VIDEO CONTENT- MVP OF 2020
Earlier this year, One of the top predictions by Marketing Experts for 2020 was the Popularity of Video Content.
Even if we keeps the stats aside, how often have your found yourself binge watching videos or an innocent DIY search that ended up resulting in you watching cat videos at 3am? We have all been through that rabbit hole and that’s exactly what causes video content to do better!
Leading online search platforms like Google supporting video ads, while social media giants such as Facebook/Instagram & even Twitter launching their own short video features (stories and fleets respectively) this prediction seems to have materialized into reality sooner than expected. No surprise here, that given the current pandemic and longer state-imposed lock downs in place, a lot of us have been spending more time online and on social media in general. This has marketers all over the world hailing Video Marketing as their holy grail to win in terms of marketing strategies this year.
In this article we help you understand basics of video marketing, how to create a good strategy as well as video trends for 2020! Read on.
The rise of video content
When the era of digitization started off, it started off with curiosity, sharing a common interest and the need to stay connected. Decades later the radio has turned into a podcast and TV evolved into streaming and binge-watching. But what has not changed is the love for quick entertainment, engagement and immersive experience which still very much rules the way customers connect to brands, products and services.
Thanks to technology and the availability of the internet on all our devices, the online time spent by an average person has quadrupled.
It’s no longer a secret that video content demand has seen a steady rise. Effectively, creating a huge opportunity for both video content makers and video marketing.
If you still haven’t incorporated video content as a part of your marketing strategy maybe it’s time to change that.
First, lets talk about What’s Trending in Terms of Video Marketing?
For a long period, YouTube has held the title when it comes to being the most-watched video platform. With its audience mainly between the ages of 18-49 years, it also holds the title of “platform with the highest reach” compared to cable networks.
But it’s not the only player in the game. While TikTok is gaining popularity all over the globe it’s still a few steps away from being able to help companies and influencers monetize the way Facebook and Instagram do.
Meanwhile, Facebook and Instagram have launched stories, live streaming, embedded videos and even shoppable video ads which have been gaining popularity among its users.
Take a look at some of the video marketing trends for 2020:
- Video shoppable post
- Stories
- Facebook live videos
- Interactive videos (AR / VR /3D)
- 1 on 1 video experience (google hangouts, zoom, Facebook/ insta live q&a)
- Vlogging (aka video blogs, popular on social media and YouTube)
- Video ads
- Educational videos (DIY, training or Q&A’s)
Now you may want to know Can Blogs Have Videos?
Absolutely !! In-fact we at MarketinGROW encourage our clients (irrespective of their company size) to create and share video content on their website along with their blogs and social media platforms. It’s Quick, Informative as well as engaging.
What are Video Ads? Do they perform better?
In the early 90’s-00’s while television was still a major source of entertainment and commercial ads, only second to movies and blockbuster our streaming godfather. Television ads were still in demand.
But with the average person spending more time on their phone compared to watching tv. Opting for faster broadband compared to tv subscriptions was a clear sign that large brands had to find a new way to get to their customers.
“According to Nielsen ratings, TV viewing has been dropping about 10% per quarter.
And thus ads on social media and searches started to boom.
This brought in a unique opportunity for small players as well. The growth in social media and frequent online searches meant with a few tweaks a small player could directly compete and in some cases even win over their larger counterparts. Thereby, providing equal opportunity for business of any size to reach out to its audience.
Now to the second part do Google Ads and Video ads in general perform better ? short answer it depends on your goal. If you are looking for engagement and video ads are better but in case you are looking for reach and to remain easily scannable image ads would be a better option. Although, in our experience what suits your business is only determined by your audience and target market preferences.
SERPs like Google and Bing had already begun testing video ads in 2017 and now most searches on google immediately show up a related video. With audiences and search engines both showing an interest in video content it’s no surprise companies large and small are trying to monetize and create a niche for their brand through video ads.
How to create an effective video marketing content?
Creating videos for ads or as a brand content has been easier than ever before. With the right vision in mind, a marketer can convert company videos into a lead generating tool on its own. Given the current scenario where social media marketing and content marketing has redefined how we see marketing strategies. Branding and storytelling have taken the spotlight. Propelled by humanizing and adding empathy to your product and services allowed the business to connect with its customers in a meaningful fashion. Especially now where due to pandemic empathy is what will dictate how your customers see you.
Take note of these few points on how to create good video content for marketing
- Make it informative, share your story;
- Show products or services utilization;
- Showcase customer feedback, testimonials;
- Demonstrate product usage;
- Show the people behind the screen, introduce the team and staff;
- Answer customer FAQs on live sessions &
- Add an informative video as a banner on your website.
To conclude, do a simple search, say for example look up “how to make Gold leaf art” and the first 5 results would be a video. With search engines looking to provide value for their users’ time and artificial intelligence learning from your behavior online be it on Facebook or Google. Your customers are sure to be shown video results or ads as a part of their daily internet browsing experience (simply based on search keywords they type). So much that they may not even realize it! And that is exactly why you will need video marketing and content for your business to stay relevant.
Need more help creating good video graphics and content in Brampton, Mississauga, and Toronto? MarketinGROW offers graphic and video marketing along with its digital marketing expertise for your business. Book an appointment or take a digital marketing assessment to know what your business needs today!
ARE YOUR LEADS SOCIAL DISTANCING FROM YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGN?
Often times we come across businesses with a lot of potential which unfortunately doesn’t get fully realized. Although they seem promising not all business ideas translate into success.
Although there can be many reasons why a business can’t make a profit and why your leads aren’t converting. If in the initial stages there’s a drop or no customers the first thing we often look into is their strategy. Marketing strategy often comes under scrutiny during this evaluation.
Often, it’s the marketing that wasn’t done right. In a small or medium business, a marketing team’s goal is to provide a bridge between the idea (aka value of your product or service to the customer) and customers (the goal).
If you are on this blog it’s because you are concerned your business isn’t generating leads or your marketing isn’t creating the leads you would like it to.! Which is a valid concern for many small and medium businesses in the GTA.
The problem lies in the ways you market and that’s exactly what this blog will help you understand. Read on.
Top reasons your marketing isn’t generating leads.
1.You don’t do Passive Marketing
What’s passive marketing you ask? Glad you did! Passive marketing is a constant effort to be seen as a brand. Remember those billboards or radio ads? For starters, that’s what it is but over the years this has evolved in social media and active efforts to spread brand awareness.
Although this makes it easy for a small business to enter a market, the market is saturated and that’s where our next point plays in.
2. Is your website generating leads?
We have observed a lot of SMBs missing out on lead generating opportunities through their website. Consider your website as part of your sales team and invest time and budget as you would on your sales resources. One of the common mistake businesses make is by undermining the potential of their website just because they may not have generated any leads from their website in past. There could be multiple reasons behind this and in most cases, it is simply down to lack of clarity on the purpose of the website in first place. If you consider your website to be a lead generating tool then you must invest time to review the content, keep it up to date, and more importantly present your brand the way you would when you are in front of a client. Your website should tell your brand’s story and include information about your business, product/services, and why should they consider your company. If your service/product can be sold or subscribed virtually then make that facility available with eCommerce capability.
Most of your website visitors are anonymous and as part of your lead generation measures, you must make efforts to identify them:
- Direct your website visitors to a concrete next step by adding Call-To-Action buttons through-out your website
- Add resources and materials such as eBooks, Infographs, Product Brochure for visitors to download
- Add Chat feature to instantly connect with you
- Create easy forms for visitors to submit
- Analyse website traffic to monitor performance of each webpage and content
- Make sure your website is mobile friendly and easy to navigate, and more.
3. What is your nurture strategy?
Not all leads in your pipeline will convert. Some leads may become cold over a period of time What are you doing about those leads? Nurturing leads is as important as generating new ones. You should maintain a lead funnel and closely monitor the progress of your leads. Many of your leads may not be actively in the market and that is OK. It is your responsibility to keep nurturing them to maturity. Here are some common ways to nurture your leads:
- Send them monthly emails with new updates, offers, resources, etc.
- Set a reminder to drop them a call periodically
- Send them personalized mailers if and when possible, for instance during the holiday season
- Try to connect with them on social media so that they can view your posts
4. You haven’t started generating leads through passive marketing techniques
One of the greatest gifts of digital marketing in today’s day and age is the gift of social media ads! Targeted ads that use Sophisticated tech and algorithms that would cost us a fortune are available at our fingertips for free. Condition you invest a bit in them and use them the right way. Now you may be wondering how do I generate leads with social media ads? We’ll answer that, you can run ads with:
A/B testing– this lets you run two separate ads and gather results based on your target audience preference. All you have to do is run two ads you think will work and see which fares.
Lead generation objective– platforms like Facebook and Google will run specific campaigns. These ads come in different categories, from ads to get more leads to ads aimed at getting more attention to your page. Let’s say you choose lead generation as your target for running an ad. The algorithm will then direct your ads at the users it determines will be best suited for this purpose creating more sign-ups or visibility on those users’ profiles.
5. You haven’t targeted the right persona
Marketing online is not about targeting the entire 2 billion people online but targeting a niche that relates to your brand and its product. This helps you create leads easier. Simply put, targeting a persona among your audience and aligning a similar brand persona to match it helps the audience relate to your brand and create your own orbit in which you can engage and generate leads for your business. An easy example could be new moms, based on their searches and active groups or following your business can attract new moms with offers that they may be interested in. Offering services that align with their needs and marketing strategies that attract them towards your product or services.
6. You aren’t active on social platforms
Having a presence is very important when it comes to creating leads. Not only offline but even online customers look for businesses they feel are genuine. When they visit your page or look you up your business should showcase active presence digitally. This helps a customer trust the fact that you are an active business that will provide to their needs. Regular social media posting, updated blogs and websites help create this with minimal effort yet promise valuable lead generation.
7. You don’t strategize lead generation activities
Online presence in itself can’t offer 100% lead gen. Your marketing strategy has to involve a conscious effort to generate leads and there are a number of ways to go about it.
Our main picks:
Ad campaigns– running ads as we mentioned generates interest among your niche audience and helps them convert to active customers. Running ads on different platforms or for starters even on Facebook alone can create a huge buzz as Facebook uses its AI and algorithm to pick among its users who will most likely opt for your product or service.
LinkedIn campaigns– a growing number of small businesses especially B2B generate a good amount of their leads through LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator helps you target business owners and directly pitch your services/ product to them be it for a vertical or lateral line of connections.
E-mail campaigns– are a good way to nurture the current leads to remind them of your business and those who are warm or cold leads without having to cold call. Most marketers agree email campaigns still generate leads on par with social media and offline efforts and in fact are still a very valuable resource and cost-effective for a small business.
8. Maintain and build relationships
A business needs its clients at every stage of its cycle. This is why building and maintaining relationships become so much more important. Social media gives you easy access to stay connected, and so does email. You don’t always have to have a product on sale but offering discounts or sending newsletters on what your business is currently doing helps build trust and a personal relationship with its customers. This creates a human bond between the business and its customers which is the most important factor here. Empathy and making them realize their connection are valued helps customers build brand loyalty in the long run.
9. Your page isn’t showing up on the search engine
Customers search for a brand, it’s reviews and website. SEO, as we mentioned above helps get your page a higher ranking on search engines. Irrespective of whether the customer is looking for your brand in specific or just typing in their requirements. Having the keywords and blogs/ content that match their search will help search engines show your business as one of the options. However, with so many competitors online, ranking on the first page is very important. We have dedicated an entire blog on how to get your website SEO friendly to be sure to read that if you need more insight on this point.
10. Add videos.
The last point we would like to address is videos. With the audience being subjected to a host of information online it’s no surprise that the general audience’s attention has been said to be around a few seconds. These few seconds will determine whether they turn into leads or ignore your product. Add short videos to help get your customer’s attention!
What these do in general is give your brand a voice and give all the necessary information about what it is that your business does without the audience having to spend more than a few seconds to make that vital decision of whether they buy from you or not.
To conclude, it doesn’t matter how big or small your business is, creating a brand image and a strong brand presence is critical to your lead generation measures. Some of these activities are passive and may not directly lead to generating opportunities, however, they are crucial in complimenting your sales campaign.
MARKETING HACKS SMALL BUSINESSES SHOULD NOT IGNORE IN 2021
It’s being prophesied that the world will go artificial in the next 25 years. Cars will be automated, cities will become smarter and currencies will go corporate. Researches by futuristic organizations such as the UN and the World Economic Forum have predicted the vanquish of digitization over everyday living. So let’s ask the favourite question of every interviewer. Where do you see yourself in the next 25 years? Where will your business stand among humanized robots and chatbots?
A THOUSAND VR CANNOT REPLACE A MOVIE THEATRE EXPERIENCE
Similarly, small businesses can be improved by automation, but can never be replaced. Howbeit, to stay relevant and constantly assure your leads and customer of your credibility, you’ll have to keep up with digitization, or as a millennial would like to call, the Kardashians of marketing.
KEEPING UP WITH THE K’DASHIANS
- E-MAIL MARKETING: Since the past one year was primarily online, there was an 80% increase in e-mail engagement. Added to that, it’s predicted that global email users will grow to 4.48 billion by 2024. So, it’s highly likely, that many small businesses will invest in e-mail marketing. In a customer-centric market, areas of investment will be on personalization strategies that ups engagement with both new customers and existing customers and email marketing automation that makes personalized campaigns easier to implement and manage.
- CONTENT MARKETING: Content is the key to relevance. Whether through social media or advertisements, content is always created to fill the fine gaps between demand and supply. Your content can be personalized, empowering or simply educational, but it’s your content that will shape and narrate the story of your brand.
➔ Blog Content Marketing
➔ Infographic Content Marketing
➔ Podcast Content Marketing
➔ Video Content Marketing
➔ Social Media Content Marketing
- SEO: SEO will be one of the most important powerful strategy since everything on the world wide web is currently based on algorithms. The coming year will be no different, but the focus will shift from getting listings on the first page to SEO visibility in position zero. So what is Position Zero? Position Zero refers to Google’s featured snippet that’s separated with a small box at the top of the search results. Another key point is to keep in mind that your users may use virtual assistants to look-up businesses. Make sure your website is well-optimized with long-tail keywords and phrases to be listed on voice search. Don’t limit optimizing your website for text search. Make sure to explore voice search optimization for virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, or Cortana.
- LOCAL MARKETS: Since we live in a universe that is on cloud both celestially and digitally, the sky becomes the limit. We aim for the entire 7 billion people when we tap a target audience, online. Although at a level 2 this might be a good approach to enhance brand visibility and outreach, it is important to take care of the low hanging fruits first. It is important to carefully craft a niche for our business based on demography, needs and other factors to strengthen the core. Ergo, building the business at the local tire is a must, first and a constant.
- CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING: Conversational marketing is a fancy term to define marketing using real-time conversations to convert your leads into buyers. One of the economic ways of implementing conversational marketing is via chat widgets. Website users can connect directly with you over any queries or to book a consultation session. When using chat widgets or similar applications, the key is to have a definitive path to the conversation. Define in advance how would you like your users to use the chat option. Is it to answer product/service queries, book appointments, help users buy products online, etc.? The more defined you are with your approach, the better user experience you can provide.
Dr Dave Chaffey’s Digital Insights suggests that the goals of conversation marketing include
➔ Sell – Higher conversion rates through offline channels provided by human interaction or human-style interaction enabled by a chatbot
➔ Speak – Conversations enable queries to be resolved more rapidly than static web pages
➔ Serve – Customer satisfaction ratings improved by better customer service
➔ Save – Cost savings from when fewer support staff interactions are needed
➔ Sizzle – The personal touch gives a better brand experience
BEFORE JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS
Unlike Kangaroos who jump for travel purposes, humans jump to conclusions. So, before we let you conclude, online marketing will be an extremely powerful gadget in 2021, when it comes to lead generation and brand visibility, but it is not meant to replace the personalized warmth of offline marketing. Both need to go hand in hand.
After all, all the delicious and quirky e-mails by Dominos is one ingredient, but the delivery boy’s heart-warming “Here’s your pizza, ma’am, have a nice day!” completes the entire recipe!
