Freelancer Tips

Fiverrcast Episode 40: Finding Marketing Success as a One-Man Show

By
Fiverr Team
|
June 28, 2016

Transcript

Ryan: Hello and welcome to Fiverrcast, the official podcast for sellers, by sellers. My name is Ryan AKA Customdrumloops and today I don’t have Redd. I don’t have Adam. I’m flying solo but I do have a great guest today and that is Eran. And Eran, why don’t you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do.Eran: Thank you very much for having me. Yeah, I’ve been marketing for quite some time at the various startups and digital the most and currently I’m marketing at Knowmail. That’s Knowmail with a K. We want to free up time for the employees by personalizing their messages at work and the way we actually do it is by utilizing our sophisticated artificial intelligence with messaging as to privately study individual’s preferences, behaviors and time management in order to deliver them the most important and the relevant messages at the right time.Now doing so – at the end of the day in marketing, you got to do so many different items and you’re handling messaging and you’re handling content and you’re handling whether it is the website and you’re doing all kinds of different advertising and this sort. When you’re a one-man show, it’s very difficult to handle all those items especially if you’re actually lacking the skill and that’s where Fiverr comes along in this sort and I’m finding actual professionals to assist me in my actual marketing efforts.Ryan: Now I think that’s great. One thing you touched on is the concept of being a one-man show and I think a lot of people start that way. So our topic today is Fiverr is a solution for startups and that one-man show that’s going to get going and build the business. So it’s great to have someone on who has actually used Fiverr and done this for themselves. I will start with asking you. How did you first come across Fiverr? What did you first use it for? What were the first things you bought and what were your first impressions?Eran: Well, I got to tell you I’ve heard of Fiverr for a long time before I began using them simply because it never occurred to me how simple it is to actually find professionals in so many different areas. I always thought that you need to actually listen to what people refer you to or the sort and you can’t really get things done or really, really good at such affordable prices.But at a previous startup, I had to take care of all kinds of different things including animated videos and the sort and I have no skills in that area. It was great to be able to actually find people that can be within my budget and can provide my needs. I was turning to Fiverr and found Fiverr, find some solutions and I was able to create some great videos. That’s where the romance began.Ryan: So was the explainer video that first purchase that you made?Eran: The explainer video was the first purchase that I actually made. It’s funny. I didn’t go for a $5 actual Gig and went for something more because it’s simply that’s where I was able to get what I needed. It’s something that I can afford and it was also something that I could actually test because at the end of the day if it wasn’t good or if it wasn’t something that I really expected, it wasn’t the end of the world and it didn’t go through the whole ordeal of planning for months and months and months on end.Ryan: Right. I actually do offer explainer videos on Fiverr and that’s one of my favorite selling points is because the price point is lower, even if you don’t go at the very base low price point, you can test and you can run traffic and you can make sure that video is viewed and then see if there’s a drop-off point or see if there’s anywhere you need to change it to make it better. A lot of times working with agencies or higher cost video producers, you don’t have that chance to do it unless you have that really big budget.So that’s a great way that you can use services on Fiverr to make tweaks and do testing especially if you’re new and you aren’t sure where that magic spot is with making sales to your clients.Eran: Absolutely, absolutely. That’s the great thing because at the end of the day, a lot of things in the past I would think about OK, maybe I will go ahead and look for this or I will put something on hold or I would mark it as not something of a priority or so basically because I didn’t have the resources.Now at the end of the day, I have so many resources. Now whether they’re exactly what I’m looking for or whether I need to go searching for the right actual freelancer or the skilled experienced professional or so, it may take me a few more minutes or it may be something that I didn’t find exactly what I’m looking for. But because I have such an array of different opportunities or potential resources, it’s amazing because it gives you an actual solution that now I need because I don’t know how to design. I don’t know how to create animated videos. A number of things that I don’t know or I don’t have the skills to do.Ryan: So I mean it’s great that you’ve had so many positive experiences. What advice would you give to somebody who’s approaching someone for the first time on Fiverr? They might not be sure what questions to ask, what information to provide. What would you suggest to new entrepreneurs who are startups, who are looking to buy something? How much information should they provide? How many sellers should they contact? In your opinion, what’s the best way to approach that?Eran: I can only actually tell you what I specifically do. Whether it works for somebody else or it doesn’t or it’s their actual process, that’s another thing. But for me it’s basically starting to search.Now I try to come up with all kinds of different creative ways whether it is the creative content or whether it is the videos and the sort. If that’s something that I’m actually looking for, then it’s as simple as actually making the search.Now Fiverr has grown in the past years of course. So there are a lot more actual opportunities and different skills that are available there. Then you start filtering out what level of individual you want, the kind of pricing, based on reviews. A lot of that stuff is available.Then I always recommend that once you really know what you want, try to be as detailed as possible. I make sure that I contact every seller before – unless I know them from the past or I used them before I actually make the Gig order as well. That could be the person that has five stars throughout the board. It doesn’t matter. I want to make sure that there’s a communication factor there because they may be outsourced and they’re not actually sitting with me.Still I need to make sure that the communication is well. So my actual job will go through as well as possible, that they understand as much as possible. They get as many details as needed. At the end of the day I think about it that the more you provide to them, the faster they could provide it back, the best job that they can actually provide because at the end of the day, they want to do it as fast as possible. They want to do the best job as possible so they can of course get a good review and it’s a win-win situation to just jump in the water at the end of the day, not worry about, “OK. Which one? How would I choose?” Start talking to them. See how you feel. It is a people market anyway. It’s real people behind it and some will work and some won’t work and it’s fine. It’s completely fine.Ryan: Yeah. I mean I think you touched on the most important thing there and that’s the communication. I know as buyers a lot of people are looking for different things. Some people might just be looking for the cheapest option possible but I think if you really want that value to get that quality, you need to find somebody who is on the same level as you in terms of communication and what you’re looking for and the answers they can get back to you. I think you said it. It’s a people platform. It’s driven by people. It’s driven by communication and at the end of the day, it’s one person talking to another.So if you can find that person who offers the communication level that you’re looking for but also you mentioned you provide a lot of information. So they know exactly what you’re looking for. That seems to be the way to have that best experience possible.Eran: Absolutely. I think it’s definitely a people’s market. It’s important that you get along with the actual seller because at the end – you never know what you’re going to end up getting of course until you actually get it. But hey, the more you actually communicate, the more you understand and everybody wants to come out happy I think at the end and I don’t think that’s being naïve. I think it’s their actual job and you’re the actual client. You come out happy. They know that you’re going to come back and they know that they’re going to get that good review. It’s a great working platform.Ryan: Right. When that communication is there, if there’s something you weren’t satisfied with, you will likely know they will be willing to make the changes until you are happy because they do want that good review. They want you to be happy because ultimately that benefits their business in the long run as a seller.Eran: Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. Even though I must admit that in my experiences, I haven’t had too many actual edits being done after I ordered the job or the Gig. There were a few that needed edits but it seems like that at the end of the day, the actual seller no matter how detailed they would have been, something didn’t – the communication wasn’t as great. But where the communication is great, at the end of the day, you’re realizing if they understand it better and they’re appreciating it and expecting it, then you’re coming out with an actual good deliverable.Ryan: Right. I think that’s an important takeaway for both buyers and sellers to find somebody who’s on that same level as you and to be clear with what you’re expecting when it comes to communication.So what were some of the projects that you created? I know you mentioned explainer videos. Were these for an ad campaign? Were they just to show off what your service was? And did you collaborate with multiple sellers? I know you mentioned getting videos done that you worked with voiceover artists or scriptwriters. What was that process to getting that done and how was the outcome?Eran: Well, the animated videos I actually ended up writing the script. Simply I thought that beyond saving money I think you have a certain idea in your head and especially for marketers, they want something done a specific way and that’s also where you test actual communication is you reach out to many that have certain reviews and sort of feedback and you see their examples.I was looking for explainer videos that won’t necessarily be for promotion, more like for actual messaging to show what the company does and providing them the actual scripts. You find specific ones that go the extra mile and beyond just creating an animated video based on your storyboard or your script or so, they actually also find a voiceover.They have their own connections whether it’s within Fiverr or whether it is they do it by themselves or whatever. But they have their own connections and you may be – instead of $5 for a voiceover or $10 for a voiceover, it will be $50 or $20 if you’re actually looking into it. But you have somebody else that’s looking out for it because they’re ending up taking over the project and they’re taking actual freelancers and skilled professionals.Ryan: That saves you time as well because you don’t have to go searching through different voiceover artists and I think that all-inclusive package is what makes Fiverr a great place because it’s such a big community that generally a lot of people who have done a decent number of orders on there have almost an index roll of people that they use on a frequent basis, so they can take care of the communication with that person so you can do what you do best which in this case is running Knowmail.Eran: Yeah, exactly, exactly. You said it.Ryan: So how frequently do you purchase on Fiverr?Eran: Currently I would say it’s a number of times a month depending on how many different things I have to get done. There were certain months that I needed voiceovers for actual walkthrough videos as well as the animated explainer videos, as well as an actual translation I needed for a different – for a script to be done in another language. So on a month like that, I have a number of different Gigs going on at the same time.On months that are a little lower, it’s – for something that has needed something small whether it is a voiceover for just a little area or a voiceover that’s complete for features or sort that I want to show.Ryan: What would you say is the most unique thing you purchased or the most unique way you’ve used a Gig with Knowmail?Eran: If we’re going to the voiceover, I will tell you a little example over the past. From a previous place that I worked, I needed to create tutorial videos. Now I had the script written and I needed to go ahead and video the actual tutorial. It wasn’t something that I was actually going to outsource because I have my own software that I needed to use and it was an amazing pain to try to record both the video and my voice going over the actual tutorial at the same time. I had to rerecord and rerecord and rerecord over and over and over again and start over.Then at the end of the day, I had a 70 percent good product, good deliverable from my end. I did it all by myself and I was very proud that I did it. OK? And I patted myself on the back and I said, OK, it’s pretty good for a first timer. But it wasn’t a good result at the end. With Knowmail currently when I created my walkthrough video, I went a different direction. I went and hired just a voiceover. Now I had the script written. I provided through the voiceover. I split it into separate features and I provided directions of what I want, certain pauses or certain pronunciations of anything I needed.I got it delivered in the different files and then this is where the magic happened and I was extremely excited with the result. I simply downloaded the voiceovers to my phone. I listened to them through my earphones and I started recording the actual tutorial or the walkthrough as I’m listening to the voiceover. So afterwards when I added the actual voice, it was completely in sync. I didn’t have to mess with it or play with it or change it or go back or rerecord any area because I recorded it exactly based on the script that was read by a professional voiceover.It came out beautiful. I love it. Now, is it going to be the end of the walkthroughs? No. We’re ending up creating more versions and I’m going to need to create another walkthrough but the actual experience just provided me the area that I can do which is walking through the actual video and showing the features. It’s great writing the script. It’s great but I’m not a voiceover artist. I got exactly just what I needed and put it all together.Ryan: You’ve touched on it numerous times now and that’s the fact that you write your own scripts and I think that’s fantastic because you should be the expert in your business and Fiverr, it just seems as more of a toolkit for your business rather than something that you fully rely on to understand it.So like you said, why put out a 70 percent product when you can put out a 100 percent product with not that much more effort and not even that much more money in most cases? It’s just finding the right person to work with the voiceover and you have that solid base, that solid foundation.So keeping those Fiverr sellers in your toolkit, it gets you to right where you want to be without causing you that extra work and extra headache no matter how proud you are of the fact that you did it yourself because that is an accomplishment. I mean anytime you do something new and I think having that element of understanding. So it’s good that you understand how to do it and that probably improved your overall final product that you put together but just having those sellers in your back pocket that you can say, “Hey, do these voiceovers.” So it truly has that polished and professional look.Eran: Yes. As I mentioned, I was really proud of my tutorial and I was proud that I took on this task and finished it. But at the end, especially with the market, you want a much better product to be provided as seen by the actual users. So where I don’t have the skills or I don’t have the capabilities, hey, we all have our weaknesses and our strengths. Where I have, I need to use others and if they’re so easily accessible, then so be it. If I can provide an actual task that they could do much faster or much better, it’s wonderful.Ryan: Right. It seems like you have a very in-depth understanding of where your expertise is and where you should outsource.Eran: I must, I must because my task list is completely, completely huge. I got to move forward so I got to really pick my battles and then say, “You know what? Today, I really want to learn development and this is the time.” I don’t have the time. Time is the one place that I can’t buy additional resources unless of course – you know, as I mentioned at the start, I use Knowmail but we’re not going to get there.Ryan: Right. That’s as close as you can get without a time travel, time warp machine, right? So I know you mentioned this massive task list. I’m sure you’ve looked at other freelancing platforms. What do you think Fiverr has over other platforms that give it that unique edge that make it easier to use?Eran: It’s very easy to use. Basically you arrive to the site. You know from the start what it is and you can start searching and it makes it easy for you to get the results. You don’t have to look around or understand or be a complete – if you’re looking right now to – you know, my dad is looking into actually creating PPC ads or so. He’s looking for something that’s affordable or so. Sometimes he needs something that I’m not able to provide because of time or because of effort or whatever it is. He can actually go there and he can start searching and find this stuff by himself and like I said, I’m going to close with it. The ease of use, that’s what I think is a very important factor here.Ryan: So I think the fact that Fiverr is a marketplace rather than just a freelancing platform really contributes to that ease of use because when you go on the site, it’s laid out almost like a digital storefront where the user can see reviews. They can see transparent pricing. They can browse through portfolios. It’s everything all in one spot rather than submitting a project for a bid or something like that. You can get a feel for the seller that you want to work with just by browsing through the site. So I think that definitely contributes to finding the person you want to work with. I know you mentioned before all the filters. You can filter by delivery time. You can filter by seller level, by number of orders completed. You can find exactly who you’re looking for and I think that little transparency really contributes to that.Eran: That’s right.Ryan: That’s about all the time we have. Thanks for listening to Fiverrcast and big thanks to Eran for joining us on the show today. You can check his business out. It’s Knowmail. Our jingle was made by me Customdrumloops and we are edited today by Dansha. Thank you.Transcription by Prexie Magallanes as Trans-Expert at Fiverr.com

Fiverr Team
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