Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts

Sunday, 6 March 2016

5 Striking Visual Content Marketing Formats That Drive Engagement


Over the past few years, the promotion of visual content online has increased significantly. Human beings are visually-motivated creatures, and they’re more likely to engage with the marketing materials you’re promoting if you appeal to their eyes.
If you’re looking to boost the effectiveness of your digital marketing by promoting visual content, consider using these five striking formats:
  1. Infographics
    Infographics are a social media marketer’s dream: they allow the creator to squeeze a lot of information into one place and also entice social shares and engagement from audiences. In fact, 87,000 tweets featuring infographics are shared each week. Infographics help your audience better understand data and concepts that show a need for your product or service—for example, a maker of email marketing software might use an infographic to demonstrate just how prevalent email is, and how often email marketing leads to purchases. Create your own infographics using websites like Canva and Piktochart.
  2. Bold CTAs
    Use a highly visual call-to-action (CTA), like our example below, that includes colors and imagery to encourage page visitors to take a specific action. A CTA should not only be obvious but attractive as well—it’s been shown that color increases willingness to read by 80%, and can positively affect motivation.
  3. Data Visualizations
  • Viewers are more likely to retain information presented visually rather than via plain text alone. That’s because seeing data visually helps us to grasp difficult concepts and identify patterns not obvious when using plain text. Unlike infographics—which present data on a particular theme—data visualizations present objective, standalone information, such as the increase in the number of worldwide internet users in a particular timespan. Use maps, charts, and diagrams to make large amounts of data more palatable to viewers.
  1. ScreenshotsDo you have software or an app or website interface that you’d like to promote using content marketing? Helpful screenshots can go a long way in helping you demonstrate how to use them—and if a viewer feels confident about using your product, they’re more likely to buy it. Using screenshots as marketing tools is already considered a best practice in app stores. In fact, one game development company increased their app downloads by six percent after improving their app store screenshots. You can also use them to display your all-so-important glowing customer testimonials.
  2. VideoAccording to a report released by Adobe, 51% of marketing professionals worldwide consider video the most effective form of visual marketing. Video allows you to give your brand a voice and sound, and thus make it more relatable to the viewer. Check out our previous blog post for tips on using native video creatively.
Visual content is proven to drive engagement making them a must for digital marketers. If the results of your marketing efforts have been less than stellar this year, try incorporating more visual content, and consider expanding to visual platforms like Instagram, Youtube, and Pinterest.

Thursday, 11 February 2016

Three content marketing lessons learned from Super Bowl 50


jeep portraits
Another year, another Super Bowl – and a whole new crop of ads to analyze and enjoy.
There’s always much to learn from watching major brands as they take TV’s biggest stage, and with Super Bowl 50 being the third-most viewed telecast ever, the stakes were incredibly high.
As usual, the insights we gleaned can be used to inspire and inform future ad campaigns. But their value doesn’t end there. Several brands employed strategies that are ideally suited to content marketing campaigns.
Here are your top three content marketing takeaways from Super Bowl 50 campaigns.

Put mobile first

Mobile as a channel is vital to content marketing success… but are you bold enough to part with tradition in order to appease your mobile audience? That’s what Jeep did with its stirring Portraits ad.
Created by agency Iris Worldwide, the ad used only a third of the screen; the photos were deliberately placed vertically and optimized for viewing on a mobile device.
“We thought about how wouldn’t it be interesting to build a spot so it worked really beautifully in portrait mode on a tablet or a mobile,” Sean Reynolds, Global Creative Director of Iris Worldwide, told WIRED magazine. “It was the only way we could really frame these amazing faces and tell this story.”
DigitalSuperBowl_TacoBell
This approach is effective for cross-channel campaigns, but has value for digital content efforts as well. By using search to promote content like brand films and web series throughout their lifespan, and applying the nomenclature used in your branded content to your paid search campaigns, you can capitalize on audience interest, Taco Bell-style.

Offer exclusive content

Teasers are always a popular Super Bowl advertising choice, because the sneak peek at upcoming ad content generates awareness and buzz. Along those same lines, Super Bowl advertisers are finding other ways to offer exclusive content.
In the case of GMC, the official vehicle of both the Broncos and the Panthers, the automaker launched a digital video campaign offering exclusive footage of some of the players.
The videos show them answering questions posted by fans to GMC’s Twitter and Facebook pages, showcasing the 2016 GMC Sierra Denali HD and Yukon Denali’s in-vehicle Wi-Fi hotspot feature in the process.
The decision to air decidedly mobile-friendly creative on game day suggests a turning of the tide: marketers are finally going all in on mobile content.
“It’s a ballsy move to sacrifice two-thirds of the screen real estate on your $166,000-per-second national TV spot,” says Cole Sletten, Creative Director of New York digital agency Ready Set Rocket of the Jeep ad.
But given that consumers now spend 62 percent of their digital media time on smartphones and tablets, brands that modify their customary content and design for mobile users will surely be rewarded.
“Vertical was a strong choice because it hit on two truisms of content marketing,” Sletten adds. “First, it served the material well, and second, it was clearly optimized for a specific — in this case younger and mobile-centric — audience. I have to say, I love that this is getting so much attention.”

Maximize paid search

When consumers see a TV ad and are compelled to go online in search of further information, brands have a golden opportunity to turn that initial interest into engagement.
Taco Bell seized its chance this year when it ran a paid search campaign in conjunction with the big reveal of its mysterious new menu item.
According to digital marketing agency Merkle|RKG, which tracked and evaluated digital marketing efforts by Super Bowl advertisers for its Digital Bowl Report, Taco Bell was a top brand in terms of digital media performance, and took first place in paid search rank.
The restaurant chain’s winning strategy included leveraging paid search before, during, and after the game, both on desktop and mobile devices.
In addition to bidding on broad search terms like ‘Super Bowl’ and aiming for conquest clicks with keywords like ‘Doritos’, Taco Bell changed its ad copy mid-game once the new menu item had been revealed.
It also bid on keywords mentioned in its Super Bowl spots – like ‘bigger than’ – so that once Taco Bell was calling the product by name, consumers were able to find out more.

 The brand also released player interviews to provide football fans with insight into their pre-game routine – like eating half a dozen eggs every morning – to their mindset, their feelings about participating in Super Bowl 50, and their inspiration. All content was made available through GMC.com, as well as GMC’s social channels.
“Today’s consumers are spending much of their time consuming digital and social content,” Rich Latek, US Marketing Director with GMC told ClickZ.
“While broadcast clearly plays a role in in sports, there is a great opportunity to deepen the story with digital video, and give fans unique content that allows them to interact with players and see a different side of their personalities than they normally would see.”
Latek adds, “Digital video makes it easy for fans to watch as many videos as they want, and share it with their friends, as they anticipate the big game.” For content marketers, this means that offering exclusive, behind-the-scenes clips sourced from your production projects can increase your overall exposure and reach.
Super Bowl campaigns are a treat for consumers and marketers alike. This year, borrow the best of their features to apply to your content marketing strategy.

Wednesday, 23 December 2015

How Live Streams Are Forever Changing Social Media Marketing



The world of social media marketing used to be so blissfully simple. You posted a picture, watched your engagement grow, and reaped the rewards of your digital efforts.
Raise your hand if you’re an experienced social media marketer and immediately called BS on the above sentence. It’s easy to reminisce about past marketing ages, even if in this case, that age happened only a few years ago. While social media marketing may have since become much more complex, it also offers a myriad of new opportunities to track success and highlight your brand.
Speaking of new social media technologies that are forever changing your brand: it’s time to consider live streaming options as one. With a relatively easy set up to go along with immense potential success, new live streaming services could be the key your business needs to enter (and sustain) the digital conversation among your audience.
Social Media Live Streaming Explained
Live streaming video, of course, has been around for years now. But until this year, services like UStream and Justin.TV fell short in that they did not offer any type of social media integration. You should stream your events live on the internet, but all you could offer your followers was a lifeless link in their news feeds.
Of course, much of that changed in 2015. In February, the iPhone app Meerkat launched at SXSW, promising to deliver live video feeds to your Twitter Followers. Following immense immediate success, Twitter realized the untapped potential of social media live streams, and released its own alternative – Periscope in late March.
Meanwhile, the world’s largest social media network finally got in on the action when Facebook released its own live streaming functionality this August. Unfortunately, that feature came with a caveat: while Meerkat and Periscope are both available to the general public, only celebrities can stream their videos live on Facebook.
The Success of Social Media Live Streams
2015 was the first year in which social media live streams became a thing, so it’s still early in evaluating early returns from brands integrating the feature into their social media marketing strategy. But these early returns are incredibly promising:
In other words, live streams are carving out a niche even early in their adoption process, suggesting the promise of this new technology as it moves more into the realm of general, “every day” users.
Integrating Live Streams into Your Social Media Marketing
If you’ve read our posts before, you know that we’re big fans of jumping onto a new, promising feature or technology while the market is not yet saturated. Doing so allows you to become known as forward-thinking by your audience, while also operating in a realm that is not yet drowning in noise from your competitors.
And especially with a new technology that is as promising and has as much potential to change the way we view social media marketing as live streaming, why not jump in and utilize it to advance your brand? Social Media Examiner recently posted 6 ways to use live streaming video on social media to benefit your business:
  1. Share Live Events. This is perhaps the most obvious use of social media live streaming: allow members of your audience who can’t join you in person to still take part of an important company event. Whether you hold an awards banquet or moderate a panel at a popular conference within your industry, live streaming the event can increase the impact of your efforts beyond your physical attendees.
  2. Host Interviews. Interviews are a great way for your audience to get to know members of your company, and even other customers – but too often, the recorded versions seem stilted and over produced. Instead, live stream spontaneous interviews, which will make your brand seem more relatable and personable.
  3. Showcase Products. Whether you produce products or provide services, why not show your audience exactly what it is that your products/services do? A quick, live presentation may carry a small risk (you wouldn’t want anything to go wrong, after all), but also brings the significant benefit of authentically showing the benefits of your product to your customers.
  4. Go Behind the Scenes. A behind the scenes look is popular for many social media marketers who already use video extensively, but again – it simply becomes more authentic if you do so live, without an obvious script. Instead of seeming like you only want to show your audience certain aspects behind the scenes, your brand’s transparency and credibility greatly increases.
  5. Conduct Training. Of course, you can also use live streaming for internal communication, helping your own employees understand and perform their job better. Used another way, trainings can also help your customers get more familiar with your products after the purchase.
  6. Host Q&A Sessions. The benefits are obvious; Q&A sessions allow you to interact directly with your audience to communicate your brand and answer any questions they might have.
Of course, none of these types of video are exclusive to live streaming. In fact, many marketers we know already use them as recorded versions in their social media marketing strategy! But by turning them into live streaming events, you significantly increase the authenticity and credibility of your brand.
And that’s how live streaming is forever changing social media marketing. In an age where your audience trusts your brand less than they have ever done before, and increasingly expects an honest two-way conversation to become a customer, social media live streams offer you the opportunity to increase the reach and credibility of your brand.
Source

Sunday, 20 December 2015

The Recipe for an Award-Winning Content Dish [Infographic]

Blog content plays a very vital role in generating B2B leads as much as drawing awareness towards your product. Much like cooking stew worthy of Gordon Ramsay, mixing the right content maximizes the appeal of your blog, urging people to come back for more.

In this infographic, we explore the most important content types to add to your blogging recipe.



1-2 Cups of Infographics

You can’t have a blog without producing visual material at least once a month. So, start researching for infographic ideas and share them across different social media.


Did you know? 40% of people respond better to visual information than plain text.
Here’s how to perfectly start your infographic.

A Dash of Video

An informative video that is worth a prospect’s time is at any rate a good lead generation device. For best results, make it stand out and insert a highly engaging call-to-action.
Did you know? By 2017, 74% of total internet traffic will be video.

A Slice of Whitepaper

Too technical? Nah! Whitepapers are in fact effective in pushing potential leads to engage you. Just get your facts straight and your details hard.
Did you know? Whitepapers can also be shared with companies as reference material for industry research projects.

2 Tablespoons of Embedded Tweets

Using embedded tweets, promote yours and other people’s content. Aside from giving your engagement rates a boost, it also gains the affection of the influencers whose “tweets” you shared.
Did you know? About 34% of marketers use Twitter to generate leads. 

3 Pieces of Quality Articles

Delivering quality articles is no doubt an important strategy for increasing traffic. Pay attention to important keywords and focus more on solving problems than on merely giving your insights.
Did you know? At least 81% of B2B companies use blog articles for driving quality traffic.

2 Servings of Case Studies

Narrow your case studies down to the most serious problems. Now, tell how your company was able to solve them by using a storytelling formula that leads from the problem to its corresponding resolution.
Did you know? Along with whitepapers and other technical documents, case studies are proven to increase your credibility and brand image. 

A Whole Lot of TLC

Don’t rush! Spend a great deal of time coming up with quality content ideas. Let them simmer for a while and take extra care to making them extra special just for your audience.
Read the original article on Callbox Blog.




Friday, 18 December 2015

Top 10 Digital Branding & Marketing Trends For 2016

What are the top digital marketing and branding trends to watch for in 2016 that will impact your company? Borenstein Group’s insights for corporate marketers and professional communicators alike.




YouTube’s video app has had the second most unique visitors year over year with only Facebook ranking higher. With YouTube acting as the undisputed king of online video and Facebook beefing up its own video platform, 2016 is poised for brands ready to commit to mobile video marketing.
2. 5 Seconds is all You’ve Got!
Analytics Research shows that when it comes to mobile video advertising, if you don’t catch the attention of the viewer in the first 5 seconds, you can forget about it as engagement drops dramatically. Whether it’s humor, drama, or shock value – the premium for higher results is what happens in the first five seconds.
3. Marketing Automation Matures
As marketing automation platforms mature and collect big data, marketers will struggle to make data into actionable information to make intelligent decisions. The platforms are not the solution, they are the tool to make better decisions for both demand generation and customer experience.
4. Shared Economy Drives Greater Opportunities
The notion that even affluent customers are looking to make extra bucks is revolutionizing the concept of social sharing in the information space. Additionally, physical transactions such as transportation, hotel rentals, driving your own car and sharing resources like knowledge communities are rampant in digital-first startups and grown-ups like UberLyftAirbnb and Tinder.
5. Privacy is the New Piracy
After experiencing cyber security attacks and stolen data in virtually every organization, from banks to the white house to the military, data piracy will become a major concern for non-Millennials, who inherently trust mobile-first, as new collaborative platforms such as e-healthcare records, accounting online service providers, and other Software-as-Service companies will be trusted with your utmost secrets. Who you can trust will become a branding issue, not a cyber security issue.
6. B2B Digital will Become Consumerized
From both a design and content perspective, Customer Experience (CX) and User Interface (UI) on your desktop, tablet or smart phone, have been initially-owned by impulse-based B2C advertising to consumer brands. In 2016, as B2B corporate buyers now use the same devices (BYOD) for work, they expect their B2B suppliers, vendors, and partners to match their consumer experience and demands for speed, responsiveness, and ease of use even with the most complex B2B enterprise software systems. The divide between what’s right for B2B and B2C will diminish by default of the standardization of the devices being used.
7. Who’s Da Boss? It Might be a ‘bot.
As marketing and CRM platforms automate workflow of tasks, many marketers will find themselves reporting to a robotic system rather than a human being. The danger zone will be amplified as companies struggle to identify when a human needs to be involved, like when to send a tweet or determine the timing of a campaign based on market research data.
8. Your Brand Reputation Isn’t an Algorithm Online reputation management will transform from predominately robotic SEO that matches up with the latest Google algorithm for ranking your favorable mentions, to shifting to value-added authoritative content that is shared with third-party validated media platforms, not your old-school wire releases alone.

9. Authenticity & Anonymity in Product & Employer Reviews
As 2015 has come to a close, giants like Amazon are experiencing the backlash and responding with adding ‘VERIFIED PURCHASE’ to their product reviews as trust has dramatically eroded in the authenticity of product promotions versus genuine reviews. That struggle will be accentuated as employer review sites will face the same issue of verifying the authenticity of company reviews. Until now, they had little to no consequences. However, the threat of litigation will force them to do something, and the pressure to generate advertising revenue will result in more paid sponsorship and paid reviews which will further erode consumer confidence in the trusted brands.
10. It’s Not You, It’s Your Phone!
With GPS-enabled apps such as Google Maps and Waze, which enable your smart phone to pinpoint your location at all times, advertisers will create new WAZE to remind and reward you for stopping by their store. Already in action, loyalty coupons beamed to your smart phone will become the new way to get your business, and eventually replace the old coupon clipping routine.








Friday, 23 October 2015

9 great examples of content from online retailers

This examines content marketing strategies of nine e-commerce retailers that effectively promote their brands and assist customers via videos, quizzes, social communities, and buyers' guides.
Content is vitally important in e-commerce and more and more retailers are building a serious content strategy around their sites. 
In this article, I'll look at examples from sites using content effectively for a number of reasons. 
The use of content by online retailers has a number of potential benefits: 
  • Branding. Good content can build awareness of a brand.
     
  • SEO. Quality content can give retailers the edge over competitors.
     
  • Sales. Well written and persuasive product page copy can convert visitors into customers.
     
  • To help customers choose. Content such as Buyer's Guides leads shoppers through the product selection process and also helps with SEO.
     
  • User content. This can be used as a form of social proof. 
The following examples showcase these benefits:

1. Bonobos

Bonobos' "Chino Fit Quiz" is a fun way to help customers find the right fit:
bonobos-chinos

2. Home Depot

"Buyer's Guides" and "How-To Guides" are great content for shoppers. 
This one from Home Depot helps visitors to make more informed decisions about ranges, talking customers through the pros and cons of the different types on offer. 
home-depot-buyers-guide
This kind of content has several benefits:
  • It helps to keep customers on the site longer during their product research. If they can find the information they need then they don't have to search Google or head to rival sites.
     
  • It helps customers to make a decision. This in turn makes it more likely they will buy from your site.
     
  • It has major SEO benefits. Done well, a "Buyer's Guide" provides quaility content for customers and the search engines. It also makes your site findable when customers type in product queries. 
home-depot-seo

3. Blendtec

Yes, this is obvious, but it's a great example of how content can work beautifully for branding. 
The videos have made the brand known around the world and have been viewed more than 265 million times on YouTube. 
These videos are fun, but also have the added benefit of showing how robust the blenders are. 
blendtec

4. Modcloth

Modcloth's user communities contribute lots of useful content to the site. 
There are reviews on product pages, and a style gallery where customers send photos of themselves wearing the products. 
modcloth2
It's a great use of the community, as these images are shared and help to promote the products more widely. 
In addition, this is valuable social proof that tells potential buyers that this site has lots of satisfied customers. 

5. Patagonia

This site has lots of very detailed and beautifully produced content, which matches the brand's values perfectly. 
Though this isn't content which seeks to sell too hard, it does reference and link to products where it's relevant. 
patagonia1

6. J. Peterman Company

J. Peterman Company's  content really helps to define the brand, and it is pretty entertaining too. 
jp2
Unique product page copy is also great from an SEO perspective.
So many retailers lazily reproduce the standard manufacturer product descriptions that sites can stand out by being different. 
jp-12

7. Chubbies

Chubbies' site, which sells shorts as a kind of lifestyle choice, uses customer content to help promote its products. 
It's a great way for a smaller retailer to promote itself cost-effectively. For the price of a free pair of shorts, the company gets free content and lots of social promotion. 
chubster

8. Casper

Casper.com creates content that tells customers about the process behind its products. 
This reinforces the perception of quality, and provides customers with lots of information to help the decide on the right product. 
casper

9. Repair Clinic

Repair Clinic's site sells spare parts for household appliances, and it produces video guides for the majority of its products. 
repair-clinic
These video guides work in a number of ways: 
  • They tell the customer what to do with the product they're buying, thus ensuring that it works as it should and reduced returns rates.
     
  • They promote the brand on social media.
     
  • The videos can help with customer acquisition. Users will search for guides on repairing appliances, and these not only help with the how-to, but also where to buy the spare parts they need. 

In summary

These examples of content are produced and used in a variety of ways, but the common factor is that each one not only promotes the brands but also provides help to the customers. 
The brands here have found ways to use content to complement their products and services by explaining the products and features, by allowing their customers to do this work, or simply by providing entertaining and interesting content. 
In each case, the content fits well with the brand values. Practical, in the case of Repair Clinic or Home Depot, or more connected to the consumers' lifestyle, as on Patagonia and Chubbies. 
As with all effective content marketing, strategy is very important.

Sunday, 6 September 2015

5 Quick Tips for Social Video

5 Quick Tips for Social Video

Creating video content for use on your social media channels is not only a great way to stand out, but is quickly becoming an essential part of any social media content strategy.

With social networks such as Facebook prioritizing video content in the feed, and investing heavily in new video tools and tech, including video into your social content strategy is quickly becoming a ‘must have’. Getting started doesn’t need to be hard, but it can be tricky to sort out where to start.
To help get you started, here’s 5 Quick Tips to keep in mind!

1. Keep it Short & Sweet

It can be tempting to create an epic, feature length, video dissertation on the topic of your choosing. However, the average attention span has dropped dramatically in recent years. Unless your content is incredibly compelling and to the point, you’re not going to be able to hold the attention of most social media visitors for more than a few minutes.
Recommended for YouWebcast: 4 Steps to Creating a Marketing Content Plan
In addition, you need to make the first few seconds count! If you’re not showing something interesting in the first few seconds of your video, you’ve already lost most of your audience. So make the most of it: Use those first few seconds to your advantage and show something great that will ensure your audience sticks around!

2. Always Add Great Description Text

Don’t skimp on writing and revising your accompanying description text, be it YouTube ‘Show More’ text, an accompanying Facebook post, or even a quick Tweet. You have a golden opportunity to capture the attention a larger audience, make sure to make the most of it.
This is particularly important if your thumbnail doesn’t clearly communicate what your content is at a glance. People want to know why they should be interested before they spend time looking at your content. Give them a quick idea of what to expect, and encourage them to watch through the accompanying text!

3. Consider the ‘No Sound’ Experience

A substantial portion of all social media traffic now occurs on mobile devices. As of 2013, Statista reports that more than 65% of social networking traffic now occurs on mobile devices. In addition, Cisco reports that mobile video traffic has exceeded 55% of total mobile data traffic as of 2014.
As mobile usage often occurs in public areas, many users now have their sound off by default. When you’re editing your video for social media, it’s important to consider the ‘no sound’ experience.
Ask yourself:
  • Does your video still make sense?
  • Does it capture interest without relevant audio cues?
  • Are there ways to communicate the same information that do not rely on audio?
  • Are subtitles or other on-screen visual cues as possibility?

4. Upload Natively if Possible

As the race for social video content domination kicks into high gear, it has become increasingly important to upload your video natively whenever possible. This means that instead of uploading to one site and then sharing across your various social channels, that you should upload the video directly to each of the networks.
You may have noticed that when you post a link on Facebook to a video that’s located on YouTube, it no longer displays in the larger inline video view that it once did.
Example YouTube post:



Native Facebook Video:


Likewise with links to YouTube from Twitter. As individual social networks attempt to gain more of the video market, they are less likely to support and surface video content which is hosted on a competing platform. This can be frustrating as it involves a bit of extra work, but by uploading the video to each platform individually, you increase your chances of your content being seen, viewed, and shared by the users on that platform.


5. Include a Clear Call-To-Action (CTA)

It’s important to remember while content for content’s sake is fun, without interaction and action from the part of the viewer it can be seen as an ineffective and costly exercise. Before creating any content, it’s important to understand:
  • What does the viewer get out of this content?
  • What action do I want the viewer to do as a result?
  • What do I want to get out of this as an individual / business / organization?
From there, it’s should be fairly straight-forward to create a clear call to action. Want more subscribers? Make sure to ask viewers to click subscribe at the end of every video. Want more suggestions on what your viewers would like you to cover in future videos? Ask them to post a comment! Simply asking for what you want can go a long way towards encouraging more social interaction and subsequent growth!
Example CTAs:
  • ‘Click subscribe to be notified when we release a new video!’
  • ‘Like what you saw? Drop us a line on _twitter account_ and let us know what you think!’
  • ‘Which topic should we cover in our next video? Post your suggestions in the comments!’

Bonus

If you’re creating video content for Facebook and intend to pay to promote it, ensure that your thumbnail includes no more than 20% text. Note: This includes Logos and UI.
Facebook will remove boosting from any sponsored post that displays more than 20% text in the accompanying asset. It can be incredibly frustrating to create the perfect video, set it up for boosting, then have it switched off because you forgot the ‘no more than 20% text rule’ and had a huge logo in the middle of the thumbnail.
Source