Your Guide on How to Get the Most Out of Video Marketing

In the past few years we’ve seen a massive increase in video content popping up online, and there’s no sign of it slowing down.

From creating webinars to putting short clips in emails, a video marketing strategy is a must if you want to truly engage with your audience in order to improve brand awareness and boost leads and sales.

According to Wyzowl, a company that creates animated explainer footage, 83% of marketers say video helps them with lead generation, and 87% say it has increased traffic to their website.

Some other benefits include:

It’s good for SEO. If your stuff is compelling enough to attract views and shares, your Google search ranking can improve. ? It’s a timesaver. It doesn’t take long to create short yet engaging clips in comparison to writing an article or blog. ? It’s affordable. It can be more cost-effective to create a short clip vs. producing an ad or a blog. ? It gets attention. People may scroll through written words, but most will at least give a glance to interesting footage.

As we head into this year, here are three video content marketing trends you can expect to see going forward.

1. Vertical videos. Just when everyone seemed to get the memo that horizontal filming is best, vertical videos come along! This is because consumers watch a lot of things on smartphones.

Instagram and Snapchat were the first to utilize vertical videos in Stories, and Instagram Television (IGTV) was next.

Even Netflix uses vertical digital marketing videos to showcase previews.

2. Live streaming. This refers to anything that is recorded and broadcast in real time. People like to feel like they’re being spoken to directly and authentically, and live streaming is also a low-cost way to produce collateral. ??We’ve seen more and more social platforms implement this functionality, including Instagram Live, Facebook Live, Twitter Live and LinkedIn for a select few.

3. In-video shopping. So far, it seems to be largely clothing retailers who are leveraging this tactic. ??How it works: Users can click on a section of the screen (say, a skirt on a model) and be directed to the link to buy the item.

A recent survey by Brightcove revealed that 23% of consumers overall and 30% of Millennials want links that let them directly purchase a product.

Now that you’ve got an idea of what’s going to be popular in 2020, here are some ways to incorporate engaging footage into your campaigns this year.

1. Use your landing pages. A survey by marketing technology company eyeview showed that video on landing pages can increase conversions by 86%. It’s a great way to increase search rankings, as Google's algorithms are increasingly prioritizing websites with this type of content.

Other advantages: It can lead to more social shares, build trust and awareness and reduce bounce rate.

Shopify created an inspirational brand montage that lives on their homepage. It explains what they do, highlights different customers and announces they now support one million businesses.

2. Blogs and articles. Did you know blog posts can be just as valuable as a landing page? Think about filming your post instead of writing it (or do both), and you’ve easily increased the odds of that info reaching more visitors.

Moz.com, which is considered an SEO authority, found that showing a clip with blog images and text increased reach by 3X.

One of our clients, Financial Recovery Institute, uses it in a blog to tell a story.

3. Emails and newsletters. The digital marketing videos you create will depend on your objectives and goals. For example, are you announcing a new product, an event, or a course you want people to sign up for?

You could also use email to give people a sneak peek of longer footage on your website. Once you’ve decided what you’re promoting, you can begin shooting.

Something to note: There are over 30 major email clients, including Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Apple Mail. Some of them don’t support the requirements for using clips in emails.

Several of the popular email newsletter services like AWeber and MailChimp make it simple to share what you film by using a screen capture and linking the image to the original content.

That way, a user can just click on the image in the email and be directed to your clip. Want to learn more? Check out eVision Media’s recommended email newsletter providers.

4. Social media platforms. A solid social media strategy is essential, and you only need to glance at your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn feed (and of course YouTube and Pinterest) to see how big a role video plays for companies.

Some formats you could shoot for social media include:

How-to guides ? Q&As ? Behind-the-scenes glimpses ? Events ? Interviews ? Unboxings (if you have a physical product)

It’s important to remember that each social media platform has rules around how long your digital marketing videos can be. Here’s a quick reference guide:

Facebook allows you up to 240 minutes (though you probably wouldn’t want to use all that time), ? Twitter provides 2 minutes and 20 seconds. ? Instagram gives you one minute if shared as a post, 15 seconds as a story and up to 1 hour as a live or IGTV video. ? LinkedIn has a 10-minute limit. ? Snapchat allows 10 seconds.

Make sure your videos are optimized for each social media platform. Viewers on Instagram expect different things than those on Twitter, for example.

Read How to Engage & Inspire with Interactive Content. While pieces like blog articles and eBooks are considered passive content, interactive content requires the person to actively engage with it, whether that’s by swiping, tapping, answering a question…

In this article, I’m providing 3 ideas you can use to attract your audience’s attention and stand out from your competitors.

We can’t possibly cover every platform or video content marketing strategy out there, but I hope this has given you some ideas on how to use this valuable tool in 2020.

Remember: No matter what you’re creating or selling, it’s all about storytelling. It’s time to tell the most authentic and compelling stories you can about your products or services!

And if your organization needs help with social media marketing, it’s best to find a qualified service provider who understands the specific nuances of the different social channels and what works best on each.

The Step By Step Guide To Planning A Great Reunion

With all of the social media that we have today, being able to keep up with friends and family is easier than ever. However, no matter how easy it is to keep up with everyone, there really is nothing like a reunion to make these relationships really feel special. Maybe it’s all in your head, but there is something powerful about holding someone’s hand or giving someone a big hug. That’s why reunions, though often seen as relics of a bygone era, are still pretty prevalent today.

If there were one major criticism of them, it’s that they are hard to put together. Think about how hard it is to get some friends together for a night out. Not easy. Have you ever tried putting a band together? No, thanks. The same goes for reunions.

If you’ve got a possible reunion on the horizon and want it to go from OK to great, here is a basic guide to help you along the way:

Set-Up A Committee — It takes more than one person to plan a reunion. Sure, a little one with a small group of friends might be OK, but if you're going for a graduating class or family event, delegating duties will be paramount to keeping your sanity. You need to get a few people together to help break-up the responsibilities for this event.

Set Dates Early — This is where you & your planning committee have to really get the word out about the event. It's important to realize that you won't be able to please everyone because everyone's schedules won't line up. Don’t fret, though. Even if someone can’t be there, social media can help them connected via photo albums to check or even live streaming!

Get A Final Count — Set deadlines for responses from prospective attendees. You need to know how many people are in so that you can plan for a venue, as well as any food or accommodations. This, along with setting dates will probably be your hardest tasks. Stick to your guns.

Too Many Activities — Though you may want to provide a number of activities for your group, it's also nice to just sit back and hang with each other, especially if a lot of time has gone by since last touching base. Trying to reconnect over laser-tag isn't easy.

Venue — Finding the right place to host your reunion is important because they’ll hopefully be able to handle everything. If you're working with a venue that is also a hotel & corporate meeting space, they can probably handle A/V matters, catering, & room bookings. This may be a nice thing for guests traveling a longer distance.

A reunion is all about reconnecting with people with whom you’ve lost contact. You want to spend more time making those connections again rather than being completely frazzled by the reunion-planning process. By being organized, planning ahead, divvying out the workload, and finding the perfect place to host, you're sure to have a great event & have people

Contact Fredericksburg Inn & Suites in Fredericksburg, TX for your next reunion, as well as all that their meeting space rentals have to offer.

How To Use Twitter for SEO

In a world where the attention span of people is growing shorter and shorter, a popular microblogging platform flourishes. Twitter is one social media site that helps convey its users’ ‘tweets’ or posts in as short as 140 characters. It may contain photos, videos, or links.

Used actively by about 330 million users, it helped third party websites gain one billion unique visits monthly last October 2019. Now, it is never a question as to whether Twitter should be an integral part of an online marketing campaign. Many users and influencers have built their own Twitter brands and have gained much from it since then.

#ImproveSEO

Twitter is a large network and has the potential to supplement your search engine optimization (SEO) activities. If your tweets remain within a centralized theme that stays consistent yet reiterates the reputation and exemplifies the knowledge you have, this will help your online reputation.

But building a massive following on Twitter is not as easy as it sounds. With thousands of tweets being sent every single second on Twitter, even the wittiest tweets can go ignored or unnoticed. Sometimes, tweets get viral and shared because of luck – the right person with the correct following saw it at the right time.

So how can you get your tweets to stand out? Below are some tips you can use to get more traffic to your website.

1. Gold rule: link 

Remember that Twitter is not a text-only platform. The more visual a tweet is, the higher the chances of getting noticed. Remember that link previews take up space and that over the years, it brought billions of web views to third party sites based on Twitter data. When tweeting links, make sure that the tweet does not give everything away. The key to opinions is to make your followers curious about what the link is about. Frame it in such a way that the answer to your tweet is in your content.

2. Upload photos or videos

Twitter now emphasizes images more than they used to. Studies reveal that tweets with images or videos get twice as much engagement rate than those without them. It also helps in establishing the brand.

3. Maximize the use of polls

Polls are a good indicator of whether your followers engage with your posts. By the end of each survey, it shows the number of people who responded. Alternatively, gimmicks such as hosting online conversations should help drive engagement and should be strategic in such a way that serves your goals.

Ad

4. Use #hashtags

Hashtags bring more engagement to tweets than those without them. Note that the more engagement a post has, the more visible it is to users. It is advisable to use hashtags as it makes tweets easier to be searched. When a hashtag is trending, tweets under that tag is more visible on the feed more than others. Riding popular hashtags – or making one trend – is important if you want to build more engagements. Be consistent by using the same set of hashtags over time as it helps your followers to associate it with your brand. Consistent hashtags help in the recall. Remember, however, to not overdo adding tweets. Note that adding more #hashtags affects the readability of your update. Experts recommend not to go over three hashtags.

5. Tag popular accounts

Tagging popular accounts or ‘influencers’ related to the tweet helps in being searched easily. For this to happen, it’s crucial to maintain a database of influencers in your target market. If not, you can avail social media appending services that update your current database with the active social profiles.

Once you have this list of influencers, tag them in the relevant posts. If you are lucky, these accounts may retweet your post and share it with their followers. Instantly, other users may increase your tweet engagement rate as the person they follow found it worth sharing on their feed.

Why Can You Buy Retweets for SEO?

Being a Twitter influencer is not done overnight, and it takes time to have a large following. Organic sharing is not enough.

Cutting edge SEO strategists are now paying to increase visibility on the feed by experimenting on buying retweets. They share their backlinks and buy retweets on the shares, and these additional shares all count equally as unique shares and social engagement with the backlink.

Buying Twitter engagement is a quick way of gaining wider reach and attracting more users to engage with your posts. It guaranteed fast and easy than taking the longer route.

Probably wondering why? Below are some reasons why it improves SEO:

• Your tweets are on top. With more engagements, your tweets stand out from others. Given the numbers, it is more popular than your competition. More users think that you are credible, and they are more likely to read it, add a favorite or a retweet, or click on the accompanying link.

• You are more visible. With more significant engagements, your message has better chances of having a more extensive reach beyond your circle. Buying tweets and engagement will also help you attain more significant impressions, which will help you reach millions of users who might follow your posts.

• You rank high on Twitter search. As you become more popular on Twitter, your profile is listed higher on the search results. Your profile will appear, or your tweets will be part of the Top Tweets portion of the search. It may stay there for hours or days, depending on the virality of the search.

• Your tweets act like a magnet for engagements. The bandwagon effect is real. The more popular a tweet or a user is, the higher the chances other people will follow the said user or engage with the said tweet.

• You gain more clicks. With more engagements, your post seems to be more credible than the others. Having more retweets or favorites give others the impression that many believe in you or that you are a legitimate source. In the case of business, this is good because it may turn into sales or that other users click on the link you are advertising.

• You leave your social media footprint. In the digital age, leaving a social media footprint is somehow essential to check if you are real or not. Buying tweets or engagements can help in increasing your website’s social proof by making it look like it is credible.

Building a traffic-driving influence on Twitter is a reachable goal for anyone willing to invest in it. Be consistent and be creative. Follow some of the tips listed above, be patient, and you will see your Twitter following grow in a matter of time.

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6 Ways to Increase Sales After the Holidays

Whether you made a hefty profit or experienced a holiday sales slump, there are ways to increase sales in January and beat the post-holiday fatigue many businesses face by utilizing a little planning and creativity.

Your Business Guide on Beating Post-Holiday Fatigue

It’s no surprise that people shop more doing the holiday season. A report by Adobe Analytics found that consumers spent $80.3 billion—and that was just online—from November 1 to December 6 in 2018.

If you were fortunate, your business enjoyed great seasonal success.

But whether you made a hefty profit or experienced a holiday sales slump, there are ways to increase sales in January. I’m sharing 6 of my favourites:

1. Throw another sale.

While customers may feel post-holiday fatigue after an overwhelming number of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas and Boxing Day deals, you can still reach your target audience with a tempting winter clearance.

Here’s a good example: Clothing and home retailer Anthropologie has a winter clearance on all sale items. By taking another 40% off items that are already at a reduced price, they’re appealing to customers and clearing out old stock to make room for new spring inventory.

Remember that your fans are savvy, so be authentic rather than just slapping a sale sign on a poorly selling product or calling a small discount a “winter clearance.” 

2. Tie in New Year’s resolutions.

No matter what product or service you’re selling, there’s probably a way to tie in the “New Year, New You” angle.

A 2018 survey by Tangerine found that nearly 70% of Canadians have made resolutions. Over half of respondents focused on improving their physical health, and almost a third wanted to get better at managing their finances.

So, start by thinking about how your product or service improves someone’s:

• Financial, personal or professional success
• Health or wellness
• Confidence or self-esteem
• Productivity
• Relationships

Then, brainstorm ways that you could incorporate New Year’s resolutions and goals into your sales program to prevent a post-holiday sales slump. For instance, we created a post for one of our clients using personal success in 2020 to drive sales of her Small Business HR Crash Course book.

3. Create a buying guide or blog.

While we tend to give Xmas most of the attention, don’t forget that people want gift ideas year-round.

According to the 2019 Holiday Season Shopping Report, 47% of gift shoppers surveyed didn’t know what to buy. To turn browsers into customers any time of year, help guide your visitors. For example, you could create a top 10 list of popular gifts for teens or Moms, or highlight the hottest gifts for Father’s Day.

People will feel less overwhelmed and will be more likely to add an item to their cart with a little guidance, which can really help you increase sales after the holidays.

4. Update your newsletter signup.

With so much going on in a small business owner’s life, it can be easy to overlook this important marketing tool. Are you offering an eBook that’s been up for years with a newsletter signup, or pushing an outdated promo?

Take a look at your eNewsletter signup page and think about the year ahead. Is there a way you can make it more appealing to attract leads and sales?

Maybe you could create some fresh content like an eBook or a video tutorial, or offer a free consultation.

5. Spruce up your social media.

If you gave your social media accounts a holiday touch, now’s the time to take down the decorations, so to speak. Even if you didn’t add any holiday flair, now is a great opportunity to reflect on what messaging you’re putting out there.

While you shouldn’t update your logo or branding just because it’s a new year, at least do a sweep of your social media to see if you need to change/add:

• Your operating hours and location on Facebook and Google My Business.
• Old pinned tweets on your Twitter account.
• Images for Google My Business and Instagram.
• Profile photos for all of your social media accounts.

While you might argue that this isn’t directly a way to increase sales after the holidays, you’d be surprised! If you have old assets collecting dust or you can’t be bothered to change out a Christmas banner on a social media platform, people are going to wonder how efficient and trustworthy your small business is.

Read: The Right Reasons for Rebranding Your Business Logo

Over time your business will grow and evolve. You may offer new services or products, enter different markets or target another demographic. If this happens, you might need to consider changing your marketing graphics.

However, you need to be careful you’re not undoing all the hard marketing and branding work that you’ve done and that you fully understand how to rebrand for the most effective results.

Read more.

6. Get creative with celebrations throughout the year.

There’s a long list of January “holidays” you can check out here that will get you started. By making a note of relevant dates throughout the year, there are surely some fun ways that you can incorporate them into your marketing strategy.

You could offer a discount, freebie or promo that relates to what you sell. Here’s a delicious example: The Italian chain Carrabba’s Italian Grill celebrated National Pasta Day last year with a $10 pasta deal. 

One of my favourite examples is what WWF did for World Penguin Day (it’s coming up on April 25!). They shared an informative article ‘Top 10 facts about emperor penguins’, with a call to action to “adopt” one of these adorable waddling birds.

We were so much captivated by this campaign, we adopted a few ourselves! Since the Emperor Penguin is our official mascot, how could we not!

No, we didn’t get our very own penguin, but we did get a cuddly toy, regular updates, stickers and other cool stuff for supporting the initiative.

There’s no reason why you have to expect and accept a post-holiday sales slump. While we tend to focus a lot of our marketing (and personal) energy on the festive season, we must remember that our customers are still out there! They want to hear from us in a meaningful and relevant way.

With a little planning and creativity, you can break through the post-holiday fatigue and set up your small business for a prosperous 2020.

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The Role of Business Listings in Local SEO

With all the different information about the different search engine optimization options that you have with online marketing, there are many new businesses that are getting confused about SEO. And, especially when it comes to the role of business listings in local SEO. 

Understanding local SEO is one of these aspects that businesses need to understand before they can start doing search engine optimization. This is the only way to ensure that they are going to get the right results that they are paying for and to be found online in the search engines. These are everything you need to know about local SEO and the role of business listings. 

Understanding local SEO.

The first thing that you need to know, is to understand local SEO, or also known as local search engine optimization. This is really important to know everything about it.

Local SEO is where you are listing your business online. It doesn’t need to be an online business. When someone is searching for a local business, your business will then come up as one of the results. The higher you are ranked, the easier it will be for locals to find your business. SEO isn’t just for online businesses or international businesses. There are some great features for local small businesses as well.

The importance of online marketing for all local businesses as well

There are many marketing options locally available. Why is it important to consider online marketing as well? And, isn’t it going to be more expensive to make use of online marketing and local marketing?

Most people are starting to make use of the internet if they are looking for a business or a service. And, if you are making use of local SEO, your business will be one of those that will be found online. However, if you are only using normal marketing options, your business will not be found online. Your competitor’s information will be found. This is why it is essential to make sure that your business is listed locally with local search engine optimization.

How local SEO can assist with local businesses

When the right local SEO is getting done, you will be able to list online. The better your online marketing was done, the better you will rank. Meaning that your business will be visible to anyone online. Especially, when your keywords are searching.

Without this, your business is going to stay a “ghost”. Meaning that it will be invisible online. Even, if you have an online store and a high-quality website. Without getting listed at local SEO, your business will not be found by locals. And, this is what having a business is all about.

Choosing the right online listing platform

Now that you understand what local SEO listings are all about, there is still one thing that you need to know. How you should choose the right online listing platform. 

There are different online listing platforms out there. Google is just one example of these platforms. It is important to make sure that you know which platform the locals are using most in your area. This is the only way to make sure that you have chosen the right online listing platform.

Business listings with local SEO. Is this really important, if you don’t have an online business? And, is this something that you should do, if you are using other marketing strategies? Now, you will know everything there is to know about local SEO, and you will understand the importance of it. You need to make use of local SEO options if you want to become successful as a local business.

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