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How to Implement a Successful Digital Word of Mouth Marketing Strategy

June 9, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Dan Gartlan

A good word of mouth marketing strategy has always been incredibly effective. It occurs when customers spread positive information about their experience with the company on their behalf. For example, if a customer recommends a product to a friend, that’s a form of word of mouth communication. The reason it’s so effective as a marketing strategy is that people tend to trust the word of other customers over that of a company. As a result, customers can help to build your reputation, increase brand awareness, and even generate leads for you by way of word of mouth.

While some word of mouth marketing is organic, you should encourage it as much as possible. This is especially true in this day and age when word of mouth can spread like wildfire online. With that in mind, the following are six tips to help you implement a successful digital word of mouth marketing strategy:

1. Encourage Customer Reviews

Due to how easy it is to find information online, the majority of customers will research a company before making a purchase. Part of this research entails reading through customer reviews left online. Customers can leave reviews on social media channels, on Google, and on a variety of third party websites that are review focused (such as Yelp or Angie’s List, to name a couple). The more positive reviews you have across platforms, the better your word of mouth will be. As such, encourage customers to leave reviews, not just of their customer experience with your company, but also for the individual products or services that they purchased.

2. Create Customer Testimonials

Testimonials are similar to reviews but tend to go more in-depth. Customers who are particularly happy with the customer experience are more willing to provide a testimonial. This can be done in the written form or in the form of a video. Video testimonials are particularly effective because people will have an easier time connecting to the customer giving the testimonial on an emotional level. Not to mention that it’s much easier to trust a video testimonial than a written one.

3. Connect With Influencers Online

Influencers are a little different than the traditional consumer. An influencer is someone who often has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media. They are considered an authority and are highly trusted, which means that if they promote a certain company’s product, their followers pay attention. Basically, they can help spread a positive word of mouth using a digital loudspeaker. You should look to connect with both macro and micro-influencers, both of which can help improve brand awareness and help spread your message.

Similar Blog Article: The Advantages of Using Public Relations In Your Marketing Strategy

4. Encourage Customer Referrals

Although many customer referrals happen organically, you should encourage them as much as possible. Individual referrals are often incredibly effective. Leads that are referred to you by an existing customer are going to be much easier for you to close since they will already be further down the sales funnel. There are several ways that you can encourage customer referrals. The first way is by simply offering an incentive. Provide customers with a link that they can use to refer another customer (such as a link leading to a service they can sign up for). If someone signs up to your service using that link, you can provide the customer with a discount or free gift as a reward.

Another way to encourage customer referrals is to set up a referral program. This is a more official way to incentivize your existing customers to make referrals. A referral program will make it much easier for customers to make referrals. It will also make it easier for you to monitor your customer referrals and to measure their success.

5. Encourage And Leverage User-Generated Content

User-generated content is content showcasing your brand or products created by your customers. This type of content helps to build trust and showcases the positive aspects of your brand or products. Not to mention that people tend to engage more successfully with user-generated content. All of these elements make user-generated content an effective vehicle for spreading word of mouth. You can encourage user-generated content by simply requesting it on social media or by holding contests. For example, a contest on Instagram for the best picture showcasing how customers used your product.

6. Provide The Best Customer Experience Possible

In the end, none of these digital word of mouth tactics are going to be very effective if you’re not providing a good customer experience in the first place. Customers don’t want to help brands that gave them a poor experience, after all. With that in mind, focus on providing the best customer experience you can and you’ll find that a positive word of mouth will begin to spread organically.

Word of mouth marketing can be a powerful way to increase brand awareness and to generate more leads. Not to mention that a word of mouth marketing strategy is an incredibly cost-effective strategy. Consider using these six tactics to encourage the spread of a positive word of mouth online.

A GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING TECHNIQUES

Inbound Marketing Strategies To Use During The Pandemic

June 5, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Inbound Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

We are well-aware that the coronavirus has economically affected many companies drastically. However, what matters more is what your company is doing to respond to these trying times. With many states following the stay-at-home order, people are at home surfing the web now more than ever. This means there is a greater chance that they will end up on your company’s website. It is vital for your company to take advantage of this pandemic and implement more effective inbound marketing strategies to show consumers that you are still there for them and ready to work.

Have a Clean, Easy-to-Navigate Website

Your company’s website is a sales tool that can be viewed by millions of people around the world at any time of the day. It is crucial that it contains relevant, useful information as well as inbound marketing solutions such as blog articles, informative content, videos, images, and other tactics. This is especially important now, while technology use has increased because of the pandemic. There is a higher chance of someone finding your website. You want your website to provide the right content that will have consumers returning to your site. Your website should be clean, easy to navigate, and tell a story. In order to accomplish this, you must provide quality content.

Post Useful & Informational Content

Content marketing is one of the most important parts of inbound marketing. It grabs the viewers’ attention and makes them want more. It is central that your company posts informative, easy-to-understand content that consumers can use as a reference and keep coming back to.

While we are in this pandemic, content is an essential part of your inbound marketing strategy since your website’s content will be the first thing consumers see. It is key to provide frequent, valuable blog posts and marketing on social media.

It is also important to take into consideration the buyer’s journey. Does your website lead a potential buyer down an easy-to-navigate path to complete a purchase? You need content to educate consumers when they are in the early, middle, and end of their buyer journey. Make sure you provide helpful content that includes information about your product and frequently asked questions to ensure that the potential buyer has all the information they need to feel confident about buying from you.

Enjoy this article: How To Develop A Solid Inbound Marketing Strategy

Market and Engage with Prospects While Social Distancing

Conferences and trade shows are canceled and travel is restricted. It is critical that you know some ways you can still market and engage with prospects:

Online Events:

It is common that marketing teams have a few in-person events they attend in a year such as conferences or trade shows. These events are important to attend because they bring in leads. However, many have been cancelled because of the pandemic. With no in-person events to attend, it is important that your company does not just sit around and wait for the next one. Instead, launch a webinar series. Your consumers and prospects still want information, so give it to them! You can schedule webinars far in advance so people have time to sign-up. You should continue to use webinars even after the pandemic is over to ensure more leads and sales opportunities.

With all the current craziness and ever-changing news, people are constantly checking their social media. Now is the time to post relevant, attention-grabbing content and engage with your followers. Your social media channels should be up to date and provide useful content. Followers should be able to tell that your company frequently uses its social media sites and is keeping up with everything going on. The main goal of using social media is to lead followers back to your company’s website, so make sure to post content that includes a link back to your website.

Using Live Chat:

Since many people are home now, they may expect you to respond to their live chat faster than usual. It is important that you set up a chat to answer quick questions from consumers. Chat tools such as live chat and chat bots bring up upgraded, next-level website experience for consumers. You have to plan and organize the way your chat is set up. You must consider what page it goes on, who receives the live chat questions, etc.

Inbound marketing will help you grow your business by attracting website visitors, converting them into leads and closing leads into customers

Micro Influencer Marketing Benefits

June 3, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Mark Beebe

Influencer marketing has been growing in popularity over the past few years. The idea is simple: connect with someone who has hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of followers on social media. By connecting with an influencer, you in effect obtain access to their audience. As a result, you can significantly boost brand awareness as well as increase your own audience. While many businesses have been scrambling to develop relationships with such influencers, more crafty businesses have been adopting a different strategy: micro-influencer marketing.

What is Micro-Influencer Marketing?

Traditional influencers are individuals who have name recognition within your industry. They have enormous audiences who trust what they say and what they do. When they promote a brand, that brand will get a lot of attention as a result. Micro-influencers don’t usually have as much name recognition. In fact, many of them are not widely known at all. They have audiences that are much smaller. Typically, they will have less than 100,000 followers. In some cases, they may have less than 10,000 followers. Micro-influencers also tend to focus on more niche subject matter as opposed to traditional influencers (or “macro-influencers”).

The Benefits of Micro-Influencer Marketing

At first glance, it might be difficult to see any benefits of targeting micro-influencers instead of macro-influencers. After all, why would you want to target an influencer who seemingly has much less influence? The following are some of the reasons why micro-influencer marketing can actually be incredibly effective:

Less competition

Most businesses are familiar with influencer marketing. Any business that has decided to invest in influencer marketing is likely going to target individuals with the most influence. This makes sense, as these influencers likely have millions of followers and lots of name recognition. The problem, however, is that all the businesses within your industry are going to be targeting the same couple of influencers. Because micro-influencers are much less well known, it will be much easier to get into contact with them and to develop a relationship with them. Not to mention that most micro-influencers are more niche-oriented, meaning that they will be relevant to fewer businesses in your industry.

Enjoy The Article: The Power Of An Influencer Marketing Strategy: How and Why It Works

Less expensive

Influencers who have millions of followers are going to have tons of suitors lining up to pay them for their influence. This means that getting a macro-influencer to highlight your company in some way is going to cost you a lot of money. Since micro-influencers are less well known within your industry, they are going to be much less expensive.

More relevant audience

Even though micro-influencers have smaller audiences, they are likely going to be much more relevant to your company. This is because micro-influencers are focused on a specific niche. If that niche is related to your offerings, odds are their audience will be your audience. When it comes to macro-influencers, their scope tends to be much broader. This means that your brand may not be relevant to a significant number of their followers. As a result, not only are micro-influencers more affordable, but you’ll be using your money in a more effective way, leading to a higher ROI (return on investment). It’s one of the reasons why conversion rates using micro-influencers tend to be higher as well.

More engaged followers – Macro-influencers may have millions of followers, but many of those followers are only following because of the influencer’s name recognition. Because the influencer isn’t niche-oriented, many of their posts may not be relevant to all of their followers. Micro-influencers, on the other hand, tend to have followers who are much more engaged due to their niche focus. Micro-influencer followers often engage on a daily basis, which means that they pay much more attention to what they have to say. They are also more loyal than the followers of a macro-influencer. This means that your message will get across more successfully when relayed by a micro-influencer.

Consider Targeting Micro-Influencers

While you shouldn’t completely give up on macro-influencers (especially if you have the budget required), you may find that targeting micro-influencers will end up being much more effective. Not only do micro-influencers cost less, but you’ll also have a much better chance of reaching and engaging their audience, leading to a higher conversion rate and a higher overall ROI.

Integrating Social Media & SEO Efforts For Enhanced Search Engine Results

Successful Viral Marketing Campaign Tactics

May 22, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Social Media /by Mark Beebe

Content that goes viral is content that generates massive awareness in a short period of time. In viral marketing, it refers to an ad that is so effective it’s viewed and shared millions of times. In many cases, a viral ad will be so effective that it becomes part of the popular culture at the moment. Unfortunately, “going viral” is not something that you can just do. It requires a lot of luck, and you can never quite pinpoint exactly what kind of ad will appeal to a large audience. However, implementing a viral marketing strategy will allow you to put your ads in the best possible position to go viral. The following are five tactics that will help you create an effective viral marketing campaign:

1. Emphasize Emotion Over Exposure

Traditionally, the success of advertising has been linked to exposure. Many advertisers believe in the rule of seven, which states that an ad must be seen seven times before a viewer will act. Those advertisers will put much of their budget into getting their ads as much exposure as possible. However, it’s much more effective to create an ad that resonates with audience members on an emotional level. A customer doesn’t need to see an ad seven times to have an emotional connection, after all. If you’re able to elicit an emotional response, the viewer will be more likely to watch the ad again and to share it with friends and family. Eliciting emotions such as awe, laughter, amusement, joy, or anger, can all be effective in viral marketing.

2. Implement a Real-Time Marketing Strategy

Most marketing campaigns are planned and executed over a long period of time. While you can still create viral ads doing this, it often results in ads that aren’t in line with current trends. Real-time marketing involves creating ads that are relevant to what’s happening at the moment. Audiences will connect with ads that are addressing current trends and events more easily. For example, many businesses are implementing real-time marketing strategies to address the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on the importance of social distancing or by highlighting essential workers.

3. Use Humor to Create Amusing Ads

A customer might like an ad that they see, and it may even resonate with them. However, it has to do more than that for them to feel like it’s worth sharing. Because of this, you should consider using humor if it’s appropriate for your brand. Not only do people love to laugh, but they also love making their friends and family laugh. This means that if an ad makes them laugh, they will be more likely to share the content with others in the hopes that it will make them laugh as well. It’s why so many of the ads that go viral are ads that are funny. For example, the Old Spice Man ads or the Most Interesting Man in the World Dos Equis ads.

Enjoy The Article: What We Can Learn From Viral Video Marketing & Examples of How It’s Been Useful

4. Provide Value

Creating ads that are funny or that elicit an emotional response can be very effective; however, you need to make sure that your ads are providing value as well. Unless your only goal is to generate brand awareness, you will need to create ads that get people to take action. A good example of a viral ad that provides value is the Dollar Shave Club ad. It’s a hilarious ad that’s creatively made. Yet it also clearly conveys what the value of its product is.

5. Test Your Campaigns

The last thing that you want to do is to create an ad that goes viral for the wrong reasons. For example, you thought you were creating an ad that was delivering a positive message; however, a small part of your audience misinterprets that message. They interpret the meaning of your ad to be negative, resulting in controversy. Controversy is a good way to go viral, but a bad way to maintain your reputation. A good example of this is the Pepsi ad featuring Kendal Jenner released a few years ago. The ad featured a protest full of smiling models and ended with Jenner providing a Pepsi to a police officer as a sign of peace and unity, which the protesters cheered. Critics believed the ad to be insensitive due to the fact that there were many protests against police brutality happening at that time. To avoid a public relations disaster, make sure that you test your campaigns first.

One thing to note: these tactics aren’t just effective for viral marketing. They can incredibly useful for creating ads even if they don’t go viral. Although going viral is a goal you should have, the objective should be to successfully deliver your message in an engaging way to your target audience. Using these five viral marketing tactics will help you achieve this at the very least.

Marketing Automation And Trigger Words

May 20, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Automation /by Nicole Wagner

When it comes to content marketing, quality is obviously the most important element. You need to write content that is helpful and relevant to your audience. On top of that, your content needs to be well written. This means making sure that there are no spelling or grammatical errors, and that it is easy to read and understand. While the quality of your content is critical to its success, there are other tactics you should employ as well. For example, the use of marketing automation and trigger words can help to improve the impact of your content.

Ways to Use Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is the use of certain software tools to automate repetitive tasks. Content marketing involves a lot of repetitive tasks that can be very time-consuming. By effectively leveraging marketing automation tools, you can save a significant amount of time. You can also improve the effectiveness of your content marketing in a variety of ways as well. The following are a few examples of how you can successfully use automation to improve your content marketing:

1. Automate Publishing Times

It’s important that you publish your content (specifically, your blog content) on the same days every week. This helps ensure that regular readers know when to visit your website for new content. However, manually publishing new content at specific times on specific days can be time-consuming. Not to mention that keeping such deadlines adds unneeded stress. Automation allows you to schedule when content will be published ahead of time. Then, when its scheduled publishing date comes around, your content will automatically be posted to your blog.

Enjoy The Article: How Professional Service Marketers Use Marketing Automation Strategies To Succeed

2. Deliver Content Based On Trigger Events

The success of a lot of your content depends on timing. For example, if someone makes a purchase on your e-commerce page, you may want to send them a thank you email. However, that email isn’t going to have much of an impact if it comes a week after the purchase was made. You can automate certain content to be delivered based on specific actions that your leads and customers take. For instance, if someone finalizes a purchase online, that action can trigger an automated welcome email to be sent to that customer immediately. Automating content delivery using trigger events will help to improve your customer experience significantly.

3. Segment Email List

Not all of your content will be relevant to your entire audience. For example, if you run a pet food company, then an article about dog food isn’t going to be relevant for cat owners. If you’re constantly emailing your audience content that’s not relevant to them, they will be more likely to unsubscribe. You can use automation to segment your email list. Use the information you have from your opt-in forms to segment your list effectively. You can then send different emails to different segments of your email list to ensure that the content you’re sending is relevant.

How To Use Trigger Words

Attracting your audience is one thing, getting them to read your content is another. One of the most effective methods for pulling an audience in is by using trigger words. Trigger words are words or phrases that immediately establish an emotional connection and that provide a sense of urgency. They are particularly effective when used in titles and calls-to-action (CTAs). The following are a few examples of trigger words you might want to use:

New – People are always looking for the most up-to-date solution or product. This is because we live in a forward-thinking society. As a result, the word “new” tends to attract a lot of attention.
Free – Free is an incredibly effective trigger word. This is because a consumer is more willing to give something a chance if it’s at no additional cost. They know that if they decide against the solution, it won’t cost them anything.
Discover – Prospects who are searching for specific solutions will be drawn to the word “discover” as it hints that the content or offer may contain the solution they are looking for.
Easy – If someone is searching for a solution, the last thing they want is one that will be difficult to implement. The word “easy” will draw their eye right away since they will be searching for a painless solution.

A good content marketing strategy consists of many different elements. Two important tactics that you should be sure to leverage include the use of marketing automation and trigger words. Using automation can help you to deliver relevant content to your audience at the right time. Trigger words can help improve the chances that your audience will take the time to read your content. If you aren’t using automation or trigger words yet, then you should make it a point to implement both.

Why Conducting A Content Audit Is Important For Your Company In Today’s Marketing Environment

May 13, 2020/in Articles, Content Marketing, Directors /by Mark Beebe

As the years go by, your business’s content audit is going to evolve in a variety of different ways. Your audience may change, your products or services may change, your message may change, and your branding may change. These elements may not change much, but if your company is around for more than a few years, odds are that something will change in some way. In some cases, as we’re seeing today amidst a world that’s staying at home during a pandemic, the business environment changes.

All of this means that the content you’ve been generating may change as well. As a result, it’s important that you perform a content audit to make sure that existing content remains effective and that new content helps to address your goals.

Performing a Content Audit

A content audit is essentially a thorough evaluation of the existing content living on your website. You will want to make sure that all of your content aligns with your current brand identity and messaging. Not to mention that if your target audience changed, it means that some of your older content may no longer be relevant. It’s one of the main reasons you’ll want to develop your buyer personas if you haven’t already. You should also look for content that has outdated information. The last thing you want to do is provide content that’s backed by data that’s inaccurate because it’s outdated. In many cases, you can just update this content to ensure that it’s accurate.

In addition to removing content that is no longer relevant and updating content to ensure it’s accuracy, you should also identify gaps in your content library. For example, you may find that you have a significant amount of content that targets three of your four buyer personas; however, you have very little content targeting that fourth persona. You will want to fill in this gap by focusing your content creation on that fourth buyer persona. You may also find gaps in regards to the type of content you’re creating that you’ll want to address as well.

Enjoy The Article: The Importance of Lead Generation and Content Marketing Agencies

Adjusting Your Strategy During COVID-19

The marketing environment has changed drastically. For example, you can no longer attend trade shows or in-person events in order to generate awareness about your brand. The production of new video content is limited as well. However, online marketing remains effective. In fact, if you adjust your content strategy accordingly, you may be able to reach even more potential leads. This is because more people are at home than ever before. As a result, many of these people have more time to explore your content. With that in mind, the following are a few types of content you should focus on creating for your audience during COVID-19:

Blog content

If you’re not regularly producing and promoting new blog content, then you should focus on doing so. Begin publishing content more often since your audience is going to have more time on their hands. Don’t shy away from tying your content in with current events (specifically, COVID-19) either. The more helpful your content is, the better.

Use chat more

Since your website will become a much more prominent part of your marketing strategy than ever before, invest in live chat and chatbot features. Online chat features are a great way to keep audiences engaged. They also help provide important information that can guide your leads through their website experience.

Webinars

Webinars are a great way to educate your audience about various topics. They also tend to be more engaging than other types of content. Webinars don’t require any production value — any of your company’s leadership can film a webinar out of the comfort of their own home. The success of a webinar is mostly dependent on the information provided. Additionally, viewers can ask questions during live webinars, making them all the more engaging.

Virtual events:

Virtual events can be similar to webinars; however, webinars don’t necessarily have to be live. By hosting a live virtual event that requires registration, you can generate more interest. People are more likely to tune in if there’s a chance of missing out, after all. There’s also a good chance that you’ll draw a larger audience in today’s environment since more people will be available to attend. There are a lot of different types of virtual events you can hold, such as Q and A sessions with industry influencers or CEOs.

There are still opportunities for effective marketing during COVID-19. First of all, make sure that you perform a thorough content audit. Doing so will ensure that all existing content supports your current marketing goals. You will also be able to identify any gaps in your content marketing efforts that need to be addressed. While some of your marketing efforts will be limited, you can use this opportunity to focus on creating content that will be effective at increasing engagement during COVID-19. For example, by producing more blog content, virtual events, and webinars.

Effective Advertising Requires Authenticity and Humanizing Ads

May 11, 2020/in Articles, Brand Story Telling, Content Marketing, Directors /by Dan Gartlan

Many businesses assume that effective advertising is achieved when your marketing efforts lead to more leads and more sales. Unfortunately, many companies become overly promotional as a result. Advertising isn’t just about promoting products and services. It’s also about providing value to your customers in other ways. Trying to convince a customer why they should buy your product is rarely an effective advertising technique. Instead, you should be less promotional. For example, creating humanizing ads can make your brand more relatable to your audience. Such ads also show your audience that the bottom line isn’t the only thing you care about. Doing so also helps build a more authentic brand identity.

Providing Value To Your Audience

One of the common mistakes businesses make is to focus too much on showcasing their products and services. Before you can try to demonstrate the value of your products and services, you need to demonstrate the value of your brand. Creating an authentic brand identity is crucial to being able to sell your products and services.

To demonstrate the value of your brand, you will need to add value in a non-promotional way Achieving this requires that you understand who your audience is and what their needs are. For example, many small businesses aren’t going to be investing in new products or services as a result of the COVID-19 situation. This is especially true for small businesses that aren’t considered essential. Trying to convince small business owners to purchase your products or services isn’t going to be effective right now. However, content that can help educate small business owners during COVID-19 is going to be very useful to them. For example, content about the recent small business stimulus program that explains how to go about obtaining funds.

Creating such content provides immediate value to your target audience. Additionally, it shows your audience that you understand what their needs are. The ability to demonstrate this understanding will help increase your brand authority, resulting in more trust. As a direct result, your audience will be more likely to believe that the products and services that you offer will help them address their needs once they are capable of making new purchases.

Enjoy the article: Visual Storytelling Techniques That Will Take You To The Next Level

Creating Soft-Selling Ads

In addition to creating content that offers value to your audience, you should also create soft-selling ads. Soft-selling ads help to advertise your brand without doing so explicitly. Traditional ads are known for being more aggressive. They will often end with a clear call-to-action to buy a product or invest in a service. For example, a traditional cereal commercial might show a person enjoying a bowl of cereal. It might also list all of the healthy benefits. A soft-selling ad does not focus on the product or service that you’re trying to sell.

Some companies are focusing on spreading awareness for important information about COVID-19 using soft-selling ads, such as emphasizing the importance of social distancing. Budweiser has focused many of its new ads on highlighting the heroic work being done on the frontlines by everyone from healthcare workers to grocery store workers. These ads are effective because they aren’t shoving their products in the faces of viewers. However, their efforts to deliver valuable information to everyone showcases their authenticity.

Another great example is Jack Daniels. They produced an ad showing people socializing over video chat from the comforts of their own home. This ad highlights the importance of staying at home during the pandemic. It is also accompanied by a great slogan: Dear humanity, cheers to making social distancing, social. With love, Jack.” This ad is humanizing without every attempting to sell a product. As a result, it helps to lend the brand authenticity. If they had ended the commercial trying to sell their whiskey, it wouldn’t have been nearly as impactful.

Authenticity Matters

One thing to keep in mind when creating content for your audience is that you need to be authentic. You can’t come across as pandering or as taking advantage of a situation. The audience will always know. The only way to avoid such a pitfall is to truly have your target audience in mind when you create your content. Focus on your buyer personas and think about what their needs, problems, wants, and fears are, both in general and in the world today. Doing so is the only way to ensure effective advertising.

Leveraging Video Marketing During COVID-19

May 7, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Video Marketing /by Terry Becker

When it comes to creating content for your marketing strategy, arguably the most effective type of content is video content. In fact, the success of video marketing when compared to other types of content marketing has been proven time and time again. For example, the viewing of video content accounts for roughly one-third of all online activity. Additionally, 64 percent of consumers will purchase a product or service after watching a branded social video.

If that wasn’t enough, video content generates 12 times more shares on social media than text and image-based content combined. With these video content statistics in mind, you should make an effort to focus on video marketing. This still holds true in today’s current stay-at-home environment.

Why Do Audiences Love Video Content?

The main reason why audiences love video marketing is because people are visual creatures. It’s much easier for the typical person to absorb and retain information that they got from a video than from an article. In fact, the human brain processes visual information roughly 60,000 faster than it can process text. Movement tends to attract the human eye as well. Video content provides such movement, whereas text-based content does not. But these are not the only reasons why video content is more effective than text-based content.

Video content allows you to display a personality. By having someone onscreen, you give your audience someone to relate to and to connect to on an emotional level. It doesn’t matter how much personality you write with, text-based content simply cannot stack up to video’s ability to do this.

Enjoy this article: Video Marketing Ideas: Using Storytelling In Social Media

How Can You Leverage Video Content During COVID-19?

Considering that the majority of the country is staying at home, there are more opportunities to reach your target audience via video marketing. Many people are out of work. Those who aren’t may not have as much work to do and are likely working remotely from home, which means that they have much more time on their hands.

While they might have more time to read text-based content while stuck at home, they will likely be even more drawn to video content. Video content gives people the chance to watch somebody speak on screen. In some cases, such as through the use of video messaging software, they can even engage with the speaker directly. As a result, viewers will be able to connect with a real human, which is something that’s a bit of a rarity during these times of social isolation. With that in mind, the following are a few examples of how you can leverage video marketing during this pandemic:

Pre-produced video content

Because of COVID-19, you can’t exactly go out and produce new video content. However, you can promote the existing video content on your website. It’s a great way to get more views and to generate more brand exposure. Post links to older videos that are still relevant to your social pages. You can also get your company’s leaders to produce simple video messages for your audience as well.

Webinars

Arguably the best way to provide your target audience with new video content is to hold webinars. They can be hosted by a variety of people, from company leaders to industry influencers. Webinars are convenient since they can be hosted from home. All you have to do is to schedule a live stream through one of your social channels. Viewers can then tune in from the comfort of their own homes at a specific time. You can encourage participation by making your webinars question and answer based. This will help to improve engagement with your audience. Following the webinar, you can post the video of it to your website so people can view it at their own convenience.

Virtual tours

Companies that provide essential services can create behind-the-scenes video content of their place of work. They can also film virtual tours of your place of business. For example, if you have a factory that manufactures an essential product, you can showcase how you’re keeping your employees safe. For example by demonstrating social distancing in the workplace, allowing employees to speak about your safety standards, and more.

Continue Focusing on Video Marketing During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Video marketing has always been one of the most effective content marketing strategies that you can implement. This is because video content tends to engage audiences more than any other type of content. During this COVID-19 pandemic, much of your audience will be staying at home and will have more time on their hands than usual. With that in mind, video marketing can be a great way to engage them. Use older video content, virtual tours, and webinars to effectively leverage video marketing during this particularly strange moment in time.

Communication Tips for Senior Living Homes

May 5, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Senior Living Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

Millions of people have been stressed out and worried about their families every day during this COVID-19 pandemic. This is especially true for people with family members who are living in senior living homes. If you are running senior living homes, then odds are you’re doing everything you can to keep residents safe and comfortable. However, you should also be doing everything you can to alleviate the worries and fears of their families. To do this, you will need to be able to communicate clearly and regularly. The following are a few tips that will help you communicate more effectively during this time of crisis:

Know Your Audience

Not only do you need to know who you should get your message across to, but you need to know how you’ll get that message across. This requires that you know who your audience is. Your audience should include not just the family members of residents, but also employees, board members, and more. It’s because your audience is so varied that you should develop buyer personas. It will become much easier to meet the needs of your audience if you are able to target each one of your buyer personas. It also ensures that you don’t forget to address certain parts of your audience. For example, you might be so focused on alleviating the worries of the family members of your residents that you forget to address your employees. You need to keep communicating with your staff as well. Additionally, your staff will have family members who may be worried too.

Finally, the creation of buyer personas will help you determine which marketing channels to use for each part of your audience. For example, if your staff is on the younger side, it may be easier to communicate with them via Twitter. However, older residents are less likely to use Twitter. To deliver information to them and their families, Facebook might be a better option.

Use Your Marketing Channels

Businesses of all types tend to slash their marketing budgets first when times are tough. You should avoid doing this. Instead, refocus your marketing efforts to communicate with your audience. For example, you can create content for your blog to deliver information about what precautions you’re taking at your senior living home. Such content can help assure people that you’re taking good care of their family members. You can also provide information on how they can keep in touch with residents since in-person visits may no longer be possible. Consider creating content focusing on the caregivers of your senior living home. Such content allows you to spotlight your frontline workers while also inspiring confidence in your audience about your staff.

Besides continuing to create and publish content, you should also continue using social media. Social media is an excellent way to keep in touch with families. Use your social media channels to answer questions and concerns your audience has on a daily basis. Post updates to your social channels on a regular basis as well. The last thing you want to do is make your audience feel like they are being kept in the dark. The more often you provide updates, the less worried they will feel.

Use A Dedicated Spokesperson

Publishing new content on your blog and posting updates on your social channels is a good start. However, you should also have a dedicated spokesperson to deliver important messages to your audience. Posting videos or hosting webinars using this spokesperson can be very effective. With a spokesperson, your audience will have an easier time connecting with your message. It’s also easier to build trust when there’s an actual person delivering a message. The more trust you build, the less worried your audience will be.

You don’t necessarily have to create video content spotlighting your spokesperson either. For example, your spokesperson can deliver a message that’s posted on social media or in blog form as well. Simply having a name that people recognize attached to your message will help build trust. Your spokesperson will essentially represent your company’s leadership. This means that they should probably be an executive-level representative. Because we are living in uncertain times, it’s a good idea to name a dedicated spokesperson as well as a backup spokesperson.

These tips can help senior living homes communicate much more effectively. As a result, you can help to alleviate the worries and stress of your residents’ families. These communication tactics can be leveraged during any type of crisis, including this current COVID-19 pandemic. However, they are also essential to senior living marketing strategies even when there is no crisis to speak of.

What’s Trending in Marketing For April 2020

May 1, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Trending /by Nicole Wagner

It is important to be informed about what is going on in the marketing industry. Doing so is a great way to stay up to date and tweak your marketing strategies so you can stay ahead of the competition. The following articles are from popular marketing blogs and highlight current marketing trends that we think are worth paying attention to:

Noteworthy Marketing News

How the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing brands to connect digitally

Because of COVID-19 and the nationwide stay-at-home orders, retailers are quickly switching up their marketing strategies by putting an emphasis on mobile technology and virtual appointments to keep their businesses operating. Doctors are conducting virtual consultations for their clients. Retailers are connecting with their customers online by hosting virtual lunches, happy hours, and outfit try-on sessions. Alex Fitzgerald, Manager of Consumer Practice, believes this will be an acceleration towards digital.

How working from home has thrown a wrench in campaign targeting

Working remotely has been helping businesses stay in operation as the world is going through this time of uncertainty. But for some businesses, it can be hard to make sense of data that may not be as reliable due to the shift in work environments. Working from home has made analytics and cookie data less reliable.

When your Google My Business listing becomes your lifeline

During COVID-19, Google My Business can turn into a business’s lifeline during this time of uncertainty and disruption. People normally use GMB to get info about store hours and customer reviews to learn about a business. During this pandemic, consumers are searching different topics such as “Are you open while we shelter in place?” and “Do you offer curbside delivery?” It is important during these times to keep your GMB up to date and provide useful, relevant information for consumers.

Enjoy this article: What’s Trending In Marketing For March 2020

Improving Your Marketing Program

7 Tips For Success When Working Remotely

If you are working remotely for the first time, making the adjustment can be challenging. It can be helpful to get tips and tricks on how to stay motivated and focused. Other factors such as establishing a routine and maintaining a regular schedule are discussed. Check out the article for more advice on how to be as productive as possible.

8 Ways That You Can Improve Your SEO

It is important that you stay up to date with your SEO strategy. It is helpful to continually do keyword research to identify what keywords your target audience is using. This will also help give you a good rank. Other strategies such as updating your old content, monitoring backlinks, and tracking performance are all important factors that can help improve your SEO.

How Healthcare Content Marketing Companies Can Step Up In 2020

With the COVID-19 pandemic spreading across the nation, healthcare content marketing is more valued than ever before. It is important for healthcare companies to take advantage of their increased website traffic. The content they post should be reliable. It is helpful to create specific landing pages to route people to the right resources.

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

30 Marketing Statistics to Consider for 2020

Keep up with what new research is telling us about the marketing industry. Learn the most recent statistics and what your company needs to know to stay updated with their social media, advertising, search marketing, and more.

Local ad revenue forecast contracts 10.6% due to coronavirus, study says

Local advertising revenue in the U.S. is expected to total $144.3 billion in 2020, which is a 10.6% decrease from the $161.3 billion previously forecasted. The new estimate shows a 3.6% decline from 2019 activity even with political advertising revenue of $7.1 billion expected this election year.

NFL Draft scores 55M viewers, breaking ratings records despite shift to virtual format

This year’s NFL Draft saw ratings up 16% year-on-year despite the shift to a virtual format due to the coronavirus pandemic. The draft broke ratings records as the number of viewers increased each day.