and say this about the so called “real piano” argument. First I’ve owned grand pianos and they definitely qualify as “real pianos”. If you have a nice house they are a great piece of furniture that adds a lot of beauty to your home. But they need constant maintenance, tuning, hammer voicing, key leveling, and so on because the parts wear rather rapidly even with only moderate use.
These days if you don’t learn how to use midi, effects, and a variety of other keyboard related features you are not in step with the musical world. My advice. Begin with a concert weighted keyboard that has the most realistic possible action. It’s actually not going to be exactly like a grand but it’s close enough. Many of the latest keyboards even let you adjust the action to suit the feel you are looking for.
Once you’ve learned to use a keyboard and the various features that are commonplace — then maybe consider a new Steinway or other quality piano. But don’t go by an old piece of crap upright or other acoustic piano as your first keyboard purchase. For about the same price as an average acoustic piano you can own a top of the line keyboard with a great keyboard amp and have better sound and better action than any decent acoustic piano.
Learning to play involves motivation. It’s harder for a kid to get passionate about playing a tinny sounding piano than something that sounds great. Inspiration comes in many forms and one of them is from hearing a quality instrument. Kids are more likely to learn perfect pitch and even a great sense of relative pitch from an instrument that is always in tune. No acoustic piano will give you this unless dad is a piano tuner.
He is an excellent musician- and it is a very good presentation and advertisment!
I tihink it is good to buy both- a real piano and a Yamaha motif xs.
cheers, Irene