Video Marketing: Why You Need To Start ASAP!

Fundamentally, the goal of advertising has always been to have your business stand out in your marketplace from your competition and be chosen (and remembered) by consumers. 

Most small to medium size businesses that I work with constantly have the struggle of wanting to do everything to stand out, while keeping a mindful eye of staying within a budget for their marketing efforts. 

Advertising your business in such a fragmented market low cost marketing roi, space  today can get costly and without measures in place to determine what the best mediums to market with, it's hard to figure out how you can capture a low-cost marketing ROI?  That answer is simple: Video Marketing.

When it comes to social and online marketing, video marketing has taken its place as a leader in attracting new customers. According to comScore, just over 45% of internet users viewed at least one video per month, and the average user is exposed to 32 videos per month. 

Companies are realizing that video has a dominant role to play in your content marketing-mix strategy. Video marketing captures the users attention and gives you the opportunity to deliver your message in an easy format that everyone can understand. Here are some great statistics on Video marketing:

90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60K times faster in the brain than text according to Zabisco. Invisia reports that viewers also retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.

•52% of consumers say that watching a video makes them more confident in online purchase decisions according to Invodo.
•92% of mobile users share videos with others according to Invodo.
•87% of online marketers use video content according to Outbrain.
•46% of users take ACTION after viewing a video according to Online Publishers Association
•59% of executives would rather watch a video than read text according to Forbes.
•800% increase in conversion on websites that have videos on their landing pages vs. websites without according to Orion 21
•Blogs that incorporate video attract 3-times as many inbound links as blogs without video.

One of the biggest questions I get asked when discussing video marketing is how long a video should be? Statistics show that 20% of users will click away from a video in 10 seconds or less. If your video is over 2-minutes, you can expect a 60% drop of users clicking away from your video. 

It seems like the attention span for desktop and mobile users capacity to watch a single video is about 2 minutes. The "sweet spot" for most custom video marketing pieces should be one minute.

If video marketing is great for local businesses to stand out in the marketplace, what is the best vessel to reach your current and prospects through video? Most individuals host their video's on YouTube. Why? Google owns Youtube. 

Videos hosted on Youtube appear in more than half of all searches on Google. Makes sense to put your video on Youtube right? By creating a video, you can separately upload your video to social media networks like Facebook. 

Once they are uploaded, create or add these videos to your website through an embedding process. This can create a valuable link for your SEO on your website and hopefully increase your position on search engines over time.

How do I take advantage of video marketing? The best thing about video marketing can be the ability to connect consumers with your business without them even contacting you yet! 

They will understand who you are, what you do, what the inside of your shop looks like, and who might be answering the phone when they call. Due to this, there are companies that specialize in creating professional custom videos that take your business to the next level. 

This gives you an opportunity to connect what I call high-tech with a high-touch customer service while also putting your best foot forward for that all important first impression. I recommend AT LEAST ONE professionally crafted video to use when marketing your business.

If your business is on a tight budget, however, there are still great ways to take advantage of video marketing. Businesses can use their own smartphone cameras and create a "grassroots" video marketing campaign in their store or "on-location" for services businesses. 

They also can set-up product launches, special events or tutorials through video marketing and share that those on your website and through social media! What type of story can you tell that can fulfill a need in your local marketplace and position you as a leader in the industry while simultaneously building your brand?

Micro-videos have been a great tool for businesses to create a 10-second commercial, promotion or testimonial from their consumers and using that on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Vimeo and Instagram. 

Customers can quickly view messages on their social media feeds. Get your customers involved! Ask customers that had a great experience with your company for a quick ten second video reference! They almost never write a positive review on Yelp or Google, so capture their review through video! (Make sure you have them sign a waiver for legal purposes).

Video Marketing is here, and it is powerful! By 2017 video marketing will take up 74% of all online traffic according to Syndacast. Video marketing can be a cost-effective way to market your business with professionally created content as well as DIY marketing. 

Take advantage of a medium that reaches customers in an easy to understand format with statistically proven success rate! 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/video-marketing-why-you-need-start-asap-alex-kowalkoski

The Impact of Visuals & Digital Customer Service!

Remember those comic books we were crazy about when we were kids? Even today those comic books may draw us more than regular books. Marketing through effective visuals has always been the most important tactic of digital marketing. 

A recent study shows that the social media site, Instagram, with over 300 million users (430 million estimated by the end of 2015) could be worth US $35 billion, outpacing Twitter. 

 In this 4th and final installment of the series, I'll briefly discuss how to market your product and services through effective visuals and how to provide customer service through digital media. These tactics are good for ambitious marketers who want to reach beyond the traditional segment of customers.

A picture is worth 1000 bucks:

If you are following the latest print adverts, you'll see that they are using a technique which enables them to attract most of the customers. The cute kitty photo gets many clicks whereas the less emotional quote of a wise man as text really has to fight for attention. 

Today there is even a trend to incorporate attractive images with nice quotes – making them better visible in online communities. When it comes to grabbing the attention of today's busy social media consumer, visual content is the cat's meow. 

A study by ROI Research revealed that fans and followers are 40 percent more likely to engage with brands that post pictures than any other type of media. Content containing images reap 94 percent more total views that content without.

 Finally if you are a start-up business owner or just a fresher in the digital marketing arena, you need to start using designed infographics as your digital marketing tactic which will eventually attract the attention of your consumer. Just wrap your info and campaign as little artworks and offer detailed information in compact form.

Digital customer service:
Do you know that Airtel is providing customer service virtually through “Online Airtel Experience Center”? Do you know most of the telecom service providers are offering customer service through apps?

Having a digital customer service function doesn't just mean setting up a company Twitter account so that customers can tweet complaints to you. 

Done right, an effective strategy is a complex and gradual process, which integrates the delivery of customer service and support via the web and the social networks into the very fabric of your organisation. Think about this for just a minute as it relates to your own behaviour.

 Think about how will you go and buy a new SIM for using internet. If you are like me, then you'll definitely go for a prior research to figure out what will be the best package for you. You'll ask questions related to usage to the customer service agent @ the telco store. Then you'll choose the best option for you as per their suggestion.

 Now what if I tell you that you won't need to go to any store for all these and you can get a SIM shipped to your place just like that? Airtel Virtual Store is offering customer service through online portal. 

You just need to log in, browse, enter info in regards to your daily usage, and the store will tell you which package would suite you best. Then you pay and get the SIM shipped to you.

 Now think about what systems you have in place to serve your customers – across multiple channels.

http://www.thedailystar.net/the-impact-of-visuals-digital-customer-service-66415

Do Google Adwords Really Work?

For three months Elisha Casagrande tried Google AdWords to launch her new fashion website, Repeat Offender.

She hired a search engine marketing agency that specialised in Google Adwords to help her with a campaign and budgeted $1500 a month, plus agency fees.

The result? Not one sale.

"Initially, I was told that Google AdWords would guarantee the required amount of clicks needed to our site to generate traffic and convert that traffic to sales," Casagrande says. "In the online retail industry, a conversion rate of 1% is recommended, therefore we needed quite a lot of visitors, or clicks to the site, to be able to reach our sales goals. 

Google AdWords advises that if you spend a certain amount per month you are guaranteed the amount of clicks needed to convert to sales.

"After a few months of launching the site, I decided to conduct my own research regarding Google Adwords. I asked staff, friends, family, potential customers and existing customers if they had ever clicked on the ads that appeared first under a Google search, or perhaps on a blog and/or website.

"Everybody I asked said that they have never clicked on those ads, as they were considered quite 'spammy' and instead they usually click on the first few search results in Google. After hearing this, I decided to pull the pin on Google AdWords and continue with our alternative marketing strategies."

Casagrande is now using an SEO campaign, along with Facebook ads, Facebook-boosted posts, Rich Pins through Pinterest and Instagress through Instagram. These forms of advertising are proving the most effective.

"We also utilise email campaigns, PR, blogger outreach programs, retargeting and competitions, which are all gaining momentum at a steady pace," she adds.

When Dean Salakas started The Party People, the first thing he did was invest in Google AdWords.

"For two reasons, targeting and tracking," he says. "Today, when people need something, they often turn to Google and parties are no exception. AdWords advertising puts our advertising right in front of people when they are looking. 

With AdWords the advertising is extremely relevant. I mean, if someone searches 'birthday party supplies' there is a good chance I have something they want."

Salakas has spent "hundreds of thousands of dollars" on Google AdWords and was one of the first to join when it launched.

"The reason I liked it was because for one or two cents I could acquire a customer and that sounded pretty good to me. Mind you, this was back in 2003 and today those sort of cost per clicks are not around. I didn't receive any advice, I just learnt as I went."

Salakas is also a big fan because he can track the return on investment of every action.

"I know that I spend x on advertising each month and it gets me y orders. I can then drill down and see which ads work better and which are not doing so well and adjust accordingly. 

When I went to university to study marketing they would say '50 per cent of advertising works, we just don't know which 50 per cent'. This is an old concept today, as with AdWords I know exactly what is working and what is not."

Two businesses: one with no Google AdWords success, the other with plenty. What is the reasoning behind such different results?

"For industries in which Google AdWords is suitable, the real key to success is in how you set up and structure your account from the start," Ilana Wechsler, founder and director of Green Arrow Digital, a full-service digital marketing agency, says.

"If you get this wrong, you will not succeed. Often I hear prospects say to me that Google AdWords hasn't or doesn't work for their business, and nine times out 10 their account just hasn't been structured properly. Strangely, Google doesn't really tell you this and it ends up costing businesses a lot of money.

"It is affectionately known in the industry as the Google Idiot Tax and applies to people who have set up their own account and don't know what they are doing. Google is doing itself a disservice in this regard, as those who experience such failure are often then skeptical about the value of utilising AdWords."

Wechsler says generally people go to the Google Search website to make a decision, but they go to the Google Display Network (for example, The Sydney Morning Herald website) or on to Facebook with no intention of making a decision. Advertisements on those platforms are an interruption to browsing behaviour and therefore need to be crafted differently.

"For example, no one goes on to to Facebook when looking to buy a new car," she says.

"Most of the time, AdWords on the Search Network is the perfect starting point for many businesses. This is primarily because it is the perfect testing ground for people who are actively searching. 

You can test different headlines and marketing messaging in the ads by observing the click-through rates on different ads.

"Once people click on the ads, you can then see how well your website performs in converting visitors into leads/buyers through analytics and heat mapping.

"Once this process has been refined and optimised, we pursue other online marketing strategies, such as Facebook advertising, remarketing, as well as content marketing, which feeds in perfectly with SEO."

This point is perhaps a key: small businesses shouldn't rely on just one aspect of the marketing mix to promote their business. Too many small businesses are not using all the marketing tools available to them.


http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/smallbiz-marketing/do-google-adwords-really-work-20150216-130jnm.html

Why Most Digital Marketing Fails -- And How To Fix It!

If you’re looking for insights about the future of digital communications, it pays to ask someone who’s been there from the beginning. Social media strategist Sally Falkow has been a keen observer of online trends since the mid 1990s, and started her blog, The Proactive Report, in 2003. 

In 2014, she was named one of Cision’s Top 50 Social Media Influencers on Twitter. In a recent interview, she revealed four issues she sees with the current digital media landscape – and how smart companies can take advantage of the opportunity that presents.

Not Enough Companies Are Blogging. After more than a decade on the scene, you’d think that blogging would have become ubiquitous by now. Not so much. Falkow notes that a UMass-Dartmouth study showed that in 2008, 16% of the Fortune 500 had public-facing blogs. By 2014, that number had only climbed to 31%. 

She understands why companies aren’t jumping onboard. “Blogging is a commitment,” she says. “Once you start, you have to continue. A blog has a voracious appetite. You have to produce good content regularly, and that takes resources.” 

But she views this silence as a missed opportunity to communicate directly with stakeholders, share ideas, and stake out a position of thought leadership. Indeed, she says, “With digital, we have new tools. 

It’s easy to publish and you can use analytics to find out what content is resonating with your readers.” If your company makes the effort, you can speak to your customers in a very targeted and effective way.

Companies Still Don’t Understand ‘Social.’ We’ve heard it a million times: social media is like a cocktail party. Don’t be a jerk and talk about yourself all the time. Don’t try to make a sale before you get to know someone. And yet, Falkow still sees marketers doing this all the time. 

One particular pet peeve: the common practice of re-tweeting others’ praise of you. “If someone came up to you [with a compliment], you wouldn’t pull out a megaphone and yell to everyone else in the room, ‘Sally just said she likes my work!’”

Most Digital Communications Aren’t Visual Enough. The rise of platforms like Instagram and Pinterest has shown the hunger for visual communication online. Yet most marketers don’t take full advantage of the possibilities, says Falkow. 

That’s partly a function of their training. “Most PR folk are not designers and have not had graphics training,” she says. But that’s becoming a major handicap. “Every PR student should take a course in graphic design. Visual content is a must for social media success,” she says. 

There are no excuses anymore. “With the new digital tools, anyone can be trained to take amazing photos on their camera, or make a short video in less than an hour. You can use tools like Canva or Picmonkey to edit photos and make posters with text on them for Instagram or Pinterest. “

You Have to Mix Paid and Earned Media. Finally, Falkow advises companies to face facts: we live in Mark Zuckerberg’s world, and he wants to monetize. 

The days when companies could rely on organic reach to connect with customers on Facebook (or many other major social platforms) is long gone. “Distribution and amplification of your messages will need paid social advertising,” she says, and “the lines between paid, owned, and earned media will continue to blur. PR practitioners must master the art of using paid social media to support their content.”

More than a decade into the social era, most companies still don’t fully get it. That’s a competitive advantage for you, if you’re willing to immerse yourself in the unique possibilities online communication presents.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2015/02/03/why-most-digital-marketing-fails-and-how-to-fix-it/

5 Word Of Mouth Marketing Tips To Get Customers Buzzing!

Are you struggling to find a way to give your online business or e-commerce store marketing a kick in the ol’ booty? Here’s an idea, why not put some extra focus on your word of mouth marketing efforts.

You know that I’m a huge believer in word of mouth marketing and customer referrals as a driver of business growth. But it’s not just me!

The marketing world is finally starting to take notice. In fact, we might be on the verge of a renaissance of sorts for good old-fashioned word of mouth. 

In fact now that the big brains of the marketing world are starting to pay closer attention, we now know that great word of mouth, and online buzz can increase overall marketing effectiveness by quite a lot. To the tune of 54% improvement in fact according to Ad Age.

So if you want to hop on the referral marketing bandwagon, here are 5 tips to kick your program into high gear.

1.Provide AMAZING Service!
Word of mouth marketing is all about having customers talk about you. That includes discussions about you with their family and friends in person, and also online where some of that chatter has the potential to go viral.

That being said, you want them to say GOOD THINGS about you and your business during these conversations. The only way to ensure this is to provide kick-ass service. Deliver experiences to your customers that are worth talking about; no that doesn’t mean having crazy big budget promotions and marketing. What it means is standing behind your products and promises. 

It means making things clear for customers in terms of the expectations they should have with regards to your products, shipping and return policies. And most importantly, it means responding in a timely manner to any and all questions and concerns.

In fact there is research out there from MIT that has shown that the BEST way to build loyalty and positive word of mouth is to help customers when they come to you with any issues. Because if you don’t, well they will talk about you for sure… but not in the ways that you want.

2. Reach Out To Influencers!
Chances are you’re not blazing a brand new trail and creating a new market. That’s OK. Actually that’s a pretty good thing when it comes to community building. When you’re entering an existing market that means the market probably has an existing community of influencers somewhere.

While any great content marketing strategy should involve building your own reputation and expertise. You can give those efforts a head start by researching your existing market and developing relationships with existing experts and influencers.

Use a tool like BuzzSumo to find writers, journalist and bloggers who may already be highly influential in your world, and reach out to them. If you can convince them that your way of doing things is interesting, or you as a person are interesting, having them mention you, or talk about you, can go a long way in terms of building some word of mouth momentum for you and your brand.

In the old days of marketing, finding influencers meant securing expensive celebrity endorsements. Today, thanks to social media, the most influential people are often “regular people” like you and I, who’ve built their brands on YouTube, Instagram or Twitter. The great thing about these social media celebs is they are often just as, if not more, influential than their Hollywood counterparts, and are almost always much easier to access as well.

3. Be social!
Customers want to talk to you through social media. I don’t know why, but some companies insist on fighting this trend. It’s convenient, it’s fast, and when you do it right it’s authentic. Consumers today are sick and tired of the faceless corporations of the past and want to be able to connect with real human beings online.

Real human beings are better at resolving issues (without reciting back a formal script), real human beings are better at answering questions, and real human beings are much easier to talk about . It’s these genuine and authentic interactions that can lead to the best stories spread through word of mouth.

Be a real person. In life and in business more than ever, authenticity counts.

4. Make It Worth Your Customer’s While To Talk!
Arguable the best way to convince someone to do you a favor (customers included) is to offer him or her something. In the world of online retail that’s easy. Coupon and incentive programs are pervasive, and they are something that customers of all stripes will understand. Offer them a simple discount on their next purchase as a thank you or incentive to provide your business with some word of mouth.

For those of you who doubt the effectiveness of digital coupons. Well, the research says otherwise. In fact according to research digital coupons in many instances can be incredibly effective.

5. Find And Reward Your Biggest Fans!
We’ve already touched on the changing nature of who can be an online influencer. The great thing about that is some of those power-influencers might be right under your nose. Any loyalty and referral program activities should also give you clues as to who your super customers might be. 

These are the customers who not only consistently buy from you, but they are the ones who have also referred their friends or written positive reviews about your brand.

In the world of word of mouth, these customers are often referred to as advocates. Quantitatively, these customers are your “net promoters”.

Make these people feel like a part of your business, make them feel like they are your brand’s insiders. Doing so isn’t quite as daunting as you might imagine.

Start by creating a list of the customers who you feel might fall into this category. Then reach out to them! But do so in a structured way so that your activities can be easier to track and to manage.

Start by composing a basic “thank you for your business” email template you can start with. Keep the message short and simple. Short emails not only are easier to both compose and read, they feel more authentic as well. Give your customers a quick thanks, and then get to the point, tell them that they are being added to a special list of insiders that will receive company updates and other news first (and maybe even special incentives).

When you launch new promotions and products, offer this list of insiders a discounted rate or exclusive bundle ahead of the rest of the world. Small gestures like this can make these super customers feel more connected to your business. This is a great way to lay a foundation to encourage them to continue offering your business great word of mouth and referrals.

So there you go, 5 simple tips to help you make the most of one of the best type of foundational marketing. Word of mouth. It’s the oldest trick in the book for good reason. It works.

Let me know, in the comments below, if you think there’s anything I missed, or if there are any tips and tricks you’ve used in your own businesses to drum up great word of mouth.

http://www.business2community.com/marketing/5-word-mouth-marketing-tips-get-customers-buzzing-01140109