Category: Sales & Marketing

Article Contributed by Jennifer Livingston

Video marketing–the incorporation of videos into your marketing strategies in order to promote your company, product or services–is becoming more popular in today’s marketing world. As a matter of fact, sixty-five percent of executives visit the marketer’s website and thirty-nine percent contact a vendor after viewing a particular video. “How does this particular marketing technique achieve such a profitable result?”, you may ask. The answer is through the personable quality that video marketing conveys about a business. That’s right! When businesses include video marketing in their other marketing strategies, viewers attain an amiable feeling about the business. Actually, here are seven of the many ways in how video marketing constructs a more personable attribute in your business.

#1: Video marketing allows you to tell it all!

First of all, customers like businesses where they can see and hear the business owner. People want to get an overall impression of you, which, if positive, will build trust and loyalty in your customers. Additionally, video marketing gives you the opportunity to mingle in some behind-the-scene action. Keep it real by showing how employees are working diligently to produce the products and services that they are interested in purchasing.

#2: Video marketing allows you to respond.

When doing video marketing, you, the business owner, are given the chance to respond to customers’ emails and negative comments. Use the strategy to gain rapport with your customers. Show some personality in your response messages. Enhance it with some humor. Everyone enjoys a little laugh in everything!

#3: Video marketing allows you to tell a good story.

When it comes to your brand, especially its uniqueness, involving a brief history is an excellent idea. Customers find pleasure in hearing a story behind a particular product or service. They will appeal to a journey. With video marketing, you can add drama, engagement, connection to your customers, and change the way people feel, think, and behave regarding your product or service. Telling an upbeat story about your product or service will instill a positive relationship with your customers.

#4: Video marketing allows you to be more engaged with your customers.

When we do anything in life, engagement is the number one technique that holds attention. Using in-video links, quizzes, surveys and forms will motivate customers to take desired actions. Engagement techniques will keep your customers focused on your video, and can ultimately result in click-through rates and fortunately even sales.

#5: Video marketing allows you to share testimonials.

Before you shoot your video, gather real feedback from previous customers who have already tried your product. At some point during your video, share these testimonials. Get permission to include the customer’s full name and location, and share the specific details of the endorsements. This is an exceptional approach as it shows potential customers that your product or services really works. Do not fake any references! The truth will always come to light and you want to keep an honest reputation for your business at all times.

#6: Video marketing allows you to talk directly to your target.

In video market, your audience is your targeting group. For example, if you are marketing your tax preparation services, your target audience may be individuals between the ages of 25 and 70 and small businesses. From this targeted group, you are able to know how to talk, and what images and links to use. Using professional adult language and financial terms, images, and links will be your focus.

#7: Video marketing allows you to be user-friendly.

What if some viewers are hearing-impaired? That is where best quality closed captioning services come in. This particular service transcribes the audio of your video, giving every customer the convenience of enjoying your video.

These seven are only a few of the variety of ways that video marketing helps businesses project an affable impression to their customers. Video marketing is able to capture viewers’ attention and deliver an effective message for the success of the business. Video marketing drives click-through rate and sales if done in a friendly, professional, and personable way.

Article Contributed by Rand Brenner

Marketing your products or services doesn’t mean you have to spend big bucks. “Riding the Coattails” of a well-known brand is a licensing strategy to get instant market recognition for your products or services.

This strategy taps into the consumer recognition of a well-known brand. Many types of companies – consumer goods, entertainment, technology and others – spend hundreds of millions of dollars promoting their core brand and creating a big consumer market.

Licensing lets you lease their brand equity, and use it to sell your products or services. You’ve got a lot of licensing options with this strategy. For example, licensing a sports franchise brand lets you take advantage of their broad consumer awareness. You get the added benefit of live games and on-going advertising without the cost.

I used this strategy with a client who invented a new portable “bar and grill entertainment center” that was ideal for tailgating. Rather than spending lots of money promoting it “generically”, I helped them license several big college and professional football team brands. They produced versions of their product with different team logos and colors. Their products got immediate access to the big retailers, instant customer recognition, ongoing promotional support from the televised football games, and multiple “brand” promotions from the other licensing partners.

Licensing a big brand is also a way to multiply your marketing dollars. Often times, you can tap into their ongoing promotional and advertising campaigns, sometimes for little or no money. A few years ago I worked with a toy company and negotiated a license with a major studio for their animated movie releasing in the fall. To promote the movie, the studio wanted products to give away at the movie premier. In return for supplying some toys, my client got extensive media coverage in newspapers and on radio stations as part of the movie promotion.

Building market awareness and consumer demand is this day and age is a very expensive undertaking – especially if you are a small company or start-up with limited resources. You can use licensing to tap the resources of a bigger partner. If you are looking for a way to get promotional muscle behind your products or services, then “Riding the Coattails” of a well-known brand could be the right licensing strategy for you.

Rand Brenner is the founder of Licensing4Profits.com, an on-line resource for information, education, training, and real world advice on how to make money licensing intellectual property rights. 

Article Contributed by James Pointon

SMS marketing is gaining momentum, and it’s not likely to stop. An incredible 75% of people say that they would like to receive marketing via text message, and that’s far too many potential customers for you to ignore. Small businesses should be jumping on this bandwagon – there’s no size limit on how to make this work for you. Here are some actions you can take in order to boost your SMS lead generation and sales.

Make it personal

A generic marketing text can sometimes fall far from the mark. Customers want the personal touch, so make it seem as though you are talking directly to them. Using their name is a great start, and will grab their attention.

But you can do even more to make it personal. Consider targeting customers based on what they have purchased from you in the past. If they bought a watch, for example, you might send them an SMS about the latest bracelets you have on sale that match their watch style. If your customers are parents and you know that one has just become pregnant again, start sending them offers on newborn products. Keeping a thorough database on your customers can help with this.

You can set up a sales funnel process, too, so that any customers who have bought a certain product get reminders about new ones. Then if they respond, give them a second prompt for something else. If it’s working, keep doing it.

Be specific

Customers aren’t likely to pay attention if you give them vague offers. Telling them, “log on tomorrow for big savings” isn’t going to incite much excitement. Give them something to log on for! How about telling them what is on sale, and for how much? “Log on tomorrow for 50% off all apparel” is a much better draw.

How can you make this even better? By adding a sense of urgency. “50% off on all apparel on our website tomorrow – 24 hours only!” tells the customer that they need to act immediately or miss their chance. Otherwise, they might put the message aside for later and forget all about it.

Be exclusive

SMS customers need a reason to opt in to your marketing. Give them exclusive offers so that they can save where others can’t. You can do this by sending them a specific discount code that only they will know about. It’s most effective when combined with an existing sale. If you have 20% off on certain items, offer a further 10% off with a specific SMS code.

You can also use exclusive deals to hook in new sign-ups for your SMS list. Let them know that they will get a special discount code as soon as they sign up and you will watch your list grow rapidly.

Aim for immediacy

People tend to open texts immediately, but they might not open emails until the next day. That’s why it is important that you use SMS marketing for immediate effects. Tell them to log in now – not later. This is fantastic for you as a small business owner, because it means that you can manage sales more effectively. As soon as you need that sales boost, put out the word. If your sale isn’t attracting many buyers, you can send out an SMS to give it a push before it ends.

Make sure that you also think about timing during the day. If you have an online shop, you might send a message at lunchtime, when those who are at work will be able to take a break and browse your shop. If you have a restaurant, it’s better to text right before dinner. You can also use the service to send mass texts to employees and make sure everyone is on top of their tasks.

Stay top of mind

When you don’t have a sale on, you might still want to send out a message every now and then. Perhaps you’re a crafter who sends handmade goods. Your items take a long time to make and sell out quickly. To help create more buzz, try texting your database an hour or so before your newest listings are due to go live.

This will encourage buyers to check out your online store and will also remind them that if they want something, they should buy it fast. You’ll create a culture where your items sell out as soon as they are listed!

Using SMS marketing can seriously help your small business grow. Done right, it can even turn you into more of a medium business.

Author’s Bio: James Pointon is a blogger deeply interested in boosting businesses’ marketing opportunities through original and untapped channels. At the moment, James is sharing his ideas for business promotion working at OpenAgent – experts on real estate market.

Article Contributed by Rachelle Wilber

There is no doubt that today’s most important business consideration is understanding buyer motivation. When business owners understand buyer motivation, the design of the target market is accurate and effective. This premise is true for hiring the best employees which also requires understanding motivation.

The problem for many business owners is separating deeply embedded ideas about buyer and employee motivation from actualities that drive customers to a business and employees to perform at their peak levels of productivity. With a firm grasp on motivation, it becomes easier to win customers and attract incredible employees who respond instinctively to specific business needs.

Design a Strong Business Plan

The first myth to dispel is the idea that one size fits all in business. While there may be related factors between all businesses such as marketing and sales, hiring and human resources and product and service development, there simply isn’t a single design that fits all businesses perfectly. Each business owner needs to design a strong business plan that incorporates business operations and specifies how those business operations will be delegated to staff. This begins with management and includes all employees involved. The size of the business determines whether departmentalization is required.

In a small business, for example, some employees “wear many hats” and cover a broad range of duties like in-house sales, logistics, human resources and customer service. In a large company, these duties are the domain of departmental managers. Sometimes, these employees will use HR software to help make tasks easier and more streamlined. Create an organizational chart to define management from staffing.

A Strong Marketing Plan

Every business needs a strong marketing plan, no matter how large or small the business may be or how many customers are served. Before a strong marketing plan can be implemented, the business owner needs a strong staff. This is why designing a hiring plan with specificity is essential. Create a basic profile of the ideal employee that includes skills, experience and ability to anticipate business needs. Use the profile as a guide during job interviews. This is the fastest and most reliable method to ensure hiring is effective and efficient.

What is Your Business Message?

Many businesses ignore the subliminal message their advertising and promotions send to the public. In order to maintain competitiveness in the specific industry, it is important to be objective about your business message. To win customers, your marketing message has to be foolproof and without potential innuendo. This is the point where understanding buyer motivation enters the picture. Buyers don’t always buy what they need. Many buy on a sense of the impulse of wanting a service or product. If buyers can read between the lines of business marketing promotions and the subliminal message is somewhat negative, that will not win customers. The business message needs to be direct and encourage the buyer to “want” the business offering.

The link between attracting incredible employees and the business message is inextricable. Consider how a team of highly skilled, experienced employees appear to buyers. The team should create a visual presentation of the business message and possess a keen understanding of buyer motivation. Today’s savvy buyers have access to vast sources of information before they make decisions to buy.

Employees of your business should be more informed than customers about desire to “own” the product or service offered. They should also provide supporting evidence. Convincing customers to buy is like a silk thread that is carried off in the wind. To avoid loss of customers and reduction of employee morale, business owners should provide regular support in the form of human resources programs.

Marketing magic occurs when businesses present an irresistible message that attracts incredible employees. This is how to win customers who value your business.

When it comes to video marketing for small business, it’s become clear that there’s growing evidence to suggest that you can’t go wrong with including video in your marketing. According to YouTube, mobile video viewing rises 100 percent each year, and 90 percent of users say that seeing a video for a product helps in the decision process.

Marketing Goals

You’ll need to decide your marketing goals before you grab your video camera equipment. Videos can increase open rates on emails, bring traffic to websites or close the deal on product sales. It’s vital that you begin with knowing the goal, which will influence the style and content of the video itself.

Figuring out your marketing goals will also inform the budget as well as the format of videos you’d like to supply to your customers. Without your goal, your brand could also be lost in directionless videos.

Type of Video

Videos on social media platforms are usually quirky, funny, disturbing or compelling in some fashion. They’re almost always story-driven and meant to be shared with friends and family.

If you’re shooting a review or tutorial of your product, that might require longer content that will be placed on your website. On the other hand, it’s perfectly acceptable to have short reviews or explainer videos with a bit of brand voice and personality on your site or social media platforms.

Creative Thinking

You can consider your competition for sources of inspiration, but you don’t want to copy what they’re doing. You can use their videos to measure the idea behind yours. If they’re serious, maybe you want to be funny.

Video is the perfect way to compete with your biggest competition. Your video has to be unique, or it won’t capture the interest of the viewing audience.

Keeping within the Budget

Your video should remain within your budget, and it can still be effective if you use your creativity. Utilize employees to do live demonstrations. Ask customers for testimonials that you can turn into text-based animations, or ask them for video submissions.

The Honest Company is one business that is using its customers’ reviews and testimonials effectively. In fact, they built their business model around parents leaving videos to inform other parents on everything from baby toys to diapers. https://www.honest.com/

The Right Length

The right length for videos is open to much debate. Some companies find that short and sweet is the perfect length for their customers while others want more long-form information or entertainment.

The length that is perfect for your customers will depend on what they like. You might have to test various lengths and topics to find what works for your business and unique customers. You could check out your competition to see what they’ve been successful doing too.

Optimize the Video

While uploading the video to your website and including it in your emails is good for existing customers, to find new customers, you’ll need to optimize your video with SEO to ensure its discovered on other platforms. This includes YouTube, Vimeo or other video sharing platform.

Adding a full description, using transcription and closed captioning services ensures that the video will reach a broader audience than if you were to upload the video alone.

Mobile Audience

Many people are watching videos on their phones. This means that much of your traffic could be from mobile users, so it’s vital that the video is optimized for a mobile audience watching on smaller screens. Text on screen must be large and bold enough to be seen on mobile screens.

Adding videos to your marketing efforts can be a smart investment of your time and marketing dollars since they often convert really well. They’re the perfect way to compete with larger competitors, which make them great for small businesses that don’t have as much to spend on marketing.