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Posts Tagged ‘video marketing’

5 Ways to Use 15-Second Videos For Marketing

October 25th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

Video is something I’ve wanted to integrate into my social media marketing strategy for a while now. Sound familiar?

When I saw a blog post on using 15-second videos (thank you, Social Media Examiner!), I got pretty excited. One, because the blog post focuses on Viddy, a company I first covered at Tech Cocktail a year and a half ago. And second, because it was a good reminder to me that Viddy only allows you to make 15-second-long videos, and that is both short and doable.

The best part is that a Viddy video can be quickly and easily shared on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, which means there’s no excuse not to use it!

Here are my favorite (read: easy-to-do) marketing ideas for using a Viddy video:

1. Events

Whether it’s your event, or one you’re attending, videos are a fun way to quickly share highlights of the event. Because you can share in real-time, it is also a good way to entice more people to attend the event.

2. Company News

Make your news interesting to other people by sharing your excitement about a media mention, big client win, new office space, tenth employee, etc. This will also help humanize your company a bit.

3. Tips and How-To’s

Take your tip and how-to ideas for your blog posts from plain text to video, and you will connect better with your audience. One, because video is more engaging, and two, because they’ll get to hear your expertise straight from your mouth, making your ideas more personal.

4. Behind-the-Scenes

I really like this idea, because it lets you show off what it really takes to do what you do. Helping your potential clients understand how much thought, time, and/or effort goes into doing what you do can help you better sell your product or service.

5. Testimonials

You don’t have to limit testimonials to just customers. Ask employees, interns and business partners to give testimonials too. I always encourage my clients to showcase testimonials on their website, because they add so much credibility.

To get started, check out Viddy and download their free app. I did – and it took me a total of 5 minutes to download, make and share this video: http://www.viddy.com/video/af4c238a-2cf3-4b19-8a41-dbe90730739a.

How else can you use 15-second videos as part of your marketing strategy?

Image courtesy of easyonlinevideotips.com

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Tags: Marketing, social media, Viddy, video marketing
Posted in Marketing | 2 Comments »

Social Media Case Studies: How 2 Small Businesses Are Growing Thanks to Social Media

September 19th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

I love case studies, so I am glad I stumbled across a blog post on SmartBlog on Social Media that included three case studies on small businesses that are growing and owe much of their success due to their use of social media. I decided to highlight only two of those companies here, as what they did is easily applicable to any other small business:

Birchbox

Birchbox sends its subscribers a bright pink box every month with five beauty product samples. Though it is one of many monthly subscription services now available, Birchbox found success by doing the following:

Post videos: Birchbox employees took videos of themselves opening the boxes and showing off the contents – and shared the videos online. Subscribers began sharing the videos with friends and connecting with other subscribers.

Encourage user-generated content: Instead of trying to control the conversation on social media, Birchbox lets subscribers take the lead.

Keep it personal: The videos that Birchbox employees make are not perfect, but they are personal and “real” – and those attributes engage subscribers and let them get to know the people behind a company they love.

Orabrush

Decidedly less sexy than Birchbox, Orabrush is a tongue cleaner – and they found success with a video. Yes, a video. And now they have a YouTube channel with 300 videos on it. I am not kidding. Here’s what they did:

Make it funny: Their first video went viral (it is this one, viewed by more than 17 million people), and, as you’ll see from the video, it is not a slick production. In fact, it cost $500 to make. But it is funny.

Do your research: Orabrush did, and they found that the most popular videos are personality-driven, so they cast Austin Craig, whose idea it was, in the video. They also addressed questions in the video that customers might have to increase adoption and dispel any misgivings.

Be creative: Orabrush wanted to get into Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart was ignoring them. So they spent $28 on a Facebook ad in which they accused Wal-Mart executives of having bad breath, and voila, they got noticed – and they are now stocked at Wal-Mart.

Ask for feedback: Use Facebook to ask your fans what they want. It’s the fastest, cheapest and best way to do research.

If there’s one thing Birchbox and Orabrush have in common, it’s videos. Have you made one yet? How was it received? Let us know how you fared in the comment section below!

Image courtesy of themarketingbit.com

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Tags: Birchbox, case studies, Orabrush, social media, social media success, user-generated content, video marketing, viral videos
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

10 Thought-Provoking Statistics That Affect Your Marketing Strategy

August 1st, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

After seeing the following marketing statistics, fresh off the presses from Hubspot, you might want to re-think some of your marketing efforts. I certainly am!

Social Media Engagement

91% of online adults use social media regularly. Is your business active on social media?

Don’t go overboard posting on Facebook! If you post twice a day (rather than once), those posts only receive 57% of the likes and 78% of the comments per post.

This statistic is kind of sad: Less than half a percent of Facebook fans engage with brands they follow.

But this statistic is happy: 20% of Facebook users have purchased something because of ads or comments.

As is this one: 38% of people have recommended a brand they follow on social media.

Marketing Automation Works

If you set up messages to go out based on an event – like someone signing up for a webinar – the click-through rate skyrockets to 119% higher than a “business as usual” message.

Stop Ignoring Mobile

Emails are increasingly being opened on smartphones and tablets – it has increased by 80% over the last 6 months. Are your messages optimized for all devices?

Businesses in the U.S. are increasingly on board with mobile. Of the 45% of companies that use mobile marketing, 70% have mobile websites, 55% have mobile apps and 49% have QR codes.

Make Your Emails Relevant

A whopping 61% of emails received on “work” email accounts are non-essential. Make sure your email marketing messages do not get dumped into that category!

Add Videos to Your Marketing Mix

YouTube users consume more than 3 billion hours of video per month. Three. Billion. Hours.

Now that you have absorbed all of those numbers, how will you adjust your marketing efforts? Leave a comment below!

Image courtesy of deploy511.org

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Tags: email, Facebook, Marketing, marketing automation, mobile marketing, mobile optimization, social media, social media engagement, video marketing
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

How to Measure Your YouTube Video Marketing Efforts

July 10th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

Did you know YouTube has a built-in analytics tool called YouTube Insights? If you’re using YouTube at all as part of your online marketing strategy, you should definitely be tracking how your videos are doing.

Following is a rundown on the most useful features of YouTube Insights:

Number of views

Of course, the best way to know whether or not people like your video is by the number of them who are watching it. This info is clearly displayed under each video, so use this basic metric to better understand what content is resonating most with your audience.

Ratings

Again, under your video you’ll be able to see the number of likes and dislikes your video has gotten. Click on it, and you’ll also see comments and favorites. This is another great way to measure the effectiveness of your videos.

Discovery

Click on the bar graph on your Ratings page to see where your traffic is coming from; sources are listed in chronological order. Use this information to determine where to promote your upcoming videos.

Demographics

Click on the view more statistics button on the graph to get demographics of your audience. Again, this information can be used to tailor videos and make them relevant to your audience based on their age, gender, and geographical location.

Drop-off rates

It is really useful to understand where in your video you lose viewers. If everyone stops watching your video in the same place, why? Was it too long, boring, confusing?

Sharing

Videos go viral when people share them en masse. Take a look at the sharing statistic to see which videos are shared most and use that insight to tailor the subject of future videos.

***

What is your favorite or most successful B2B or B2C video on YouTube? Share a link in the comments below!

Image courtesy of hmtweb.com

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Tags: analytics, Marketing, video marketing, YouTube, YouTube Insights
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

5 Sure-Fire Social Media Tips for Small Businesses

January 24th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

If you’re struggling with your small business’s social media strategy, turn to these tried-and-true tips for taking your strategy from stalled to stellar in no time at all. Here are five tips that put your social media activities to work:

1. Just Be Yourself

Plenty of marketers post multiple updates per day on places like Facebook, offering their followers links to their recent blog posts and tips for succeeding in business. How can you stand out from the crowd?

Being yourself and allowing your personality to shine through your social media communications can help you get the attention and interaction that will boost marketing success. Let your followers and fans know there’s a real, live person behind your posts by sprinkling in personal touches.

For example, posting pictures of your latest culinary masterpiece, or other creative endeavors, adds a fun element to an otherwise “just business” profile. If you’re heading out to cheer on your favorite sports team, or you heard something hilarious (but PG-rated) on the subway that your followers might enjoy as well, share them with your online community. These personal touches keep things fresh and are excellent conversation starters, so be sure to use them in addition to your regular wall posts.

2. Find Your Place Online

As a small business, you know you have to prioritize your resources carefully, including which social networks you devote time and energy to. Having your business on multiple social media profiles, but only giving them partial effort, won’t cut it. You need to determine where your customers are, and then devote all your effort to that network.

Use Follower Wonk or Facebook’s advertising platform to find out where your target audience is most concentrated. Then, invest all your resources building a loyal following there, and engage your community by giving it the attention it deserves. Your good work here will help you build a case for expanding your reach (and the necessary resources) on additional sites as you grow.

3. Generate Leads With Facebook

Once you’ve begun engaging your Facebook community, why not leverage your page to generate leads? Facebook offers small businesses new ways of building their lists of qualified leads. For example, you can offer an opt-in strategy directly on your page by using iFrames to create a custom welcome tab. This tab should include a two-step process called a “reveal tab.”

Step 1: Create a call to action to encourage new visitors to Like your page.

Step 2: After visitors Like your page, offer them a giveaway for providing their name and email.

Following this simple two-step model will help you increase both your fan base and lead list–now, that’s efficient!

4. Make the Most of Video

Using video is a creative and interactive way to get your small business to the top of search results, and social media can help. Google and other search engines use video to decide which pages should be displayed first, but you must tag, title and publish your videos correctly to get their full SEO benefits.

One way to add video marketing to your social media strategy is by creating a custom channel on YouTube. This is super easy to do. Think about what problem your business solves for its customers, and create a series of short instructional videos related to this problem. Use the videos to show how your business can help customers, and try adding testimonials from current customers as well. For the best videos, use humor and graphics to communicate your messages, and keep it under three minutes.

5. Do The Hard Work

To stand out in a sea of content, sometimes you have to get down and dirty. What information do your customers really want to know? If you’re willing to solve your customers’ hardest problems and answer their toughest questions, your content will be linked to and shared. This activity will get you higher search rankings and more followers/fans on Twitter and Facebook.

Think about the most difficult and interesting customer questions, and create a list. Every time you sit down to write, use one of these questions as a starting point. Be honest, do the extra research required, and strive to help customers with their challenges. Then, publish your content and promote it on all your social media platforms. Doing this consistently will earn you significant results.

If you follow these five tips, you should start to see the payoff of your efforts rather quickly. Do you have additional tips that have taken your small business social media strategy from mediocre to outstanding? Share them with us by leaving a comment below.

Image courtesy of creative design firm Arrae

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Tags: Facebook, Marketing, seo, social media, target market, Twitter, video marketing
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »

Video and Mobile Marketing: Just-Released Stats and What They Mean for Your Business

August 9th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Inbound Marketing

In the first of this two-part series, I shared data on inbound marketing and online advertising and how it related to your small business – all based on great marketing statistics in the just published “The Marketing Data Box.” In this, the second post, we are looking at video marketing and advertising.

If you have thought about producing and sharing videos online as part of your marketing strategy, consider that Americans watch 14 hours of online video each week. That translates to an average of 179 million Americans watching video each month.

Based on those numbers, it is pretty safe to say that video marketing is a good idea due to its high level of engagement. It probably comes as no surprise that YouTube is the dominant channel (77% of market share), trailed way behind by Hulu (6%) and Bing (4%).

It is also worthwhile to consider advertising using online video ads, as they reach 45% of the U.S. population an average of 32 times per month. Obviously, you need to make sure your target market is in the demographic mix of any online video channel before committing.

If they are using Hulu, you might want to advertise there, as that video channel generated the highest number of video ad impressions at nearly 1.1 billion.

What about mobile? We are all very reliant on our smartphones to do just about anything–well, at least the 31% of us who have a smart phone. Nielsen found that Americans spend 38.5% of their smartphone usage time on email. Social networking is a distant second (10.7%), which, quite honestly, surprised me, but only because so many people I know update Facebook constantly while on the go.

If you want to reach smartphone users, think about finding a mobile game developer. Some 44% of US mobile phone users have played a mobile game at least once; 33% of respondents have played a game in the past month; and nearly a quarter (24.6%) have played in the past week, making them “avid mobile phone gamers.”

“The Marketing Data Box” is a quarterly series published by Watershed Publishing’s Data Insights, based on HubSpot’s data and using graphics supplied by MarketingCharts.com.

Image by Flickr user garryknight (Creative Commons)

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Tags: advertising, Facebook, Hubspot, Hulu, Marketing, MarketingCharts.com, mobile games, mobile phones, smart phones, Social networking, The Marketing Data Box, video marketing, YouTube
Posted in Marketing | 1 Comment »

GrowSmartBiz Conference: How to Multiply the Effects of SEO With Great Content

November 15th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

One of the Marketing Track sessions I attended at the GrowSmartBiz Conference had a great title–Stories, Content, and the Search Engine Sword Over Your Head–and delivered useful information in spades. No matter how new or established your business, this session was a great way to learn exactly how to improve your search engine optimization efforts and results.

Ben Cook, the SEO Manager at Network Solutions, moderated the panel of 4 pros, including Tinu Abayomi-Paul, principal of Leveraged Promotion, Dr. Alan Glazier, founder and owner of Shady Grove Eye and Vision Care, Deborah Ager, principal of ClickWisdom, LLC, and Liana Evans, CEO of LiBeck Integrated Marketing. (You might be curious as to why there’s an optometrist on the panel. Dr. Grazier has successfully implemented SEO at Shady Grove Eye and become a prolific blogger in the process.)

Here are their tips on using great content to boost your website’s search engine optimization:

Write for your audience! To produce great content specific to your audience, you need to understand what they search for when online. Use Market Samurai, a keyword analysis tool, to help you figure what people are searching for. Then you will be able to write content that addresses their needs.

Use long-tail search terms in your content. Long-tail search terms are the descriptive keywords people enter in the search box when they’re conducting research online. For instance, “children’s navy blue cotton jacket” rather than “children’s jackets”. The more pages your website has, the more content you’ll have, and the more chances you’ll have at being found for long-tail terms.

Content type is important. Blogs, videos, and podcasts are great for search engine optimization, thanks to plenty of chances for back linking (aka, links from other sites). All search engines, including Google and Bing, measure how often content is linked and how many views it gets, so the more varied your content, the better.

Make it easy to share content. Twitter makes sharing content and getting links easy as your content is spread from one person to the next. On your blog, make sure you add “tweet this” and “like” buttons. Google rewards websites that have links back to it from both new and established websites.

Optimize video and podcasts. Because search engines cannot read videos or podcasts, add a transcript.

The importance of the URL. You can create custom URL shorteners for branding purposes (I had no idea!). Awe.sm is the first company I found in search results that does this. Also be sure that your blog’s URLs contain the title of the blog post rather than numbers.

Photo Courtesy Shashi Bellamkonda

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Tags: GrowSmartBiz Conference, Marketing, podcasts, search engine optimization, small busines, video marketing, website content
Posted in Branding, Grow Smart Business Conference, Marketing, Search Marketing | No Comments »

Women in Business: Video Marketing Can Really Deliver Results

July 2nd, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

Way back in January, I published a blog post on video marketing based on a conversation I had with Jessica Piscitelli, videographer extraordinaire and owner of www.capture-video.com. She’s a film school grad and worked in the movie industry in NYC until she realized that the exhausting, chaotic movie business was not for her. Jessica now produces videos for promotion, training, and SEO and lives a slightly more sane life. She and I have become friends, and she even roped me into joining the board of a local non-profit.

Because social media and video marketing are very important for SEO, I thought another blog post that focused more on her business would be useful and interesting.

Why did you decide to go into business for yourself? How long have you been in business?

When I started working in corporate video [for another company], I was basically their do-it-all solution. In other words, I ran the camera, edited the video, and made the, ahem – dating myself – master VHS tapes. I frankly just thought that since I was doing everything, I should be my own boss. I didn’t realize there was a lot more involved. That was 1999. I have since learned a lot about managing and growing a business that I wish I had known then!

Why do your clients decide to use video marketing as part of their marketing mix?

Because it is useful. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. A moving picture is priceless. What does your product do? How do your services work? Who is being helped by your non-profit? All of these kinds of questions can be answered very clearly and concisely with a video.

Tracking ROI from marketing in general and social media specifically can be a challenge. There is no perfect answer for tracking ROI, but clients have come to me with specific goals in mind that were trackable. I had a client who wanted to get a certain number of clicks on a video we posted to YouTube. That was easy to monitor because YouTube tracks video “plays.” I had another client who wanted a certain number of people to click through to their website after watching or finding their videos. With Google Analytics or similar tools, it is possible to see where a viewer landing on your page came from and how many of them got there from various video posts.

Care to share the results of some of your most successful videos?

Wetlands Studies and Solutions:

The problem WSS was having involved explaining to a neighborhood association what their area would look like after stream restoration. Restoration is a long and ugly process, and people in areas where it is being done are often unhappy about it. Over a period of months, we captured the changing landscape – before, during, and after, as well as a full growing season later – and put together a video demonstrating exactly what you could expect from the stream restoration in your area over time. Of course, the improvements really are worth the process.

Georgetown University:

GU wanted to educate students on campus about the recycling program and facilities available on campus. They decided to put together a video using students to explain the benefits of recycling. Though not technically a viral video, as it was disbursed internally, the video was made like a student production – and it had the same kind of peer-to-peer energy.

GreatVenisonCooking.com:

A new website was launching to help hunters prepare their meat. The problem with venison is that the quality of the meat is determined during the process of field dressing. There is not much out there to teach people how to field dress a deer, and so a video showing those steps was not only a great educational tool, but also a great draw for the website.

“I do think having the video adds credibility to our site; more than words, it positions us as experts on our subject matter. Having a short video is a great way to share some expertise and connect with the target audience…people automatically trust you more if they’ve seen your face and heard you speak. It’s a great and easy tool to use.” – Susan Rose, GreatVenisonCooking.com

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Tags: Marketing, search anaylitics, seo, small business, social media, video marketing
Posted in Marketing, Search Marketing, small business | No Comments »

12 Easy Ways to Use Social Media for Inbound Marketing

April 14th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

I have blogged before about how much I love Inc. Magazine. Not only is their magazine packed with valuable and useful information for entrepreneurs and small business owners, their website is, too. Best of all: everything is well-written in an accessible, friendly, and encouraging tone of voice.

.tomate d'epingles.'s/Flickr

On my birthday in January, they published 30 Tips for Using Social Media in Your Business on their website. It was a great, totally unintentional gift on their part, and it has been a wonderful source of inspiration for me. Sometimes I open up Twitter and Facebook and just sit there, trying to think of something useful or witty or funny to post. Being able to refer to the things other business owners have done to drive business and market themselves through social media is much easier!

I am not going to regurgitate what the author, April Joyner, wrote. Some of it didn’t strike me as easy to do, and some of it was “don’t do this!” What follows are my favorite ideas.

Sneak peeks. Whether you provide a service or product—or both—offer a behind the scenes look at, or preview of, whatever it is you’re working on.
Post videos. Use videos to quickly demonstrate what your company does. People like to watch well-made, funny videos, and they love to share them (just look at the success of YouTube!).
Interact. This really goes without saying, but it is worth repeating. Always respond to comments on your blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, LinkedIn page, etc.
Promotions. Offer coupons and other special promotions through social media only. Just make sure they are easily redeemed! You can also offer coupons through Groupon or, in certain cities, Living Social.
Read what they’re saying. Search your company’s name on Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp to see what people are saying about you—and join the conversation.
Broadcast your location. If your business is mobile (dog groomer, street performer, food truck), use Twitter, Facebook, and/or Foursquare to update your location so customers can find you.
Search for customers. By conducting keyword searches on Twitter that are related to your business, you can reply to people who have posted them—and hopefully snag some new customers.
Target your online ads. Facebook lets you to target your ads based on specific information in users’ profiles.
Customer forums. Add a customer forum to your website or social network so customers can interact with each other. Great way to build a community for both your business and industry!
Tap evangelists. Ask your top customers to spread the word about your company as guest bloggers, or ask them to make a short (2-3 minutes, tops) video of why they like your company’s product or service so much, which both of you can share.
Follow your industry. Read blogs related to your industry and join industry groups on Facebook and LinkedIn—and post comments!
Help others. Scan LinkedIn’s Answers for questions relating to your industry. Spend an hour or so a week answering them, and you may very well find new customers.