Have you ever thought about how a personal story can set your home care agency apart from the competition? We delve into this intriguing concept with our guest, Digital Champions founder Nick Bonetotavis, who shares his expertise on using the power of video to make an impact. Nick reveals that authenticity, not professional polish, is the secret ingredient to a memorable video narrative, building trust and connection with potential clients, caregivers, and referral partners.
Our conversation doesn't stop at marketing tactics. Nick also enlightens us on the importance of utilizing testimonials and interviews to not only attract caregivers but also solicit valuable feedback for your organization. We navigate the rewarding challenge of establishing yourself as an industry expert through educational content and video collaborations with referral partners. Plus, we share practical steps to start your own home care marketing journey, leveraging free resources, courses, and Nick’s vast experience in the home care space. This episode will make you rethink the importance of video content in your home care marketing strategy.
Have you ever thought about how a personal story can set your home care agency apart from the competition? We delve into this intriguing concept with our guest, Digital Champions founder Nick Bonetotavis, who shares his expertise on using the power of video to make an impact. Nick reveals that authenticity, not professional polish, is the secret ingredient to a memorable video narrative, building trust and connection with potential clients, caregivers, and referral partners.
Our conversation doesn't stop at marketing tactics. Nick also enlightens us on the importance of utilizing testimonials and interviews to not only attract caregivers but also solicit valuable feedback for your organization. We navigate the rewarding challenge of establishing yourself as an industry expert through educational content and video collaborations with referral partners. Plus, we share practical steps to start your own home care marketing journey, leveraging free resources, courses, and Nick’s vast experience in the home care space. This episode will make you rethink the importance of video content in your home care marketing strategy.
Nick, tell us all about yourself and, most importantly, say your last name.
Speaker 2:Yes, my name is Nick Bonetotavis. I'm the owner and founder of Digital Champions, and you know it. There's a huge lack of knowledge about home care and what it is and all the different aspects of home care, and it's really our mission to help you become an expert and to get this information out there to help people that are desperate for this information.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:I mean, how long have we been talking about this? I've known you for a very long time, even though I know I'm way older than you. We have known each other for a long time, and education is what it's all about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think what? 2014, almost 10 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that doesn't seem possible. That makes me feel really old. Well, okay. So having said that, tell us. I've got a series of questions I'm going to ask you, and I know you're brilliant at helping home care agencies with this stuff. So how can agencies stand out online? What do they need to do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the biggest thing right is how are you different from other organizations that are out there? And a lot of times, when you know I ask this question, I'm at an event and people say things like, oh, we got the best care, we got the best caregivers. And if you're at an event and somebody says that and you look around, it's likely that like 10 other people or more are saying the exact same thing, and so if they're saying the exact same thing, then that clearly is not what makes you different. And so what truly makes you different and this is where and Val and I were talking about this before we jumped on is really you. You are what makes your business different. You and your story.
Speaker 2:And, being in this business for a decade, I have had the privilege of talking with so many home care owners and agencies and hearing your stories, and they are powerful. I mean, I was on a call with one of my clients recently and I'm on the verge of tears hearing him talk and I had to keep collect myself. Like you're working, nick, you need to pay attention to what he's, you know, like give feedback and take notes, and but I was just overwhelmed by his, his story and why he got into this business. And I know that you have an amazing story to tell and Simon Sinek says people don't remember what you do. They remember why you do it. And if you can get out there, share your why, even if it's simply putting your story in written format on your website. But if you want to take it to another, another level, getting it on video, really showing yourself authentically of who you are and why you got into this business, you will stand out.
Speaker 1:Yes and I okay. So my job, our job here, to proofs your network, is to create websites and digital marketing, and we will wish we wish 100% that more of our clients would do video and tell their story. And it is so hard. And when you create websites, you're putting all that information in print online, and we've done thousands of websites at this point, and to differentiate yourself online is hard. Yes, your colors are different and your logo is different, but what are you really saying? There's only so many ways you can slice home care right.
Speaker 1:So telling your story, either on your about us page or in video preferably in a video is so compelling and I've seen some amazing videos. I have seen some that I'm like, oh my God, I've watched 1000 of these and in red, 1000 websites, and that's still. I am moved every single time somebody does a really good video about why they got into this business, and it doesn't have to be professionally done, it doesn't. It can be you in like a zoom, a zoom, call a camera, a phone, a good lighting and a nice microphone and you're done. I mean it's, it doesn't have to be amazing. So as far as the look and feel, so anyway, I'll let you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no to add to that too, because you just bring up a great point. Is is really like I think people have this idea that things need to be so super polished and crazy professional, and the truth of the matter is that in home care, above any other business, people are looking for authenticity. They're looking for real people and they're not looking to work with some logo or corporate and not just clients, caregivers, right, referral partners. That's why, like, this is the first video that my clients and I make.
Speaker 2:Is is your story, because there's so many applications of using your story. Your website is just the first place that your video goes, but then we're sharing it to social media. We're sending it to caregivers in your automated process. You know in your, in your marketing funnels that Val can help set up for you, right, like, there's so many ways to incorporate this video where you're building this asset that you can just send again and again and again. And when it's real and it's authentic, it doesn't matter how it looks. If you are just speaking from your most authentic self, it's going to resonate with people. My Angelo says people don't remember what you said. They remember how you made them feel. And that's exactly what this video is doing is connecting with people on a personal level.
Speaker 1:And you probably already answered this question, but I'll just make sure we hit them all why is video so effective when marketing home care agencies?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. The yeah that's. That's the one of the number one reasons right is is really understanding that you are taking care of someone's loved one. They're they're. You're not selling a you know a hot dog, right? It doesn't matter. You're taking care, your someone's life is in your hands in many cases and you're keeping them safe at their home. And so the trust is the most important thing. People need to feel like they can trust you. And and yes, is it good to tell your story in a written format? Yes, but anyone can do that. Anyone can write up something and have it be read.
Speaker 2:But think about this from a context of sending an email. Have you ever sent an email to someone, or text message, and then someone freaks out or misinterprets your tone based on the message that you sent? It happens, happens all the time, but when you it's in a video format, there's no contradictions. It's like this is how it is, this is how you meant to say it, this is the tone that you're portraying, and so you're able to connect with people on that deeper level, and so they're going to want to go with you. This, this happens on a regular basis.
Speaker 2:I just had a client last week I was talking to. They just hired some new marketing reps for their organization and they were kind of on the fence. They weren't sure if they were going to join the team or not. He sent them the videos and then, boom, they were like we've been looking for a company to work for, like you, like we're in, and so Shreya, my client, was like it worked. It closed them and he said the same thing it works with sending it to client prospects.
Speaker 2:Like it is a sales tool for attracting caregivers, clients, referral sources that you can use again and again, and again. And it just becomes so powerful to use this again and again. But it has to be you, it's got to be real, it's got to be personal, it's got to be authentic. That's how it drives results in that video format. And if you're thinking, oh no, I can't do this, I can't be on video, I don't want to be on video, think about how many other people are saying the same thing. This is how you can stand out and be different, cause if other people aren't willing to do it and you are now you're already differentiating yourself from those other people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely 100%. Come out from behind your website. I think I've said that for a gazillion years. Come out from behind your website, from your online. Come out from behind your logo and show people who you are and that you care about them. And there is no way you could be in this business for any length of time if you didn't care, because it is a tough business. So show them why you stay, why you're here, why you got started, why you you know why you have been in this business for 10 years. It matters to people. It really does.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so would you say that the type of video you create versus would be your why?
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, it's number one because, at the end of the day, I know what home care agencies need, right. And you know I'm not a video marketing agency. You know, technically we have a video marketing agency, but that's not how I define myself, because I have been in home care for 10 years, so it's more about like, yes, we've got this video, but how are we using it? And so, because there's so many applications to using your why video as this asset, it's always the first video that we dive into because it's so powerful and just this video alone has the potential to drive results for your business. So if there was one video for you to make, that's where you start, that's the first one.
Speaker 1:Absolutely your. Why Get to know? Let people get to know you. Okay, so what about? You? Just talked a little bit about hiring and the power of that video with hiring, but what about your give or recruit?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, as you know, as everyone knows, if you're in this industry, that attracting great caregivers is difficult, and it's supply and demand, right, there's a huge demand for caregivers and there's not a lot of caregivers out there. Actually, one of my clients says that there are, but the good ones. Right, you want the good ones and that's the biggest thing is attracting the best people. And what is the best way to sell? Right, and I use this word very intentional and because we need to sell to our caregivers.
Speaker 2:And how are we leveraging sales? And so, when you go to, let's say, amazon, what do you look at? You look at reviews, right, and so what we do this is kind of like video number two that I help my clients create is what our recruitment video, and it's focused on getting caregiver testimonials and using them in a creating a compilation video of your caregivers talking about how great your company is. And then we have very specific questions that are designed, based on sales psychology, to leverage and connect with those caregivers that are searching. But the idea behind this is look, I can stand up here and I can be like I am so amazing, I'm like the best. There's no one better to me than anyone. You should just work with me, right? I can say that all I want.
Speaker 2:But what's better? If you go to my website and you see the testimonials page and there's over 25 videos of people talking about how great I am, which, which is going to be more impactful, and so this that's the same thing that we're doing here is getting real caregivers, your caregivers, and them talking about why you are great to work for. Now, that potentially brings up Other things that if you're not a great company to work for, it's going to be tough to you know, and so that becomes a fundamental piece of If you're taking care of your caregivers and they love working with you, they're gonna have amazing things to say, and then you can use what they say as, again, this asset, and then you can use the same video in your caregiver automation. You can embed it in your indeed websites. You can put it on your caregiver application page on your website to drive more people to convert and again, so there's so many applications to this. But, again, social proof that's what we're doing reviews, testimonials that is your most powerful sales tool for attracting caregivers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and we don't see enough of that. You hit the nail on the head because we do not see enough caregiver-focused videos that are the caregiver saying how much they love working for a certain company or you know the benefits, or how much they love their job in general, and we just don't see enough of it. I love seeing stuff like that and so would anybody is applying absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they have amazing things to say. And what's really cool about this, this kind of strategy, when you get these caregiver testimonials, is that it actually Does a few things. So one we do it in this like interview process, where they come into your office and so now it's another touch point, right to bring in your top caregivers and and hey, how's it going? How's your family? Like? Hey, here's some coffee, right, it becomes this whole aspect and then, after the interview this is what I've been telling my clients to is like after the interview, use this opportunity to ask them additional questions, whereas like, hey, like, are there any things that maybe we could be doing better? You know.
Speaker 2:So if in the in the caregiver Testimonials, if they don't say anything about communication, then maybe you're like hmm, I noticed you didn't say anything about, like our communication. Do you feel like there's areas that we can improve? Right, and so, based on what they say or don't say, you can then Elaborate how you can do better. Maybe they do say communication, but then you can say well, what could we do even better to have even better communication? And so now not only are you getting this amazing content to leverage to attract more caregivers, but you're gathering impactful information to just improve your organization overall.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's excellent and everybody could stand to use a little constructive feedback all the time. So absolutely, use that time wisely. You got somebody in front of you. Ask them all the things, get it all. Get all the good, the bad and the ugly and get the good on camera.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Okay, talk about referral partners, because I know that Using these videos with referral partners is equally important, so talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when it becomes impactful is education, and I touched on this in the beginning of this call is really about how there's a huge lack of information out there about home care, about things within this industry, and so we wanna showcase that one.
Speaker 2:We are the expert that you in fact know what you're talking about, and so I will get to the referral partners when I start here.
Speaker 2:First is leading with your own educational content and branding yourself as the industry expert and talking about these topics that you talk about all day long, and just putting it on a video so people can watch it and like we're not, you're not giving a lecture in a college campus. You're talking about what is home care and what are the benefits, right. So? And there's a ton of other topics that you can talk about dementia and fall prevention, and there's so many different things that you can go into that area. But the idea is, once you have this asset, you can then use this in your market, and so, once you've established yourself as an expert, then you can start to bring on your referral partners to then showcase them as the expert. And so one of my favorite topics, right, one of your top referral partners is hospice companies and there's so much unknown about hospice. Actually, there's a lot of stuff that's known. That's not true, right?
Speaker 2:It's like oh, they just, you know, drug you up or hospice is only when you're gonna die, right. And so we have a duty to share this information. And so now you're able to bring on your referral partner, have them ask these. Really, you know, answer these really important questions that people need to know, but it's your channel, it's your show. Then they're gonna wanna then share that information. Now you're getting in front of new people and then other people that are in your industry are like whoa, whoa, whoa, how can I get on this channel, how can I be on your show? Because when you have an audience and you have a channel, you become somebody that people wanna work with, they wanna collaborate with, because you've built this audience that you're constructing online.
Speaker 2:And so and I see this with my clients right, like you put out one of my clients named Jonathan. He made a video and he did it kind of how I instructed, very strategically, for assisted livings, for example. And so, rather than in many forms, like because I actually don't recommend like the typical podcasting, what I actually recommend is that you focus on very specific questions and then that becomes like these short form, like three to five minute videos. So what Jonathan did for assisted living week. He had each of his assisted living referral partners, right, because some people say, oh well, how do I do it with multiple people? What if I only do one person? So he did five different assisted livings and then asked them all different questions. So it was like what are the different types of independent communities, assisted livings, memory care, then, like what is the levels of care, and then all of these different questions that people are asking. And so, rather than having them each answer the same question, he had them all answer different questions.
Speaker 2:And then there's a whole SEO aspect of like what people are searching for, and based on YouTube, based on leveraging these questions. But what happened is he had one of his referral partners see these videos. She shares every single one of them and then and then says Johnathan, I want to be on your show, right, and so that's exactly what can happen when you build this, when you put this out there. Um, because most people aren't doing video. And so if you give them the opportunity to get on camera and you're kind of the one guiding and focusing, now you become this incredible referral partner getting in front of new people, having them share your, your content and at the end of the day, the most important thing is providing incredible educational content that's going to help someone in need.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely, and that's a great explanation of how your referral partners can get involved and how they'll absolutely love it. And I love the different question to a bunch of different assistant living facility folks. I mean that's great to do a compilation, I mean, what an? And keeping it short? I love that too, because people have zero attention span, so keeping it short is also a really good idea. There's some long form, some short form. You know snippets and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you look at I know that not everybody's into TikTok, I totally get that. However, if you look at one of everybody's probably in this industry, he's probably heard of Tepa Snow. I mean, come on, the woman has millions of followers on TikTok and she's not talking about anything sexy. She's not, you know, putting on her glamorous makeup to do these videos and some of them are of her speaking, but some of them are her in that video, just either doing them. They do a little skit. And this is all about dementia education, tiktok, dementia education not two things you would think would go together, but absolutely she's killing it. Any short form videos yeah, and it's worth doing.
Speaker 1:It's worth doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so what? What we actually do with our clients is, once you teach the content in this three to five minute version we actually just recreate a one minute version, and so so you're getting that short form but also getting the long form.
Speaker 2:And if you look at a lot of, you know, top people, educators, influencers in in, not necessarily in the home care industry, but just in the marketing space, like like the Joe Rogans of the world, right, it's this long form, but then their social is just these, the short form content, and so I'm all about creating this.
Speaker 2:You know, kind of technically I guess it is considered longer form, this three to five minute window, and then we can then repurpose it for TikTok, for Facebook reels, for Instagram reels, because I'm sure you've noticed this, Val it's like Facebook algorithm is horrible now Like I I keep using this word and I'm going to say it anyway because it's a little harsh, but it's trash right now. Facebook, it's like if you're not posting reels on Facebook and or Instagram, then you're going to get such little reach and so it becomes a really powerful tool where also YouTube shorts. So you create this one minute version and then, boom, you've got it on Facebook, You've got it on Instagram, You've got it on TikTok, You've got it on YouTube shorts and it's the same video that's actually from your longer form YouTube video. So work smarter, not harder.
Speaker 1:It's crazy how we use, we do videos for our clients, not the way you're talking about it. Completely different, just informational, just like a PowerPoint presentation. It's nicer than that. But we went from that traditional video format to reels, and this is just for social media. You know this isn't the way that Nick is proposing you do this. This is just, you know our way of doing it, when someone woke it on camera, so, and we switched to reels and it is 100% night and day how those videos show up and get engagement versus a traditional, regular, old. Same length of time, just a different format, just a regular like YouTube version of it versus a real version of it, and completely different. There's no reason to post them any other way.
Speaker 2:And you're right, it's craziness. And the short answer of why is when you post a reel on Facebook or Instagram or YouTube shorts, it's basically going to anyone and everyone, whereas right now, anytime you post a Facebook or Instagram like, it's only going to your followers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, like sometimes people use hashtags like I just don't think people are like searching hashtags. You're just it's not getting out there to new people unless somebody shares it and so. But with reels it does, it gets. It has the potential to get in front of new people. And what's so amazing about the algorithms in today's world like, for example, youtube? The tags don't even matter on YouTube anymore because they're just listening to the video. Like tags are basically like YouTube's version of hashtags, but like you don't need it because it understands what's in the video, based on what you're saying and so, like if you're talking about home care and all these different things, it's picking up on the keywords and so then it has the potential to show up in search based on what people are searching for, right? Yeah, so like you're not actually viewing them, and it's the same thing works on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok. They're listening to every single video and then determining that in how to show it to the right people.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and the spoken word is so important. The spoken word I mean really talking, and whether your face is in the video or not, if you're explaining something, I mean you need something to, you need to speak. You need to have the spoken word in those videos. It's so important for all of the algorithms. So, yeah, I totally agree, it's crazy how things change so quickly in online marketing. All right, if people wanted to get started with you by themselves. However, tell us what steps they should take to get started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so one of the best things, if you enjoyed this talk and you're like I want to know more, I have a free course that you can go check out Homecarebrandmasterycom. Or you can just go to my website, the digitalchampscom, and you can find it there. The other link goes goes right to it, but again, it's like around roughly around like two hours, but it's an in depth training, it's full content, just diving in, and so that's going to give you some of the stuff we talked about today, but in much greater detail for you to dive in. Or you can just go to my website and schedule call. But that's the free course. I promise you're going to get a ton of value, action steps and how you can get started.
Speaker 1:I believe it, and we'll put all your websites and how to get to the free course. We'll put that with this video so that people can find out more and learn more about what you do. I highly recommend anybody who's watched this check out Nick and learn from him, because he is a wealth of knowledge and he's been around home care long enough that he knows what your struggles are and he knows what you know how to bring out the best than everybody doing videos. So absolutely Thanks, nick. Thanks for doing this. We'll make sure it hits all the channels so people can get a hold of you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Thank you so much about always a pleasure, appreciate you.