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Three Videos Every B2B Website Should Have

June 27, 2024/in Articles, B2B Marketing, Directors, Media, Video Marketing /by Mark Beebe

Research shows that relevant, compelling content is a key ingredient for making your website stand out. While some websites may have great landing pages, they may lack other types of content. If you want your B2B website to beat the competition and increase sales with an effective video marketing strategy then you should include these 3 video types.

Visual is rapidly becoming the most effective technique in the web marketing mix. Video content can increase your online traffic by more than 40%, as it adds personality, digestibility, and context to your website. Here are three types of video you should include in your website in order to increase search engine visibility.

Three Types of Video for B2b Website

1. Customer case studies

A great way to market your business is through word-of-mouth from satisfied customers or business associates. Referrals enhance the element of trust that potential clients are looking for in a business. To create a case study video, request some of your satisfied customers to create a case study video, where they can describe the services or products that you offer and express their satisfaction. A case study video could convince your undecided leads that your business is the right fit for them.

[Read about Integrating Story Branding With Your B2B Marketing Strategy]

2. Your team in action

You can increase your prospects by visually portraying how your company performs a service. Potential clients want to know if you have the resources and the expertise to meet their expectations, and you can prove this via video. If you provide manufacturing services, for example, you can capture how specific machinery works. If you’re a marketing agency, you can post a video demonstrating how your team goes from brainstorming ideas to producing your final product. For potential clients, the sight of your employees in action offers a glimpse inside your business.

3. Instructional videos or tutorials

One way to demonstrate your expertise to potential customers is to produce instructional content. Create visual cues on how to carry out a certain service related to what your business does for other businesses. For example, if your company provides home decoration services, you can produce a video explaining the remodeling process. You can demonstrate how your crew handles equipment for the job, as well as “before and after” images of a remodeled house.

Read Also:Types Of Marketing Videos You Should Use

Every B2B website should include compelling video content to capture the interest of prospective business partners. These days, the majority of online users would rather watch videos than read about a product or service. Capitalize on this powerful but affordable medium in order to drive leads and increase sales.

Ten Ways to Use Google Trends to Increase SEO

June 24, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy, SEO /by Nicole Wagner

Most people love free SEO tools. Google Trends is one of the most underused free tools; it is a place marketers can use to get their finger on the global pulse. Increase SEO using Google Trends in the following ten ways.

Ways To Use Google Trends for SEO

1. Start Big and Narrow Down

The latest Google Trends dashboard is much simpler and allows you to explore various topics before narrowing down. Therefore, begin by entering a broad or all-encompassing keyword and then drill down. For example, the Worldwide feature allows you to focus on a certain market geographically. The word umbrella will peak at different times depending on the location. You can also filter your search by time selection and category, enabling you to increase SEO by targeting a wider region.

2. Use Specific Search Options

Get advanced insights using options like image search, Google Shopping or news search. Digging deeper into your queries can increase your chances of identifying a new trend. You can also click Rising to see the top keywords.

3. Context is Key

Google Trends operates in a relativistic manner. Today’s results are not compared with popular trends; rather, with the prior keywords you entered, meaning results vary according to various factors like timeframe. Therefore, never overlook the context and avoid personal blind spots when trying to increase SEO.

4. Target by Location

A cursory use of the tool usually focuses exclusively on keywords. To get the most relevant results, incorporate location into your mix. Focus on specific and relevant regions and sub-regions.

How Your SEO Benefits From A Long Term Strategy

5. Trend Predictions

It is easy to identify trends that leave a trail, but that is not very helpful as most marketers are using that data. Predict trends to gain additional insights. Identify potential trends by filtering according to specific countries or categories. Today’s health story may not be a headline on Google Trends; however, it may help you spot topics to watch out for.

6. Use Long-Tail Phrases

It may be difficult to rank high on the SERPs for a phrase like “Caribbean Cruise”, but you can make it to the top of the search results using a long-tail variation of this phrase.

7. Use Top Charts

Click on the Top Charts icon on the upper left to view Google’s version of Billboard Top 100. Do not confuse it with the trends most individuals are seeing. You can sort between Most Searched and Trending to glean more relevant information.

8. Video Optimization Data

For example, if you posted a video on YouTube about how to avail discounts on Caribbean cruises, you can switch from web to YouTube search to explore related topics and queries. You can also sort by Rising or Top to capture more YouTube traffic.

9. Cyclical Trends

If you are optimizing your wedding boutique, even a simple search will reveal that most weddings do not compete with holidays. With some aforementioned strategies, you can determine a few additional keywords to carefully direct your future posts to better handle each cyclical trend.

10. Avoid Misreading the Trends

Advanced and sophisticated use of Google Trends allows you to move a step or two beyond your current insight to determine if there are any blind spots. For example, never trust one snapshot to tell you the whole story; instead, get a broad view of different timelines to figure out what else is happening.

How to Incorporate Email Marketing into B2B Campaigns

June 21, 2024/in Articles, Blog, Directors, Email Marketing /by Dan Gartlan

Email marketing has been a popular strategy for decades, and there’s no sign of it slowing down as an effective marketing tactic. However, as a B2B business, successful B2B email marketing can be challenging. When it comes to B2C email marketing, many companies simply use it to promote new products or to advertise special promotions. This won’t work with B2B marketing. Additionally, because most companies do embrace email marketing, you’re going to have to work a little harder to stand out from the competition and engage your leads. With that in mind, the following are a few B2B email marketing tips:

Email Marking Strategies for B2B

1. Focus On Educational Content

Long-term relationships are much more important for B2B businesses than B2C businesses (although you can’t discount their importance to B2C companies either). As such, the bulk of your email content should focus on providing your leads with information that is useful to them. The more informed they are about the problems you solve or about the industry you’re in, the more comfortable they will be making a buying decision down the line. Not to mention that you’ll position yourself as a brand authority that they can trust.

2. Personalize Your Emails

Don’t make the mistake of assuming email personalization starts and stops with addressing the lead by name. Personalization goes way beyond that. Use the information you have on your subscribers (gained from opt-in forms, questionnaires, purchase history, and more) to segment them into different lists. You can then target specific subscribers using content that is relevant to each list. Doing so will increase the chances of engagement and will make it easier to nurture your leads.

3. Use Automation

As mentioned, automation can be used to segment your email list to ensure that your email content is personalized. However, automation can be used in a variety of ways to further boost engagement. For instance, you can set up email triggers based on actions your subscribers take. When they download something from your site, make a purchase, or sign up for a webinar via one of your emails, it will trigger a relevant email to be sent right after the action was taken.

You can schedule emails using automation to be sent at specific times and on specific days. This allows you to reach your users based on when they are most active on their email accounts.

Find Out How Marketing Automation Can Help You

4. Embrace Drip Email Campaigns

Email drip campaigns consist of a chain of emails designed to follow one another in a specific order and on a scheduled timeline. Usually, a drip campaign will consist of around five emails sent at 3 to 5-day intervals. They are effective because they build on one another, thereby ensuring relevance and generating more engagement. Drip campaigns are designed to welcome new leads, educate them, and finally to encourage a purchase.

5. Don’t Spam Your Subscribers

Even if you’re not sending overly promotional emails, you don’t want to overdo it. Your emails may be chock-full of useful and informative content, but if your recipients are receiving it on a daily basis, they’re going to start ignoring you. When that happens, it will be more difficult to reach them with content that they would actually find helpful. Some subscribers may even unsubscribe, resulting in lost leads.

6. Re-Engage Inactive Subscribers

Every once in a while, take the time to identify subscribers who haven’t engaged with your emails for some time. Don’t just assume that they are a lost cause. While some may have lost interest, others may simply have forgotten about your brand. Send out re-engagement emails that give these subscribers a reason to re-engage with you. Such emails can include polls and surveys, which can help you identify why they became unengaged in the first place. You can also use special offers based on their purchase history to generate interest in your business again.

7. Market Your Email Subscriptions

For your B2B email marketing campaign to be successful, you need to have leads to actually email content to. Besides having email subscription forms on your website, you should actively promote your email subscriptions on your blog and on social media. You can even gate some of your long-form content (such as ebooks and whitepapers), requiring leads to sign up to your email list in return for access to your content.

Also Read: Differences Between B2C and B2B Email Marketing

B2B email marketing can be an incredibly effective way to engage and nurture leads. Make sure to keep these 7 tips in mind for a successful email marketing camp

Stevens & Tate Marketing Wins Coveted Award Of Excellence  For JULIE’s Long-Form Corporate Image Video

June 18, 2024/in Articles, Directors, Press Releases, Video Marketing /by Mark Beebe

(LOMBARD, IL) – Stevens & Tate Marketing received The Communicator Award of Excellence in the category General—Corporate Image for the video titled “Protecting The People In The Land Of Lincoln” created for JULIE, Inc.

Crafted to celebrate JULIE’s 50th anniversary, the sweeping video captures various landscapes across Illinois: farms, rural communities, suburbs, and cities. Drone footage illustrates the places that JULIE helps safeguard; the places where Illinois residents live, work and play. Messaging emphasizes the organization’s legacy and how prioritizing safe digging minimizes interruptions to critical services like electricity, natural gas, water, communications, Internet, and fiber optics but more importantly how it helps keep the state’s most valued resources—it’s people—safe.

“Our creative team concentrated on presenting the JULIE narrative in grand style to reflect the organization’s passion for the important work they do,” said Dan Gartlan, partner at Stevens & Tate.

The result is a dramatic, heartfelt video that entices and engages viewers. It combines panoramic scenes, aerial images, inspirational music, and a confident yet comforting voice over to tell the JULIE story…from its longstanding role as the foundation for safe digging to the organization’s evolution into a leader in utility line damage prevention and safety awareness.

“We are extremely gratified with the response our 50th anniversary video has received from our members and utility companies across the state,” said Mark Frost, executive director at JULIE, Inc. “Our strategic partner, Stevens & Tate, transformed our ideas into what we feel is a very powerful video that speaks to our mission. It evokes strong emotions and a true sense of pride in our contributions to safe digging practices…and how that serves the residents of Illinois.”

JULIE has incorporated the long-form version of “Protecting The People In The Land Of Lincoln” into internal marketing and communications efforts including anniversary celebrations and using it to kick off meetings with contractors and other key partners. It’s also prominently displayed on the home page of the non-profit organization’s website, JULIEBeforeYouDig.com.

Stevens & Tate edited the nearly 3-minute video into two :30 versions for outreach advertising such as broadcast and cable television commercials, full-episode-player over-the-top streaming spots, digital display ad units, social media posts and advertisements, and public service announcements.

About The Communicator Awards

Held annually for the past three decades, the Communicator Awards is the premier international awards program dedicated to celebrating excellence, effectiveness and innovation in communication. Awards honor outstanding talent across a variety of industries and mediums…from informative projects to fantastical creations. They also recognize both groundbreaking newcomers and established practices, global brands to indie creators.

The Award of Excellence, the organization’s highest honor, is given to those whose communication skills place them at the top of their field and acknowledge them as industry leaders in a highly competitive arena.

The Communicator Awards are reviewed and sanctioned by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts (AIVA), an invitation-only group of leading professionals from renowned media, communications, advertising, creative, and marketing firms. AIVA members include executives from Amazon, Big Spaceship, Chelsea Pictures, Conde Nast, Critical Mass, Disney, ESPN, GE Digital, IBM, The Nation of Artists, Nextdoor, Spotify, Time Inc., The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones, and Wired.

About Stevens & Tate Marketing

Stevens & Tate Marketing is a full-service advertising agency offering on-strategy creative, integrated message development, and cost-effective media planning and execution. The team creates targeted solutions for clients within the not-for-profit, food/grocery, retail, homebuilding/real estate, travel/tourism, business-to-business, healthcare, and senior living industries.

To learn more about Stevens & Tate’s award-winning capabilities, view the agency’s online portfolio at www.Stevens-Tate.com/work. For information on how Stevens & Tate can help Make Things Happen™ for your business, contact the business development team at (630) 627-5200.

The Brand Identity Prism

June 18, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors /by Mark Beebe

When you think of brands, there are probably a few that come to mind. Brands that you use and see every day are the most prominent; Coca-Cola, Tide, Apple. These multi-billion dollar companies have worked tirelessly to reach their consumer base, and build strong a strong brand identity, and that is a large part of why they’ve prospered. Brand Identity is one type of identity to portrays the right image to its consumers. Logo, color palette, typography, and packaging are some of the visual components of the brand identity. It can be a little harder to narrow down a B2B brand that is as recognizable as the one mentioned above. Simply put, B2B brands spent less time focusing on brand development, and more time building impressive service packs and data for clientele. That is a big mistake; even B2B companies can significantly benefit from better brand identity. After all, the B2B space can be a crowded one, and the best way to set one’s self apart from the pack is by offering a unique and easily recognizable brand.

What is Brand Identity Prism?

Brand identity prism is a strategic marketing model that helps businesses to define and communicate their brand identity.

Why is Brand Development Important in B2B Marketing?

Brand development is what will set you apart in an often crowded marketplace. B2B consumers are drowning in a sea of sameness. In short, most B2B companies lack personality, which is a driving force behind consumer sales, and what makes the companies mentioned above so successful. To set yourself apart from the crowd, you should build a brand with a personality, with identity, and with something just a little flashy to get a foothold in an over-saturated market.

How is a Brand Identity Developed?

Developing a brand identity takes time and thoughtful consideration. Branding Specialist, Jean-Noel Kapferer has suggested every brand should use the brand identity prism to improve and alter their image. This prism includes personality, physique, culture, relationship, reflection, and self-image.

Personality is the way in which the world sees your brand. A b2b brand might want to be seen as cutting-edge or high tech. This character can be portrayed through logos and writing styles.
Physique is the physical manifestation of a brand’s identity. Strong, stoic or hip are all physique aspects that can be portrayed. This is done through color schemes, graphics and packaging art.
Culture is the way the brand interacts internally and with the world around them. Social media interaction and engagement is a good way to develop a brand culture, and allow other businesses behind the curtain to see what makes your company tick. When businesses and consumers engage with a company via social media, their personal perception of the brand identity improves.
Relationship is developed through interactions with current and potential clients. Branding and endorsements can be used to highlight the collaborative relationship businesses build with one another.
Reflection and Self-image go hand-in-hand. As a brand, you’ll want to reflect the values and characteristics you clientele wants to see in themselves. With the self-image part of the prism, you’ll also want to reflect how you feel about your own business. A prideful company is one that can be trusted, according to recent research.

Branding and identity does not happen overnight. Companies like Apple, Intel, Mastercard, and Coca-Cola have spent decades honing their brand and building an identity. Reaching a myriad of buyer personas, and identifying your needs as a business are the first steps in the construction of a branding strategy that will set you apart from the crowd. Utilizing the prism for development, however, will get you off to a good start.

The Advantages of Using Visual Metaphors In Advertising

June 13, 2024/in Articles, Attraction Marketing, Directors, Visual Marketing /by Mark Beebe

When it comes to advertising, most assume that the message should be direct and clear to ensure that your target audience understands what you’re trying to say. However, a message can be more powerful if something more creative or meaningful is behind it. It’s why many businesses use metaphors.

Using visual metaphors in advertising will help deliver a strong message and engage audiences on another level.

What is a Visual Metaphor?

In a nutshell, a visual metaphor uses an image or object that implies something else. It’s essentially a picture representing a different idea.

Visual metaphors work because they tap into the power of your inner mind. You might not process everything right away, but you will understand some aspects of what’s being communicated on a deeper level. With repeated exposure to a visual metaphor, you will figure out what is being said underneath the surface.

Examples of Visual Metaphors

There are many common visual metaphors that you may be familiar with. For example, a red rose is often used to represent romance. A picture of someone walking out of the darkness and into the light can represent enlightenment.

A great example of a visual metaphor is Apple’s famous logo, which depicts an apple with a bite taken out. This image represents the biblical story of Adam and Eve, which talks about knowledge gained by eating from the tree of good and evil.

The bite of the apple indicates that Apple (the company) has gained knowledge from taking a bite off the apple. They applied this “knowledge” to its innovative and cutting-edge products. The apple logo can also represent the computer, the modern-day tree of knowledge

Types Of Metaphors In Advertising

There are two types of metaphors used in advertising: the pure metaphor and the fused metaphor.

The Pure Metaphor

The pure metaphor is when two unrelated concepts are connected. For instance, a picture of a snail might represent the slow service of a competing company. The snail itself has nothing to do with the business, but the audience will understand that speed is vital in what that company is offering.

The Fused Metaphor

A fused metaphor is a bit different. Instead of using something visual to represent specific characteristics, you “fuse” your product with another image to depict the idea you’re trying to express.

For example, McDonald’s ran a fused ad for its Filet-O-Fish sandwich that showed a fishbowl in the shape of a hamburger. It also showed a fish swimming right in the middle (as if between the bun). The fishbowl and the sandwich were combined to create a fused metaphor.

The Benefits Of Using Visual Metaphors In Advertising

The following are a few reasons why you should consider implementing visual metaphors in your advertising efforts:

Visual metaphors get your point across quickly: Using visual metaphors in advertising can save you the trouble of spending time describing something. It will result in less effort on your part while still attracting more attention from your audience.
Visual metaphors generate curiosity: They encourage audiences to pay closer attention to what you’re showing them to figure out the meaning of the metaphor. Once you’ve made your audience curious about your ad, they’ll become more curious about your brand.
Visual metaphors are memorable: Your target audience will remember ads that use visual metaphors because they are unique and creative. As a result, it makes it even more likely that they’ll remember your brand.
Visual metaphors help your brand stand out: It can be challenging to differentiate yourself in the market. Fortunately, visual metaphors can help you stand out from your competition.
Visual metaphors add a sense of creativity to your ads: By using visual metaphors, you’re not only getting your audience’s attention but also their admiration for how inventive and unique you are.

Although being clear and direct is useful in conveying a message, visual metaphors can help you be succinct. Being succinct is just as important. Additionally, using visual metaphors in your advertising allows you to showcase your brand’s creativity and personality. As a result, your ads will be more memorable, and your audience will be more engaged. With that in mind, be sure to incorporate visual metaphors in your marketing strategy.

The Importance of Implementing a Marketing Dashboard

June 10, 2024/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Dan Gartlan

At this point in time, most businesses realize how important data is and how analyzing the data that they collect can provide valuable insight into the performance of their marketing tactics as well as into how their audience behaves. The challenge lies in making those metrics easy to access and easy to read for everyone in your company. Fortunately, tracking data is easier than ever with the use of dashboards.

What Is Marketing Dashboard?

Marketing Dashboard is an app or platform that collect all of your KPIs (key performance indicators) and critical metrics onto one easy-to-read display. The information is pulled from multiple data sources, often both internal and external. The data displayed on a dashboard can be viewed at any time and in real time. Essentially, they act as real-time reports, eliminating the need to wait until the end of the month to receive an analytics report from your marketing department.

Tactics

There are tons of different tactics dashboards out there that you can integrate into your system. This can range from email dashboards and website dashboards to search dashboards and social media metric dashboards. While these types of dashboards are often effective in displaying certain metrics, they don’t typically paint a whole picture. They may show you how your tactics are performing individually, but they don’t show you how they are impacting your company’s revenue cycle. It’s why you should implement a marketing dashboard.

The Benefits Of Implementing Marketing Dashboard

Tactics dashboards can be useful in that they showcase soft metrics (engagement, awareness, interactions, etc.). However, you’ll want a dashboard that can also display hard metrics (such as the internal rate of return and the net present value of your current campaigns) along with online marketing metrics (such as bounce rate, total visits, click-through rates, etc.). It’s why you’ll want to use a marketing dashboard. The following are just a few more reasons why integrating a marketing dashboard will be hugely beneficial for your business:

The Power of an Influencer Marketing Strategy: How and Why It Works

Customize your dashboard to your needs

Instead of being limited by tactics dashboards, a marketing dashboard allows you to customize which metrics are displayed. You can then pull what you deem to be the most important of your social media, email, and search metrics so that they are visually represented on one single display.

Track the performance of your marketing efforts

A properly optimized marketing dashboard will make it easy to see how your marketing efforts are performing in real time. This can be from engagement on social media to lead generation on your website. Not only can you identify how individual tactics are faring based on your KPIs and metrics, but you’ll get an idea of how well your overall strategies are performing as well.

Keep your team on the same page

One of the challenges of running a business is that many of your employees aren’t always on the same page. If everyone has access to your marketing dashboard, everyone can see what’s working and what isn’t. This makes it easy for company-wide communication to take place. This can result in more effective adjustments to marketing and sales strategies to improve performance.

Allow for more informed decision making

Being able to see how your marketing campaign is performing in real time allows you to make adjustments to your strategies and tactics on the fly. In thepast, simple reporting would only tell you how you’ve done. The use of marketing dashboards gives you the chance to make more informed decisions on a daily basis. In turn, this can reduce the cost of your marketing efforts and improve their impact on your revenue cycle.

While a marketing dashboard can be considered a real-time report of your marketing activities, it’s much more than that–it’s a decision-making tool. The potential success of future marketing campaigns depends heavily on your ability to collect and analyze your company’s most important metrics and KPIs and determine how your marketing efforts are affecting your revenue cycle. The best way to do this is by integrating, customizing, and optimizing a marketing dashboard.

How Your Web Page Speed Effects Your SEO and Google Ads Performance

June 7, 2024/in Articles, Blog, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy, SEO /by Nicole Wagner

For companies that already advertise to prospective customers on mobile devices, or who have organic search presence, there are numerous elements of their online presence that need to be checked, tested, and, where appropriate, changed. Implementing a robust SEO strategy is crucial to ensure visibility and competitiveness in the digital landscape. Knowing how to optimize your mobile site for speed will make all the difference to your search engine rankings.

The Importance of Testing Site Speed

The changes are going to make knowing the speed of a mobile site essential. Many tools permit site owners to determine their page speed to see whether enhancements are needed. Most of the tools that are available to test speeds are free and do not require administrator access to the website in question. That means that companies can check their competitors’ sites as well as their own.

Adjusting Mobile SEO Strategy for Google’s Speed Update

One such change that companies should consider is switching to Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). An AMP works by altering the source code of the website, thus directing the standard HTML page to a minimalist version of itself, the hosted AMP page. As AMPs are still so rare, they load exceptionally quickly. In initial Google testing, AMPs reduced load time up to 85%.
Local search should not be ignored, either. A Google Mobile Moments Study revealed that 40% of mobile searches have local intent. Companies also need to be aware that mobile search engine users enter queries differently than desktop search engine users; mobile queries tend to be much shorter.

Leveraging Search Console is a fantastic way to check in on a site’s usability. Using the following options under “Crawl Errors” can make a significant difference to usability:

Smartphone tab – It allows users to recognize any crawl errors that might be burdening their mobile pages
Fetch on Google – It allows users to to see how crawlers view the site and adjust accordingly for better indexing and ranking in search results.
Mobile Usability report – It precisely informs users about pages with mobile usability issues, along with detailing the nature of these issues.

How Will Google’s Speed Update Impact Your Google Ads Account?

The Quality Score algorithm, the algorithm that determines how much users pay per click to serve an ad on the Search Network, is heavily influenced by landing page experience. If a company’s site does not load quickly and does not convey beneficial information, the company will either end up paying a premium or realize that they are unable to serve an ad at all.

The Google Ads documentation recommends five ways to affect positive change regarding a site’s landing page experience:

Include relevant, compelling content
Be recognized as trustworthy
Make navigation simple and effective
Reduce load time
Make the website faster

In Conclusion

Google Ad users need to ensure they optimize for load time and landing page speed, and not just in terms of relevance. Companies should also contemplate making a move to AMP, ensure that their intent is on point, and make the most of the power of Search Console and page speed insights.

Visual Storytelling Techniques That Will Take You To The Next Level

June 5, 2024/in Articles, Brand Story Telling, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Mark Beebe

Not only has video content become incredibly easy to consume due to the quality of smartphones and tablets, but it’s become much easier — and affordable — to produce as well. Considering the fact that 72 percent of consumers would prefer to learn about products or services via video and that the average consumer watches around 1.5 hours of video a day, your marketing campaign needs to have a video content marketing strategy.

However, your video content will only be effective if it’s of high quality. The following are ten visual storytelling techniques and promotion tips that you should keep in mind:

Top 10 Visual Storytelling Techniques

5 Storytelling Techniques You Should Use For Your Marketing Efforts.

Maintain a single POV

Make sure that your video focuses on a single idea or message and that you don’t stray off topic or else you’ll lose the attention of your viewers.
Be human

Use emotion to connect with your audience. A video full of dry facts with no personal point of view isn’t going to be very engaging. Additionally, showcase actual people in your videos so that your viewers have someone to relate to.
Be memorable

If there’s nothing memorable about your video, then it will fail to impress. Viewers are less likely to share video content that hasn’t made much of an impact on them as well, so strive to make content that is memorable in some way.
Be more visual than verbal

Video is a visual medium, so instead of just showing a talking head explaining your message, tell your message in a visual manner. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Start with what’s real

It can be easy to get wrapped up in the visual style of your content, but substance will always trump style. Begin with what’s real and use that as the foundation for your video. The video’s style should be the unique way in which you convey that message to your viewers.
Make it compelling

Remember who your target audience is in order to create video content that they will find relevant and interesting. If you aren’t targeting the right audience, your video content won’t end up being compelling, no matter how well produced it is.
Optimize your videos

Don’t forget to optimize your videos by using strong keywords and links in your titles and descriptions.
Use strong CTAs

Just like written content, video content should have calls-to-action at the end to encourage your viewers to do what you want them to do.

Also Read: 3 Helpful Tips To Improve Your CTAs To Generate More Leads
Use YouTube

YouTube has over 1.8 billion monthly users. You can’t ignore an audience that big, so be sure to post your videos on YouTube.
Share your videos

Promote your videos by sharing them on all of your social channels to help attract more viewers.

Using visual storytelling techniques will help audiences connect with your video content and make them more likely to engage. Just remember that all the visual storytelling techniques in the world won’t work if your videos aren’t being watched, which is why promoting your video content is important as well.

Factors That Influence Consumer Purchasing Decisions: Rethinking the Marketing Funnel

May 24, 2024/in Articles, Behavioral Marketing, Directors, Inbound Marketing, Lead Nuturing /by Dan Gartlan

In order to continue attracting your target audience, it’s crucial to firstly understand “what is a consumer need?” Then, must keep up with the wants and needs of customers. Consumer behavior is influenced by many things, such as price, product features, brand image, and recommendations from friends or family. These all playing a vital role in what people decide to purchase. This can be a real challenge if you don’t understand the factors that influence consumer purchasing decisions. Those factors are a lot different than what they used to be. This means that the customer journey has changed a lot as well. This updated journey is referred to by many as the consumer decision journey (CDJ). What makes the CDJ so different than traditional marketing funnels is that each consumer’s CDJ is unique. Keeping that in mind, the following are three of the biggest factors that influence consumer purchasing decisions in today’s digital age:

Factors That Influence Consumer Purchasing Decisions

Product/Service Reviews

Very few consumers are going to blindly buy a product or service based on the content they’ve come across on your website. It doesn’t matter how effective you say it is, how clear your demonstration videos are, or what kind of accolades you’ve received. Customers are going to look up reviews first. Many consumers aren’t going to feel comfortable buying a product or service unless it has good reviews. Fortunately, online reviews are easy to find.

There are tons of different websites where customers leave reviews. In fact, a company having reviews on their website has now become so commonplace that not having the option to leave or see reviews can leave a bad taste in consumers’ mouths. Reviews are not always only about one specific product or service. Angi, Yelp, and Amazon all allow customers to leave feedback on products and services, as well as overall customer experiences. Reviews come in many forms. Gone are the days of a simple, written review. Now, many companies give consumers the option to upload pictures and even videos with their review.

In addition to consumer reviews, consumers also seek out professional reviews. For example, Consumer Reports provides professional reviews of certain products. They offer comparisons between different products as well.

Encouraging customers, as well as professionals, to review your products and services can be hugely beneficial. Doing so (as long as the reviews are mostly positive) can help improve your reputation and build trust with consumers who are in the evaluation stage of their journey.

Peer Recommendations

More often than not, consumers will initially become aware of brands or their products and services through peer recommendations. They may ask someone in person for a recommendation or ask online, via social media, online chat, or email. It’s one of the reasons why it’s so important to continue targeting existing customers. The journey doesn’t end when someone makes a purchase. You want to continue marketing to those customers to turn them into repeat customers. This allows you to build brand loyalty, which will turn them into brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors will recommend your products or services to their peers.

Having a social media presence is incredibly important because so many consumers will turn to social media as a way to do research. They’ll look up brands, ask them direct questions, and ask their social groups about their thoughts on your products or services. They also look at your social interactions in general. This means that they will look at how you engage with your followers, as well as with users in general, to get a sense of how you carry yourself. They also do this to see if they can relate to you. A brand with no social presence is not going to make as good of an impression on consumers. Nor will one that doesn’t regularly engage with the community.

It’s important not to become over-reliant on the traditional marketing funnel. Consumers have so much power when it comes to doing their own research about different brands and their products and services, that it’s important to understand how unique the CDJ is. These are three very important factors that influence consumer purchasing decisions in this day and age that you need to make sure you address.