[Fully Managed] Marty Englander from martyenglander.com – Ep 108

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Daniela: Hello everybody. Welcome to hashtag AD by Penji. This is the podcast where we discuss everything influencer marketing related. We talk tips to help assist you in your influencer journey. And we also do so much more today. We have a very special guest. His name is Marty Englander. Hi Marty, how are you?

Marty: I’m good, thank you. And thank you for having me.

Daniela: Thank you for coming. I’m your host, Daniela, and I’m Penji’s influencer coordinator. And today we’re going to delve into many interesting topics about short form videos, content creation for businesses and many more with Marty. So Marty, before we get started, for anybody listening or watching this that doesn’t know you or about what you do and who you are, could you give us a quick intro about you, what your platform is about and everything that you do?

Marty’s Background

Marty: Sure. I’m a bit of a digital nomad. For years now, I create niche YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and all of these short form video platforms. I utilize free traffic to send people to things like affiliate offers, my own business, any leads or projects or campaigns that I’m currently working on.

But ultimately I just simplify things that a lot of business owners are quite intimidated about. Usually because of the overwhelming amount of mismatch information online that says, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this. And I’m just like, I fit for my home office with my little webcam and I’m able to get hundreds of thousands of views every month. So yeah, I just simplify stuff online. I create little offers, and I utilize a lot of free traffic, a lot of free traffic.

Understanding Free Traffic

Daniela: A lot of free traffic. So, when you refer to free traffic, can you tell us a little bit more about what you mean or how you utilize that for yourself?

Marty: Sure. So free traffic is eyeballs. Right now, you post a video, let’s say on YouTube or you post something on social media and your friends or your family or your connections will all see that post. And that’s basically what I mean by free traffic. It’s utilizing platforms like social media to send people to where you want them to go.

The way I utilize it, I do lots of different things. Ultimately, I create offers or things that I think people are really interested in. So at the moment, I started going heavy into automation, so I thought, how can a business utilize automation? So I created some automation bots.

I created a website, didn’t spend much time in the website because it’s more important to get a really focused message, rather than a really fancy everything else. Make the message important and then work on the design. If the message isn’t good, then no design is going to be able to do anything for the audience to get those sales.

And then I create little videos that have a really strong message or a lot of clarity into the pain point of the audience or the target market, and I post it onto a free platform like TikTok or YouTube or Facebook reels or whatever. And, from that point, just drive them to where I want them to go. Hence leading someone from A to B.

Social Media Strategy for Small Business Owners

Daniela: From A to B. Yeah. And I think utilizing social media like that, or platforms in that way right now is a very big thing for companies. And I think there’s a big struggle with smaller business owners or people who are just starting out as to how they can do that.

And I know that your channel focuses a lot on the growth of the social media of a small business owner. What I want to know is what can you do for a person who is just starting a business to advise them with all of this and how they can actually have a, I would say, lucrative social media presence? I think a lot of our listeners really don’t know what to do when it comes to handling the social media for their own businesses.

Marty: Sure. It’s actually a really good question because one of the latest things that I’ve been doing for businesses is channel reviews or a channel audit similar to like a website audit. But you send me your channel and I’ll go through it and actually create a personalized video on how you can improve it. And because I’ve done so many of those recently, I actually know exactly where nearly every single business falls down or basically destroys any chance of growth just because they don’t put in these foundations.

And that’s what I’m quite good at. I’m actually really good at pulling in foundations of stuff. There’s no point growing on quicksand. So, I’ll give you these steps.

Focusing Your Content Strategy

The first thing is I’m going to quote Gordon Ramsay. When he goes into a kitchen or a restaurant and he tries to show them how to do everything, he says to that restaurant, what is one dish you want to be known for? Just one single dish. That doesn’t mean that’s going to be the only dish on the menu. That just means what is that one dish that’s going to entice people to come to your restaurant so they can, that hook, that thing that’s going to bring them in, and then you can show them the rest of the menu.

This is where businesses actually fall down. Because they’ve got so many services to offer, they try to shove all of those services into the prospect’s face by posting all about them on social media.

I recently just did a review on a dating coach. And his target market, he said to me was 25 to 45-year-old men. But his list of services was dating and then how to have a healthy relationship. But I said to him, well, you are trying to target a really large group of different audiences because the average 25-year-old male does not talk like the average 45-year-old male.

In fact, the average 45-year-old male might have had a relationship, might be fed up with women or guys, might have too much, don’t have enough time because they’ve got children and stuff like that. So the messages that you convey on social media needs to be attached to a very, very focused audience before you cast a net out and grab everyone on anything.

And then it’s also, well, people who are looking for dates, they don’t, whilst they probably will want a healthy relationship, they’re not at that stage yet to have a healthy relationship because they’re still looking for a date. So what happens is you start posting things about how to get a date or how to get a healthy relationship. And you put all of those things in one channel. You’re going to be bringing in lots of different audience types, and as they scroll on your feed, what’s going to happen is the initial video that brought them in, they’re going to be, oh, that was really good. They scroll up and they’re like, oh, what’s this video about? No, there’s a disconnect there because it’s not what they originally came to the channel for.

Starting Simple with Video Content

So what you want to do is, first of all, don’t buy a really expensive camera. Don’t buy a really expensive microphone. Decide what your channel is going to be about. So if you are a graphic designer, instead of posting things, all things graphic design. You niche down on that and you start talking about how to bring your designs to life.

For example, in graphic design, it’s the fine details that really make images pop. So think of a droplet going into the sea. It’s not the droplet that makes the picture, it’s the waves around the droplet, like the air, the way it’s traveling down, or when it’s reaching the water. The tiny little droplets going off and the wrinkles in the water and these fine details.

So you create post, after post, after post about the fine details of this, rather than going into the broad overview of graphic design because it’s too broad, it’s not focused enough yet. Your channel isn’t there when you first get started.

So if you are a business owner, you focus on one of your services. How that service, what is the outcome for your prospect of that service? And one of the things I say in my mentorship program, when I train people on short form video, is you start off with the problem. You give them the solution, you tell them the solution, but then this is where at this stage, it’s still a win-lose situation. It’s a win for the prospect because they get some free information, but it’s a lose situation for you because you haven’t directed them anywhere.

The Three-Part Video Structure

So you’ve got the problem, the solution, but there’s a third thing, and that third thing is called the capture. And that’s where you say, if you want me to show you how to do this, go to this website. Then you send them to your resource page.

But businesses will still struggle with that because their resource page is a big, broad website with loads of shiny buttons and objects to click on. So instead of sending them to a broad website, you take a single page on that website. You remove the menu icons and all your social media stuff, and you only give the prospect one thing they can do. Which is book an appointment, enter an email, or do the exact thing that you want them to do, and you remove anything that can distract them or take them away.

And the way to do that is you pick up your phone and you record yourself talking for 30 seconds. That’s it. It’s as simple as that.

Daniela: So it’s definitely a lot more watered down I think, or maybe that’s not the right term, but it’s a lot simpler and very to the point than I think a lot about what people think it is, right?

The Value of Details in Content

Marty: Yeah. Because you get a lot in the nicest way possible. You can go to YouTube and there’s a ton of amazing advice on YouTube, but it’s the fine details that really matter and that’s where YouTube lacks. That’s where all the free content lacks because you get to a point where it’s like, okay, I can put in dah, dah, dah, but how do I actually get from there? What’s the complete picture? And that’s what a lot of free content misses.

I’ve done like over a thousand videos online across numerous different networks. I’m a one man band, yet my channels, I think in the past seven days, just on TikTok, I’ve reached like 150,000 people, which is absolutely mad. I don’t outsource anything and I literally spend 90 seconds a day creating a single video. I don’t spam it with loads of stuff. I’ve gone through like the hardware…

Daniela: I thought you meant, you had gone through like the spamming phase.

Marty: Yeah, I used to do spamming. I used to set up automations and spam that way, but it’s not what these platforms want. What they want is content that actually serves a purpose. And when you learn that there’s very specific formulas on how to do that. But it really is simple. Just think of it from what sort of content do you respond to?

And I think a lot of business owners are also scared of the idea of giving away some style free information. But the reality of it is that in the eyes of the customer, first of all, because it’s so impersonal being online, if you are providing a ton of value for free to the prospect, can you imagine what they’re going to think when you show them something that they can buy from you and how much value is going to be behind the scenes there.

Daniela: Yeah. Like they were definitely going to be more inclined to purchase from something that they already know is worth purchasing. Definitely.

The Importance of Clear Direction

Marty: Yeah. And that’s the general idea. But you’ve got to lead them to where you want them to go, otherwise you can give them a ton of value. But if they don’t know where to go after that, and it’s not a clear A to B to C. You’ve lost that. And it’s a shame when that happens.

Daniela: I think it’s really interesting that you mentioned in order to sort of retain that person’s interest, you have to keep things very simple. You know, like one instruction, one thing to do, one aspect of your product. Right.

And it reminds me of, I think when I started working, like my first job ever, I didn’t realize how much work or thought it took to write an email to someone. Right? And my coworker who saw me being like, you know, like this really young girl, she’s just fresh out of college, whatever. He told me, like, when you write an email, just make sure that what you’re writing is really simple. And it doesn’t matter who you’re writing the email to, always think of that person as stupid. Or slow. Or dumb. And I thought that was so rude. I was like, why would I like assume that everybody’s dumb?

Marty: You’re meant to talk to them like they’re grade eights. To people grade eight. And it’s not that the person’s dumb, it’s just most people, we’re living in a world of overload of information. So most people scan things and they don’t have time to truly absorb the knowledge. So clarity sells and if you ever try to do anything other than provide clarity. If you try to be funny or smart or cute or anything of those lines, it won’t work because especially with business owners, time is money.

And with small business owners, sometimes business owners are only business owners because they can’t find a job. So by necessity, they need to start the business to pay the bills. Other small business owners are juggling the entire business on their shoulders. They do everything from admin, marketing, product creation, even serving the actual product because they don’t have huge budgets for big teams or they don’t know how to get there. So clarity is absolutely key. And simplicity will always, always sell. And if you look at like clothing and stuff like that. Two biggest colors on earth are black and white.

Daniela: Yeah. I swear like the simplest things are always kind of like the permanent ones. Well, there are more, you know, like that dress that I bought with a bunch of ponies on, it was cool back in 2020 and now it’s like buried in my closet.

Marty: Yeah. And that is perfect. Like when you, I know we talk about video, but you go to, hopefully your viewers are listening to these tips and they’ll go to their website, for example, and see just how many things and how cluttered that website now is. You’re much better just saying, I will do this for you. This is what you will get. This is what you can expect afterwards. And there you go.

Small Businesses vs. Big Corporations on Social Media

Daniela: And I think it’s very interesting what you said, because I also think there is a big distinction to be made with small business and kind of big corporations and how they do their socials. Because I’ve seen a lot of smaller business owners who see the success of big companies like Wendy’s or Duolingo or Coke and these really big companies that are doing really well on social media and they want to sort of copy that. I think it’s important. They can’t, you can’t because you’re not Coke here. Right.

Marty: Exactly. And it’s also important, it’s funny actually, you bring this topic up because I think I’ve been listening to an audio book about marketing and one of the things they said was, Coke and all these companies, they started off where you were. So what they’re doing now wasn’t what they were doing when you were…

Daniela: Surprised. Yeah.

Marty: It’s funny. Last March, I won this affiliate competition and it got me, I was flown out to Bali to give a talk at this mastermind. And the average company was much bigger than I was, turning over like 20 mil a year sort of thing. And I was like, wow. Each one of us, we gave a little talk and afterwards we’re all sitting around the table just having nice chats. We all stayed in a village. It was a really nice thing.

And one of the people who attended, she must have, I think she spent like $11,000 to attend the Mastermind, which was crazy. But the owner of, the person who flew me out of the mastermind, he was giving all this advice to this person. She was a breathing coach, I think it was. And I was listening. I was just thinking, oh, this is really good advice. But she was getting a bit wound up with the situation because, well, I wasn’t sure at that point in time. And there was a disconnect between him and her.

So because he enjoyed my talk on short formal traffic generation at the mastermind, he was like, “Marty, well, do you have any advice for her?” So I asked her a few questions, and it turns out she’s just a one person band, you know, she’s doing well in her business, but she’s not hired or anything on those lines. A completely different process.

So I said to her, oh, so this means you’re doing everything yourself? Do you outsource? Do you have a VA? She was like, no, no, no. So I said, okay, well, in fact, just do this, focus on these style posts and do that over and over and over. So she said, well, how many times? So I said, well, as many times as it takes, but start off with a hundred times and see what happens.

And afterwards he took me to the side. He was like, that was some really good advice that you gave her. Well, why did she respond to you so much better than me? So I said you have a, because you spend like a hundred grand a month on paid advertising with a department of 80 plus members, whereas she can’t afford anything near that. Like she can barely, you know, she’s probably making the posts in her bed at night before she goes to sleep. Desperate to get that done because she had a really busy day.

Daniela: Yeah. And I think that’s like what you said is huge because I think that distinction sometimes gets missed. We see big corporations sort of handling their social media in a very different way. I’ve noticed there’s a trend growing of like memes, and companies wanting to sort of…

The Problem with Meme Marketing

Marty: I hate meme marketing. Absolutely hate, hate it. And I see so many business owners doing meme marketing, and then they’re like, oh, it’s really good. I got a surge of views and followers, but no one’s buying my stuff. And I’m like, yeah, because that’s not what meme marketing is for.

Daniela: Right? Because I think memes and like meme marketing in this kind of jokey way, like, I don’t know if you’ve seen like Ryan Air’s TikTok, that’s like really rude to people. They’re always kind of like sort of enjoying the fact that they’re like a bad airline or something. And I think what is the difference, at least for me, is that these companies are already very famous. Everybody knows about this airline, you know, everybody knows…

Marty: The airline is not a great airline. Yeah.

Daniela: It’s good to give you visibility and words for you to like keep this airline in your mind so that when you want to get a cheap flight, you’re like, oh yeah, Ryan Air.

Marty: Ryan Air. And they also setting expectations as well, which is kind of genius marketing in a way because it’s like, well it’s playing on the, you get what you pay for sort of thing. So by saying that, well, we’re not a great airline, but we’re really cheap.

Daniela: So like, stop asking us. Don’t complain. Right. Yeah. So the complaints are not there. And I think, but that’s different because they’re already big. They’re not trying to get their name out there. They’re not trying to get customers. They already have, you know, obviously anybody who needs a cheap flight is going to use Ryan Air.

The same things goes for other big corporations who use their social media in this sort of like, more silly way because they’re just trying to get exposure and I guess for people to remember them on a day-to-day basis because it’s true. Like, I think I’ve seen, I’ve seen like maybe a TikTok from Duolingo that makes me think, oh, I should probably do my Duolingo. Or you know, I’ll see like a funny meme from some brand, and then I’m like, oh, now I’m craving McDonald’s or whatever it is. But a small business is, no…

Marty: Does not have that impact. Yeah.

Effective Examples of Small Business Marketing

Daniela: Yeah. And, it’s very sad.

Marty: Like, don’t get me wrong, you can get, there are some, if you do want to go down that road, I mean, when Prime was becoming massive, you had that corner shop, something wines…

Daniela: Oh. Yeah.

Marty: And then they did a fantastic thing. I mean, it was so, and in the most beautiful way. The most amateur based sort of videos, which I absolutely loved. And they just, they basically used the psychology of a catchy little phrase. A really amateur based shock value. And then they just, they were, they went off the basis of Prime drinks when they were charging like a hundred dollars plus per bottle, which was just absolutely mad.

But it really worked for them and it just, it made them so gimmicky in a sense that people just wanted to go to the shop for the sake of it, and that really worked for them until they got their account banned. But…

Daniela: I think the difference with Prime though is that they’re, there’s influencers behind it, you know, there’s very popular influencers behind it. So what happens is that when also you are starting a business from the point where you are already a popular person, it’s going to be really different because you’re going to have like a following opposed to like, I think a lot of people who are just genuinely, you know, your average Joe who’s just trying to sell their cakes or whatever.

The Power of Short Form Video for Small Businesses

Marty: This is where short form video comes into it because with short form video, due to the nature of how it all works. Followings are not needed. You don’t need a following, which is why it’s so attractive for small businesses. You can literally post a video and go viral overnight because that the nature of short form video. So it’s instant exposure at costing you nothing.

And the nature of content, the way it’s changing right now is more amateur, authentic based videos are just blowing up like crazy. Hence why my channels are doing well, part of why it’s going so well. But so many amateur based videos that are done from a phone are just blowing up because authenticity is what people are craving right now due to the AI wave.

The many people aren’t stupid. We know we’re being manipulated by Mr. Beast, you know, style content, that’s what I’m going to call it. Or, you know, if you look at Gary V, Gary V is 50-50 manipulation and really good, authentic content. He just merges the two really, really well. So if you look at most of Gary V’s content, it’s all super authentic. Get out there, go do it. This, that, everything that everyone wants to hear, but he’s still doing all the shiny, glossy style videos that businesses can’t do in terms of the editing side of it, but it doesn’t need to be edited like that.

The Return to Authenticity in Content

Daniela: Yeah. I think also because we’re coming from an era where there was a lot of like very curated content, especially when YouTube sort of started to get big. And it became like, you know, to make a YouTube video, you had to like, do a bunch of editing and planning and filming and stuff. And now like that sort of wave has died down and we’re sort of returning to this more relaxed side, even in like normal content. Right?

Because I think there’s like a way for just like random Instagram posts for them to be like photo dumps instead of, you know, this picture where you’re posing and looking like really great.

Marty: The duck face. I call it the duck face.

Daniela: No, I think it’s interesting because it’s a cycle and I’m pretty sure in the future there might be a new wave of, you know, very produced and very glossy.

Marty: It cycles, it cycles, but right now the area that we’re living in or we’re entering in is authentic everyday people. Where you’ve got the old man with the long beard can barely hold the camera, you know it’s shaking, yet he’s giving some cool little tips or tricks, and it’s those sort of videos that are just going…

Daniela: They’re doing really well. Yeah, they’re doing really well. And I think it’s really because there’s that crave for authenticity. And like you said, I think that when you’re starting social media with whatever purpose it is, if you have a goal in mind, it’s going to be a lot easier than if you’re just trying to copy someone else’s success or if you are trying to sort of emulate what you have seen somewhere else. Or if you’re just posting for the sake of it without an actual goal.

Marty: Very much so.

Daniela: Like what you brought up is really important of having a goal is not necessarily like get a million followers. You know, it’s like, what are you going to do with a million followers?

Quality vs. Quantity in Content Performance

Marty: Well, that’s exactly it. And it’s funny, I’ve had, like if you go to YouTube for example, and you type in how to write essays with ChatGPT, it’s hugely competitive video or keyword. My video is like number one for that yet, apart from AdSense, it’s actually earned me very little money. That video where I’ve posted another video of something slightly different, it’s had like a hundred views and it’s generated me like three, four sales.

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Conclusion

Daniela: But, I think we should wrap it up. Everything that you’ve told us about short form, about using social media for your business is really interesting. For any of our listeners who want to get your advice, who want to learn more about you, who want to maybe use your services, where can they find you?

Marty: Just type in my name, martyenglander.com or just type in Marty Englander on Google, YouTube and you’ll be able to find me.

Daniela: Awesome. Yeah, we’ll be adding all of your links as well so that people can go in, they can see what your content is all about and have a little bit of a look. I think we have a lot of business owners who want to learn more about social media platform content and this is going to be great for them. So thank you for coming today for the show. We really appreciate it. It’s been great. It’s been really fun having you.

Marty: Alright, bye now.

Daniela: Alright guys, so we’ll see you for the next episode and tune in. Have a good day everyone.

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