The Narwhal Pod | Episode 1: Is Video Hotter Than Ever?

Michael Epps Utley (00:01.647)

Hey, welcome everyone to - Jeana, this is great. This is our first, the Narwhal pod. Yeah, Narwhal pod. And we've got a great, I'm so excited because for three reasons. Number one, one of the people I'm most excited about and proud of in the whole world is here, Jeana Medlin. Jeana's been with GoEpps for a long time. So we're going to talk about that. This is a new podcast for us. We did a podcast before, it was Dodgeball Marketing Podcast.

Jeana (00:16.398)

First ever narwhal pod.

Michael Epps Utley (00:37.975)

We've moved over our podcast efforts to our main brand. We're also switching up our format going forward. We're not gonna be doing the two talking heads thing that Chris and I were doing with the old podcast. We're gonna be taking on guests. I'm gonna be the host and it's gonna be exciting because we're gonna be diving into lots of different subject matter and lots of different topics. And Jeana has a master's in film. And so I'm gonna intro her in a second, but we're gonna talk video strategy and video marketing today. So super excited about that.

Also, super excited about the new podcast and just where this is going to take us. It's a whole new world of expertise and diving into more topics and a broader set of things than we've ever talked about before. So let's not waste any more time. Let's get started. Episode number one, Jeana Medlin. Jeana, let's talk about you. You have a background in film studies, but you've been doing digital marketing with GoEpps for, have we hit 10 years yet? It's gotta be close. Okay.

Jeana (01:19.263)

Awesome.

Jeana (01:32.43)

Almost, yes, it is almost a decade.

Michael Epps Utley (01:34.959)

Gosh, we need to recognize, let's get that data on the calendar, that's crazy. So real quick, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Jeana (01:41.098)

Yeah, so a little bit of my background. I went to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Go Vols. And then there I studied accounting and just general business administration and then moved to Nashville. And almost immediately outside of my internship year, I started with GoEpps as an account leader. I distinctly remember coming to you guys with just hopes and dreams of writing content.

Like a 22 year old does, and you said, nope, we're gonna hire you to be an account leader. And I've been here ever since. And then I, in 2017, got my master's in film and creative media, so kind of dabbled in client video projects before going back to grad school. And I just loved it so much. There was just something magical about the chaos and just craziness of a set day.

And I was like, I want more of this. I want to be able to do this better and just be more equipped to bring more of those types of projects into GoEpps. So got my master's in film and creative media. Yeah, still utilizing it today, just in different digital marketing facets.

Michael Epps Utley (02:50.403)

Awesome.

Michael Epps Utley (02:56.719)

That's great. Thank you. Yeah. And I just want to add while working full-time, got a master's while working full-time. Not an easy accomplishment, but a significant one. Okay. So the format of this is I'm going to throw out a question. We'll spend three or four minutes talking about each one. It'd be a little bit discussion and then we'll move on. I'll cut us off if I need to and move us onto the next one. And yeah, I'm kind of looking at a timer, so I'll kind of keep us going.

Jeana (03:02.414)

Mm. I do not recommend, but yes. Yes.

Michael Epps Utley (03:25.411)

But yeah, let's talk about digital marketing. You head a production for a digital marketing agency. Can you share with us how your background and video content build marketing value? What is it that your kind of approach to video, how do you think about video and digital marketing? What's kind of the state of the art? Where are we right now with video and digital marketing?

Jeana (03:46.911)

Yeah, so I don't really see video and digital marketing as separate entities. I think all of marketing is trying to be a good storyteller and connect with your audience and video is just another component of that, right? We have website content, blogs, ebooks, infographics. We're doing videos, podcasts, social media.

All of that is just allowing you to meet your audience where they are, right? A lot of people love to read, great. Throw them a 15 minute blog piece, they're gonna eat it up, they're gonna enjoy it. Other people like to absorb their content, just audio based, right? So having a podcast or like most people, you do it via video which captures their attention instantly and it's just kind of, you know,

I think offering up another avenue to meet your audience.

Michael Epps Utley (04:48.895)

Yeah, yeah. You and I, we were always kind of working with campaigns thinking in terms of sales funnels. So video is interesting because it can be used in different ways. But can you, you know, I wouldn't necessarily get into like talking about specific clients or programs, but in general, you and I have delivered a lot of video programs, you know, going back 10 years. And so how do you think about video in relation to like the different stages of the sales funnel? Does it apply to all of them? Is it better for any particular spot in the funnel?

Jeana (05:04.238)

Mm-hmm.

Jeana (05:16.562)

of them. I mean, I think just with anything else, it's just a matter of crafting it in a way that meets that audience where they are in the funnel. So if you are in the awareness phase and I don't know, maybe you're a sales team and you're trying to do some outbound reaches and you have a list of customers that you're trying to get in contact with.

You have an awesome phone call with them. Record a video that just, you know, goes back over the conversation that you had and then provides a little bit more detail, talks about when you're gonna follow up. It puts a face to the name and the conversation that they just had, and it provides a little bit of a personal touch. You know, in the consideration phase, you're talking about showing off your expertise, right? So that's when...

A lot of customers are asking very specific questions about, you know, hey, what's the price of this or the price range? How does this work? What's the process like? Why are you different than your competitors? Or why should I do this versus this? Answer those questions and answer them in as many ways as possible, right? And as many mediums as possible. Do it via video. Do it have a live FAQ time on your...

Instagram stories or have FAQ sections or an entire blog write up on your website. So yes, consideration phase, awareness phase, throughout the entire funnel, I think using video is appropriate. It's just tailoring it to where the audience may be in their journey.

Michael Epps Utley (07:03.403)

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I see us often using, you know, developing kind of like a brand video or an intro, kind of a 360 degree view of a company. And then we get more into like specific services quite often. And then, you know, product comparisons almost. And then, yeah, even down to like just shooting a loom on your computer to sell in something, you know, when somebody's ready to close and you're working through stuff. Okay. Yeah, that's awesome. All right. I'm going to take us to our next question. Here we go.

Jeana (07:26.094)

Absolutely, yeah.

Michael Epps Utley (07:32.011)

What is a good starting point for a company that is not doing any video content yet? How do folks get started in video? I think sometimes they get scared off. We were talking earlier about sales funnel. Like they see the big heavy expense production brand values all the way down to like the loom videos and maybe, you know, well, where do we put in? Where do we start? What's a good way for companies to get their head around digital marketing with video and where to begin?

Jeana (07:59.814)

Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. I do think that in general, the things that scare people off from video the most are going to be cost and just capacity to do it, right? Most people don't know how to create a big brand video, and even fewer people know how to develop a, you know, complicated explainer video describing your services. And all of those are great. But

We also have really powerful tools in our pockets, i.e. the cell phone, that we can use to record videos. So I think my two biggest recommendations for starting out in video would be, one, customer testimonials. So this is a way to start utilizing video without the ownership of actually creating the video, even being on you, right? Send out a email to 100 of your

most previous customers and say, we're offering out or we're offering a $100 gift card to such and such for any, or you're entered into a drawing to win this gift card if you submit a testimonial video. And start adding those to your website, start publishing those on social, put them on YouTube, start using them in all of these different ways. So that's an easy way to even make someone else make the video. You just get to

utilize it and benefit from it. And then the second thing is the, they ask you answer method. So your customers have a lot of questions. As a consumer, we need our questions answered before we start making any sort of decisions. And as the provider of a said service or product, you are best suited to answer those questions. So get a little itty bitty tripod, set up your cell phone.

and just start recording answers to all of your customer questions. And then, you can kind of build more content, supporting content around that, later down the road, but just to start answering those questions. And if you don't feel comfortable on camera, if you're like, oh, I'm weird, I'm awkward when I'm on camera, or I'm not the expert, go find the person that is, right? There's someone in your organization who's an expert in that thing. Otherwise, you...

probably you're not providing that service, right? Or you're not doing it that well. So there's gotta be an expert around. So get them, start answering those questions just using an iPhone.

Michael Epps Utley (10:32.937)

Mm-hmm.

Michael Epps Utley (10:39.823)

That's great. So there's really, we used to call it a low barrier to entry, but there's really no barrier to entry. It's just the will to put yourself out there. And if you've got a smartphone, you've got a video recording studio. And we do a lot of things with a lot better quality, but yeah, I think that point comes across. Getting expertise. And you mentioned one of the books that you and I have been talking about, they ask you answer, do I get the title right? And so it's just that.

Jeana (10:58.807)

Mm-hmm.

Michael Epps Utley (11:06.699)

that thing of being a fountain of knowledge and awareness. Great. I'm gonna take us to our next question. This gets into sort of where you and I live with marketing strategy. How can people get more value from the video content they do produce? We're always talking about like, where all can this go? But is it just to put it on your website or don't forget to put it on YouTube or...

Jeana (11:35.191)

Hm.

Michael Epps Utley (11:35.223)

Like how do you think about video production and value creation overall?

Jeana (11:40.014)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, I mean, I think you need to get the most bang for your buck, so to speak, if you are creating any sort of content, right? I think the hard part is really understanding what the most beneficial piece of content is. And then once you have that, run with it. Create social posts on it. Create a podcast on it. Create video. Create blogs. Create an ebook.

all of this different stuff. And even just, for example, a five minute video, right? Say you are doing a five minute.

expertise and authority driven video answering a customer question or providing more detail about a process in one of the services that you offer. So that's one five-minute video that can be you know used on YouTube. You can distribute it via email. You can put it on your website. You know that's that. But then you also have five YouTube shorts. YouTube shorts are

videos that are under 60 seconds, right? And so then you can create a playlist around those YouTube shorts. You also have at least 10 social posts, right? If you're talking about breaking that up into 30 second segments, and then, you know, that could probably even go further than 10 social clips. And then you can use that same video as kind of the too long don't read section, is what I like to call it, of.

Michael Epps Utley (12:48.65)

Hmm.

Michael Epps Utley (13:16.067)

Hmm.

Jeana (13:17.022)

a blog post where you're pretty much going to write out similar content, but they can absorb it via that video instead of reading similar answers or similar content via the blog. And then you can also distribute that five-minute video, strip the audio out of it, and submit it to podcast directories and syndication.

Michael Epps Utley (13:42.342)

Mm.

Jeana (13:43.99)

So even just that one five minute video has what? At least 20 different uses along the journey of that one piece of content. And so make it work for you. You did the work to come up with that topic, with that content. Now make it work for you.

Michael Epps Utley (14:05.327)

That's great. Yeah. I think something you and I have talked about a lot is how production costs is so much a part of the conversation. But one way that we, when we're pricing stuff out, offset those production costs is by leveling up the publishing. And so yeah, everything you just said, I think that's really shocking for people to think like, oh, you know, when we produce this one really good video, are we planning well so we can take advantage? And it seems that under thinking the publishing...

happens more often than under thinking the producing. I think everybody's so nervous about getting on camera and because there is a lot of vulnerability, our clients are creating a commitment. They're speaking for the brand often. They're speaking often for executives in the company and folks who are not gonna be on camera, but they've gotta be the person, whether it's the head of HR talking about the culture of the company or whatever, they're suddenly put on the spot having to speak about things that...

Jeana (14:36.609)

Yeah.

Michael Epps Utley (15:00.564)

They're exposed when they have to do that. So it's hard to work out the material. So we end up with this whole other side of the conversation that gets forgotten. So yeah, I think that's really smart. And that's really great. I think that's a good one.

Jeana (15:07.956)

Mm-hmm.

Jeana (15:12.958)

Yeah. And I mean, listen, not everybody in the organization has the same exact personality, right? If the CEO is really uncomfortable on camera, there's a good chance that there is someone in that company or organization who likes the attention, who likes performing, who is an attention seeker like Jeana is, right? So there are other options so you can kind of

I don't know, point or appoint a spokesperson for that brand. If you're going the, you know, especially that low cost route where it's just like, hey Joe, I wanna record a video that answers this question. You good with that? And he's like, yeah, awesome. Been waiting to answer this question on camera my whole life. Let's do it. You know?

Michael Epps Utley (16:05.439)

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, you can move things around. You don't have to put all the pressure on one person, but you do have to work strategically and say, okay, we're committing these resources. How do we get the most value out of it? And so, you can do that better when you kind of lower the threat level in other areas. That's an awesome insight. Yeah. Okay, cool. I'm going to take us to our next question here. So next up, this is a good one. How much does quality matter?

Jeana (16:16.491)

Mm-hmm.

Michael Epps Utley (16:34.531)

If a company isn't budgeting for professional recording, is iPhone content better than nothing at all? So we talked about this a little bit. So let's talk about, let's get into this. Let's talk about pros and cons on this. Yeah.

Jeana (16:47.762)

Yeah, yeah, I love this question. And I mean, let's be real, right? When is the last time that you saw a cell phone commercial that talked about the cellular capabilities of this phone? That's never like, you'll never drop a call or you'll be able to hear the other person on the other end of the line just perfectly, clearly. It's never gonna be any talking over one another. No, there's none of that. It's always about the camera, right?

Every cell phone commercial talks about the camera and it's because they're good. Like if you have anything above like an iPhone 8 probably, you can make a movie on it, right? They've filmmakers have actually tested this and like done this as just kind of like a joke thing is I'm gonna go make this movie on an iPhone and it works. They look good. So visual quality is never a concern with

if you're using like a newer version of an iPhone or a Galaxy or something like that. What I will say, and this is kind of the cardinal rule of just making video, if you are recording sound, the sound has to be good. So users will almost always forgive bad visuals if there's good sound, but they will never forgive, you know, awesome visuals with bad sound.

Michael Epps Utley (18:00.636)

Mmm.

Jeana (18:16.326)

So you can have a, you can set up a voice memo to record as you're doing your iPhone video, or you can have a secondary phone there that's recording the audio specifically, or you can even put like an audio recorder, a separate audio recorder in your pocket and capture sound that way. But sound has, it has to sound good. People have to be able to absorb

the information that you're trying to communicate via that video.

Michael Epps Utley (18:50.047)

Now, are there microphones that can work with a phone to go ahead and get it fed in line, or are we not there yet with iPhones? Do they probably like their native microphone?

Jeana (19:00.874)

I'm sure there are apps and like adapters that you can use with an iPhone or a Galaxy. I don't have the names of those like right off the top of my head, but if there's like a situation where you're recording on two different things, say you have an iPhone set up and you're recording audio and visual on the iPhone, but you also have a secondary device set up to capture audio.

Maybe just do like a snap, right? As soon as you're about to start, just, oh yeah, or clap or a really loud snap, something that will capture that spike in sound. And that way it's easy to sync it up if you have to do any sort of editing.

Michael Epps Utley (19:46.359)

Yeah, and even if you're not the person doing it, whoever you're giving it to is gonna say, oh, yeah, I see the spike here. So it's like always give me a clapper simulation or a hand clap. Yeah, it's funny. Now some of the Netflix shows where they do a lot of folks sitting down to be interviewed, kind of the, you know, the current day version of the old reality TV confessionals, I'm noticing they're keeping in a lot of folks sitting down and just doing a clap.

Jeana (19:51.391)

Yeah.

Jeana (19:55.836)

Mm-hmm.

Jeana (20:09.035)

Sure. Yeah.

Michael Epps Utley (20:14.475)

So like even out there in the field with stuff that's making it to Netflix, this kind of self-produced part of the creative process, it's kind of working its way in. I don't think that's all bad. I think that's really interesting that some of that's making it into camera, that we get to see a little bit of kind of what's going on behind the scenes. And I know we, yeah, and we don't produce videos with iPhones, you know, we're usually using, you know, a lot of equipment and, you know, lights and all that setup, but that you've kind of answered the question of like, lowering the threat level and getting started in.

Jeana (20:26.466)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, behind the curtain.

Michael Epps Utley (20:42.339)

getting your brand out there and answering questions. And there's really no barrier to entry. And there's some things to watch out for, but there are workarounds.

Jeana (20:49.586)

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, I'll be perfectly clear. I love when you, we get to make a beautiful video, right? I want it to look good. I want it to sound good. I want it to do good. But if there's something keeping you from doing video and that something is cost or just not knowing where to start, start with your iPhone and start by answering customer questions and then using that in as many places as possible.

Michael Epps Utley (21:17.599)

Love it. That's the sound bite right there. That's a really good nugget. I know everybody's going to appreciate that. All right. I'm going to take us to our next question. How much should brands imitate or not imitate what consumers are doing with video compared to a more corporate approach? And I'm going to add a little tag on this. This is a little bit more about the content as opposed to the... We've been talking some about production and lowering the threat level and strategy,

Jeana (21:21.058)

Hahaha

Michael Epps Utley (21:47.403)

Should brands be doing TikTok dances?

Jeana (21:50.382)

no one should be doing TikTok dances. No, I'm just kidding. So I think for this, this isn't something that is set in stone across the board, right? I think you really have to, as a brand, offering services or products to a certain audience, you really have to ask yourself the question, does this, is this meeting my audience where they are? Is this helpful in communicating who we are?

Michael Epps Utley (21:52.323)

Hahaha

Jeana (22:19.746)

as a brand to our consumer. I think in general, and this is just my personal preference, I do not like stiff brands, right? And so the more that you can get out and show me your humanity, whether that's via a TikTok dance or you made a, you bake.

cakes on the side and you were driving and you took a turn too fast and it spilled in your car and you're like putting that reality or just like you know a um you know a sped up video of the whole thing where we see the video or the cake tip in your car and it's a whole mess like I love that stuff right it just like shows me that you're human and that we can somehow relate to one another so personal preference I would be like

Michael Epps Utley (23:04.719)

Hmm.

Jeana (23:10.194)

Yeah, unless you have a really good reason why or like, why not to do something silly on TikTok or social media, then go for it. Show your humanity. If you have a really good reason why not, then yeah, maybe don't do that.

Michael Epps Utley (23:25.903)

I don't want to put you on the spot, but can you think of any marketing or any brands you've seen do anything interesting with video that's like being authentic and kind of cutting through and being present and available to people in a way that's maybe surprising?

Jeana (23:37.454)

Well, you know, I follow Adweek on Instagram, and I love a bunch of the stuff that they post. It usually is big brand centric, right? And I think one of the most recent things that they posted was a video, a commercial that Burger King did that essentially talked to some of the inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of marketing and kind of the idea behind

Jeana (24:10.207)

brand loyalty, right? So they basically did this entire video that just spanned, you know, decades. I don't remember what decade it started in, but it just, they kept getting bombarded in this video with messages about going to Burger King. And it was just like, the Whopper is, you know, the Whopper is the stuff. You have to go get the Whopper. The Whopper is awesome. And it was like just

Michael Epps Utley (24:12.015)

Hmm.

Jeana (24:36.306)

Every place that this person went, he was bombarded with whopper information and marketing. It's modern day now, we're at the end of the commercial, he shows up at Burger King, he gets to the counter and he orders a fish fillet or something. He doesn't order a whopper. It speaks to just some of the downfalls of being bombarded by marketing all of the time.

I think that for me, when brands can be really self-aware and just poke fun at reality a little bit in a tactful and more self-deprecating way, not necessarily one that's pointing fingers at anyone else, I would not recommend that you go poo-pooing on other people unless you're Wendy's and you're trying to get your Twitter account going, which they succeed. They're awesome at it.

Michael Epps Utley (25:14.799)

Mm-hmm.

Jeana (25:36.139)

So, yeah, brands that are self-aware, brands that are injecting a little bit of humor into their ad and video space, I think for me is always going to catch my attention more than just, hey, these are our benefits. I think, yeah, go ahead.

Michael Epps Utley (25:52.139)

Yeah. Here's what I'm taking away from it is take chances, but be human, be vulnerable. Is that kind of what you're saying?

Jeana (26:00.35)

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I was just going to end with it is important to communicate why the Whopper is awesome, but also showing why Burger King is human and why it has as many faults as the rest of us does, right? And so it's just, I think that balancing act of benefits plus humanity is really helpful for me, at least as a consumer.

Michael Epps Utley (26:28.791)

Yeah, that's great. Great case study. Shout out Adweek. Thanks for that Instagram post that inspired a good conversation. So we should probably tag them in that, but yeah, that's awesome. Jeana, this has been great. Thank you so much for your insights. I wanna wrap up this inaugural episode of the narwhal pod. So if anybody can see the logo or anything, it's not a fish jumping out of the water. It's a narwhal. It's a whale.

Jeana (26:34.267)

Oh yeah.

Michael Epps Utley (26:57.771)

The big horn is not in the forehead. It's a tooth. It's a tooth that goes through the top lip and some narwhals have two of them. And so the narwhal has always been my favorite sea creature but Jeana, what is your favorite sea creature and why?

Jeana (27:13.858)

Well, I feel like you guys put me on the spot here, especially since I'm not able to have any other tabs open. Shout out to Kailyn for making me close all of my tabs. I think, you know, for lack of knowledge of sea creatures, I might just go with the dolphin. I think they're fun. I think people love them and adore them and want to hang out with them. They seem like extroverts. So I'm like, they're probably kind of cool. And I think aren't sharks scared of them?

Michael Epps Utley (27:40.495)

That's awesome. Great.

Oh, I don't know, but they should be. Dolphins will mess you up if you're not careful. Yeah.

Jeana (27:47.474)

Yeah, so they're like, yeah, sneaky, sassy and scary. And so, you know, maybe I can relate to that a little bit. So yeah, I'll go a dolphin. It's on brand.

Michael Epps Utley (27:57.86)

Check us out.

It checks out. It checks out. I'll stand by that. All right. Great. Jeana, thank you so much for being on the inaugural episode of the Narwhal Pod. You're a special person in the company, and we're so thankful that you're here and part of it. And it's an honor to be able to have you on as a guest to this new property that we've created in this new community that we're going to build around digital marketing tactics and discussion.

Jeana (28:07.907)

course.

Michael Epps Utley (28:26.327)

We're going to have a lot of great guests on this series. We're really excited about this. We're tapped into a national network of digital marketing professionals through just our own work in digital marketing, having done this myself for 25 years and Jeana coming up on 10. And so between everybody here at GoEpps and Kailyn, who's producing this series, thank you all for listening to the first episode. If you made it to this far.

And we're super excited. It's going to be pure knowledge, expertise, inspiration. That's what we're offering. And that's what we're looking for and what we want to get from this as well. And so super excited. And if you're interested in being a guest, let us know. We have a process for that and kind of a set of kind of what we're looking for. But if you think you're a good fit, reach out to us. We'll see. And that's it. Yeah. Thank you so much, Jeana and Kailyn behind the scenes, but Jeana for being our guest today. Thank you.

Jeana (29:16.487)

Awesome.

Jeana (29:19.726)

Cool. Yeah, of course. Thanks, Michael.